001Good evening, everyone. It's six o'clock. So we're gonna call the meeting to order. If everyone can please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Item 1.03, approval of revision of agenda. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville Manly Central School District approves the agenda as presented. May I have a motion? John, thank you. Thank you, Jason. Any comments? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Great. We're going to move into some recognitions. Trish. Good evening, everyone. I'm here on behalf of all the building principals, and we want to take a moment to recognize and thank our Homeschool Association presidents and members for their incredible dedication, generosity, and support throughout the year. The work of the HSA often happens behind the scenes, but its impact is felt every day by our students, staff,
002and families. through countless hours of planning, organizing events, fundraising, volunteering, and problem solving. They help create opportunities and experiences that enrich our schools in meaningful ways. Whether it's supporting student activities, providing resources for our classrooms, organizing family events, or funding experiences that might not otherwise be possible, their efforts make a difference. These contributions go far beyond financial support. They help foster a positive school culture, strengthen the connection between home and school, and build a strong sense of community where students feel valued, supported, and connected. So on behalf of the building principals, we just want to thank all the HSA presidents and the members and those that help us. I'm going to... Invite them up. For those of you that are here, you could come up. Mosher. Jen Tom Moore. Emily Valentino. Laura Kendrick. Monica Browning.
003Nadia Tsai. Nicole Helbig. Michelle Bigalski. Okay, how do you say it? Bigalski. Michelle Bigalski. Well, my apologies. And Bethany Bach. Thank you guys so much for your service to our schools and our community. We really appreciate it. Okay, so we have a few other recognitions. So this year, Larissa Brenner and Agatha Wallen have served as co-presidents of the Backstage Backers, an organization dedicated to supporting the music and theater programs at the high school. Their work includes coordinating and organizing major events such as the dessert concert, fall play, spring musical, showboat, and numerous other activities throughout the year. In addition, the backstage backers support students through scholarships, awards, and other meaningful opportunities. Mrs. Brenner and Mrs. Wallen have provided exceptional leadership to this organization. They are highly organized, collaborative, and supportive while consistently demonstrating professionalism and
004integrity. Thanks to their dedication and commitment of the entire Backstage Backers organization, it continues to serve as a role model of parent involvement and support for our students in performing arts programs. Please join me in recognizing and thanking Larissa Brenner and Agatha Wallen for their outstanding service. Next, we have the FM All Sports Booster Club. The All-Sports Booster Club has been tremendously supportive of all aspects of FM athletics. This year, they have sponsored senior nights for all of our teams, the end-of-year awards ceremony, and a new John Deere gator for the athletic trainers. and helped kickstart our Mental Health Matters initiative with all our spring teams. Without their in-kind and financial support, we will not be able to offer the first-class athletic program we provide to more than 1,500 student athletes. Jerry Chandler and everyone
005who supports the boosters, thank you very much. Jerry is here. Moving on to the governance team. As we prepare for the close of this academic year, it's my privilege to take a moment to properly recognize and thank a few members of our governance team who have given their time and talents to supporting a district we can all be proud of to call home. First up is Jacob Chen, our wonderful student school board member this year. Jacob has demonstrated great professionalism and dedication to serving in this capacity, and he has certainly been a wonderful addition to our team this year. As we thought about ways to properly thank Jacob for his service to the district and board this year, we thought it only fitting to develop our own poll on the most impactful ways that you
006have contributed. For those who don't know, Jacob has created numerous polls and it's been very impactful to the board and as you will see. The results are in and some of our favorite ways that you have contributed. Oh, I don't have a slide. Unlike Jacob. 70% of respondents agree that we have very much valued you taking the time to develop and share multiple surveys, polls, and PowerPoint slides throughout the year. We greatly appreciate the impact and the feedback that you have shared with us through that means. We have a tie for number two and number three, Jacob. Number two, demonstrating initiative to gather varied perspectives from multiple grade levels. Number three, providing detailed and well-prepared summaries of recent and upcoming events. And then a very close number four, enduring some very long meetings with a
007smile. And from the looks of it tonight, it's going to be no exception. Thank you, Jacob, for taking this role seriously and with care, devoting your time and effort to gather input and feedback from our student body. We greatly appreciate all you have done to help provide valuable student-centered perspectives and feedback to the board. Thank you very much, Jacob. Thank you. It's greatly appreciated. And I just also like to acknowledge and thank the board for all your help as well. Also, just a general acknowledgement to Mrs. Gridley, who has always been a support and a great help and informed me and keep me updated with everything. Thank you. But yeah, it's going to be a fun experience outside of high school as a senior. So can't wait to see what's next. We'll be I guess
008announcing later on the board on who will be well some of you guys have met him so far So I'll be in saying who will be the one person who will please me. So I'm excited to say that in Coming and he's not sweating in all of those jackets, so Okay Now we're gonna move on to our two board members for whom tonight is their final meeting Jason Catalino and Rebecca Cohen So Sarah Pinsky would like to say a few words about Jason. Jason, I will honor your request not to speak at length about your accomplishments on behalf of the district during your board service, although they are very substantial and impressive. I DO WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE DEPTH OF FINANCIAL INSIGHT YOU BROUGHT TO OUR BOARD, A TREMENDOUS ASSET IN OUR DECISION MAKING AND
009AN IMPORTANT ROLE AS STEWARDS OF OUR DISTRICT BUDGET. YOU ARE ALWAYS THE FIRST TO ASK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDENTS, STAFF, AND TAXPAYERS. I ASK TO SPEAK, HOWEVER, TO PERSONALLY THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT YOU'VE GIVEN ME AS A NEW BOARD MEMBER THIS YEAR. Everyone was welcoming, but you and Ann helped call my first meeting jitters, gave me very practical advice about my laptop, and have been a thoughtful, considerate colleague I will really miss. That's a side of board service many people don't ever get to see, but it embodies who you are as a leader and a board member. You are kind, you are thoughtful, you are helpful, you are always focused on the good of those around you, and of course, our district. Congratulations on time well served for our district, and thank you.
010Our next board member that we're honored to recognize is Rebecca Cohen. Rebecca has served on this board for the past nine years. Her family is here tonight, and just to give you some perspective, she began this journey when her oldest boys were only in kindergarten. and now they're about to enter the high school. Time sure does fly. As a proud alum, Rebecca has always brought not only her perspective as a parent and community member, but also as a previous student herself. I saw the joy in her eyes each year when Dance Marathon was announced and the fundraising totals were tallied, as that was one of her early leadership roles as an FM student here. She will note, though, that when she was involved, they had to actually dance all night long. As we all know,
011leadership is not confined to a title or a role, but the best leaders have the ability to bring people together, they have a presence without needing to be the center of attention, and they are role models of grace, compassion, honesty, and integrity. Rebecca has embodied all of that and more throughout her time on the board. Whether as an individual member, while serving on a committee, or in her willingness, to take on a formal leadership role. She has consistently brought a steady, smart, articulate perspective to every meeting, discussion, and decision. Rebecca has a brilliant way of communicating thoughtful ideas and viewpoints, helping to reframe discussions to support decision-making in a collaborative, supportive manner, and always keeping the best interests of this district and our students at the core. On a personal note. I have had the
012absolute privilege and honor to work even more closely with Rebecca over the past two years as part of our board leadership team. Throughout it all, she has been an incredible partner, a valued sounding board, trusted confidant, problem solver, and someone who I could depend on no matter the circumstance. Her dedication, time, support, partnership, and friendship throughout this has been more than I ever could have hoped for and this board and me personally are stronger and wiser as a result. Thank you so much, Rebecca. Hi, I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to our community for your support and partnership over these nine years. It's been an honor to hear from and connect with families on issues that matter most to them for their kids. It's been an incredible opportunity to get to
013know and learn about so many staff members doing truly amazing things for our students every single day. I was one of those students. I ran for a seat on the Board of Education to give back to the schools that gave me so much. Now I'm a parent of three children coming up through the same schools. As an alum, I've now observed and experienced the district as a board member and a parent from day one of kindergarten through eighth grade. I see so many rich traditions in academics, arts, athletics, and student programs that have only been significantly enhanced and expanded in places where we clearly have work to do. And we're going to do it. FM is always working to continuously improve. While there's constant opportunity to do better, our district is truly outstanding and prepares
014our students extremely well for life after FM. Overall, I see a school district to be incredibly proud of and a powerful and caring community that can lift up all of our students if we work together. I'm thrilled that Dr. Parvey is here. She has certainly delivered. promises to date. She's provided numerous opportunities to listen to feedback from all stakeholders and observe our schools and programs. She's already identified areas of strength and areas in need of improvement and is thinking critically and carefully about a path forward to make our district even better. I'm excited to watch what she will do next and I know we are in great hands under her leadership. Thank you to this board and all the members I've served with these past nine years for your earnest work with me on difficult
015issues and keeping our students at the center of our conversations and every decision that we make. We engage in this work not out of self-interest or personal gain or to seek media attention, but because we care deeply about FM and this next generation of learners. And we've had some fun and surprises along the way, too. Thank you to my family sitting here tonight for all your support while I've poured lots and lots of time and heart into my service with many long Monday nights away from home. and to my mom for showing me how it's done, also serving three terms on this board. It's been a true privilege to serve the district as a Board of Education member. I'm deeply grateful to the FM community for your support and partnership. Thank you. Last, but certainly
016not least, we'd like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank our district clerk, Sarah Gridley. Surprise! Sarah works tirelessly behind the scenes to support this board in our district to ensure everything is in order, complete, organized, and aligned with best practice while being open to new ideas and truly embracing continuous improvement. Her work ethic, knowledge, expertise, and most importantly, her compassion and support not only make her incredible at her job, but make her an even more incredible human being. Thank you for everything you do for this board, our district, and our community. I hope you realize how much you are valued, supported, respected, and adored. For those of you who are here, we're here to support the folks who are being recognized. If you would like to leave, it's okay. You may get up
017and leave. No judgment. Or you're welcome to stay, whichever you prefer. Or anybody. Anybody can leave. It's okay. It's all right. Okay, so now we're moving on. We have item 2.02, a presentation on the transportation study. Please bear with me while I get our tech set up. Good evening, Judy, Belinda, and Paul. Can you hear us? Judy, Belinda, and Paul. Wonderful. Give me one moment. I'll get your presentation ready for you whenever you are ready. Okay, I saw the presentation was up. Thank you. the past several months as we've been looking to dismiss the high school at 2.20. Members, if you do have any questions, you can either come to the lectern so that Paul can hear you or I'd be happy to relay them for you. I have a question about start times. Give
018me just one second here. Paul, this is Jason Catalino. So it's actually not about the start time. It's more about I want to be very clear and understand the recommendation on the dismissals, especially as it relates to the high school. So we have up on the screen here in the auditorium the PowerPoint slide that shows high school students being dismissed at 2.20 with a bus departure of 2.30. And if I understand correctly, that bus is then going to go to the middle school, either Eagle Hill or Wellwood. And then from Wellwood, it's going to leave at 252 or Eagle Hill, either one, is then going to leave at 252. And then at that point, students are going to start to be dropped off at their houses. Is that correct? Am I understanding that flow correctly?
019So that means for a high school student that gets dismissed at 220, that we're expecting every student that rides the bus to be on the bus a minimum of 30 minutes. What is the estimate for them to get home? Like how long are these routes? So then there are 30 minutes waiting on the bus to leave the middle school and then another 30 minutes to get home. Is that correct? Not going to say I understand that you put it together. I'll be quite honest as a parent of two high school students that may have to take the bus. I don't support that. And then also, I guess I just wanted to clarify the other point, which was we're going to bus the high school students to the middle school and then within the walking zone,
020if they live within a half mile of the middle school, we're then expecting them to walk from there. Is that correct? No, I think in the past, I think the district is used to just having routes that don't take an hour to get our students home on a daily basis. So it's something for the board to contemplate. Thank you, Paul. I do just want to add that years ago we actually did implement where the middle schools were drop-offs. I can remember as a principal at Walwood, I had high school students who were picked up there each morning and dropped off there each day. So that is something the district has done before. I don't know when that change happened that we moved away from that, but it is something that has been in place. So
021can I speak from here? Hi. This is not necessarily a point as important as I would say Jason, Mr. Catalino's comment is, but just something about the bus arrival. I just want a little bit of clarification. So the buses at the high school from my experience comes around 645, typically on the dot. Right now the high school doors open at 7.05. I just want a bit of clarification on the bus arrival. Is the bus arriving at 7.05 or is it the doors that open at 7.05 to let the kids into the building? I can speak to this, Paul. It's Susan. So earlier in the year we did have buses that started to arrive at 6.45. We did an adjustment to how buses arrived and how we were going to unload at the school. So now
022all the buses are scheduled currently to arrive between 7 and 7.05, so that gave everybody a few more minutes. And then we adjusted the drop-off by using the two parking lots. So at 7.05, the school doors opened, the bus doors opened, and everything flowed in order to get our buses emptied and then everybody moving out at once rather than coming in, unloading a couple buses at a time because that really takes more time. If all the buses are at the scene of, you know, at one moment and everybody unloads, it really, the sidewalks clear in two to three minutes and everybody can leave. When buses are loading piecemeal, buses then have to wait for sidewalks to clear and then a couple buses move out, then the next couple move in, they unload, they have to
023wait. So that makes for a longer time span. of unloading, so that's why we did that at the beginning of the year. We're using half the buses are in the student parking lot at 7.05 and the other half are in the loop. They're all unloading at once and Pat McNamara and I worked on that probably back in October. So we would have to continue to do that in order to get the buses out on the road in order to meet the time for the middle schools. That's the situation with the triple tier is you have to have enough time in between. one school to the other in order to cover the whole district, pick up the next group and get. So Susan, I think it would be helpful if we could reiterate the problem statement
024that this study was intended to address. Okay. Just because there's a lot of moving parts and making sure we know what we're trying to achieve by shifting things. If we go back to the study goals, the study goals really outlines what they were looking at and what we charged them to do. We can go back to that slide. So is it really, the biggest impact is allowing us to extend the high school day so that we can have the lunch period built in, correct? Elementary, middle, times don't appear to be changing. So elementary and middle school times will change by only five minutes if we are able to make some of these changes that On the Bus has recommended. If we were to maintain the triple tier busing in the afternoon, our elementary schools would
025need to be dismissed much, much later in order to be able to get the buses there. So as we weighed all of these factors, knowing that our elementary students, if we are shifting their school time significantly, that's probably going to be a burden for many of our families who would now need to arrange childcare. So part of our goal in looking at all of this was to try to maintain a schedule as close to what we currently have, really to help those families so that we're not putting a burden on them. How many, I know that it changes per day, but how many of our high school students actively take the bus? How many of our middle school students actively take the bus? Well, we did a ridership study twice this year. Our high school
026averaged about 30%. Yeah, many of our high school morning buses are very lightly loaded, especially. I think middle school was about 50. Elementary are the ones that are very, you know, yeah. Yeah. And then you have to recall, too, that our high school and our middle school do have, they do stay after for other activities. So, you know, our afternoon numbers are lower because they're staying after. My question is, I have many. I'm not going to go through all of them. But in the issue of consolidating stops, and I know, Susan, we've talked about this before, so this will not come as a surprise to you. Are we looking at doing that at... three school tiers or are we just looking at that for middle school and high school? I think we're going to concentrate
027on middle school and high school because obviously they're older and take a little more responsibility on themselves more so than the little ones. But I think in some areas of the district we could also pull back in the elementary only because there's neighborhoods where the driveways are very close together and we're stopping at every stop. And then we get torn between what the board policy is and then in actuality what we should do. So with that being said, we're kind of looking at both, but we'd like to concentrate on maybe other. I think Paul mentioned, too, the high school stops being, the high school students getting off where the middle school stops are now. And then the elementary, we're going to have to look at them only because, especially in that afternoon time, we're having
028a hard time. getting from the middle school to the elementary. So that middle school, high school part is going to be pivotal for us to make the elementary. My concern with it, very simply, is student safety, especially in the morning pickups when it's dark. It's hard to have a district-wide policy where you have a wide variance in neighborhoods and locations, right? So, you know our central village areas for the most part not entirely but more than not our sidewalk our neighborhoods that are farther out or not and You know, there's a there's a and I know everybody in this district I'm not suggesting otherwise has the same concern and shares and I just want to just reiterate it is You know when we put especially our youngest students on roads in the winter time or
029snow banks or narrowing roads as they as as they will do anyway and they're in the dark and they're not on sidewalks that's that's a big reason why we have more stops than consolidated stops across this district um and so i just really want to make sure that we're staying true to that concern and in in favor of paying more attention on the safety side than the interest of let's have a district-wide policy of how many feet between stops. I would much rather see us continue to err on the closer stops where safety dictates it because there's nothing that we're going to encounter that's especially on the busing side that's more important than the safety of our students obviously. something we have to look at as we go. Adjustments. We'll say that though you're weighing
030so many variables and moving parts. The opt-in, opt-out portion is very helpful because we can make stops based on who's really riding instead of a quarter stop in a small neighborhood when only one student is riding in that whole neighborhood, right? So thank you. So just two more things. The same safety concern that I have on consolidated stops applies to the walker zones. as well with respect especially to our youngest students in the district because I mean just take campus that we're on right now right many of us who live closer to this have known about the great work that many of our families have been trying to do to get sidewalks put in on Enders Road there are no sidewalks on Enders Road But yet you have an elementary and a middle school here
031and we're talking about walker zones and now you're no sidewalks and it's fine. It's one thing today, it's beautiful out, right? Now go put four feet of snow out there and everything's covered in banks and it becomes a very different environment for students to be walking home. And that's, you know, I think we have to do the planning from the worst weather perspective, not the nice weather perspective. And then I do just want to reiterate, because I know that Paul did mention it, but for those who didn't hear it because the sound is a little bit compromised, is this opt-in, opt-out concept, it greatly aids with planning because we know there are some families that just don't use the bus, but we have to take them into account today to plan bus stops. But I
032do want to reiterate the part that he did say very quickly and somewhat quietly is... That is not a situation where you opt in or opt out for a school year. It is something that can be changed and it can be altered as circumstances change or alter. So I don't want anybody hearing this to be left with, oh my goodness, I have to make a decision that I've got to live with for a school year. It's not being proposed that way at all. I guess I would just echo Deanne's comment that as long as it's not just a blanket policy that's applied across the board that it's taken case by case. As we know, even at the high school level, even if the students are within half a mile, they don't have lockers, and so
033they're not going to wear a jacket, most of them, and they'll have to carry it around all day. So we just have to be practical as well and give the safety piece of it consideration. And even within a half a mile, if there's not a way to get to the school safely. without a sidewalk or something like that. That is a challenge. Trust me, I live it myself. We also, you know, there's change. Can you guys go back to the times just one more time, please? Can you make it a little bit bigger for those of us with bifocals? The morning really doesn't change. Five minutes. So high school remains the same in the morning. The afternoon is a 10-minute later dismissal due to the addition of lunch periods. Middle schools, everything shifts by fence,
034and then the same is true at the elementary level. So it's a five-minute later start and then a five-minute later dismissal. It's not on here, and it might not be part of this issue, but what about the late buses for the people who stay after particularly? the high school and the middle school level for athletics or drama or whatever they're seeing after four and how does that fit with this or doesn't it or is that just not for right now so those are called extra runs and as of right now we're focused on this our regular runs getting all the terminology correct so that really has been the focus right now the plan is that enrichment period at the middle schools will end at 3.25, but we're actually going to start it five minutes earlier
035so that there's only a loss of five minutes of time. And then at the high school, it will still end at 3 o'clock. So we'll still be looking at meeting late buses at the high school and at the middle schools. While these other bus things are still happening? Correct, which is what happens now too, which is why they're so late. We've discussed different ways to... mentioned the different ways to route the private parochial. It might not be the same. There will be some changes, but there's ways we could be in order to free some things up. But in all in all, we need the management rights to also to kind of put these runs together in a way that they will work for us and lay out the timeline plan ahead. And that's ultimately, we
036need the data that we need. And we need the data from people. And we also need the parameters that we're working around to be able to meet the times and management rights. obviously this is a big communication challenge. Is there a time frame for when there's going to be communication being rolled out to families so that they can start to understand what's... with shifting what they need to do as a result. That's a good clarifying question. So there are recommendations here, but is there a step before there's communication where a decision is made about the recommendations or data is collected? I'm just going to ask what's the next step in the process before that. So next up would be the conversation about the opt-in, opt-out for us to be able to put that in place.
037And again, to emphasize that opting out doesn't mean that you will never have access to the bus. As long as we have notification within 24 to 48 hours, we could always adjust. But really being able to have clear ridership, because that's one of the things they talked about, that we don't have that right now. So we are going to be having conversations of what's... feasible for us. So we talked about also the bus stops, the consolidation of our private parochial schools. Those are conversations that we are looking to have. We wanted to have the recommendation from on the bus to be able to determine what's the appropriate next step for our district. So of course they listed a number of recommendations. We're not necessarily implementing all of them, but the ones that would help us
038better have a tighter timeframe to be able to meet the expectations of the start and end times would be what we would be looking at. Of course, keeping safety at the center. And then in terms of communication, once we have that clear, then we would be communicating to our community, meaning that if the transportation department is going to be identifying consolidated stops as opposed to what we're doing now, we would want families to know that. So we will be, I would say, over-communicating until the start of school to make sure everyone has clarity around that and where those stops will be. We just need to be able to decide what's feasible for us. So they've given us their recommendations. Some of them we do believe we can... put in place and those are the things
039we want to look into. And we do believe that we do want to get the times out as quickly as possible to families because many are waiting to see what would be decided. So I think we talked about this week. Yes, we did want to do something this week so that's going to be our work with the Transportation Department of saying what are those things that we are going to be able to do to be able to communicate to the public what... that's gonna look like for the district. So definitely within the next week, we're looking to do that. Suzanne, so a quick question. If we had to triple trip in the afternoon in order to keep those times up there as they are, how many additional buses do you need that we don't have?
040I believe when TAS did that study, they said, I think all the students were waiting on the sign-off at the elementary school. I'm sorry? 15 to 20, yeah. Buses. Buses. And drivers. And drivers, which we're in a driver's shortage now. To triple. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big number. And you can't create people. Buses can be created in some way, shape, or staff is tricky enough now with our nationwide bus driver shortage. We do that plug now. If you're watching, if you're listening to this meeting, and if you have an interest in driving buses for the FM School District, please reach out to Susan. Thank you very much. I've done commercials before. We could do them again. It's great. It's very rewarding. It is very rewarding. Just a final question, kind of referring back to the
041beginning of the year and over the course of a couple years, I believe, is I guess... um that the floating around of uh start times and shipping those i know we kind of had the committee as well as had a meet a board meeting where they discussed this um has i guess um i know this is the idea that's kind of flowing around and we know it's not going to be implemented like next year but i guess now with um these recommendations being put forward um has anything changed or anything kind of been adjusted or thought of with that just want to ask i know that kind of throws a bit of a wrench into things and a kind of a third wheel, but I just want to ask. So I believe Dr. Tice reported
042out mid-year that that committee had recommended that we pause a major shift in school start times until really it will require more districts in the area to do that because of the BOCES services that we utilize. We have many students who go to BOCES and shifting the start times here at FM would have an impact on that. I was just asking like just as getting ahead of the No apology necessary. It's good for everyone to have that reminder of where that conversation was, for sure. Because that's how this all came about. Right, and athletics also. I do know other school districts are looking into it. Any other questions? Thank you both. Thank you. And I just want to thank our colleagues at On the Bus. They really have been wonderful. They are very knowledgeable about
043different practices that are across the state, and it's really helpful for us to hear from experts in the area. Thank you. You're certainly welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item 2.02, President's Report. Just a couple of updates. I was able to attend the High School Awards Night recently. I just wanted to fill you guys all in. The Phil Martin Award that the board sponsors each year was awarded to Anna Egan. So that was very exciting. Reminder for graduation, I think everyone is attending June 18th. For those of you new, John and Sarah. make sure you leave enough time because traffic gets quite hairy that time of day. And I think Sarah will tell us exactly what time we need to be there. 530. And then finally, I'm going to be emailing the board shortly
044to talk about next year's committee assignments and board leadership interests. So give some thought to what you'd like to do for next year and we will. gather those inputs shortly. So stay tuned. Thank you. All right, Dr. Parvey, 2.03, superintendent report. Thank you. I'll give Sarah an opportunity to get synced in with me. All right, thank you. So as we come to the end of the school year, good evening, everyone. Thank you. I think our students did a good job summarizing where we are. You got this. Let's get to the finish line. Let's finish strong. We have a lot of wonderful things happening in our district, and so it is my responsibility to share those things, so I'll get started. My agenda typically covers my school visits, administrative happenings throughout the district and the state,
045community engagement, and of course, last but not least, our FM pride. We had our students at Innovation Tech who were inducted, recently inducted into the National Honor Society. So congratulations to Isaac Bloom and Kane LaVoy, who are now official National Honor Society members at Innovation Tech. And it was good to see them there. And I thank Principal McNamara, who was also there with me to recognize our students. Also, we had an amazing award ceremony, which our president just talked about. Several of our students, hundreds of our students were recognized and got awards and scholarships. And that was also the evening of our art show. Many talented students on our district did an amazing job at our art show that was right before the award ceremony. So congratulations to our students for the fabulous work they
046do and for their scholarships that evening. Also, my school visits, I had an opportunity to be at Eagle Hill recently and had an opportunity to see our students doing some great work on natural disasters. We have some resident experts now on natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis. And I also wanted to give a special thank you to Thomas Bersani and Nicole Russell who invited me into their classroom to see their ice cream project. And I think in about a week or so they're going to be recognized. It's going to be the new ice cream flavor by Gabriel's, I believe is the name of the ice cream shop. So I'm going to get familiar with Gabriel's and some great flavored ice cream. So thank you to them. And I don't have pictures, but I wanted to
047make sure that I shouted out Wellwood because I also had an opportunity to visit Wellwood, had some time to see the counseling department doing amazing work as they prepare for students for next year. And a special shout out to Mark Siddiqui. I was in his social studies classroom, highly organized, highly visual. Just wanted to say thank you to him. probably would have appreciated social studies more if I had him as a teacher. Other school visits, was at Fayelle. I wanted to thank our principal, Alexis Thorpe, who did a wonderful kindergarten orientation for our parents. Honestly, I think that parents got a good introduction to Fayelle and just the wonderful things that happened there. And I wanted to shout out Mrs. Gamble. I promised her that picture would be there because every time I go to
048Fayelle, she's either in overalls, T-shirt, and jeans. And so she heard that I was visiting and she had to put on a special outfit. and she was decided she was going to be, I think it's Barnaby. So she dressed as Barnaby. So thank you, Mrs. Gamble. I find her to be very engaging. And if this is what she's doing for our students, we can see why they're having a wonderful experience. and wanted to shout out our principal at Enders. I was at Enders the other day for a school drop-in. I'll talk about that a little later, but Mr. Verga was recognized by Mrs. Grayson's and Mrs. Brown's class as a hero who protects and honors children's rights. They were doing a study on that, and they decided to honor their principal, and I thought that
049was amazing, and I think it's very nice to be able to see our youngsters appreciate heroes right within their schools. So thank you, Mr. Verga. And I have to say, I think everyone already knows how wonderful our teachers are, but I have to say, this is an example of above and beyond. On Friday evening, we had our Out of Darkness Walk, which is our suicide prevention. Thank you so much to Mrs. Patrick, who organizes this. But in those inflatable costumes are our amazing staff and our principal McNamara doing something great for our kids. It was a great evening. We had great weather. had great attendance, we had students performing, but also had amazing teachers. So I want to say a special thank you to Chris Gangloff, Haley Quinlan, who's a supervision aide, Marcus Pitts, Ryan
050Aldridge, and Mr. McNamara for supporting the Out of Darkness Walk by dressing up. And they ran in those people. I have to say I was very impressed. They were able to run in those and do a great job. So again, shout out to our educators who go above and beyond for our students. Some administrative happenings over the past month, we have our wellness committee, we have our owner architect construction management meetings that help set us up for our facilities meeting, which is a subcommittee of the board. I have my regular meetings with our FMTA president, which are very productive meetings, and we actually had our FMTA retirement reception. They did a great job and that was a great evening for everyone. We have our administrative council where we meet with all administrators in the district
051as we prepare for the next school year. safety committee we had a leadership workshop for our principals and our central office team which was very well run and had a great learning experience we have our principals meetings and then this year um i'm going to be looking to initiate into next year but we started this year having a meeting with all hsa leaders across our schools thank you to our hsa leaders who met with me to talk about what our meetings next year will look like particularly as we're looking to be able to have some collaboration as we think about what our fundraisers look like and how we go about organizing it across our schools. So I thank them for their participation. Great meeting. And my community engagement continues. I've had office hours have had
052between our last meeting and now 40 individuals attend my office hours this spring. The themes have been various. They've been around academics, around homework, and they've been around definition of success in FM that we're going to be thinking about, mental health, so several. Important topics to our parents and to our community members have been part of our, my office hour discussions. And then I continue to have my drop-ins at schools. I've had more than 60 individuals attend our drop-ins and that includes our teachers and our teacher assistants have come in, our nurses, OTP teachers, various people that have come in. And the themes have been around various things like our literacy program. We have a new literacy implementation. Our teachers and staff are very interested about start times and where we're going to land with
053that. And a common theme is FM is a great place to be. So I want to thank our community and our teachers for engaging with me and sharing with me and helping me to learn more about the district and really knowing some of our pain points and things that are important in our district. So I thank everyone for that. And our pride, we want to congratulate Wellwood. It has been designated as a tree campus by the Arbor Day Foundation. Congratulations to our Wellwood campus for that. We are very proud of them for that and for preserving our trees. We also had... Our students who were recognized by CNY, they were selected for films, art, and our students did a really great job. Out of 100 entries, our students took home nine awards. And that's really
054just amazing, amazing part on our students. So I wanted to highlight that. And that was for our Central New York High School Film Festival. So congratulations to our many great students. We also had our feats of clay. Our students did an amazing job with that. And we placed fifth in the region for their artistic expertise. So we are doing really great things, not just on the fields, but also artistically. And we want to make sure we highlight that. had an opportunity to attend our flag football game. Our students did amazing. While they did not win yesterday, they did win on Saturday. And I got to tell you, I was so happy to have a close-up seat to see our girls do an amazing thing. So very nice, very nice. Especially, they're also a very new
055team. So they did a really good job. Congratulations to them. We're going to be cheering them on. Other points of pride are girls lacrosse, section three champions, regional champions, our girls golf, section three champions, regional champions currently competing at states, softball, section three champions, regional champions currently competing at states as well, boys tennis, qualified for state championships, boy championship, boys lacrosse, section three champions, track and field, seven students qualified for the state championships, track and field, section three individual champions. Nikita Demichenko, forgive me if I did not say that correctly, Demichenko, is that right? Kevin Heller, Will Beecher, Fred Hunt, Oliver Shi, I'm hoping I pronounced that right, I should have gotten that cleared up, Ashton Berkneck, Hudson Brown, Sam Beeman, and Nick Russell. We want to congratulate our students for their individuality. Very proud
056of them, and I believe that... all right moving on to committee reports so since this is the wrap-up meeting of this academic year um ask if every chair for committee could just kind of give a brief summary of where we're leaving things off or any key highlights whatever you'd like to share um so jacob by any chance do you have any updates on a legislative liaison front i'm just checking that I'm going to go right to you, Jacob, for your student board report. Wow, thank you. So I just wanted to start off with some acknowledgments to, I guess, the board as well as those I've been working with as the student representative. First off, thank you to Mr. McManera for working with me. It's been a great pleasure. I'll be missing you greatly going into
057college. Thank you. I see your silhouette in the sun. Thank you to the board once again for always being here and Ms. Gridley and all the other staff. Another thing I would like to shout out to is Ms. Mason and Mrs. DuBois. They are the people who are running, who are helping teachers to run the student council. They've been a great help. Another thing is to acknowledge the DMs, where they're great and hard work, raising money for Camp Good Days and spreading the school spirit. Just that I would also like to kind of to a shout out to those who ran for my specific position as a student representative for the Board of Education This year we had three people contest for my position So, um, oh, yes, I'm quite happy myself So just watch
058out two to three chase Stella and Elan, thank you for running and I will also now be making a semi-official announcement of your next student representative for the Board of Ed. He is right now in the crowd. Chase Chostowsky, I hope I got that last name correct. But thank you and thank you to all the candidates who ran for this position. I have great faith in all of you and that you will do wonderful and great things for the FM community. So as you may or may not know, it's kind of the final stretch for the high school and all the other schools. High school, at least the exams are coming up quick with tomorrow two region exams happening. So good luck to all the FM students. And I hope that some students who don't
059have exams have a good day off. The Special Olympics, I believe, will be happening on Thursday. The prep band will be playing during, so maybe Dr. Parvey would like to add that to her schedule. It'll be great fun. I've forgotten the special acknowledgments. Dr. Tice. Unfortunately, he is not here, but thank you. It's been a great pleasure working with you as well and having an hour conversation about trains and Vermont. So great fun. Yes, I have many fond memories which I'll remember through college and yes. Another acknowledgement is to the students who reached out to me specifically about things such as some school start time and school lunches. So just thank you and good job advocating for the student body. And as you know, all the seniors of the class of 2036 will be graduating
060very, very soon. So I'll be joining them. Oh boy. We'll be having our... graduation rehearsal on the 16th and our walkthrough with the elementary schools. If Dr. Parvey would like to join us and watch us. Oh, you'll be there? Good. Yes, and kind of foreshadowed earlier, graduation will be on the 18th. So I hope to see the FM community come out to support the class of 2026. That is all and my final report. Thank you very much, Jacob. Does anybody have any questions? Nope. I only had one in me. I'll leave that up to Chase this time. Chase, now that your name has been officially announced, you cannot change your mind. Thank you, Jacob. Okay, now we'll move on to committee updates. Anne, would you like to give the audit committee update? Yeah, the audit
061committee met last week or the week before, May 28th. We went over the external and the internal audits with the external and internal auditors. And we won't meet again until the fall. So they had some corrective action steps to take. And the next time we meet will be in the fall semester. Thank you. And I'm just going to move through these. If anyone has any questions, please just interrupt. Community relations, Chrissy. We have been talking and focusing on our communication planning. Now that we are approaching the end of June, our current contract with our CAP region BOCES team is coming to a close, and we are using that as an opportunity to take a look at our communication plan and make next steps. So our survey data that has come through our community, loud and
062clear, has been for more of a focus on communication. So we are focused on... focusing on having some more clear and consistent and cohesive communication plan that may look like either a partnership with a City BOCES team, communications team, having our own dedicated specialist for communications or a hybrid model of combining those two together. So we're kind of looking at all options and we'll make a decision hopefully within the next few weeks. Damn, facilities. Yeah, just before facilities, just want to acknowledge and thank the community. We haven't had a meeting since our board vote and budget vote, right? I'd like to for sure take a moment and thank our community that turned out wonderfully for the budget vote. I'm stealing? Okay. I will do that. We had a lot of presentations. We had a lot
063of meetings with Brad in budget presentations and questions and discussions. And enough cannot be said about this community's continued support for this district in the programming and the services and all of the great work that our staff and faculty do. And they cannot do that without a budget. And this district continues to turn out to. approve our budgets each year and just extraordinarily grateful for this community for supporting our schools. Many people we know live in this district because of our schools. Our schools are also a reflection of our district and so just very, very grateful and just want to say a really hearty thank you to the community for supporting the work that was done and the budget that was presented so that we can move forward with all of our same programs for
064the next school year. So that's on that part. On facilities. facilities. The biggest ongoing piece is the high school project. High school project is on track for completion by this coming fall. Most all of it by the end of this summer. I do want to remind everybody that the high school campus is for all intents and purposes closed for the summer once school is done other than some limited access for athletic training. The primary drive from from the student parking lot forward is all being milled and paved and all of your car repair people can be thankful for that because we will get rid of all of the potholes that are there and it will be much kinder on our buses and on our vehicles as they're going but also there's a just a considerable
065amount of work still to be done inside the building and there's a mass push this summer to complete that so just a reminder that the high school and campus for all intents and purposes is closed for this summer. That will wrap up a considerable project at the high school. Foreshadowing that is not the end of the facilities needs at this district. We've talked to regularly there is still a considerable amount of work that is needed at Wellwood. Still there's a phase at Wellwood that hasn't been completed. Eagle Hill has this building we're in here has a considerable amount of work that needs to be done as does the Enders Road Elementary. So there are further projects that are being worked on. Dr. Parvey referenced meeting with the OACM team. There is not a shortage of
066work, and it's not vanity projects. These are things that are needed to keep our buildings open in an environment that is conducive to teaching, that's conducive to learning, and for the services that we offer. So there will be further information. coming out as we work through that in the fall on what next projects would look like and in timing but just super appreciative of the community for continuing to support those projects as well so that we can keep buildings in the right state for teaching and learning purposes so there will be always ongoing work and things to report on facilities but thank you dan and thank you for the reminder It feels like it was a long time ago that the board that the vote was but you are correct so thank you yet again
067to the community. Sarah for finance committee. Well I'll start by reiterating how grateful we are for the community support passing our district budget in all seriousness we not only appreciate passing the budget, but the very thoughtful dialogue that took place in the community. There were a lot of good questions asked. There were folks who came to the board meetings who communicated with the board. And all of that makes us better, both in terms of the budget we assemble, but also the way that we communicate about the budget with the public. understanding what the questions are, what the concerns are. So the Finance Committee is currently scheduling our next meeting. And ultimately, we do need to debrief the budget process. We need to begin the 26-27 budgeting process and think about those ways that we can
068work with Community Relations Committee and sort of as a board and with other stakeholders just to increase. opportunities for transparency and communication about the budget. I think there are a lot of questions out there about what goes into the budget, the key inputs, the process, what actual discretionary spending we have versus what is fixed or concrete or contracted costs. And so these are all things that we want to make sure that we are taking into account now so that over the course of the next 11 months, we do the best job we can communicating with the public. report out after our next meeting. Thank you very much. And policy updates. Yes, happy to report that the policy committee is almost done with the transition from the Erie series of policies to the NISPA series. We
069have a few left. And we do still need to decide on a cutover date to the new policies. So one suggested idea is around August 1st, but that is something that we'll be discussing in the near future. Also, thank you to all of the administrators and district staff who have contributed and reviewed all of those policies. the thousands of policies, maybe not thousands, but feels like it, made recommendations to edit or keep or revise and to the board for reading through all those policies that are in first reading or second reading. This review predated my time on the board. It started in 2021 and it's just about ready to come to a close. So thank you to everyone who has had anything, any input on these policies. We're almost there. We won't tell. Thank you,
070Anne. DEI committee, I know we kind of wrapped up this year with some survey questions that were given, and then I know that the joint meeting with mental health was not able to be scheduled, so I think everybody's looking forward to how all the committees are going to look in the years ahead. Mental health task force. So the mental health task force continued to really not meet this year. Instead, the work has been done by some co-facilitators, Dr. Melissa Carmen, Dr. Coralie Wallach, and Heidi Green. So we received an email update of just things that have happened since the last email they sent to us. And I think this would be great material for an article, I think, for people to understand what's happening in mental health. But really, Dominic Molera, who's focused on mental
071health across the district, has been super busy doing lots of great work around the FML Sports Booster Club. He conducted two spring workshops with all spring athletes. stresses of being an athlete and other topics. He created a mental health poster to hang throughout the high school so that all the resources are easily findable. He conducted a workshop called Words Matter at Eagle Hill and soon to be at Wellwood that focused on the power of language and the impact of hate speech in particular. So there'll be more to come on that. It sounded like it was a successful event and a lot of other great work. So we want to keep elevating the work and resources that are being put into our mental health initiatives and it continues to grow. And our Helio site-based mental health
072clinics. at the middle schools and the high school are doing so well that there is now a waiting list, whether you say it's doing well or not, they're busy. So we're looking to potentially add clinicians to that as well. So I will forward this email to the board so they can have that update in writing since there's no committee report. And I think it's gonna be kind of a question of what happens next to the DEI and mental health going forwards as working committees of our larger community. Thank you. John and Dan, is there any updates on the safety committee? No updates, really. We did, the safety committee did meet most recently on May 26th. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend that meeting, but it is my understanding that the committee approved the district
073safety plan. Is that, that's it? And then last but not least, wellness committee. Any updates? So the wellness committee actually met prior, our last meeting was prior to the presentation and decision related to school lunch change at the high school. So that was really the primary topic. And so as we look forward to the next sort of grouping of this committee, I think we'll start to take on whatever topics seem relevant at the, you know, once the school year starts, I think. Thank you to everybody. Okay. I know you guys have all been very patient. We're moving into public comment. So my understanding is that we have quite a few individuals registered for public comment this evening, and we truly appreciate the opportunity to hear from all of you. But before we begin, I just
074want to reiterate some of the parameters that I know that Sarah set down to everybody. We just want to make sure we can hear from everyone respectfully and give everyone an opportunity to be heard. um so each speaker is limited to three minutes what i'm going to do is call a name and then the person who's on deck so that you can be ready because there are so many and it's a beautiful evening and i know you guys have already given a lot of your time our district clerk's going to have a clock running please ask i ask that you have your whatever comments you'd like to make wrapped up before the end of that clock Also, comments related to specific students or employees, and that includes teachers, administrators, staff, coaches, et cetera, are not
075appropriate or permitted for public comment. So if you have a specific student or employee matter to discuss, we would direct you to the appropriate administrator or our superintendent. And just as a... Notice the board typically does not respond to public comment, so please don't be offended if we just say thank you and move on to the next speaker. Okay, so I have Jessica Graybill up first, followed by Nolan McGinn. Thank you for having me here this evening to speak. Earlier in this meeting, there was a discussion about the importance of a lunch period. I'd like to talk about another meal. We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. My son and I, we've never been breakfast people. Early mornings, the body just isn't ready. For years, I assumed he was fine.
076A decent lunch, double portions at dinner, what more could he need? But something was wrong. After track practice, which he lives for, he'd come home with nothing left. No energy for homework, no presents at the dinner table. It took a couple of hours for him to revive. We couldn't figure it out. It wasn't a teacher who noticed. It wasn't a guidance counselor. It was your head track and field coach who took this time to know my son, not just as an athlete, but as a person. In a conversation I had with him, he made the connection immediately. Not enough protein and carbohydrates spread throughout the day to sustain a student athlete through school and practice six days a week. He simply needed more breakfast. That one conversation about well-being transformed my son's life. He is
077now the sprint captain, a thriving senior, headed to states and outdoor nationals, as you also noted, Dr. Parve. He is also headed to his college of choice on an academic and an athletic scholarship. I speak today on this subject of well-being and I've heard wellness here as well this evening and I ask this board to consider this. May we all have the humility to listen to those beyond our households who know our children, who see what we cannot see and trust their expertise. Our students' individual and collective well-being depends on it. Thank you. Thank you. Nolan and then Kimberly Pinkerton is up next. Good evening, board members of Fayetteville-Manly School District. Thank you for having me. My name is Nolan McGinn. I am a member of FM High School Class of 2024. I would like
078to speak to the board today on matters of the current turmoil and controversy surrounding the school's cross-country and track and field program. I understand that the core of certain cases against the current coaching staff pertain to complaints of negligent overtraining which in turn incurs injury among the athletes. I believe I may offer a uniquely valuable perspective on this issue as I am an alumni of the program. Therefore, I have intimate knowledge of the training that my teammates and I took part in over the course of our high school careers. Additionally, I have knowledge of the training that other successful runners across the country, my college teammates, had assumed during their high school careers. In my time at FM, my weekly mileage rarely exceeded 65 miles per week. For context, I currently run 100 miles per
079week at the collegiate level. So comparing my high school mileage to that of my collegiate teammates, like their high school mileage, it is notably similar, if not the exact same. I watched as runners who struggled with injury in their time in high school, which is inherently a risk of the sport, they were taken care of with utmost concern and care by the coaching staff. Although not every runner became a world beater or collegiate athletes, those that I knew in my years overwhelmingly remarked that they had been changed for the better in every facet of their lives from participation in the program. I would like to end by asking you, the members of the board, to understand, sorry, to heed, understand, and consider the perspectives of current and past athletes who gladly boast glowing reviews of
080the FM cross-country and track and field program. I implore you all to make the right decisions at the administrative level by electing to maintain the cornerstone. that cornerstone being the coaching of a longstanding district institution that has given me and so many that I know everything. So thank you so much for your time. Kimberly will be up next. And then Mara Sapan Shevin. And I apologize if I mispronounce your name. Okay. Good evening. My name is Kimberly Pinkerton and I am a parent of an FM student athlete. Before my daughter joined the cross-country team, she was unsure whether it was the right path for her. An alumnus of the program took the time to go on a run with her and talk about her experience on the team, the culture, the program, and the coach
081who led it. What stood out to my daughter was not discussion about winning races or personal accomplishments. Instead, she heard about hard work, commitment, teamwork, humility, and belonging to something bigger than herself. That conversation inspired her to join the team. Looking back now, I can confidently say it was one of the most important decisions she has made so far in her two years of being at the high school. I've watched my daughter grow. in ways that have had nothing to do with race times or athletic accomplishments. I've watched her become more resilient in the face of setbacks, more confident, more accountable, more willing to take on challenges that seemed impossible. The coach I'm speaking about played a significant role in this growth. He challenges students to work hard. to be committed in something larger than
082themselves and to carry themselves with humility and integrity. The lessons my daughter has learned from him have extended far beyond the trail and track. Like many distance runners, my daughter has faced injuries and disappointments. During those difficult periods, I have observed a coach who constantly prioritized her health mental, and physical. He encouraged patience, recovery, and smart decision-making. My hope moving forward is that this coach can continue the positive impact he has had on so many students. I also hope that the district takes an active role in supporting coaches through timely communication, constructive feedback, and resources they need to be successful. Strong coaches help build strong students, and they deserve support as they carry out that important work. I would also encourage the consideration of additional athletic training resources by providing greater access to an athletic
083trainer for injury prevention, evaluation, and guidance. Most importantly, I hope the voices of students and families. Miss Pinkerton. Yeah. Sorry, your time. Oh, sorry. I hope that they are heard. Thank you. Thank you. Mara. And then after Mara is Richard Roy. Good evening, thank you for this opportunity to address you. I'm Mara Cipone-Shevin, recently retired from Syracuse University, a professor of inclusive education with a focus on making schools a welcoming place for diverse students. And in 2014, I was invited by the FM School Board to do an in-service for the school board on precisely that topic. I don't know that any of you were around then, but that's what I was asked to do. So I'm here to comment in two contexts. about the incident that happened regarding the student reading the If I Must
084Die poem at the assembly. I wanna comment as an educator and I wanted to comment as a Jewish person also. FM had an incredible teachable moment when that happened and there was some controversy. And I have to say, I don't love giving out grades, but you didn't make it. It was not successful how it was handled. It reflected badly on the school district and reflected badly on education in general. One of the things that I teach my students who are teachers is that there's a difference between safety and comfort. It's the role of responsibility of a district to create a safe container where kids and parents and families can have uncomfortable conversations. But that's not the same as comfort. It's not the same as safety. So just because someone is uncomfortable doesn't mean we don't
085have the conversation. It means we do it thoughtfully. We do it well. We do it by including multiple voices. And I think that's something that needs to happen and needs to happen more. I also want to say, because I love the mission statement of the FM district, it says it very well. It talks about multiple identities. It talks about making people feel welcome and belonging. And again, this was a fail. And I want to say as a person who is Jewish that it's important to make a distinction between criticism of Israel and the policies and what's going on in Palestine and Gaza and anti-Semitism. And I can say as a Jew, anti-Semitism is real. It's horrific. We should take a strong stand against it. We should fight against it, it's important. But what happened was
086not anti-Semitism. And it's really important, and I would think that's one of the teachable moments for the district, is to make a distinction between what's anti-Semitism, what's Islamophobia, what's a conversation that's uncomfortable that we should have. So I can say I would encourage you. to do a reboot of some training for the board and for administrators and principals and to take this on. I did write to all of you, so you've seen my letter. I unfortunately didn't get any response. So I would love to be engaged with all of you about this conversation. I sent a letter to every board member, the principal and the superintendent three weeks ago. I was told that it went to everyone. Thank you. Thank you. We have Richard followed by Liz. Thank you. My name is Richard Roy, and
087I'm the former director of athletics at Fayetteville Manly, serving from 1990 to 2012. Hiring, supervising, and evaluating coaches was a part of the job I viewed as most essential regarding the safety and betterment of our program. In my 25 years as Athletics Director, I realized all the qualities and ability one needs to possess, not just to coach, but to be outstanding at it. The primary obligation of the coach is to the student athletes. Athletics for our children can and should be a laboratory for their personal growth. Athletics is one of the vehicles that we have at our disposal to ensure children grow into the productive, successful adults we want them to be. It gives them the ability to develop life lessons such as discipline, motivation, communication, dealing with adversity, working together as part of a
088group, and contributing to reach a group goal as an individual contributor. Moreover, it provides the platform for our children's reach to exceed their grasp. But that is all hyperbole unless you can hire the coach who has the capability to develop and deliver these outcomes for our children. The qualities that an outstanding coach possesses are many and must be ever present in that person, not just when they're coaching. Because if these qualities are lacking in their personal life, they will never be able to convey them to their athletes. Kids are smart. They know real and they know phony. Outstanding successful coaches must be great communicators. They communicate well and they exude credibility. They explain things clearly. They set defined goals, giving direct feedback and reinforcing key messages. Great communicators are also great listeners. They know the
089athlete and they value and respect the relationship. They are aware of individual differences in athletes and recognize how they communicate with one athlete may differ from how they communicate with another athlete because of those differences. They display commitment and passion for both the sport and athletes. They make a commitment to hard work so the athletes see the example and follow that expectation. They are strong in character and integrity. Athletes don't respond and perform for a coach that lacks those characteristics. An outstanding coach is highly energized and motivated and shares their knowledge with their athletes so they understand the rationale for what they're being asked to do. At the same time, the coach themselves is a continuous learner seeking out ways to better themselves and their players. There's more, but I only have three minutes. In
090any event, these coaches should be valued and supported. You're fortunate because you have one of those coaches here. Thank you. We've got Liz followed by Diane. Good evening, Dr. Parvey and members of the board. I'm here tonight to speak about the FM running program. My name is Liz Albayate. I'm a parent of three children being educated in this district. I am also a longtime teaching assistant at Fayetteville Elementary. My oldest son, a rising senior, has run track and field and cross country with FM since eighth grade. The running program in general and the coach in specific have been a powerful force for good in his life. Running, like all sports, does not come without risks and physical challenge. My son's own injuries were handled with care and careful communication. My husband, a physician and a
091longtime runner and former cross country athlete himself, sustained the same injuries during his high school career. As he is working this evening, he was unable to come and stand in support of the reinstatement of the coach of FM track and field and cross country. So on behalf of myself and my entire family, I respectfully ask the board that the coach be reinstated and that the board and FM administration pause and consider how we model right action for the children of this district. Thank you for your time, attention, and service. Diane, followed by Suzanne. Good evening. I'm here as a parent and a taxpayer to voice deep concerns regarding the procedural integrity and legal risks facing our district due to the handling of the recent athletic investigation. My primary concern centers around the alarming timeline. Reports
092show that initial complaints were received in August of 2025, yet administrative action was delayed until May of 2026. This nine month delay is a profound failure of process If the district truly believed a safety risk has existed in August Leaving minors in that environment for a full school year is gross negligence if there was no immediate danger Then withholding the claims prevented timely resolution and allowed standard training disputes to fester into formal complaints and a destructive administrative leave Either way, this timeline is indefensible. The administrative delay created a vacuum where feedback channels were manipulated and group collusion may have occurred. What some characterize as intimidation, in reality, a high standard of expert coaching, accountability, and respect. My freshman son and countless others have personally thrived under this leadership, experiencing a program that builds character rather
093than fear. High training standards must not be misconstrued as misconduct. Furthermore, this flawed process invites severe liability. Refusing a contract renewal offers no legal shield. Courts routinely recognize malicious non-renewals. as actionable retaliation. An independent investigator's report also fails to project the district if the underlying investigative process is compromised. I urge the superintendent and board to consider a pragmatic compromise. One, reinstate the program's leadership and renew his employment contract. 2. Fine-tune the communication protocols between the coaching staff, our certified athletic trainers, and student families to handle feedback and transparency. This solution protects district resources, enhances athlete well-being, and restores stability to a historically successful program. Let's fix this. Let's fix the process and build this program back together Thank you. We have Suzanne followed by Reem Good evening. My name is Suzanne Kircher. I'm going to
094be speaking on behalf of my two daughters who were former runners. My oldest daughter, Grace, graduated in 2021, and my younger daughter, Hannah, graduated in 2023. So I'm going to read part of the email, and I do have remarks on myself, and I'll let you know when I'm talking from my perspective as a parent. So thank you so much for listening, and I appreciate everything that you're doing. And so moving forward, this is my daughter, Grace. I picked out parts of her email. So she says, fueling and injury prevention are central to the program's philosophy of training. This program always encouraged athletes to lead a balanced life and avoid the risks posed by under fueling, injury and burnout. plenty of sleep, plenty of good food, and a hierarchy of priorities which placed family and school
095over running were some of the most frequently discussed topics during meetings. In addition, weightlifting, calisthenics, and core were incorporated into our training. These tactics have been proven to significantly prevent the risk of injury amongst distance runners. And my comment is on the food and fueling. As parents, the program hosted regular team dinners and breakfast and brought bins of food to meets. This program clearly showed the importance of fueling for performance and even after. Our children were never restricted from any food. from their diet aside from the fact that they both have celiac disease. And that is a whole other host of things that as parents we had to deal with. And when dealing with the coaching staff, they were more than accommodating and allowing us to bring special food, going to hotels and bringing them
096the items that they would need to be successful, to be certain that they would be healthy young female athletes. Back to Grace, sorry. I felt from my personal experience as though the program took into account the specific risks that overtraining posed to young women, verbally condemning the harmful mentality that getting a period would make you slower. Above all, athletes were encouraged to be forthcoming about aches and pains and emphasizing that communication is the key to remaining healthy, such as decreasing the length of runs, cross-training, or even recommending a doctor visit to Hannah. Although the FM cross-country and track programs have brought the school so much success over the few decades, the athletic victories barely scratched the surface on the impact. Their program has taught me how to dream big. I learned how to be a
097supportive teammate and I learned that hard work was the way and the key to pursue excellence. And right now she is ending her year in a fantastic institution. And this would have never been possible without the current staff. Thank you. And I'm sorry I took over time. We have Reem followed by Joan. May it please the board. My name is Reem Jishi and I'm a parent of an FM modified runner. I'm here today to speak about the future of the faithful manliest running program. Running is a sport of inclusion, not exclusion. A high school team will include the boys and girls who come to the first practice having run for years. It will also include the boys and girls who come to running from another sport. And it will also include the boys and girls
098who show up because their parents force them to be there. But the beauty of it all is that any one of them can become a champion. It's all about the mindset and the environment which allows the opportunity to pursue a dream. Being a champion is not about winning a race. It's about having a commitment to be your best, to do your best. The focus is not on the outcome, but on the process. Both the desire to be better today than yesterday and the willingness to continuously do all the little things needed to be better. It includes training with purpose and discipline. It includes proper recovery, nutrition, and sleep. It includes embracing challenges. It includes taking risks and pushing past perceived limits. It includes testing your comfort zone. And yes, sometimes it includes failing. We learn
099from our failures. We learn from our mistakes. We're stronger because of them. It enables doing things you never thought possible. The champion's mindset of a team adds so much more. It also includes selflessness, greater good, inspiration, trust, loyalty, responsibility, compassion, a desire to do more because someone else is counting on you, team over individual. This mindset has been a central part of the FM running teams for the past two decades. It defined the 12 championship cross country teams and transformed the lives of so many. It is my wish for the current FM runners that they be given the continued opportunity to run and live in an environment that empowers them to be the best that they can be, to do the best that they can do. Thank you. Thank you. We have Joan followed by
100Nate. Hi, thank you for hearing me. My name is Joan Rappaport. I gauged the high school FM running program under the guidance of its coach according to the effects it has had on my son. In his sophomore year, my son became co-captain of the cross-country team, and in his end of the season speech, he highlighted a particular sentiment of coach that stood out to him. In my son's words, quote, the ultimate purpose of our program was not to succeed in running, but to teach us about life and prepare us for the real world. I believe that this season, with all its ups and downs, thoroughly accomplished that purpose. That's the end of his quote. In the letter I sent to administration this past March, I noted ways in which this sentiment has played out in
101my son's life. Giving something your all is a value coach stresses and not just in regards to running. For my son, perseverance in running has carried over into academics, music, and problem solving in challenging situations. My son has learned to deal better with disappointment and move on to improve. He has learned to make his own decisions through careful consideration and to communicate directly. Coach models these qualities and helps cultivate them. And by practicing them, the kids grow into stronger and more capable individuals, not just in running, but in life. Our student athletes have persevered through this stressful and uncertain time in the absence of their coach. They have competed to the best of their ability without his guidance and inspiration and have done their best to cohere as a team using the values he has
102instilled in them. But the team needs him back. I'm hoping this can be resolved and that this running community can heal and carry on with everyone included. And that in the seasons ahead, we as parents and administrators will demonstrate to our kids that issues and problems, when addressed as they arise, before they have time to escalate, can be worked out through direct, steady, and continual communication. Thank you. So we have Nate followed by Fahid. Good evening. My name is Nate Kircher, and I'm a parent of two daughters who are FM grads and each race varsity throughout their high school years and continue to race in college. One of the assertions in recent news articles is that the FM running program subjects athletes to carelessly dangerous and harmful training. It implies that winning at all costs
103is more important than the health of student runners. In our experience, this just was not true. During the combined six years that our daughters ran varsity for FM, the training was demanding, but also highly personalized. The methods were intentional. Training groups, long runs, workouts, barefoot strides, cross training, strength training. The clear goal was to set the kids up for successful racing deep in the season. This would not be possible without a measured approach that by the time our kids joined the team had already been tested, refined, and proven over decades. The longevity and success of the FM running program is indisputable. Consistent decades-long victories at sectional, state, and national levels do not happen by accident and would not have happened without a training plan or with a training plan that systematically runs athletes into the
104ground. The FM schools gave our kids the finest education. The academics were second to none. We all share pride in the idea that FM is the best. For our family, a huge part of that quote-unquote best was running on the team. Because of this, it is my hope that healing can occur and the program can continue under the current leadership. We can raise the bar to quote the Stoughton Creed, how high is up. We have Fahid followed by Dalia. Good evening members of the Board of Education. My name is Dr. Fahad Sadah. I'm a practicing neurologist. Dalia's father, a father of four children and a long-term member of this community. I have a strong family roots in this district as my wife Layla and six of her siblings graduated from FM. Many of them came
105back to this community to raise their children because like us we believe in what places like FM schools say they stand for, specifically a supportive inclusive atmosphere. However, I'll be honest with you tonight. Something has changed over the last few weeks. And as a father, I'm deeply concerned and deeply hurt by what's taking place. For the members that haven't heard, Dahlia is part of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Club. She read a poem in the AAPI Heritage Assembly a month ago to share a part of... her Palestine heritage. Dalia goes to Palestine frequently. So she did exactly what the district says it celebrates. She read a short, peaceful poem about hope, about love, about a child flying a kite, about the legacy a parent leaves behind. The poem was reviewed, approved, and rehearsed in
106advance. There is no call to hatred in it, and there's only grief and love. The very next day the district sent a community-wide email that singled her out and labeled her words as politically charged. It shamed her in front of her entire school, classmates, teachers, and parents. A 16-year-old girl participated in a school assembly to share a piece of her culture was publicly denounced for doing so. Now in contrast at the high school... high school's own culture food festival in April. A Palestinian flag was taken from one of the booths. Later, a video circulated showing that flag being ripped apart, spat on, stomped on, while vulgar curses were directed at my daughter. That video spread widely throughout our community, yet the district's response was complete silence. There was no public statement condemning this act of
107hate and bullying. I don't believe this is neutrality. I think in your hearts, you know it's not, too. A poem about a child's hope was treated as a danger. Open contempt for that child's people was treated as nothing at all. If a student had read a poem about the suffering of the Holocaust, we would never tell that student to tone it down. We shouldn't. We would listen. We would honor it. We would learn from it. So why is it different when a Palestinian American girl speaks with love about... the hope and the pain of her people. I'm here as a father asking you to do the right thing. Please publicly retract the May 19 email that singled out my daughter so that an act of poetry never follows her as a mark against her future.
108And please issue a statement, clear community-wide statement condemning the hateful video as anti-Palestinian hate like anti-Semitism and all other form of bigotry has no place in our schools. Thank you. Dahlia followed by Izzy. Good evening members of the Board of Education. My name is Dahlia Sadam and while there is a lot going on in the school about me right now, I'm not here to speak about that. I'm here to speak about Coach. I recently competed at the state qualifier meet last Thursday, and I have been a part of the varsity track program since eighth grade. Coach has been a constant presence throughout my years in the program. As a Muslim athlete, I fast during Ramadan while competing and training. This year, Ramadan fell during the first weeks of the outdoor track season. Coach would regularly
109check in on me after runs to make sure I was doing okay. He even offered me a modified training plan if I needed it to ensure I was comfortable while still training. That kind of support made a real difference. It showed care for athletes, not just as runners, but as individuals with different experiences. I still remember the small moments after races when coach would pat my head and acknowledge my effort and make sure I felt supported. Those moments meant more to me than people may realize. I respectfully ask the board. to consider the voices and lived experiences of student athletes like myself and reinstate coach as our track and cross country coach for them. Lastly, I would just like to recognize the girls that won the 4x400 sectional championship that was forgotten in the slideshow
110that you presented. Myself, Claire McDonald, Allie Penn, and Maggie. Thank you. Thank you. So we have Izzy followed by Pat. Izzy Sullivan. Oh, there she is. My name is Izzy Sullivan and I just wrapped up my freshman year of college where I run collegiately in the SEC and study sport management. I graduated FM in the spring of 2025 and had attended FM schools K through 12. And when it came time to get involved into modified sports, I chose cross country and track. After just one day, running became a huge part of my life. I was asked to move up to varsity after that first seventh grade season, and I said yes. And at the time, I didn't know, but it was one of the most pivotal choices that I had ever made, and I am
111so glad that I did it. My experience on varsity track, simply put, was amazing. The head coach during my time made an extremely positive impact on my life. The team helped me grow as a person and an athlete. And from coach's famous speeches, I learned lessons of strength. work ethic, intelligence, and so much more. I'm a very independent person, and I have always been. But what allows me to be so independent is having a fantastic support system. I'm lucky enough to have that in my family and teams of past and present. When I was in high school and had become a more prominent athlete, I'd struggled with how to approach competition. letting anxieties dictate my performances, but just like my family, the head coach of varsity cross country during my career supported me always. I
112remember him telling me before races to just go be Izzy and reminded me that he had no expectation of me other than to give whatever I could on that given day. This is the kind of support and care that is rare in a coach and is what allows him to build highly competitive athletes and more importantly, strong people. In college and in work, I take the lessons that I was taught within this program and that time in my life, and they allow me to be productive, diligent, quick, and caring. Few people in a person's life is that impactful. And for me, it just so happened to be a monochromatically dressed, enthusiastic, competitive, and caring human that is my high school coach. I'll forever be grateful for him and will be immensely saddened if other young
113runners and young girls are stripped of the opportunity to be coached by him. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your time and note that running track and cross country at FM was the best part of my high school career. Thank you. So we have Pat and then last but not least, Kelly. Hi, I'm Pat Leon. I'm a district parent of two kids here at Eagle Hill. They are not in the running program. My wife, Laurel, graduated. She's in the Athletic Hall of Fame and was one of the top graduates this school has seen in the sport. was coached by the current leadership. And my job is I'm a timing results contractor. I work many events around the area, including home meets at FM and regional and national events. So I get to
114see from a unique perspective on the sidelines how programs are conducted. And sometimes, you know, I hear... information that may not be public, you know, or out in the public. And I can say that on a positive note, FM is represented very, very well by these programs. Not talking about just the wins, I'm talking about how the students conduct themselves in public and how the administration of the team is perceived. They're usually... First on site for me, they are punctual, respectful to the officials, and they rarely have any issues with entry changes and mistakes of that nature, which goes unnoticed and is certainly not as exciting as talking about wins, but it shows that the job done has been very thorough by the coaching staff. And I think that that speaks to our goal here
115as educating young people to be good citizens and future leaders. And what we're showing, we're setting an example. And I think that's been done. And again, I'm not talking about wins. That's nice. I'm talking about doing the work and showing up on time. Things that definitely count, especially to employers, people like me. This is being taught here and set an example through this program. And finally, I would say that through my job on the sidelines, some of these concerns about injuries occur everywhere. And they get talked about, maybe side conversations between parents and things. And we hear that as someone who just works events and interacts with the coaches. So it's nothing, I would say, nothing out of the ordinary to hear complaints like this. Unfortunately, it just didn't rise to the level of, you
116know. public notice that this has. And there's certainly another side of it, which is that there's parents complaining about under training and that the kids at a certain school aren't being brought to the correct meets. That's not the problem here, but it's creating sometimes for coaches a damp if you do, damp if you don't, if you're not training hard enough or you're not training too hard. So I would like to see that avoided in the future too. Thank you. And Kelly. Good evening members of the board. My name is Kelly Price and I'm a parent of an incoming freshman for this year for FM High School and also a licensed mental health professional. I'm here to comment on the recent incidents surrounding the poem that was read by a courageous student here at FM High
117School and also the comments made afterwards and the incidents surrounding. I spoke to my child specifically about what happened. and my child expressed that it is an underrepresented population that we are talking about and that that an expressed concern for that population saying something about and memorializing their dead we have a national holiday that is a memorial day that talks about our fallen dead And it should be for all cultures and all people to express this. And I do believe that FM has done harm by stating that we can memorialize and talk about dead. For example, at Holocaust Memorial Day, which was important, and my son got a lot out of that, and not talk about other cultures dead on a cultural heritage day. I also am a mental health professional and a trauma-certified specialist,
118and one of the trainings that I have done specifically is on generational trauma, and what I have understood from that is the drama triangle. And in that, I know that every person in this room And every person that exists is part of a culture that is a victim, a perpetrator, and a rescuer. And those conversations are very important for all people to understand and to have conversations around. Because that is the bridge to a safe space and a place where every voice matters. and where kids feel that they can memorialize their dad and talk about their culture in a meaningful way. And that is the kind of school that I want my son to be able to attend and the kind of diversity that should be here and a school that can acknowledge when they
119maybe don't have the training and expertise to understand that and to go to a generational trauma training to better understand how this school. can better represent the whole culture of the entire school and the whole culture's memorialization of their dad. Thank you very much. Thank you to all of you who took the time to come out and speak to the board tonight and really appreciate that you all stayed within the parameters we talked about. Much appreciated. And if you'd like to go, you're very welcome to, or you may stick around for the remainder of the board meeting. Moving into new business. Oh, did you want to say something, Dan? Okay, we're going to be moving on. If you would like to leave, could I just ask that you go into the lobby so we can
120continue conducting the meeting? Thank you. Okay, we're going on to item 4.01, resolution bus bond. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District hereby approves the bus bond resolution as prepared by Bond Council. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Dan. Second. Sarah. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Item 4.02, Settlement Agreement. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville Manly Essential School District hereby approves the settlement agreement to resolve New York State Education Department number 663066 and the Assistant Superintendent for Special Services is hereby authorized to execute the settlement agreement on behalf of the district. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John. And a second. Thank you, Jason. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining?
121Thank you. Item 4.03. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville Manly Essential School District hereby approves an agreement with CNS Engineers Incorporated in the amount of $86,912 for work related to the 2026 Capital Transfer Project and authorizes the superintendent to enter into the contract on behalf of the school district and take all actions necessary or convenient to proceed under the contract in connection with the project. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Dan. And second, Jason. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Policies. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville Manlius Central School District hereby moves the policies into second reading at the next regular board meeting. FM policies with no NISPA equivalent for June 8th, 2026 PDF. May I have a
122motion, please? Thank you, Anne. Sarah. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Okay. Item 4.05. Be it resolved that the Fayetteville Manlius Central School Districts opt out of the tax exemption made available by real property tax law section 487 for solar, wind, or farm waste energy systems is hereby rescinded and such exemption shall be applicable within the boundaries of the Fayetteville Manlius Central School District. And may I have a motion, please? Thank you, Dan. And a second, Rebecca. Any discussion? Yes. You read up. I did read opt out. That's what it says. Thank you. So districts opt in. Thank you, Jason. Just another reason why we will miss you. Which 4.0 adopted a resolution and we're opting out of that. Because now we're opting in. We're rescinding our opt out to
123opt in. You're in. So now we're opting in. And then we go out again. Then we go out again. Okay. Would you guys like me to read that one again? The wording is correct. Is that everybody got it? Okay. May I have a motion, please? Dan and Rebecca. And that was discussion. Anybody else have discussion on that item? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Okay. Item 4.06. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District authorizes the superintendent of schools to execute a payment in lieu of tax agreement pursuant to the terms set forth above and in the form approved by legal counsel. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Jason. And second, Rebecca. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. 4.07 be
124it resolved that the board of education of the Fayetteville Manlius Central School District approves the real property law section 487 opt out as indicated may I have a motion please Dan and Chrissy any discussion so just as a clarification so that I'm understanding this right we were previously opted out We rescinded that. We did this action that was in 4.06, and now we are opting out again, correct? This is a revert. Okay, perfect. Thank you. That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that. Okay. All in favor? Anybody abstaining? 4.08. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of Fayetteville-Manila Central School District hereby acknowledges receipt of the internal audit report, risk assessment, and corresponding corrective action plans. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Ann. And second,
125John. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Ongoing business. I think we've already talked about that. So July 6th is our RE-ORG meeting. Consent agenda, item six. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District approves the consent agenda as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Christy. And second, John. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Opposed, executive session. Yeah, executive session. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manliya Central School District enters into executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment of a particular person or persons. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Jason. And a second. Thank you, Ann. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? And we will be adjourning following
126executive session, so thank you to everyone who has been here. Appreciate it.