001with allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thanks to everybody who braved the snow to be here tonight. Smart people who are tuning in remotely. Michelle, do we have any agenda changes? We do have a couple changes since Friday. We did add items for board action M, the approval of an administrative fee, and N, the approval of a separation agreement. I did provide the board members with an updated personnel report with any changes. We had the addition of a proposed executive session. Anyone here tonight wishing to address the board on agenda-related public comments? Michelle, do we have any communications this evening? I have one thing that I wanted to share with the board.
002We just got in the mail from Flower Memorial Library, the 20th anniversary celebration coming up in January, January the 4th. 2 30 in the afternoon at the farmore library the um staff and board of trustees uh timing and like board and you have to look at it good and moving into board and staff reports it's my honor to turn it over to lisa blank and tara elmer ready wow yeah don't stay in regular it's tough for laughs See, I'm going to get erased. Okay, so it's an honor to be here with you tonight and really excited to say that we've expanded a little bit. We have a team of four. I'm thankful for Tara and all the work that she does. And we have added Brian Zavotec, who is a STEM instructional coach through our
003DODEA 23 grant, helping us with applied mathematics skills in classrooms. And Laura Renzi, a STEM aide who comes to us. She's a military-connected spouse. And we just... I don't know, we've just got really lucky with some of our hires. We've found some really amazing people who have been just tremendous additions to our family. She's actually a certified teacher, Corinne. She's taught. Yes, she's taught through Calculus 2. I said it publicly. No, she's got a great background. Really great background. We're really thankful for her. So, you know, in addition to being a big help with a lot of the tasks that we do out of our office, she's a great thought partner as well. So we're really thankful for the team. Spoiling us. Carrie, you want to click that? Thank you. Since you're over there and
004I'm mobile. Yeah, sorry. I just wanted to quickly, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I wanted to make sure that you were aware that just within the last week, the federal government released the new national strategic plan for STEM education. And it really gets at why STEM education matters. For our nation, it's a global competitiveness issue. It's a national security issue. and their educational equity concerns that, you know, we can address at any level. But I have a link to that. You will have access to this presentation if you want to dig in and learn more about that plan. It's the second strategic plan for STEM education at the federal level. The first one was released in 2018. So this has been a priority of the federal government for
005a while. It's important at the state level. You know, we talk about job growth in the tech sector. We see the work with Micron down in Syracuse and different things going on across the state. It's really important at the community level. You know, we've got a lot of opportunities here, and I'll get into that a little bit more. And then at the student level, I'll talk more about that, but the critical thinking and problem-solving skills are really essential. So this just kind of highlights the five pillars of the federal strategic plan for STEM education, getting at STEM engagement. So you're seeing some common words from our strategic plan here. STEM engagement, STEM teaching and learning, STEM workforce. Those three, the first three pillars are really kind of key to a lot of the work that
006we do here in the district, as well as the STEM environments. We create environments for students to have experiences that help them to be ready for STEM careers in the future. So these are all important to the work we do. I also wanted to share, and I know you've heard a little bit about the Blue Ribbon Commission, but I'm not sure how much you're aware of the word STEM. is woven into this work. So these are the, there are 12 priorities of the Blue Ribbon Commission, you know, and they've got some, their vision for what our New York State graduates are, and I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but I want to make sure everybody knows that in number two, they talk about STEM and math, math and STEM credits,
007modeling that organizes credit requirements into clusters a little differently than we thought in the past, maybe grouping them under the category of STEM. And the other thing that's really changing is more in terms of performance-based assessments. We've done a lot of pencil and paper, computer-based testing now, but actually having kids engaged in hands-on work as part of the assessment process is really important. And then here's the global competitiveness and part of our local economy needs. By 2032, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects that we're going to see this kind of growth for non-STEM and STEM jobs. And what I want you to realize is that the anticipation is that STEM jobs are going to grow at four and a half times the rate of non-STEM jobs. And one of our most critical areas
008of need is health care. and we anticipate the growth to be about 1.8 million openings across the country every year. So that's huge. So when we think about our strategic plan, now we're getting down at the student level and what we do here, we really hit number two in the programming that we do. This increasing meaningful student engagement is really, really critical to the work we do, but it impacts. One, three, and four also really strongly because we believe that when we have really meaningful learning experiences in the classrooms for our students, they want to be here. So we'll improve attendance. We found in our STEM camp programming, we've had teachers say, watch out for that kid. You're going to have some problems or, you know, those sorts of statements. You don't see them. You
009know, we really break through some of those barriers that students have in a traditional school environment by changing the environment and making it more interactive and hands-on. And I would argue then that all of this helps us to increase the graduation rate because the more time our students are in school engaged in meaningful learning activities, the more likely they are to graduate on time. We wish we could fix the infrastructure and buildings and grounds problems as well, but we have our limitations. Thank you. You need space. That's the big thing. So we love to spark interest and engage students along meaningful learning pathways. And we get back to that blue ribbon commission and talking about career focused pathways. That's something I'm really excited about and have been working toward. You know, when we think about
010the health science work or DoDEA 21 grant has gotten at that and worked a lot with Lisa Winkler at the high school with biology classes and some of the work that she's done. You know, really thinking about that health sciences pathway. We want to see more pathways develop. and are looking forward to that, playing a role in that. One of the things that we see so much of the work, I think, in terms of an operations level, the changes in our administration have really brought about breaking down some silos, you know, the operating in discrete groups or, you know. That has changed so much. We interact more, collaborate more as a leadership team, which I really value. That makes us all stronger. And I say it also makes the learning experience stronger for our students
011because they're able to connect and find meaning in their learning with the world around them. Makes a huge difference in what we do. So we have been doing some training on project or problem-based learning with our students. And if you aren't familiar with that concept, I wanted to just introduce you to that and not spend a lot of time. But some of you may recall Pace Middle School had a project-based learning team. There was a playground design challenge. Anybody in this group familiar with that? Yeah. Yes. We had a group of students present their project results to the board. So they started with a... problem in the community or a question. They wanted to design this playground for pre-K students. So they started with that. They did all sorts of research, met with community officials,
012learned about building codes and a variety of things. They had a lot of choice and voice in their design. They had choices as to who they interacted with and where they went to gather information. They collaborated. They learned to work in teams. And I know that Some of our businesses right here in Watertown will not hire people if they can't work in teams. That's really important. It's an important employability skill. They reflected on their understanding and what they needed to learn. I was in, Tara and I were in on some of those meetings where they had those discussions and they were really rich. They had an authentic audience. Not only did they present to the school board, but they had a community event in their cafeteria. where I think they had better turnout for that
013than they probably have had for parent-teacher conferences, and people were pretty amazed. It was wonderful. Just a great experience. This is something that I'm leaving for you to look at because it's a piece of work that I really value. Michelle Borba is a psychologist who wrote an article for ASCD on future students, and she focuses on seven strengths and 21 abilities. And if you click on that image from the article, when you get this presentation, you can also read that article if you wish. But these are all strengths and abilities that we wish to impart in our students. Things like self-confidence, empathy, self-control, integrity, curiosity, perseverance, and optimism. And then 21 abilities that go along with that. Those are all things that help us. I believe every single one of those helps us in some
014way along our strategic plan and our efforts with our students. So quickly, a summary of our grants. Watertown started with DODEA grants in 2011. And then this was kind of awarded again in 2014, a social emotional learning support grant. I came on board in 2015 with the Math Matters grant, which focused on math in grades four through eight. And then 2016, we had Watertown's engineering battalion, which got at the science and engineering concepts of the new science standards. That was kind of a partner to the Math Matters grant with a science and engineering focus. In 2019, Tara came on board as a project director working on a similar grant focused on K-4 to develop science and engineering skills and understanding of the science standards in the elementary grades. That's when the pandemic hit and things
015got interesting. So we weren't able to do everything exactly as we had hoped at that time, but did accomplish a lot. The online learning period changed things for hands-on science quite a lot. Then 2021 Cyclones Tactical Fitness and Health, a health and wellness focus grant for pre-k-8. 2023 Cyclones About Face, again, mathematics for pre-K-12. That's the grant that Brian Zabotek came in under and is supporting us on. And then most recently, just this fall, we were awarded Zero Dark 30, which is a literacy grant. Zero Dark 30, meaning starting really early, starting with pre-K, really focusing on literacy skill development. You might think, is this stuff all STEM? Yeah, it's all STEM, because STEM really incorporates all. disciplines. I don't think of STEM as science, technology, engineering, and math. It's really how all subjects kind
016of integrate and come together. We also have the RECOVES grant, which runs kind of parallel to our Cyclones About face in terms of the math focus. Go ahead. I didn't list that one here because those are the priorities. So here's just a little summary of those. Kind of gives you a little more perspective on what areas of focus are. So improving health and physical education, increasing interest in health science pathways for 21. For 2023, Cyclone's About Face focuses on earning math credits. So I've been working with a lot on the math curriculum and work being done to improve math outcomes for our students. Because we know that Algebra 1 has tended to be a barrier to graduation for a lot of students. So we're seeing great progress being made there. And we want to just
017in general across the board see improved. self-confidence and perceptions of ability, self-perception in all of our students. So that's an important concept there. Zero Dark Thirty is focused on increasing that capacity for reading and again, improving interest and attitudes associated with literacy. Just the joy of reading. Let's make it fun. Let's get kids wanting to read and have fun with that. So I don't want to spend a lot of time on this slide, but I just wanted you to be aware of some of the benefits that we get out of being part of the DoDEA Grants Network. It's been really terrific to be able to engage with this network of people across the country who are engaged with military-connected students. It's not just our military-connected students that benefit from it. It's all of our staff.
018Val's over here. Val was with us at a DoDEA meeting, and she's witnessed, too, how much we gain from that experience in terms of learning from and with others. So there's a lot there that helps us ultimately, the last bullet point is to change culture. We really work toward, you know, prioritizing the areas of our grant focus and it helps us change the culture in our schools. So I don't know how much you're aware of all the different organizations we interact with. At some point, somebody asked me to kind of diagram out all these different organizations that we interact with in our day-to-day work. And it's a lot. It's a lot of different organizations that we, you know, local partners. So we've got some like Fortrum Regional Health Planning Organization. You're going to see something
019shortly about the great partnership that we have with them and what that's resulted in. Clarkson University, another one that's been great. King and King Architects behind the scenes, you know, the Collaborative Educator Summit that we went to in Syracuse. King and King, Jim King is behind that. So just so many great things that all of these partnerships help us to bring to our programs and strengthen the work we do. So I just wanted you to be aware. Do you want to say anything there? No, I'm going to let, she's going to dive in. I'm not just talking for an hour. It's not happening. Because I get to have the fun of talking about the things that we're doing in the district now. And, um, want me to trade? Yeah, I'll trade with you. So, grade
020band activities. I can't read, I promise. Go ahead. It helps if you go the right way. I'll go this way. So, across the grade level, kindergarten, first grade, we do a coding activity with kids. We have these cute little Coda Pillars made by Fisher Price, which is not a company we hear about a lot anymore, but they learn how to code. The bottom parts come off. They have to try to find the path. So I'll tell them how many. So number one takes one code. Number two, it takes two codes. Three takes three and four. We do this a lot at Knickerbocker because it has the space and that's sometimes stops us from doing activities like this because we have to lay things out. The kids receive a sticker each time they solve a path.
021So they love it. And the excitement of jumping up and down and cheering each other on is a lot of fun. So then 3D printing in third grade. We had all third grade classes of the 3D activity. This year we were able... Would Lens help to buy more 3D printers? And the newest 3D printers, the Prusas, we're going to be able to bring right in the classrooms and the kids can push play. In the past, we actually were not able to do that because they're complicated and not so easy to download. So it's pretty cool. And I'm really excited. Appointment next week to start at Ohio with that project. Oh, December's busy. Stem to Space. So this is a really cool, I think, is this our fourth year doing this? Yes, this is our fourth
022year. Yes. So Stem to Space is an activity that we came across four years ago where we do a project of building a rocket. And you can see this all in this boy's face, how he couldn't believe that the rocket would fly. So they engineer a rocket. They learn science laws, you know, learn a little bit of physics in there with this. And then we Zoom with an actual Space Force employee. And this year, who are we? It's a major from he's actually at MIT doing studying at MIT, but I can't remember. It's not the easiest name. So he's excited and he's actually going to Zoom in while we're building the rockets. Usually it's afterwards. They sit down, they talk to him and talk about his career and his career path. So it's a great
023opportunity for our kids and we do it, all fourth graders have this. So today we were cutting up all, getting our kids, our classroom kids all ready to go. STEM and literacy. So Val and I have kind of had this passion. It actually kind of started at Starbuck. a little bit because I don't know, we Starbucks library was shut down for a while. So it kind of depleted a lot of the books out of the library. So Val came to me and I was like, well, I have money from this grant. What a great thing. Let's buy books for your library. So we ended up buying a bunch of books and then I don't know if you told you. Let's do a PD in the summer. So we ended up doing a literacy and STEM
024PD with a bunch of some high school teachers, middle school teachers. It was kind of really weird. mixed teachers and staff that came in there and they loved every minute of it. And some of them, some of the high school teachers actually read children's lit at the beginning of the year as introduction to get to get to know each other. So it was kind of a cool opportunity. So this year we decided to come up with some lessons and we were doing it during VOWS. library time hitting some of our CS standards and then we presented on these at NYSC also and and they want us to come back and do some more so must be we did a pretty good job. Okay these are some of the lessons that Brian's been doing this is
025a stem modeling pixel art lesson for math kind of teaching some coordinate geometry and in a fun and engaging way. I think he hit all fifth grade classes with this activity. And then in sixth grade, he's been working on modeling the three-dimensional science. If you're familiar at all with the new science standards, they focus on science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and cross-cutting concepts that are kind of tying science into other curriculum areas. And so this was from a demo that he did. I don't know if you've ever seen this, but you put a little bit of water in the bottom of a Coke can or any sort of can, heat it up over a flame, and then invert it in. container of water and it crushes the can. So just kind of a
026dramatic, fun demo to help the students in their understanding of states of matter. He's worked with the Gifted and Talented Program on what he calls a startup PBL game design using like a startup rapid development kind of project design mode with students. So these are images of students creating some video games, and he's using little micro bit controllers there on the left to, you know, where the kids actually play the game they create. And so you see in the lower right some of the concepts that are involved with that work. He's also done some work at the high school level. We've done a project with AP Biology where those are actually 3D printed bones. that are meant to model fractures. So the students actually break them and then they have to figure out how they
027would design a cast to heal that fracture. It's a pretty creative difference. When they break, it's jagged like a bone. It's kind of weird. Yeah, very interesting. And then working with the computer science classes at the high school, doing some coding of interactive simulations. So moving sprites on a board and creating game type environments. Okay, so we're on to after-school activities. Robotics Club. We have Robotics Club up here at Wiley in two classrooms. Last year, they went and they came home with two awards. We were super proud of them and excited. Even with Kathy Frears leaving to become a coach, we still have it going on in two classrooms. So we were a little worried about that, but it did happen. Now it's being covered, actually, in fifth grade and sixth grade. Correct, yeah. So
028one of the things that happened pre-COVID, we had robotics programming going from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. We had students in all those grade levels participating. And unfortunately, COVID brought that to a halt. And it's been difficult kind of rebuilding that. So this is something that I would really love to see built up more. But you can see how happy they are. They have a lot of fun. And this is really a project-based learning type environment. So the students have a problem that they solve in an innovative way. They work in teams. And they also have to program their robot to solve a challenge on a table with different moving parts and things. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work and great experience. I love the t-shirts, too. You can
029see the t-shirts. Yeah, that's their design. That's their design. Because there's two different teams represented there, actually. STEM clubs. So right now we have several STEM clubs happening at North Knickerbocker and Wiley. Yes. Yeah. So you can just see in there, they're just happy. They just love it from breaker space to our new Marty robot that they put hair on. Ozzobots. And then the... Getting the name of the kits. What's your kit? Little Bits. No, that's not Little Bits. That's the... Oh, the Hummingbird. Hummingbird. There you go. Hummingbird. Hummingbird. It does not sound like it should be a robotics kit. But you can hot glue motors and lights and everything onto the cardboard pieces or whatever the students create. So they can basically turn almost anything in their imagination. turns into a robot, basically. With
030digital storytelling from STEM Camp, we brought some examples of that in. This slide got really messed up. I don't know what happened. I don't know. I was like, Lisa, is this too messy? She's like, no, you get the point. So Scrub Club, I'm super proud that we started with just eight little girls and now we're on to 39 students, three classrooms. We have a visit to the hospital on Thursday. If anyone wants to join, it's kind of a fun experience. So now we're in fall 2024 and hopefully we have plans to make it. 2025 with more clubs next time. So it's been, I love it. I mean, it's Monday and I was mad it was a snow day yesterday. I wanted to go to scrub club. So I've had Laura come with me, the STEM
031aide. So she's been helping me teach classes. And then I'm at Knickerbocker. We have What do we have? Julie and Kelsey Gonseth took over a club there. And so we're super excited. It's moving forward. The kids are still happy. So and the numbers are up in all the clubs. So that's going very well. And we've had requests from others outside of the district to learn more about the club and replicate this. St. Augustine? Yeah, the Augustinian Academy. They were interested. And then there's some schools down by Syracuse from the Collaborative Educator Summit that were also interested. So familiar face there. So strategically place anyone in our presentations. We have had a great year with some of the events that we've had for community. It's been really great to see people turn out. I don't know
032what our exact numbers were on the Welcome Back Watertown event, but that was really a collaborative event between multiple. groups across the district, community partners, grants that are funding a variety of programs. I mean, really a pooling of a variety of resources to create this massive event. And I know that we didn't get all the surveys back from everybody, but I think we had just had close to 2,000 people there. It was amazing. I know. Jamie might disagree with me on that, but I don't, because we counted people based on surveys, but I, it was, it was quite the, quite the event and amazing thing. And then we also had supported, we support that and we support the three, three community festival, which can't remember the name, but it's changing this year, right? Yes. There's
033so much stuff right here. That's something we're going to look up. But we support all of those events. And you might have noticed over the corner, there was some STEM activities and things too. We always squeeze those, squeeze our STEM activities into these. Kids really liked the bicycle and the smoothies. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that's the Foreign Health Cooperative Extension Partnership. So that's really a great thing. So what was that? Our community, our youth. So it's a broader vision. Last year, we focused on vaping and vape cessation. But this year, it's a broader health focus. So science and STEAM fairs across the district, we support those and bring in a lot of staff members. You might see a familiar PE teacher down there in the middle on top of one of those half ball balance
034activities. But we really reach all grade levels through those activities. And it's really fun to get out and interact with all community members at those events. And I love seeing the students presenting. work that they have done. The girl in the middle on the left with the mice decomposition, she actually won the high school science fair. I don't know if anybody here got to talk with her if you were there, but she did a really terrific job. So great work and lots of creativity. The girl in the upper right was at the Wiley STEAM Fair and was doing this kind of splatter art. It was very creative and did a great job. So we have all kinds of fun things. We'll go see that. But the bottom middle kind of hits at some of the
035health and wellness related activities we do. So we support a variety of things. We're not just doing STEM. We've done a lot to support Cyclone Academy in terms of professional development, supplies for teachers, working with them, you know, developing ideas for activities that they might do. That's an important part of what we do. Gifted and talented programming, we've been supporting that. We support classroom teachers across the district in use of STEM and technology resources. We do a lot of embedded coaching and professional learning. We support, because so many of our tools involve technology. We got involved with the data privacy piece because when we're directly interacting with some of those vendors, it's easiest for us to sometimes get the contracts that we need to have. Tina had to sign them all. Yes. She read them
036all too. As you can see from this, we do a little bit of graphics and communications and software applications support for, you know, teachers and classrooms in terms of the use of a variety of softwares. We do a lot of work with grant writing and implementing those grants and tracking their progress. And we do more. Basically, we talk a lot about how if it's good for students and we're able to support it, we generally dive in and just do it because it makes sense. So we have a lot of... We support a lot of great things. We've got so many great things going on in the district to support. It's wonderful. I'm going to escape from this for a minute because I want to show you what's on the right side. And if you want
037to explore this further, you're welcome to. See how it says STEM website and STEM resource spreadsheet? When you get this document, you will be able to take a look. Oh, boy. I'm going to smooth this down for now. I wanted to go here and show you on our STEM website. We have a listing of tools that we have available and we don't have everything necessarily on here. We've got a lot of consumable materials and things like that that are accessible for teachers that we use for a variety of activities. So these are more of those things that are durable goods. So this gives you an idea where you see. and underlined there's more information, often less in plans. But this sheet that I show you right here, I'm going to actually go over here, this
038is the full sheet. We have the Most of our equipment that's loanable out to classrooms in a spreadsheet showing on the left an image like a thumbnail image of what it is. And then we've highlighted in the chart the grade levels to which it applies. And then we've got lesson plans and various resources available to teachers. The locations where those items are, many of them, many of these items, when you see LMC, that's in our libraries. We've tried to put a lot of resources out in libraries and make them accessible for teacher checkout. And then on the right side, if there is an app for an iPad or a phone or whatever, whatever device one's using, there's a link to that app as well. Terry, did you want to add anything about that in terms
039of? Other than super lucky as a district because my kids go to a neighboring district and they don't have hardly any of this stuff as a district. We're very fortunate to have all these resources and they're right at our fingertips. If someone wants them, they get to use them. I know my son, Jack, when he comes to my office, it's like, because he's constantly into this and that. He's like, I don't know why we don't have this. Well, I think we're pretty lucky. Our kids are lucky. And the more we can teach teachers to use them and the more time we can spend with them, it can only get better. This kind of gives you an idea of things that we have. And again, we can add more, but we've been really trying to put
040everything we have that's loanable. right out here for everybody to access. So that just gives you an idea. And again, the link is there on the slides that you'll have access to if you want to go and explore further. So I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the next steps that are coming in our world. So we were really fortunate to establish a partnership with Clarkson University for their Impetus for Success grant. It's a step grant. It's a state-level grant that will bring Clarkson students to our schools beginning next month to provide after-school learning opportunities for students in grades 7 through 12. And Impetus is... I should have put the full name in there. It's about physics and engineering. The PE is for physics and engineering, kind of preparing students for career
041success. And that also involves monthly visits to Clarkson University where they have a dinner. They get to experience maybe some of the facilities and do activities there. There's a summer piece to that. There's a summer camp piece to where they do a roller coaster camp and they learn about physics through. you know, through amusement park rides and stuff. So there's a lot of, a lot of fun. So we will have that being established both at Case and And then on the right, it's kind of covered up on this side, but STEM camp with a K, K-A-M-P. One of the things I've wanted to do is strengthen our experience for our middle school students. And so through DOD STEM and this organization STEM camp, we've been able to create a partnership that provides us with training
042for our teachers for the six to eight camp and also will help us onboard students as lab assistants. So our high school students get to assist with that work and get paid to assist with that work. in our six through eight stem camp so that's great look forward to that opportunity for our students um literacy activities are we're actually interviewing this week for site literacy coordinators for dodea 24 grant and those literacy coordinators are going to help us support the literacy initiatives at each of the buildings they're like our boots on the ground hands out in each of the buildings to help us with things like encouraging participation in PD, maybe sharing some tidbits in faculty meetings to help with some of that professional learning and helping us facilitate literacy events and open library hours
043in each of the buildings. And we intend to alternate literacy events and open library events like every monthly basis. Whoops. Sorry about that. Harry, do you want to talk about STEM space? I already did. STEM to Space is an ongoing project that we're just going to keep on having every year because it's so powerful and the kids love it. And sometimes I'm called, aren't you that space girl that came in? No, I'm not. So it's kind of funny how kids relate you to the lesson that they've been a part of. Space girl. I'm going to call you that. And then holiday fun. We always, this is a time of the year. That's not nice. So holiday fun. This is a time of the year where teachers feel like they can let off a little bit
044if Lynn lets them. Just a little bit, Lynn. Anyways, we go in with different lessons as in 3D printing, ornaments, and other activities that Brian has been reaching out to Wiley and Case to push in. I don't know there. This is where my cursor was placed. Sorry about that. We also plan to do at the building level, some building level schedule reviews to look at opportunities. So the first two bubbles up there kind of go together for collaborative planning, for finding better ways to utilize our schedule to help teachers have that collective planning time to look for integration opportunities. Because we realize that integration of content helps to enrich the learning experiences for students. We also want our teachers to have the opportunity to participate in a STEM or STEAM GLOW, where they will visit
045classrooms across the district to see STEM lessons in action. And GLOW is gathering learning opportunities in Watertown. We also have discussed exploration of district level committees, you know, to really think about those committees in terms of are we best meeting the needs of our students as we think about the Blue Ribbon Commission and these career pathways. We've got some work to do. So re-envisioning that to best meet our students' needs is something we're focusing on. And professional learning is always something that we are working on. I mentioned Val going with us to a DoDEA grants meeting. So we're always... learning through our grants programs, but we also send teachers to professional conferences, such as the New York State AFERD Conference for our PE teachers and other events like our NiceGate Technology Educators Conference. They equip
046us with all sorts of tools and skills to come back and share within our community for the good of our students. So we're fortunate to have that opportunity. We also have the internal PD, I have to mention, we're really thankful for the work. Lynn's been doing a lot of work with just building basic understanding of science of learning and really reinvigorating teachers in that development of classrooms. So other things. Want to talk about the tactics? Extra games. So, um, so last year we went to Fort Leavenworth. Yes. Leavenworth. Another Dodea partnership. A very wealthy school district, by the way, a little jealous of their koi pond that's in the middle of their lobby when you walk in. Super cool. Kids were in it. Cleaning it. Be cool. But anyways, X-Ray Games is, um, gamifying. Movement,
047right? Yeah, wellness. And wellness. So on order, we have some equipment for North, Ohio, Knickerbocker. Starbucks. No, Ohio. Case. Case. Case. So we're excited to get these games in. I've been pushing Lisa to get these for a while. So we're getting there, Lisa. We're getting there. And we hope to send additional people to that training at Fort Leavenworth this year so that we can hopefully expand that because we think that. Well, we've seen firsthand in two schools that we visited through our DoDEA grants program how these excerpt names help students with self-regulation, helps them kind of work out kinks that they need to be ready for learning. So they're really powerful tools. Science investigation. So two years ago, New York State brought down the investigate or brought it to well brought investigations across the third,
048fourth and fifth grade. We decided in the district that we would just have them all done in fifth grade. So we're hoping at some point to develop science lessons that are aligned to these investigations from. kindergarten up so these kids are ready to take these standard aligned hands-on experiences. And our reading curriculum at the elementary level really has some great opportunities to blend the reading and ELA component with the science component in a rich, meaningful way. So that's where we're looking for those curriculum integration opportunities. We always want to expand our... after school opportunities. And we are really thankful for the bus services this year because that's been a real frustration. It's a game changer. Yeah. I do think with like Ohio probably, so we put four kids on a bus. It's a big difference.
049Those four kids wouldn't have the opportunity. I'm just struck. Since I started here in 2015, that has been one of the biggest areas of concerns that teachers have expressed. And I also say just in general, in terms of equity and access. we're really mindful of that and reaching like the grade levels with so many of our activities and we're just continually getting better in that way. So I'm thankful for the busing and, and support Aiden also provides with. the data for supporting all that busing activity. So we're thankful for you. We're always looking to expand our community partnerships because we understand that those help us in so many ways to support career-connected learning, support from regional health planning. Very tremendous. Currently, like at all of our scrub club during the day that we talk about
050medication, we have a pharmacist coming from the hospital. to do a lesson so they can use their expertise and talk to the kids about medicine at their level. I mean, I can like. gloss over it, but not at the level they can talk about their jobs and their careers. And then we also have Beth from Fort Durham Regional Health doing Pack the Wounds when we do wound care. So, and we take a visit. We are walking to the hospital from Knickerback. Local medical professionals, Millie, coming in to help also. Yeah, Millie came to us. That was great. They love it. And that's what they really, you know. So career pathway development, I already mentioned that, but we definitely want to continue exploring and creating opportunities along career pathways. And we like to start early because
051students are making decisions by the time they leave third grade about who and what they might be when they're adults. So I think the early exposure is really important. Ties in Lisa to the prior slide that you had about the master scheduling piece, looking at predominantly case middle school. Looking at incorporating next year elective opportunities so that kids can choose what electives and what pathways they would like that will feed into our high school. So that's where that goes to slide three. Did you opt times for video? I forgot to do that. I'm going to stop the share momentarily because I have to redo it. All right. Just something for everybody to think about. Imagine the awesomest thing you can, like an automatic grilled cheesemaker. Or a time machine? Or a time machine with an
052automatic grilled cheese maker? Now imagine who's going to invent it. Him? Glasses here? Whoever they are? Or maybe her? But how do kids like these become the types of people that do things like this? Maybe we should ask this guy. Knowledge is heavy. Sometimes it's a limit to have new ideas. That's the problem with the old schooling, because they were teaching answers. I believe questions are probably more important today than the answers. Erno's cube is a question waiting to be answered. And when the right person finds the right question, something amazing happens. They start seeing the world as it truly is. Not a place to be memorized, but a place to be figured out, flipped, turned, twisted, and ultimately made better forever. Today, she may be an octopus, but help kids like her fall in
053love with problem solving, and they will embark on journeys to become scientists, artists, engineers, designers, inventors, or something no one's ever been before, but you can bet we're going to need. That's why moments like this, and this, and this, and especially this, are so important. Because there are companies to found, planets to walk on, time machines to invent, a future to be made amazing. We may not know what it's going to look like, but we know who's going to do it. It's a commercial, but I think it's really worth sharing. I just think it kind of frames what we're about. And see, it doesn't want to go forward. We appreciate all you do to support us and our students and the community as a whole. What you do is so important. And I had to
054share that photo here somewhere. Awesome. So thank you very much. Anybody have questions? Yeah, I do. I have several questions, but just a few questions. So obviously I'm very interested in this. I'm the one who requested that you do this presentation. It was a comprehensive presentation. But the one question that I still have is... You in your presentation, you have like different first grade, second grade, third grade, you're doing different things. My question is, when is every student getting the same opportunity to learn everything and at the same pace? So in other words, when you go in and you're saying, oh, I have to set time aside and knickerbocker, are you just going in? Once a week, twice a week, are you hitting every single classroom? Is every single student in the school building at
055that grade level getting the exact same exposure? And how is that being done so that we are making sure? that these STEM education is equitable across the board. So I can talk about when I first came in a coaching role, we could go into classrooms when invited basically. And, and that troubled me because. Some students were getting great experiences. If you had teachers who valued this, believed in it, understood it, some kids were getting those experiences, others weren't. So we've really stepped that up and we keep expanding that entire grade level access. That's why, you know, when we're working on these projects, we'd love to have this across every grade band, but we have a limited pool of people to support that. We also are building capacity within our staff. So when we go in,
056We are having the staff members participate in this along with us and lead the activity. So it's sort of like embedded PD and building that capacity. Plus, we are reaching entire grade bands. When we do STEM to Space, you should see the custodian came in today. She's like. That isn't garbage, is it? So I got these bags with pipe insulation and everything. Our floor is covered with it because we're gearing up to go in every single fourth grade classroom. We started supporting every classroom. And so now we don't, it's happening in every classroom because the teachers built up their capacity to teach it because we've showed them how to do it. We give them all the resource. So that's our goal is to just keep giving them more and more capacity to teach this stuff.
057I think my biggest advocacy is in building STEM into the academic curriculum. Absolutely. On an everyday basis so that when you're doing reading and you're doing math, which are all core subjects that are being taught, that the STEM concept is already integrated. Are we moving towards, and in order for that to happen, you have to make teachers independent. You have to teach teachers how to implement this into their academic curriculum. So as I'm seeing this, we're working towards that, but we are not there. So our elementary, that's where my passion is, because I think in order to reach all those goals, you're going to have to start at the elementary level. You know, our reading and math scores are terrible. And the only way we're going to remedy that is by supporting our elementary schools.
058You have the data that shows that STEM improves reading, math, science, all of that. It improves graduation. It improves participation. All of our strategic goals there. That is what STEM does. So my concern is we lost a lot of that during COVID, which you mentioned a couple of times. We would have been much further had COVID not hit us, but that set us back about three years. So now in order to remedy. I feel that we should be very aggressive. And I feel that you guys, I went to the scrub club. I see that you are implementing this. But I guess my biggest concern is, are we doing this fast enough pace that we are going to see some good outcome data in terms of reading and writing and science scores? That's so we're not
059really there yet. And so we can't truly say that we have STEM embedded into our elementary academic curriculum. Well, we are embedding it. We are working on that. I have to say, though, that there are processes in play right now to build up just basic teaching and learning capacity and set the stage for that next level. And I know, believe me, I know these things don't always happen as fast as we would like them to happen, for sure. But we also have to realize that we've got a very large group of people with varying levels of capacity for that work. and we need to build that capacity. So that's really what we're working on. One of the things you said, Lisa, earlier, other than the grade level bands that you did share, and you didn't
060share everything that we're doing, but a highlight of the grade level. And I don't know if you want to add to it with regards to the STEM incorporation as far as the reading curriculum, how that can be done in the elementary grade. Yes, so our art core curriculum, we've talked about that quite a bit, has a lot of science embedded in it. And one of the things that the teachers would really like is more hands-on activities to go with those units that can integrate nicely. So we're getting more interdisciplinary, not just filling it out as something separate. One of the things that Tara also mentioned were the investigations. So right now those sit. fifth grade and the eighth grade levels. We want to make sure all kids have access to investigations K through eight, well,
061and beyond. So we're talking about doing mini versions of those, being able to support those at all levels. So we're laying the groundwork. We're not there yet. I would say the district is being very aggressive addressing reading and math scores. So yes, I would agree. But one of the things is. The capacity building involves that time when I talked about the collaborative planning time and how essential that is. We need to know and understand how these things fit with the existing curricula that are in place. So that also is going to be a piece of the work to be done. It's an important piece. So a year ago, I had asked you looking to the Kids Museum Project, which is, you know, comes out of Maryland. And they have a lot of proven data, especially
062with children that come from lower socioeconomic status. So can you share with us? I'm very interested to know that program was decided wasn't needed here. So I'd like to know, like, what that, what was your experience in your conversation with that program that, you know, you guys felt like it wasn't a benefit to the school district? That's an academic, that is an elementary, and they've done that in schools in the D.C. area. They're stemming out into other states. And that is, I mean, there's a lot of data on that. And I'm thinking that that's. Eventually, we're all working towards that. But what specifically about the Kids Museum program that... You guys didn't feel like it was going to be a benefit. So we had met with them a couple of times and thought possibly we
063could do something maybe for summer programming. But I don't think the capacity was quite there yet. Like they were my impression from our meetings was that they were working in the Maryland, D.C. area and were trying to branch out and hadn't really quite done that yet. I have done trainings in Project Lead the Way and Engineering as Elementary. Yeah, curricula that are nationwide and have, through the DODEA partnership, been in communication with people all across the country regarding various programs and things that they implement. And the favorite by far at the elementary level right now is the Engineering Elementary Curriculum, which is... It's also very well researched. It's out of the Museum of Science in Boston. And it is, the curriculum's free. The materials do cost money, but the curriculum is free right now. That
064is a fairly recent change. But given all of the supplies and resources we have, I think there's a lot there that we can work with. In terms of some of the, so you're saying that you are tapping into some of those engineering type programs that are free for us? We are always tapping into programs that are accessible, like I mentioned, like the IMPACUS program from Clarkson and working with STEM Camp. Absolutely. We're trying to take, I don't mean take advantage, but we're strategically looking at what do these programs have to offer? And because we want to see our students succeed. We want to see them be that great. career opportunities. We want to boost that graduation rate we need. And how does it fit in our programs we have now? Because ARC is highly embedded
065and there's ARC is American Reading Company. There's a lot in ARC that is as science related. We just have to intermingle them and make it work for our teachers and our students. And really plan strategically for that. Because time is tough. It is for the teachers. Not a lot of time in a day. So we have to make sure. our biggest bang out of our time. Now you created, tonight you presented the Excel spreadsheet that took a lot of time to put together to filter through that of the many different resources, the grade level bands that fit those resources, lesson plans that are available, the apps that are existing. And then last year we went to the board and then eventually our community and we added the additional person to your department to make the
066technology and STEM. resources more accessible for all kids. Correct. So that's Laura. And Laura has been amazing to our team. I mean, anytime I, anything I, she's right on it. She keeps lists for me. Tara, remember this? Yes. She is definitely a gift. So we're very thankful for that. Absolutely. When do you think that we're going to see some, when do you think that you will have tangible data on what you've done since COVID? When do you think we're going to be able to see some results? Well, we do have to report data on what we do because the bulk of what we do is grant funded, right? So we have reports due to Department of Defense educational activity, recuffs for the state grant. So we do have data on those things. You know, it
067depends upon what kind of data you are looking for. I'm just looking to see like when we do have increased numbers in our advanced science classes. So that is a huge, huge concern of mine. That's a huge thing that the numbers keep going up. When we first started, I believe we only had one chemistry class, is it? Yeah, and we had fewer students in physics here than were in physics at IHC, which just that shocked me and I didn't think that was okay. So I was working really hard to try to increase experiences for kids so that they had more confidence and could see themselves as being in those classes. So when my daughters were at Case Middle School, they were both at the, we had PBL. Oh, yeah. The PBL classes and we had
068the Enrich program. So are we bringing that back or we're not bringing it? We definitely want to bring back the project-based learning. We're actually using project-based learning with Cyclone Academy. Yeah, I saw. So we definitely, I've been wanting that. That kind of disintegrating was hard. That was a hard blow. Yeah, it was very successful. And the kids that, unfortunately, we weren't set up to have all kids participating in it at that time. That was a stumbling point for the program. But ideally, we would have that accessible to all. Yeah, I mean, I think we've implemented the gifted program. That's expanding next year, the case. So, you know, this PBL is also another proven. educational tool. And we have our own data from what happened here when we ran the program in here. It's been very
069successful. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Well, we appreciate your support. We look forward to growing the program. Thank you. Thank you very much for presenting tonight. Okay. Up next, Mr. Kelly-Gosier with the FAF Committee Report. Yes. Once again, a hard act to follow. I will be brief. We started out discussing enhancements in safety and security. We're actually going to discuss that a little further at the end of today's meeting. But we did talk about a couple different quotes that we hopefully can fund from the reserve funds. One is the walkthrough security. Three for the high school, three for case, and five ones. They're not very intrusive. It's something definitely worth looking at. As well as radios, nearing 100 radios for the district, the high end. For example, they would scan IDs instantly, or
070some of them would scan IDs instantly. And this would also give us a secure frequency, which we don't have now. We then shifted gears, talked about the capital improvement plan and the timeline and staying on the timeline, which I think we're doing a pretty good job. Considering the... sweating and different aspects that were thrown at us. Then a little bit, we talked about risk assessment report, and parts of that, and that answered a few questions. And then our was up. Thank you. Dr. William Schmigel, Superintendent of Schools Report. Good evening everyone. I'm going to make this quick. I just want to thank everyone for working with us with snow removal. Those of you that live in the community realize how hard we got hit. and a nice welcome to winter. Snow that melted turned to
071ice and was a little bit more difficult to remove. I want to thank our team of people, our custodians and our maintenance staff who worked around the clock on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. and we did have to reach out to outside resources last night to get open by today. We know how important it is to have our kids in school. We have many kids that benefit from our clinics, many kids that benefit from food, nutrition, warmth, and those things. And so we were eager to open today, and I want parents in the community to realize that these decisions are not made lightly. Phone calls begin at 3 o'clock in the morning in the neighboring districts, in the city, in the county. food service, maintenance, etc. There are many phone calls that are made before a
072decision is made. We do add in our calendar six contingency days, those days quite quickly, and we have to use those wisely. If we were to get into a situation, which we have not yet since I've been here, when over those days we would have to go take days back from spring break. And so I just want people to know that we're being thoughtful and we're communicating that and If you are not getting the messages, because I do have some people that emailed me, the message went out to 4,380 people. And so if you are one of the few that did not get it, I ask that you reach out to your building administrator and make sure that your communication is working correctly. The next thing I want to mention is the Department of Homeland
073Security and Emergency Services in FEMA. We had that meeting today, Bree and I. We had a productive meeting. Our architect was in that meeting. And our next meeting is going to be scheduled for December 17th. And so keeping in mind that we are looking mainly at the high school and also north and possibly minor things at Case. We're trying to tie in the capital projects that we're trying to bring forward, as Colleen mentioned. with the FEMA. And so there is some navigating that we're working through and we'll keep you guys apprised as we learn more. The next thing I just wanted to mention is our holiday parade is December 6th at 6 p.m. Our board will be participating with that. We also have our musically talented students that will be participating from Wiley, Case, and
074the high school. We have almost 100 kids that are going to be working with us. So I just hope that Mother Nature works in our favor. And we will be participating and handing out candy, which our kids are looking forward to. The next thing I want to mention is Cyclone Academy. Michelle Gravel over here, our magic Michelle, sent out an email today. We are expanding the program. We are looking for math, science, social studies, English teachers, Kevin Todd, PE teachers, art, music, foreign language, health, et cetera. If you are interested in teaching in a new opportunity, we ask you to please reach out to Ember to get the Watertown City School District dot O-R-G. In addition to that, I just want to update everyone because I brought this up since this summer. We're continuing our
075work with the city of Watertown on our intermunicipal agreement, and I will share more information at a board meeting near you. That's it. Did you see Kevin Todd is teaching PE at Sopham? I'm on so many levels. Okay. I was really excited at that idea. Okay. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Moving forward, we'll turn it over to Lynn Gaffney, Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Report. It is hard to follow you Dr. Schmiedl. The middle school scheduling committee had the opportunity to meet twice in November to discuss and develop recommendations for the 25-26 middle school schedule based on the needs of our students, ensuring a supportive and effective learning environment. I want to commend Principal Katie Cook and her team for their collaboration on this important work. Several teachers are taking part in our second five-week
076session of after-school professional learning communities. We continue to focus on evidence-based strategies and how they can inform and refine our instructional practices. The Reading League continues to provide valuable support as our district aligns reading instruction with the science of learning. During the second week of November, they visited our K-4 schools to offer guidance and support, and our teachers are doing an outstanding job in this important work. On November 20th, our Food for Families Committee met to plan for Thanksgiving and holiday breaks, working to ensure that families experiencing food insecurity have access to the support they need. Our first AI committee meeting was held on November 21st to explore the future use of artificial intelligence in our district. The meeting sparked robust discussions, and we look forward to continuing the conversation when we reconvene in January.
077I was able to meet with our E&L team last week to work on this year's comprehensive ELL education plan that will be submitted to the State Education Department. I'm very grateful for the expertise and insight our E&L teachers brought to the discussion and to the planning, and they do an incredible job supporting our ELL students every day. Finally, I want to thank our STEM team, not only for their presentation tonight, but for their outstanding support across the district. If we need anything and we call them, they are immediately here supporting us. And that's the same for any teacher, any student across the district. So I just want to thank them for always going the extra mile, always putting students first, and just know how much you're appreciated. Thank you so much. Tina Lane, Assistant Superintendent
078for Personal and Student Services. Good evening, everyone. On November 7th, I attended a Lunch and Learn session online, sponsored by United Way, entitled, Where Did All the People Go? Cheryl Mayforth, Jefferson County's Director of Employment, assessed the current workforce and trends with businesses' shorter hours in the labor market in general, and we also examined generational shifts in the workforce and other indicators of our current labor market. November 12th and 21st, this is a very exciting endeavor. Amber Mizerkola, Watertown High Dean of Students and I met to discuss launching Youth Court at Watertown High School. We met with Jennifer Utman-Kahl and Tammy Patterson on November 21st from the Resolution Center of Jefferson and Lewis Counties. And Amber and I are planning to attend a Youth Court session at night this week, as well as gather a
079group of students to be trained in January on Youth Court protocols. We're very excited about that endeavor. We were looking forward with our partnership with the Resolution Center as well. On November 13th, I attended Fall Sports Night at Watertown High School, where nearly 300 student-athletes were honored. And on November 20th, I attended the Safety Committee meeting, whereby AI security school traffic patterns and safety updates were discussed. Our own Sonia Otis, RN at the high school, conducted Narcan training with the Safety Committee members as well. And as Tara and Lisa discussed, we had a vape cessation committee meeting on November 25th. And I have to mirror what Lynn just said. Tara is now our newest member of the committee. Lisa is a standing member. And they are wonderful additions. We are planning for our February 27th
080event. Matt Burdick has done a great job eliciting donations. Our whole group is working very well together. We're getting a lot done. Our community, our youth is the title. It's a powerful call to action to safeguard the bright futures of our young people. Join us in building a stronger mental health system that empowers our youth to thrive. We have a couple of speakers. We have upwards of 20 community partners who will be there. And we'll have free dinner, free transportation, free child care. Once again, very excited about that. And finally, on November 25th, I had the great pleasure of attending two of our senior student-athlete signings for college, one for Bryant University and the other for Nazareth University. Congratulations to both of them and to all of our senior student-athletes who have been honored thus
081far and will be honored in the future. Thank you very much. Last but not least, Amanda. Hello. As you recall, last month you had approved the audit reports. Those have all been submitted into the New York State portal. The single audit correction plan was submitted and the financial statements have been uploaded onto the website. Our internal audit and the corrective action plan that you had also approved has been uploaded and approved by New York State. And to supplement that, as Colleen mentioned, the risk assessment for the current year, as I promised last month, those reports will come to you more timely. So that is on the agenda for you tonight to approve, and we will notify Questar of that approval once that is completed. The maintenance of effort compliance for our 611 and 619 grants.
082We have to do two calculations a year. The first one is based on budgeted numbers for the upcoming year. And then after your audit is completed for the year, they ask for the final numbers from that previous year to make sure that the cost per student is increasing or remaining the same year after year in order to maintain those funds. And all four, it's per student and per capita, state and local, all four categories did meet the requirements for maintenance of effort. We're going to continue to collect our 611, 619 monies. And I don't know if you recall, I had mentioned that Dr. Schmiegel had put my name forward to NICLAS for their board of directors. That election did start the day after our presidential election. So it has been a nonstop election for several
083months now. But I should hear something by the end of this week for that. There were five candidates running for six positions. So at this point, a position is guaranteed, I would say, but it's just a matter of how long you'll be on the board. And one last thing is the transportation RFP. We have been working on that with FEH BOCES for the last couple of weeks. We've had some paperwork going back and forth with the attorneys at insurance, and I believe we're at a point now we're going to do a final review and hopefully get that out by the end of the week. We've got some great things that we're looking at adding to the RFPs. We've got the Go Green initiative with electric electrification buses. We've added the after-school touring buses. We're looking
084at adding the morning late bus. So if we have by chance a parent that doesn't have transportation and the kid misses the bus, a bus that can go around so that if a kid misses first period, they don't have to miss all periods. So we've got other things that we've asked to include in the RFP. We're going big or going home, and we hope to just go big. So we'll find out soon. My fingers are crossed. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Can I just add something, Jason? Of course. This came up in our Finance Committee meeting, and I'm not sure, Lori, if you had a chance to look, but on this risk assessment, there is a recommendation that divorce policy 4601 needs to be looked at. They're asking that the verbiage that's in the
085current policy also include the extra classroom activity funds. So we looked at that quickly during our meeting, but I think that's going to fall on your lap if you just want to take a look at that. Want to make sure that you saw that. Yeah, it looks like it might just be a little tweak on one of the subsections of the policy. And we'll get section two. We'll take a look at that, revise that and have that approved. Easy fix. Well, at this time, we are in need of an executive session for the medical, financial, credit, or employment history of a particular personal corporation or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal, removal, or removal of a particular personal corporation. Can I have a copy? All right. All right, John. All
086those in favor? Aye. Go anywhere. Okay. motion for open session all right all right jason i also need a motion for an agenda change to add um oh the approval of a lot of firms to the principal rate for microlinux Okay, so can I get a motion for an agenda, Jen? Millie. Millie, a second. Lori, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? I'm curious. Michelle, am I good? Okay, good. Items for consent agenda. Resolve the consent agenda items A through F. Can I have a motion for that one? John. John, second. Lori, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, hearing is up, I'll leave the board in action. Whereas after public advertising for bids for GoTek testing for the Watertown High School, Middle School, Wiley Campus, copies of specifications were furnished to three vendors
087and three bids were received. Whereas the firm submitting the lowest responsible bid meeting the specifications for GoTek testing is White House or White Stone Associates. engineering and geology new york pllc therefore be it resolved that the go-tech testing in the amount of twenty seven thousand seven hundred dollars as noted in the bid are hereby approved can i have a motion please 14. laurie and tita any discussion all those in favor Result that the annual risk assessment report of the school district as prepared by the firm of Questar 3 BOCES for the period ending June 30, 2025 is hereby accepted and approved. Motion please. Second. Discussion. Thank you, Bree, for all those clarifications. You're welcome. All right. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of
088schools, Dr. Larry C. Schmeichel, the Board of Education hereby approves the following. Resignations, leave of absence, appointment probationary instructional, appointments termed non-probationary instructional, tutors after school, appointments to Cyclone Academy. Appointments stem program appointment substitute instructional appointments appointment substitute non instructional. Okay, can I have motion please? Second discussion. Opposed abstentions. Whereas the state of Newark has enacted legislation that mandates an increase to the minimum wage effective January 1, 2025, and whereas in accordance with this new law, the minimum wage will increase to $15.50 per hour for workers in Jefferson County, and whereas it is the mission of Watertown City School District to ensure fair compensation for all staff and... employees and whereas the Board of Education acknowledges the importance of maintaining competitive and equitable compensation to retain and support the workforce that serves the needs of
089the district students and community. Now therefore be it resolved that effective January 1, 2025, the Board of Education of the Watertown City School District hereby approves an increase in the minimum wage of pay for all eligible employees to $15.50 per hour. in accordance with the New York State minimum wage increase, and be it further resolved that the superintendent of schools or their designee is authorized and directed to implement this wage increase and ensure compliance with all relevant state and local laws, and be it further resolved that the Board of Education will continue to monitor state and federal wage laws and make adjustments as necessary to maintain a fair and competitive pay structure. For all employees, this resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption. Motion, please. Call it. Call it a second. John. John, discussion.
090All right. Whereas a resolution was passed by the Board of Education on November 19, 2024, approving the November 29, 2024 resignation of Deborah Matusiak. And for the result that this amended resolution reflects a change in resignation date to December 2, 2024, and is hereby approved. Can I have a motion, please? Tina, a second? All right, discussion. All those in favour? Aye. Any opposed? motion carries resolve that upon recommendation of the superintendent schools dr larry c schniebel the agreement dated november 27 2024 probationary period of an instructional employee the probationary period is hereby extended to and including june 30 2025 in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the agreement signed by the superintendent the instructional employee and the watertown education association president is hereby approved i have a motion please john john a
091second oh yeah billy billy gotcha any discussion guys all in favor aye aye opposed please know that the board of education policy 8303 selection of library and multimedia materials is hereby approved and adopted Motion, please. John. John, second. I just wanted to say that that was an excellent presentation last week on how they were able to come up with a policy that was clear, concise, and really addressed some of the notions in the community that were banning books, and we are not doing that. They were very thorough in explaining the process, so I think that should avoid further issues moving forward. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Jason, at this time, I need a motion to return to the table the next resolution. Okay, can I have a motion? Million. Million
092and a second. Yeah. Well, we got you. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Motion's back on the table. Result of the following revised Board of Education policies and regulations are hereby approved and adopted. 7,500 education records, 7,500.4 student privacy purpose notice to reflect the records officer as the district clerk. 8,302 complaints about curricula. for instructional materials 8302.1 complaint procedures concerning textbooks library material and other instructional materials 8302.2 request for re-evaluation of instructional materials I'm going to vote to table 83 of all the 8302s because I was not here two weeks ago and you guys had an open discussion when I was not here. I reviewed it, so I want to bring back. I think it's right to bring back to the policy committee to discuss what you guys all discussed since I was not
093here to have that community discussion and it's already so late. I don't want to do that again. Motion to table. Really? A second? Can I vote? Me. a second all those in favor aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye
094aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye All in favor? Aye. Whereas a resolution was passed by the Board of Education on September 17, 2024, approving the extracurricular and club advisors for the 24-25 school
095year, and be it further resolved that this amended resolution reflects the resignation of Sarah Loudon-Durant as the co-advisor of the Escorts Club, resulting in a change in co-advisor to Austin Schilling, and is hereby approved. motion please all right sorry a second yeah tina any discussion what is the s sports club esports esports electronic sports ah computer-based okay thank you Resolved that the Watertown Cyclones Booster Club donated 16 turkeys to Perth School Building and the District for Families in Need at the value of $292.79. This donation is gratefully accepted and approved and will be acknowledged in writing. Can I have a motion, please? Mailing. Mailing second. Mailing second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Result that stage notes made a generous donation of $250 to the AV club at Watertown High School. This
096donation is gratefully accepted and will be acknowledged in writing. Motion, please. Second. Discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Resolved that upon the recommendation of Dr. Larry Schmiegel, Superintendent of Schools, the paid administrative leave of a non-instructional employee effective December 3, 2024 is hereby approved. Motion, please. Second. Second. All right. Discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Whereas the board has reviewed the terms and conditions of the agreement, including the provisions for severance benefits, confidentiality, non-disparagement, and release of claims as worked in the document. And whereas the board defines that the terms of the separation agreement are in the best interest of the school district and that approval of the separation agreement is. necessary to resolve all matters between the parties in a manner that is fair and equitable to both
097parties. Now, therefore, be it resolved that a Board of Education of the Watertown City School District hereby approves the separation agreement and release as presented and authorizes Dr. Larry C. Schmiegel to execute the agreement on behalf of the Board and to take any necessary actions to effectuate the terms of the agreement. be it further resolved that the board directs the superintendent to ensure that all necessary documentation is pleaded and filed in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations and that all payments and benefits due under the agreement be processed promptly be it further resolved that this resolution resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption motion please All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Resolved that upon the recommendation of Dr. Larry Spies-Megel, Superintendent of Schools, that Michael Lennox, serving as a long-term
098substitute principal at Ohio Elementary. will be compensated at a daily rate of $500 per day. This rate will remain in effect until he completes his substitute role or until a permanent principal is appointed by the Board of Education. Can I have a motion, please? I'll call you a second. I got you. Just relax. Okay, moving along. Anyone here tonight wishing to address the board on non-engagement related public comment? Kristen LaBarge. I know it's not question and answer time, but I just wanted to ask real quickly, the RFP for transportation, is that something that is available to the public? Because I heard the mention about electric buses. And I would love to learn more about it, but I don't know if that's accessible to the public. We have not put out the RFP yet because it's
099got to go out for a bit. So once we do that, it will be public. Okay. I just wasn't sure if that only goes out to interested parties. Awesome. So I just wanted to touch base. I think timeline wouldn't have. happened the last meeting so if it did then excuse me for being repetitive but um my son and I went to the case musical for the Wizard of Oz and I just wanted to give an extra special shout out because my son does not really um do well he's usually challenged in the environments that um events like that are in you have a lot of people it can be really loud you have to sit still for a long time But when I heard it was going on, I said, do you want to go?
100He gave me an enthusiastic yes. And at that time, I hadn't put two together. He'd already had the preview, the sneak peek. So it was even more impressive because repetition can be hard for kids when you see the same thing again. There were some students in the show that he wanted to go and support some of his peers. He thoroughly enjoyed it, which is like extra, extra than five stars. But it was really impressive performance from everybody involved, the cast and the crew and everybody that helped the production. It was, it was really impressive. There's some, some talented kids there. So I just wanted to give those guys a shout out. And then. I just wanted to speak a little bit to the Parent Square Communications. I was one of those frustrated parents. I don't
101think that we are trying to, you know, just be angry for the sake of being angry. Communication is something that's really important, and a lot of us are struggling. I put it out there, and I had... I've got like a dozen people now that are surprised about how they got the communication or that they didn't get the communication. Or there's been all sorts of things that we've discovered as a result of how things went out. I think it's great that we got the early notice. I love that. Anytime that you, the more notice that we are prepared to give. I love that. I think it gives families the time to prepare. So that was awesome. A lot of families did not get the memo. It was very secondhand. So in dealing with this and in
102mentioning the communication issues last time, I actually did not go back to my building principal. I sat and thought about it and it didn't make sense to me to go to my building principal. I went to the person who I go to with my tech related questions. And that was Lisa Blake. And she is an amazing resource for. parent square questions and actually tonight at 5 p.m. she put that instructional piece out on parent square. So if there are any parents watching that might be able to help navigate those settings. But even this being year five of using parent square. I'm finding all sorts of new things, different settings when you're changing schools. There's all sorts of things that factor in. So I would encourage anybody watching to try to go to the ParentSquare little
103tutorial. And then at the end of that, she says, if you have any questions, email. Lisa Blank provides her email. So that was really helpful. And I think that there's a lot of solutions that can come of it. it, it, it snowballed. All these people are like, oh, well, I got text messages, which I didn't think we were getting text messages. And then somebody's like, I didn't get anything. So when I go in and I look, sometimes it's as simple as you've opened up. So I have two districts, one school. So if I open up case and the settings are there, it's a, it's a dropdown. The next time I go into that section of the app, the dropdown stays open. So you don't see a line of different schools. So in your head, you
104might be thinking to change some of those settings, but at the bottom, it just looks like a little blurb. It just says Watertown City School District. A lot of people were missing the settings for the school district because it just looks like it's attached to the school above. So there's a lot of little things that, maybe parents don't realize. And what I think is great, Lisa can immediately see the settings, not just for school. I don't agree that maybe the administrators are the best contact because she can look at all of the settings that you have in the app and just kind of immediately reflect them back. Like, this is what we have. What do you need? So I was just really appreciative that she shared that resource. And I hope that it helps families.
105I know that it's good to have a refresher. And a lot of these people are college graduates, like they do business and marketing, like this is their career, this is their job, and they're struggling with these app settings. So I'm hopeful that that resource can help. And then a lot of those community members are sort of sharing their thoughts on that. And I'm hopeful that Lisa can take that feedback as well. make something more accessible. I think people just want to know what's going on and myself included. I didn't know what was going on when other parents did. So I sympathize with that. Piece that I said earlier, and I know that you're struggling and you're trying to get that worked out. 4,380 parents did get the message. So we put it on ParentSquare. We
106also put it on News Channel 7. We also put it on News Channel 50. So there are a variety of avenues. And we can't, unless we're looking at everybody's individual device, what you're saying is going to be difficult. I would suggest the recommendation you gave, people watching the video is critically important. If they're struggling, we would like everyone to get the message. But more people got the message and then did not get the message. Sure. I'm just advocating for those who... want to get the message that didn't and there's a solution out there yes that video i'm not familiar with the video but you said she sent out and you said she sent out a parent square no it's um it's she made a post okay so there's there's pictures and it's like that i
107hope there's a video someday because i do think that there's some fine tuning but that that resource is an excellent start thank you okay i think that covers it all okay thank you krista Items for discussion and information. Good evening again, everyone. We talked about, so I've been trying to utilize the discussion portion of the agenda for things that I think are just informative for the community. It kind of updates you what we're thinking and it gives the board an opportunity to have a conversation to help guide our thinking and things that are particularly going to be coming back to the community. And so we have a district safety committee. In the District Safety Committee, we've been looking at a variety, I think it was at the last board meeting, I don't think I know.
108The last board meeting, you saw a presentation with AI, artificial intelligence, and how we can incorporate AI into our security measures. And so we're looking at ways that we can enhance security. And so a couple of ways that we've discussed, Bree and I and our team, is handheld radios. And so currently we have some buildings that have handheld radios. We have not enough handheld radios. We also do not have our own antennas for handheld radios, which would create a private frequency. And so when there are situations that may benefit from using a radio from an emergency standpoint, we could use to communicate. And so we could use them with administration. We could use them for some of our students, our classrooms that have students that they would want to notify the office. Potentially they have
109an eloper in the space and they want to notify the office that that individual left the space. They could use it for that. And so last year, if you remember, we brought to the community, we brought to the board and then via our proposition. And we created a tech reserve fund, and we also created a maintenance reserve fund. So what we would like to begin the discussions of, and when we go out in March, either for the capital project or when we go out for May for the annual budget, we would like to add a proposition for the... voters to approve our use of because once you create the reserve fund you need voter approval to use those funds and so what we would like to use either on the i.t side and we're still
110flushing those out on the i.t side or the maintenance side we would like to expend some of those funds to purchase those radios the radios would include our private frequency they would include antennas they would replace the existing radios in all of our district vehicles but they would also add radios to our administrative team. And so we currently use Raptor systems for our visitor systems in each of our schools. So our administrators could potentially use that to scan people in. It does the background check directly from the handheld radio. We could use it to tie into our PA system. So if there was a need to do a hold in place, the principals could potentially use that communication directly through the handheld radio. The security cameras that we have that we've been increasing each year
111in the district, those would be accessible through the handheld radio at the higher level. So not every person that has a handheld radio would have those accessibility rights. And so we're recommending a conversation tonight, and we could have the company come in and present if you would like that or virtually. Our desire would be to move forward. a discussion because what we need is a board to approve the uh proposition and then we can decide whether or not we want to add it to the capital project proposition in march or if we want to add it to the the vote in may um but that dollar amount just to put that out there to purchase 100 radios with the accessibilities that we said the $325,000 would purchase 100 hand-held radios. And the other thing that
112I mentioned in our FNF meeting today is they also have the accessibility to call 911. And so right now, someone would have to use their cell phone or go to a landline phone. This would give accessibility right then and there for the administration team to dial 911 in emergency directly from the handheld radio. We're also working with the military to obtain possibly six handheld radios that would be in direct connection to 911 and would alleviate any outdoor. Those handheld radios are only going to be... or certified law enforcement. And so our principals would not have those ones, but our SSOs could because they're retired law enforcement and our SRO obviously already has one. So that is our recommendation to kind of start the conversation. Is that something the board would like us to continue exploring?
113And then we want to ask for a presentation, their communications. They are available on state contract. As we looked up today, there is monies that we can apply for to receive some state aid on this purchase. But I think when it comes to student safety, if this is something we're considering a safety measure, which I would agree, then we can't put a price tag on that. But it can't come across as high because it's $325,000. And that's for 100 radios? Yes. Do we have 100 people in radio? We have, so you're looking at all of our vehicles. You're looking at all of our administrators right now. We don't have them up here at the administrative building. I'm the command center in an emergency. It would be nice if I had one that I can communicate,
114put on channel, whatever the channel is, say principal's locked down or we're right now, it would be me picking up the phone with my team and calling everyone or sending a parent swear to those employees to say that. So we don't have that ability now. The other thing is we have some classrooms, some special education classrooms that may benefit from having a radio if they have an eloper to be able to communicate with administration. to make sure that we're able to support the students. And so there is a huge benefit. And right now, our current systems, we don't have enough. That's one thing. And they're not on a private frequency. Well, I didn't, I'm not saying that I don't, I mean, who can argue with that, right? Like, great idea. I was just in my
115head trying to think of 100 people hearing radios around. It's kind of silly. It's kind of like a ball count idea that I'm getting. But what I was thinking is, are there 100 people? They need a radio. That was the only thing I remember. I came to this with humor. It doesn't come across that way. 100 people seems like a lot of people would bring radio. I don't know. Anybody else? Like 100 people? I was just going to say we have 900 employees. So that's like about 10%. Okay. How many vehicles would that be? Like I would like to see more because these are also different varying levels. Like the administrators would be able to use Raptor security cameras, those kind of things. The ones that we would utilize in a classroom if a teacher
116needed to communicate for additional support would be a high needs kind of situation. Those would be signed out. Those ones would not have the capability of camera locking, those kind of things. So we have 100 people that will make the short list for the radio. We have at least 80, and we need, I don't like to order just as many as we need because if we have- Can the board get it too? I was just going to say, I want a radio. There's like a pinch of jealousy over here. So, I'm so sorry because I'm like going to that movie. We put it in order for segues. We do not assume that. Anyway, so with the and then she could just put the last. We want more accessible in the buildings because there are more
117people that could use them that don't have them. And then we want, we in this office, in this district office would like them in an emergency situation to be able to use to communicate. And we would also like antennas spread throughout the city so that we can actually, because right now you can't, Nick or Bob said a joke and I didn't get it. He just has a giggle right now. Wired. This is crazy. We don't have a radio that would talk from like Neckerbosch to Starbucks. We don't have the ability to do that. So just to give Jason some credence, it's like $3,200 radio. So if we only got 80, we would be saving ourselves like, you know. $247. Thank you for that. Not 240, just 24,000. That's what I'm up. Would you be enough
118to get us a sandwich? Yeah. Yeah. That's where I was. As soon as you said that, I pictured you. The more you've purchased, the less it is. The quantity decreases the price, but also capacity. So if we're looking at, okay, we need exactly 80 now, but our enrollment's going up, needs may be shifting. We want to make sure that we have more than not enough. But like you said, if you want to put it into a classroom where you've got an especially challenging student, that student may not be in the district yet, but tomorrow they are. Yeah. If you've only got 80 and they're already issued, then you're kind of out of luck with that teacher that might be able to benefit from that. How many bullhorns would like $24,000 buy? You know what I
119mean? Like we could really. I have a serious question though. Is this probably mentioned in his reports? That's the next thing. Oh, I'm sorry. You're fine. You can switch. I was trying to think. So these aren't like your standard like army walkie talkies that we play. These are obviously pretty complex. I didn't mean to get Jason going. These are obviously pretty complex to take in. Do all of these. Sophisticated. Yeah. Can we get a demonstration? Yes. Demonstration order. Yeah. Oh, I am so excited for that. I'm going to be pumped for that presentation. Can you, can you work on like different colors or is it just one standard? Like you can do. So they have camouflage couple. I think we can do it. Do they have demo models that Jason can take home? The ones
120that have been in the camera systems, the Raptor system, those kind of emergency personnel things, the building lockdown protocols, those almost look like a cell phone. They have an LCD screen on the front. But I don't think they come in color options. But we can answer. Maybe they have. Maybe you can wrap them. Yeah. Being a wrap. For another $100,000. So before we bring it on as an action item, because the action item would read, we're adding it for a proposal. I'm going to call and get a demonstration and we'll get the person here or virtually here to participate and engage in sharing us what, because they can speak about the antennas, the radios, the frequencies, those kinds of things and how it will enhance our security. The next thing goes to what Laura was
121talking about that Cully mentioned. And we had the opportunity to participate. There are many products out there. Last board meeting, we listened to AI and how that can help the district. We sat through a presentation called Open Gate. And it's almost like a walk-through security system, but it's not a one-person walk-through, clear the person, then another one. It's mass entry. And they can be wrapped, Jason, with our district logo on them. There's two of you walked through it. When it goes off, we watched different districts and different protocols that they use. Some had curtains. The kids would go to the curtain. They would meet with the administrator. The administrator does the search. If there's a search, like in a backpack kind of thing. Most of the laptops are schools that have one-on-one laptops. They would
122set off the alarm. And so in those middle schools and high schools that we listened to, the kids just knew to hold their laptop above. They had to take it out of the backpack, pull it up. They walked through. They were fine. Other districts had like a conveyor or non-electric conveyor belt kind of system the kids put on their laptop. It slid to the other side of the walkthrough. They grabbed it and they went. This company was significantly cheaper than we listened to at the NSBA conference. That one was like $75,000 per individual unit. This one, the total cost is $98,263, and that is to pilot, and I want to use that word pilot, because we're looking at, you know, we would like to eventually look at all schools, but we also want to make
123sure that what we're buying is effective and efficient to what we need. And so we're looking at the high school in case. and that would be ordering five. And so it would be three at the high school, two at the front door, one at the side door where we have student parking, and then we would have two to put in case. This provides the professional development, so they would come and they would provide the professional development to the staff. This one requires minimal people to operate it compared to a traditional walkthrough. Basically, you need somebody standing there to make sure that people are walking through it. You need someone to make sure that they're guiding them to the second level of screening if they do trigger the alarm. And then that is where, Laura, you
124were probably getting to with the wand. So they would go to that section, they would get wanded. If they had something in their backpack, they would take it out. The administrator would look. They would go to class. And so that is five units, five chargers. And this is a discussion, not anything set in stone, but they could be used at an athletic event. They plug in, but they're also battery operated. They recalibrate, so they're movable. They're on wheels, so they could be easily moved from one place to the next and recalibrated very quickly. And we would get reports, electronic reports on their success so that we could make a determination if we want to move forward with the other buildings. In addition to those five systems, they come with two apiece, we would be ordering
125the five wands that could be used at either athletic events or they could be used at the second level of screening. It is a conversation in the sense that, yes, this is a fixed cost. We're in, we're out. There's not a reoccurring annual fee unless we require more training, et cetera. But we would have to have staff on board. So whether or not we offer teachers to come in or aides to come in and have them help work, they would be here in person, the company. They would come in and actually watch us use the system and then give us advice to how to maximize the service of this. And that is called OpenGate. Five wands included in that $98,000? So you're talking about everybody goes through this at the start of the day. Yes.
126Who works them? Who's going to be the people that are doing it? At minimum, the administrator would have to be there because if they get flagged through the first screener, they get sent to the second one, which would be the bond. It would have to be an administrator if they're doing a search. So this would be a guarantee that every day at the beginning of school day, there's an administrator at the door of the building. Why can't an SRO be there? I can't don't get air so you go from reasonable to probable cause so it has to be if you would want a district personnel they could be there to watch when their level of having a certificate is much higher than a school employee and SSO could do it could do it but not
127in the estuary the estuary the probable and the reasonable cause are so we have three ssls so we haven't had that building and then the guy up here at wiley goes down to the high school so that could potentially one could be at one or one could be at the other door because you're only doing it in the morning yes is there any other school sorry any other school in the county have these Not that I'm aware of. There are several schools and other counties and districts in New York State that definitely use this. And they also use the ones that we sat through in New York City that is about $75,000 per walkthrough. And that is you go, you stop, you walk. These are meant for like multiple kids to walk in because the
128concern was that it would delay entry to the building. And you could potentially at the high school, you could take 30, 40 minutes to get kids in. The kids would be late to class. I think it's a great alternative to the metal radios. It's like when it's gone to like Disney Springs or Bill's Game or anything like that. It is where many are all at once. They don't stop you. They stop you if you have a bag bigger than what you're supposed to bring in. They just keep going and it builds up. There's thousands and thousands of people. This is what this is. You do not get stopped unless you... And then with the systems that we saw, we write multiple systems. One is holding the laptop above the head, walking through. The other one
129was put it on like a non-electric conveyor belt. You put it on, it just rolls down. It slides onto a table. They walk through, grab, walk through, grab. What about a cell phone? Cell phone, I don't know if they said there was enough metal on that to have that go off. I can answer that. Yeah, I think they said iPads, maybe my cell phone, it's pretty big. Laptops. I don't think so, because when I've gone to events and stuff, you have your cell phone. When you go to a concert, you have your cell phone on you. do you think a reasonable next step would have been asked them to also do a demonstration absolutely yeah you can adjust the sensitivity on it so you can probably there's probably a setting where it doesn't detect cell
130phones you can probably narrow down where it does if you want it to so this is something that we have this one since it's under a hundred thousand is this something we still have to wait until the spring to get it would both of these um because they were not in our budget we were looking at using the reserves which would be a um voter approved We can put out a voter approved ballot at any time as long as the board approved it. It doesn't have to be March. It doesn't have to be May. But I don't know what the truth is. We have the funds available that we could start this sooner than later because I don't think this is a way. I think that the community would be really happy to have something
131like this. And I take a lot of stress off. But what we'd have to do is look at allocated and unallocated funds to make sure we're not going over the voter approved budget. But we could do that research to see with maybe where we're under in some areas. The tricky part is it's the equipment aspect of it. But I can definitely do some research and see what's left. That's great. The radio is going to be a harder one to follow. But at least we can start with this. I don't have room for the one. I was up at Best Buy and they had a bunch like on a Black Friday for hiking. Maybe we just start with Oaks. Let's see what happens. can i bring something else up for discussion so what i'm trying to
132do is um get better with the amount of presentations and board meetings so we're not having two or three in the same night there are times that i may not be able to avoid that because of the time when things have to be seen by the board and then acted on But we've got Lynn is going to be presenting at the next board meeting on our state test scores. And so that's going to take some time. The these two presentations. What are we looking at January? Do you have an idea of the detectors? Do they give you an idea of how long that thing is currently available? They seem like they would be able to turn that around very quickly. maybe they're moving to new york they also have an office in ohio distributor in
133ohio oh okay that's up for discussion all right then um upcoming dates this friday the city of watertown 2024 holiday parade we have a float here going in for the district and we have lots of get participation and it's going to be a great time so I hope everybody is there. I hope the board, well I know the board will be there to walk with everybody so it's going to be great. Not Lori. Thursday the 12th and Friday the 13th early dismissal on account of the first conferences. Also on Thursday the 12th safe routes to school public meeting. That's in the order tonight, Jim, using six to eight. Anyone, if we could get any parents to please attend that, I will not be in attendance to that, but I've asked Bree to attend in my
134absence. The city is really trying to work with a private organization to conduct a study to get as much feedback as possible to see if we can create safer routes for our kids as they head to school. So if we can get parents, particularly those that may walk or ride a bike. If we can get those parents to please come to that meeting on the 12th, that would be greatly appreciated. I think the more feedback the city gets from our community and our kids come to our schools. And so I think that's just an excellent that we partner with them with the space for them to use the high school auditorium. So any support we can get from parents would be greatly appreciated. All right. And then on Tuesday, the 17th, we have a policy
135committee meeting at Sherman at 5 and our regularly scheduled board meeting at 6, also at Sherman. Glory Congress was out last time, so you get first crack at it. All I have to say is I'm so excited about the youth court thing. I've seen it once. I haven't questioned it for that long. And then I guess you guys have a great Friday night. I won't be there. Yeah, but I won't be interested. No, but I'm not waiting until I'm a girl scout. Okay. Okay. All right. What did you say? Nothing. We love you. I just asked Millie if she could see you as a girl scout. You too, Chrissy. How many mayor bids did you have a lot of? Yeah. You still have the slash. I was a brownie too before I was a buffoon.
136Maybe I'm just, maybe just bring it to the next meeting and show everybody. Did you have your walkie talkie badge? Yes, John. Yes. John, you're nuts for that. Awesome. Fantastic. I just want to reiterate Wizard of Oz, Mrs. Howard, and all of our music teachers were phenomenal. The children were phenomenal. The backstage crew, Mr. Shanley doing the lights and all the electronic wizardry that he does, just a phenomenal show. Our case show, I don't want to offend any other local school districts, but I would dare say rivals a lot of high school shows. Well put together, phenomenal. And then just to reiterate what Dr. Schmiegel said earlier, I know the snow event that we had was not fun and it's not fun to be out in when it's still coming down, but thank you to
137all of our staff for all of their hard work and making sure our buildings were ready to go. The city's still cleaning up. There's still sidewalks that aren't open. And yeah, so it's, and there's more coming, so. Quick question for you, Dr. Schmiegel. Contingency days, how does our boiler day at the high school affect our contingency days? Does that count as one for the high school but not the rest of the district? Very good, or short version? Short version. So we get six days built and contingency days. And so if we're looking at strictly, we typically build them in for weather related. And so unless there's an event where the snow is hitting every other side of town except for the high school, that we would count that. Technically, it doesn't count, but it does
138in the sense that we used one day. So unless all the schools, we have seven schools closed and the high school is the only one open, then it counts as a discount. So that's why I was trying to be, you know, we were struggling really. We worked, you know, we hired a private company last night that worked around the clock because we were almost going to close this evening or today for schools. So we were able to at 2.30 in the morning decide that we were able to open. I had some community members ask me how that would have counted and I wasn't sure. Thank you. Unless there was an instance where all other schools needed to close and that was the only one that didn't. That's where you can kind of run into that.
139Gotcha. Thank you. I'm hoping that the weather is kind to us the rest of the season. Yeah. Fingers crossed. It doesn't look like it. At least not. Oh, okay. Thank you, Tara. You and Lisa did a phenomenal job. I mean, you and I have talked. I'm very much an advocate of the STEM program. There was a lot of good information about that we're moving forward. And I think everyone in this room wants to see that STEM program grow very quickly. And my personal goal is to hopefully... Obviously not this year, but, you know, I think that Dr. Schmagle has proven that when you want something done, you get it done. Like you put that cyclone academy together in less than one year. Tomorrow, guess what's happening? What's happening? Tomorrow we have a cyclone academy junior
140meeting. There you go. So we're planning out, trying to see what we can do for educators that may have been retained in grades to try to get them caught up by their ninth grade year. So, you know, you have a track record for getting things done. And I think that this initiative with the STEM being implemented into our elementary academic curriculum should be one of our major goals. And you guys are doing a great job. I've gone to one of your scrub meetings and it's really amazing what kids ask. It's unbelievable. Like their little brains, they were asking me how a stethoscope works or like how our reflex hammer works. And not only do they ask, but they actually listen with intensity to what the response is. It's very impressive. And I think what Lisa,
141one of the things that Lisa said and pointed out in her presentation is that the younger you capture these, and I didn't know, I learned this, heard it for the second time. By third grade, most children are already thinking about what career paths they want to take. Is it going to do some to all that STEM? In third grade, it's just like reading. If you don't read well by fourth grade, you're going downhill. So we need to really focus on that. And I'm glad that we have a team of people here that are really committed to doing that. And you have my full support. So I appreciate you putting that presentation together. That's it. Yeah, really. All right, Billy Gojart. Actually, it's all the same. Sunfish Fish was amazing. I know my son did take
142advantage of some of that as well. Looking forward to the concert season, holiday season coming up. That's always fun. And then the parade on Friday. I mean, handing out free candy. So are we going to walk or are we going to be like on a tractor trailer? Like true north. We have a wagon that's going to pull you. Oh, I would love that. I would love that. So it starts where and ends where? Do you even know? Yeah, no, I've got this information. I'm actually on top of this. I hope it starts at high school. Okay, so the parade will take place beginning at 6 along Washington Street. Parade route will begin at Green Street and end at Stone Street. Lineup will begin at 5 p.m. on Green Street. Please enter the parade lineup by
143driving through the Watertown High School parking lot. And down Myrtle Avenue extension onto Green. We do have buses ordered to get. We have almost 100 kids whose parents are going to try to get them to participate. And vocal kids from Wiley, Case, and the high school that will be participating. So we will have a bus that can bring people back to our students that are participating and any board members that are walking that can bring you back to your vehicles. Next year we'll have a band. Yeah. Very exciting. Thank you for putting that together, by the way. This was truly your initiative. I never do anything serious. It's just a fun stuff. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun. Are you going to sing? If I can get a microphone away from
144one of our kids, then yes. Hello. See Lori? You're going to miss out. I don't know what's going on in your holiday party, but this will be way better. Kevin Thompson. This is going to be fun. He's going to talk about his PE on the trip. He's wearing a basketball uniform. All right. Last is Tina Fluno because she said I looked tired earlier. So she's the last one. You're prepared again. So I just want to also thank Tara and Lisa. That was awesome. And it's fun to watch the kids get so excited about things. And they really, they really do. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and spent time with their family and friends. Didn't eat too much and it was all good. And I think that's all I wanted to say about that.
145But I do have a letter to read. How does it start? It starts from Matthew Burdick to Jason Harrington. Thank you. Hello, Jason. I wanted to share an update from the Director of Student Empowerment and Success. This week's shout out goes to Karen Meeker and the 15 to 1 team at WHS for fostering an inclusive and innovative learning environment. I double that. I think she's phenomenal. Recently, we held an after school American Sign Language, ASL, staff student professional development session, which was organized to promote inclusivity within our schools. The session was a tremendous success with remarkable energy and collaboration, creating a unique atmosphere where both students and staff learned together. Looking ahead, we have several upcoming meetings and trainings. On Tuesday, December 3rd, we will hold a Gifted and Talented Program Planning Meeting. On Wednesday,
146December 4th, there will be a Cyclone Academy Junior Planning Meeting. On Thursday, December 5th, we will have Parabytes training for WHS paraprofessionals. And on Friday, December 6th, we will convene for our quarterly strategic action plan meeting. Thanks. Just to add to that, I know he didn't put it in that write-up, but the ASL piece was student driven. Students asked for it and the teacher, Ms. Meeker, made it happen. Last thing I forgot was Randy was not here tonight. I know that he watches these things. So Randy, we all missed you very much. All right. So with that, take a motion to end. All right.