001Lancaster Central School District of Board of Education meeting to order in the unlikely event of an emergency if we have to evacuate the room please note the locations of the exits at this time I ask that you silence your cell phones and rise for the Pledge of Allegiance please remain standing For Anthony Corral, a physical education teacher from 1954 through 1986, who passed away on October 4th, 2022. And for Sheila Coughlin, a librarian from 1970 through 1999, who passed away on October 11th, 2022. Thank you. That brings us to 4.0 presentations. We have no presentations for this evening. 5.0 correspondence. We have two emails on record. 6.0 approval of minutes. 6.1, can I have a motion for the regular session minutes from October 3, 2022? Second. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone
002against? Motion carries. 6.2, can I have a motion on the special session from November 8, 2022? So moved. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Motion carries. 7.0, Lancaster Administrative and Supervisory Association. Anyone from the Lancaster Central Teachers Association? Good evening. I just wanted to take a moment and let the district know that last month the LCTA raised at least three, four carloads of food and toiletries for the Trinity Food Pantry. And we'd also just like to take a moment and wish our students, the staff, and the district a... Thank you, Mr. Abraham. Anyone from the Lancaster Association of Service Personnel? Kim Glauser. on behalf of the executive board. Last members have been working short-staffed, working longer hours to cover for jobs not filled, and working burnt out and tired, doing so without a
003contract since July 1st. We hope we can set a contract that respects the work that all of the supports ADAPT do for the employees of this district. Settling a contract would also go a long way to improve morale for the workers who are the backbone of this district. And in closing, the executive board would like to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Clauser. Anyone from the Lancaster Association of Substitute Teachers? Moving on to 8.0 reports. Do any board members have anything to report on? I'll start. On October 30th, I was happy to attend the New York State Field Band Competition, where we watched the Marching Legends end their season with a really strong seventh place finish with a score of 89.25. And they're now getting ready to march in Disney World over
004Christmas break. Thank you, Mrs. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Sage. I just want to congratulate all the athletes in the district on a very successful fall season. Outside, inside, every kid was engaged. They're participating and the accolades just seem to keep coming. I want to make sure that I don't have any of these. So bear with me. So we had football, boys volleyball and girls soccer all made the sectional championship. We had men's and women golfers who are going to compete in the sectionals in the spring. We had our cheerleaders won regionals. Our girl team is on their way to states by winning the section six championship. We have boys and girls cross country who are on the states. We have girls swimmers who are on their way to states and members of the gymnastics teams
005on their way to state as well. I've been reading in the paper there's a lot of honors as well. Kids that have been put on all ECIC teams, New York teams. And I'm sure there are more individual honors where kids signing national letters of intent to go on and continue their careers in college. So to kids, parents, community. Thank you, Mr. Davenport. Wanted to add to that I know I read the last meeting about the football cancer fundraiser that we did last month that we raised a lot of money at the At the one football game, but I wanted to mention that all of the athletes really joined together. We the team did a fundraiser at their game swimming soccer, a lot of gymnastics, all these sports participating. We've raised over $9,000 for the American
006Cancer Society just in the past two months from all the fall athletes. So while they were practicing hard and kicking butt on the field and on the court and everywhere else, they also were helping lots of people right here in Western New York fight cancer. So very exciting. Thanks, Fisher. All right. You know, I... I want to piggyback a little bit on the girls' volleyball. I had the opportunity to go to that event. I've been kind of shy to go to Section 6 finals for volleyball because, unfortunately, they've lost every time I go. So I skipped that one, but I did go to the regional event down in Hamburg, and it was the most exciting match I've had in my entire career of going to events. It was amazing. The crowd was electrified, and I
007wish them luck in falls over the weekend. It will be exciting to watch. All right. On to 9.0, the superintendent's administrative report. Couple of quick things. We've been talking about a lot about getting back to normalcy. And, you know, so since the last board meeting, Halloween has come and gone. But our K through six buildings celebrated with parades and parties and games and fun. The experience in school is important for our children and young adults. And I'd like to thank all the faculty and staff and families for doing a fantastic job in creating these memories. And thanks to all involved in that. Speaking of families and parents, our PTOs are going after the pandemic, and they're presently busy with the PTO, and I'm so grateful for this group. A great group of moms and dads
008who volunteer their time to help our district and the children in our district. Everyone should be proud of the work they do for young people, and I certainly am. Student engagement, many of our teachers attended training. Excuse me. at Keegan Cooperative Learning, dating through four of that training. They continue their learning on the structures, better understood the purpose of engagement, and they enjoy the training experience from what I heard. All Lancaster Central School teachers, nearly 500 of them, will continue to be trained in at least the one through four days in the next couple of years, and we've been a leader for the last five or six years in this initiative. In addition to Lancaster, there were teachers from all over western New York in attendance, and certainly a nice experience. And as far as
009the employee shortages, employee shortages are everywhere. Tim Hortons, Tops, Bar Bill, et cetera. You can't find people at doctor's office. You can't find people in our construction companies. And we're short people here in Lancaster Central School District. So if you know any people who are interested in being teacher sub, bus drivers, or cleaners, I've been... last year and a half, but I'll say it again. We're hurting for people, and anyone willing to help us, please send them our way. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Vallee. On to 10.0, old business. Does anyone have any old business to discuss? On to 11.0, new business. 11.1, personnel items. 11.1.1, can I have a moment? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. Dr. Valle, do we have anybody in attendance today? Is
010George Bimmer here? George? Great. Sorry, I didn't recognize you. George is here. He is, you know, with your approval, going to be the new family support center, director of the family support center. He will hit the ground running and do an absolutely fantastic job here in that position. So we posted it and looked for... We do some great things for the caster community in that regard. George, I hate to put you on the spot. Would you like to say any words? Thank you, Mr. Brimmer. Anyone else in attendance? Well, the other person, is she here? No, she couldn't make it. Anyone here that I forgot or didn't tell me, we would like to recognize you. Thank you so much for... minutes, right? Mrs. Howard, thank you so much for coming and representing Senator Gallivan. I'll
011do 11.2 education items. 11.2.1, can I have a motion on the committee on special education? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 11.2.2, can I have a motion on the committee on preschool special education? Second. Comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? On to 12.0. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? On to 12.2.6. These are all policy first readings. We will vote on each of these in two subsequent readings. Policy 1640, absentee ballots. Policy 5730, school safety. Policy 5731, idle school buses on school grounds. Policy 5740, qualifications of bus drivers. And Policy 6560, determination of employment status, employee, or independent contractor. Those are all, again, for information. We'll vote on those at a later meeting. 12.7 can i have a motion on the substitute rates any
012comments or questions all those in favor anyone against motion carries 12.8 can i have a motion on the food service operating reports from september 2022 any comments or questions all those in favor anyone against motion carries 12.9 can i have a motion on the surplus equipment any comments or questions All those in favor? Against? Motion carries. 12.10, can I have a motion on the surplus library books? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.11, can I have a motion to accept the auction results? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. On to 12.12, can I have a motion on the club creations? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. Point 13, can I have a motion on the contract with
013parent transportation? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.14, can I have a motion on the contract with Farrar? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Aye. Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.15. Can I have a motion on the contract with Rachel Schneider? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Aye. Anyone against? Motion carries. Just to correct the pronunciation there, Schneider. I-C-H in there. All right. 12.16. Can I have a motion on the contract with Wesley? So moved. Any comments or questions? Questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.17, can I have a motion to vote with Andrew Hafner? So moved. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.18, can I have a motion on the guest artist agreement with Michael Block?
014Second. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.19. Can I have a motion on the contract with Lancaster-Deput Baseball, Legends License? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.20. Housing Solutions, LLC. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 12.21. Can I have a motion on the AIA contract with Eric Corporation? Any comments or questions? All those against. 22. Can I have a motion on the construction change orders? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Motion carries. 12.23. Can I have a motion on the scholastic achievement recognition donation? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Any questions? Anyone against? Motion carries. Point 24, indemnification request. Can I have a motion? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone
015against? Motion carries. And 12.25, can I have a motion on the amended contract with Carousel Nursery School? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. 13.0 is our public hearing. Welcome all who have come to observe this meeting this evening. This time is set aside for public hearing, a time when we invite members of the community to share ideas and concerns with us. We welcome this opportunity to hear from you in which to address the board. This is a meeting held in public rather than a public meeting, which means we will not be engaging in dialogue with members of the community this evening. But rest assured, we are listening carefully, and we take seriously what you have to say. I would ask that you demonstrate respect for us and one another
016by speaking to the issues, giving us ideas, and sharing your opinions, but not engaging any personal attack. Additionally, please know, as a public school district, we are bound by various laws, regulations, and policies regarding the privacy of students and staff, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Moreover, board policy prohibits public comment on any topic directly or indirectly related to employee information. They may discuss information about a particular student. accordingly please do not comment on the performance of or conduct of individual staff members and or specific student related matters this policy will be strictly enforced and anyone violating the policy will be barred from addressing the board in the future thank you for your cooperation all right we Laura Sproul I believe Sproul I my apologies yeah you can just state state your name
017again dress Good button. All right, perfect. Sorry about that. My name is Laura Sproul again, and I live at 89 Center Drive in Depew. I have four wonderful kids in this district, and our kids are super involved. They do sports. They do clubs. They're in musicals. We love this district. That's why we moved here. My daughter came home with a library book the other day that concerned me. It's called The Beetle and the Holly Bones by Eliza Lane, and what looked like an innocent Hollywood book, just about Halloween. be about two lesbian middle school characters who talk about a lot of very complex things for our kids. And it's a graphic novel, so it's pictures. And in the end, it has a scene of them making out, which is also graphic and shown in pictures.
018As a mom, she read this book at school without my permission or my consent. I didn't know that she had access to such material. So I thought, well, she comes home with another book. This is called... and the dressmaker. This is a book about drag queens. It's a book about a young prince who he is really a drag queen and it is also very pictorial. It's him transitioning from a male to a female in all sorts of dresses and then it ends and I have these books if anyone would like to see them and the pages specifically. confusing and she was very confused. As a mom in my mama's heart I'm glad that she felt comfortable coming to me and saying mom this book made me feel weird. This book made me feel uncomfortable and
019I don't understand. And I said you know honey that's okay but she wouldn't talk anymore about that and she ran up to her room. And you know I don't care if someone I don't care if they're gay. I just think that talks of human sexuality does not belong on the elementary level, especially when we're talking about kids who are in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. We're not talking about high schools here. We are talking about elementary age children. And I think there's an appropriate age. For these topics to be introduced so I did a little search on destiny to discover just to see well It's just a books there are more books than I ever imagined my lovely assistant here is going to pass out Some handouts the first is things from William Street books.
020I did not spend a lot of time on this Okay, sorry. Thank you so much the first is books accessible can access anytime and the second is for Lancaster Middle School because I have a student in both I have kids at the elementary middle and at William Street. And this shocked me because I just feel other topics that as parents we should get the first hecka at home first. I should have a one-on-one conversation with my daughters and my sons, I have two of each, on the couch at home in a safe setting before they are exposed at school in a school setting where they don't feel safe reading such novels. And I just feel like I don't care about people's sexuality, but I do care how it's introduced to my kids, and I want
021to be the one to introduce it first before they read a book at school. She read this book at school before she even came home. I did not know. And so I didn't get a chance to say, honey, I don't think you're ready for this yet. We haven't had the talk yet. Because I think that's our job as parents. All kids are ready. at the same time. This is not a one-size-fits-all. Not all students are ready for gay, lesbian, transgender, drag queen themes as fourth graders. We have openly on our shelves for anyone to read. We're saying, I'm ready to listen. And I think that's our job as parents and I think it's negligent on Lancaster's part to have these books mixed in with everything else. That's kind of falling as well and saying, okay,
022what's right for your kid may not be right for mine yet. I kind of looking at it as like when kids are ready to walk, they'll walk. When kids are ready to talk, they'll talk. He's not ready to potty train yet. I had one kid, this is just like potty training. When my 18 month old was ready, he was ready. My other kids, it took them till they were four. That's okay. It's different for every kid. When they're ready, they get it, and that's when we teach kids the content. So it's interesting to me that my daughters at Wayne Street have a form that I sign off on for them to take to health, and that's great. And I question that that course is very tame and mild compared to some of the books they
023have free, easy access to at the library every day that they're reading without our knowledge and without our consent. And that is my... So here's just a few takeaways that I hope you'll consider is one, you do Google Forms for other things. Maybe we need a Google Form to go out to all the parents and people of Lancaster saying, how do you feel about these? It's asking five to ten questions. And say, ask parents. So we know what the general pulse is of this district and how people feel. I'd love to be part of that. If anyone would work with me, I can give you my cell phone. But I would love to be. to my understanding it's one person the librarian who made the selection of books for all the students at a school
024I think we need a more diverse group I think one person has seen thousands of books books that influenced thousands of kids over the course of many years. The committee who looked at these books and talked about them together and they get approved before they're put on a shelf. You know, parents, you have teachers, administrators, and you know, let's throw some kids in there. Let's hear their voices. What kinds of books do they like and what do they want to read? And my third point... I believe since you have a consent form for the sex ed course, how about a consent form or a restricted section for books in the library where we sign off when we feel ready and if we feel ready for our kids to read such books. And we can simply
025sign off on them. You know, we can put together for our students. And as parents, I feel like we have our choice. And I would like that back. I feel like our kids are young and they're vulnerable. Things in our time I'd like that back so I thank you for your time and I would give a helpful number I would love to work with I don't want to this okay I hope that we can have some further dialogue on this and that I know a lot of you are parents you have and you know it to Our kids learn and do things that did but they do it at their own pace and we have our kids things at their own pace so your time and I Hope we can have some further dialogue discussed
026it and happy to give out my cell phone number with any of you on a Google form to get the sense of what the community's pulses and thank you again okay Laura's phone did you want to speak as well All right. 14.0, we're going to go into executive session to discuss LASP negotiations. That ends the meeting for this evening, the public portion of it. But before we vote on that, the next meeting is going to be December 12, 2022. That will be a regular session. 7 p.m. right here in the Central Avenue School Building. Do I have a motion to go into executive session? Any comments or questions? All those in favor? Anyone against? Motion carries. All right. Thank you all for coming up this evening.