001September 21st 2022 we can all rise for the pledge pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all like to welcome everyone who is here in person welcome those who are watching the live stream from home case we have to uh leave the library the exits are behind me in the back Corners to outside and the door leading into the hallway up front first is our recognition portion on our agenda if you said no recognition from the district okay I would first like to thank sheriff zerlo in the sheriff's department for their quick response and action this past Sunday night as they investigated an anonymous threat to the district they were able to determine the
002source deem it not a credible threat our law enforcement our highly capable profession professionals it's why it is so important that any and all threats that anyone is made aware of are immediately reported to them and I want to specifically mention and give thanks to the Sheriff's Department investigators and our school resource officers I would also like to note that just prior to our last meeting the school district tax bills were distributed to the community and I absolutely want to thank all our tax paying members for your support and all of the many for your support of all of the many great educational and extracurricular programs that we hear about all year long at these board meetings Brian siriani and his team work very hard to budget responsibly maximize federal and state reimbursement monies so
003that we get the greatest return on the tax revenue that is raised these long-range plans and successful student outcomes are not possible without the entire community's support and again I just want to thank everyone at this time that the tax bills and tax revenue is being collected lastly I want to thank all those from our staff building principals that are responsible for the open houses that are taking place right now I had the uh the pleasure of attending the one at Gordon Creek last night and the buildings look great and the staff had programming information for the parents who attended and again just thank you very much to all those who are working so hard to to make sure that these open houses are successful and I heard a few people comment about how wonderful
004it is to have all of the parents and caregivers in the buildings again a little different from some of our our past few years so very successful and it was a great way to to start the school year next up on our agenda is our Student Government report Selena and Katie hi to start off we are handing out our class and staff shirts today and tomorrow in the high school we had a great turnout with pre-orders for those and people are coming to pick them up this week along with that our spirit week is coming up next week from September 26 to October 1st we changed one of the theme days due to a vast student desire to change from throwback Thursday to color Wars and they will also be decorating the hallways tomorrow and
005Friday after school along with their colors based on their class and student government will be decorating the lobby tomorrow as well and then during spirit week we will be having a pep rally on Tuesday 9 29 and with the Powder Puff game at 6 30 and it's five dollars for admission and it's open to the public and then on Friday the 30th Street Fair will be from 5 to 6 30 and people can go straight from the Bus Loop to the um homecoming game we have multiple vendors including Kona Ice Coffee Planet Ben and Jerry's kettle corn and more and we're doing many booths from local the classes and local programs throughout the district and we have the homecoming dance for high schoolers on October 1st from 7 to 10. along with that this Friday
006we have our suicide Awareness Day in the high school where we were asking high schoolers to wear purple and that has been reposted and busted out to the school to hopefully raise awareness I think that is it for us okay thank you very much and just to reinforce next Friday the homecoming game yes the street fair is occurring in the Bus Loop directly that will impact parking somewhat if people sometimes park there for the football games just so everyone in our community is aware of it but it's absolutely a wonderful event and you can attend that and it's great for our elementary age students as well there's usually a lot of activities there and booths for fun things for them and then of course you can go right to the football game afterwards right thank
007you very much and again if you want to excuse yourselves from our meeting for homework purposes uh please do so we are now at the time in our agenda first period of public comment as I always do I'm just going to start out by reading our guidance for public participation at our meetings the Board of Education welcomes District residents parents other interested persons to its meeting Community involvement at the board meetings is encouraged so that the board can better understand 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 approach the podium state your name and residence statements are
008restricted to a maximum of two minutes speakers will be notified by the board president when his her time has expired and again I generally try and let people know after two minutes and ask them to please uh just conclude their comments the board and the District staff take the public comment very seriously however the board will not respond to comments or questions during the public comment period board ass Public's cooperation maintaining a safe and respectful environment the board president reserves the right to limit individual comments if it is deemed necessary to achieve this speakers will not make slanderous attacks and 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 use profane vulgar threatening or disparaging
009language or racial or ethnic slurs please don't 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 speakers allotted time a denial of future requests to speak and any other actions deemed necessary by the president of the board or where appropriate and matter of health and safety measures the superintendent of schools our first speaker is Crystal horn hello thank you my name is Crystal horn I live on koi road and Greenfield Center and I have two students in the district thank you tonight and thank you for the communication from the district this week about the
010threat it helped with what could have been a very scary day this week at school for the kids I'm here today to say that despite the tension that we've seen with public comments and things happening with policy committees I'm still very optimistic that this community can work together and that we can find a way to support all of our students so that all of our families feel safe and respected I know that there was a lot of public comment about forming a parent committee or getting Community involvement in District policy making I think that's a great idea Community review and collaboration with the district and with the board is something I would love to see Saratoga Springs has had a diversity equity and inclusion committee for a couple of years now and they have they
011include stakeholders from all different areas all the workings of the district I'd love for us to not fall behind on those sort of things as a district also I have heard that there were some ideas working with that so I'd love it if the board could bring that up continue to talk about that and involve the community I know that there are parents and staff who would be willing to participate and support that and then finally on a personal note as we do try to work together I think we can't come from a place where we are blaming vulnerable students and vulnerable community members for the challenges around building accommodations for them or fixing the system to support them folks like that have shouldered that burden for too long and it's up to us people
012like me people that I know who support that work to carry that load for them with them I really believe that that is how we love and support our neighbors in our community so again I would just appeal to the community let's come together let's support our kids we all care about them that's why we're here thank you thank you very much for your comment and just as a matter of additional information and fact um Dr duka could you just expand on the Dei community and work that we have had here in place in this District yeah so the the committee well work had began begun on about a year and a half ago and you know with the previous superintendent and we are continuing to expand upon and start to pull together um you
013know different stakeholder groups um and I'll have a little bit more detail on you with for you as I kind of delve into what's been done you know in the past moving forward and I'll have an update in future board meetings right so we're in year two of our Dei work and there will be uh presentations probably in the second part of this year on where the work of that committee is at and I think in terms of participation for the Committees a reach out to the superintendent as to opportunities for participation in there would be appropriate and they can get you a Dr Duke Engage The relevant information for that particular committee next up Susan Westbrook evening my name is Susan Westbrook and I currently reside in the Ballston Spa Central School District and
014um I have two gay children and I've been an ally of the lgbtq plus Community for over 50 years um and I applaud the um the support for Community committees and working together because as we all know many out of date and harmful narratives regarding the lgbtq plus Community are fear driven and based on the unknown and with your policy 7552 the student gender identity policy it clearly protects and respects all students not just trans students lgbtq students it's all students and in the overview of the policy it says that all students need a safe and supportive educational environment to progress academically and developmentally the district is committed to fostering safe learning a safe learning environment for all students free from discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex gender gender identity gender non-conformity and
015gender expression and so in accordance with applicable law regulations and guidelines the district is ensuring that all students have equal Aztec assets access to District programs facilities and activities and that the district will assess and address specific needs of each student's on a Case by case basis and as I said before fear is born of the unknown and as I read policy 7552 it brought great clarity to the unknown regarding all students and so I just want to thank the board for acting with integrity and I just applaud applaud your efforts thank you thank you for your comment next is Christopher Dubuque good evening ladies and gentlemen the board Chris Dubuque six Kaling Drive Boston spa as you know one of the leaders of Saratoga County uh New York and Forum a chapter of New
016York informed and we try to go to a couple school board meetings uh just to help out various districts uh that fall within the county that may have some concerns and we like to see how different boards uh host their meetings and see some of the topics and issues that are concerning different schools because we are a greater Community not just Boston spa but the Greater Community of Saratoga Saratoga County and I do want to thank this board in this particular Community here I've made mention before of our wonderful SRO program I've been drilled throughout College about community policing when I was in criminal justice and that was I got so sick of hearing community policing but I can tell you that was one thing that was very uh instrumentally pushed in all the classes
017uh and again that's true community policing right there getting into the schools getting in with the kids forming those bonds forming those friendships those are Priceless we often hear about other communities and it was even brought up in Saratoga recently they actually have a concern of having school resource officers in the school and I want to try to alleviate some of those concerns by letting them know how wonderful of a program that we have here that we have fostered here that we've even made mention to thank I know the recent threat was a bit concerning the most of us as parents but I can tell you I felt pretty safe and secure that my children were in good hands I had the luxury of going to the orientation and officer Becker made a presentation there
018to the kids got a huge huge round of applause from the kids but he also just got that basic common sense in there such as let's not prop doors open let's not hold them open for our friends basic Common Sense stuff and until you have teenage kids you realize they don't even lock your front door when they come home at late uh they need that every now and then so it was good to see that message and it's good to have that in this community I do feel blessed being in the Boston Spa Central School District and having that and knowing my kids again not only have the safety there but also that Community when you hear so many negative things sometimes about our local officers and and policing agencies in the news it's good
019to know that you know a lot of that's pretty much blown out of proportion and we've had nothing but a wonderful experience with our sors here one thing that was brought up just before and we brought it up in the past is the committee uh the parent board committee we were asked to put together a couple of models of what that could look like here in the district I do know of another District burn Hills Boston lake that has something similar set up so we we put together the models there's a couple here I have two copies for both sides of the room which I'll be more than happy to you know hand out and you can look at them and pass them around but again I would like to if if everybody wouldn't mind
020maybe give a you know again a round of applause to our uh sros and and the hard and wonderful work that they do for our children for our community and certainly for our schools [Applause] thank you both thank you for your comment next speak is Jared ayakalucci good evening my name is Jared icalucci I live at 24 Chapman Street in the village of Ballston Spa like many other parents I am in support of the board's existing student gender identity policy it provides all students with equal accommodations regardless of how they identify the policy ensures that all students are able to have confidence in themselves a critical component for development yet as has occurred so often in the past the loudest voices we hear are those that rise in opposition to social progress history has shown
021this time and time again fear seems to have a way of finding a path through moments of change encouraging us to lash out in the uncertainty we encounter fear for our children in particular has a strong effect on the actions we parents undertake on their behalf this policy is nothing to fear it is instead emblematic of a board that is intent on building a more inclusive and accepting public space still fear persists what is that fear exactly in multiple meetings now the board has heard comments that this policy endangers our children how by providing equal accommodation to all students of course not yet the implication in these comments is that transgender students pose a danger to others an implication made clear by consistent reference to an incident that occurred in a different state that is
022indeed a harmful narrative and one that leads to marginalization or even worse violence as has been noted previously it could not be further from the truth it Bears repeating that transgender students are more likely to be targets of violence and less likely to commit acts of violence than their cisgender peers we are all parents board members Educators alike committed to providing a safe and welcoming learning environment we are all committed to ensuring that the school district builds upon its excellence in academics we are all committed to the health and development of our children this policy does not threaten these shared values on the contrary this policy by creating an inclusive environment enhances those commitments by extending them to the entire student body regardless of how they identify once again I commend the board and the
023district's Administration for continuing to build on the Excellence of our district through this policy and all of the multitude of other concurrent efforts thank you for your time and service [Music] thank you for your comment Jason gertler ladies and gentlemen of the board good evening this has been quite an eventful week and I'm thankful that we are all able to stand here and talk about it thanks to the Sheriff's Department for diffusing what could have been a very dire situation thanks to our mayor Frank Rossi for keeping on top of it in real time and getting the message out that the situation had been diffused at 1am or whatever it was as for the district I've I know that there was a message put out early morning some students tend to board buses or make
024their way towards the schools at a time a little bit earlier than I believe the message was put out so uh you know I think we could have got that out in real time also I understand it was late late at night but you want to talk about fear you talk about worrying about whether you or not you want to send your child to school with a threat like that made so a lot of parents were up at night in fear of the situation um I'd also like to address another issue dress coding in phys ed and some of the coaches abusing power and harassing young women it's been brought to my attention that a current girls coach had been fired previously for a sexual harassment lawsuit against her a number of years ago at
025her former place of employment for making girls wear signs that please let me say I can't really say in class and then was hired by Boston spa a number of years later it's nice to see that we're doing thorough background checks on our employees of whom we are to trust with our children I'd also like to say on a later note happy Constitution week the U.S Constitution of which you have all been sworn Asylum oath to protect and defend was adopted on September 17th 1787. Public Law 108-447 Section 3 passed in 2004 requires the following I quote each educational institution that receives federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17th of such year for the students served by that educational Institution it's also Constitution
026week which is deemed as September 17th through the 23rd so there have happened to be the 17th was on a Saturday if you're curious email your child's teacher or principal to see what they did learn about the constitution in their classes this week something that should have been covered this week so far my son has said nothing about Constitution this week this week if our district is so concerned about quote making great effort before it approves new policy or modifies existing policy to make sure that its actions and the specific policy content are in alignment with Federal and New York state laws and New York State Department of Education guidance then they should be following this law as well finally back to the letter to the district on 8-4 I again would urge the board
027president to Tender his resignation for an abuse of power failure to uphold its oath and a dereliction of Duty thank you thank you for your comment next we are at approval of minutes I have a motion to prove the minutes of the August 24th 2022 meeting a second any amendments or additions it's absent for the watch online when I vote I feel confident in my vote okay so noted any other amendments or additions not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed extensions minutes for the August 24th 2022 meeting are approved I have a motion to approve the minutes for the meeting of September 7th 2022 so moved any amendments or additions not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions minutes for the meeting on September 7th 2022 pass now we are at
028our superintendent's report Dr duka thank you Mr fernau members of the board wanted to just kind of go through a few different points as far as the reopening of school students and staff very excited to be back in school I visited a lot of buildings all the buildings numerous times facilities look Immaculate routines are really starting to be well established for our students staff and there's just a real genuine atmosphere of learning that's present throughout the district which is really nice to see I think I said it at the last meeting but just the the politeness of the students when I especially when I visit the Elementary's you know they don't know who I am and then they're all Hi how are you good morning good afternoon and it's just it's it's fantastic to just
029to get in those buildings and just see the learning that's going on the positivity the happiness of the kids it's really great meet the teacher nights have begun across the district and I would encourage all parents to try to do their best to attend those it's really a good opportunity for our parents and caregivers to not only meet the teacher but also hear more about programming at the various buildings I did want to touch on Transportation so you know after the first few days arrival and dismissal has pretty much returned to what we normally expect throughout the school year you know the transportation departments worked diligently to correct issues put a lot of hours in and they'll continue to do so until we have all the issues resolved obviously this week we've had to cut
030some bus runs daily each day starting on Monday I do want to thank everybody I know that it can be frustrating especially to get a you know the robocall at 5 50 in the morning the emails that have run has been cut we're doing our absolute best to notify people the night before so that parents can make arrangements you know we also so everyone knows we do our best to rotate which bus runs will be cut so that in a two or three week period if this continues we're only looking at one bus run cut every two or three weeks we don't have multiple stacking up the weeks really causing inconvenience for members of community parents again I just want to thank everyone for their patience we're also working on trying to recruit more drivers
031Stuart Williams we'll have an update on that a bit later but but we have ongoing efforts to try to solve this shortage so that we don't have to cut the bus runs inconvenience folks and kind of get back to what we do best um it's been touched down a little bit but uh obviously the the threat on Sunday night I did want to address you know the anonymous threat made Sunday night um the district was made aware of the post around 8 30 p.m uh I spoke to officer Becker um you know when we collected some some information and we were able to message out just prior to 10 p.m Sunday night with the details that we could give at that point um Saratoga Sheriff's Department took immediate action and handled handled the matter and
032really had it resolved within a few hours um you know once we were able to confirm we were able to get a message out to the community early Monday morning prior to the start of school um take the opportunity to just reiterate that that safety is Paramount for us as a district you know any and all threats to student safety are taken very seriously investigated fully um I once again would like to thank the Saratoga county sheriff's office for their efficiency um and diligence in handling the situation and keeping us all safe um and also I would like to to remind everyone that whenever you see a threat or something unsettling whether it's something you hear something on social media I would please implore you to call law enforcement immediately report it so they can
033do what they do best and keep us all safe um just on that note I wanted to mention that you know the building safety drills have started at all the buildings whether it be a fire drill um lockdowns just you know working through um that muscle memory helping you know our newer students newer staff understand what we do here to keep everybody safe evacuation drills um we did have a an instance last week during the announced schedule drill at the high school middle school complex where we had a little bit of an issue with the system the alarm system it has been corrected um but but that's really why we schedule these drills it's not only to help students and staff with that muscle memory with evacuation what to do in case of an emergency
034but it's also to test our systems so you know as I as I said in a message to the high school that's the building that was affected by it um you know it well not ideal it was the right time for it to happen so we could get it corrected the day of and so moving forward all our systems should should be should be good to go um I do want to announce I'm very excited to announce uh that we've secured an interim principle for a high school Rich Murphy has joined the team he previously served as high school principal at Shaker High for 15 years and I have no doubt I've known Rich for a few years but I have no doubt that has experienced knowledge and leadership are going to be a tremendous
035asset to our students and staff this year so super excited to have rich on board and Student Government touched on homecoming week but that should be an exciting week next week looking forward to all the events and that is what I have for the the report opening week's report s I'm sorry the parents came and their children in school what's the what do they do like do they how do they so yeah so the messaging okay oh yeah so Transportation issues um it's an excused absence so we ask that the parents contact the school so for high school middle school students are contacted who who have diff who can't get to school because of the transportation they're contacted and offered the two hours of tutoring 2 30 to 4 30 as well as being able
036to access your online systems to get that work at the elementary is a little bit different the the families call the school and administration and teachers work with the parents to figure out best course of action as far as what to make up what not and there is some tutoring offer at the elementary school as well oh well if it was it's Rich here he's here yeah I was good yeah any other questions for our technology here everybody good you hear me okay I'm Bill McMurray from Saratoga project management we are the owner's representative for the past few facilities projects here in the district so I know some of you haven't been around for the whole deal so I'll give you a brief summary of how we got here so this is actually what we've
037just accomplished or in the in just about significantly done with is phase three of a three-phase facilities project that's actually started back in 2009 so we've had really phase one and phase two phase one was uh just under a 50 million dollar referendum and phase two was an 8.2 million dollar referendum in phase three was a 23.98 million dollar referendum and that work has all been accomplished since 2014 in constructing until 2023. so that is um the recap of the last I don't know 14 years of work here in the district um so I'll start in Focus tonight really on phase three which is the most most recent referendum and the one we're finalizing currently so I'll talk about Malta Ave Malta AV actually consists of three separate buildings there's a Chapman building which is
038our administration building there's the Pine Street Building part of the malta Ave Elementary and actually the youngest building is Grove Street so in the first two ref referendums we attacked issues at district office and at Pine Street and it was always the plan to come back in a following referendum phase three to attack the Grove Street and that's what we did in this referendum so we renovated all four four floors of Grove Street it was about 18 classrooms in that building that have all been renovated the auditorium has been renovated we did a gut renovation in the kitchen so that has a brand new kitchen in it we're gut renovating the gymnasium right now that has been quite the challenge we took the two gymnasium so there we're turning it into a one gym station
039and um it's coming out well in the courtyard we're actually going to turn into a a more usable area for exterior work outside moving on to the middle school we focus mostly in classrooms in the middle school art rooms we did the two art rooms did the technology room in 20 and then we focused on the two science rooms the past couple years so we renovated nine science classrooms we also in the midst of now finishing the locker rooms both boys and girls the gym also got new ventilation and lighting along with Corridor lockers around the entire perimeter of the middle school so a significant amount of work there at the high school it was mostly focused on mechanical work so at the high school we have what are called heat pumps which are basically
040with Supply air conditioning and heat to each of the classrooms we replaced 164 heat pumps they're all ceiling mounted so all the portions of the ceilings had to come down and almost every room of the high school over the past three years and we accomplished that last phase of that we did about 50 of those per summer and also at the high school did some Auditorium upgrades got new curtains and upgrades to some of the lighting there the Cogen plant which rests out behind the high school was all redone so all the Cogen units that were in there originally for this building when it was built in 1999 those have all been replaced so that Cogen plant is brand new we also did a storage facility out near the track that was built one of
041the first things that we did and also some of the exterior work and site work that we've accomplished are there are two new Fields here one multi-purpose field in a baseball field natural grass over to the South we also did improvements now out in front of the middle school on the Boston F fields that will be done the schedule will be done in November we'll be getting fully irrigation out there that we lay new sod this year along with one new scoreboard and fencing along the Balsa nav side to enclose those fields and we'll actually be adding another scoreboard here in the South End fields on the south end of that field for the multi-purpose field along with extending the parking for the senior lot and reconfiguring the Middle School Entrance so that site work
042has uh has all been done it wasn't without its challenges kovid gave us a few challenges here and there I think our biggest challenge was Labor productivity we had some you know delays on materials which you know led to uh you know the locker rooms being late flat steel was hard to get lockers were and productivity people actually had a lot less people than we had but we overcame a bunch of challenges Malta Ave the gym is also going to be turned over in November so that's a little late but those are the two items everything else was turned over pretty much on schedule so all in all I think we had a good project and uh it's not bad for I don't know 14 years worth of worth of stuff questions yes at the
043middle school I know last spring there was like a water leak under the floor and they didn't know exactly sure where it was do we find out the leak stopped so that was in there's a tunnel actually that runs around the gymnasium there's a tunnel that runs around it was equally leak in the tunnel okay it was a hot water line and we also get water that infiltrates up when we get heavy rain so that tunnel is is wet on occasion but it when it dries out it dries back down we're actually going to put uh we're putting a fan in that tunnel to circulate air in that tunnel to try to keep that area a little drier okay and you mentioned the Middle School Entrance was that the out the front off of Ballston
044Ave off the Boston app yeah so we're going to restructure no that's been restructured yeah okay so there was a pull-off Lane added as you come in off of Boston Ave gotcha yes taking used to be there yep anybody else I think Dr duka just to keep an eye on the timing of the availability of the gym at Malta Avenue and as time goes on if we have any sort of accommodations or things that need to be made if we're having bad weather earlier in the year we just want to make sure that we've got the best opportunity for the physical education classes to take place there so if that's something that you could just keep tabs on and potentially report out to the the board and The Malt Avenue Community as you know events
045warrant that would be appreciated any other questions for Bill thank you much and does that conclude the superintendent's report okay committee reports I'm not aware we have anything to report anything from the district okay correspondence uh Dr duka correspondence to the district sure we received four emails regarding Sunday's threat um one email uh regarding uh bus runs being cut and then one phone call regarding observance of religious holidays thank you and correspondence to the board since the last meeting we received one physical letter regarding our policy 7552 we had one email regarding uh policy 7590 the wellness policy and specifically food in the classrooms and we received three emails that were responses to my response is to public comment and policy 7552 at the last board meeting announcements Mr Williams thank you Yes you heard
046the meet the teachers nights are occurring uh this week began last week they continue with Malt Avenue in Milton Terrace tomorrow night the middle school is next Tuesday and Wood Road on next Wednesday the high school has theirs on Thursday in the middle of the Spirit Week the High School teachers will be here Thursday night at Seven the high school is also kicking in with college information so there's several events related to that there will be a college fair for the students next Wednesday morning during the school day as well as a college application night for the parents on Thursday night before the meet the teacher night so busy week next week here in the district you already heard about the homecoming events occurring we're going to have Curtis Lumber here on October 3rd I'm
047talking to the students about careers in the trades so that's something that's becoming more and more important and they'll be here talking about different career opportunities that they could pursue and the October 1st you heard a little bit about the transportation department and we're going to have a recruitment drive on that day about October 1st from 10 to 2 p.m at the transportation facility where they'll talk about the different job opportunities or careers available there at the transportation facility we're calling it a test drive a bus day so anybody interested in test driving a bus is welcome to come over and see what it's really like to drive one of the buses and you can drive any one of those there's three different size buses so you can check those out and just a reminder
048that next Friday is a staff development day so we have classes for the students in the morning and the staff participating in staff development during the afternoon which is also that that big homecoming block party and football game so that'll be a busy day on Friday and your next meeting is here on October 5th so that's it Stuart I have a question if a community organization is interested in a spirit Booth is it too late could you provide the contact information thank you very much so just for a thing any other announcements not hearing any any old business to discuss old Business from The District all right we're off on new business then I have a motion to approve resolution number 221 memorandum of understanding any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I
049opposed abstentions resolution number 221 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 222 agreement Professional Services so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye aye opposed abstentions resolution number 222 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 223 agreement Professional Services so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 223 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 224 agreement Professional Services so move any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I opposed abstentions resolution number 224 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 225 budget transfers so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I oppose abstentions resolution number 225 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 226 placement of students with disabilities
050so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed extensions resolution number 226 passes of motion to approve resolution number 227 placement of preschool students with disabilities any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 227 passes we're done okay resolutions number 228-249 are recognized as a consent agenda for the purposes of Board of Education action I have a motion to approve resolutions number 228-249. some of second any discussion so I just want to point out a couple of things that are in here one is the appointment of Rich Murphy who again is here in person we're very excited to have someone with your experience um porting US during the course this year we couldn't be more happy that you're with us and we have several other
051appointments and I don't know do we have anyone else here Pam okay and I just also want to mention that in here we have roughly four pages five pages of appointments for tutors so these are our instructional staff members our aides that are offering themselves up to serve as tutors during the course of the school year and I just want to say how wonderful it is that we have so many of our staff members who want to put in the extra time and effort and support of our students and so a big thanks to our our staff members and our associations that help support them in their work any other discussion on the consent agenda not hearing any all those in favor opposed extensions the consent agenda resolutions number 228-249 passes we don't have any
052Walk-Ons we don't have anything else okay we have any of our associations here for comment hello please come up and uh introduce yourself and welcome thank you I'm Yvonne byertiel I'm the president of the pts the high school PTSA welcome principal Murphy we're going to be working a lot together I hope Dr Duke is probably glad to get rid of me just kidding um our events coming up everyone has mentioned the street fair for the first time since I've had a child in high school we're going to be joining the boots at the street fair with a couple of games um please come and visit us and we'll also have our membership information there that is where we get our funds for the PTSA and to put on all of these events so the more
053teachers staff students even that's why we're the PTSA for the S is for students um the more members we get the more events that we can get involved with we had talked about doing something for mental health because of the covid happening but we realize that all of our participation and all of these other events are actually for the mental health of the kids so joining the group on the street fair and giving little trinkets out for silly little games really puts a smile on the kids faces so we're happy to do things like that we have school pictures coming up October 11th to the 13th we do provide the volunteers so messages will be going out about that I hope some people can help out with that um senior signs I have a load
054of senior signs in my car anybody wants to deal with me after the meeting and grab a senior sign feel free but the senior sign note went out today with the administration email so hopefully we'll be getting some orders for those and as the need comes about we will be ordering some more prices have gone up but we left the price at ten dollars because we know that it is one of our community services to actually acknowledge the seniors this year so um there was a question about one of our events at one of the last meetings about the parade we have decided and we talked with Dr duka in a meeting with him and that we will be having it the last day of classes which I think is June 9th I think for
055the seniors and we have our first meeting coming up in-person meeting thank goodness I have not seen an in-person meeting since I've been president October 6th it's a Thursday night at Seven it'll be here in the high school in room 216 so please come join us we have lots of stuff on the agenda the agenda will be going out in the emails and on our Facebook page I think that's about it any questions any questions thank you very much and uh Mr Kirby act do you have any other oh yes just from the other ptas yeah we have meetings underway already uh Malta Ave the middle school and Gordon Creek have already had their uh meetings uh Milton Terrace has their first meeting on October 11th but they are hosting a meet and greet uh
056before the meet and teacher night at 6 PM uh and Wood Road has their first meeting uh next week after meet the teacher at night so thank you any other updates from any of our community groups you have one Holly go ahead nope we got two um just wanted to report that uh bark is going to be meeting with Brian and his team soon to discuss the building um at the bark fields okay thank you the Boston spa Education Foundation is going to have a booth at the street fair and I think whether you are a teacher a parent or a staff member or Community member I think it's important to stop by and see what that amazing organization does it provides grants to teachers in the Boston spa school district and we're just about
057to open the grant cycle so it's been hard during covid to put in the extra work for a grant so any teachers out there I encourage you to apply or reapply if you didn't get a grant in the past and I'm excited to see what we're able to sponsor this year thank you any other updates from any of our community organizations okay we're now at the second period for public comment okay all right same guidance as the last time and Christopher Dubuque you have the privilege of the floor Chris Dubuque again 6 Kaling Drive Boston spa uh been hearing a lot at a couple of the meetings with public comment uh there's been a few things that were discussed there's always I know I've brought up the speech about false dichotomy at one of the
058previous meetings uh again that was a very memorable speech from the previous superintendent and we always try to avoid that as an organization as a community whether it's for the village of Boston spa or again for you know the greater Saratoga County Community town of Mill and Charlton Saratoga Springs you name it I want to tell you two stories though real quick because we all get impacted by policies we all get impacted by how the community behaves or tends to behave no matter who your child is or who you are my uh oldest ended up graduating from the school and my daughter's a senior now my other son just transitioned to ninth grade this year and my youngest is eighth grade hasn't been easy for any of them really they've had their their uh trials
059and tribulations as we all have at one point growing up as well um but one of the recent uh things my one son who's in ninth grade has been experiencing is a little bit of bullying he's been you know the target of a few kids that you know unfortunately just me kids can be mean there's boys coming all shapes and sizes you name it um and some of the messaging I hear at a couple public comments um is that there's this misperception that there's members of our community that are worried about the policy 7552 um unfortunately with that one meeting it wasn't recorded um you know I was there I've heard all the speeches and it was it was an emotional night I I can admit there were some people who were concerned on both
060sides of the equation and people who spoke on both sides of the equation um and you know I could tell with my son getting bullied he has some friends who are trans and and they've never bullied them they were very accepting in fact when he ran into one of them during orientation uh you know it was a big hug and they're the best of friends they always have been but but I can also tell you that same friend unfortunately one time my son did run into a situation where you know he saw the mentor in the bathroom that he was in and and he's a great kid he felt very uncomfortable that he didn't use the bathroom the rest of the day he held it in all day and and didn't use the bathroom until
061he got home again we just do our best to try to educate our kids hey you know maybe use the the other uh bathroom the all gender bathroom it's a single stall single door but these are concerns that affect our kids and I know my oldest he was gay he's been gay his entire life and that was always a struggle it was a struggle going through elementary schools a struggle going through Middle School was good struggle going through high school but I can tell you he was never picked on for his sexuality he was never picked on for his orientation um unfortunately he was bullied in some instances too but that was again just kids being mean and and you know my two boys tend to gravitate towards kids who tend to be mean sometimes
062instead of those kids that do uh you know cherish them as friends as members of their community so you may hear us also saying a lot it's important to put together these parent committees to meet with you on the board because there are parents in this District on both sides of that equation then we just want what's best for our kids we want what's best for our community and I think the resounding message I got out that night and I really wish it was recorded so there was some clarification is our concern wasn't about any trans kid being a danger to a CIS kid that wasn't the concern the concern was sometimes these policies come down and there's a rush to get them out there because you're worried about liability to the school I can
063understand that and I think what we wanted was just to have a little bit of a pause let's get together as a community let's talk about these let's hear the concerns from both sides of parents that have concerns and unfortunately that that hasn't happened yet I am hopeful as well that such a committee will be put together um and and again I I do have to point out the letter that did go out to the community after that one meeting did unfortunately polarize the community a little bit because you know I had people reach out to me and say I'm sorry that letter went out we know you we know you as parents we know you spoke that night and we know you are not thinking any child trans or this is a harm to
064your children I'll be in school please finish up absolutely so again I think that committee would be in everybody's best interest but I also I'm Stern I always will be I think a retraction of that letter needs to happen because unfortunately it definitely has polarized the community and I welcome anybody here in this audience tonight that feels uh differently with anything we may have spoken in the past to stay behind talk to me get to know me don't know me you know for my organization know me as a member of your community thank you [Applause] foreign just a point of clarification policy 7552 was originally approved I believe it was in June of 2021. so there was not a new policy 7552 was not a new policy uh this year there was updated language in
065it which was communicated out just to make it be more in line with the updated language in the New York State Dasa laws and we have no more public comment so the board does have reason to go into executive session the board has reason to adjourn to Executive session where we're not returning to open session I need a motion to adjourn to Executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person all those in favor I opposed we are adjourned to Executive session we will not be returning to open meeting