001going to call to order the special business meeting of the Orcs Central School District Board of Education. We will start the meeting with the pledge of allegiance. So, if you'll please join me. So in terms of the agenda for this evening, we have uh really only one specific agenda item which is the presentation from our facilitator team of the uh report to the board from the ad hoc committee on school start times that's been meeting for several months I guess since maybe March time frame early March. Um, and so in a minute I'll turn it over to to Matt and to and to Bob and team who are here. Um, they have there's a slide deck that we will share out and will be, you know, live streamed. There's also a report that the board
002has just received. It's a lengthy 66 or so page report and we will make that available to the public um along with the slides. You know, just as soon as practicable we can get that uploaded on the website. So um those are those are the you know the output of the committee and as Matt I think will explain not necessarily it wasn't the type of a committee where we you know voted on specific outcomes and this represents you know a voted upon outcome. the committee acted as a as a group that provided input, perspective, direction um and the facilitators sort of utilized that as they tried to steer the ship. And I think so this is the output of that work. But lest anyone think it's, you know, a specifically sort of voted upon um
003type document, that's not the case. And I before we get into the details, I want to just say a few thanks to the one the board for their willingness to allow for this uh the work to take place to vote for the committee and to enable the use of our facilitator group. I think that was critically important. I mean you can just imagine a group of 28 individuals with diverse opinions um trying to lead that group through an exercise of understanding many different perspectives plus just the practical you know having the tools to do the thought exchange work and the survey work and the focus group work. We really needed professionals to assist us in that effort and the team uh that we were able to engage really did a wonderful job. So, I'm thankful
004to to them for the work that they did and then to all of the folks who served on the committee. It was no small investment of time and effort from members of the community, from um teachers, administrators, uh you know, others who have a relationship with the district. You may recall we had it broken down into different groups to make sure we had good representation across all levels and schools. And uh you know frankly I learned a lot through that process. Uh I thought I felt it was educational. It was it caused me to have some personal reflection on things and um while you know at times there was tension, it it helped us work through uh issues and I think really was all for the betterment of the district as a whole and all
005geared toward the well-being uh and the best interest of our students which is what we're here for. So um with that I have one other comment more procedural but for the board's awareness we do have one agenda change that at the end of following the uh presentation I'm going to ask for a motion for a brief executive session to talk about individual uh personnel contractual issue and I can explain that more obviously in executive session. Uh so Matt I will assume you'll take the mic so I'll turn it over to you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Thanks for having us be privileged and honored to spend some time with your special ad hoc committee. Um my team members Balani and Cosmo Tangora. Um as we start most of ours when we
006drop in and meet new people. We want to make sure that you know we don't have all the answers but we do have some experience. Each one of us is a superintendent, each one of us was a building principal, each one of us, one of us was a deputy commissioner of education. like us telling people that. Um, but right, we we come with some experience and background so that when we when we listen to parents, when we listen to staff and we listen to administrators, right, there's there's some context to it. That doesn't mean we have all the answers and that doesn't mean I've given you a report with all the answers. pause. >> Yeah, I'll start singing, dancing soon, right? Um, so again, just to say like we we do have some some years
007of experience in doing different um changes like this one and others. Um, and it's never an easy thing. So, we appreciate the opportunity to come and and spend some time with your folks and engage your community um and and hopefully give you some information. Tonight, what you'll see from the slide deck and and uh where we are is really just to kind of orient you to the report u for a little light reading later on as you as you move forward with things. But as uh Dan so rightly said, you know, we started almost every meeting with this visual here to say like in the fact oh it's a PDF. So, but typically what this is is the star doesn't show itself that blue star and inside of all that is that noise, right? And
008certainly there's issues where there's a lot of noise and how do you stay focused on what's most important which are the kids which I know is something you do as board members all the time but it doesn't mean it's easy. Um there's always a lot of noise in today's world around where we're heading and we tried to stay focused as much as we could through the kids um and making sure we we had their well-being in mind. when we scoped out the project and we got that call guess late mid to late February and said hey can you can you come um we go through a process that is somewhat like a research process to really say all right what do you what what question are we answering right and are we comfortable with that
009and so the scope of that um and how we figured out this current state review would be around this notion of desiraability practicality and feasibility and what choices do you have laying in front of you around those three things? And so what you'll see as we move through the report, um, we cultivated all of those stakeholder work to find out what was desirable. And so when we get to scoring later, they're going to score their desirable because that's where we harvested those from. Then we did some analysis. We engaged the administration team. We engaged the the committee. We engaged lots of people over the past month to then bring some of the rating of well is it practical? So it might be wanted, might be desired, but is it practical? Like does it make sense
010in the regular operations of a school district? Does it make sense in your context? And then lastly, is it feasible? Right? Can you pay for it? Can it be sustained over time? all of those things that um typically are front and center in a lot of your conversations with board members and your fiscal stewardship of the district, right? Is it is it really feasible and sustainable over time? Um, one note is when you're looking at either at home or here, what we do on the slides is we also again as an orientation kind of piece give you that little box that looks a little bit like a page with the with an ear mark there of what page all this information is on. So the report is, you know, sizable because it's meant to capture
011all the work we did with your folks over a couple months. Um, and we want to make sure that you can navigate kind of through that as we move through. So we were we were trying to figure out what are the desirable things when we engage the community and then move into measuring them on practicality and feasibility. The other key part of all of our work um that we really believe in, we learned and and probably through some bumps and bruises as school leaders is that if you just keep bringing people to the table and have them talk and share their perspectives, the pathway becomes more clear. It does. The more people, the more voices that are there, right, it starts to present itself as like that makes sense. Just at our last meeting and
012probably other meetings, there's some members of the committee here. Thanks for coming. they probably would hear a number of times like if you're doing the job well as a board of education, as a superintendent, um you disappoint everybody at least a little bit if you're doing it well, right? Because there's so many different opinions out there, so many different experiences as they come to the table and present themselves. You're figuring out that best pathway forward. And typically, it's going to let at least some group down as you move through it. And I know I'm preaching to the choir because you've had to live through that, whether it be budget decisions or other decisions. um that just kind of comes comes with the territory of public education. So at a high level on page eight you
013have the process overview. As Dan mentioned our first engagement with the committee was on March 9th. We just did some goals and roles got to know each other started laying things out of where we were headed with things. We then looked to um on March 16th the current factual state. So, we took and downloaded and tried to organize uh the many presentations that the board had over a couple years um and brought them to the committee, tried to figure out like what what makes sense, what doesn't make sense. There were a lot of questions that came up um a lot of conversation around that information. Um that helped serve the basis for curating the survey items in later March where we had the stakeholder uh surveys as they went out. We brought that feedback to
014the to the committee on late April, April 27th, processed through that through some different conversations and then started uh May 14th and then of course had some um scheduling changes to the end of that, right? And we, you know, based on things that were happening in the district um that made sense for us to make some schedule changes at the end. And so it leaves us here to June 8th. Again, you have the report in front of you. it'll be made available um just at a very high level. There's a table of contents and then there's an executive summary and then there's um seven key takeaways. And so what we try to do is not only be comprehensive in the information but also put it in some bite-sized chunks as we move through that. The
015takeaways that we summarize from our work and again Dan had mentioned but I'll reinforce um it's the special ad hoc committee. How we deal with those advisory type committees is they give us feedback, they give us local context, they give us information, they give us questions. Um, and we still are are using all that and our experience to process through summarize. And so what you have in the report is our work to the district of listening to all the people that we listen to, engaging all the people that we engage to. Here's what we think. It is not um and we shared this at our last ad hoc special ad hoc committee. It is not suggesting in any of these documents that that's what every single one of them think, right? There was no uh
016roll call vote on the seven key takeaways or any of those things. Um but there was engagement conversation. I hope that when they look through it, they'll see their voice in it, but they'll also know that other people's voices are in it, too. Uh on some items that maybe they slightly, you know, differ on. So those key takeaways again are on page um six. There's seven of them. Um briefly uh what we know is that current start and end times um affect people in different ways. And I know that reading a statement saying a statement like that that's like a yeah really duh. um some of this work is to do that is to harvest through there and say there what we would say is there's no one specific group out there in your community
017right that that carries the majority there's a lot of differing opinions on where things stand and where things should go um from that one of the hopefully what some of the members I see at least a few of them here right um student well-being should remain central in the future review that was a direct piece of feedback from our last to say I don't see that as important in some of our other documents and conversations that we had up to that point. And so we right we took that as an example to give you and registered that and made sure that was um called out very specifically um as they gave us that feedback. Transportation as you know like that's one of the big constraints that's one of the big um opportunities that's one of
018the biggest things in anything that's start and end times. Um, we also believe that some concerns can be addressed through some short-term refinements rather than um a full district-wide change. Um, that in the time that that you have that the time that we were engaged, you'll see there's some short-term recommendations um that we do think can make some improvements and move things forward um and not all be just a long-term piece that will take some time more time to get you through. We came across uh through focus groups, um through work with kids, through surveys, this activity school gap, this time um block between when sports are starting when the end of the day is. And we've given you a bunch of information in the report that has you think about that and and investigate
019that. And we do think there's some short-term things that moving into next year you can do to help that address that time and some of the concerns that some of the stakeholders had. uh larger schedule changes remain very worthy of continued study. There's nothing from the special ad hoc committee that we would report that indicates to us that um we've completed the conversation in its entirety. There's there's plenty of conversation that says we need to keep this going. We need to keep looking at what that really means and seeing where we need to go with things. As I mentioned inside, we got a bunch of information on many that will show what the result from changes. Uh run the yeah does it work better? Okay. So the thought exchanges you have the results the focus
020groups the survey respondents and the ad hoc committee. But you know uh we always would love to see more participation in total numbers. However, you know, we've got about in any one of those metrics there, you know, somewhere like a third a third of people responded. That would be uh where emails went out like for the survey and those sort of things. There's about a third of of of participation across the board. And you know, that's actually pretty high um for a lot of what we do in public schools. Um certainly would we expect more, want more, look out here and say why isn't there more? Like all of those are natural questions. I don't have answers to why. >> I just can tell you that's that's where it's that's where it's at. Again, similar
021to the takeaways, you've got a sheet some some information on 38 and 39 that highlight the findings that we have based on all those conversations. Based on all that information, many on this slide are similar to what we already said in the key takeaways. So, I'm not going to reread them for you. They're there. Um, a few new ones though, uh, kind of do emerge. Um, one specifically was just ironing out the Boseies CTE new visions as a specific piece. It's a high school group of students taking those programs and wanting to make sure that they have access to the programs that you offer here at Horseheads also at the same time in Horse. And I think that's a really good example. One uh example as well is through the process, through the communication with
022your administrators, they're already working on a number of these things. They're already having conversations. They're already planning. They're already trying to iron out some of those wrinkles. Um especially when they align to the short-term pieces. And so, you know, just a natural part of being an administrator and trying to do what's best for kids and move through changes. Um they're certainly they're certainly working on those. One piece that the special ad hoc committee did um really drill in on at our last meeting and so we do want to want to talk to is that the future work should should if you choose should start moving quickly. Um, so there was some reflection around kind of how we got engaged or how some of the committee got engaged in the spring and the realization of the
023conversation is significant changes don't happen in the spring for the next year. Right? The change that you all went through was a couple year process that people investigated and looked at and talked about and tried to figure out. Um, moving to a different schedule, at least a large scale schedule, would also need a an extended period of time and well in advance of changes again so that you could address contract things, so you could address um, you know, communication things, you could address all those stuff, right? Um, when you went into it, it wasn't a quick decision. It wasn't something early in one spring, right? It was multiple years. And so if you're going to change or you're going to move things, um a similar process over multiple months and years should commence and and
024be looked into. All right. As you get towards the middle to end of the report, how we processed and put some ratings on things is an actionability heat map. And so much like uh I guess a stoplight protocol where green means go, right? and red means don't go. Um, and some yellow. This one has a little bit of orange in between because we went with four different pieces. But moving from ready to move to refined before advancing to do some further study and the one to not advance. How do we get these ratings? Um, well, we worked over a couple meetings here in May with the special ad hoc committee. We tried to have as much conversation as it was allowable within the time and the in the format so that we get as much
025local context into it, but they also represent our um our many years of experience of running districts at multiple different levels um to make sure that it makes kind of that back of the envelope kind of sense with things um as we move through it. over short-term next steps that we talked about with the special ad hoc committee that we recommended to them. Again, they did not um vote on these or tell us, hey, these are the five things you should do. These were curated and brought out of those stakeholders, the thousand, right, from the survey, from the from the thought exchange, from the focus groups. Somewhere along the line, these became ideas that got presented to us. Um, and that's why they all score with the green four of desiraability, right? Because at the
026face, they came from an expression of desiraability within your community. Once you move to practicality and feasibility, that's that mixture of conversation that happened over a couple um meetings with the special ad hoc committee. That's also what with some conversations with the administrators and with our experience starts to get baked in there. The first one there is to address that time schedule conflicts. Um some of that is master scheduling, some of that is coordinating and frankly some of that at times can't be ironed out um just because of the way your regional Boseies is and the different programs um but it should still be addressed, right? And there should still be mitigating things that could be done for those students that may or may not face that as they move through that. Um reduce the
027afterchool time gap for athletics and activities. You know, we're saying that that should be refined a bit more. There's a lot that goes into that. That's personnel with supervision. that's um you know uh perhaps uh you'll see in some of the recommendations when you read through that perhaps um activating assistant coaches or other kind of things to get kids moving and doing the sports even if the head coach isn't available at that regular start time. So there there's a series of uh like on page 45 and moving forward, right? There's some more narrative that you could have um to read through that is just the highlights. Uh explore middle school and high school activity hour was an idea that was placed out there. You can see that ranks a little bit uh lower with feasibility
028because there's some costs associated with how that might work out, but certain certainly something that needs to be refined before moving forward. um intermediate school and middle school timing adjustments. Those are conversations between principal, between transportation department, right? To kind of can we can we get it moving in a different slightly different way, but they're minor. They're they're adjustments that could be done within there. Again, it's a further study piece. It's not ready to go, right? Like boots on the ground, multiple moving parts need to be ironed out if that's going to move forward. Um, and then again, as we've already heard and we heard at the special ed the meeting last time, whatever building they're in, they they're always tweaking to make it better for next year. And so that's certainly moving forward and
029ready to go. Some of the long-term next steps that emerged um through those conversations, through the surveys and so forth were um studied later secondary and earlier elementary start times. Definitely further study is where we landed on that. Explore weather start and end times can be pulled closer together. There's some complications with that. Um feasibility being a big one. Um again, transportation is a pretty big um part of each one of these narratives when you get to the feasibility part. Um and figuring out how that goes. There was also some ideas that um you know got got some conversation around the 100% buzzing busing commitment. um that's um moves in the walking zone. So three and four up there. We left them there because they were ideas that were presented that came through that process
030of stakeholders taking a look. As we drilled in on that with the administrators on the special ad hoc committee and and others, there's some real challenges around uh policies around state regulations around a number of things that don't make that really not only practical but also uh feasible. But our process is always to leave it up there because it came up, right? And then talk about why um that maybe isn't a great idea to move forward. Um study high school elementary start time um kind of swap. It was a something that came up frequently. Well, can't we just switch it? Um and can't we just, you know, must be everything works if they just flip-flop and you know, like like it's almost changing uh the thinking makes sense logically, right, for for somebody. Well, if
031your dinner reservation is at 8:05 and mine's at 7:45 and I call you, can't you just come at 7:45 and I go at 8:05? That seems like the restaurant won't care because it's the same dinner reservation, right? I think in that analogy, it doesn't get to the fact that, yeah, but I had a table of 12 and you had a table of two, right? or I have a special advanced order of I don't know duck provenance or something whatever right like we'll we'll not all analogies break down after a certain point but the what trying to convey right it is it totally makes sense that it's desirable totally makes sense it's out there it's out there in your community came through the surveys came through the thoughts when you get down through it it gets
032more complicated right and that's that's where practicality and feasibility doesn't score quite as high. Lastly, we we broke also into some recommendations that are just process related. So, if you're moving forward, you should be thinking about these seven things just as a straight up process piece. Communicate what can and cannot change. Just be just people don't always love it, but they like it a little bit better if you just say it. Here's the things we can do and here's the things we can't do. Be explicit. Be intentional. Share that. Um, keep working again intentionally on the communication and trust building. Gather broader student feedback. Right. So, yes, we included students. We had um focus groups. We call them elevating student voices at the um intermediate and middle school. So, sixth graders and eighth graders convene
033and we also had um high school students, right? But that was still a snapshot of a group of students, right? Like if you move forward, you'll learn a lot when you talk to kids. A, they're just going to tell you what their lived experience is, right? And B, they don't really care about some of the other politics stuff that sometimes comes through schools. They just don't, right? So doing some things that in that process-wise is get more and more feedback from kids about where things should go and that would be super helpful. Um transportation uses audit. So you did some transportation study leading into this change. Certainly more transportation study would be needed. Review those contractual and staffing implications of larger schedules. Again, this is that example of the changing uh reservation times, right? It's
034not as is not as easy as it looks on the outside. There's often contractual requirements in many different contracts that you have that would get engaged or have to be overcome or have to be conversations. So, that's got to be a part of all work moving forward is your bargaining contracts with multiple units in the district. create a working group. Again, no one loves starting things in the summer. However, the special ad hoc committee was pretty intentional and deliberate about saying, "Well, if we're going to move forward, let's move forward quickly. Let's not have a number of months kind of in between when we got engaged um with the work." Um and then another one that they they asked for towards the end too is again make sure that student health and development are a
035big part of this conversation when we do start end times at least in this region we often access as I shared with the committee um when we're working with other schools the U of has a sleep clinic they have doctors professionals right they can come they can educate um you know the community around here's the best science about what's happening uh we encourage encourage schools when they think about that to do that work first and not do the ask somebody if they want to change because nobody wants to change. Nobody wants their daycare to change. Nobody wants their patterns of life to change, right? So like if you just go out and say, "Hey, I think we should change." They will say, "Why are you asking me you're stupid?" Right? If you do the work
036of bringing in doctors and take the time to have lots of education around um some of the different ways that we now understand adolescent development and child development through hard uh medical research, right? Um that's when your community then can be at a different place to say okay well I understand why we're talking about at least right and gives you a little bit more space to then figure out what that next chain um could be. And we're all former superintendent. I told them I was doing the presentation. They're going to answer all the questions. Um but any of our colleagues who engage any any of any of your folks there, um you know, tonight was meant to be a brief orientation of what you have and what we did and we certainly will answer any
037questions uh that we have. And if we can't answer it, we'll say we'll go research and get it back to you just like any other superintendent that you had as a board member probably does. Great. Thank you very much, Matt. We appreciate you walking through that and uh all the work that was done to put the report together. Are there board me we did have um just to folks for to recap for those who may not recall, there were four board members who were on the ad hoc committee. myself, um Julie Monahan, uh Katrina Envarkski, and then um Carara Sheen, who uh is out of town, and unable to be here this evening. But so we have four board members who are pretty familiar with obviously the content having been at the meetings, but certainly
038any board members, including any who are on the committee, um are welcome to ask questions of our facilitators at this time. Um, so open up the floor to anyone who'd like to speak if there are comments or questions. >> I think you're go ahead Kina. Thank you. The first question I wrote down was, "Can you tell me exactly how much your services cost the district?" >> I don't know your aid ratio off the top of my head to do the calculation, but I know that you approved up to 20,000. So, and 72% of that is gable. >> Okay. And then Um, I don't think I think that this report is kind of well, it's still hurting the relationship that we have with the community on um like that transparency factor. I think that this is
039so generalized. The community had charged us with changing the start times. They came to us with petitions, signatures saying, "All of the things that you've presented are things that we need to have looked at." And the need to bring in the facilitation was to ensure that we got it done right and that we got it done quickly. And this presentation is keeping us at square one. The presentation as it is given to somebody who was not on the committee makes it seem as if this is an accurate depiction of what the committee discussed, talked about, gathered, and I don't think that it is. This is data and information that you didn't present to us. We didn't go over all of it in its entirety. The actionable heat map was a topic of conversation that you
040know when talking about how we can or cannot like what is our um level of being able to fill that out. So we were told to actually not fill that out. So I don't think that the heat map actually accurately depicts what the community wants on here for sure. Um, so it's it's just very it's very disappointing to say that we have to continue to go through these next steps when we really were supposed to be looking at and going through more specific details and trying to hash out exactly what can be done. And I don't think that this accurately depicts what the community asked for or what they've been looking for at all. I I really don't certainly entitled to your opinion, Katrina. Thank you for sharing that. I think it's just worth noting
041when you say the community and you use that term, that's meant to represent all of the district, right? And as Matt mentioned, we had maybe a third of people participate in the thought exchange or the different or the surveys. So I think it's somewhat presumptuous to say we know what the other two-thirds are thinking. And so I'm not sure it's correct to say that we were charged with changing um just because we heard we did hear there's an issue that certainly is impacting certain segment of people. But we didn't but it just as likely other people and we saw this in the response of the survey and the thought exchange think that the changes have been positive. Right? So, um, I just would challenge the idea that there was unonymity on the idea that this
042was a specifically created committee to make a change. At least from my point of view, and I think what we voted on was it was a committee to gather information and try to delve deeper into the subject of what options are available and whether changes are in the best interests, you know, of the district. But it it was not intended and and charged with making a change. That's that's not an accurate statement. If you want to respond to that, feel free to go ahead. But I think that's important to clarify. >> Yeah. Don't don't come to vote, but those are also the same people that don't come to vote in our regular school elections and our regular budget. So, we had about it said 1,293 people. That's close to the number of people that came
043out and voted this year on our budget. So, we have a pool of people who are actively engaged in what's going on. And just because we have a mysterious group of people that we never hear from, doesn't mean that we shouldn't take care of the needs of the people in the community that are coming forward to say, "Hey, this is a problem. Can you please do something about it?" And yes, I do think that people said that. And you did say, you know, you mentioned thought exchange, but the thought exchange when you went over all the figures, it actually pointed to people wanted to have a change. It was significantly more in the desiraability area for people saying there are a lot of hardships and that changes do need to happen. Another comment that I
044forgot to mention that I um do want to say is the way that we are also receiving this information is similar to how we get it in our board meetings which doesn't help. I was able to get this report tonight. Board members should be given information well in advance so that they have time to look it over and to be able to curate questions ahead of time instead of on the spot. It's really important how we communicate with our public and how we communicate administration to board. I also think that all of this information should be posted publicly for the public to be able to consume so that they can come and ask questions accordingly as well. Thank you. >> And and to be clear, all of it will be publicly available and we have
045a board meeting next week with the public comment period. So certainly anyone that wants to come and ask questions about it will be able to do that. Warren, um, where can I find the, um, the language that created the ad hoc committee? Because I was looking and I can't find it, but I'm not a great research person. But my point is I can't believe in that um creation document we use pointed language such that this committee will change these things. Pretty confident that the language read we will study these things. We will explore the feasibility of these things. Not that we will definitely do something and have a definite outcome. The uh language to answer your question, Warren, is it was the motion that we reviewed and voted upon. So that's actually in the um
046it was in our November 20th, 2025 board meeting. There's a the resolution. Yeah. >> No, that's okay. But yeah, um >> that's where the language would appear and then the the minutes from that meeting which would be in the December meeting would contain, you know, the discussion and the vote on that. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Julie, >> thank you. Um okay, I have a couple questions. So when the and I want to make sure I get it right, what we should focus on and one of them was um more student feedback. Can you give us an idea on how in your um professional opinion how that would be completed with and recommendation for us to re get that feedback with an unbiased way so that it's um getting a good
047population. I know we did some focus groups with students but just a way to um so that's my first question. So >> so I would do it in a couple ways. So, um, first I would have you decide which age groups that you want to receive the feedback from. I would create a survey and I would administer that survey during school where so you're going to capture as many students as possible. I believe when I did this at my school district years ago, we used English classes in grades 6 through 12 or something similar. At the same time, we also put a thought exchange out as well. uh directly to students, directly to employees, and then directly to families of those students that were going to be impacted by the um the change. Now, it
048was suggested, I know a number of times, or at least more than once, that or perhaps we would also survey um folks who aren't whose children aren't directly impacted by the change. That's certainly the prerogative of the board of education should they want to move in that direction. It's not something that I did, but I don't do everything perfectly either. >> Um, thank you. I appreciate that. Um, so you just happen to reference and I know we would spend a little bit more time doing this, but you referenced like, you know, 6th through 12th grade or something along those lines. And I know in our conversations within the group, there was a lot of thought process on the elementary age kids, right? We focused a lot on the times that the elementaryaries were going. That's
049like pre-K through fourth grade. Would it be your recommendation to do a survey or do you feel that survey would be too advanced for that age group or how do you get their opinion of that age group? >> I I I I really don't know how to get an accurate depiction of what children that develop at that developmental stage. Um, I would though uh suggest that you think about having a survey or thought exchange with the parents of the children of that specific age group. And and again, you didn't ask me this, but I will tell you that um I love talking and engaging with our very young students, but the data that you would call from that is not reliable by any measure. My next question is um another topic was you know continuing
050the work and having another work group putting it together quickly and kind of moving forward. Would it be the recommendation from your team that we keep the same group that has already started this process and see who wants to continue moving forward and participating or would it be starting a fresh with a fresh group? just your opinion on >> all three of us may have different opinions but Dr. Douglas Okay. I just >> I guess I was just trying to ask like I understand. I'm not trying to say like that would be the group that whatever they say is written in stone. I just wanted to hear like would we keep that same 28? Would it be your professional opinion to keep that same 28 working with other groups or would it be hey because
051you're going to start this and kind of continue that involvement and that research. If the board chooses to do that, would it be your recommendation to keep the same 28 if they chose to participate or select new? >> Again, this is just my opinion. Uh, not all those 28 people are going to want to re-engage, but of the 28 that want to, I would include them. And then, however, you would create a system to add other people. Again, our we are inclusive, not exclusive. So, not everybody who wants to participate will be able to as well. So, but I leave that up to you to decide how you'd figure that out. >> I guess and my last comment was um there was some conversation back between um Mr. Christmas and Miss Unvarski um regarding the
052intentions of the committee. And I would just like to make sure that we noted like I do believe there was some committee members that were there within one of the first or second meetings that did believe that the intention of that committee was so that we could review to make changes for this coming school year because I remember kind of a heated conversation that transpired within one of the first two meetings where people's intentions thought that they were there to help make changes for the upcoming school year. And I spoiled that and was like I didn't think we were making changes for this coming school year. And so I remember the reactions from the crowd. Um, so I just want to make that aware that I do believe that there were people that believed that
053the focus, the intent of the group was for change. So just to bring that forward, I I'm not saying that's my belief. I just wanted to bring it up. >> Yeah, that's a fair point. No, I appreciate that. I think um I think I we tried to make it clear in the I have the actually the re the resolution language in front of me that we the um the idea was to consider any potential modifications andor switching of school start times for all levels specifically as needed to gather information from relevant stakeholder groups about the following and to produce a report on the same for submission to the board etc. And then I and then we did try through the process of soliciting um folks from the public to try to ensure that people would
054come at it with an open mind because of the recognition that it was we didn't want a predetermined outcome. But I you you're definitely right Julian and even throughout the process we heard that there was still um a lack of understanding about the feasibility of how quickly certain changes could be made that we certainly tried to clarify. So that's a good that's a good point. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um, Erin. >> Hi. First, I wanted to say thank you very much for taking the time and and the due diligence to work with us as a district uh and to produce a report that we have that we can ingest and digest and hopefully move forward with uh next next pieces that can enhance our district and make us better. Um, I never had the understanding
055that this committee was being created to immediately change start times. We talked about this uh at length. We talked about it during uh open comments. We it it's written into the language of our um you know creating these I'm just reading here ad hoc ad hoc committee will utilize the final draft report of the ad hoc committee will detail information gathered which in my opinion is is what we were looking for as we make any huge changes as a district. This was a huge change. We did uh a reconsolidation. We did uh uh different tier uh busing change. We did start time change. We are doing huge building projects that we haven't touched since the 1960s, right? So, we had a lot on our plate as a district that we were implementing and and working
056through that took years and years of planning. As part of any change, change management dictates that we take a look at where we are with the changes that we've made, compile that data, and then therefore make a datadriven decision of what we do next. We can only make those datadriven decisions based on the information that we are able to glean right off of the thought processes, off of the conversations that we have, off of the committees, off of any information that comes in. So I say this to the general community and public as well. If we're only hearing from onethird of you, that is the data that we have to go off of. We can't go off of imaginary data. We can't go off of hearsay. We can't go off of well my friend said.
057We have to go off of things that are clear, given to us that are documented that become part of our process. From that part of your process, heat maps are created as you have created in the document here that therefore tell us what can we do now, right? What are things that we can address immediately that are and forgive the term the lowhanging fruit, right? What are the things that we can do quickly to bring um quick success, quick change, quick things that can make people's lives better, our district better. And those are the things that I saw that were in in green and yellow. Correct. things that are in orange are things that definitely are going to take time for us and need further study. My understanding is that those are the items that
058we can implement now with a future committee, right, that can help us come forward and begin to make some changes on those and figure out ways that the district at the district level um the administrators can then put into effect knowing knowing more of the intricacies at that level. Red are things that we just really can't touch right now. Is that an understanding? Because it's just not feasible. And I also want to re I know I'm kind of feeling convoluted in this conversation here, but um I want to bring us back to our budgetary concerns that we had as a community. We had huge budgetary concerns. We did not pass our first budget last year at our first go. We had to make amendments and change and and pass for a second time. this year.
059Thank goodness we passed on our first try. But I want the community to remember that you came out, you voted down the budget, right? Some of these things all played into the impact of the decisions that we had to make as a district going forward into busing, into times of busing, into tears of busing. We didn't want to lose staff members. We have to be able to as a board and as a community and as a district be able to balance these things. We want certain things. We don't want to get rid of certain things, but we have this certain pot of money that we have to divide around. And a lot of that revolves around transportation, you know, and I and I can tell you being, you know, an administrator that you transportation runs
060the runs the district. If we can't get kids to school, we can't educate them. So start times often run off of transportation and the ability to transport our students at certain times at certain levels. And having the one of the largest busing districts in New York State, it is a monumental task. So, I was never under any kind of impression that this was something that was going to be able to be fixed immediately or even for this next coming school year. I think we can take some of the things that are in the yellow and begin to make some of those changes potentially for for next year, but the orange and things that are in the red, those are going to take a lot more time. And something that not even maybe and I'm going
061to be transparent, it might not even be ne the next year it it definitely is not going to be 26 27 possibly 27 20 28 but these things take time to figure out. Um so I know that that was long and that was rambling and I apologize but um those are just all of the thoughts that are coming to my head is that folks if if you as a community want to be able to have more of a voice in this then you have to come out and you have to participate in these things. I sit here and I look at this room and I see, you know, seven, six, seven people that maybe have come to hear this special board meeting and and that's that's difficult to hear. That's difficult to see. I thank
062the people that are here. I think I know some of you and I know where where your thoughts lean. But we there needs to be more of a conversation. If you want to see change, then you need to come and participate in that change. You need to participate in the thought exchanges. You need to do the work um of that and not just be upset if something isn't going to go a certain way. And that's a lot to say. Thank you. >> Thank you, Erin. Any other board members have anything they wanted to say? I can't Sorry, Sue. I couldn't see your hand through Tom. Okay. >> Um, thank you for the report and since we didn't have it earlier, it's a lot of reading to go through and digest and question to ask. Um,
063as my perspective as a daycare provider and um, listening to people um, I I do think things need to be changed and I do know they take time. Everything in education takes time. Everything in a school district takes time unfortunately. Um I see kids who start school I have two grandkids who start school at 7:15 and I have said from day one since that time was implemented. I know when the board voted on changing this. We voted on what time the high school would be and then the other times were going to be later after that. I do not feel our students, our factory workers or our teachers and they need to be in a building at 7 or 7:10 in the morning. I I just think it's way too early. Um and I feel
064badly about that and I understand that probably can't be changed for next year. Um and then the kids who go later, I see them coming in my house at 3:45 in the afternoon. They barely want to sit down and have a snack because they want to get outside and play. They they're missing their playtime that they've had all, you know, that they've had all their life. They're missing their playtime. And now we see on, you know, social media that the kids that are out at 2:15, they're out on their ebikes with no helmets and riding the roadways earlier in the day because probably their parents are working and they get home and out the door they go. So, we have an issue and yes, we can't fix it overnight. And I appreciate the time that
065the ad hoc committee put into it and the members who did, but I do think people get discouraged when they come to meetings and well, nothing's going to change, so I'm just not coming anymore. It's it's really um it's really like a two-edged sword sometimes because people get frustrated and I do want to have time to be able to look through all this documentation. And I, you know, I I served previously in the dark ages on the school board. Well, no, in the 90s, but um I did I care very deeply for this district and I'm very concerned about the perception uh that we have currently going on here. >> Thank you, Sue. >> Yeah, of course. >> No, >> sorry. Uh me again. So I have a question um on my notes from our
066ad hoc committee meeting on the 3. Um there was um a topic that came up about the research showing the concerns about the intermediate and middle school and then more of the elementary to intermediate school because that is a big jump in time. And I there was some I had some notes where I had taken from people speaking about maybe they would like to see that as one of the short-term or long-term action items. Um I don't see that in here. Is that just because after you went back and looked at everything that was taken from that night, it was just that there wasn't enough data to support adding it to this or um I just don't >> I I'll I'll take a stab at I I think it's baked into the recommendation that we
067will look at at into the uh health and wellness aspects of the students. It doesn't explicitly say that we would look at the but and Matt had referenced the sleep study uh clinic and I had mentioned the studies on circadian rhythms and it doesn't specifically say that but it's it's implied in that uh recommendation that we keep the health and wellness of the students in the forefront. So, um, the scientific data to support the long term like long term. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because I was looking at I was thinking we did talk about how that was a big jump from elementary to is and those start times and um we're we were hearing a lot from the data that showed that that was a concern. So, I just wanted to bring
068that to the attention. Thank you. >> You're welcome, Matt. >> Thanks. Um, thanks for all of this information. Uh, I agree. I wish I could have had a little bit sooner so I could um maybe not fine-tune comb it but just look at it a little bit more closely. So I wanted to just thank thank you and thank the ad hoc committee for all of the meeting and all the time and all the effort that went into gathering all this data and thank you for facilitating. Um I think it's important I mean I'm going to echo some of everybody's a little bit so bear with me I suppose. um it's worth pursuing. Uh if there's an issue, if there's a concern, then it's always worth pursuing getting to the bottom of things and gathering as
069much data as possible and information to get to where we want to be, where we need to be. Um but I think it's important, you know, I I I love what you said. Nobody likes change. They just don't. Let's try something different. No, that's it. I I have children of my own. I know exactly what it means to have a no. No. Um, but it's always worth pursuing. It's always worth trying something because what if something we didn't want to do works better than what we had? So, it's always it's always worth it. So, again, there's a lot to to look through. Um, I I agree with uh what Erin said about busing. Uh, you are limited by factors that are beyond our control. Um, so I think that's always worth considering when you're shifting
070school times around. um as an employee, as a current teacher, um as one who's taught in several school districts all over the state. I've taught in schools at different levels where school start times start all over the place. I currently um teach in a school where the high school starts at 7:50. I used to teach at a high school where the school time started at 7:25. Um and as I was a student a million and a half years ago, we started at different times. Um, kids don't want to get out of bed. No matter how early or late, you want to get them up. That's what I found with the thousands of students and the many tens dozens of trips, overnight trips that I've run uh with my band programs over the years. It's hard
071to get kids up. Doesn't matter what time it is or where the sun is. Um, so I think that's important to always keep in the back of our minds as well. Um, but I think it's also so I'll make this brief. But I think it's also important. I'm just looking at these fun color graphs that that you've included and I'll look to them while as a little bit closer as we as we convene here uh and and uh wrap up. But I think it's important not to skew the data a little bit. I was just looking at one particular uh graph that was here and and things you the options that you could choose about what how this current schedule supports your ability to serve students. This was the internal stakeholders. I'm just picking something
072at random here. and 30% roughly said something like, you know, it's um it's challenging that we're dealing with this school change. So about 30% or something like that. But then I saw these two other graphs that said that 20 oh 26% say it works very well and close to 18% said it works somewhat well. So if you put the 17 18% along with the 26% then you get 56% you know and then all of a sudden or 46% and then all of a sudden there are more people who are okay with the way things are going as opposed to the vocal group of people that say it isn't. I think it's important that we understand who are we asking these questions and how is this data being sorted as well. And I think that's important
073to consider because even though the majority of this graph here in the light blue bar says the most people say it's the most challenging, but then we're looking at some two other categories that are positive in nature and you can stack them. It's important that we look at this data more thoroughly. I think and I think you did a great job at compiling all of it and it's lovely and I can't wait to to look at it like I said but um you know like you said adjustment takes time. My family's fine. We figured it out and we're rocking and rolling. So, um, thanks. Thanks for all of this. We've got a I've got a lot to think about. So, thank you. >> Thanks, Matt. Katrina. >> Um, thank you. I just wanted to clarify
074that while I because it was brought up by a couple of different board members after the fact, um, while it's not in the language and while it wasn't in the resolution when it was asked to consider whether or not we were going to bring on facilitation I remember initially five people including Warren and Warren you did say I do not agree to spend taxpayer dollars on a facilitator because I don't agree with having this to begin with I didn't think we needed this I voted on the start times I'm not going to spend taxpayer dollars on facilitation that is recorded and that was one of the things and then it got brought back a second time because the facilitation was under the $10,000 threshold the superintendent can spend. So then after it went above that
075threshold knowing that we needed more work, it was then brought back to the board or discussed again and then like Julie said, it was brought up in the very beginning by stakeholders saying, you know, this is a big commitment and we want to know if we're wasting our time or not. So yes, there were people that were under the impression that something was going to take place, that we were going to get more in depth with gathering the information, knowing more about the logistics of transportation, being able to have conversations with all the administration team that was there to be able to try and answer our questions, community questions to get that feedback. And we weren't really able to have those the types of conversations that I think the we really wanted to be able
076to have. So, we're kind of right back at square one. And then Matt, your comment about the um surveys and reading the surveys, there were people in the group who read the surveys the same way. And then community members went over and said that's not how you're reading data and they definitely felt upset by the way that it was being construed. Similarly, um so we have still on like there's still so much um polar polar ends. So that's where I think like the communication with the public and being clear and like really making sure that when we do engage in facilitation and voting on things, you know, I don't know if all the board members would have said yes, we're definitely going to do this having known hiring a facilitation group having known that in
077the end it's telling us exactly what we've already knew from the beginning which is all of these different areas need to be looked over because we've listened to although small come and give us feedback about these situations that have been uncovered in the committee and now we are doing it again. I don't I think the next time we need to not spend taxpayer dollars on it if we're not going to definitely be producing results. >> Thank you. Yeah, >> Warren, go ahead and then I'm going to respond to that. >> Go ahead. >> No, you should speak. You you your voice your name was raised. >> That's exactly why I'm going to speak. You are correct. I was against the committee from the beginning. We went through a process and all of the meetings we
078held for the public to come in and give their information were as well attended as tonight's. So I said we had the data, we made the decision, and now after the fact, everybody wants to change. And I did say, as you indicated, I was against spending taxpayer dollars because of all the previous things that happened. After that board meeting where I said that there was a board member that had public comments in social or not public comments, comments on social media and then there was comments at a board meeting that made me pause and say, "Wait a minute, this is not going to be run properly unless we have a facilitator." And I spoke to Dan and I said, "If it comes to a vote, you have my vote for the facilitator." So I did
079change my mind, but I changed my mind for the reasons I gave and that's why it happened. Thank you, Warren. And um I think Katrina, you're certainly welcome to your opinion. But I think it's important to state that what you just said was your opinion. Your opinion as to what other board members may or may not vote is purely that you don't know what's in other people's heads, right? So to me, it's a pretty speculative thing to say. And then I think it's in terms of the resources utilized at a 72% aid rate for $20,000, we ended up costing the district a little over $6,000. I think that's an incredibly judicious use of resources. And where I would challenge you is I think it's insulting to some of the ad hoc committee members who are
080here this evening, to those who are listening and to our facilitators to say we did nothing. We spent over 150 hours collectively meeting and talking. We had more than a thousand people participate in a survey. We had more than a thousand people participate in a thought exchange. We had dozens of participants in focus groups. All of that is information that we did not have before this committee was created. What we didn't do was make an immediate decision to change the start times because that would have been a rash, imprudent thing to do. And from the get-go, we all said we or those of us many of us on the board said we shouldn't do that. We should gather information and try to learn. So I would challenge you that what we didn't do is what
081you wanted and that's why you think we did nothing. The data would show we did a whole lot of work. A lot of people gave up their evenings to come to meetings and participate. And I think it's insulting to them to say that we did nothing and it was not worthwhile simply because it didn't create the result that you feel like it should have created. >> Um I did not say that the work of the committee was nothing. I said that the committee members were trying to get more information within and accomplish something different than what was accomplished. I'm saying that we knew what was in this presentation going into it and I said what other committee members said was we don't want we want to accomplish something. We don't want to waste our time.
082I did not what you just said, which was that the ad hoc committee accomplished nothing. So, please don't say that. That's what I said because I didn't. >> It sure sounded like it to me. So, if you didn't, I apologize. But at Sue, >> no, I'm I'm not I I don't want to get in it. It's not productive to get in a back and forth here. I think there was a lot of work done but I don't think the results are anybody's going to agree on the results they wanted or didn't want and I think we have to take time read the report the people who weren't there I think we have to have time to do that I think the community if they have input or the staff they need to come and talk
083to us and tell us because I agree you know there's a few people here there's a few people that are the same all the time and We love seeing you, but the voices who talk to me and the voices who talk in the schools, you need to come to the board and talk to us, too. Um, and I think the back and forth gets us no place. Um, I think we have to, um, do things differently, guys. Um, be kind. Everybody makes mistakes and we have to learn from what we did. This is this was not a perfect setup that we put in place last year. Definitely was not a perfect setup and we've all made mistakes and we have to look at the things with kindness and go forward. Kids watch this, you know.
084Let's be kind. Period. >> Well, yeah. Okay. Um, I wanted to share that I I sorry there is something hanging off of my microphone. There we go. Um, I wanted to share too that I that my impression of the facilitation is that you helped us collectively come together to gather this information to help us draw out this information and then synthesize what was received. It is not an advisory in in an advisory capacity that you did this work. This is not something that you said now that I have this I'm going to suggest you do X Y and Z. You took that information, you brought it together, you put it into a a report that we could review and that we as a board and as a district could begin to do the work. So,
085um I feel like this will be a piece that we can take from that. And again, this isn't the be all end all, right? Like there is still more work for us to be done, but this is a stepping stone in that direction for us to be able to start making changes that need to be ma that need to be made that could be made and that we want to make but maybe can't make. Um, so for that I do appreciate you and the time and the um, and I feel like it was money well spent. When we look at our 72% aid rate, as Dan was saying, I think, you know, if we top it out at 20,000, it comes out to be 5,400 and change, right, that we spend. And for the amount
086of hours that were put in over a hund and something hours to pay out $5,400 is pennies on the facilitation and the time and the energy that you folks put into uh putting this information together for us in in a way that we can begin to move forward with it. So, when we're talking about taxpayer money, $5,400 for the amount of work that four individuals put in, I think that's a pretty good deal. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, I'm going to um throw out something here. This is a special board meeting, so under our standard agenda setting policy, we don't have a public comment period. That said, I know we have some members of the uh ad hoc committee here this evening. Uh I think it would be remiss to not offer them an
087opportunity to speak if if they so choose. Um certainly they don't have to, but you know, in order to do that, we'd have to vote and agree upon a public comment period that would enable by policy 2370, like any other board meeting, the ability for people to come to a microphone and identify themselves and speak for up to five minutes. and it's not a back and forth and it's you know it's not uh personal in nature etc. It's a according to our policy, but if the board wishes to entertain a motion on that and if we have anyone in the audience who would like to speak, I think it would be we continue to talk about let's hear from the community. So, why not give them the opportunity? So, >> Dan, I'll make that motion.
088>> Any I I want clarity. So is the motion to suspend the policy and then after the public speaks we will reinstitute the policy. I mean what procedurally and technically how does it have to work? That's what I'm asking. >> According to policy 2370 at a given board meeting the board majority of the board can vote to adjust the public comment period. So in other words, we have we can add more time at a given meeting if we're running up against the policy time limits or we can create a public comment period where there isn't otherwise one, but it doesn't do anything to change the policy as a whole. It simply modifies its application to that given meeting. So what the motion would do is allow for a public comment period at this meeting in
089accordance with our policy but wouldn't otherwise change the policy and it would revert to you know the next special meeting uh there wouldn't be a public comment period unless the board voted to have one. Does that answer the question? >> Correct. Any other comments or questions on the motion? Okay, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of allowing for a public comment period per board policy 2370 say I. >> I. Any oppose? Nay. Any abstensions? Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone from the public who would like to address the board in accordance with the terms of policy 2370? If so, please feel to come forward to the microphone. And uh there is a fivem minute limit on the comments and it's not intended to be a back and forth. Um, and uh, we
090welcome what you have to say. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm uh, Sean Carney. Live on Lanclot Drive. Uh, I've been a lifelong resident of the district. Uh, my wife and I have uh, four children in this district. One here at the high school, one at the middle school, and uh, two at Big Flats. Uh, so we covered all the possible scenarios from a family dynamic in terms of the time change this year. Um, I'm was pleased and honored to be able to serve as a member of the ad hoc committee and I addressed you both as uh a member of that committee tonight and also just as a a taxpayer um and as a really uh kind of newly engaged uh member of the public community based on this uh experience having really came to
091the committee with no preconceived idea of how the board or the district arrived at this situation. um or with the decision to change the start times. All of that said, um I do think this report is a great start. I think it does accurately accurately reflect a lot of what we discussed as a committee. I think that the facilitators um did an excellent job hurting 28 different cats. Um, I say that respectfully and I think that without facilitation, uh, we would not have arrived at some of the recommendations that you heard heard here tonight. I think there are three resounding themes that I'd like to encourage this board and future boards to consider as you engage this very important topic. Um, I do believe that that the community is expecting some level of engagement, continued
092engagement on this topic um, for this upcoming academic year. I'm a realist in the concept and I understand you're not going to be able to change things dramatically given that we only have a few months before a new school year starts. Um, so that speaks a lot to the practicality and feasibility aspect, but I think that a new board does earnestly need to take up this topic because there are a lot of unresolved kind of emotional issues amongst our community. Um, I hear it a lot from our friends, people who we know, uh, people who we've engaged with. One of the top themes that I think is super important, we did not have a good uh opportunity to really study it and it doesn't seem to suggest that there was a lot of time spent
093in that space um in the years leading up to the decision is really that psychological uh best practice and what happens uh from a medical community. So, I'd encourage the board to take that very important step to study what maybe the body of evidence would suggest around learning styles and how students learn in relationship to um their their age. I think the other core group of people that I'm particularly concerned about are those that are moving from fourth grade to fifth grade and have a very large gap to fill this coming year. That'll be my son. My son is a fourth grader at Big Plats. He'll be coming to the is school um in the fall. So, I do appreciate Julie your comments because that was something I passionately spoke about at the last meeting
094is that transition and I feel we're a little illprepared and equipped to help students make that transition during that period of time. And so, so maybe a little more focus as a board in that particular age group would be very helpful. And I think it would address many parents' concerns that they're going to go from a later start to that super early start. I think the other overarching message that I'd like to convey to the board is creatively we have to do a better job as a community to engage on multiple levels here. I came to the special ad hoc committee with kind of uh the rage if you will. I was angry about it. I think it was too much change. I had not done any prehomework in terms of how you arrived at
095these decisions and that's a mistake on my part as a member of the community. Um I want to be more engaged in that. It doesn't work for us to engage in just this forum. We need to have more communication through our building principles. We need to have more information available to the general public um in whatever way that is is best consumed. If we really want to engage the silent twothirds, we need to do better as a community and as a board in how we get that engagement. I love the concept of surveying students. I think that would be a very practical step that you could pull off early on next year and my fifth grader would be happy to tell you what he thinks about start times. Um, so, uh, my time is up.
096I really appreciate this. I think it's a great use of money. um very happy uh that there are some recommendations and I appreciate the opportunity to serve the community this way. Thank you. >> Thank you, John. We appreciate your service and your comments. Uh anyone else? Looks like we have someone coming down the aisle to the microphone. Jess, >> he's rough to follow, man. That was really well done. Uh Jessica Benelman, 4889 Hovy Road. Um I was also a part of um the ad hoc committee. Um I think uh this report is a great overview of the things we talked about. I was one of um the folks that really strongly encouraged um this conversation to continue uh as soon as the summer. I think uh one of the big parts of this committee was
097um I think folks realizing that there's a lot of interconnected issues that don't like it's not as simple as just flipping from one to the next. There's contract issues, there's transportation issues, and I think um we don't you don't know what you don't know until you start to have these conversations and dig deeper. I I do think that there's a lot of things that we discussed in the committee that uh could benefit from a a deeper dive. Um I think that that that's um something that we that was one of the few things that I think we perhaps as a committee agreed on the most was that some of these things do require uh deeper consideration moving forward. But, um, I know, uh, having, you know, served on past committees that knee-jerk reactions, uh, knee-jerk
098changes back and forth are not, uh, the community is already, um, unhappy with, uh, some changes. I mean, members of the community, but um I think it's important to make sure that we're we're doing the the the due diligence before, uh you move forward with with any of the the major pieces. Um like I said, I was one of the folks that really strongly encouraged um this to continue into the summer, and I would encourage that even tonight. I think that's really important. Um I think there were a lot of pieces that could could use more examination. Um, I do uh I I do want to say thank you to the facilitators. I know we did a lot of um we had one-on-one conversations um and I was able to recommend some staff for them
099to talk with that were part of groups that maybe didn't get um as seen uh social workers, some of our OTPTs, our nurses, and I think that that um allowed them to have some perspective uh that was unique to to those groups. So, I I do appreciate um that piece. And like I said, I do think there's pieces of this that do require a little more examination over some a longer period of time. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Kelly Wolf 207 Astra Drive. Um, I was not on ad hoc committee. Is it okay if I talk? Yes, >> I am a teacher within the district. Um, and I did not plan to talk. I can talk to eight-year-olds all day long, but you people make me nervous, so I apologize if I um stutter a
100little bit. Um so I I I think the report was good. I thank you for your time. Um I don't think there was a lot of surprises as far as what I see from at school every day um and what I hear. But I still think the way it was organized and um the heat rating, I think that was good information. Um, I think the one that stood out to me a lot was the little things that we can do within the schools. And I I do know from an HTA standpoint, we are talking with administration about the little things that we can do within the school day. Um, for for example, even though we're elementary and um it's hard to gauge what the kids can and want the core curriculum, what we want to
101teach the kids, what we need to teach the kids. It's really really hard to teach them that at the end of the day. It's it by 2:30 three o'clock it's really difficult and administration has heard that concern and they are working with us. Um but I I just want you all to keep in mind that even though our school day technically starts at 8:35 those kids are getting up early with their parents with their siblings and it's really hard for them to stay focused till the end of the day. So, you know, there's a lot that goes into even though our day starts at 8:35. It's also hard with the new schedule from a teacher standpoint, the collaboration time. Um, that end of the day at 3:30 our contract ends and it's really hard to
102meet with parents. It's hard to schedule times to to accomplish what we need to do. So, um, there's a lot that goes into that. Change is hard. I did not like the school schedule when we started this year. I was adamant that it was not going to be good. From a teacher standpoint, I've adjusted to it. It's it's okay. I don't love it. It's okay. It's working. But I still think it's very hard for the students. Um I think like I said, the core curriculum times when that's being taught is hard. The students are still getting up early. They're still tired by the end of the day. Um I I would like to see us continue to look at those small tweaks. And I know that major changes can't get made by next year, but
103there is a lot that can be done. And I think the flexibility needs to be there. The creativity needs to be there. Thinking outside the box needs to be there. And I know I know that there is a lot that goes into these decisions that busing and finances and all of that makes your job so much harder. And I fully appreciate and I understand that, but it always goes back to those kids. And I just I hate to put our what's best for our kids on well we can't the busing and that and that's what's really hard. I understand it. I know it's there but it doesn't always help when we're in the in the moment. Um so it's my two cents. Thank you very much for the time. >> Thank you very much. Thank
104you. Are there any other um folks in the audience who would like to address the board? Okay. So then um I don't know if there certainly it's okay if the answer is no, but is there anything that the discussion is raised that you want to clarify or any kind of closing comments you might have? >> Yeah, >> absolutely. So um just on timing and effort um we definitely appreciate that you got this today. Our last meeting was adjusted to be last Wednesday and then we had other obligations. So we totally that's fair and I would like to say in public we will come back at no cost at a later date to be scheduled if if desired to further that after you've had a chance to go through it. Not intended to spring on you
105is some unfortunate events in the district. Some changes to kind of how we scheduled things and how we got people together. Nothing more than that. Um so please know from us. um you know, we certainly will come back on any given night that we can coordinate schedules to to answer any questions you have once you have a chance to to go through it. Um so we just wanted to make sure you knew that and public. So we appreciate it. It's a tough topic. At times it does take some outside voices. We often kid that we're a little bit like grandparents. We care a lot. We really want you to be successful. You have a great district here. Every engagement we have with kids, every engagement we have with teachers, engagement with the special ad hoc
106committee, you know, was ups and downs, but good ups and downs, right? There there was things being laid out there. So, we we are vested to make sure that you find your way through this and be successful and are happy to help out in any way we possibly can. And yes, on the record, we will come back at at no charge to process however you may need if that's if that's desired to. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate that. Okay. So, the uh that concludes the agenda that we have for the public portion of the meeting. As I said uh earlier, I'm going to call for a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing individual personnel contractual matters. there's no action to be taken at that executive
107session and we would uh return from executive session and then just uh journ the public meeting immediately following. So is there a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing individual personnel matter? Any comments or questions on the motion? Okay. All those in favor of moving to executive session say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Any abstensions? Okay. So that we'll uh take a fivem minute break and gather in executive session. Again, no action to be taken. Thank you again to everyone for being here this evening and for participating in the ad hoc committee. And to our facilitators, thank you for being here as well.