001good evening and welcome to the September 12 2023 gilwin School District Board of Education meeting would you all please silence your cell phones and stand for the pledge the pledge of allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay first on the agenda tonight we have a public comment Linda is there any public comment hey next we have the consent items the minutes of October 15th and October 23rd cpsc and CSE recommendations and the Personnel action can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion Blanca second Rebecca all in favor let me interject right here to welcome our brand new director of diversity equity and inclusion Mr Derek Westbrook and he's here with his family
002tonight congratulations Derek welcome to gilderland thank you as quick as that it happened thank you next we have information items first Dr uh superintendent information Dr Wiles thank you I have one item tonight and it is about what we've been experiencing for the last four days which is the opening of the 2022-2023 2023 2024 school year um and in spite of incredible heat and quite damaging storms we have had a remarkably smooth opening of our faculty and staff came back about a week ago we had a great opening day our students returned back on Thursday and honestly all seven buildings have reported a very smooth opening schedules are working um and everyone is already back at work and and well into their new school year I want to particularly commend our transportation department because they
003are currently down seven drivers however they are getting children to school on time and home on time and making all of their runs as smooth as could possibly be and so that's a lot of people doing a lot more up than they would normally otherwise be called to do inhosu going above and beyond standing in the pouring rain last Friday to make sure our high school students get on their bus in a complete downpour is just one small example I also want to recognize cliff nooney and his team we had quite the disaster here late Thursday night when a tree fell on the high school and we did not miss a beat of instruction and the tree was removed and it was quite a remarkable thing so um in spite of a lot of barriers
004and challenges and trials and tribulations has been a great start to the school year thanks to all great thank you Dr Wiles next we have board president information I have two items the first is the nisba voting delegate guide so everybody should have received an email from Deb Sim it has a Google form um asking you to vote on these resolutions and if you look through them you'll see the one there's uh one is from gilderland that Dr Wiles had drafted about the you know the Pre-K giving precedence to students with free and reduced lunch and speakers of other languages and we want to look through those and vote on them through the Google form then I think it's Kim who's a voting delegate the nisbah business any questions or comments about the resolutions great
005next is the Board of Education policy review we have a set of policies a through I so these are up for information you can go ahead and read through them and I think they'll all be up for action welcome says letter e says action we took action on it I wasn't sure when I saw that March 8th uh maybe that's the last time oh there are updates on here um I don't know if we have two hours on this though right I don't know I just I'm just giving the background like info was on March 2nd for one and I think these were updated right after the hirings were finished is that what it is Dr Wells yes that was the last time it was updated and we've had changes since so okay but it's
006still it's not an action item not technically um but it will be next yeah okay the same thing would be the same thing with you yeah no I didn't okay next we have action items um first is school business I'll turn it over to Dr Van alstein oh uh thank you very much our first item is a set of six service agreements these are all um continuations of existing agreements with services for special education students and I have a motion to accept the service agreements a through F Gloria second date any questions or comments all in favor aye passes nine zero thank you the next item is an agreement with SMG who is the site manager of the MVP formerly Times Union Pepsi Nick arena for the graduation ceremony in 2024. and I have a
007motion to approve the SMG agreement for high school graduation Katie second Kelly any questions or comments do we have a date yet June 27th you're right June 26th yes to Wednesday I think yes the morning a Wednesday questions or comments in favor the next is an emergency private transportation contract for three McKinney Bento students and I have a motion to approve the transportation services Gloria's second Katie any questions or comments all in favor all right the next is uh contract extensions for existing uh contract transportation state law allows us to renew these at the designated CPI in this case 3.5 percent can I have a motion to approve these contract extensions uh Blanca second Kim any questions or comments all in favor thank you the next item are private transportation contracts for private schools contracts
008are to Raja group and star and strand transportation motion to approve the transportation contracts Rebecca second Kelly any other questions or comments or any questions or comments all in favor this is nine zero thank you our next item is a continuation of our existing emergency preparedness agreement with Christ the King for the school to service and emergency evacuation site for our district can I have a motion to approve the Sheltering agreement with Christ the King 82nd Nate any questions or comments all in favor as fast as 9-0 thank you the next item is a bid for mentally minimally processed meat uh hamburger we did this bid cooperatively with Bethlehem Central School District and we will recommended warning it to kill coin Farms can I have a motion to prove the meat for Geographic preference bid
009Gloria second um Judy any questions or comments I'm just curious if this has always been with them no it's a new this is new Renee Heller director of food service worked with them on the bid hoping to get a better quality Enterprise all in favor access nine zero next item is environmentally friendly ice melt bit award for siteone landscape supply you have a motion to accept the ice melt bit award Rebecca II Ellie all in favor aye this is 9-0 thank you the next item is an agreement with Russell Sage for one of their students uh who's in an education leadership program to work with the school district as part of their practical experience and I have a motion to accept the internship agreement with Russell Sage 82nd um Kim questions are coming all in
010favor aye classes nine zero thank you our final item our donations we have eight backpacks with school supplies uh provided by Next Step Federal Credit Union which is formerly school systems Federal Credit Union we received a telescope donation from Carolyn Hillen and a 500 monetary gift from the New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation we were to the Farnsworth Middle School the gifts was nominated by Brian Hart a nice deck employee Brian's married to Sherry Hart who teaches sixth grade at Farnsworth motion to accept Kim any questions or comments thank you to the all for all of the donations all in favor passes 9-0 thank you next we have superintendent action Dr Wiles okay thank you I have several items this evening the first is the approval of our 2023-2024 professional learning plan this was before
011the board for a review at the last meeting can I have a motion to approve the annual professional learning plan Gloria's second Katie any questions or comments all in favor passes 9-0 the next item is the certification of qualified lead evaluators for teachers this is for our app our process and I'll read the beginning of the resolution that just says that be it resolved that Michael piscatelli Michael Laster Peter brabant Alan Lockwood Christopher Sanita bethabini Jacqueline Vandenberg and Lisa Knowles are hereby certified as qualified lead advance evaluators of teachers having successfully completed all of the requirements that are outlined below and I have a motion to approve the certification of qualified lead evaluators for teachers Rebecca II Gloria any questions or comments all in favor next is the certification of qualified lead evaluator for building
012principles under appr and that resolution is be it resolved that Marie Wiles superintendent of schools is hereby certified is a qualified lead evaluator of building principles having successfully completed all of the requirements outlined below and I have a motion to approve the certification of lead evaluator for building principles Nate and Kelly questions or comments all in favor thank you my next item is a contract dissolution uh the resolution reads it is hereby resolve and upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the agreement between the Guilderland Central School District and Kids Corner child care and learning center dated May 3rd 2023 is hereby terminated effective August 17 2023. can I have a motion to approve the contract dissolution with Kids Corner Tim second Judy any questions or comments all in favor aye aye aye passes
0139-0 thank you the next is a request to approve a co-curricular club and this is to form a co-curricular club at the middle school called scratch club and Mrs Sarah itings will be the advisor can I have a motion to accept the club approval for the scratch Club FMS Gloria second Nate any questions or comments all in favor hi nine zero and my last item tonight is the ratification of the employee agreement with the Guilderland employees Association and it reads be it resolved with the Board of Education authorizes the superintendent of schools to execute the proposed memorandum of agreement between the Guilderland Central school district and the Guilderland employees Association of the Guilderland Central School District for the duration of the collective bargaining agreement which is July 1 2023 to June 30th 2026. can I
014have a motion to accept the contract ratification with the Gea Rebecca second Blanca any questions or comments all in favor passes 9-0 thank you Dr Wales next we have board committee reports I will start with policy alternative to Nate uh yes we had a meeting back on August 22nd some of those ones that were up for review tonight we also discussed we are going to make we are going to make some revisions to the dress code in light of some of the quests from students and others regarding sports attire we're going to be reviewing that at the next meeting which is next week the 19th um we're also going to review decided in my head what was the other thing we're gonna review oh um taking consideration some language from the board about the Banning
015of books and we're going to look at some of the uh some of the language you already have in place and how we can beat that up to kind of try to represent potentially better represent how the district feels about actions taken by other districts or other communities and to ban books um so we'll take that into consideration at the next meeting as well thank you next we have audit I think we are meeting later this month right for the first time tentatively September 27th at 8 am thanks Rebecca and then business practices we have not met yet in Communications our first meeting will be September 21st three o'clock the district office and Dei you know the next meeting is next Wednesday the 20th 20th at 7 pm great so we'll move on to public
016comment number two Linda are there any more are there any public comments no comment no thank you and then last board issues ideas and sharing does anybody have anything to share I do um I've had the pleasure of attending some of our sports events uh even in the extreme heat and I haven't noticed that some were canceled some were not some were moved to later in the evening and so I just thought I would ask what the process is so Dave Austin is walking yeah I would say I just saw him walk shortly here I told him he said 7 30 going to work I said I don't think so so perfect timing your timing yes perfect timing um I was just hoping you could speak a little bit to the process that we follow
017I think some people in the community might think it's up to the coach exclusively sure and I don't think that's the case while passing around the heat index guidelines which is kind of what we used to follow for uh he had a as hot of a start to our fall season last week as we've had in a long time so it was difficult um the guidelines that we're sharing are from this book they are handed out to the coaches at our coaches meeting so we do spend time talking about that um you know tough weather last week because it was hot and then we had storms hitting us right at the end of the day right at the opportune time so uh I worked with a trainer Rachel chatney um got this really cool thing
018called the wet bulb thermometer which gives you accurate readings and that's on page back of the sheet that I gave you this is a wet mold readings and guidelines for those readings so so work with my trainer communicate with our staff as best we can and it was a hot start last week but we followed the guidelines and we were well within the guidelines and so that was giving us an accurate reading from the Third Field and so it is hot though at the end of the day no matter where we were on the guidelines it was hot so I'm sure some of the kids were having a tough time especially because it's beginning season and they're not quite tip top shape yet so but we stay in contact with our coaches pushed some game
019times to 5 30. there's some practice times to five o'clock or later some coaches because we're going on projections at 12 o'clock one o'clock in the afternoon I've decided to be proactive and canceled so sections are projections and sometimes those projections around some of them made the decision they kind of canceled early so that's kind of what happened last week on top of the storms and all of that so it's a busy week so any questions to the guidelines I shared with you and where we were so it sounds like there's discussion and it's not just up to each individual coach and and we're getting some guidance yeah they're getting direct guidance for me and Rachel both through an email and then I actually I text text all of our coaches out some of those
020days I think it was honest y before we got the storm so that was it a lot of players and we did a couple days before that the guidelines we follow you know the guidelines on page one is based on you don't feel on WeatherBug with WeatherBug is it's not giving you a reading from the campus that we're on right now in case of Guilford have given us a reading from Pine Bush which is down closer Colony so beautiful thing about the wet ball dominance that gives us a read accurately on very hot again probably after the spring obviously you have to deal with that the good thing for the spring athletes is that's at the end of the year when it gets really hot and we've had some time to and yeah that was
021a lot of back and forth with our trainer and our coaches we were definitely on the same page doesn't mean it wasn't difficult in case it was thank you I got you back down a soccer game thank you thank you any other board issues ideas and sharing I just wanted to say one thing I um got to see one of the Outdoor Learning Pavilions that's almost completed at Gillan Elementary and it was beautiful so excited to be able to start using those do you think we'll be able to use them like in the fall or some of them will be ready in the fall all of them could be ready in the fall depending on how weather goes but we already have all the Furnishings for them it's just a matter of um getting though
022the wiring set and putting the roofs on depending on where they are but I'm hopeful we can use them this fall I know in our next board meeting we're hoping to do a more broad overview of where we are with our Capital project because a lot happened this summer some of it very visible some of it very invisible Cliff will be here and we'll give a big up great and how will the timing on those learnings you're going to sign up in the office or something or what what's the deal so it'll be like the old days of signing out a computer lab where it's going to be they'll have to have an assistant when the building to sign out yeah but otherwise you're going to have a bit of chaos everybody's going to want
023to go at the same time I would want to be out there if I could okay thank you that's what I figured but I just said any other board issues ideas and sharing um some of us got to go to the opening of the schools the other day and I thought it was fantastic it was the energy was great in the room and from the orchestra students to the minibus and the presentation to the uh 20-year teachers and Tas and everybody else bus drivers and it was really great a great morning so thanks for putting on a nice event for our teachers to come back to school School related professionals last thing um you know we passed the um less processed to meet and it made me think of do we need the circle back
024on well I was going to bring it up in my comment but perfect oh so um there was a mom this was back in Fall of 22 who came to ask about different food options or having more variety of food options at the district and then I think I think our food service director was new then and so then I followed up in the spring and then the last I checked was that um the district was going to ask BOCES to pull together their food service directors in the area to see how they can expand options in a more of a comprehensive way so it's not just our school so I just wanted to follow up on that and I thought of it when I saw the agenda because of the the meat contract that
025we had just bring that up I don't know that they've met I know they have a lot of changes at the BOCES level too okay in terms of new leadership but we're meeting on Thursday so I can bring it okay great what school district has that relationship or that partnership with Tara's kitchen unit some kind of model like that would be fabulous I thought it was at the BOCES level as well I think it might be a little bit higher conversations that doesn't mean she doesn't love gilderland she's also on the um the business group Association here I don't know that I was part of it's the business teachers that are working with like local business partners you want to get involved in everybody to give opportunities to students here to learn about how to
026you know work in a business run a business kind of thing and she was one of the people on there so I mean she obviously has a place in Guilderland a lot of us go there any other board issues ideas and sharing you have a motion to adjourn him second K oh all in favor aye I pass this Nine Zero thanks everybody 30 minutes and it's not a competition I'm just saying