001here Al good evening here we go good evening I'd like to welcome everyone to the Board of Education meeting we're going to call the meeting to order and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and Justice of all thank you roll call I believe we have two members absent today um Kim and Dennis everyone else is here um approval of the last agenda approve of the agenda do I have a motion to approve the agenda I'll make a motion thank thank you Don do I have a second second thank you Trisha all those in favor I I um next item approval of the minutes of the March 18th
0022024 meeting including the executive session I know we'll review those minutes does anyone have any comments if not I'll take a motion to improve those minutes I'll make a motion thank you Mike do I have a second I'll second thank you Cindy all those in favor I next um we have announcements um I will start start off with the announcements I know Clearance Center Elementary is holding their Western night on August 26th it's coming back from a long time away and I will be there pulling the bowl if anyone wants to come over and pull the bow let me know um it's a great event and I'm really looking forward to um Clarance bringing it back any other announcements hearing none I'll move on to correspondence we got one piece of Correspondence since the last
003meeting it was a thank you to the Board of Education from the CMS grade 6 El team for all those of us who attended the wax museum the living Wax Museum and I know I was there and Don and Trisha were there and it was really a nice event so um unfinished business I don't believe we have any unfinished business Red Devil recognitions Dr FR all right thank you Mr boli um for members of our board and and folks that may be here are listening at home who have um been a part of the Red Devil recognitions before um you'll know a little bit about the background but I'll give just a cliff notes this evening um it has become our our favorite part of meetings this year starting them with Red Devil recognition so
004we had reached out to members of our school community and said there are a whole lot of things that we're proud of when it comes to characteristics and disposition but what matters most to members of the Clarence School community and four different things jumped off the charts the dispositions of hard work respect uh compassion and kindness and so we've asked members of our school Community to nominate people who really have gone above and beyond and we've started Ed our time together with these recognitions for the past four or five months and they have been such strong reminders of how lucky we are um to be part of such a special school Community um so we are excited to be recognizing four different Red Devils tonight for really going above and beyond in the areas of
005hard work respect uh compassion and kindness in terms of um what to expect this evening uh I'm going to remember to take my microphone I'm going to head over to the screen I'm going to invite our board president Mr B Lei to come with me and we're going to read the nomination submissions that people had provided and and I'll just share with you that when our selection committee reads this information I can tell you the number of times that we've got tears dripping down our face they're wonderful to read and think it's really important for us to share this information with you this evening so we're going to call the recipients up we're going to call the uh people who nominated with them up and we'll say u s of the more the merrier if
006you have um students that were involved in a nomination bring them up if they're loved ones that you'd like to come up with you for the recognition uh feel free to do that we are going to grab photographs and we'll have our um our Eerie one uh communication specialist help us out with a press release that we'll share with members of our school community and again just want to impress upon people um H how lucky how fortunate we are um to have these four different individuals as as part of our school community so without further Ado I'm going to grab my microphone uh head over and would first like to invite up uh Mrs Mary Roswell uh and the individual who nominated her Joselyn Frederick so um come on up if you would I now
007she's working on it texted B but he's not looking right okay you're in the hot seat this is Roswell come on in if you'll stand right here she's going to be a picture all right so for those who don't know Mrs Roswell is a member of our Harris Hill faculty Harris Hill Elementary School and I'll read from the nomination form that um that Mrs Frederick's had filled out saying Mrs Roswell has taught both our children at Harris Hill Elementary her warmth kindness compassion and joy is unmatched by anyone and let me just say the bar is set very high at Harris Hill because all of our kids teachers there have been amazing she is dearly loved by students parents and her peers my son commented one day how she's always singing little songs about everything
008they were doing we know that people who are always singing and humming a tune tend to have great joy in their hearts to share she leads with firmness kindness and a servant's heart she remembers details about all of her past students and their family am nicknames allergies family Dynamics all of it Mrs Roswell is the kind of teacher that you want your student teachers to work alongside just so they can glean some of their magic in the classroom when one of our children was in their classroom we were able to go in for a special birthday visit and story this was preo of course um one of our child uh had her during 2021 22 and we were only able to celebrate his half birthday virtually but she made us feel like we were right
009in the room he also experienced some minor minor medical issues that year and Mrs Roswell went above and beyond to make him comfortable with accommodations on the days that I take uh Phoenix to the playground after school he will always wave at her window and try to get her attention and if she's available She'll always wave back and give a quick chat with us at the window I know that Mrs Roswell is invested in all of her students families and we're not special but she truly has a way of making everyone around here feel deeply valued she is a gift to the Clarence Central School District um who had never seek to be acknowledged in this way but truly deserves it so if you would join me in a round of applause to say thank
010you for Mrs Roswell and Mrs Sutton if come up so we are going to have to scooch uh for a for a photograph and what we've started doing if you don't mind is to what is it exit stage right um but to shake hands with our board members so that Mrs Roswell they can say uh thank you and thank you again for a wonderful nomination and for being here tonight so congratulations Mrs Roswell uh second up this evening we have Mrs Rosenberg who was nominated by Mr Doug dermont uh both members of The High School faculty and staff so come on up if you would conratulations so thank you thank you for coming thank you for being here with us tonight so Mrs Rosenberg I have a brief introduction from your colleague and more importantly
011or as importantly a letter from a former student that's really heartwarming so would like to read both this evening uh from your colleague Doug Jen is hardworking and kind-hearted special education teacher here in the high school she has a lasting impact on her students as evidence in this letter Jen shared this letter with me and I know she doesn't like the spotlight on her um but uh she agreed to let me nominate her and we're so glad that Doug did uh this is one of those letters where we've got tears running down our face because we all have those teachers in our life who've impacted who we are as human beings so I'd like to read this letter that was uh that was shared by one of your former students so your former student writes
012Dear Mrs Rosenberg I hope this letter finds you and brings a smile to your face as I reflect on my journey since high school your name is always one of the first that comes to mind your dedication to your students and your passion for teaching left an enduring Mark and my educational experience from the moment I walked into your classroom I sensed not just a teacher student relationship but a genuine connection rooted in care and concern your commitment to fostering a positive and nurturing learning environment made a significant difference in my academic Journey your beliefs in my abilities even when I doubted myself provided the encouragement I needed to overcome challenges I will forever be grateful for the support and compassion you extended to me during the challenging time of losing my father allowing me
013simply to sit in your room and express my emotions while you listen was a gift Beyond measures I'm currently a junior at Buff State University for early childhood and childhood education by Spring of 2025 I'll be student teaching I have a 2-year-old bernadoodle that brings me so much joy I currently work on in a restaurant in Clarence Hollow called this little pig where I run into a lot of familiar faces wishing you success in your teaching journey and may you continue to impact the lives of students profoundly as you have impacted mine when the selection committee uh read it I think for all of of us we have those teachers in our lives that had us go into education and that comment about losing a parent and having you there as a support is a
014rem reminder that um while the core business of schools is teaching and learning teachers are so much more staff members are so much more so thank you for being there in that way for your students thank you for being here tonight and if we can give Mrs Rosenberg a round of applause and offer all right we'll scooch in here thanks thanks for being here tonight good to see you all right and we'll have you exit stage right I think it's stage Right congratulations our third recipient tonight is Mrs Katherine shaunessy a member of our High School faculty and the individual who nominated her Miss Sandra Jonas who also is our sepsa president here in Clarence so if you would join us up on stage she do a little baby like yeah and to see how
015she coordinated all those kids I was like that crazy we love it a family affair Mrs shauny [Laughter] all right so we're going to have you front and center you stand right next to so these are the words from Sandra Jonas again president of sepsa here in Clarence I am delighted to nominate Kathy shaunessy as the adviser for Clarence unified bowling her outstanding contributions and unwavering commitment to our school's special education Community is remarkable Kathy consistently demonstrates patience compassion and consistency in her role her personalized approach has greatly enriched The Learning Experience for our students Kathy possesses an exceptional ability to inspire and motivate fostering an environment where students feel valued or encouraged to achieve their best Beyond Cathy's role as a teacher her impact resonates as a driving force behind uplifting changes in our
016school particularly moving is her heartfelt invol ment with special education students a testament to her leadership unwavering dedication and a collaborative Spirit Kathy's organizational skills are nothing short of exceptional and her wholehearted commitment to willingly shoulder extra tasks for our students brings an emotional depth that significantly fuels the overall Improvement and success of our school initiatives Cathy's passion shines through making her invalu an invaluable contributor to the positive trans transformation we're experiencing what truly sets Kathy apart is the combination of her exceptional leadership skills and profound emotional intelligence it's not just about professional prowess it's about the ability to connect with others on a deeper level Kathy actively Fosters an inclusive atmosphere skillfully encouraging open communication and collaboration among students parents and colleagues their consistent efforts in cultivating a culture of respect empathy and teamwork
017make Kathy shaunessy an Irreplaceable Cornerstone of our school Community thank you for considering this nomination and I'm confident that honoring Kathy will not only acknowledge their efforts but also Inspire others within our special education School Community the fact that you family and your family are here tonight is a reminder that when students come to school each day they are someone's whole world and Kathy when you read these words from Sandra it's a reminder that you treat every single student uh with a personalized sense of care we are so thankful for that thank thank you for all that you do to your students and for fostering a value and environment of inclusivity here in Clarence if you'll join me and helping to congratulate Kathy Sean are you going to say scooch we're going to have to
018scooch we're also going to have to have the little one smile and look at the camera news announc okay thank you all congratulations all right we'll have you um just check in briefly with members of our board and last but certainly not least as Mrs Teresa Fox as nominated by Dana hacker so if you'll uh come up to the stage thank you Forin hey Mrs Fox Dana congratulations congrats congratulations all right for those who who don't know uh Mrs Fox is a member of our Clarence Center uh faculty Clarence Center Elementary School and we'll read um Dana's really thoughtful nomination that she submitted on behalf of of Mrs Fox um and Dana writes my son Bennett is currently a third grade student at Clarence Center Elementary as in as and is in Mrs Fox's class
019during the summer we heard plenty of wonderful attributes about Mrs Fox and how Jolly Ranchers are a frequent gift in her class and multiplication Bingo is a blast honestly none of these stories truly capture how magical it is to be in her class expectations are clear positive reinforcements are delivered daily shame has zero place in her classroom and outdoor recess occurs as frequently as possible my son's favorite positive reinforcement is bringing in a stuffed toy to share its importance to him with the class while he's so excited uh to share a toy with his class I love how he's learning to speak publicly my husband and I have discussed many times how lucky our son is to have Mrs Fox which is a sentiment every parent who experienced the magic Fox agrees on she makes
020learning fun she makes it safe to ask questions and she knows how to manage a classroom with many big personalities she's also readily available after school hours to help with homework questions and responds within the hour of an email being sent her dedication to her students extends well beyond the classroom and as a family we were about to learn how far I truly thought we'd experience the best of Mrs Fox but unfortunate circumstances showed me otherwise in February of 2024 while many families were wrapping up watching the Super Bowl our world is about to fall apart throughout the day we had noted that um cold Bennett's cough was worsening and thought it was a typical cold it was not until he fell asleep that my husband and I realized how Sicky was his breathing while
021sleeping was very rapid and when we measured his oxygen levels they were very low my husband immediately put him into his truck and drove to Oi the next few hours were a literal nightmare as Bennett's oxygen levels continued to drop dangerously low and his lungs were so tight he could not breathe the doctors explained that his Airways needed to be opened up and so he was placed on alternating oxygen and albuterol treatments and admitted to the ICU as one can imagine I didn't sleep and emailed Mrs Fox to let her know why Bennett would not be in attendance that day at school at 6:00 a.m. she responded with great concern and continued to reach out every few hours to check on his progress when I arrived at the hospital I shared with Mrs with Bennett
022that Mrs Fox was reaching out and checking in and he was so surprised and touch it instantly perked him up almost like it woke him from his albuterol trance every text she sent I shared Bennett loved hearing from her and was asking questions about school uh and what his classmates were most likely doing the biggest surprise came that night in two parts number one Bennett graduated from the ICU an emotional relief for any parent and two less than an hour after our move to a regular floor Mrs Fox was downstairs in the lobby with a gift and a card for Bennett including a new stuffed toy both Bennett and I got emotional as my husband ran down to meet her even in the nurses and Mr Bennett's worm were so shocked and stated what a
023special teacher our son was for her to make the trip it turns out that Mr and Mrs decided the best date night was a he just couldn't come up with anything else uh that evening nice try Dan couldn't get a dinner reservation it turns out that Mr and Mrs Fox decided the best date night was a long drive to OA hospital to help lift our son's Spirits not only did this trip lift his spirits but their kindness and thoughtfulness helped my husband and I who are finally coming to grasp our uh with our last 24 hours I've shared this story about Mrs Fox with every parent I run into who has a child in her class because we're all continuously amazed at how far she goes for our children after sharing with one uh after
024sharing one parent asked what did we do to deserve a Mrs Fox to that question I have no answer but I'm so grateful to have her in our life this year as a mother I owe her so much sometimes the best medicine is to be surrounded by those you love and I truly believe her love and concern for my son helped him turn the corner as quickly as he did she will forever be in my heart I hope you consider Mrs Fox for the Red Devil award she truly embodies the heart and soul of kindness and compassion with the Clarence Central that the Clarence Central School so proudly presents um and when Dana was um mentioning to her son about this evening uh he had said Mom Mrs Fox coming to the hospital was really
025special but she does special things like that for us every day that make me feel really good I'm tearing up just reading this tonight so thank you Dana for sharing this with us thank you so much Mrs Fox for all that you bring to our school Community if you can join me in con congratulating Mrs Fox will all that stuff running down our face and thank you again and congratulations this is wonderful and if you'll join me one last time for a round of applause for all of our assist cients this [Applause] evening well that is it for Red Devil re recognitions we always take just a second to stay that recipients and um folks that nominated them are more than welcome to stick around for the entire meeting but we know that the school
026day starts early and we will not be offended if take a moment um to excuse themselves and enjoy the last bits of a sunny evening but thank you so much for being with us tonight um so that's it for Red Devil recognitions this evening Mr boli thank you very much Dr Frank I'll just give everyone a second okay moving on to board report reports I have the finance and audit committee meeting uh yes we met on the finance and audit committee met on March 27th and um our first topic of discussion was um some updates from Albany in comparison of one house budgets um we addressed that we will likely not have an ontime state budget this year um we went over the um chart comparing the budget proposals from the governor the assembly and
027the Senate um at this point Dr kka is uh budgeting with a restoration Foundation Aid formula number as opposed to um an anticipated increase um we also went over the review of current Revenue expenditures on projections uh Dr Grier reviewed a chart comparing budget to budget increases in clearance uh most of our anticipated revenue and expenditure projections are known at this point uh main unknowns continue to be final Aid numbers from the state uh we went over the cares funding as well as positions which have been added as a result of the federal funds um We additionally talked about positions which were added to address mandated student needs the focus continues to be on building all these positions in our general fund budget uh the programmatic implications of the budget decisions uh class sizes section
028numbers um school safety Etc was also discussed uh we reviewed a chart illustrating projected grade level enrollments at the different Elementary buildings uh we went over the Lo Staffing for the high school level and understand that the impact that a uh reduction in the in um 1.0 Latin would have on class sizes and class offerings we discussed the financial implications of adding one to two school resource officers based on the constraints of this budget recommended the Board of Ed considers phasing in the sro's um additions over a two-year period um one this year and one next year uh and we could also reconsider this approach depending on the final Foundation Aid numbers from the state uh we also discussed the tax the tax cap analysis and recommendations we recommended going to the tax cap of
0293.68% in order to retain the key student support positions that were added with federal funds especially at a time when we are not anticipating increase from the state we reviewed a chart outlining the revenue Pro uh projects associated with different tax cap numbers as well uh the spending plan communication priorities uh we focused on uh protecting and sustaining the positions and programs that have been added to support different student needs and we discussed continuing to maintain programs that provide a range of opportunities for kids and that ended our night does anyone have any questions if not we'll move on to the policy committee meeting Trisha the policy committee uh met on April 10th um we discussed eight different policies uh the first policy is the mobile device student damage policy um the district has seen
030an increase in the number of damaged students devices devices in recent years um the Mr reri uh reported that most uh Regional districts around us have some sort of damaged device policy so the committee discussed a draft policy and some guidelines outlining expectations regarding device care and procedures screen care uh reporting issues uh the draft language included an appendix title incident fee cost schedule um which articulates changes that would be levied for damaged devices we talked about the importance of of communicating the contents of this policy um to the the to the students and families next year uh the committee asked that uh Dr frame and Mr reri work with irie1 Bose's policy service or an attorney on the final policy language and review for a review and approval by the Board of Ed the
031second policy is policy 6190 workplace violence prevention policy in 2006 New York State enacted legislation requiring public employees to develop and Implement programs to prevent and minimize workplace violence at this time schools were Exempted from this requirement this has since now changed and public schools need to develop and Implement programs to prevent workplace violence Dr frame and Mr Michelle have begun working with representatives from the CTA CA and CIAA on meeting the requirements of this new law group will the group will ultimately need to develop a policy statement conduct a risk evaluation create a new Pro create a program provide training and which is associated with the workplace violence uh prevention policy the policy committee recommends the board adopt this policy required and it's required by law and regulation policy number 5574 is Medicaid compliance
032program the office of Medicaid Inspector General has added new legal requirements prompting a this policy review Erie W bosis recommends that districts delete this policy policy if they are reasonably expected to receive less than $1 million in Medicaid funds over a 12-month period clearance does not receive that uh $1 million so the policy committee is recommending that the board delete this policy in response to the recommendation from the policy services at ir1 bosis policy 7440 student voter registration and pre-registration recent legislation amendments modify the requirements for districts to provide students with access to voter registration and pre-registration applications the policy committee recommends that the board adopt this revised policy because this is required by law policy 6214 incidental teaching if a district has a need to assign a teacher to teach a subject not covered
033by their cert certificate or license there are are restrictions that apply whenever this is needed the district must seek the approval of the district superintendent revised policy from irie1 bosi reflects the most recent language and moves the approval of incidental teacher teaching assignments from the commissioner to the district superintendent the policy committee recommends that the board adopt this revised policy policy 7530 child abuse and Mal treatment legal changes recently modified the definition of child abuse in an educational setting to include corporal punishment the policy committee recommends that the board adopt this revised policy policy 1640 absentee milit military and early male ballots this policy has been revised in response to the New York Early male voter act the process now allows New York State voters the opportunity to vote early by mail in addition in
034advance of election day closely mirroring the existing absentee voter process the district has already made the appropriate adjustments in preparation for the may vote the policy committee recommends that the board approve this revised policy and lastly the non-res resident student enrollment in clearance Elementary Schools elementary students attend schools within the boundaries of their attendance zones the policy revision is being recommended to clearly articulate the district's long-standing practice exceptions to the nonresident students policy will only be made when a student in their final year of elementary school if they are a sibling of a student placed in another building for program reasons or in the case of extraordinary exceptions approved by the superintendent the policy committee recommends that the board adopt this revised policy are there any questions on the policy meeting thank you Trisha that
035was a lot um I move on to cesa go um all I have to report is that we of course since the last meeting had the uh basketball faculty basketball game I'd like to thank all the participants the CTA um Mr Frank for playing uh Trisha for co-chairing we had made over um $4,500 at the event so and all the the parents who came out and all the students who came out it's always a great event and of course peshy for getting the um older kids involved this year as well thank you um PTO meetings have anyone attend a PTO meeting since the last meeting no I don't believe so so we'll move on Erie County Associated School Board Representatives any updates um a group of us went to taste of tech over at Kel
036spand which was a great um presentation um I know Cindy Trisha myself Dennis and Lewis went we got to um look at some um games that students made uh music that they mixed some really great equipment over there do you guys want to add anything I would just like to say if you are a student or know of anyone that's really has an interest in digital media this is the place to be because it's like state-of-the-art facilities uh it was unbelievable and just wish more people could see it because if you're into music they were you know they working with you know the Google dolls and all different people to like and it's Hands-On learning and most of the teachers were saying that they hire you right out of the program so it's just a
037great opportunity for students and they started this year with a 100 students and they're upping it to like probably 200 next year what they're saying so it's a really great opportunity for anyone interested thank you um that closes board reports superintendent support Dr frame thanks Mr B Lei I would just like to thank um Miss Snider and Mrs Andrew for their work with um CF and our faculty basketball game you'll notice that a lot of our hires this year are 6'5 and higher uh just based on the lopsided loss that the red team suffered so we've got a lot of Swing men and women coming into to work for our organization next year um three different Updates this evening the first is a Leadership Academy update from our high school administrative team and they brought
038some guests with them this evening the second thing is a very brief budget update 99% of what we go over this evening we have talked about previously I did want to just share some uh up-to-date information and have as much dialogue as the board feels we need this evening and then as always we'll end the report section with an update from LS manuso if um people are here with us tonight are watching from home a lot of our time together does deal with uh things like the finance committee and things like different policies that are being revised at the end of the day however our schools are places for students and an important part of our work involves elevating student voice and recognizing that when Clarence students graduate they become leaders not just in higher
039education or the world of work or the Armed Forces but in their families their communities and Clarence has a long and proud history of helping to grow leaders um the presentation this evening is about taking a more organized thoughtful approach to doing this so that as our students are coming through our high school they have defined Pathways to help grow their leadership skills and to elevate student voice and ownership in the high school so Mr Smith and his team are going to give a presentation this evening and the purpose of the presentation is to um provide some thoughts and a concept for the board to react to what we would be looking for is an informal thumbs up to continue planning or do we need to pump the brakes and abandon uh ship or uh
040make some revisions before moving forward so that's what we're looking for in terms of outcome tonight so Mr Smith thank you to you and your team for being with us this evening thank you for having us um and thank you for summarizing why why we're here um as you know we have multiple in our uh high school we have programs like Project Lead the Way the Seal of Civic Readiness the Seal of biliteracy and all of those programs do a great job of preparing our kids for College and Career um but they're specialized in specific areas so one of the things that we're talking about like like the Academy of business and finance Focus there's a little bit of a focus on business and finance Visual and Performing Arts focuses on Visual and Performing Arts
041what we want to do is Implement a Leadership Academy that teaches it that gives all of our students a chance to learn and acquire these skills and develop them no matter what field they're interested in no matter where they're going to go but it helps prepare them so that they can be successful and they can be leaders um wherever they end up going so I don't know if you guys remember we had had the um the opportunity that you guys provided us to work with two outstanding um administrators um that were once Legends but are now Red Devils forever um they wanted to be here this evening um but they both had prior obligations but they made a little video because they wanted to talk a little bit about the leadership academy um and the
042impacts that it had on at Lancaster so hello I'm Terry Ed and it's my pleasure to speak to you today about the positive impact that leadership made at Lancaster High School when I started at Lancaster we did not have an academy uh since its commencement I watched our building transform uh the leadership academy helped so many students find a home or their niche as school over the years I watched student submissions of videos applying to the academy and then I would watch those same students graduating from high school the grow was astounding they were functioning at higher levels on so many different fronts I believe that the leadership experience helped them to build confidence um by teaching them how to set and Achieve goals management skills uh how to prioritize responsibilities and even how to
043delegate other benefits I Ober when watching the leadership academy was the development of soft skills such as communication organization collaboration and management uh students through Project based learning with real life applications were able to work on events that not only bettered our school but it allowed them to practice the skills a daily basis overall students left the high school College and Career writing when following up with these students sometimes years later they would tell me without a doubt that they were heads and tails above their peers in their career and when they went to college and that is because of what they were in leadership uh thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts about leadership uh as you can see the benefits of this and we not only helped our students to thrive
044but it also helped to create a culture within our building that we were very very proud thank you so this is a progressive outline of what we're looking to do as far as course and requirements for students in this Academy um I'm going to go in more depth in a little bit about that but just from first glance when you look at that there are some courses that would be new and that would be under the required coursework when you see Leadership Academy course in there those are new everything else when you look off to the side are actually electives we already have and when we looked at this framework that we're putting together we first met with some Union uh leadership members we met with Department chairs we wanted to get to know what
045are some of the courses that have a lot of leadership components in them already and how are they delving into that how can we support that um we also talked a lot with Terry and with Caesar about Lancaster so we could get some ideas on what they were doing it's our model is not exactly the Lancaster model it's more us but it we did piggy back off a lot of their ideas when we were branching off them um we also met with Nick Rizzo and the guidance Department to look at what does this look like for scheduling and what is that going to look like on a student transcript so we had a lot of background work we had to do before we could put this together the course is in the middle um where
046it says additional requirements down the middle there those are a lot of electives we already have so it's not like we're Reinventing the wheel we've already established some of this just kind of need to pull it together and really develop those skills a little bit more this way and so this is the second half of it you'll notice that there's a skills win program in there I'm not going to delve into this a whole lot um because there's just a summary in here and it would take up a lot of our time but it's another component that we wanted to put in there that would help establish certain skills and eventually we want our students in this Academy to be so strong in them that they can teach them to others so they would be
047a skills coach later on in 11th and 12th grade so in eth grade we would do an introduction into this this would be mostly open house that we'd be talking about it and meeting with the middle school counselors in n9th grade we'd want them to start taking the health class early usually you take Health in 10th Grade we'd like them to bump it to 9th grade so that's why eighth graders need to know what's going on um and in that we would start the skills win skills um that would be everybody would receive that because everybody receives help so every student would get a dose of that and then at the end of that year we want them to put in a letter of Declaration and begin to set up an electronic portfolio for it
048in 10th Grade they're starting the coursework so this is where they're going to select a couple of these electives and this is where they're developing those communication skills and this really is where they're starting to get their feet wet this is where we want them to go ahead and get the beginning foundation and this is more teacher-led you'll notice on some of the like the first chart it said I do we do you do that's something like when I'm doing an observation with teachers I'm looking at how are they structuring their lesson the I do is the teacher directed The we do is a group Collective and then the you do is you do it on your own this is the I do this is the teacher is helping you through this okay in 11th
049grade now we're putting in more of the fundamentals of leadership that's that course that you're seeing in the leadership academy course and additional electives this though we want them to take these skills they learned in 10th Grade and apply them to an area of passion so this is why it's more diverse in this electives that you're looking at so they should be taking on more of a leadership role in this that's the weo though they're helping to support big projects they're helpers and they're sort of building those skills and getting the confidence level and we want them to start to be a peer mentor or a skills coach at this point too and then in 12th grade this is where the leadership and action course takes place this is where we want them to take
050over this is the youo they are going to be leading the schoolwide events but we want them to also have that support from adults to help guide them through the process so there will be a coordinator that'll help to give them some feedback help direct them like you need to talk to buildings and grounds about getting all the tables you need for this event these are things that not used to doing they need some guidance so they'll apply it to their area of interest and again they'll be a peer mentor or skills coach so there's a a million events that take place um at the high school level um and on this slide we have listed a couple of um kind of uh subject areas that different events take place that students could um be
051in a leadership ship role um to help Implement these activities so one clearance Wednesday for example or dances proms homecoming um holiday events things of that nature um the students would um Take the Lead here's where um Caesar would like to talk about the impact of leadership and action um as his role of the principal at Lancaster High School good evening I the early was assistant principal of recently and former principal of high school it is my extreme honor to have been asked to speak to you about leadership programs that we had High School uh as an inum uh what we find is when we're moving around these districts we are able to share a lot of experiences it helps in the districts to learn about what some of the other colleagues are doing uh
052it was Ken Smith and jul Matthew's supreme goal to enhance the Aly powerful leadership program CL and I was very proud that they they asked us for some advice when it comes from high school as Terry ad referred to uh our Leadership Academy um culminates with a leadership Antion class for seniors and that class provides our students the opportunity to uh help with projects in the high school that got so successful uh that many of the other leadership groups whether the tional byor class they wanted to be part of it so even if they weren't part of the leip academy they joined class and we're able to uh take part in projects to help with the organization of M of man high school we we had other groups like uh St CL superintendent advisory Council
053but we also develop one the high school called Swiss students working to improve the school set it develop a culture of student leadership student student empowerment and what what the learning experiences were were um sometimes M uh students going through some of the trials and tribulations that you go through when you're trying to find events and learning how to deal with adults uh What uh Terry did refer to kids froming back and speaking adults in their 20s coming back and that they felt like they were found way above uh some other peers when they came out of col because experiences they have with uh the leadership con action class and many of them are the leaders dep one of my favorite examples of this is we we would have a beautification committee and in that
054utation comme we had students in the leadership and AC class who were um students of of the of the Arts uh really talentful students and we were trying to get our walls to be a little bit more uh student control and so what they would do is they would uh devise an idea and they would sketch out a plan um almost like a model bring it to me and to the other administ for approval uh we would present it to us to show show us where it was going to be and uh try to do as much the scale as they could uh they would seek advice from our teachers on what kind of materials to use the best last our wall based on those kind of things they would coordinate with custodians for staff
055any of those um logistical issues and then eventually they would pain the walls um if you walk through L high school now you see uh many of our roles are uh student created uh and and reflect things such as uh uh the science wing and uh we have a freshman Hall where you talk about ideas so that's just one example of how the leadership program with the leadership academy led to a culture of student leadership and one thing I noticed in my inter Clarance is you have a very very powerful student leadership group now this Academy will help me enhance that group uh I saw the potential for powerful leadership program to be enhanced uh this this was just Happ recently I came that for the mar professional development they watched your students present to
056your faculty and Eng they were just uh incredible and I know that with a Leadership Academy it just uh could enhance that and I know Mr Smith and Mr will leave that next so there is my hope that Clarence uh will finalize this Leadership Academy and and move to um even more student leadership and allowing those kids to be and flourish at your thank you so much for opportunity so as Mr maroli stated uh we had a couple of pilot projects this year that were brand new to Clarence High School and uh we had student leaders uh facilitate um plan coordinate do everything to carry these things out and put them into action um and they are willing also to be here this evening so um this is a picture of the women in stem
057Group after the presentation and some pictures during it and at this time I'd invite our uh leaders to come to the podium to share their experiences hello my name is Isabella buck and I'm a senior my name is Anna Singh and I'm also a senior and my name is Caroline Johnson and I'm also a senior um our purpose for the women in stem seminar that we held was to support the stem fields for women or female students by providing direct examples of clearance grads um and have the ability to talk in a experience like how they reached the point that they were um we spread the word about the event through going to each classroom of science classes and talking to everyone about attending the event and also um publish stuff on social media to
058spread the word um we also distributed shirts so that we could all match and the student leaders we all contacted uh each panel member so they felt comfortable and prepared to talk in front of everyone so the day of the event we dealt with last minute issues like getting chairs to the lecture hall for the speakers each of the student leaders handled a different part of the seminar like introducing things like videos or speakers or taking questions in a question and answer session and we as student leaders had the privilege of having lunch with the seminar speakers where we got to get them know get to know them a little better and ask our own questions my fellow co-organizers and I um I can say we all took away from this experience a lot of
059like collaboration skills and how to delegate responsibilities we each had to pick up different roles and figure out who was going to take each role but by communicating with each other we we were able to put on a very successful event um we also had to learn to trust in in each other that each of us could handle a separate part of it and it would still get done and lastly we had to learn time management skills we only had a certain amount of time for the seminar and we had to get each part of the seminar done in a certain amount of time and so we just had to keep an eye on the clock make sure we wrapped up each section in time it was it was a great event a lot of
060fun thank you they did a fantastic job with this event and it's something that um honestly I Look to continue as we move forward and uh pass the Baton to the next group of students to to organize it for next year um our next group um was uh Caesar referenced in his video uh that he came back on staff development we had a student panel uh that uh basically Shar their story about uh diversity equity and inclusion with our faculty and staff uh gentlemen want you come on up and share your takeaways my name is Ethan pelski I am a senior my name's n hundle I'm also a senior and my name is s foring and I a junior I'd first like to thank Mr Smith and Mrs M for even providing this experience for
061us obviously a lot of it was student L but having the chance to sit down and talk to our teachers and administrators about some of the issues that we have as students is incredibly helpful for us and for faculty and so I would like to thank them very much for having that experience for us um our purpose for these panels was again kind of to provide this window into students lives some of their issues and really just create a dialogue between students and teachers and not only help them understand more about how each uh group feels about certain topics or certain excuse me certain issues but also to work to find Solutions in a rapidly changing society and educational environment to kind of like limit the negative effects of some of the topics that we
062had um I know that many of you that are sitting in front of me were uh in part of those some some of those panels and had some of your own questions um so thank you for coming to those oh yeah so our group was about 20 to 25 kids and we were split into four different panels each with their own each student interest uh how it was set up was that Mr Smith posted a Google form on schoolo and we were able to pick our own interest and what we wanted to participate in and the four panels were lgbtq andu how to make our school safe cultural competency and working with students from other countries understanding holidays and traditions from other Rel oh sorry religions and cultures and shifting mindsets to embrace disability inclusive
063education and each of these groups had a group leader and the others who were interested in that topic come together and they made almost like a guided not sheet with their own generated question which they would go through and scenarios that we would cover of if any you know uh teacher or someone there has a certain question about this we have an answer for it and it was really nice getting to work together and get all these different perspectives combined from so many different backgrounds and so many different viewpoints and it was truly a great experience being there so day the day of event we would recommend to be there 15 minutes early it was amazing we got donuts so that was great then talking about the event itself the timelines was amazing we came
064with questions that wanted to talk about itself so we had a we had an interest in this event itself teachers had like around 15 to 20 minutes talk to ask feedback so that was great for us so we came together and before this event was highly organized and structured we had many meetings before this and it was also student like like Ethan mentioned that we had to come up with ideas we had to come up we had to also cooperate Teamwork because some students schedules were busy so we had to communicate with each other and overall it went amazing I met a lot of old teachers that's really nice [Music] thank you so these are two examples where we didn't have the students go through our leadership classes before and you can see the amazing
065work that they've already done just imagine what will happen when when we build the foundation and teach them the skills um to move forward um a couple things that I wanted to share um we're looking to implement this Leadership Academy gradually starting in the uh 25 26 school year so not next school year the year after um so we would be looking at this year's eighth graders being the first sophomore class to start taking Leadership Academy courses in that year um question that I'm sure um everyone is thinking about is like how are we going to implement this how many teachers do we need to add to the mix we don't need to add teachers to the mix as you saw in the structure um that the bulk of the elective classes all of those
066are already offered our our kids are taking those classes and they offer those uh skills win um skills that we're asking them to develop we're integrating those more intentionally into those programs we're adding three classes to the mix uh for the for the Academy courses in leadership and based on the numbers looking at um our elective classes I can squeeze those a little a little bit where the class sizes won't be out of control but it would free up a teacher for those three periods to be able to teach those courses um and we've talked about it with our department so we have some ideas with um one of the classes maybe being in English or social studies and at different areas so from a staffing perspective I think uh the Staffing that we currently
067have right now will accommodate the needs um at least initially out of the gate um now depending on how successful the academy is and how much it grows that could change things down the road um but I unfortunately can't see that far into the future um but I can tell you that initially we should be okay with that um any questions was there any survey done with students to see the interest they would have in a Leadership Academy because I when I look at some of the items I feel like there's so much crossover in especially in reference to the major project project a lot of these things are done by the different clubs already so how does that affect the existing clubs like the holiday food drive I know student council did a holiday
068food drive and introduced The Turkey Trot or homecoming or powder PFF those are already established programs with advisers and clubs and and people doing that so how is how would that be affected because go ahead so we wouldn't remove those from those groups instead um what tends to happen in these activities is that they're more adult Le where um the adults are setting up like uh the building permits and they're talking to buildings and grounds and they might already have an established routine that they put in place but kids aren't experiencing that part of the process so what we want them to do is take more of that role on and that's where we would have them still stay in that club and organization leading it but that would be their project and they would
069oversee more of it so that it would be less of an adult facilitated event and more of a student that event so then would we have more events because we would have students doing more of the work Poss I I guess one of my my concerns was like this year with the student council sleep out we had to lend it ear end it early because there really wasn't enough participation M so do you feel like there'll be enough and and maybe you guys can talk to that would there be enough students that would want to participate I would also say that starting it thinking about an injury and getting this moving at the end of nth grade giving kids the opportunity to think and act on these ideas earlier which open up the room sign
070stud they to I also like how that course schedule I was know it isn't specified to one similar you know pathway like all other with had a lot more and how the EV to as oppos to the events that are so for the stem event did you go to somebody and say we want to do this event or was it through how did it how did it facilitate so who did she go to do you know who she went to to to facilitate it got it thank you so I think something that's important to recognize is that um again Lancaster not not that we're stealing Lancaster's program um the events that the students are coordinating and and putting in place there are the same things that we're doing here open houses um homecoming celebrations prom
071and and that type of thing the difference is we're saying here's the keys you take the wheel you drive the car and take us to where we need to go you know with the break next to us correct correct so we're we're saying that the adults are going to be a part of this to kind of be more of a coach maybe a mentor to help them see that there's a lot of moving Parts behind planning and coordinating these different events um because a lot of times they're not they're not into it um the way that everyone else is and we want to help them understand that I I think it's great I I want to elevate student voice I know and I I applaud Lewis for all the great things that brought to the
072school this year the Turkey Trot um food drive was wonderful that we never had before and just some of the school spirit stuff and I know he's worked really hard to you know move that ball forward and take some of those ownership things other feedback from the board um sounds like a program worth pursuing we have questions concerns I I think it's a great program it looks like it's well thought out and I like the idea of like sometime I mean you can run for Student Council and be in charge of all these but there's those kids out there that are they don't want to like give a speech and get elected and this gives an opportunity to all students on level playing Ground like if you want to sign up for this and this
073is what you're interested in you don't have to be the most popular to get elected to student council and you could still have the same opportunities as the rest of the school ABS you want that thank you for saying that because that that was actually something as I that we didn't have in a slide that I did want to say so thank you for saying that that is indeed the the case the other piece is um you don't have there's no approval process to be accepted into this Academy it's if you want to be in it you do these things and get them done and you get the certificate and recognition because our belief is you don't need to be top of the class to be a leader okay um you you need to demonstrate
074these skills you need to have these skills to implement and put into action you need to be willing to do the work behind it and if kids are willing to do that every single one of our students should be a leader and we should help them develop these skills and and saying that I really like when you look at uh grade 11 and you look at the elective courses I think the expansion there you could have kids who want to take something or they take a class in those electives and you could be opening a door that they might not have had opened to them had they not been part of the program so I really like I like the the Veri choice of classes like you have mentioned in the other acmy it's very
075kind of clear cut you're staying within that band so to say and here you have more opportunities to to expand your your horizon Ken do you think at some point you'll need a coordinator because I know that the business and finance Academy needs a coordinator of the Visual and Performing Arts Project Lead the Way all of those Pathways had and even seal by literacy I know we appointed Mr Brooks at some point in that first year do you do you anticipate needing that to hold this together I think I think we will uh need that um but on that slide um about staffing needs I do have it built in there I was anticipating um a point4 um so about half the work day of a teacher that is interested in this position uh would
076help coordinate these events and implement the programs that that the classes that we're looking at and again like that's not additional Staffing this is I can do this through some of the elective classes um by just squeezing those class sizes up a little bit because right now the high school has a little bit of a divot with respect to enrollment and I think we'll be able to implement that we already have teachers that are interested in teaching all of these courses and have reached out to us um in fact we have some newly hired teachers in this past year who are graduates of this Leadership Academy in Lancaster and are just rock stars right now and and you could see like we did not realize they were part of this Academy when we interviewed them
077but they clearly stood out Above the Rest um and they're eager to be part of this process as well because they had such a great experience there so it really is there's an eagerness within our faculty to do that you also given yourself quite a bit of Runway so saying next year could be a planning year so that you can implement the year after that um so my guess is when you're promoting the program and you're uh assessing interest if you get a little bit of Interest an overwhelming sense of interest that can help to guide next steps in terms of Staffing and capacity and those sorts of things so any final questions comments feedback for the team this evening is the this just one last thing the skills win program is that the Syracuse
078the one that was designed for Syracuse University or yes okay Y and Rick Brooks is piloting currently some of his kids um to see how that's received so that we can make adjustments and then uh our uh Health teachers already said that it's something they easily include into their curriculum so that we get that for every student no matter what um and then we're hoping that with that peer tutoring piece kids who are struggling and need additional supports could get that support from a peer we think that'll be far more powerful thank you so much thank you thank you Mr Smith Mrs mampy student leaders we'll give you a round of applause that was fantastic and the events that you organized this year were really really impressive so thank you for those and thank you
079for being here tonight maybe the most impressive thing is that you got two um former Lancaster administrators in front of a Clarence banner and uh we're in Clarence swag so well done that's not easy to do former Legends now Red Devils you know maybe one more thing um on your way out if you'd be willing to just grab a photo of you and the students would be much appreciated surek you all right and I'm going to head down for a a budget update let's all right um as you know we've had a series of uh three different budget PL budget planning sessions so far this year I'm hitting uhoh if you want I can sit down there and click yeah um as you know we've had a series of three different budget Updates this past
080winter and spring so this evening slide deck there's not much that's new with regard to content so I'm going to go fairly quickly through things this evening and can spend as much time on questions and conversation as as the board likes but because we have seen the information before I won't spend a tremendous amount of time talking about it in terms of our agenda we'll do a very quick check-in with regard to timeline we'll go over updated revenue and expenditure projections we'll identify next steps and we'll reinforce vote day uh information so as we've gone through our three different presentations um this past year um for each one we've taken a look at where we are in our budget planning process you can see that we're coming up right toward the end um that this
081evening there's a recommended budget adoption which allows us to move forward with communication and planning for vote day in May um so we're we're getting close to the end with regard to revenue uh projections the main figure that we have been missing uh so far final Foundation Aid numbers from New York state if you were checking the news today you would have seen announcements that Governor hok's office has come out with a press release and comments saying that they have come to a a budget agreement at the New York state level if you read the fine print they they have agreed it looks like on a budget framework for New York state but they haven't finalized the details they haven't signed the legislation and they haven't published it yet so with regard to specific state
082aid runs for schools we don't have that information at this point uh they believe it'll be a few days although it's good news that although a couple weeks late they they appear to have a a a budget framework agreed upon what we do think is coming out of the budget framework are a couple different things one is as you know in the governor's initial budget proposal she had talked about ending the save harmless uh components where if a district received a certain amount in Foundation Aid one year they wouldn't expect to receive less the next year so what we are hearing from Albany is that that save harmless would uh be absent in this uh budget agreement in Albany so that is good news for Clarence the not so good news is that the state
083does see us as fully funded so although we may not see a reduction in Foundation Aid we don't anticipate seeing uh much more than that a couple other components again things that we're hearing out of Albany is that although the save harmless may not be a part of this budget agreement the inflation number wouldn't be as low as what the governor had recommended or as high as the assembly and Senate had recommended but some where in the middle and we've seen different projections on where that percentage might be um so I think they would uh agree to Something in the middle again we don't think it would have a significant impact on us just based on how the state views us with regard to Foundation Aid the governor also has talked about um engaging a
084group to look into the foundation Aid formula in terms of how it runs and making some recommendations for how it runs in the future so it wouldn't impact this year's budget but would have a potential impact on future years so those are things that we're hearing out of Albany so there's some good news it's not overwhelmingly positive news for the school district and we'll wait to see where the um final budget agreement lands and where the state aid uh numbers come in for clearance the other numbers that you see up on the chart in front of you this evening should reflect data that was shown in earlier uh budget presentations um we had talked about um during the previous presentations that getting the final Foundation final a numbers from the state's really important that's the
085support that we get at the state level we do know that the majority of our support for public education here in clearance comes from a locally from a local property tax levy and so the fact that we're budgeting a flat Foundation Aid increase right now we're not expecting to see much of an increase really uh for us Focus us uh us on on looking at that local share so Lewis if you'd Advance the um slide deck um as we all know there's a property tax calculation that schools in New York state use and identifies a potential Levy if you identif or if you um hit hit Advance again um you can see where the tax rate uh has been in clarit in previous years we give an historical view of that our proposed um tax
086levy increase this year is 3.68% that is coming in at the tax cap for clearance again it's based on a calculation of different factors um so recommended OS tax levy increase of 3.68% one of the good things here in Clarence is that the community is experiencing both residential and Commercial growth that many communities are not and so what that does uh conceptually is that it takes that tax levy and it allows it to be distributed over a greater number of homeowners and a greater number of businesses uh we also know that here in Clarence there has been a recent reassessment which would have an impact on the the estimated tax rate so we did share an estimated tax tax rate again this number isn't something that's finalized until the summer months I would just make
087a note and Lewis if you let's uh go uh back uh two slides I believe yep one more slide would be great um you can see where the estimated tax rate and the actual tax rate have been in recent years with the re reassessment in this proposed tax levy you can see an estimated rate of 1035 per $1,000 of assessed value um I would just make a couple quick notes one is that when you look at Erie County tax rates you'll be hard pressed to find anything lower than what we have here in Clarence and when you look at the size of our district and you compare it to like organizations around the state you'd be hard pressed to find a district that is more efficient in terms of its resources and in terms of
088its budget you'll regularly see uh budgets for districts of the same size that are 10 20 $30 million more in Upstate New York so Clarence has a proud history of having conservative spending plans and being efficient and that would continue with this proposed spending plan for next year so Lewis will focus on uh expenses this shouldn't be new information we have touched on this in previous presentations and done a deeper dive uh over the last couple sessions so you can see the different components of a proposed spending plan and Lewis if you hit um uh yep uh Advance the slide one more time you'll see it broken up into what's called a triart budget which is a requirement for how schools report out on things and which would direct our communication uh with with community
089members moving forward um so what we would recommend is that the board approve a spending plan tonight that would go out to taxpayers would go out to Residents in May it would go out as well with a u uh proposition number two which would cover bus and vehicle purchases we had gone over this when we looked at our transportation department in more detail and wanted to just note the the 72 passenger buses whether we're using our drivers or contracted drivers they uh or contract drivers they both would use our vehicles and also recommending that we purchase some smaller Vans where you wouldn't have to have a CDL to use those for some smaller athletic teams extracurricular runs or if they're individual students that go to specific placements so proposition one would be the budget proposition
090two would be the uh bus vehicle purchase and then Lewis if you would would Advance the slide next steps for us would be to do a couple things one would be to continue to monitor class size and enrollment numbers right now we're finishing up um kindergarten enrollment in our different elementary schools so we'll make sure that we know where those numbers land we know that in July and August we'll see families move in and out of the district so we'll keep an eye on average class size at the elementary level we have a pretty good idea of where class sizes are at the middle school and high school so don't anticipate different changes there one item of discussion that we have talked about previously is looking at our SRO program and looking at uh potentially
091increasing the level of service um based on the finance committee's recommendation and working with Dr grupka we we would recommend at this point is um to go into next year's spending plan uh planning on adding one SRO uh next year to add a second SRO um things certainly could change as we get final numbers back from the state but that would be the goal at the last meeting there was a request to put together some more detail in terms of roles responsibilities with regard to our SRO program and I've started conversations with our administrative team with our sro's uh officer balow is here this evening I would like to thank him for connecting me and us with some experts in in um other districts that we have a scheduled meeting and conversation with to pick
092their brains on what high functioning SRO programs look like um so that we can continue to grow ours so when we think about our budget again we'll keep an eye on enrollment needs and and changes over the summer the recomend uh recommended SRO Staffing numbers would be to bring on one additional person for next year hoping to add a second one for the year after that we would finalize communication materials and get ready for vote day and then Lewis I think there's one more slide that has vote day information later on in May so I know that a lot of that um was repetitive but wanted to hit on a couple high points and some things that are new so uh I'll pause to see if there are questions comments or concerns from members of
093our governance team very good recap um I think very self-explanatory um just one item which I don't think we touched on at least in this meeting as we're wrapping up a budget um recommendation for approval just want to confirm uh what I believe has kind of been the standing practice with the bus proposition um we are a pretty good Canon where we're rolling these out every year so it is really tax capap neutral uh because the old the old purchases are rolling off this would replace it so no impact on the tax rate correct correct and it is part of our vehicle replacement schedule what we don't want to do obviously is get behind where we're not purchasing buses for a couple years and then we have a huge purchase that does have an impact
094on uh ta tax uh tax rate amount that's being levied and we have to fund it differently um and then a question on the communication materials do we have any anticipated timing when uh community members might expect to see things if we approve adopt a budget tonight it actually is um there is a I believe it's a legal timeline in terms of when we have to hold a public hearing and we would share public information um so if uh if and when the spending plan is adopted tonight uh we'll continue working on our publication materials they really don't go out until we get in May uh into may there's the public hearing the newsletter goes out there's the uh the tax report card that is required by law the newsletter is not it's a way
095for us to communicate our values and and what people are seeing with this budget proposition we do make it available a little bit earlier electronically if people want to access it on our website or access it on social media but it is it is governed Essence by the the timeline that New York state has so it'll be a couple weeks yet before people would see that and U just a quick note that the vote this year is a little bit later than it has been in previous years I think it's a week later in May well I guess my last comment I overall I support the recommendation of the district uh Administration relative to going to the cap I just reemphasizing some points that Cindy made from the fin committee meeting notes we talked about
096um you talked about in your presentation uh with the uh federal funds rolling off yeah I think it's really important uh to maintain those three critical positions we were able to add and we committed to add uh at the time of hiring and this this uh this budget allows us to do so we do still have some a small amount of federal funds rolling over in this school year as well uh correct some federal funds we hope to have some uh State Grant funds that will Pro provide some needed resources um Mike I think you hit on a really important point is that when we talk about a spending plan it's a spending plan that preserves the programs and services that we know our students need here in Clarence and uh since the pandemic the
097additions that were made were in things like uh mental health supports that were uh intervention positions not just in reading but also in mathematics um so these these type of student support programs thinking about student safety those are all components of a a safe and dynamic education today that we think are are important to Preserve in the long [Music] term any any other questions or comments okay um that the mailing has to be out six days prior to the vote six days prior to the vote so we would go through our public hearing we would get the the mailer out and then we would have the vote in May so thanks Don uh and I think it pulled up a detailed um timeline from nisba if people are Googling at home and want to look
098in more detail at do we have a working clicker Lewis or do you want me to pop down to the to the computer so mat do we normally like take action on the property report card without having a confirmed state budget uh good good question so um Miss Snider just asked if we usually take action on the property tax report card without having a state budget um in New York state over the last couple years the budget has either been on time are only a little bit late and so that's allowed school districts to receive final Aid numbers from New York State before most of them adopted their official spending plans there are some requirements from New York State on when schools have to adopt their proposed spending Plans by um so the fact that
099we're a couple year a couple weeks late this year um is atypical in what we've experienced in the recent past but most of us when we think about school budget votes um that go back year years and years would have budgets um State budgets that came in not just weeks but months late so that was really difficult for schools we're pretty confident based on everything we've heard that we're going to see essentially a flat rate so I think that's why we're comfortable with a recommended spending plan tonight without having final numbers we don't think that it'll fluctuate too much correct um so if if there were any surprises from the state we would have to reconfigure the budget and we would have to have another meeting I feel very confident that we will have plat
100numbers maybe a slight increase um certainly not what other districts might see because we are fully funded so I'm I'm comfortable with the budget we're putting forth today I guess my only other question is and because I'm not part of the finance committee how did you guys land on two sro's versus or one versus two I'm sorry yeah uh two points to emphasize one is that the positions that were added using federal funds that have since gone away or almost gone away makes it a tight budget tighter than we certainly have run in recent years uh we also are using a strategic use of fund balance to help support those positions and add them into the budget over a period of time so at a general level it's a tighter budget than we're used to
101having over the last couple years and are comfortable with it and recommend it because we know the positions are really important for kids the second one is that we don't have that final state aid number so uh we talked as a bit as a finance committee about when that final state aid number comes in if it came in a two three two three $400,000 higher than anticipated it may open up a different conversation what we're um hearing and understanding right now is it's going to be pretty close to Flat um so that that was a conversation the finance committee had uh but again until we have those final budget runs we won't know for sure what we're talking about for next year thank you okay um Lewis do you need me to come down to
102use the computer you're all set okay Lewis you know what I'll come down so you can use the mic thank you so uh good afternoon everybody uh Dr frame when you get to the laptop you can just click next um the sad club students against destructive de decisions uh held their spring spirit week uh just before uh we let out for spring recess which included on Monday a jelly bean counting contest uh if you guess the number of jelly beans you had to keep them and a $10 gift card uh on Tuesday it was grim day uh if you want to advance thank you um teachers had the opportunity to to submit names of students that they chose to be killed um they had students dress up as a grim in in a costume uh
103and they went into the uh classroom to kill the student uh the student was removed brought into the hallway where they had a name tag of how they died uh and some other uh uh some examples of how a student could die due to a destructive destructive Choice and then the teacher uh read about different different statistics uh that uh went that that went on about the uh particular dis excuse me the particular decision uh the student was then brought back into the classroom after a short minute uh and told to stay silent for the rest of of the class to uh to to symbolize what it might be like uh losing a student so uh that was what they chose to do on Tuesday on Wednesday my favorite event of the school year bring
104your own banana uh which is where students can bring their own banana and they get an ice cream sunday during lunch for 50 cents really long line uh it's just it's a ton of fun every school year I think they should do it once a month uh but they won't do that and then Thursday was takedown tobacco day uh students and staff were encouraged to sign a petition uh petitioning New York State lawmakers to uh to uh increased bans on targeted uh flavored nicotine products uh and then they also offered students different anxiety anxiety relief toys uh as kind of an incentive to sign it um right before this I was in the odd uh rehearsing for AA which will take the stage on April 25th uh the students and directors are doing a fantastic
105job uh where we are uh we are cutting it close and uh it's almost time to go uh the uh odd Renovations although beautiful was not ideal so they're uh really really doing the best of not a great situation but we should be all set uh and uh you'd be hardpressed to find a harder working group of kids than uh the actors the pit uh and the the tech crew and anyone else I might be missing uh on April 9th 19th and 20th I'm not sure what was on April 4th and 5th but on the 19th and 20th uh Harris Hill has their 101 Dalmations uh M musical before that they they'll have an ice cream social uh and an art show which I'm really excited for and then on Friday uh I know some
106of you went the high school the high school Jazz Ensemble the high school vocal Jazz and the eighth grade uh jazz band had their jazz festival at Chas 710 really really uh cool concert to go to uh and then Additionally the high school symphonic band on Friday played their annual uh concert at Clarence Center uh what made this performance extra special was a few uh fifth graders accompanied us to perform our last song the purpose of this concert is to engage kids uh either third graders in signing up for a instrument uh or fourth and fifth graders with continuing it uh in the future uh a group of 14 students traveled to um to Washington DC uh where they participated in a model un conference at George Washington University from March 21st to 24th uh
107the 14 students toured DC with activities like meeting with Congressman Nick Nick Nick Langworthy uh who is the Erie County rep on Capitol Hill they toured the Washington Monument in various museums um additionally if anyone's ever done model I don't really understand this but uh they had committee day where they split off into different teams and the students in the Committees uh talked about different issues like uh there was a Environmental Protection committee a prison reform committee and a mafia committee uh additionally uh students in Miss lr's bi biology class uh are getting to see live ducks and chickens uh go through their uh life cycle live uh and what is super neat is for students who don't have her they are able to come in and see and see see them so I make
108several trips down there uh right before school after school and it is a ton of fun so if you find yourself at the high school make sure that you make your way down uh to see the ducks or the chickens uh the students at Clearance Center fifth graders uh delivered clothing and household items as they visited St St St Luke's mission of Mercy in Buffalo the students met students uh at their r at their R Lady of Hope school and even helped prepare meals students at Sheran Hill Elementary School will participate in a crazy hat day on Friday to benefit the Heavenly hat Foundation uh sters in the students excuse me in the F oh looks like it works look at that awesome sorry uh students in the FBLA club uh competed in States last
109week senior Bridget Kaufman won first place in job interviewing and Junior Alyssa Carlson won third place in a sales pitch where she pitched a cleaning product uh other students who participated were uh Roshan uh Jane uh Sienna Lou and Austin parlat who are all semi-finalists I won't go through them all um but we have several students who committed to different schools uh so really exciting for them uh and with that if you have any questions uh I'll turn over to you and thank you for being a temporary clicker I appreciate it thank you Lo thank you thank you Dr frame thanks Mr Ro Le there's a lot of students that are committing to colleges any news on where you're headed next year not yet not yet I am Maryland and Syracuse uh so you have
110any good or bad experiences with both feel free to let me know but we keep us posted I definitely will all right moving on to public comment S I don't believe we have any um public comments any speakers correct All Right Moving On eie One Bose's budget and trustees um we have two items on the agenda approve the Bose's 2024 2025 administrative budget of 4 milon $8,100 and vote for two board vacancies from two board candidates anyone like to make a motion I'll make a motion both thank you Don um do I have a second second thank you all those in favor I moving on to finance Dr grupka so in addition to approving the financial reports I want to point out that the approval of the budget and property tax C for court card
111also um provides acceptance of the proposed budget of 97 million 1883 922 um I want to thank our donations for this this month so um I wanted to thank ner for the donation of $768 for some T-shirts that they had custom printed for our leadership Club our Clarance Center PTO is donating up to uh $1,200 for eight picnic benches and buck construction provided a donation of $920 uh to for materials to build activity centers for our classrooms the only other um new item that you might see on here is we are engaging in an IA which is an instructional purchase agreement with bosies for the purchase of of laptop computers these are our one-on-one devices that we use for students um purchasing them over time allows us to phase these into the budget so that
112we have a long-term plan every year we will engage in a new one and then every five years one will drop off a new one will come on so it's a nice way of purchasing these over time without seeing a big jump in our budgetary numbers and it continues it allows us to continue to buy new ones every five years thank you Dr G any questions or comments on F1 through F14 hearing none do I have a motion to approve F1 F14 mik motion thank you Cindy do I have a second I'll second thank you Mike all those in favor I I motion passes Personnel Mr Michelle thank you Mr billly uh we have one Amendment for the type of certification in a previous appointment there were six resignations three are extracurricular and three were
113instructional appointments for this month we have just the P Proctors and a mentor for a new position in clearance center uh P4 is the presentation compensation P5 is indicating the administrators for the summer school programs and P6 being the changes to the substitute list additionally we have an addendum that is a resolution for employee medical evaluations do I have any questions on P1 through P6 in the addendum hearing N I have a motion to approve P1 through P6 in the addendum I'll make a motion thank you you have a second I second thank you Cindy all those in favor I I the motion passes non instructional Mr Melle pretty quiet in the non-instructional section we had four resignations two of which are for retirement Dana Craven has served the district for 25 years and Vicky
114rette for 28 years thank you to both of them for their service p8 is a prior appointment it was for one position of a district office clerical uh P9 we have one appointment it's a teacher Aid at Clarence and then P10 are the changes to our substitute list thank you any questions on p7 through P10 hearing none do I have a motion to move p7 through P10 I'll thank you Mike do I have a second second thank you Trisha all those in favor hi um Dr frame special needs and Student Activities yep I believe since the last time we met our committee on special education reviewed the programs and services of 16 students 25 for a cpsc nothing out of the ordinary and questions on S1 to S2 hearing none do I have a motion
115to move S1 and S2 motion thank you Don do I have a second second thank you Cindy all those in favor I motion passes Dr frame board development policy yep uh B1 involves a field trip for our uh defending state champion Varsity girl softball team to Binghamton so that's being recommended for approval Mrs Andrews provided a detailed overview of some policies for first read I'm going to go over the recommended changes again just kidding uh we'll stick with her report earlier this evening for the first read and uh unless there are changes have them on for approval at our next meeting thank you hearing with no questions do I have a motion to approve B1 I'll make a motion thank you Don have a second second thank you all those in favor I I Committee
116of the whole items there is a schedule outcoming meetings in your packet and upcoming events with if there's nothing else I'll take a motion to adjourn motion thank you sen have a second thank you Trisha all those in favor all motion passes uh just a quick note before people pack up volunteer recognition dinner is coming up I believe not next week the week after a couple weeks from now um it will be at the hollow beastro so I'll follow up with a reminder Mrs Sutton and I will so different location this year and they have been fantastic to work with so we're looking forward to honoring a great group of people in a couple weeks thank you