001resources policies programs align with our district goals assessing and providing accountability for student achievement and supporting a healthy school district culture in which to work and learn so um I just want everyone to know that the time and effort that you dedicate to our school Community does not go unnoticed so thank you very much for all you that you do and thank you um and thank you to those who are involved I see we have some uh some updated yes with the new logo very nice thank you to all of those who were involved in putting together this recognition our Student Government reports good evening everyone and happy homecoming week Monday night's Powderpuff game was a success with a surprise ending as the senior girls battled to a 7 s tie the winner will be
002determined tomorrow afternoon at our pep rally thank you to Mr Robinson Mr Peron Mr Buble and Mr traz for coaching spirit week is in full swing as we celebrated America Monday tacky tourist Tuesday in color Wars and tomorrow we expect a sea of purple and yellow throughout the district please join us Friday night beginning at 5: for our annual Street Fair where we'll have 25 groups joining us there will be plenty of food music and games if the weather does not cooperate we will be holding the fair in the high school cafeteria and gym the week will conclude with the football game and our homecoming dance in other news our sports teams are gearing up for sectionals and our golf team recently won the the section 2 championship in addition Scotty's closet is accepting donations
003for their event on November 4th and lastly in just a few weeks our true production of the play that goes wrong will take place along with our annual Thanksgiving food drive thank you and we hope to see you and celebrate our Scotty Community this weekend thank you for that and what are the details on the pep rally where when tomorrow at 12:15 uh our high school students will be called down into our gym and we have a full list of events from relay races to Hungry Hippo to pie eating we're really looking forward to this event tomorrow and it's the entire School entire School awesome and I remember seeing some video of the Hungry Hippo uh contest and that that's quite the quite the event we can't wait hopefully we can get some highlights published
004on the district website for for all to enjoy excellent thank you any other questions for our Student Government representation and if you would like to excuse yourselves please do so thank you very much and it's our first time for public comment we do have some people signed up for public comment as always I will read our guidance for a public comment Board of Education welcomes District residents parents and other interested persons to its meeting Community involvement at the board meetings is encouraged so that the board can better understand and represent the views of its constituents Please be aware however that information such as individual student information or particular Personnel issues cannot be discussed at public sessions of the board speakers will be called upon individually when recognized by the board president will be asked to
005approach the podium state your name and residence statements are restricted to a maximum of two minutes speakers will be notified by the board president when his or her time has expired and I will just ask please for you to conclude your comments um the board and the District staff take public comment very seriously however the board will not respond to comments or questions during the public comment period the board asks the Public's cooperation in maintaining a safe and respectful environment and the board president reserves the right to limit individual comments if it is deemed necessary to achieve this speakers will please not make slanderous attacks on any group organization or individual a member of the board an employee of the district a member of the audience or a member of the public please do not
006use profane V or threatening or disparaging language or racial or ethnic slurs please do not disrupt the meeting with loud outbursts or other disruptive conduct or behavior either during the speaker's assigned time or at any other time during the meeting speakers understand that a failure to comply with these rules for maintaining a respectful and productive environment may result in early termination of the speaker allotted time a denial of future request to speak and any other actions deemed necessary by the president of the board or where appropriate in the matter of health and safety measures the superintendent of schools so I will ask people to please approach the podium please address your uh comments to the board as a whole and not to any particular individual of the board or the administration so first Speaker uh
007Mr slagen hoop yes sir ladies and gentlemen uh thank you for allowing me to speak I come here tonight to talk about checks and balances checks and balances are important in government along with local and state government especially with school for five long years I've been fighting for the Injustice uh the the injustices that has happened to my son in the subsequent uh educational deficits that he's had to encounter because of his lack of uh attendance to school from another party um it's been a very long road for my son he's a person with autism and he'll speak in a few minutes after I'm done that for him it's been a very long difficult Journey uh he came to be with me in May of this last year and has been successful since I have
008a very proud son who's 17 going on 18 who changed his life completely around he was a person that was morbidly obese almost type two diabetes on four different medications and he's lost 72 pounds with his lifestyle changed and it's reflecting with his school work and how he's successful now with this change to focus on him I know two minutes isn't long enough to speak on the tragedy of kids getting lost in the system of Injustice but hopefully somebody in here we can reach out to us and provide hope for other kids to be able to have checks and balances to put other kids that are at risk at a better advantage of life so us being their Advocates we can fight for them and turning their hopes and dreams into what they should be
009and not the reality of a mind where they have to struggle and have to worry about struggling to survive each day and continue that struggle thank you for your time thank you for your comments next uh Mr Christian slagen hoop so just to start this off with I didn't go ahead and write a whole speech like my father has done because I know that wouldn't have the flatsome or whatever other fancy word you want to say to get the point across so I just took down some notes from my personal years of going through school to hammer this point in um one of the main majorities that I've noticed and written down is that in seventh grade because of being under the care of my mother if you can use the word care as well
010to describe that I missed about 149 days in a school year and Counting all of the grades where I've had long streaks of being absent I have missed about 383 days that's over a year and to be honest with you and this may be a bit degrading to myself but honestly I struggled and still do struggle because I didn't have the opportunity or the long-term ability to adapt and learn these things things because of those long stretches of being absent whether it be long stretches or just short moments I never had the opportunity to learn and adapt both with the knowledge that's teached by the school's curriculum as well as personal and social abilities and as my father said himself obviously two minutes isn't enough time to go into detail about this but I just
011want want it to be known that there are people out there who are in situations that aren't healthy or good or positive as it may be portrayed on the outside and so I hope to even the people that may be watching now to try and speak out and to make it aware of whatever situation you're in so you can live better thank you for your comment M Lester good evening members of the board my name is Marissa Lester I reside at 58 Skylark Drive um I'm the owner and operator of Saratoga functional nutrition I'm also a CPA and I teach accounting at the University at Albany but first and foremost I am a mother of two children that go to Milton Terrace Elementary I am a proud parent of uh the Bolson Spa school district
012and think that our schools are providing an exceptional education experience between the curriculum our talented teachers and support staff and the social emotional learning units our children are being set up for Success um to start I would like to begin by acknowledging and uh my appreciation for the work that the Board of education's Health and Wellness committee has done to create and approve foodless for the district um it has created a lot of flexibility a lot more room for celebration in the classroom um and it's very much appreciated by parents and students in reviewing the list of approved foods I would like to propose some adjustments to ensure that our children are consu consuming higher quality products that promote promote good health and mental well-being there are numerous scientific studies on the effects of excess
013added sugar food dyes and other additives that affect negatively affect children's Behavior ability to concentrate and overall mood in my professional opinion the approved food list could be tweaked to reduce these ill effects on our children throughout the year as well as support our Educators whose job it is to manage those behaviors in the classroom if you start to think about the number of students in a classroom all of the celebrations that we have throughout the year between birthdays and holidays it's a lot of processed food that we're giving our children um while this may seem like a small request I do think that the effects could be large um considering that uh 18 GS of sugar suppresses the immune system for up to five hours that is the equivalent of two rice crispie treats
014which is one of the foods on the approved list um we need to think in terms of uh attendance rates um child behavior in the classroom how we want our children to feel when they're at school we want them to feel good um which we need to think about blood sugar spikes and things like that and I know when my children have a party at school I can tell as soon as they get off the school bus um another food listed on the approved list is Cool Whip it's comprised of corn syrup and other chemical constituents and it also does not fall under the usda's categories of smart snacks um I know that one of the health and wellness committee's goals was to improve the vending machine quality of foods and by only going by
015the usda's smart snack list um currently as the approved food list stands there are eight foods that do not fall under their their 10-page listing of smart snacks so I think that that is definitely something to consider um and I don't think that it reflects the standards um that are in alignment with the health and wellness committee's goals for our children's health and wellness um I hope that you'll take the time to reflect on the alignment of the approved foods list with the goals of the district overall as well as well as the goals of the health and wellness committee um thank you so much for your attention I appreciate the opportunity to share my viewpoint as a parent educator and a holistic health practitioner thank you so much thank you for your comment Mr
016debuk good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board Chris abuke kayen dve Boston spa it pains me to unfortunately be here tonight on an issue that has impacted our family and our community um in recent days and recent weeks and I feel the need to speak on it based on something that occurred recently in the school and I'm asking you as a board and the administration here I have a bit of a concern for the safety of my two boys that are still in the school district uh my one young son came home the other day and uh had learned in class and and I I'll bring this directly to the teachers's attention as well but he's a little bit concerned with what's going on and he was speaking in class on recent events and
017sort of a few things were brought up to his attention by the teacher that uh Israel was perpetrating war crimes and that the atrocities that happened on October 7th I'll put that out there again the atrocities that happened and on October 7th we're based on land and a land dispute so naturally you can imagine our distress we have a lot of good friends in Israel and we have a lot of good Israeli friends living here in the US so I'm asking this board what is going to be done to ensure the safety of my two boys and we saw what happened in Shen with the three children down there that took the Israeli flag out of the backpack of another student flushed it in the toilet and filmed it but I'm also concerned what's going
018to be happen with teachers that are again I understand people want to have an opinion in this but if it's an ill informed opinion and again I do believe this was an ill informed opinion it's probably best not to speak it in class because again I want my children to feel safe and protected that they can come into the school Express their jewishness be proud to do so and not come under any disparaging remarks comments or views from their peers or from people they look up to my son did not want me come in here speaking he's afraid now that this teacher that he looks up to personally and really is a role model to him in many ways and he is a good teacher from what I've had reported to me and I've met
019him personally but now my son's worried that it's going to ruin his relationship with the teacher but again this is distressing when I'm having these discussions and having to bring it to my son's attention mention that this was definitely misinformation and again I just want this school to be aware of that's one thing that was reported to me I don't think it's prevailed throughout the school but one is enough thank you thank you for your comment that concludes our first public comment period next up approval of minutes may I have a motion to approve the minutes for the regular board meeting on October 4th 2023 so moved second any amendments or additions not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed uh minutes are approved next is our superintendent report thank you very much
020um tonight um we have Dr Dana cisk uh who is going to be presenting um her findings and recommendations on the multi-tiered systems of support audit that we conducted over the summer uh so Dana spent the better parts of July and August um doing a an honest um audit of where we're at at the district level across our buildings with our mtss program and so she has put together um a a report and we'll be talking about that tonight and making some recommendations that um we will be considering As you move forward um with the district uh goals thanks Dana good evening thank you very much um for having me this evening um first I would like to say that I was very excited to have the opportunity um to conduct this audit the better
021part of two years I spent working on my doctoral dissertation focused on the multi-tiered system of support um so when the opport was presented to me I was very very excited to have that chance so thank you very much for that um so the mtss um what I'll talk about in the presentation is um a little bit of background about mtss the procedures that I used for the audit and then the recommendations which will also comprise some of the findings that I found from the audit um so the multi multi-tiered system of support is a tiered intervention prevention model used to align behavioral academic social social emotional and mental health supports um so that we can support the whole child and increase the success of our students um the framework is based around evidence-based practices
022uh databased decision making um problem solving and really is applicable to all of our students uh struggling students students that receive special education services um students in the general education classroom it doesn't matter these interventions and supports can be a able across the board um in addition I just wanted to mention that the mtss framework um has been more recently adopted and looked at um by the federal government at the United States Department of Education as well as the New York State Department of Education um the federal government has built grants and funding and uh specific definitions of mtss into the every student succeeds act um and the New York State Department of Education has indicated mtss as part of their Essa plan but more recently has developed a pilot framework for mtss which is
023multi-tiered System of support integrated where they are currently piloting this framework throughout 29 school districts in the state um which was very exciting to me because I was working on my dissertation the same time this was happening and I had no idea so I was very I was very excited about that um so the audit overview itself um as Dr Dua said we want to take an honest look at the current state of implementation of the multi-tiered system of support at the district and building level um and system atically look at our policies practice and procedures what this audit um was geared to do was allow us to be able to identify our needs any gaps in implementation what barriers are existing so that that get in the way of us implementation implementing with Fidelity
024and then goals to be developed to move forward um our objective was to ensure that we're implementing mtss to serve the whole child with a focus on equity inclusivity and access for all students with a shared ownership and collaboration of stakeholders ERS um and when when we develop the objective it really speaks to not just our district goal of uh focusing on the multi-tiered systems of support but also increasing student achievement um diversity equity and inclusion it really encompasses a lot of the different goals and initiatives that we're working on as a whole uh the mtss process the audit had had two components to it as Dr Dua said it was conducted in July and August the first part was the internal audit I looked at our Internal Documentation uh did a review and Analysis
025um thank you to all the building administrators that took their time over the summer to meet with me so that I could conduct interviews and then district and building Administration completed an MTS Readiness screener as well as an mtss startup assessment to really determine where we are in the implementation process the second piece of the audit was a review of external resources um and this is really important because it provides timely and relevant information that allows for critical analysis and evaluation I took the external resources and aligned it to what I what I found through the internal audit and that's how I came up with some of the recommendations to align with um the uh the external uh resources especially with the mtss pilot framework that's been um implemented by the state education department um
026so I have 11 total recommendations in each recommendation I did include some of the findings just to paint a picture of where we are currently the those findings came from the internal audit as well as uh external uh evaluation of resources so the first recommendation um that I have is to take a look at Board of Ed policy 7212 and this policy does does specifically address mtss but it has more of a response to intervention academic focus in addition the policy itself makes a note that it's um that RTI should be implemented for students in grades kindergarten through fourth grade that could potentially be um that could that could have a potential disability in reading so it's very focused on Elementary it's very focused on academic and it does refer to the multi-tiered systems of
027support and the processes and procedures but we don't really have processes and procedures for mtss um so then the question becomes what is mtss how is it filter how is it filling in um some of the gaps and what are the practices and procedures that we have so the recommended changes is to establish mtss as the predominant intervention framework apply it for K12 so that it's um so that it's implemented across all all buildings address academic behavioral social emotional and mental health this is that mtsi integrated so we're taking all these components and integrating them um one of the one of the biggest things that that I found too was um you know sometimes we can be providing interventions for academics when the academics may not actually be the challenge the challenge could be social
028emotional it could be mental health so where is it appropriate for us to put our resources to help the child if we identify it's a mental health if we identify it social emotional and we're able to Prov provide interventions and supports to help in that area then the academics will come along so it's also making sure that we're putting the supports in the right place um and then the policy would be the foundation for serving the whole child the second recommendation our current mtss handbook is 48 pages 11 the pages focus on our mtss processes and procedures and 37 Pages focus on special education um and while mtss is a process that can be implemented to help support students with special education services we want to be very careful not to um paint a picture
029that MTS is a pathway to special education right now our mtss handbook is three quarters focused on special education one quarter focused on mtss so the recommendation would be to separate those so they're separate in in documents that doesn't mean we're not going there's no mention of special education in the Mt in mtss handbook because that could lead to if we determine that a student has a disability but they really should be separate entities um the third recommendation transferable processes and procedures between Elementary and secondary um I noted that the the current policy focus focuses predominately on K through four um the challenge with that is you know it's we have the policies and procedures in place at the elementary level but those aren't necessarily transferable once you get to secondary the organizational structure is
030different children's schedules are different the classes they're taking they have a lot more teachers so being able to transfer that from elementary to secondary can be extremely challenging um it also doesn't differentiate between data cycles and how we're Gathering data The Way We Gather data and our data Cycles at the elementary level are very different than at the secondary level um and there was a the book that I read as part of my research it was written by uh Clark and Dockweiler it focused on mtss and secondary schools and the the research basic said very clearly that in secondary schools the process and procedures have to be very very um clear concise and defined because that's the area where it's easy to lose it because there's so many moving Parts um so the recommended changes
031clearly Define processes and procedures at each level Define the data cycles and how are collecting data who's collecting the data and this really helps ensure that the framework can be implemented with Fidelity K12 across every building um the fourth recommendation the processes and procedures to support students academic behavioral social emotional and mental health needs So currently our interventions Focus predominantly on academics there is some indication of um Behavior but there's not really any differentiation between the nuances of supporting a student that has behavioral needs and supporting a student that that has academic needs we also currently don't have any process and procedures in place specifically with the tiered levels of intervention to address mental health and social emotional needs um so the recommended changes would be to specify those processes and procedures so that we
032can meet the needs of the whole child identify the interventionists and Specialists that will help support we want to make sure that wherever we're determining these interventions um and supports that the people that are knowledgeable in that area are assisting with that and then recognize the nuances between addressing all these different areas um the fifth recommendation is to align the MTS our mtss handbook with Ned's mtss Playbook they provided they provided a document um that walk through the steps of the different components of the Mt what their mtss handbook has um I'm recommending aligning it to that so that in the future we're not entirely sure where State Ed's going to where State Ed's going to go with the with the pilot um if it's if we're moving towards implementation we can already have a
033handbook that's already in line with what they're expecting um so our current handbook it does have the the definition of description it has screening Provisions it talks about the different teams at the different levels um it provides the toolbox with links to forms so there is a lot of information in there um but aligning it to Ned's mtsi Playbook will just put us a step ahead because our handbook will already be in line with what they are piloting in those 29 districts and then identify team roles and responsibilities intervention processes what are our common assessments and Universal screening practices how are we progress monitoring and how are students moving between the tiers what are the criteria um it should be very specific how a student is if a student is receiving a tier three intensive
034intervention what do they have to achieve to move down to tier two and move down to tier one and not require those interventions anymore so we need some clarity there um defining all the different types of interventions for the four different areas what is the role of the student and parent in the mtss process um we really need to have their input and their feedback and their contribution this is a student a plan for the student they should be involved in that whole piece um and then developing a separate handbook for the elementary middle and high school um the whole handbook won't be different there are definitely components that need to be the same the description of mtss what the tiered levels of intervention are um one of the things that I found through the
035audit pretty much across almost everybody is that we don't have common language everybody's using different terms for different things we're having a we might be having a conversation about the same thing but everybody's using different terminology so if we're developing a glossery that has common language that would be the same in every handbook for every level but the implementation processes and procedures would vary based on the organizational structures and needs of the schools um recommendation scks a district level mtss implementation team right now we have building level teams um we don't have a a comprehensive District level team we have people at the district level working on different things but not anything that's really come together as one team so the recommendation there would be to establish a district level mtss implementation team with responsibilities
036to develop the implementation plan um update and review the plan annually continually audit our practices to make sure that we're implementing with Fidelity identify those barriers and how do we overcome them develop the goals progress monitoring systems and then support the building level teams the seventh Rec recommendation are consistent and transferable referral and intervention processes and procedures what I found to be really interesting when I conducted the audit was I expected there to be variation between elementary middle and high school just because of the nature of the structures but what I found was that buildings at the same level had different processes and procedures and even individuals in the same building were following different processes and procedures so there was a lack of consistency which poses a challenge for a variety of reasons um administrators
037also indicated that the forms were challenging they're not necessarily comprehensive easily accessible can be cumbersome to complete so we want to streamline all that um so the recommended changes make those process and procedures clear for all stakeholders what is the teacher's responsibility what's the administrator's responsibility um what is the students responsibility if they have any depending on their age you know what is the parents responsibility so take a look at all these different areas and then streamline forms and data collection procedures whether we do that internally or we consider external data management systems there are some out there that would be I think worth taking a look at um but however we do that as long as it's streamline so that everybody's following the same processes and procedures for consistency um the eighth recommendation explicitly
038Define what our tiered interventions are so we have interventions we have academic interventions we do have some behavioral interventions in fact we really do have interventions in every area but we don't have any differen differentiation between Tier 1 two and three how are they implemented who's implementing them um our academic interventions are most defined but we're we're lacking in the other areas and one of the things that many of the administrators said is we need to beef up our tier one and then that'll help with our tier two and tier three so for the recommended changes identify those evidence-based interventions and responses that are available in each tier and create a menu of responses that doesn't mean that these are the only interventions and supports that we can use but aot lot of times I've
039heard I've heard people say where do I even start this at least gives a starting point and then we can have those conversations and build off of that to develop um appr appropriate support plans for students um and then have those interventions in each tier developed by the implementation teams at each level because the way we respond to an Elementary academic or Behavioral or social emotional concern will be different than the way we address it at um the high school um I also identified recommended excuse me oversight of areas of intervention based on areas of expertise so for the academic component that would be overseen by the director of curriculum assessment instruction with the support of AIS providers interventionists and coaches behavioral would be the director and assistant directors of special education with the school
040psychologist and licensed behavior analyst and then the mental health and social emotional would would be our director of student support services along with our school counselors and social workers all coming together and working together to develop these interventions for our students um recommendation nine process for Progress monitoring the interventions this was also something that was very consistent um with responses how are we progress monitoring we're doing this the other this other person is doing this there wasn't a lot of consistency with how we were progress monitoring what the tools we're using for Progress monitoring um there was a lack of knowledge on effectively and efficiently progress monitoring and then there's burden put on the teachers to collect the data um so working on that for the recommended changes develop that process for Progress monitoring what
041are our data points that can be used what are what are our methods for collecting that data to monitor these different because each area is going to have different data that we're going to need to collect some of it's going to cross but some of it's going to be different how do we use that data for decision- making and problem solving and then who's responsible for collecting and reviewing that data um along with that recommendation 10 is to develop professional development opportunities surrounding mtss So currently we don't have a professional development plan specifically for mtss um workshops have been offered formal training has been provided to administrators um but as as administrators we're not always we're not the boots on the ground in the classroom every day work the interventionists working with the students and
042implementing these things so the recommended changes to enh have an mtss reboot a complete reset Get Back to Basics start from the beginning and really build the capacity of our of our staff and our stakeholders so that we can implement this with Fidelity um I'm recommending potentially using the November faculty meetings for that reboot to capture all the staff when they're all together um and then develop a plan for professional development some of the a there was a lot of areas that the administrators had indicated but you know implementing tier 2 and tier one interventions reading and analyzing data we have all these numbers what do we do with it and how do we determine entrance and exit points into the tiers um and then implementing and Gathering data for Progress monitoring and then last
043but not least like I just mentioned we can't do this without the folks that are in the classrooms the interventionists the Specialists all the people that are implementing these things on a daily basis so extend the audit to obtain information from additional stakeholders the scope of the audit over the summer focused specifically on building and District administration um my recommendation would be to obtain feedback from the folks that are in the in the classrooms working with the students day-to-day I know as an administrator I there's many times I see things one way and then when I talk to the teachers they see something different having the ability to get feedback from them will give us the opportunity to see where do we line up where are their gaps where do we need to fill What
044do teachers need what do you know interventionists people that are working with the kids what does Administration need and then um the second piece of that would be as a follow-up to the faculty meeting then distribute that survey so have the meeting kind of that reset that reboot start the process and then start obtaining feedback um from our stakeholders so that we can start developing um comprehensive plans that incorporate everyone um so just as a recap we wanted to take an honest look at where we are with our mtss implementation we want to ensure that we're implementing focusing on the whole child with equity inclusivity and access and we have already started these things um but one of the one of the authors that I I really loved this quote was that it's not enough
045to commit to doing the right work we must do the right work right and ensure that we're implementing our processes and procedures with Fidelity so that we truly can see the benefits in um increasing student outcomes so thank you very much for your time are there any questions did I probably went over Brian didn't I too long it was wonderful it was certainly worthwhile all the time it took for you to share the information so thank you very much I'm sure we maybe have a question or two out there thank you yes um a lot of very good research with that and I guess where do you start I mean you got 11 goals really that you're going to do and do you do a couple you proba chose a couple do they all in
046consecutively so what what are your thoughts so so I think if if I were if I were to developing the plan on how this would all roll out there are certain things that I would want to do simultaneously um the first couple things I would say first is um having developing an mtss implementation team at the district level so that we really can start the work and develop that implementation plan and figure out where we want to go where we need to go identify those gaps at the same time um I think it would be important to have that reboot and start getting the surveys out to the faculty and staff because I think their feedack is going to be critically important to developing that full implementation plan we definitely don't want to do that
047without them um so if I think those would be the the two those would be the two places I would start and then I think everything else would filter from there so once we have the implementation team then we can start working on the handbook start working with the stakeholders in every building the buildings can start working on their implementation and have it flow from there okay would you anticipate this be multi school year thing yes okay yeah um it's I to do it right it's going to take time okay um you know one of one of the areas that that I did focus on as as part of my dissertation was implementation science and how you can effectively Implement any change within a school um or within a district and you know to get
048to full implementation they say 50% of the stakeholders are implementing with Fidelity could take two to three years um for that to get to that scope um but I think right now laying the basis for the foundation of what this really is and developing that common language is going to be half the battle because everybody in every building is talking about different things but they're talking about the same thing um so I think that developing that basis and starting some professional development and getting that common language built will help us we do already have some of a foundation built with what we've got for for our academic supports we just need to to to space it out from there but it's probably going to be a couple years for full implementation okay thank you yeah
049and I'll just note that you know it fits into our district goal of mtss which which is a three-year goal and this year year one was really kind of identifying where we're at some gaps get some things in place so yeah I would I would agree with Dan had anticipated you know three three years and take a look at it every year to see if you know we need to extend it or make some tweaks here and there okay thank you yes uh you did mention that there might be some software available um to assist with this um could you just describe like what it would allow you to do and is it you know 175,000 is it 25 like where's the Gap in price range so I will say honestly that I haven't I
050didn't look that far into um I have contacts for people that can do demos um but I I really wasn't sure which direction we were going to want to go in I do know that there are um a lot of schools use panorama and branching Minds there is a there is a program um which I also which I have information for um the for a demo for something called linkit which is edlaw 2D compliant I check that first um so there are programs out there um I I just hadn't I hadn't gotten to the point where I was getting that deep into the details um but I think that would be something that we'd have to look at to see if it would even meet our needs and and what we'd want to do right
051perfect thanks thank you just um great job about um just the really extensive audit and and clear explanation so really appreciate that um for the last point the extending the audit would you consider and makes so much sense to be involving folks who are on the ground with with students um would you consider it um involving families at any point in that that external you know as you're widening that I I think we would um I think it would that would that would need to be framed a little bit a little bit differently um probably not so mtss specific but more about what supports do you see needed you know that we need what could what can we provide as a district to better support your child um so I I I think it's always
052it's always extremely beneficial to have the input from the people that's going to impact um and the parents what do you want your role to be what should the students role be I mean I have my idea of what those roles should be as a as a as an employee of the school district and as a parent and um but everybody doesn't necessarily always think and feel the same so I think extending that if that's something that we want to do would be fantastic and I would like to have feedback from the students too on you know what what works for them and um I think that's important thank you for that I have a couple of questions about um the differentiation I know you mentioned between Elementary and secondary is there also value within
053the secondary um realm for Middle School versus High School absolutely um and you know I think when you get into secondary it's it's a different animal altogether but even at the at the middle school we have um grade level teams so we have these teams that are already developed we have teachers that are coming together that that a little bit more seamlessly can follow these processes and procedures because that structure is already in place that we can build off of um but at the high school it definitely is more challenging because there's more students the organizational structure is different their schedules are all different all nth graders don't have the same classes they don't have the same teachers there's so much more flexibility um so that's that's where those processes procedures at the high school
054need to be very defined as far as who's going to be involved and how we're going to um implement it because there's a lot there's a lot more room for extreme variation or kind of like the wheels to fall off the bus so to speak um so I think that's where those guidelines need to be very need to be very clear but there's definitely a difference okay and um I had a reaction a thought that that um that differentiation would inform I think many of the other goals as well in terms of how they're approached um and there needs to be some sort of um Reckoning of what our sort of overall District regardless of grade level mhm you know this is the the the process the procedure the structure and then at the various
055levels um now sounds like three we um have what is specific to those correct um and I think potentially that could be a very positive um uh definition category ization as you go out to the stakeholders to talk to them to say you know we're looking at things specifically for your [Music] world but uh this was great and um we look forward to updates and I also want everyone of course to realize that that that Dana's role here was as the auditor and the recommendation and um our superintendent will uh carry us forward in terms of what the what the uh implementation and roll out is with that information although we absolutely value um your continued uh contributions course to the process so okay thank you very much thank you very much thank you that
056concludes the superintendent's report thank you committee reports I know we have two why don't we start with policy um so new this evening I've been elected chairperson so I'll be reporting out on the policy committee um we met this evening um and over the summer uh there was an audit of the health and wellness board policies and it was completed um it was performed by our district Health leader who cross referenced several policies with New York State guidance documents including the New York State education guidelines for medication Management in schools um so there were three policies that we discussed uh number 7513 administration of medication um with three recommendations uh there will be updates to the dates to reflect the school year instead of the calendar year um update the language of EpiPen in the
057document to its um medical name and um inserting guidance on insect repellent use in that policy um for policy number 7521 students with life-threatening health conditions um there is some updates to the language and also um specify language to include only nursing staff um for consistency and training purposes and then for uh policy number 7 7212 um that Dana just went over for us will be reviewed in January after um reviewing exemplars um there'll be recommendations for review at the March meeting um so we will be reviewing that and I forgot for the first two sorry going back I forgot to specify the dates um but we will make available um these policies at our next board meeting for a 28 day read and then um plan to vote on them on December on our
0581 December meeting and our next um committee meeting will be in January 17 any questions thank you uh our audit committee yes thank you Jason um audit committee met uh we approved the meeting minutes from the October 4th um meeting 2023 we at that time we had distributed the committee Charter and purchasing policy uh that was reviewed and there was no recommendations the Comm that the audit committee recommends to the board um and we also reviewed an osc audit of another school district for Best Practices um and um uh you know taking some that under advisement for for some changes so uh and we do not have a date set for our next audit meeting but we do plan to have at least two more this school year any uh questions from the board thank
059you okay thank you next is uh correspondence correspondence to the district uh we had 11 total this uh this period we had eight emails two regarding Transportation two regarding student matter one regarding meeting minutes and three regarding the soccer game start time uh we had three phone calls included in that um one regarding Transportation One regarding a student matter and one regarding a soccer game start time thank you since the last meeting the board's received two emails one email regarding a student matter one email regarding uh the community eligibility provision program announcements Mr Williams thank you the uh just a couple quick things the I don't think the students mentioned on Friday they get the day off there's no school for the students on Friday is that's our superintendent's conference day um the staff will
060be B busy with professional development opportunities throughout the district um so big day for the staff and the the students get the day off and then they can come back for some of the fun home homecoming events later in the day um Milton Terrace is having their Harvest Festival on Saturday morning so that's coming up at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning and the students do have their homecoming dance Saturday night I can't remember if they mentioned it or not but that'll be the conclusion of the homecoming Spirit Week here in the district um on Sunday there's a rededication of the village War um with Mexico monument in the cemetery across from the middle school they are going to have a parade from the Middle School parking lot over into the cemetery to where the monument
061is um we had three of our middle school students involved with that having their essays accepted as um the top essays as part of that ceremony um so they're invited to be there with their families um as well um next week we have the second of our parents's partners webinar Series going on so that information went out to All Families today as well as all staff and the information is on the front of the website um next week's program is focusing on special education and then next Wednesday is the Boston spa Community band's Halloween con concert it's always a good one because it involves the adults from our community but also we have alumni involved on that we have staff involved on that our current students involved on that um for especially for the the
062Halloween concert so that's a 7 o'clock at the Wood Road cafetorium on the 25th and your next meeting is November 1st so thank you thank you Mr wood and I urge everyone to attend the uh community band concert I know that um there's I think at least 40 plus students who are going to be involved in it and there's a lot of fun with costumes for both the adults and the students and uh it is um it's just a great event actually a long those lines um seems like the furniture gets put away at the evening after school and so usually there's a lot of families there so if we could just make a note that maybe we should have additional seating available for community members that would be really helpful because there's a lot
063of parents who wind up just pulling it out themselves and I think the district would prefer that their trained staff do it any other announcements okay old business I believe we have something Mr Ryan Yes Jason thank you um bring up the topic from the last meeting regarding the nisba legislative advocacy um uh I attended the nisba annual business meeting was this past Monday October 16th um as an observer not not a voting member the meeting started at 400 pm and ended at 11:51 p.m. just short of eight hours with no break in the action um I'm not going to summarize everything that happened so I will keep this as brief as possible but I do want to highlight some points for our advocacy for this for this year right um um it was stated
064that there was a record number of resolutions being considered for this meeting um and nisba released the following communication the following day so they said uh and I quote yesterday delegates participating in the 2023 annual business meeting engaged in a robust debate on a number of important issues nearly 375 delegates considered all 56 resolutions that were proposed by the initial July submission deadline 32 um were recommended by the resolutions committee 24 were not recommended and of those 35 were adopted um uh I do have some additional information to share you know regarding these details in a second um first I I would like to commend nisba that the and the parliamentarian um did conduct the the meeting trying to get through business as best they could with with what was at hand um several times
065they highlighted this is democracy in action and we wanted everyone to be heard um they also highlighted that the purpose of the resolutions was to set policy agenda for nisba and not crafting legislative language um I observed this was a sticking point for some delegates as they got lost in the language that was in front of them and really kind of lost the intent of the policy statement and a lot of times was debating over words versus really the intent um at the start of the meeting it said that there were 302 delegates logged on um and there 200 was was the Quorum um this differs from the 375 that was um uh announced from the email but perhaps that was what was signed up for the meeting versus what was logged on um I
066did want to note that discrepancy um the main theme that was re reiterated by many of the delegates was to have resolutions that maintain local control of school boards and no mandates um just briefly resolutions 1 through 32 were recommended by the resolutions committee the first 14 were sunsetting having been on their policy agenda for the last five years um a statistical summary of the 56 resolutions 1 through 32 which was recommended by the committee 29 of the 32 were approved with a majority of the uh approval of being 90% of the voting delegates the other uh 33 to 56 six of those 24 were approved and the approval percentages range from 51 to 81% um so this will be important in a in a second um I do want to provide a summary of
067a of a few resolutions that were of Interest particularly at public comment last meeting the electric bus mandate were really resolutions uh 19 relating to a feasibility study 35 which is a waiver for small and Rural districts that they don't have to buy electric buses because of the nature of their their size um and 36 which is basically Advocate full repeal no uh no mandate for electric buses so the um feasibility study was it made one delegate made a very good point that this was really a political football that was pushed through at the time and the study will actually kind of allow lawmakers to save face a little bit to say okay maybe we we we we pushed a little too far and and we need to kind of pull it back a little
068bit thought that was a good comment um and by the way the resolution 19 passed with 90% approval 35 for the small districts passed with 62% approval and the ones that were no were basically districts that says well we want everybody de a waiver kind of um and then for the repeal it was 81% they were in favor of advocating for full repeal um on resolution 3 36 the interesting point is 50 delegates said no but they didn't make any comments as to why they thought it was a good good to keep the good to keep it so just something I I had observed um resolution 20 something that we may want to consider just to have an opinion is was um to support the elimination of regen exams once this Topic's above above my
069head uh we would obviously engage with the district to get their opinion as to what is um appropriate for that but that failed with 50 53% um opposing um uh advocating for eliminating regent exams so very close vote on that one um and then Tim you're going to want to hear this one resolution 30 was fully funding free Mals for all students students passed with 77% approval which is good but I was actually surprised it wasn't higher they would have thought it would have been more unanimous but some people argued the point that the children who have the need are already getting that benefit and it's just moving tax dollars around for for everything else so um I do want to make a note that at this point resolution 30 it was 8:09 p.m. 4
070hours into the meeting um and at that point I started keeping a little a little bit more track of the the yes no votes um number-wise right um so I'm going to give you a little little quick timeline here um after resolution um at resolution 34 and just as an example um it passed with the 53% it was for proposal to make kindergarten mandatory it was 145 yes 131 no which is a total of 276 so down from the 302 delegates that started the meeting and that'll be important in a minut moment here so resolution 42 um 265 delegates per remaining resolution 52 216 delegates remaining this is 11:17 p.m. uh parliamentarian basically pleading for people to stay online so that we don't lose a quorum um 50 resolution 54 206 delegates remaining 11:37 p.m.
071resolution 56 uh 200 delegates right on the Quorum remaining 11:45 votes were cast for that but the late proposed late resolution by Saratoga Springs district did not go through because someone logged off 199 delegates and they lost the quum right so think of and I don't know if this if the Saratoga Springs delegate was on the line um they didn't comment at any time uh on screen for anything else so I um I didn't recognize other local districts throughout the night but can you imagine them being on ready to do it almost eight hours into it and it stops um and the reason why I bring that timeline in is around 9:30 um people started using the um the calling the question uh which is basically saying we're stopping debate we're going right to vote
072um pretty much just by the luck of who who was chosen to to speak first just to move the process along which is now limiting debate on really the the um slate of resolutions that are going to have the most debate and the um and the most discussion uh for uh for approval um and I guess this has happened in the previous year's business meeting where um the resolutions committee approved resolutions go first the non-approved ones go second get pushed to the end of the meeting where people are jumping off and doesn't get the same um um I think with there say the same review that it should um so one recommendation would would certainly be for next year to maybe have nisba flip that let's do the non-recommended ones first the recommended on second
073since they pretty much are are kind of almost uh go through with very little um additional discussion so I have other comments and and such I will save those for advocacy committee over the year um but just wanted to give an update what was going on with that um and uh you know I feel your pain Saratoga Springs delegate if you're out there um I was there with you I wish I could help you but um any questions or comments from the board for what I endured so now I'm just commending you for making it through that well at some point you got to follow it through right so I I was walking around the house with my headphones on so my family did not have to hear all the chatter um and uh they
074went to bed long before I did so okay thank you very much very informative thanks we're on to new business I have a motion to approve resolution number 236 2022 2023 three fiscal year independent audit report so mov any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I opposed extensions resolution number 236 passes may have a motion to approve resolution number 237 appointment Deputy purchasing agent so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I opposed extensions resolution number passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 238 agreement Professional Services so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 238 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 239 agreement Professional Services some second any discussion not hearing any all those
075in favor I opposed extensions resolution number 239 passes may have a motion to approve resolution number 240 Award of bid toner so move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I oppos extensions resolution number 240 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 241 field trip 8th grade some move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 241 passes and I'd like to uh thank all those involved with organizing and all of the volunteers and parent and caregiver volunteers who will be part of making that a success I have a motion to approve resolution number 242 placement of students with disabilities so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I opposed extensions resolution number 242 passes I have
076a motion to approve resolution number 243 placement of preschool students with disabilities so move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I opposed extensions resolutions number 243 passes I have a motion to approve uh excuse me resolutions number 244 through 256 are recognized as a consent agenda for the purpose of the Board of Education action I have a motion to approve the consent agenda resolutions number 244 okay so we have a change to the consent agenda resolution number 244 is going to be removed do we need to recognize or have a resolution that the consent agenda now just consists of 245 motion to table 244 okay can I have a motion to table resolution number 244 so mov second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions
077resolution number 244 is tabled so now resolutions number 245 through 256 are going to be recognized as the consent agenda for the purpose of Board of Education action I have a motion to approve the consent agenda resolutions number 245 through 256 some second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions the consent agenda resolutions 245 through 256 passes you have any other new business from the district do we have anyone here representing from our associations okay uh PTA PTSA update uh yes uh so uh Milton Terrace had a recent meeting where Dr Dua talked about District goals and Community engagement uh their trunk or treat event is this Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. um if it happens to rain they will be moved into the cafeteria uh they're
078also hosting a turkey shoot on Friday November 3rd from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 in the mil terce gym um Gordon Creek is having their trunk or treat event on October 28th uh RSVP by Friday um they're also in need of a couple more volunteers for the event um MAV is hosting their book fair this week and up until tomorrow earlier tonight they had family night where caregivers and and kids uh were able to drop by um Wood Road is having their book fair next week they were still needing volunteers for that event also I'm referring to a little flyer I found on Facebook uh they are hosting a drawing contest um according to the flyer draw paint or color your own idea of what Wood Road school and the four BS mean to you winner
079will be chosen November 1st and will have their drawing made into a banner to be displayed outside of the front of the school contest is open to all students grades K through five entries are due by Friday October 27th to the main office and uh make sure to submit your entry on an 8 by 8.5 by1 piece of paper so regular paper and also Middle School is having their book fair next week as well they're still in need of volunteers including SE for Friday around 2:45 p.m. and that concludes uh PTA reports thank you any other Mr Ryan oh so just a quick announcement with that ceremony on Sunday anybody who does attend there will be a sheet there for you to sign in your name on that sheet will go in the Time Capsule
080it will be uh exhumed or or uh excavated in 75 years to be read out loud again so uh just a little interesting tidbit if you show up and as any good parent I do like to embarrass my children at times and my daughter will be speaking there so the more that show up to witness that event would would be greatly appreciated thank you okay thank you yes Mr Ryan I have an update for um BAC um the board M member uh director colen Russo gave a presentation last May uh so just some updates to that um at Wood Road Site um is up and running with uh license capacity for 60 students uh they're hovering around 30 right now um and look to expand that is they hire more staff um Gordon Creek um
081has 70 students enrolled in before and after care um and then the main Center has 100 elementary middle schools uh students uh and 25 Universal prek students um the universal pre is full with 66 full day seats and um BAC is beginning stages to work uh collaborative with the middle school for a pilot grade six through eight student drop in program more to come on that in November um they hosted a uh free costume closet uh this past Monday where uh students and children could come and look at at uh what they had available for the upcoming Halloween uh festivities and they're are partnering with nurish designs to sell some BAC gear through November 2nd with the the goal uh of providing 300 meals to students uh based on the sales um and last uh
082they're looking to Pilot a a club called Cosmo um Geared for children of single parents only and really um the 11th to 15th age uh group um and just having activities and uh as well as educational and and other support type of services so um you know the best way the district can can help BAC is just you know obviously keep promoting their programs and students to the to the community and the families and we appreciate you know their partnership thank you thank you and that's all our updates regarding that um we we are now at the time second period for public comment do we have anyone signed up and we do not all right our next meeting is on November 1st did we say that yep Wednesday November 1st and uh we do have
083reason to go into executive session tonight we will not be returning to open session afterwards I need a motion to J to Executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person second all those in favor I I oppose