001we're good Angela all right good evening I'd like to call to order the Wednesday March 12th 2025 Board of Education special meeting uh trusty ryer bataria is going to lead us in the pledge I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right let's get started with item 13 um our superintendent update good evening everyone hello and welcome again to March uh we've been enjoying wonderful weather a little chilly again today but um welcome to March um uh tomorrow uh for those of you who are watching this currently is our superintendent conference day so I want to give a big shout out to uh Maria and Kim and our team for all
002the work and planning that's gone into it uh ASA you were part of that too in grades 7 through 12 tomorrow is held like a conference people are signing up for different workshops based upon feedback and needs which is terrific and um k6 we have our parent teacher conferences so again um tomorrow we're looking forward to a great day um our ausing high school students recently showcased their business and marketing experience at the New York Deca State career conference with six of our Scholars won medals across various competitive categories so again ausing high school is in the house I want to thank our PTA for Co ordinating the Brookside Neon Nights glow dance parties wonderful opportunity for our Brookside Scholars uh OS high school student um Mariah Crosley has been named the 2025 youth Honore
003at westchester's largest woman's History Month Gala and we have again our ausing high school students continuing to assist those with free tax prep on Mondays from 4: to 8 so everybody uh who might know someone who could benefit um walk-ins are welcome please spread the great news and our high school art show is on display all march on the second floor of the Art Gallery at ausing high school actually they're absolutely beautiful please stop by explore the talent and support our amazing artists so that is my update for tonight all right uh moving along uh I'd like to take a motion to move up 6.1 and 6.3 so move second any discussion all in favor I opposed extensions all right now I'd like to take a motion on items 6.1 and 6.3 mov second any
004discussion all in favor I opposed abstentions and I'm GNA turn it back over to M foxter so I want to thank um thank our board president and the board for um moving forward on this motion this is a very exciting announcement we have to uh announce tonight so I'm going to tip my hand over to our assistant superintendent of HR Don Mara who steered the ship in this process thank you Mary thank you Angela um so welcome everyone just wanted to acknowledge uh on the board agenda tonight we are asking the board um we're recommending uh Mr uh ASA chasia um to become our next director of stem as of July first um he's in the audience tonight I want to thank the committee members who are a part of this process both um uh
005Maria and I were uh really thrilled to have uh our committee members be a big big part of this process representing different buildings within the district um and different departments as well and um the one thing I would say from their perspective about um Mr shika's candidacy is when he came in their reports to us were how incredibly prepared he was professional and truly blew us away um not that we didn't expect a great interview uh we did but he was absolutely outstanding in his preparation his articulation of his vision um the way he anticipates um bringing our district uh forward with um within each department and and really building a culture of collaboration and professionalism um so really a truly outstanding job right I um still sitting on my desk which I'll be happy
006to share with the board is asa's um boarding plan and communication plan when he met with me I just couldn't have been more impressed with the professionalism the attention to detail um as's background um he's a chemistry teacher with other certifications so for many people you know when you take a look at Sciences I'm a secondary person so ASA and I had a great chat about all things science in high schools but um people who have a technical uh and uh degree in chemistry have a deep understanding of math they physical sciences and there's so much math that leans into it so and then he had um out of the box appro coaches towards engineering and and clearly leaned into the experiences in his short time here with us um basically a year and a
007half to understand the uh the capacity of oening high school and our students what's coming from the middle school and how we can lean into that to make it Forward focused so I'm very excited um to have recommended ASA for this this evening can I just make one comment too so I I had the pleasure the first time I think I I met you was down in Houston and I have to tell you your unwavering commitment towards the sciences and the ideas that you and I chatted about in in a brief session that we had honestly I I'm not surprised you're here I'm actually incredibly thrilled you're here um and quite honestly I'm looking forward to so much of what you and I chatted about um and and you sharing your vision back then and
008just you making a trip down on your own just to go see what the kids are doing I think that that was just honestly I couldn't be more excited to see you here thank you so much ASA and congratulations and welcome to this new role would you like to come up and say a few words if you'd like [Laughter] to good even evening um first of all like to say thank you uh to the committee and and thank you Mary um I'm very excited uh about this new role and um I'm really excited to build on what's what's already a very strong foundation in in science uh and math and Technology engineer here at ausing uh I'm just excited to hit the ground running thank you so much thank you thank you thank you to
009this board as well thank you Ian I think I want to give um thank ASA also because we're bridging he plays a very important role this time of year as a assistant principal at the high school responsible for science technology engineering and math so we also have a a small um stien associate with with a level of bridging I know you're here with your wonderful wife so we're going to be borrowing some of your family time to do that bridging and we appreciate the sacrifice that takes on family and your three kids but yeah thank you all right uh moving on to our first uh public comment uh period uh this is for agenda items only not to exceed 10 minutes um is there anybody in the audience here who wishes to speak on an
010agenda related topic is that can hang out for our second public comment period I don't think this is going to be a terribly long evening unlike some others so um is there anybody online who wishes to speak who has a agenda related comment okay um that brings us next to our uh work session so I'm going to turn it over to uh Mary and Alita to talk to us about our budget for this year so um I do want to thank the board of education for it very transparent and open approach um we have spent a significant amount of time working on our budget for this year the board has received their budget uh books and we will have an all day budget Workshop this um this Saturday in our work this year which is
011building upon the great work that the board did last year um we are able to present to um the community to the board to the community the official um tax levy um approach towards our budget this year which is a major Revenue uh a recurring Revenue stream for our annual budget thank you um good evening everyone I'm here to talk about the largest revenue stream in our budget um which is um our taxes and the ability of the school district to Levy taxes uh property taxes uh it's the legal term is the maximum allowable tax levy but it is also known as the tax cap cap so this document is literally um what's been reported out after um I hit the submit button into the controller's um website um the formula if you remember even
012when it first came into law uh several years ago many years ago we didn't focus on necessarily all of the uh the formula elements um what we focused on was five fast tax cap facts and in looking at this document I think the thing that is the most important that impacts the tax levy limit calculation the most is going to be your exclusion so the capital exclusion is basically uh what allows you to Levy your taxes um in and considering um capital and not making it part of the regular expense so you get to exclude that from your tax levy calculation and I'm going to show you the things that are excluded in that $9 million number so um when you look at the total exclusions for the levy which is 39543 um that 9
013million is excluded so um you'll see in the previous year which is a 2425 5 school year 9,444 442 I'm sorry these glasses are not working they're supposed to be bip poal but I still can't see um maybe if I there I'll make this bigger sorry guys so the exclusion for 2425 is 9.4 million and the anticipated exclusion for the capital is 9 million just a little bit above 9 million the other thing to note here is when we talk about the tax levy limited to 2% that 2% is really just one part of the calculation one element of the calculation that 2% is basically the CPI for um the school for the the fiscal year for the calendar year um that's reported by um the Department of Labor so we all know that the
014T the CPI um for this area is not 2% it's much much more than that but the cap is that that um we would not get an increase in our CPI above 2% even if the number was 4% or 6% it only will be up to 2% and if it was below 2% that number would also change so when people talk about the levy being over limited to 2% that's not actually accurate how do I sorry this is a PDF okay so the items that com comprise the um transfer to Capital line so this is one of the portions of the uh Capital um exclusion that's totaling $9 million so you'll recall um during um last year's budget presentations and also our discussions related around the bond um a portion of uh the work that
015would be necessary to complete the the area near the uh 78 the new 78 building with some clearing and earthw work um behind the new building so we wanted to be in a position where we didn't have any impact on the the tax levy so we started to uh take some of those scope of items out and that was one of the things that we took out and we talked about it being included in the transfer to Capital line for the 2526 budget so that's what that represents uh we also talked about uh Brookside having cafeteria renovation and kitchen uh work an addition done we talked about that last year that's included in this budget we also talked about um the importance of upgrading our security cameras we were asked are there anything any items
016that are coming up that would impact our transfer to Capital line um and one of the things we talk Al about was the need to upgrade our cameras uh districtwide and we also are adding some cameras uh districtwide uh the other thing that we spoke about last year was the need to resurface AMD track um so that is included in the transfer to Capital line uh we're replacing uh the water main uh uh water main line at Claremont we're replacing the gym windows on the west side of the gym at the high school the floor uh repair and resand resand and um new painted lines uh we want to uh repair uh our main gym bleachers and also paint the gym that probably will be one project um because typically painting is not a capital
017item uh Park we there's masonry work that needs to be done and repointing and um the replacement of damaged concrete sidewalks around the building Rosevelt also some Mason masonry repairs um and repo repointing and exterior paint painting uh and replacing um some um rtus on the second floor uh Claremont also uh we have Mason masonry work that needs to be done and at Brookside so all of these projects are capital projects that are included in the transfer to Capital line which is T typically that $6.95 million amount um that is what is excluded and allows us to um raise our tax levy without the impact of these expense items in the levy it's in the levy limit itself so even though it's not here the other thing that's included in the um the calculation is
018the the lease expenses for um our um 400 executive that's excluded from the cap also the leases for the energy performance contract we have two um leases for two from 2014 for the equipment that we're still paying off and also for the recent one in 2022 so those are two of um areas that are also excluded um we also have to subtract um building aid from this exemption um because that's another Revenue source so we can't include that that would be double dipping but the bottom line is um based on this information and what was reported to New York State Controllers Office we um anticipate that our our Levy limit will be 1.64 um% so it's lower than it was last year uh we were uh higher than that but right now uh we're calculated
019to have a levy limit of 1.64% is there are there any questions right um I'll oh sorry Mary you want to add no I just want to say so I understood the need to keep it under 4% and to address important work we also are thinking of some AC work as well yeah thank you I no I was forgetting something that's not included in the um the capital line because it's not Capital work it's just purchasing equipment um so you'll see that expense in um the 1620 200 code that was one of my questions yeah I know I said this better be AC there's there is AC when I saw it I there is on my Post-It note about that um with the understanding that we will do a much deeper dive into the budget
020on Saturday um we'll go around the table now so thanks for this and I had a couple of questions just more so for the community so last last year around this time we put in some monies that were going into Capital as well and that was for driveway plus the HVAC now that money is still in a in a in an account that's being going to be it's going to be appropriated specifically for the AMD driveway and the HVAC it's just we need to go through all of the um approvals up up in Albany etc etc before that moved forward so that's why that didn't have that's why that's happening in 2025 right that we're going to probably kick that off of the summer estimated so so what happens is and the reason why it's
021called the transfer to Capital line is because literally the funds get transferred to the capital fund so it sits there as a project and the capital fund which is separate then the a fund which is the general fund that the voters vote on so that's why it's actually called the transfer of capital so all of those items those Capital items go into um the H fund we call it capital and those will be earmarked correct each of those different line item just like we did last year correct but the thing is even with what you're allocating for now the timing of those different events specifically um they could be staggered based upon the different projects I imagine painting the OS gym would probably come at a point when you're you're also because there's all Renovations
022and everything that's going to happen with the crossover into the the um extension that we have for the high school so all of these here just for for the sake of clarity for the community EV we transfer it do the transfer to Capital because that's what we need to have approval for these items are what they're they're keyed in for and then at the at the time when the project is ready to go this is already approved so you have the Monies to be able to out to be able to spend against that it's just for clarity for the community I just want to make sure that that is clear yep that's that's that good yep uh headed around the table Rob um yeah thanks so I guess technically for all of us in the
023community are any of these like would be done so for for if they get put in the budget they stay in the budget and they get approved would these be done in 2026 like I guess I'm just curious about the time Horizon for for some of these are these all three to five years out that they would literally be done or some of these over the summer projects you have any I I can't speak to that the the the funding of the project has nothing to do with the the um the expense of the project we have to Air Market by that school gear so it's transferred um for the 2526 school year the AMD driveway was transferred as of the 2425 so if you look at the audit you'll see those projects based on
024years when is expensed um it doesn't make a difference it'll sit there until it gets expensed um and then we close it out but I can't tell you that you know these are not big projects so it shouldn't take that long so the I think Alita too also correct me if I'm wrong but the Brookside let's say cafeteria renovation that has to go to state Ed yes yes yes right so that would be one to your question Rob that could take a while because we have to send all that paperwork up through three different layers that stay at whereas painting a gym is something that can be done according to Jared schedule he probably would have to bid it out and get the lowest quotes or do it in house the all of these are
025capital projects that have to be approved by n if that painting of gym stood by itself it would not be here but it would be included of all of those other items for the gym that need to be approved by net so those would be all combined into one project yeah no I think and we could discuss a during budget but it certainly would be helpful for me and presumably the rest of the board in the community say oh okay we're GNA maybe sign off on this we're going to see this we're going to see a new resurface track at AMD two years out three years out four years out we're going to see the bleachers done at the high school a year or two don't have to get into it now and I understand
026you may not have the information out but I think then know might be helpful just to know that so people like okay I'm not expecting it next week but I'm not expecting it 10 years from now no not 10 years right just can I just say one more thing um just also really quickly if I may there's that one line item about a water M on that um just also for the community if you could just say you know when a water M are who's responsible for that when it's out in the street and and why would we be responsible for it if it's out on the street um I don't feel comfortable answering that because I I'm not the expert I know Jarrett will be here on you don't need to answer it just
027bring that up for that future that's fine I didn't think you were going to have an answer okay good so Jared will be on Saturday cuz I she knows I was about to yeah I I just had a really quick followup okay and um really quickly so just I know we were talking about like we we look at this every year was there anything in this list and again if we don't have it tonight that's fine but that like we talked about last budget season we were gonna put in and we said H you know these other things are more important was there anything they came to mind just so we sort of can track that so actually what we talked about because the board asked they asked once we uh have to use that
0286.9 million for to repay the bond premium which is going to start in 26 27 what happens if there's projects that are left out there that we can't do because that money is no longer available so we did have and I could share with the board again uh a document that we worked with that Jared and I and um our CM Paul tazy worked on and looked at the um building condition surveys and also the work that we believe needs to be done more in in the more immediate and the work that has already been done and the probable use of life for those projects so we had a document that shared all of that information the things that stuck out again were the AMD um was the AMD um track and then also our
029cameras and that is included in here um 425 okay thank you I think it's good for the community to hear that we do have a building condition survey that informs our work right all right uh continuing around the table Annie any questions Melissa um not for this presentation this is um answer any questions that I had up thank you okay um Alita I just want to inter reiterate I think something that you had said to the community because there's such a misunderstanding about what the tax cap is and we hear about this 2% 2% 2% and that I I want to I'm going to say it and then you tell me if I'm saying it wrong Alita that 2% is a number that gets plugged into a very complicated equation the numbers for which are
030on your first slide then it the formula crunches those numbers and it spits out a number that could be 2% it could be higher than 2% it could be lower than 2% and that's where our maximum allowable tax levy is this year it's below 2% it's 1.67 167 I think it's 167 I think I said 164 167 okay and um we could if we wanted to ask for more than that we could but we would need a greater number of people to vote in favor of the of the budget correct great that's my understanding I just want to make sure it's everyone else's too all right we'll move along then uh does anybody have anything they wish to break out between 4.1 and 4.7 all right I'll take a resolution for 4.1 through 4.7 second
0314.1 resolution to appoint additional consultants for the 20 24 2025 school year 4.2 resolution to approve a sidel letter agreement with the aing association of Administrators and supervisors and employees number employee number 0 6258 4.3 resolution to approve a Selter agreement with the aing Teachers Association and employee number 693 4.4 resolution setting the dates of the annual statutory budget hearing and annual District budget vote and Board of Education elections 4.5 resolution to approve an agreement with the Westchester County of Elections 4.6 resolution to approve Phoenix Graphics Inc as the official ballot printer 4.7 resolution to approve Ron's Trucking Court as the moving company for the trans for transporting the electronic voting machines any discussion all in favor I I opposed abstentions does anybody have anything they wish to break out from 5.1 and 5.2 all
032right I'll take a motion for 5.1 and 5.2 5.1 resolution regarding Cooperative agreement with Southern Westchester bosies 5.2 resolution to accept donation from the NorthShore Animal League Roosevelt mutre program any discussion all in favor I I opposed extensions does anybody have anything they wish to break out from 6.2 and 6.4 through 6.12 all right I'll take a motion for 6.2 and 6.4 through 6.12 still mov second 6.2 resolution regarding professional staff resignations 6.4 resolution regarding professional staff appointments 6.5 resolution regarding Civil Service staff appointments 6.6 resolution regarding support staff appointments 6.7 resolution regarding professional staff appointments before after school programs 6.8 resolution regarding Civil Service staff appointments before after school programs 6.9 resolution regarding support staff appointments before after school programs 6.10 resolution regarding APR annual performance annual professional performance review accountability 6.11 resolution regarding
033per Dam substitute appointments 6.12 resolution regarding approval of school volunteers any discussion all in favor I opposed abstentions all right thank you for your patience we're moving on to our uh final audience recognition seeing as we have somebody speak I do have to read our public comment guidelines uh we are about to begin the first public comment or the second I should say public comment period of our meeting although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our residents District taxpayers students and school Personnel about their concerns and issues having said that please note the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do
034not expect the board to necessarily respond to your concerns and questions tonight we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be we will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time under state and federal privacy laws we are unable to entertain any comments or questions about school personnel or individual student matters please know however that we take Personnel concerns very seriously on these matters we would ask that you go through the appropriate administrative channels we want our Schoolboard meetings to serve as an example to our students that members of our school board and members of our community can deal with controversial issues in a civil Manner
035and demonstrate mutual respect for one another in that Spirit we will insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain Civility and respect for any Divergent views that others possess we ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience um during the first public comment uh period speakers May address only items perent to tonight's meeting agenda and during the second comment period can address any school related topic I want to remind everyone that you may submit written comments to the board via our Boe awom ufsd dorg email in lie of or in addition to speaking during the public comment period in the unlikely event the meeting becomes unruly the board will recess the meeting and return once order has been restored each individual speaker is allotted up to
0363 minutes the individual time limits will be enforced so that as many members of the public who wish to speak may be allowed to do so and to respect the other board business that is being conducted tonight before speaking please share your name and address would you like to come up to the mic and I apologize because you told us the topic and I I think it did turn out to be technically related to what we were talking about tonight so I thank you for your patience no I thank you and um first of all let me just say my name is Howard fer I live at 22 Toano Road in aeny um I have uh one son who has graduated from the school some one who is in the school but uh the thing
037I want to address and and I respectfully um want to just say that uh I have the utmost respect for the board for the superintendent and for our community and um I've been an outspoken advocate for um a number of things that sort of went up against some of the um the important issues relating to clear cutting of trees Land Development um having to do with developers and um a number of other um people that um don't necessarily understand the impact of taking down forest that house of course nature um you know we talk to our students how important it is to be a good Steward of the land and it had come to my attention that um in the plan to uh move forward with some of the AMD development uh that there are
038uh there there is an intention to clearcut 15 Acres of trees that are adjacent to the cemetery and part of the AMD campus um while I have no objection and I've written to the board and to the superintendent um of the project um my objection which I voiced and and I know that there's a a greater Community concern both uh from the town and the village I've spoken to officials as well as members of the environmental advisory committee as well as uh many other uh people in the community that uh have always been concerned about you know our our forest and our dwindling Forest and um the habitats of Nature and all the good things that come with that so my question uh and I I haven't received a a direct response to the question
039uh yet although I've written and uh asked for this is to find out whether uh there is um this project is going to move forward with the clear cutting of all the land or whether it's going to be done in in pieces and uh understand canly there's projects that you have that need to be done I think in 5 acre um uh whatever chunks or whatever it is and um the reason that I heard during the board meeting um for clear cutting all of the land is that uh the equipment's there and uh it since it's there we might as well take down all the trees and that just brings a lot of uh uh of questions to mind because uh is there a future plan for that clear cuted land um I'm sorry I
040have to stop you at three minutes um but I we get the substance of your question is understood and I I don't know if um Miss Fox alter is prepared to address it right now thank you okay thank you so much and again um I'm I'm going to repeat the um the operative word here it's not plans it's planning and um this is a really complicated site there is more slope here 60 plus feet than I understood and having a lot of people um on site uh we counted the number of trees where the longed bat lives I mean there has been so much work through this process so it's an iterative process I I do know that the board the community the administration we cared deeply about trees and we wouldn't clearcut without a
041reason and um we don't intend to do that and that um we're responding to concerns as you as you reiterated in your your letter that the driveway became such a a demand when um about being able to get ambulance and police and fire up here and I have to give the Our First Responders in the town and the village such credit for that because they were instrumental in their thought process for that so with that said it's the spirit of of cooperation and then I we certainly want to thank the town too for their feedback about how do you make that entrance the exit out onto the stormmy town safer for everyone so I think there's so many unifying themes here but the art of all of this is in the planning right so we're
042looking at three different funding sources so as of um over the past week Alita May if I'm wrong we've had five meetings on this topic alone and again you get site work from an engineer you hear from your construction manager so it's a fluid iterative process so in the spirit of trying to and this is where also the feedback to us was super important that the hill to protect the sing sing Hill to protect as many Wetlands as possible are there other ways to engineer what did you discover on your site work so after a 2hour meeting today we're a place where we can say that and this will be this is me I'm going to be with Alita and Jared explaining this in more detail on Saturday it's up to the board to approve
043this but in our current plans that we'll be presenting we're we're we're going to regrade that 60 foot in a way that utilizes and recycles soil and do it in a way that goes wider not deeper and to put the feel Builds on top of that so it will leave eight acres in the back alone thank you so but it's it's an iterative process this is and it's now it's up to these individuals to approve that this is going to be my presentation along with Alita and Jared on Saturday because it's it involves a a tweaking of additional money it involves layering of bond money money in the capital reserve from last year and we're projecting out to what we would do with this here this year but if everyone speaks the same language and
044we have a lot of cooperation from everyone um this should work because we're going this way as far as we can I know now way too much about slope of land and everything that's going on we're not as deep there will be a cut through some of that eight Acres cuz I have to create a water retention a new and different different line to keep the water away from the kill and away from the cemetery I'm sorry it's the teacher and me and I'm looking at a map at my brain as I'm doing this okay but literally that is all outlined today a lot of people sitting around the table we heard the feedback we had you know and this is planning and iterative and you have to walk that site because it's quite interesting
045and I don't want if we didn't get approval for this the board will hear this is a preview on Saturday we'd literally have to put a six foot chain Ling fence be and then I have no way of of retaining water I'd actually create a worse situation so how do I incorporate three things to do a more robust water retention system one that has a capacity to handle bigger storms one that does not tax the town's current sewer system which is over taxed to begin with one keeps away from the kill one that keeps away from the cemetery and yet gives us the fields that later boards could like put an inter Scholastic playing field on so we came up with all of that with many people around the table with good intention and partnership
046and feedback yeah well that's all we ask for you know and uh I'm I'm very happy that you've taken those steps and recognize you know uh as a good example as I wrote in my letter you know um you you teach by example and this is a good way to teach those you know students people thank you so much I know this is not discussion but I do appreciate the feedback and look forward to uh receiving doation to the board yes more to follow right like more to come thank you thank you all right is there anybody else in the audience who wishes to speak all right um Angel is there anybody online okay thank you so uh what's up next is board reports and dialogue does anybody have any committees uh updates first hold
047on a let me take my notes here um I guess it's not been that long since we last met but you want to go ahead Melissa I mean you can no please I mean there not much our newly formed um nisb proposal committee I forgot the official name but we met um and came up with just a rough draft of what the proposal would look like and um we're doing some little tweaks to it and we'll be sharing it with the board yeah we it needs to be um agree I submitted the 20 I want to say fourth but it might be third I can't remember but in any case the next board meeting that we have is kind of our last chance to get everybody's Buy in on that so um we weren't ready
048to show anything yet um but we will before next board meeting and then um any any input hoping to approve it for submission and and this has to create the splash for our district at that that meeting right that the October um that's what that is for the nisba New York State Schoolboard Association convention in October in the city and so the hope is that we would be able to present and the presentations are about an hour long so um that's great we've been you know reviewing what the requirements are for a submission and um sent it's just a proposal so we still have to be chosen right out of if we're chosen I imagine that we can continue the work of the committee to flush out the project it's really only going to be
049like a two-page proposal for now yep and to remind remind us again when is the actual meeting itself it's in October yes okay that that but that's an if that's just cuz we submit it doesn't mean it gets chosen we're aing we kick butt yeah although I was um Baldwinsville near where I grew up just approved a a big bond in December too I'm like oh they could present too well you know circumstances are different the circumstances are different was interesting to read about anyways but congratulations to them it's good for it's good for any Community if you can if you can swing it um the uh Communications committee has been meeting and I feel like I've been playing like kind of telephone between members of the board and the committee to communicate um feedback
050about the mascots to the committee and as a result of that Nicole is in the process of taking the mascot designs that we have and showing them to our kind of equity Partners within the district to make sure that they uh to ensure that they pass muster um and that the process that we've undergone uh to develop the mascots is Equitable and as inclusive as possible um she's showing the designs to student groups um she's got a big list she hasn't shared those specific lists so I can't tell you specifically which students will be seeing it um and then we haven't really made a CH we're going to wait for the feedback from those parties before I think we choose what our next PATH is has anything been truncated down from the the ones that
051were sent out last um Rob and Katherine and I gave our feedback about like our top three um which were which we just picked one version like one version of you know how like it was like two whatever it was ABCD we picked one of those that from that group one from this group where they were similar one from this group where they were similar you know what I mean um and then we're we're still waiting for for that feedback so you know we'll see you're waiting for feedback from who did you say again um I'm not going to be students and students and um our Equity Partners in the district like Andy and I can't remember the specific names of the other people or Community groups off the top of my head but hold
052on let me pull up my email and so what you're waiting for feedback on is that um tie traded list of renderings right yes and Nicole's explaining kind of the process that we've undergone to get to that point um to kind the you know not just like here's here's a couple mascots what do you think but like a uh kind of explanation of how we got here and has the process itself been inclusive um and answering kind of all those questions and sharing the feedback that we've gotten from at the board level with those folks as well so uh hold on just exciting that we're getting a mascot that be that's GNA move forward yeah um hold on so I just I want to understand so the the LA the the few um renderings that
053are going around that's basically what we're going with it has to be out of those ones right like uh well if it's not going to be out of those ones and it needs to be a board discussion because it will cost us more money if if none of the ones that we have are acceptable okay so are we going to go on that path are we not TBD um the people that she besides the students that Nicole is showing the mascots to are Dr dealy um Natalie mccabes wers wer wer wer and then um a recenter and Dr Robin uh Schlesinger center lane so um oh do we have a timeline for when we expect feedback uh I mean no I mean we're trying to she I know she's trying to work fast but I
054also know that this is a busy week for her so no Nicole has been calling the meetings like hey does anybody have any time in the next day can we meet does anybody have you know it's not like on the like the like the policy committee meetings are on the calendar for the rest of the year and this has not been how the communications committee has been operating so um it's more of like I'm playing telephone too much telephone is going on the committee needs to meet so that we can all be up to date and then moving forward so uh I know you know Nicole had wanted to a goal a goal that she had wanted was for ohsa to have a mascot ready to go will that be the case unclear it depends
055on the feedback we get from those places and then what the board decides they want to do that's let's move towards OHS day that's a big day I mean you know I've raised concerns and around the inclusivity and the choices and what's there you know and um so it's my hope that this committee will review and look at something I think what we've looked at today appears less inclusive than you know the concerns I've raised through the process at several stages in the process and you know once the joy Riot was pulled out of the process there really weren't changes at all that reflected any of that so I am concerned I do hope there'll be more renderings that would be more Equitable across gender and you know and what's there so I appreciate the
056work the committee's done um I'm hoping that this can be something we can all be rally behind and see the entire student body in so that's my comment I'm assuming no but I'm just curious um we had talked about just during the whole process like having the younger grades be like Cubs or you know different AG lines are there going to be different logos was for the little kids that's a a maybe later question um I think right now we're looking just overall District but I know that when we received feedback from the community that that was something that was very favorable um but what we're doing right now doesn't exclude that possibility selfishly asking because I want baby lying here um does that capture yeah is I mean just be clear thank you Frank
057and Annie like the board has had my humble pen the ample opportunity to provide feedback we all the feedback that's been provided to date Plus what's been discussed with the student groups Plus what's been T discussed with the equity uh individuals is all being taken into account there'll be a additional iteration of that but yeah if we're going to take and draw new logos it has to come back to board because we are at the end of the scope the scope was for I think two rounds and so if we're going to need more we're going to have to come back and get more money for it and we'll have to have a discussion at the table but um with regards to the Cubs versus L I don't think actually Christine I think we are
058moving forward with One logo for the entire district and that would I think be a separate discussion at some other point okay we've got this is our picture do we want to do iterations that but I think that would be a separate discussion a separate scope at that time so I think it's yes is on that one like yes we could we could but not part of this no right so oh go ahead go ahead please no you were just you sure yeah um just some feedback from from me as far as this process I know uh you're saying that there was ample time I think I think there have been contributions along the way to some of the things that have been shared tonight um so I don't so I think what's being shared
059is that it doesn't appear to have been fully realized for whatever reason not faulting anyone right so I just want to make that clear because it's it's assumed that like no one said anything until now um but what I will say is that the consideration of incorporating when we talk about like an inclusive loo I think it would be more costly to then break out logos for different age groups rather than have a logo that incorporates those things ironically um Old Pride a lion pride it consists of different iterations of lions right and so I think that's a possibility to think of I'm not saying that's what we should go with but I'm just saying what is a way to be costeffective most inclusive most representative is ironically representing a pride of lion to some
060degree or or or whatever I'm just throwing out spitballing here um cuz I'm just looking at the brand messages around it that were shared um especially around like what a lion a symbol of a lion is and I'm seeing what that is I'm and I'm I'm assuming that came out of discussions with the committee right and I'm just saying when I look at the logos that are presented I don't see those things that are listed there right so I'm just I'm just giving feed all although it's like oh we could have given this feedback or that feedback along the way I'm just going off of what I see was a discussion and an agreement upon the committee based on the brand messaging and the logos don't seem to align with that that's all I'm saying
061and I'm not I I appreciate all the time and dedication that's gone into it and I'm not critiquing that at all I'm just simply you I guess giving input I think that's the part we're at right giving input I mean we've been asking for input for some time so I appreciate what you're saying now um if if you want to if you have it's hard like you can't just say to the graphic designer here's the list you know what I mean if you see it and then you're like because what what H has been happening sometimes is that you see it and you're like oh we weren't I didn't realize but I wasn't picturing you know the K kids might say I wasn't picturing a lion in profile I was picturing the lion facing straight
062forward or I was picturing you know strength you know a majestic strength versus a ferocious strength and like those things are things that the graphic designer like those kinds of words are words that the graphic designer needs to hear and so when those words don't come out in the feedback it's hard it's hard to turn that into something tangible right so that's been kind of one of the one of the challenges right and then sometimes you don't know until you're looking at it and then you realize oh I had something pictured yeah I understand you know what I mean and I was just you know I think what inspired me as well um just for where I'm at right now with my comments is that comparing what we have now to what I think the
063committee said they were over underwhelmed with by The Joy Riot renderings and those seem to have a different compilation of things um it was just a a more I guess robust compilation of renderings I guess I would say I don't know what in particular was underwhelming about it I get some of those when I look back I can probably see but in comparison it just seemed to be more options there in terms of right and I think part of that is because in our first discussion with with our discussion with they came without any feedback or ideas really from us at all we came a list that included you know what we're going for it's we want a lion we might we want to still incorporate an O for example uh we want it to
064be gender inclusive we don't know if we want more than one lion or maybe just one lion or we you know like give us some stuff right but by the time we met with Miss Lyn we had already seen that stuff and said you know what we don't want a shield because it looks like a police badge and we don't like that and we didn't realize that that was even a thing and then we saw it and we said we don't want that you know what I mean so she was started with more input from us than Joy Riot did as far as like what was visually there right does that make sense makes sense yeah yeah and again thank you for hearing me out just you know I think this is is board dialogue
065I'm just offering some dialogue I want to again show my appre appreciation to the committee for the time placed in this as someone who's serving on several committees I understand you know taking time out of your day to work on this I just think it you know it's been a while since the as we know that's why we put so much effort into this as a board as a district right because of the uh how important we felt it was I'm just you know utilizing the option that was open for the dialogue thank you yeah thank you and if there is if anybody um on the board like I'm I'm doing this work because the students said they want to do this work this work was kind of like tasked to us right but I'm
066not personally um you know passionate about mascot design um but if somebody else is on the board you know and I I'm happy to and I offered this to Frank I'll open it up to anybody who's not on the committee to take my seat at the next meeting so you can see and be more part of discussion if anybody is feeling kind of voiceless in that process I'll make that offer to anybody that I will I'm I'm happy to sit out a meeting if somebody else is wishing to sit in um Christine can I chime in here Katherine you're speaking to us like a ghost out of nowhere yes you may go ahead yeah so along the same lines with Christine I'm happy to have somebody take my place because I think that if you
067do you will quickly see that there is no winning this and what you might see in this design others might not see at all and what you might think needs to be there some other group will be diametrically opposed to that and so I think we're starting to run into that and everybody's very passionate about the opinions and it's clear that everyone has sort of had I guess some s sort of rendering I think in their minds and there's never going to be a way to match that ever so I think at this juncture you know none of us are graphic designers right you know we we can just give the the feedback the best that we can and so the feedback from the beginning has been very clear try to make this as inclusive
068of of both genders or gender neutral as much as possible and I do think that miss Lynn really genuinely tried to do that by putting the female face at the outline in white in the front and then a main that also is sort of designed to kind of look like the Palisades in the mountains of ausing on the right with some Community landmarks in the middle and so I do think kudos to her for capturing all of that um but and but if somebody else wants to work on this by all means um but I think because so many people can look at the same thing and see different things I think you you know what is most important to me at this juncture is getting student voice feedback so we have asked Nicole to
069go out and gather some student voice feedback from a really broad group of students as broad as possible and I guess we're kind of waiting to see what are their thoughts and what direction do they want us to go in so that we can bring something back to the whole board that's data driven any even realized that there were like female profiles in this it all looked like males to me and I also didn't get the pal things so that was enlightening thank you for sharing that um I had a thought and I'm not trying to make this a discussion or say that we should do this necessarily but just if we are running into like budget concerns with this and cost concerns um giving the students the option to maybe have a contest and
070create their own logo we have so many talented kids maybe that would be an Avenue not for this logo but like for additional like if there was a younger yeah right appreciate all your work so I'm not saying I want a cup if a student has to design sop okay heard uh it's just an just a suggestion for other ways to do it um I hear I hear that you have worked really hard and I agree and yes there has been um feedback opportunity but it has been like pretty disjointed um so yeah just sharing another solution for a problem just and just also Melissa to your point um The Pride piece so so where we are right now we're just iterating the final data as as Katherine better eloquently than I said get getting
071that feedback and so that's just going to be on the lion lions and the O The Pride part will also be part of the output of this because we have to have a brand guideline of when do we use Pride are we pride are L like so there that is being sort of also worked on but right now the discussion is around this mascot drawing really wanted to make sure that when we're shopping this around that we're being crystal clear that we're looking for feedback on the image itself not on the word pride not on the word Lions not on the font like we want to be looking at the image so yeah I get it and I appreciate all the feedback and just the clarification on that as well I know talking about logos
072it become a war Shack test at times right but I think I was just comparing based on like what I saw as far as far as brand messaging and figuring trying to understand what went into the process of what we got yeah I mean I'll take up the the offered to join to attend a committee meeting I do think I am concerned although I'll reserved to meet with the committee that there's a lot of decisions being made in committee and that's not been the practice of the board so I think you know but let me hold that and see but I I will share I've given ample feedback numerous times throughout the process and so my hope is is that in the iterations that we'll see that there'll be something that really represent inclusivity and
073I'll appreciate the opportunity to meet with the committee and learn more yeah and that's great Frank and just just to be crystal clear and I think others have said it the gender neutrality absolutely was by intent including um as someone indicated you might not see it I may not see it or I might see differently it's in there it doesn't mean there can't be a tweak but what others might see to Melissa Point rack test but it absolutely that feedback was taken it was given directly to miss ly said in include this in here and it's a fair point if you think well I don't see it however we might find in the data we get others we might had 50 that do so we want to you know be aware of that but I
074just want to reiterate for the the board all of the feedback that this board has given and everyone else has given multiple times going back to September absolutely was prioritized and included and no decisions were made out of the committee without that feedback no and and I appreciate the insights on that and all the efforts like I said like you know in terms of that and I think it's a it's a large task an image is a powerful logo for a community and you want to Rally all behind it at the end of the day and so you know I I appreciate the opportunity to learn a little bit more about it okay good I just and I I just want to be you know it's fair as possible sometimes you know we may get
075to a point where we don't all agree on this and that may be the reality but I want everyone to feel like the process was as Fair as possible I don't want anybody to feel sidelined so um to to whatever end that you know if you go home tonight and you think you know if Annie goes home and then she thinks you know what I actually I looked at these again and I do have a please still share them but don't wait um because we're moving we're moving going to try to kind of move it a clip once we have this data and I know I don't want to rush Nicole I want her to actually get feedback from as many kids as as practicable and and I again I guess from the beginning of
076the process I've really tried to make sure we hit the Arts kids we hit all the different student groups at the end and I think it's important to frame the conversation around mascots in terms of you the strength of women the strength of men see being being able for all to see it I think it's an important conversation to frame with students as we meet with them it's not just which do you like it's it's trying to make sure it's representative so my hope is because I've added that several times through the process my hope is is that somewhere in this process that's happened and I I think that's that's why I said the opportunity to learn more about it and see and things will come in as they come in and people will see
077things in different ways lots of people can look the same thing and see it differently and I totally get that appreciate that I want to make sure that that's been well represented and well pushed because this is a a big decision for the community it's a very big decision agre Frank just on that point you know I think and this is part of what I was trying to explain earlier you know there are groups of students who their goal is was to have as fearsome a lion as possible right that wasn't really like you know we wanted to have a majestic lion that could be inclusive of everyone all the way down to the park school all the way up through Sports put it on a letterhead you know like really support the brand for
078the entire District not just a a lion to invoke fear when you're out on the playing field um but people have very strong opinions that that's what it needs to be and I think that that's kind of the conundrum that we're in right now is we just need to get as broad amount of feedback as we can no and I appreciate that I think you know as a board and as an Administration we have a responsibility the Athletics program is supposed to meet by policy and educational purpose at the end of the day and the images that you put in front of students that shows what strength represents is really important you know you want all students to be able to see that strength in themselves and not just one gender one thing so I
079think again I don't want to get too far out I've I've stated kind of the questions I'm sure a lot of it's been addressed I want to make sure that we've gone to all the corners of all the student body because this is what's going to go on the sweatshirts this is what people are going to see and that's how it's going to go and so I think it's you know you don't want to just have a male Mascot out there as the representation of strength because that is not the whole story of this District by any strength stretch of the imagination so um yeah I know Nicole's shopping it around uh to like she's working down a list of Student Activities it's out out outside of Athletics inclusive of Athletics but not exclusive to
080Athletics so it would be great if we could see that list when it's I mean I don't have it either yeah she I'm just saying I hope it's you know I'm sure it's very exhaustive but we should make sure it is yeah um any further discussion on this topic before we before I ask if anybody else has anything any these were we're still in committee updates um but if anybody has any other outside of committee or yes if you have anything yeah just really quickly I'll just mention um I think this past weekend uh was like Friday Saturday um it was actually Thursday Friday Saturday so the I think Mary mentioned the robotics team team um uh they they they had their um engineering competition which was really fabulous to see um a lot I
081mean it's amazing the level of um effort and Technology went in especially if you haven't had a chance to see this they've been given like almost little to no instruction whatsoever aside from this is what what the competition is going to be about and the fact that they ended up building it the way that they did I think that was incredible so I had a chance to go to that um and uh fortunate enough to also be a judge of course I wasn't allowed to judge Austin but you know that's that that's what what that is but um you there then there was also um my first time ever going to a Destination Imagination and I got to tell you if there's a place where where science and creativity starts and comes together that is
082a hell of a show to go see um so um but just wanted to throw that there any yeah just laughing about our Destination Imagination experiences here um I have a question and it does not have to be answered right now it comes up every like August Late July I'm curious how um placement of students at OCC or park is done and why it's decided so late and I guess kind of just teacher assignments in general I know for the prek specific typically it becomes an issue of parents wanting to know where their child is going so they can arrange care and bus and all that stuff so just if I could get some insight onto that at some point um I have another random ask Mary that doesn't need to be um answered right
083now um and I can email it later um we installed the bus stop arm cameras and sorry to be the person to continue to harp on this but I was curious if we had access to know how many tickets we've written with those I mean we don't we don't to be clear we do not Rite the tickets how many tickets have been issued as a result of those cameras I think it's a fair way to say that I can I think I I thought I put in an update but maybe I didn't yeah so okay so I missed that5 but as of the end of January but sorry that's just an awes or that's total County for our bus routs 505 cow um and broken down by Street you're more than welcome to read the
084whole report okay I'm curious because what we were kind of told to expect was that like a burst at the beginning when people are just realizing that it's happening and then a fall off or has it been like it is I mean you can see the report you can make your since the beginning and when we end it in when did you ask me in January so that's where the number is right okay I'll go back and look I'll find it I'm I apologize and we can include any questions that you're asking in an update I'll speak with Maria and Kim and we can give you that information a lot of times we have a lot of CSE meetings we have a awful lot of information that has to go through there are screening things
085that have to take place particularly for upk so all of that decision making needs to happen and we want to conclude a year before we start here in in the best shape possible but that's my brief over you but we'll Prov that with can I just ask this question specific to I don't know if this is available so you tell me if I'm way out there on this one but um how is that I guess the intent here was to improve the safety um have number of instances of where there were potential issues near misses Etc do we have any any reporting on that has that gone down with the increased number of tickets or you know has have things been kind of like steadily climbing and maybe somehow dwindling I will send you the
086full report you can take yeah that' be great all right anything else all right I'm going to then take a motion to enter into executive session for the purposes of discussing uh proposed pending or current litigation Collective negotiations pursuant to article 14 of the Civil Service law and the medical financial credit or employment history of a particular person or Corporation or matters leading to the appointment employment promotion demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of a particular person or Corporation um any discussion all in favor I opposed extensions so Alita and Don will be joining