06 Board of Education meeting, September 14, 2021

001oh okay first on the agenda tonight first okay right after it's worn out is thank you next we have fran porter uh i think if you move your um move the mic you can speak into it hello my name is a graduate of the gilderlands school district a few years back so and i want to just take a moment to express my appreciation to the school board for your sacrifice and the hard work you've done to make sure that this has been the best possible education for our students with that tonight i would like to talk with you about the issue of synthetic turf on our athletic fields the vote that was taken by the school board on august 10th approved the use of funding in the upcoming school bond for a synthetic turf playing

002field and i know that that approval has been given but i i still feel that given that there was no opposition offered in the time during that meeting that it's important to offer such opposition right now for the record and so that's what i will do i want to share four major points with you that i feel are reasons not to use synthetic turf one is heat one is toxicity another injury and i think finally um the the issue of disposal so these are the four things that i'll briefly address one is that we know that the the playing fields of synthetic turf actually get very hot in the sun they've recorded temperatures of 150 plus degrees and there is a potential for injury to our athletes including serious burns two is as far as

003the um the toxicity we know that there are in in grass in plastic grass in tire crumbs there are at least 329 known chemicals that make up that that material and we're still identifying new chemicals many of these are carcinogenic and and toxic ms porter your time right now can you just wrap it up in the next 30 seconds yes um i will say that we know that the women's soccer team has sued for the world cup to be played on natural grass surface and as of 2023 that will be the case just as it is with the men's playing field the nfl players league has expressed the desire to have all services for football be on natural gas grass because of the injuries particularly foot and ankle injuries and finally disposal is going to

004create a major difficulty we have we'll have a massive amount of disposal of this material we can't bury tires so i'm not sure how that plays with tire crumbs but the amount of disposal is going to be an environmental disaster because these chemicals will have to be in landfills and there's a possibility that they will leak so for these reasons um i i've never voted against a school budget or a bond and it would it would greatly pain me to do so but i feel that i can't support a bond if it includes synthetic turf so thank you very much for your attention sorry to go over thank thank you miss porter i understand that there's another public comment that was written also about the turf so we can talk about that after i read

005through the other public comments so we have five written public comments and i'll start the first one is from megan and edward dimartino it reads dear board of education first let me start by thanking the board for their recent efforts working on the best case reopening plan possible i'm particularly impressed with the goal setting and reflecting process that has been implemented and aligned to our communities recent obstacles at the last board of education meeting and from the most recent ultimate enterprise article you've communicated very clearly to our community that quote in the midst of the pandemic meeting students is social and emotional needs treating the whole student should be this year's top priority i question the board's awareness that this goal in particular has been shared with all teachers and staff they as the main

006stewards of our students's education and well-being should be made aware that this is paramount i agree this goal in fact should overshadow other priorities during the un these unprecedented times it doesn't seem real we are in the midst of a world pandemic has the board had conversation about fully remote students who will be returning in person this fall i believe these students may be much more vulnerable to transitioning back to this year's instructional format i received a kidney transplant years ago and i'm at far greater risk for contacting contracting covid even as a fully vaccinated person in devout mask where because of my health my son did not have a choice to attend school in person last year he was also not allowed to play sports in fact upon the medical advice of his pediatrician

007and several of my specialists our son was not able to participate in any in-person activities like homecoming undoubtedly this was a challenge for him as a junior in high school our son is cautiously optimistic about returning to school in person he has always played two sports each year and participates in ski club as well as summer travel teams high school soccer tryouts occurred over the past week our son was eager to see his friends and worked hard he was the only senior who did not make the team he was handed a slip of paper and walked off the field with no explanation from any coach as to why his friends almost instantly knew that he was the only senior to have walk away the main reason given by the athletic directors to why her son

008was cut from the team was that the varsity coach does not keep seniors if they didn't play their junior year our son also reached out to the coach directly via email coach expressed that he believed our son hadn't played the last two years and that he had and he didn't play well in his normal goalie position during tryouts neither of these points are accurate our son has never played goalie on a gilded soccer team and the only year he was unable to play was last year let me make it clear the purpose of this letter is not for anyone to make exception for our son he's not playing soccer this year he was cut rather i'd like the board and community to be aware of our grave disappointment with this decision in hopes it doesn't

009occur with other students despite the circumstances our son has vowed to attend every varsity soccer game this year in hopes of being able to lend the support uh to lens to lend the team support in any way he can we are incredibly proud of his perseverance despite the adversity he is facing as the board strives to meet the goals for the 21-22 school year consider this an example where it's already not working unprecedented times would hopefully allow for some unprecedented decisions respectfully submitted meg and edward dimartino the next public comment is from rob carl it says please require covid19 vaccinations for all guilderland central school district staff my son will be entering the sixth grade next year at farnsworth middle school and he is 11 years old i want him to be safe thanks rob

010carl the next public comment comes from susan wendt this reads dear miss wiles and school board members the most recent email sent out by our athletic director dave austin regarding vaccination and testing requirements for our student athletes this fall is utterly confusing it stated that unvaccinated students were not going to be tested as a routine matter in all sport only high profile money maker contact sports like football and basketball i was a little shocked by that as were most parents of other athletes i know it's just a week or so before that we had received a different email stating that all athletes would be required to show proof of vaccine or be required to submit for regular testing now the policy is just to test immune compromised athletes only i'm really unclear as to what

011the actual policy is at this point and extremely unnerved by the district's obvious catering to a small bullying anti-vaccine anti-mass group my children are cross-country runners they sit around on the field shoulder to shoulder with their friends before practice and during stretches it's ragweed and mold season allergies abound and the aerosols that spray from their noses and mouths when they sneeze or cough as they will they will hit others in the face they are also at risk for kovi just as a football team is just because they don't touch each other as much doesn't mean that there isn't an inherent risk coveted aerosols linger in the air for minutes to hours depending upon the concentration of droplets relative air humidity conditions for circulation and air exchange that puts all athletes at some risk one of

012the middle schoolers students whose parents are chomping at the bit to get their children vaccinated but can't because their birthdays don't fall until later in the year don't their children deserve the same respect and caution for their health are they just supposed to withhold their students from the physical and mental health benefits of sports simply because the district refuses to mitigate the risk of infection the district can't keep changing its mind and making it up as they go along it's not fair to the majority of the school community who's trying to do the right thing and keep our kids and families safe the district website makes one thing clear gcsd does not have a comprehensive plan to mitigate the risk of cova transmission amongst its students or staff this year outside of masking in a

013three-foot distancing policy wouldn't it make more sense to mitigate the risk of cova transmission to the fullest extent possible particularly for athletes rather than to fight the consequences of not doing so after the fact if all unvaccinated athletes and students aren't submitted to weekly athlete or random in-school student testing we aren't keeping the ball rolling we are waiting for the ball to drop the first positive case has already been announced within the modified girls cross-country team there is no further information available on the student who tested positive but i do know several other athletes on the team who are not vaccinated and they are all at risk from exposure we are not without great risk this year take a look at other districts around the country 252 000 students across the us have tested positive

014just this week upon returning to school that's a quarter of a million children infected in just one week does the district really think we can escape this virus with the plans that are out of place that are in place thank you linda the full um letter will be posted on the website with the minutes the next public comment just waiting for this to load is from bethany stewart says to the board of ed members and superintendent wiles as you all are all aware busting the school year has gotten off to a terrible start that does not seem to have any forthcoming resolution my sixth grader has been home 45 minutes late every day we often have not been emailed that the buses were running late until we had already been at the bus stop for

01525 minutes past when the children are supposed to arrive yesterday i stood at the bus stop for one hour worried my children my child had gotten on the wrong bus because we were not informed the buses were running late until 25 minutes after he was supposed to get off the bus when i tried to call the school to see if he was okay i could not get through i understand there's a bus driver shortage i also believe there were mistakes made when the new start and end times of the schools were figured out and the time needed for busing to account for the schedule changes was determined be that as may be that as it may parents need answers if the buses will be late every day we need to know as do our kids

016if we need to pick them up we need to know that many of us have jobs and child care issues to contend with and not knowing where our children when our children will arrive home or get on the bus to school is untenable it is also very unfair to the children some of whom like my son have special needs and grow very anxious when they have to wait around for buses each day and don't know when those buses will arrive and when they will get home whatever the solution is even if the answer is that the district doesn't have one parents and students alike deserve to know that information thank you bethany stewart the last public comment is from edna linton since synthetic turf playing fields are controversial the field at the high school should

017really be presented as a separate issue many professional athletes do not want to play on synthetic turf field the head of the national football league players association said that the sport is dangerous enough and the players do not want the additional risks including double the rate of foot and ankle injuries of playing on synthetic turf women's world cup soccer players protested having to play games on synthetic turf while the men got to play on grass until the organization agreed to require all of the women's games to be played on real real grass by 2023 it seems fiscally unsound to include more than million dollars of funding for synthetic turf and playing field at guilderland high school in a bond issue with 15 year term when most synthetic fields wear out after eight to ten years

018even the manufacturers say the last 10 to 20 years which could mean well that could mean well that the field would have to be replaced before gilderon taxpayers have finished paying for it i wonder if the bond includes funding to pay for the removal and disposal of the synthetic turf when it is worn out an expense that the school district will be er iraqi committed to once the field is installed respectfully submitted edna lynn i just want to um bring up the the first uh public comment that was written is that something that can just be um it sounds like there was some confusion between the coach athletic director and family i don't know if we can just follow up with that i'd be happy to okay thanks zucker wiles um the next public comment

019i was about vaccinations which i know we'll be talking about later in the agenda and same with number three the vaccination with athletes and um the buses neil i don't know if you could just talk briefly about the busing situation sure um as well as you know the writer implied here we are having some delays with our our buses this year it's not a typical to be running a little behind on our first couple of days in a typical year um we do need to make sure that that our drivers are familiar with the routes that the children are out there on time they're still learning where their bus stops are in their locations first few days parents sometimes want to take pictures and do those sorts of things especially for kindergarteners so it does

020take a little bit for those runs to get smoothed out that usually happens pretty quickly in the first few days once everybody gets the routine and understands when the bus is coming when i should be out there driver becomes familiar with the children and the roots and it does tend to smooth out we've made progress over the last several days it has gotten better we are still finding some situations where buses are late later than certainly we would like at this point one of the issues this year that um we didn't anticipate as much with the return of to in-person schools there's still a large number of parents driving at the elementary level so we have certain schools that are very difficult to handle a large volume of traffic coming in in a very short

021period of time pine bush gilderlynn elementary and westmere in particular have one way in one way out middle school that applies to as well and when you have a large number of cars that can't get through that are lining up to dis disembark kids they get there for the buses then we have the buses in the line with the cars trying to get to the drop off location so that's been a challenge for us that we're trying to work on trying to get that traffic flow but we're all going through all of those vehicles and all the buses are all going through the same loop at the same time uh so we are looking at solutions we don't have anything firm at this point we're trying to to see ways that we can get buses

022in quicker which will make sure that they get out quicker and then the roots the timing of the roots will improve we do have a meeting schedule for thursday to have another discussion about this to see how what ideas we might have to try to make the situation a little bit better but we are aware we are working on it uh we're trying to find some ways to help improve the traffic flow so that we can get kids in on time and kids home that time thank you oh god gloria uh yeah what's the procedure for getting word out say to parents that the bus is going to be late is there any typically it's an snn yeah i've seen a few that of the schools that i get the snn for but like you

023know a parent waiting and it's like i don't know half an hour an hour or whatever is the only way like through that is there any other yeah that's really our best source at that time um to have that information that's school um typically would go from at the school level just because that's the parent group that they would have access to so if it's a gillan elementary bus route that's running behind that would go to the gillom elementary parents right what about the uh the service that you know we had what you can look on your phone when the bus is arriving and yeah will that indicate um that the bus is running late where the bus is yes that's the my stop application yeah although that hasn't been fully up and running yeah

024at the start of the year but that's another tool okay i need to get that thanks uh working as well thank you neil i i know some people had suggestions but it sounds like you guys will be meeting to kind of assess where the situation is and i know the bus driver shortage is all across the state so i know kelly suggested maybe using the covid funds but it sounds like it's an ongoing issue with trying to come up with being creative and finding ways to try and um get more drivers recruit more drivers yes and we've done a number of things to do that um we've actually had several new drivers we've also lost several drivers so we haven't had a net gain yet unfortunately but everybody is putting forth i want to say

025our transportation department has been working very hard over the summer we've revised our times we've had less drivers available we had to contract out some roots as well everybody has been doing the best they can to serve our students and get their transportation needs met it has been difficult um with the shortage of drivers we have many members of our transportation department that are in supervisory roles or mechanics that we've had to use as bus drivers to get through our day-to-day routines which isn't ideal but we're trying to pull all of those resources to make sure we can get students where they need to be in and on time but routing in a regular year is very difficult when we're routing still in the vestiges of a pandemic becomes even straighter and even greater and

026then with a shortage of drivers and trying to manage all of those routes is is another thing as well so we appreciate everybody's patience and understanding we know it's it's not perfect and we're working very hard to try to to make it better as quickly as possible thank you neil since we're talking about it now i just want to say the two um suggestions that were brought up by fms parents last night as you look into the staffing issue one is a bonus like kelly brought up and then two is recalling or begging retired bus drivers to come back and work for us so thank you to the parents that made those suggestions the begging has happened already see you now uh the the public comments about the synthetic turf i so i'll have maybe

027somebody on business practices or facilities talk about it but i just wanted to first add that i think the discussion about the turf has been probably for the last two years and before it's been brought to the board level it was at um business practices it was facilities and um and i know communications is still going to be meeting to talk about the bond and getting the word out but it might be good to i don't think about putting something on the school website like faqs about the turf because i think you know even though we've been talking about it not everybody in the community will have heard the full discussion so if you know if the comments and public comment are questions about um the cost and the toxicity etc i think it might

028be worthy to put something like that on the website answering those um questions but does anybody on business practices or facilities want to talk about that process a little bit well we haven't met this year yet so um you know it was last year but i i think that probably faqs are a better way and more current um to describe what's going on and how we re how we got to where we got to if i remember correctly turf was i think brought up before covid hit and was in discussion for some time before and then when covet hit i remember that we kind of paused that discussion but um i'm sure there are other people who are more involved in those facilities discussions than than i was so i don't know if anybody else

029remembers anything before that time i will say i mean on that we were doing preparing the project uh dave austin did prepare i don't know if it was shared at the larger board meeting it answered a lot of the questions that were raised tonight you know about the uh rubber balls and uh and the you know the injuries all that stuff was answered and we certainly i'm sure dave can provide that so we can put into a more clear facts something whether it's on the website or wherever and i think it is important because people do have a lot of questions at this stage it's it's hard to answer questions since it's part of the bond issue i mean it's not hard to answer the questions but to take this off of the bond issue

030is not something that we can do at this point but we don't want to have people voting no because they don't like the turf field whereas maybe their questions could be answered um right i mean i think the important part for people to know is that there's been years in the process of discussing the pros and cons of putting this up for a vote in the community but um you know taking some of that information that we found along the way and making it available to the public so they can make that decision based on the information that was there so i know the public meeting i don't remember the last several public meetings that had talked about turf i don't know how far back we have to go but i definitely know that we've

031talked about um some negative i guess some cons of having turf as well i don't think it was smooth sailing all along the way but that's that's what i remember but it has been at least since 2019 i think that we've been talking about turf cena i'll just jump in um a useful resource on this topic is a document put out by the center for environmental health through the new york state department of health and it's called information about crumb rubber filled synthetic turf athletic fields and it raises a number of the topics that we heard about this evening so we are preparing some frequently asked questions to go on our website and to distribute even more widely if that's helpful but there is a summary on the last page of this where they talk

032about heat stress and injury infection latex allergy chemical exposures so there is some information there and we're happy to share that with the with our community i think thanks dr weils i know that there will be pta meetings where people will start uh board members will start um giving out some more information about the bond vote so that might be another way to um answer questions about any any of the concerns that were brought up tonight any other comments well i think cliff addressed some of these questions too so if anybody wanted to check one of the um previous meetings on youtube i do remember him speaking to the safety concerns and the environmental concerns okay so we'll move on to the consent items that includes the minutes of the august 24th meeting the csc

033and cpsc recommendations personnel action textbooks and financials can i have a motion to approve the consent agenda nate second blanca any questions or comments all in favor okay so we'll have passes 7-0 and um we had barb abstain thanks barb next on the agenda information items superintendent information dr wiles thank you dr rivera i just wanted to provide um some brief update on our copic 19 protocols some of them will be very familiar to all of you this year we are following the universal masking indoors and on the school buses we are practicing three feet of social distancing whenever possible throughout our classrooms and really throughout our operations we've also focused in on increased ventilation cleaning protocols and then plans for contact tracing and quarantining students when we do have a positive case we also

034have a new directive to begin testing unvaccinated staff that would be all unvaccinated staff and eventually students as well with parent consent on a weekly basis this requirement comes from the new york state department of health we're currently working with the albany county department of health to operationalize the plan albany county and actually our surrounding counties as well have contracted with an organization called quadrant biometrics who will provide the tests and the lab analysis for these tests so later in the agenda you're going to be asked to renew our limited service laboratory agreement with albany county which gives us the ability to do this here on campus so we still have quite a few questions about how the sun will unfold we have a meeting on friday with the albany county department of health to

035get some more insight into this but our first step will be to gather proof of vaccination from all of our employees to understand the scope of testing that we will need to do i know we had a question earlier today about our testing protocols for athletes currently our protocol is to test all unvaccinated athletes who participate in high-risk sports in the fall those sports are football volleyball volleyball because it's indoors and cheerleading we gathered this information earlier from all of our athletes as kind of a first step to understand this the scale of students we would have participating in sports who are unvaccinated at the time we gathered that we only had the leftover rapid test that we used for last year's screening so we didn't know what our capacity for testing would be or

036our access to those tests that's why we landed before this most recent directive from albany county came out with the idea of testing our unvaccinated high-risk sports so we're continuing to work on this i know this is a topic of some consideration and when all is said and done we are working as hard as we possibly can to keep our students and our staff safe and in school and learning so i'll end there and take any questions or comments rebecca um i just wanted to bring up the cdc guidelines for return to schools from early august recommend that in areas where the level of community transmission is high like in albany county cancellation of high-risk sports should be done unless all student athletes are vaccinated new york state doh guidance from early september mirror the

037cdc guidance and recommends that high-risk sports and extracurriculars be virtual or cancelled in areas of high community transmission unless all participants are fully vaccinated therefore i might be doing this procedurally wrong i make a motion for a resolution um that gcsd follow the expert guidance follow other community districts like bethlehem dispuna and albany and require vaccination for high-risk eligible student athletes as long as albany county remains an area of high community transmission rebecca can you remind me is that um is that for 16 and up we're going to make that um distinction i mean the cdc guidance dr rivera does not actually um you know separate out by age says all vaccine eligible student athletes um i think my motion would be for all eligible student athletes but i think maybe part of our discussion

038could be what limitations we want to put on them i'll second it so we can move to discuss okay so first motion from rebecca ii gloria now can have um comments and questions about that i just want to add that process wise that we've been following the guidance all along so i don't see why we want to just veer from that um and i think it would be appropriate to give students who are 16 and up because that's fda approved that that guy like that i guess those rules to follow but we give them i don't know um two weeks to at least go get vaccine get the first vaccination and be on the on the path to being vaccinated that's that's just my take i know that some people would argue for 12 and

039up but because it's not fda approved i don't know if you know i know we're kind of putting ourselves out there to liability for for doing this and there's no clear answers but i think the 16 and up would be you know in my opinion that would be appropriate yeah i agree that we should not do 16 and younger and as you said i would i wouldn't want to start this tonight or tomorrow and then cause harm to the sports that have already started so this guidance came out august 5th we've started many sports august 23rd we didn't let our players know ahead of time that this was going to be happening so i think it's only fair like you said sema to give them some time new york state has given their employees five

040weeks to get both shots so what you recommend i think two for the first shot and then maybe three two or three for the second shot makes sense so that nobody is immediately cut from the team or anything like that and i assume for other students it would be testing for the 12 and yeah for the 12 and not 12. right now dr wells is it test are those students tested once a week right now it's once a week but as i um i mentioned we have new access to more tests so one of the conversations we had was to potentially increase the amount of testing for unvaccinated students in the interim and then look for fully vaccinated for the winter season i mean it sounds like the the 12 and up if once the

041tests are available to move it to two times a week the ones that are in high risk at least right would seem appropriate and also you know if we do that for the winter and not for the fall i know it's not the beginning of the season but it's still fairly early on i don't see why we you know forego that fall season and then just do that to the winter and spring or i don't know what will happen in spring can't plan that far ahead but at least winter do we have an idea of how many students in 16 and up that are not vaccinated do you have any idea numbers i think there were 25 total that's 9 12. yeah freshman jv and varsity i mean 16 and up that would be i

042don't know okay if they're 16 and up um so because the high risk sports that dr wiles talked about i mean i think we you know the outset for the school year was to try to get everybody back in person and that was that is should be and is our goal and as much as it pains me to take away any students opportunity or privilege to play a sport we need to keep that overarching goal in mind and and to continue what has been the board's position on on this is to follow those who know better than us which is the cdc in this instance and again i don't like it but it is the right decision and i think it's the way we have to go and i definitely agree it's 16 and up

043and to give some time two weeks i will say my my private employer gave you three days so my secretary just got back i mean it's tough that was a month ago that's tough but you know i think a week or two weeks is certainly plenty of time for quite frankly parents to make the decision it's not a student's decision if they're not 18 whether they you know so you know we we are not taking away we're not forcing them to get vaccinated we are giving them a choice whether they want to continue to play and to play is a privilege not a right i completely agree with that barb you know my position on this i really think we're overstepping our balance here our students have have suffered so much in the way of

044not being able to socialize not being able to play sports without masks on they experienced an entire summer of being kids again not having to wear masks they played baseball they played basketball they played softball all kinds of sports and we we didn't have any massive outbreaks the athletic department has gone bent over backwards to put in safety protocols for the practices for what they're calling high-risk sports now they're calling volleyball high-risk sport because it's played indoors it's played indoors in a huge gymnasium with very few spectators normally and yet some bureaucrat is calling it a high risk sport obviously to me wrestling or maybe even football is a little more high risk but you're denying a parent and a child the decision-making process we today have a court decision of a regulation that all

045health care workers have to be immunized i think we're going to face the same type of a situation if we mandate this we can encourage it you know we know that the vaccine is effective um for those who have had the vaccine even the new variant people get sick but it's like with a cold or with the flu for the most part and this disease is something that i think we're all going to have to live with and as i said i just can't see forcing a parent to have their kid vaccinated in order for them to be able to play a sport we know how important sports are in the development of a child in their love of coming to school in many instances and i i know i'm speaking as a minority here

046but um i have just seen so much damage and the statistics proven out that when you begin taking away the socialization of kids your suicide rate increases and the whole idea of even the younger children not being able to see faces socialize we're going to be paying the price 10 10 15 years down the road um this is even the pediatric community saying how important it is for little kids to socialize and to be able to be with their peers so i i would adamantly say that we should be in the group of schools which is the majority that are not requiring this what you're saying requiring vaccinations but you're not even taking into effect the natural immunity that may exist we have requirements for vaccinations for measles mumps rubella diphtheria etc but we have

047the ability of the parent to test out of that if the child has been exposed and has the antibodies and yet here we are saying i don't care if you've had covert or not or if you have the antibodies you have to get a shot so as i said i know i'm the minority here but i certainly would hope that we give these students an opportunity and you know monitor as i said our athletic department has bent over backwards with all the safety measures that they have available to them and i think to undercut kids that have started this sport now if you want to talk about this for the winter season where there's more indoor situations and people are closer together but to to do it now what almost three weeks into the season

048and maybe give them a week or two and force them into a vaccination situation i think is just unfair but that's just my point of view i don't disagree with the benefits of sports i'm so thankful that we have sports available this year my kids are playing sports and i'm so grateful for that but it is a privilege to play sports and i think to weigh that against having all kids in school because we're not talking about vaccinations for just students being in school we're talking about those who choose to play choose to play a sport that's in high risk category and they're eligible to be vaccinated and it's fda approved so they have a choice and it sounds like it's probably less than 25 kids um i don't think we're overreaching here and it

049sounds like the we're going to be moving that direction for the winter sports as well i don't know why we'd wait at this point rebecca i was just going to say the american academy of pediatrics signed on and endorsed these cdc recommendations from early office and spell out these guidelines and i would push back on this idea that it was a bureaucratic decision this is the cdc these these are scientists doctors the the pinnacle of the people that we should be listening to about this pandemic it's not some bureaucrat politician who's trying to pour something down a kid's throat these are scientists and doctors who do this for a living and it is the same people that we've been listening to throughout directing our guidance and how we are going to approach this getting our

050kids back into school now that's the point if we're going to let non-vaccinated kids we're going to ignore what the cdc is telling us on this issue and we start losing kids because they're on vaccinated playing sports and they spread and there's an outbreak that destroys the entire purpose of what we're trying to do we keep kids in school in person that's the socialization i agree i am a huge advocate of sports i play sports all through high school i coach sports it is incredibly important but it shouldn't overtake keeping our kids in school learning that's what we're here for we're not here to create a sports academy unfortunately we need to keep the kids in school and we need to be doing what we've been doing all along which is following the cdc guidelines

051i also see vaccines as a way of keeping us playing sports as someone who supports athletes and um like nathan said and like rebecca said these are professionals not bureaucrats they devoted their lives to science and this is studied um and barb what happened in the summer is really like neither here nor there because this virus is changing and so we need to adapt and there will be epson flows and we're doing what we're supposed to we we're following the guidelines from the experts and reacting to the current situation just in response to that if we just look over just the past year let alone the 18 months how many times the cdc has changed their recommendations we had two fda scientists just the other day resigned because they didn't feel that we should be

052promoting a booster shot yet so there's disagreement even within the scientific community and i think for us to take one side or the other and just to say because we've always followed these guidelines you know these kids particularly with footwork they're outdoors they're i'm sure their coaches are making sure that they're you know washing their hands and not sharing bottles and all these kinds of things and as i said i i'm just distressed that that we would potentially eliminate the team i think we were told that the modified team uh might lose enough players that they couldn't host you know have it haven't squad and um maybe some of these kids aren't even eligible you know for um for the vaccination so again i i just do not support mandating encouraging yes but mandating uh

053i can't see taking that away from the parent the parents for the most part love their kids they want what's best for them and if it's their decision that they're afraid of the vaccine or whatever i think they should have that right this isn't impact modified though at all this is just talking about 16 and up so this would just be i guess you know 10th grade and up essentially we're not modified seventh and eighth grade yeah so we're not talking about i mean they're not 16. so we're talking about you know 16 and up fda approved and i just want to make the point that um about the whole science piece science is tentative so what we know about the vaccine and the virus now is different from march 2020 and but we do

054know that we've been following the guidance all along and i don't see any reason why any of us would know better than the cdc to decide oh we're going to follow the guidance and now we're just not going to because i don't know it just seems like a lot i mean who are we to decide that and then if it changes we react i mean we're not we're not you know this isn't you know we're not putting a commandment in a stone that says look at this is how it's going to be for the rest of the time we're here this we are reacting to what the cdec is telling us we're actually delaying and reacting to it we should have done it a while ago and that's on us that's our fault we made

055a mistake we're doing it now so and if it changes in a month we're here in a month we'll talk about it but right now what this is telling us is this is what we should be doing and again it as much as it absolutely pains me absolutely painful but this is what the correct the right thing to do you know as much as i'd like to listen to my heart we got to listen to what our brains are telling us so this motions on the floor does anybody else have comments or questions um we didn't get to speak at uh uh kelly um i agree with the 16 or plus um fda approved and as well as as soon as the 12 and plus one does get approved we need to revisit it immediately

056like not wait for the next meeting in a month it's not let's learn from our mistakes this time and make a decision appropriately then um and i'm good with the doing a deadline of like maybe october 1st but but until then we need to like aggressively test people that are unvaccinated on all at all always like i think twice a week is an appropriate unvaccinated testing for anybody um and there's there's nothing about like an antibody test out or anything like that and to see i don't think i read anything about like what barbara's talking about is like yeah we all know there's a possibility that you have antibodies in your body we don't know how long it's gonna last i don't mention anything about if you've already had it i don't believe but that's

057a whole different thing and the third the last point is um since if we are going to make this decision tonight for the winter and the spring sports i don't think there should be any grace period like just put it out there right now that we expect people to be vaccinated for the winter and spring high risk sports so we just crafted as student athletes any any athlete interested in playing a sport we've got to get ahead of this sometimes high risk category at any point in this year has to be vaccinated with or at least get their first shot in two weeks that's where i stand 16 plus uh gloria i think uh i agree with a number of you uh i think our first job is to keep people safe that's number one

058uh and right up there is to educate our kids and that means bringing them into school and in person that's our job the other everything else is you know beyond that and i think my own personal opinion i want to listen to the experts they may change because science you know deals with facts and as facts change and situations change their recommendations will change i have no problem with that but i certainly would prefer to listen to cdc and the department of health than myself or anybody else sitting here uh i'd rather you know air in that and that and i support uh mandating the vaccines for 16 and up and giving some time for that to to happen and i think we should as nate said get out in front and make this a

059policy for the year as long as we are a high risk area i mean pray that it would change then albany county was not then things would change but for now uh we're that's where we are judy well i i agree with everybody except barbara about this um that it's our responsibility to our students and that's what we're here for is to take care of our students and if it's been deemed that high-risk sports you need to be vaccinated or you should be then we should and give them i don't know two weeks october 1st what whatever to come to the decision but i think not vaccinating you know i'm not worried about us being in trouble but i i think it's the right thing and that's what we have to do and if they

060change i i think we need to say that this is subject to you know like everybody getting vaccinated before the sports now for the winter or for the rest of the season is subject to cdc guidance in case it changes in january we have to be flexible for that anybody else all right so it's october 1st in two weeks because i'm we're going to vote on a resolution i didn't know rebecca if you had said in the the resolution that you put on the floor if he had said two weeks or october first i don't remember i don't think i said a time so we could maybe just add that okay motion to add which one october 1st i think october 1st so 16 and up in the high-risk categories for fall winter and spring

061sports and those that are in the fall sports have until october first to get their first vaccination did they miss anything with the understanding that if things change you know we might have to change this right that's always right if and even if it the 12 and up becomes fda approved i personally would want to revisit that as well um but yeah that's always subject to to change based on the guidance changing right yeah all right so we have a motion on the floor all in favor all right can i just interrupt else if we're gonna do it should we do it the right way in other words you have to because this is presented today and we're going on today do the make a motion to suspend the rules right okay so of a

062motion to suspend the rules nate second rebecca all in favor aye aye okay passes eight zero and now we'll have a vote to um vote on the resolution that rebecca uh made the recommendation for can i can we say it like one time all together sure so we're voting on um students who are vaccine eligible so 16 and up who are playing high-risk sports in the fall winter and spring seasons those that are in the fall have until october first to have their first vaccination and then three weeks after that to get their second vaccination and all other students will need to have it before yes and so the the winner in spring sports those students will need to be vaccinated when those sports start second are we there second yet so we already have

063that so a vote to approve those against okay so it passes seven one thanks everybody oh sorry dr wells you have more i do my next item is just an update on our universal pre-k program i am really happy to report that our contracts with our two partners are essentially complete we submitted our application to state ed today the day it was due we have posted a story to our website and we are gathering applications for the open slots that are available um these would all be a kids corner we have posted the story to our website we've emailed and mailed applications to families that we knew of who had four-year-olds so if anyone is watching and wants more information about this they should go to our website there's a story at the bottom with

064a link to the applications are due a week from friday and they require proof of residency in the gilderland central school district and children need to be four years of age by december 1st and once we have all the applications we'll do the lottery and be able to i'll let people know if they've been selected so it's been an uphill climb but we're at the top of the plateau on this topic anyway i have a question so this year's done but for next year there's a plan to have all of those spots be a lottery i'm assuming or are we done with grandfathering and um well you can't grandfather this year because children were enrolled understood even were awarded the grant so it's my understanding that um we would start again probably in february march

065um to um open this up again to do a lottery and one of the things that we're contemplating for next year is to release the rfp again to get an additional partner because we don't believe our current partners will have enough spots to serve all 116 children who we have funding for so that's one of the conversations that we need to have might push us into another grandfather problem we do it well no not if we do it in february okay right um the difference here is we did this in the summer okay so cool and then last last because there's no questions last but not least i just wanted to say i mean we've talked a little bit about the opening of school um in spite of the challenges that we heard about regarding

066transportation and which mr sanders spoke about overall i would say that students and faculty are thrilled to be back in school i think they're grateful to be here in what is mostly normal other than uh you know working on our three foot social distancing as possible and the requirement to wear masks and doors teaching and learning is happening and we're just thrilled to have everybody back that's great thank you dr wiles next we have board president information first we have a set of policies i just have one note i wanted to make on the first one letter a for public participation i think in the um fourth paragraph the last line it says four minutes but i think we agreed at some point it would be three minutes right for a public comment and we

067approved it three minutes already yeah so this this policy also has to change to i think reflect that says um four minutes and then the highlighted section are those are some changes from the meeting this past week anybody have any comments about that this is just up for information and we have a set of other policies i just wanted to make a note also on let's see to do with safety oh no public conduct on school property um i think the important one to to make a point here is that at the so this applies to everybody not just students who are on school property and not just during school times and so we added um because i know we had a discussion about masks at meetings and the concern about people trying to or

068refusing to put a mask on and so that would be violating the board policy on the determination state statute on um mass queries that was just listed there as an example so that kind of covers that anybody have questions about that assuming there's no exemptions to that or like medical there's no there's no no exemptions correct as far as we know as far as the public coming here for example like we like the last board meeting when we had somebody say that they had everything uh yeah so we have religion it was a medical exemption there's no process for that right well yeah we had a long discussion and policy about this and um i mean there there's nobody on site to determine that at a board meeting and so i think we agreed and

069anybody else can speak up if they heard differently that because we stream our meetings and then we give the opportunity for people to send in public comment via email that they're still able to participate in the meeting but as far as being in the building without a mask that they would they would need to have a mask great okay so this is just up for information this week do you did you want to just keep it at information bar but i forgot if we said we wanted to suspend the rules and vote or wait um whatever you're comfortable with the public participation at board meetings is very simple a minor adjustment and mean mainly that if you want to speak here in person that you would have to sign up with with linda ahead of

070time prior to the actual start of the board discussion many people found it very disruptive with people coming up during the meeting and you know asking to speak so it's a minor adjustment just to make the flow better and i certainly am comfortable if you wanted to to do it tonight so it would apply if you want to wait another meeting that's fine too anybody else like that i would weigh in with that for the code of conduct one it would be helpful to have that in place because school is in session and our administrators are applying the code of conduct and this would codify the issues we haven't had a single issue around mask wearing but in case there would be this would say that it's a part of our code of conduct so

071why don't we do both a and c just found the rules a and c so i have a motion to suspend the rules um nate second rebecca and so we're making a motion to approve letter a public participation should be suspended oh i'm sorry can we um can i remember a vote to suspend the rules for both policies for both policies a and c okay passes eight zero thank you gloria um and then does someone want to make a motion to blanca so we're looking at letter a public participation at board meetings and letter c public conduct on school property making a motion kind of a second kelly so you want to change the verbiage though it's in yellow i think so yeah but just just to have three minutes yep okay so so we'll

072prove it given that it's a three-minute moment yes okay all in favor all right okay passes eight zero so we'll take the other um letters that we didn't address and that will be up for action at the next meeting all right thank you next we have action items school business neil thank you dr rivera first item this evening is a resolution to approve service agreements with linda burkhart in oak hill school can i have a motion to approve the service agreement kelly ii barb any questions or comments all in favor passes 8-0 uh next is recommendation to approve the agreement with maria college to accept students for internship and practicum experience can i have a motion to approve the internship agreement uh blanca second kelly any questions or comments all in favor passes eight zero

073uh next is a resolution to approve an agreement to make available college in the high school courses to students for college credit during the 2021 school year with suny schenectady community college can i have a motion to approve a college and high school agreement barb second gloria any questions or comments all in favor passes eight zero uh next is recommendation to approve the classroom rental agreement with living resources to provide an after-school program for students with disabilities for the 2021-22 school year can i have a motion to approve the classroom rental agreement blanca's second um judy any questions or comments all in favor pass is 8-0 next is a resolution to approve the classroom rental agreement with the capital district ymca to operate an after-school children's program for the 21-22 school year can i have

074a motion to prove the agreement with the why nate second kelly any questions or comments all in favor aye aye passes 8-0 uh next two is approve the agreement to operate a combined ice hockey team with students from scotia glenville mohonasen shama floreysville and our district can i have a motion to approve the ice hockey agreement um nate second barb any questions or comments all in favor it passes eight zero uh next is a resolution to approve the memorandum of agreement with the county of albany for assistance in the implementation of administering coven 19 testing of staff and students under the county's limited service laboratory or an alternate alternet limited service laboratory and according to the new york state department of health requirements can i have a motion to approve the moa with the county

075of albany kelly second rebecca any questions or comments all in favor passes 8-0 uh next is a resolution to approve the agreement with the middle's law firm to provide legal services can i have a motion to approve the um law firm agreement barb second kelly any questions or comments yeah how is this different from what we already have with the honeywell law firm uh this is for a different matter okay a specific yes yeah okay all in favor passes eight zero uh next is a resolution to award the bid for dual purpose copy paper to liberty paper the lowest responsibility meeting specifications can i have a motion to approve the paper bit nate second kelly any questions or comments all in favor aye passes eight zero uh next is the award a bid for environmentally

076friendly ice melt to site one landscape supply can i have a motion to prove the ice melt good wonka second gloria questions or comments all in favor aye passes eight zero uh next is a resolution to approve the application for corrected tax rule for the tax year 2021-22 can i have a motion to approve the resolution gloria second kelly any questions or comments all in favor pass is 8-0 and then finally this evening we receive we've received a number of donations which we're very grateful for so the recommendation is to accept the donations for two clarinets from chang lee saxophone and flute from renee deluca a 35 millimeter camera from gail says yak and i apologize for probably saying that very badly uh eight backpacks from school systems federal credit union and notebooks from the

077gilberlin chamber of commerce can i have a motion to approve the donations nate second blanca any questions or comments just thank you for all those donations thank you all in favor aye passes eight zero okay thank you neil uh next we have superintendent action dr wiles okay thank you my first item is a resolution to certify as qualified lead evaluators for teachers our principals including michael piscotelli michael laster peter bourbon allen lockwood christopher sunita bethini jacqueline vandenberg and lisa knowles can i have a motion to approve the certification for lead evaluators um blanca second nate any questions or comments you all in favor high pass is 8-0 uh my next item is a resolution to certify is uh certified as qualified lead evaluator for building principals now the superintendent of schools that would be me

078to evaluate our seven principles can i have a motion to approve the certification for lead evaluator of principles um kelly second barb any questions or comments all in favor passes 8-0 um my next item is a request to approve the professional development plan for the 2021-2022 school year highlights of the plan include additional professional development for reading and special education teachers on specialized reading instruction social emotional learning with particular focus on the implementation of the positivity project at grades k-8 and professional development for and by the coordinator for diversity equity and inclusion can i have a motion to approve the uh pd plan kelly's second nate any questions or comments all in favor passes 8-0 my next item is a request for the board to approve a memorandum of agreement with the gilderland teachers association

079and this memorandum refers to their participation in supervising lunch periods at the elementary school so that students can have lunch in their classrooms this cuts down in the density of students in our cafeterias can i have a motion to prove the moa with the with the gta judy second gloria any questions or comments all in favor passes 8-0 and my last item this evening is a resolution to ratify the agreement between the guilderland central school district and the guilderland teachers association for the duration of the collective bargaining agreement which is july 1 2021 to june 30th 2025. can i have a motion to approve the contract ratification uh blanca second judy any comments or questions all in favor aye passes 8-0 oh thank you dr wiles next we have board committee reports i'll start with

080um you have policy fruits of our labors and we'll be meeting again after the new board member is appointed okay thank you barb um what about business practices next audit i think we have a meeting oh yeah we had a meeting on august 11th the notes are in the in the uh online and our next meeting is august 27th at nine o'clock august 27th sorry september 27th at night thanks kelly and communications yeah we ate we met last week on september 8th um myself judy rebecca and blanca are the board members there and we also welcomed patrice viverito who is our new boces communications specialist we're very happy to have her uh neil and regan and marie also were at the meeting um we talked about first of all the communication regarding the capital project

081and uh patrice shared with us a draft for a trifold which will be mailed out to all residents in the district the group suggested some several edits to the document including some changes to some of the images that were chosen and we wanted to better emphasize the three parts of the bond issue which was infrastructure outdoor learning spaces and technology we also besides those recommendations we added we asked her to look into adding the qr code for easy access so somebody could easily access the website using their smartphone patrice noted for us that the trifold would be going out to the printer and it would be mailed to homes 10 days before the vote we talked about the website patrice informed the committee that there's a lengthy story currently on the website that includes a

082complete history of the project going back to october 2018. so if you want if you're into the history of things this would be the place to go if you wanted the history of how this project moved forward uh we also looked at a poster that communications office has created that can be placed in a number of places around the town and within the district and it will also be shared with our sports teams and ymca and things like that to get the word out that the the bond vote the date and everything like that and the information regarding the vote also a video of patrick milowski is coordinating the production of a short video about the project the bond issue for social media and c.s arch the architect is assisting in this work so we'll

083look forward to seeing that the committee also discussed other strategies about getting the word out about the projects uh including talking points for board members to use at upcoming pta meetings over the next month or so uh and for principals to use at their open houses this fall all which are virtual so we want to make sure that the same information is getting out and to everyone we talked about a letter to the editor to the editor of the enterprise uh getting a letter and we talked about having it come from the whole board so if we're going to try to do something with drafting something that we put it get out uh into the ultimate enterprise before the vote coming from the whole board encouraging people to get out to learn about the project

084see what it covers and then to get out and vote and regular friday communications has already started we'll start uh going out from the superintendent now that school's underway and information about the project and the capital project will also be coming out to us through that our next meeting is october 13th at 4 30. thank you uh was there any discussion about re i know you said talking to sports teams but uh reaching out to the booster clubs yes i mean a number of letters that we got from booster club members and they they have a built-in network that we could certainly use i mean i i have a mutual softball coach who's uh wrote a letter to us he's the president of the peewee football and he's he's ready and willing to they're in

085the list regan said he would work with dave to make sure that the coaching staff and all the booster groups uh were reminded families to get out and vote great thank you i um i was just gonna ask about so the history of the project you said is on the website do you think there's a plan like to because i'm thinking of the you know the public comments tonight about um the questions about turf and so even though we've been talking about it for like two years and just so people see that the process that's taken place to get to this to get that out so people can see that this wasn't just you know sprung out of nowhere yeah i've had a chance to read the story but i intend to uh it's not

086supposed to be on our website at this point kind of summarizing all the steps that we've been through does um i know marie that the there's mailings that go out to the community or to the i guess the school district before the vote but is there anything set via email or electronically because what is it september 14th tonight yeah so it's about it's less than a month away yeah so i think um the video which we um video today right outside here so we um that will go through our social media so it'll be a lot more of electronic um patrice and i spoke about using our friday communications everyone between now and then to focus on some you know portion of aspect of the project um and then obviously to remind folks that the

087vote is on october 7th the deal in our elementary buildings so a lot of electronic communication it links to the documents that we have and patrice was able to build in the qr code on the brochure so that was a good suggestion so people kind of go right to that more likely story which gives the history that also talks about three big areas of the project and it breaks it down by each building um and then there's links to previous board meetings and powerpoints and any other information that's there there's a lot i think we are also making sure people understand that their the faqs are on the web you know linked to that because you know some good questions were raised tonight we want to make sure the information gets out we'll try to

088bring that up maybe higher because you can it's long so you need to stick with it i know so um you know given these questions i think they're legitimate questions and we can provide some good information about it okay any other comments or questions about communications and then we have um diversity equity and inclusion we haven't met yet um the school year but i think so one of our one of our teachers on the steering committee um took a job at another that she moved so she's gone so we're looking for another teacher rep there but i think we'll have to kind of reconvene now that we have um a new dei director who would probably need to have involved in that um committee as well i have a meeting on the books for 22

089september yep oh you do it's on youtube yeah well then forget what i just said however i don't know if it's virtual or if it's in person well it's scheduled for virtue is it i think so i don't have the link yet i get that but um the steering committee probably needs to yeah reconvene yep it's on if we have a meeting scheduled but yeah we have a meeting so get that out [Music] so i guess the steering committee we should probably at least touch base and get the agenda um do you think it's reasonable murray to keep that 22nd meeting because that's what next week um you know i think udi director oh yeah because the steering committee would meet before we would have the larger group i just don't want to waste i

090don't want to have everybody come to the meeting if it's just it's there there's a plan um i think we do it all this i think there's a bunch of dates on the books yeah i have a whole bunch of things i would lean towards doing it um even if it's more of a reorganizational kind of meeting yeah we're gonna get to meet um matt pinchernut yep um we had some we could do some discussion around the book that everyone was supposed to read the first three chapters of we didn't do quiz i got the first chapter done working on it um i i think it's worthwhile to get the momentum going yeah okay so i can reach out tomorrow to set up a steering committee meeting yeah that would be great should we keep

091that virtual then because it's the decent size for a big group yeah and i think maybe that's something we talked about with the group because do we want to transition to an in-person setting because it's going to be three times as big as what we are right now right it's hard without speakers and without here it's nice to have i can still i can actually hear you better with the mics but but i think online is easier but well we have that um for now at least that i guess allowance right from the governor that we can be online sure right it's not a business name right right right so i would i would say that next wednesday we meet virtually and then go from there start there for sure and maybe we can ask

092um i don't know if matt knows that that's when we're meeting but that would be great if we could or he could introduce himself not to put him on the spot for the committee okay okay so those are all the committee reports um public comment number two are there any public comments linda i did just email you oh that came in about half hour oh okay let me just pull it up okay this is from todd pittori okay so the um public comment is from todd petori says i applaud you for taking the step to require vaccination for students six year 16 years of age and older based on fda approval however i need to ask why limit this requirement to those only in high risk designated sports especially with winter sports being indoors why

093would you not require all participants 16 and older be vaccinated to participate also please clarify whether athletes will be will need to be fully vaccinated prior to the future seasons fully vaccinated is generally two weeks following the second dose this will be seven weeks of time for an unvaccinated individual from the start of the process believe it or not this means winter athletes would need to start the process in the next week which is quicker october 1st deadline for the first shot then you were requiring those already participating in fall sports what was passed tonight needs more clarification for the community thank you for having these hard discussions doing your best for our community and passing reasonable steps to protect our community best regards todd patordi a really good point something we should talk about

094now sooner than later yeah especially with the the winter sports the um the time period of being fully vaccinated by the time i don't know when winter sports start i don't know either whatever i believe him look november october 1st would not give you enough time what's that in october first would not give you enough time yeah we weren't thinking i mean i don't think necessarily i mean the rules out there i mean first of all i think we as as we propose that it does apply to all future seasons we mean and the reason for the high risk is that's what the cdc guideline is that's what we're doing we're following the cdc guideline so but i definitely think we certainly included that for all future sports so i don't this i mean people

095know that they have to be vaccinated to start the sport so just because there's a if they want to wait till no you know september 30th and put themselves at risk for not starting that season or maybe not even trying out but i think it's important since we just did this tonight that that word go out into all you know through all the channels through the coaches through the especially the coaches they could reach out to the players and say look you're going to be starting in november and you've got to make a decision now is that reasonable then to have the winner one that we said by the start of the season or like a week in if they need to schedule um i think before the start yeah i think it's reasonable like

096if it's a november ish start time that gives them plenty of time to get back together we'll probably have a message then go out tomorrow to the sports scenes that are at high risk because it's saying two day two weeks after the second shot right that's why not fully vaccinated it only feels like seven weeks it's a seven week process it's five weeks it's only gonna be pfizer if you're talking about 16 and over so it's three weeks it's three weeks so so we're saying then you know their first and second shot by the time their sports start right well first and second plus two weeks is that yes yes that the time would be before the october that was the point is i think yeah for the fall sports they would need to start

097their vaccination process before we are saying that the winter sports need to have their first shot done which is okay if we decide that because we acknowledge that we are way behind here and it's just a weird coincidence i think that they're going to have to start their first shot before right and i think we just acknowledge that and accept it like so is that is that enough time because i don't know what exactly what does sports start for them to be vaccinated to be fully vaccinated okay it's uh november 15th is winter oh okay we got a next show november okay yeah so we need to get word out and i i don't disagree with the other risks sports but i know that this i feel like there's a lift to get to this

098i also you know think that um the vaccination for employees too we have a lot of um a lot of people who are vaccinated who are at risk around people who are not vaccinated and i don't i know that i think what was in bethlehem and i think that comes the only one right around here that has required it for employees i kind of want to see what happens with that and i would also like to go that route you know only vaccinating part of the population that is eligible is not really doing the maximum possible i mean i'm not opposed to the the medium risk either but i don't know what you guys think i think that that might be um i think making this step tonight with the high risk is is a

099big step knowing the community et cetera and i think we're following the guidance you know so the guidance is very clear about high-risk sports it does not recommend it you know it encourages it but it doesn't recommend it for medium risk or low-risk sports we're going to be considering when are more sports are indoors aren't they regan maybe you know in the winter yeah alba one yeah okay that's what i mean so it's all of them considered high-risk sports so everybody should be vaccinated they didn't last year they didn't consider all of them high risk um remember the indoor indoor track that was outdoor was moderate risk i believe basketballs high risk wrestling competitive cheers that's not recognized by new york state police i have a question here about if we were to do powder

100puff football would we require all the players what is girls playing football and i think it has modified rules which i don't really know it's flag flag flag football for i think um the juniors play the seniors and i think the last time the freshmen played the sophomores i think that started just recently maybe two years ago can you show you guys how that's true another opportunity to encourage vaccinations i think it's a big step tonight just to get in in line with the cdc guidelines and the department of health guidelines i think i think that's great that we're there if you want to talk about further restricting it for you know uh medium risk or anything like that it's another discussion that we could have now or we can sit on it but i

101think just getting to where we're at i think it's a good spot to be at yeah i think that probably would take some longer discussion or longer thought and i mean if you want to talk about we can talk about it there's anything further so i'm very pro-vaccination i think we should be encouraging vaccination but i don't think we should be deviating from the guidance i think if our message is that we should be consistent with guidance yeah we should just but my opinion is we should just be consistent with the guidance and not further not further restricting guidance yeah that's fair i think that's reasonable but then we're saying that we know better yeah that's what should we say i think that's absolutely fair to stick with the guidance that we have seen i

102don't know if that's an snn that goes out or is that like just a message through the coaches i think well back to your point about vaccinating requirements for teachers what school districts are doing it i thought it's just bethlehem it's just fun we're talking about employees yes i think it's just between around here okay for sure and rebecca do you know is there any guidance or recommendations around that specific to teachers um i i don't know off the top of my head i mean i think that ocean is encouraged right for everyone that's eligible the osha guidelines are going to be didn't biden say that that any employer with 100 or more employees will be required where do we fit in and test i think it's i think it's vaccinate or weekly testing is

103that other tests yeah did we fall under osha no well no i wouldn't i don't know where the we fall under the new york state department of health guidelines which require vaccination of weekly testing right okay so we're in line with that now once we get our well we'll have our testing up at speed here it's also testing for anybody that's that wants testing yeah right they don't have they don't have to have a requirement you have to be sick you don't to be anything i know i know we're sending our kids every weekend to rite aid to do drive-through testing it's free it's easy on our own every saturday just to make sure so i know i'm pretty sure the guidance says we have to make it available to anybody that wants it so

104if you're a family that wants to lean forward for other people's safety then you should be requesting tests as much as you want i think or getting them through the free resources like we're doing any other comments or questions or issues um the date of our interview of the potential candidates is what that's a week from tonight so i think it's the 21st 21st or 20th i think six pm okay that's one that's six thirty yeah is what it's listed on the website so the other question um who's going to be developing the questions that we'll ask these people will be the communications committee i i'd be glad to offer my help but i don't know if you've assigned anybody to that task no so i know we had questions from before i don't know

105if anybody has those questions i i got a few oh you do okay so um if i remember correctly we used the same set of questions the past previous times and then we had like the the people who were he was running for those positions sit in the ants take turns answering but i don't remember if someone else did they have a student in the past asked us the questions you know school moderator the student moderator we haven't heard from like any pta that want to be involved or epa counsel right marie no they typically do need the candidate piece i think i remember i vaguely remember correctly but um freedom sends out the questions to us beforehand we can look at them if we want to tweak any or add any okay we have

106that opportunity we should do it yeah i like the opportunity just to take it i'd like the opportunity to see the class yeah just read through them and see if there's anything maybe it's dated or not they you know yeah i'm going to quote on limb and probably say that what we're dealing with now is probably not the same type of questions you're dealing with last time you had to do it in the future probably yeah yes you could send those out that would be great i could share them for sure and then i don't know if it's appropriate if it's me or somebody else is asking questions to all the candidates i think it should be somebody with yeah so we can just concentrate on listening yeah yeah why don't i ask um mr

107piscotelli to see if there may be a student who'd be interested in doing it yeah and i think like in the past we can make a decision that night yeah right we went to like executive yeah then afterwards we made a decision yeah yeah maybe like a forum maybe yeah yeah so we'll get those questions and then i guess review them with that um that was your question yeah so one week from tonight and dr weil as you said there were five people we have five individuals okay okay all right any other issues ideas are sharing on behalf of the communications committee we really appreciate you turning these in after dirty meeting because if we see something early enough we can deal with it so that's been great thank you all right so if there

108are no other comments or questions i will have them take a motion to adjourn blanca second barb all in favor fast is 8-0 thank you everybody have a good night you