001I would like to call to order a regular meeting of the Board of Education um November 15 2022 at seven o'clock P.M uh Cindy could you please call the roll Grandma here Gilbert here here hello Chris isn't Mathis here Meadows here oh I'm sorry you I know I am killing you sorry uh Mr Meadows would you please lead us in the pledge 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 are there any items to be removed from or added to the agenda tonight nothing removed or added but I did accidentally put the board comments after your closed session so um we will do those before in closed session you didn't think everyone wanted to wait around yeah all
002right um then I'm super excited to invite kristone up he's going to talk about the marching band Podium podium you want uh good evening thank you so much for having us my name is Chris Owen um one of the band directors at Batavia High School um and I'm extraordinarily proud of what uh the marching band which uh I co-direct with my colleague Mr van clay um has done the season so it if you're unfamiliar you see us at football games you may see some YouTube videos and things like that but we also go to competitions throughout the course of the year and we've had our most successful season in our 13 years of competitive marching band and it's truly on the shoulders of the 96 students that are in the group but it's also a
003community involvement with all parent volunteers and staff members and District support and all those things and so I wanted to take a moment and thank all of you as board members and some of my administrators that are here to say thank you for supporting everything that we do but more importantly and I know you don't want to hear necessarily from me you might want to hear from some of the students that are involved in the group so I'd like to invite some of them are here Morgan Hutchins and Riley Meadows and Ariana Sia to maybe talk a little bit about the experience that they've had they're all seniors so they've been involved in the group in four for four or five years so Morgan first hi my name is Morgan Hutchins I am a senior
004and I was the flute section leader for Marcus and I want to say that the music program and marching band especially has always been like a second home for me and have been given this amazing opportunity to wrap up my four years by making Batavia history and making state finals for the first time it's all inspired me to become a music educator myself and it's all helped me to become who I am today so thank you that's awesome [Applause] hi everyone my name is Ariana and this has been my fourth and final year in the Batavia marching band uh never before have I been part of a program or community that I have found myself so much in it taught me to be proud of playing my instrument which is something that I was almost
005shown to be ashamed of and I've made so many friends and had such a great time and I can think of absolutely no better way to wrap up my season than making ISU finals we have like years of videos going back being like we're never gonna make finals we're never gonna make finals it's just a joke but then this year we got to film the video saying we made ISU finals which was so awesome [Applause] we worked so hard and the fact that we got to show everyone what we've done and then they decided that we had put enough work and had were put together enough to get to show them again a lot of our students were just like oh we have to go perform again but in my mind I was like we
006get to go perform again like we get to show them everything we have worked so hard to do again and for me that was everything I have had so much fun in marching band um I have enjoyed every single person I've marched with so big thank you to all of them big thank you to our directors who kept us together and it's truly been the best four years [Applause] hello my name is Riley Meadows um I've been a part of this marching band for five years ever since 2018. um you might be able to argue nine since I've been doing props with my dad for my brother 2014. um I have seen this group so many countless times and I continue to see it improve every single year and I was a little scared and
007covid when we had a lot of new Marchers but we really pushed through and I guess three was our lucky number this year because we managed to place third at every competition and even make finals which is insane so going from my eighth grade year in marching band and making uh and going to boa which is the bands of America Regional championships and then finishing off my book with the ISU finals uh really made the season such a such a such a complete story and um I'm really proud of where this group has gone and I can't wait to see where it goes in the future because hopefully I'll be coming back much to Mr Owen's dismay thank you [Applause] again thank you so much for all the support that you provide not only to
008all these amazing students in our marching band to all the but all the music and Fine Arts that we have here at the high school and in District 101. thanks so much [Applause] and um on behalf of the board yeah well so the the board is well aware of how much I I mentioned cajole torture applaud or even talk about like all of the things that I see with the music program particular part of it as Riley said for about nine years now I have seen the kids kind of grow change mature I mean if you want to just look at it there's like a subset of kids and and Riley was a part of it where they get to start in eighth grade and that is uh near as I'm aware of a hundred
009percent unique that I'm aware of from any other marching program that I've talked to on many many other bands that we go and we talk to as we're all hanging out as parents um and and just watching kids that are kind of at that level of maturity step into a program where there's people that have been playing for four plus years potentially know how to March and this year in particular was a vast majority of brand new Marchers and so that begins not only to talk about the teacher leaders of just the three or four of them that are here plus all the other student leaders that were behind them that helped organize that group and bring them into really a culmination for not only them but for everybody else that was there so I
010I as a guest speaking for the board today applaud you guys and thank you for all your hard work and I know that it will serve you well for the rest of your years and so please keep doing what you love because as they say they say it's not work then so just keep at it thank you [Applause] okay uh the next item on our agenda is public comments uh so welcome to the Board of Education meeting if anyone wishes to address the board this evening please see our recording secretary to submit a form for addressing the board please put your full name and address on the form as we're required by state law to keep a detailed set of minutes in general the board won't answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comments
011it doesn't mean that we're in we don't take your comments or concerns seriously we value active Community participation in our endeavors and encourage people to engage with the district using appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind board members are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district and can't engage in District business individually if you have specific questions or would like further to further engage with the district you can submit your questions using the link on the website and the appropriate staff member will communicate with you I'm going to turn it over to Holly beachman our Communications manager who's going to explain the procedures we use thank you president Dremel speakers will be called up in order of form submission the first form received is the first person invited to speak
012when your name is called please come to the podium so that you can be heard all individuals speaking will be limited to three minutes as we have a timer here that will start once you are settled at the podium at any time during this meeting written comments may be submitted to our recording secretary Cindy Rodriguez at my right speakers should conduct themselves with Civility and respect towards others hand our speaker is Amber dress up all right I thought it was getting five but I'm getting three so I'm going to cram it in amberjersa English teacher Community member this is month 19 of trying to get our district to truly prioritize equity and make it the foundation of the decisions we make so I want to talk about accountability in the summer of 2020 our senior
013leadership sent out an email discussing the need to make Dei a priority here's an excerpt as a leader in BPS 101 I have to do better we have been entrusted with educating our students about racism and all social injustices we need to figure out the education Lane and we need to do it now how will we educate ourselves and how will we educate our students differently how will we remove barriers from our system one of the ways I will learn is by listening I need to hear from you I need to hear from students and their parents I do not want to go back to school with a checklist of ways that we are addressing Equity like it is some State requirement we are better than that yet we'll end quote two and a half
014years later we are not fulfilling what our senior leadership said that they would do the email said to be courageous and share your Reflections I tried I was courageous to ask for help when traumatized by a racial incident at my work but I'm still waiting on racial resources two months later racial traumatic resources how is this removing the barriers that we said we would um as you may know my name was mentioned publicly at a board meeting a couple months back and I tried to be courageous and bring this up with senior leadership um I never received an apology for what happened because others felt that I did not deserve an apology no one has the right to speak for my feelings and determine if they're valid whether someone else thinks I was offended or
015not I deserve the respect and human decency of having my feelings acknowledged just like we all do in the 2020 email it said we would educate our students differently in terms of equity we have not done that the email in 2020 said our senior leadership wants to listen to students staff and the community I've emailed our board and explained my thoughts on our lack of Integrity with Equity work I've also mentioned how frustrating it is to be a teacher of color in this District where decisions are constantly made for you um unfortunately no response um or I must attend meeting after meeting where I'm giving email expectations and protocols that no other employees have to follow we also have an equity committee and we just uh figured out our purpose statement and we've been around
016for six months how is this helping our students as promised in our 2020 email we did not acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr Day hesperic Heritage Month Native American month none of that so how are we doing what the email said we would do by making slow so slow strides we're saying that we are status quo and I am not okay with that brene brown defines courage as showing up and letting yourself be seen despite the risk so I ask all of our leaders how have you been courageous for oppressed groups lately and if you cannot answer this maybe it's time to hold yourself accountable thank you all right next person I would like to invite is Todd Swanson good evening first off I would like to thank the members of the board and administration who
017came to our Bea trivia night our annual scholarship fundraiser raised three thousand dollars which will be awarded to uh two graduating seniors one going into the field of education and one going into a career in the technical trades it was a really fun night and again on behalf of the Bea thank you for those of you that came to be a part of our event and if you didn't come this year maybe you can come next year as I come before you tonight I thought it would be a great idea to check back one year ago and re-read what I had written as my comments to the board from November 16 2021. I wanted to get a sense of what our world and BPS was like 12 months ago and compare it to life today
018what I discovered is that many of the same topics from last year are still the same ones we're talking about this year Dei Equity teacher burnout and fatigue these were all key points of my address last year and are still at the Forefront of my comments this year as well 12 months later there is however a stark contrast from now to where we were a year ago regarding these topics last year when talking about all these things there was no real plan of how the district and staff would move forward together in addressing and resolving these issues there was almost a feeling of spinning our proverbial Wheels around the same topics over and over and getting no forward momentum that is where this year differs somewhat from last year over the last six weeks there
019has been a change there has not only been an acknowledgment of some of the struggles that have been and are still going on in our district there is a new piece to the story that didn't exist last year and that piece is a shared commitment by the board and Senior Management and the Bea to do the work that is necessary to begin to not only address the issues before Japan forward and trying to regain what we once had in terms of trust communication and collaboration as of now that forward motion has really only been seen by a few people mainly Senior Management the board President and Vice President and the Bea officers and I fully recognize that until there are concrete instances that prove what we are talking about and they begin to take shape
020it will really be hard for those not involved in those conversations to see any real tangible change or even think that there is anything happening to address these issues that will take time effort and most importantly results results that people can not only see but feel as well and just because it is a long and hard road to follow and that results may not be quickly seen that doesn't mean that the efforts are not already underway to work towards a more productive end I liken this to a seed a seed is planted underground from above no one would really see that anything is happening to that seed while it's underground however given the right resources like water nutrients and fertile soil to grow in that seed will Sprout roots those roots would become the anchor
021for the plant that will help it withstand storms drought and attacks from those that want to destroy the plant with a strong root system of support that emerging plant will bust through the ground and only then will it be visible to those who never saw any of those supports that were happening underground to make this new growth possible at this point the plant is merely a tiny small shoot in no way is it tall enough or sturdy enough to Bear any fruit or provide shade but no future benefits from this plant can happen without that tiny shoot appearing first right now we are at that seed stage of the underground development of this process so I completely understand if there are those who feel like nothing is being done or conditions aren't changing and for
022right now it still really does feel that way too many in our district however I stand before you tonight telling you we are working on getting the conditions and the resources right for this seed a seed will fail to grow in Weak soil or without the proper nutrients and we are now in the process of amending our soil so that any future seeds that we plant as a district will have a chance to not only grow but to flourish and for those plants that are already established in that soil that they will become healthier and more productive are things perfect now absolutely not are things getting better in some areas yes others maybe and yet others not at all but trust communication and collaboration have been thrust to the Forefront of the work that must
023be done to get our district back on track as a Thanksgiving holiday comes to us next week I decided to steal some lines that I said to you all last year as they still hold very true today to the board I thank you for your time outside of the regular roles you serve daily this job comes with the ability to be a sounding board to anyone that reaches out to you thank you for listening and seeking out answers and clarification and by the way I found out today is Happy School Board appreciation day so happy School appreciation today uh to BPS Administration I know what I go through to make my classroom function every day I cannot imagine everything that entails to make a building or a faction of our district function on a daily
024basis thank you for your time and efforts to The District staff Educators Perez secretaries nurses lunch supervisors campus monitors custodians those of you on the front lines every single day just thank you among the things I am most grateful for each year is a school family that supports me and lifts me up every day your work does not go unnoticed by me even though I don't always take the time to acknowledge the great things that you all do so again thank you all and with that I would normally close by wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving and I do wish that however I am asking us all to remember that not everyone will be going home next week to a grand feast or be able to spend time with their family for some there is
025no Happy Thanksgiving I hope that we are all able to recognize that fact and with the resources that we have help to make somebody else's holiday a bit brighter and happier so with that I wish you all peace and time next week to reflect on the blessings that we all have thank you thanks Patrick and update on what they've been doing great um as far as updates go for the Batavia High School the high school football team had a great win last Saturday and are proceeding on to playoffs and 42nd 42nd Street did an amazing job with their show and they had some crazy tap dancing so it they had a really amazing show there um both 8th graders with uh seniors have the screen the screenshots websites to help them through their Transitions and
026we also have Batavia High School winter sports showing up such as wrestling girls and boys basketball swimming and dance and then we just wanted to say a big problem for all that you do and helping our school district become better every day so thank you and happy board appreciation day thank you blossom all right we'll start with committee updates we'll start with Aaron descent oh okay so um this past Saturday Big Met um and for those of you who don't know what Vic is a meeting of the minds for all of the different booster organizations within the Batavia um School District so you'll have ptos as well as the booster organizations like music Buffs and Stage for example and we usually have a district-wide topic to discuss and like I said before kind of a
027meeting of the minds and idea sharing so it's always one of my favorite meetings to attend and we meet um about quarterly so that was last Saturday we also continue on with our superintendent search we will be discussing as a group of knights and on November 3rd the equity team met as well um with our uh consultant Dr leeks we finalized our purpose um which was to evaluate and establish a framework to provide a safe inclusive anti-bigated environment and advocate for Equitable systems and policies in order to serve all stakeholders and the community students families and staff and then we decided that in December the team will finalize immediate action steps and reflect on the meeting schedule to ensure all of our actions can be completed that's all I have tonight awesome thanks Aaron RJ
028uh Stephanie did not meet this past month but we are going to meet in December so I'll report at the next meeting awesome thanks RJ Craig we have not met yet but we will be soon okay next month uh cacted me I've got the um official share out here uh the committee discussed and reviewed the focus of our work for the school year as the re-established subject to area leadership teams begin in the next month uh looking to continue creating systems of support for communication collaboration and feedback the committee reviewed the applications for membership for the salt teams developed a plan for additional recruitment plans and member notification as well as adjusting timelines for caca and salt meetings in the next few months and finally we reviewed needs related to the trimester Reflections at the
029elementary level and the alignment with portrait of a graduate and principals will deliver a cohesive message that gives permission to teachers to do the best they can with the current version of the uh tr's portrait of a graduate page example teachers can complete this whole group they can give guidance not get caught up in making sure every box is perfectly checked um and then we're um this is important they're seeking information about tax authority to create an elementary trimester reflection for salt so a lot of good work it seems um excitingly collaborative and um they seem to have a renewed focus and excitement about their work so it was a real joy to sit in on that committee Sue Insurance committee met uh November 10th I have three things to report back progress on the
030healthgram implementation and open enrollment is progressing well I will note that it's been identified that a couple local Health Providers are not network not in a network that is impacting a small percentage of employees but the committee in healthgram is taking this seriously and arrangements are being made to make sure that everything is covered uh also it should be known that the goal of the community is to continue to provide high quality benefits and low member costs the board should be aware that the current plan is going to save District employees approximately six hundred thousand dollars in The District 3 million annually due to plan improvements and incentives and finally for Next Step the committee is reviewing its performance from the past few years and will begin updating goals and objectives soon thanks young exciting
031work Chris um rack meets on Thursday so we did not meet this past month um other than that I did meet with Joanne earlier this month to let them know that I am the BHS board rep so if there's anything that I can do to help amplify voices at the high school let me know um with one vote all of the details on the consent agenda are in the board book and so Mr Pierce you can take us through that absolutely 5.1 and 5.2 are the approval of the October 25th 2022 meeting and closed session minutes 5.3 is our monthly Personnel report uh 5.4 is our monthly payroll and bills 5.5 is the destruction of our closed session recordings from May 25th 2021 5.6 is our donations and uh we're thankful the Batavia Walmart for
032donating 1600 for student school supplies 5.7 is our calendar for 20 uh 23 24 and 5 point is is to authorize the application for the school maintenance project Grant finally 5.9 is the approval of the consent agenda all right are there any items for removal or clarification all right then I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented moved by Meister second by lock all in favor any opposed all right next item on our agenda is reports I'll hand that over to Dr Hitchens the first two are the foia requests that we're required to show you every month and the treasures report so nothing to vote on but I would entertain any questions about either of those but since they do appear every month you usually don't have a whole lot of
033questions and then the next report is for there we go I was like I was looking like where is the public hearing I'm apparently blind tonight all right we are required to have a public hearing tonight so at this time we will open our truth in taxation hearing regarding the 2022 tax levy we will begin the hearing with the brief presentation from Chief Financial Officer Tony and glacie about the levy and after his presentation we'll hear any public comment regarding the levy so we are not generally accustomed to holding this truth and Taxation hearing it's been quite some time since we've held the last one the reason being is that we haven't levied more than um five percent in the preceding year and so given that CPI has been seven percent in the prior year
034we expect to Levy more than five percent because to capture the full amount we're Limited in terms of the tax tax cap to that five percent um with the exception of new construction so we anticipate levying as a matter of fact um 78.4 million dollars which represents an increase of 5.9 percent over the preceding year although we don't anticipate collecting that amount we will probably collect something around 78.2 million which would be an increase of about 5.6 percent again this represents inflation so to put it in perspective for the average taxpayer if you're at the beginning of 2020 your your home was valued at 350 000 market value and it appreciated at the same rate as did eav in the district which was um uh 6.8 percent your home value would be about three hundred
035seventy three thousand dollars on the new market value and uh the tax increase would be about 308 dollars over the prior year or 4.6 percent more than the prior year and for the schools that would be just under seven thousand dollars at six thousand nine hundred fifty six dollars so um that or the mechanics of what is happening under the the levy the reason again why we have to do this truth in taxation hearing is because we're levying more than five percent which we typically do the reason why we are and this year is to capture the amount that we're entitled to under the tax cap plus new construction as I have already stated we also as one relatively new requirement for truth and Taxation hearings is Reserve balances that the district has on hand
036although the interpretation of what that means exactly in the law is a bit unclear and so in speaking with my colleagues we're simply stating what our cash balances are our fund balances are as of October 31st which for Batavia is some 77 million dollars so um that is available in the treasurer's record report I will state however that given the conversations that we've had in the community about the recent referendum folks think that 77 million dollars is a lot of money to have on hand and indeed it is in fact that's an increase of from 50 million dollars that fiscal year end of last year so at the beginning of this fiscal year we had about 55 million dollars in fund balances on hand um but I would remind the public and I know the
037board is well aware of this that we just recently have attained a fiscal Health reasonable enough where we do not have to issue what are called tax anticipation warrants so we get our infusions our Revenue since we're so heavily reliant on property taxes those come in June and September and in September of each year so we basically get paid twice a year to put it in kind of a homeowner's parlance you know in terms of like being paid by your by your employer and our bills carry out throughout the year and until about three years ago we used to have to borrow money through like a payday loan so that we can pay all of our bills and while 77 million dollars sounds like a heck of a lot of money we'll spend almost all
038of it by the time we get to March April and May and in years past we would literally have to borrow money so that we could pay our payrolls and bills before the next infusion of cash came and so when we get to the bottom of that cash flow cycle as we call it we'll probably be somewhere around 15 to 20 million dollars of cash on hand so that's 77 million dollars will largely have been spent but it will go back up rapidly and it will make an appearance that we'll have more cash on fiscal you're in so it's a it's a bit of an illusion so I just want to make sure that folks understand it's not like we're sitting on a ton of cash and can make things happen so um beyond that
039I'd be happy to entertain any questions that the board may have before we offer the community an opportunity to ask questions or address the board no question all right thanks Tony is there anyone here in the audience who'd like to comment on the 2022 lovey okay then that concludes Our Truth in taxation hearing regarding the 2022 Levy action on the levy will take place at the December board meeting all right all right the next agenda item is also a report no uh action but we wanted to as a board celebrating board member appreciation day you have been working really hard on your board agreements we last month changed them to protocols um a little bit more appropriate and you talked about sharing them publicly so we put some finishing touches on them last week but
040or last month but we know that this is an ongoing dialogue and so you asked me to keep putting it on the agenda so you can continue to have these conversations and there's no formal vote on the protocol so if you have anything you want to change we can continue to revise them to meet your needs so the protocols are they Encompass quite a bit but it talks about how you operate together how do you communicate with the public and how do you handle concerns from the community and staff and then I'll just turn it over to you guys but I one thing that you could tell me is where you would like this to be housed it is public this was in the meeting tonight but is there would you like me to also
041put it on your web page or yeah I would think so I don't know another one on the webpage please that's easy um let's talk about we continue to refine this so is there are there any refinements that you want to talk about today is can you kind of give a really brief summary of what you updated between last board meeting and now yes we've changed it to protocols from agreements because agreements really acknowledge it would mean that you voted on them and agreed to them but when new board members come on they haven't agreed to them so these are just our they're the word protocol is what we agreed to call them and then the other thing is we added a section at the bottom called accountability um so the document explains um you
042know how you work together how you speak with one voice how you handle concerns but then what happens if the board members aren't following these protocols there really isn't um you know any way to the board's job is to hold each other accountable so you don't have a boss your boss is the community and they chime in once every four years but um so in the meantime during those four years you would hold each other accountable to these protocols so somebody suggested that we add a section on accountability and that would be you all agree that this is how we operate and you should reflect on your own um job and then the next one is if a board member does violate a protocol then it's up to you to correct each other and then
043you know self-reflect and then the full board if if it happens repeatedly then the full board would say okay how can we correct this moving forward is it more training is it you know more discussions we call a special meeting so that would be that other piece of accountability so that's what you would consider maybe corrective action there's two things one that I had comments on one there's a statement in there that says that it's the responsibility of a for fellow board member that implies there's one specific I would just actually say the responsibility of fellow board members the responsibility is shared by all right but it can be raised by one right that's fine as opposed to implying that there is a kind of a watch person associated with that yeah yeah good point
044and then second of the uh the corrective action if a board member repeatedly violates the protocol I would like to just I'm not saying actually change other than that one thing I'm not saying change this I think that maybe we should bounce it off of our legal counsel or someone else just to so we understand what corrective actions we can potentially do and what are within our capabilities of doing associated with that if there is something very little besides training and conversation training conversation right and and and and maybe that maybe I'm interpreting the corrective board action being on the one member I think would you like like to say like above here we talk about communication for example if it's a classroom talk to the teacher would you want to add sort of like
045for example no further training or so that anybody reading it would understand what I would probably do is the thing on the bottom if I'm going to Wordsmith it one more time is the full board should consider corrective action if the protocol is repeatedly violated oh guys one or all it doesn't matter okay and then the corrective action if any is scalable to whatever that fraction may be full board should consider corrective action if the report if board Protocols are repeatedly violated that make sense I love the section I think it's great I think we need it yeah what was this called before board member agreements agreements right but we wanted to get rid of the word agreement because it implies that there's a vote but when new board members come out but then the
046First full point says board members agree goodbye at these protocols it just seems I don't know it feels like it's the same thing in a different area so just board member I could take out the word agree there no problem or it's expected that board members abide by the protocols I that'd be fine something along that way we're not agreeing to anything I'd be fine it was called agreements in the first place I would agree but I think there is some Merit that if there's a new election and someone has not had a chance to come in and voice their opinion right it's hard to assume they're agreeing to it these are protocols these are expectations but we have enough the protocol is that you agree to it pretty much yeah the agreements okay like
047any other protocol you don't you're not asked to be in agreement it's just your expectation and then if you don't like it you have an opportunity to go in and raise the point to discuss it with others fair enough to change it okay any other comments so something else that I wanted to bring up um when I was engaging in the self-reflection about this section um I was wondering how are board training ties into this and I think that we should give ourselves the reminder that we have received a lot of training on many different issues and sometimes if something comes up perhaps we need to acknowledge the fact that hey we've had training on this however we may not be actually utilizing that training in the decisions that we make and so in in
048regards of that self-reflection I think that we need to recognize that training we've received as part of that self-reflection so I don't know what that looks like but I think it would be important to give us the opportunity to re-engage in training that we've received in the past if that training is not necessarily um being exhibited in the decisions we make if I mean wouldn't that be part of uh when we're discussing you know corrective action or holding each other accountable that might be one of the tools we use to reinforce those more positive behaviors or absolutely what requirement is there to play RJ several that's an advocate for a minute what requirement is there for any board member to adhere to anything they've learned I mean like that's the reality of being a board
049member is that there's full autonomy to be whatever board member that you believe you should be given whatever I think what I think we've lived through that so I guess the question is if taking the training to heart and utilizing it in our everyday decision making is optional then is it necessary to even engage in the training in the first place training has the potential of amending one's processes and opinions and opening their eyes to other thoughts and opinions so I don't see it as you take a train you're suddenly corrected about your behavior right you're still an autonomous human being you still need to make your own decisions and and things are going to change over time the training we receive now may be different from the training we get in a year because
050people are going to find out things that are better to train us on and and help us understand so I think there's I think there's some Nuance in here that if we feel as a group or even at someone as an individual calls it out and says you're not doing some of these things because I think the training informed the protocols to a certain extent and therefore if you're not abiding by the protocols you're clearly not kind of taking out of the training what we have said is important to be to to live to I I'm having a hard time understanding where it would fit and its efficacy if it was there so I'm trying to think of how to phrase this in a way that is non-specific and strategic um if we receive training
051on a specific subject and then later that subject turns out to be Amplified in the community and it turns out that um community members are unhappy with the way that we are dealing things and we have received training on that topic I would say that it would be advantageous to revisit that training under those circumstances because of the pressure that we're receiving them from the community because they're not happy with with the way we're responding and so clearly we have some type of Disconnect that we need to address and if we receive training on that specific subject rather than just being self-reflective I think it makes sense to revisit what we've actually paid for and done as training as a group yeah I don't disagree with the non-specific and strategic example you're utilizing there um
052the the premise is that that's what the corrective action decision is would be is like we would need more training because the training we all agreed on that was important for us to take and didn't stick apparently is when we need to focus on because we all agreed that that was important for us to do when you throw a lump sum of training in there I'm concerned that it could over complicate the process or over limit future board decisions and actions if there was training back in the day that said you didn't you you shouldn't do this or act this way and or that it said it was okay and now it's not because people learn and they grow and they need to do that I don't have an I don't have a clear example
053and I think maybe I guess the question I guess I have to you is providing that maybe is a further discussion and we kind of evaluate Things based on that lens is this acceptable to kind of move forward with the understanding that we have at any point can we talk about this at a future board meeting as we kind of evaluate is there another issue or is there another concern that pops up that warrants that specific mention of training in there I mean I yeah I think that we can definitely proceed I think that we should keep that in mind as problems arise and use that as a lens that we may want to utilize when determining how we address a certain situation yeah I think that's an appropriate way to handle it I just
054wanted to bring up um under the third section the fourth bullet board members understand and follow the guidelines and how they interact with the community um are these guidelines can they be found somewhere are they going to be are they attached here um one more time where was that the um sorry the third section so no individual board member and then um fourth bullet point down so it used to have in their links um there's a board communication document and a social media decision tree that are um I they're more internal documents but I can write them that are more public-facing because it has like here's your sample email replies and I don't think everything needs to be but I can make a public version of that I think that would be decision media tree
055um is what Holly uses and she puts together a group when we're trying to decide whether or not we're confusing on social media and I don't know if that one is also public facing but we can rewrite it to make sure that the all the concepts are there but maybe they wouldn't need the exact like sample language and things like that that Holly uses I think that's great just for the sake of transparency and and for us easily for us yeah they used to be left here and I took them out when we made it perfect thank you and another on the bottom and do those guys just refresh my memory the guidelines understood what you're saying about making them more public-facing but do those have guidelines about you know what it looks like to
056meet with community members yeah okay that's what yeah we talked about it weekly update which I'd forgotten about so our version's there and then okay the public version will be but maybe we can talk about that next month just with the Edition okay yeah I think that'd be awesome I would agree though that that would be nice for the community and the public to know about that because I think people don't understand often how limited we can be because of some of the rules and guidelines that we have that we have to we are required to abide by and then some more just agreements as to how we do our work or trainings and that's always a great thing for people to understand also yeah I would agree and to your point I mean how
057could they understand you know so this is a great opportunity yeah I understand when we're new yeah well and that's a good point I mean as people are in the process of getting their signatures and potentially signing up to run for School Board they may not know about things they are a lot can and can't do and this would be a good spot for them to go research that so they can be effective in their role as they want to be by learning what they can and can't do make sense any other comments on the board governance document all right next to my item on the agenda is a board discussion of our referendum next steps um Lisa are you yep I'll do this um the referendum question that the board put on the ballot
058was supposed to be a reflection of what we heard and then we ask we asked about did we get the question so as of right now um 50.0 what was it 50 50.09 of the public said no and 49.91 of the public said yes there's 25 people there's a difference of different five votes between the yes and the no and the way that this works that um the mail-in ballots are accepted they had to be mailed prior to the election but they will count them all the way through next Tuesday the 22nd and this is the County elections and then they will get back to us and let us know how we did on November 20th second which is a week from today so we still have some time so referendum next steps isn't going
059to be a very robust discussion tonight because we don't know the outcome of the referendum yet um we did meet though yesterday uh yep yesterday afternoon some of us and talked about if it does turn out that there are more no's than yeses than um the board will have to have a discussion in December and we will be bringing you some feedback and probably a recommendation for you to consider just so you have a starting point for your discussion it is your decision but you need to start somewhere so we'll collect um we'll put we would put out a survey we would host focus groups we would do an analysis of the results we would look at our plan again and then come back to you so you have something to work with for your
060discussion in December if it it does appear that we could have done a better job communicating there was some confusion about the question which is we don't have a lot of leeway in writing that question but you know Tony and I did a road show and tried to explain to everyone that we could what that question meant because when you just read it on the ballot it it um it wasn't very obvious what we were asking for because we were asking for money to upgrade our facilities and there would be no increase to the bond and interest tax levy and that but that part wasn't in the question we're not allowed to put that in the question so it is possible that you might decide to put it back on the ballot in the spring
061and we could do a better job of explaining what that question means and what it means for you as an individual in the community and if you do that we would have to vote you would have to vote on that no later than January 17th so my next step is to bring you some data if the if it turns out we have more no then yes votes I'll bring you some data and we will continue the discussion on December 20th one thing I would like to throw out so that's a very compressed timeline to make a decision I would just like to we don't have the answer tonight but um I would think there might be a possibility that would you want to have another we'd have one meeting where we get the survey results
062and we're voting would there be a possibility people be open to having another meeting or a chance of a public forum where we could talk about it especially if we're talking about changing the question you we can put anything we want you know you can put anything you wanted yeah people said it was a bad question I don't know we didn't really talk about it but I think it might be prudent to um I don't know if you're going to be able to make that decision in one night that's right that's what I'm talking about so an early January the week of like the week of January 9th because um Tuesday January 17th is the day after MLK day so um we won't have school on that day so that's not a business day for
063you guys to to meet so we probably want to because Tony would have to go and file it at the county so we would need a little time so probably the week of January 9th we would need to call a special meeting to finish our discussion that would that would be my guess yeah that makes sense but we can do that we can't do that I just thought it might depending on what the survey says and what we hear at the next meeting it's a pretty big decision for us to make so I don't want to feel rushed for throwing it out there just put it on your radar that we might want to meet that week yes that makes sense yeah put on your Radars please could we also have when we're getting that
064information what the consequences are if we don't put it on the ballot yeah I think now we've been hearing that that people want to know what happens if like what's our plan if it's not on the ballot yeah okay any other questions on that all right next time on Autumn next item on our agenda is an action item which is approving uh letters of intent for the summer of 2023 projects and I'm assuming Mark Anderson is there he is exactly thank you everybody um even though it's snowed today we are talking about summer of 2023 projects um as we have been for a while um it's upgrades to the entrances at both Alice gusterson and JB Nelson um Augustus entrance right now is with the Early Childhood so they're one entrance and we will be
065separating those and making two entrances so one for ECC and one for Alice Gustafson also there we'll be doing some site improvements um if you um drive by Alice Gustin at the start of the day and the end of the day I'm Carlisle's a little busy so we're trying to get traffic off of Carlisle and then at JB Nelson um doing enhancements to that entrance as well and moving that entrance actually back to the original entrance at JB Nelson and then the Third um well kind of project but it's all really one project is at Rotolo and the serving line so the serving line cafeteria serving line is original so if you went there in the fall of 92 it's pretty similar to right now um along with the equipment some of it so we're
066looking to upgrade that as well what's different this year is kind of how we're bringing this to you um it's obviously different for me and I think it's different from anybody on this board actually I know it is um it's instead of having one general contractor so basically I say there's one general contractor that's awarded this bid for x amount of dollars we split it up into trade packages part of the reason is is we really haven't had a project to this amount of money in a while which is really not that much amount of money but we really haven't had any big projects since really the last referendum this has nothing to do with referendum but um to further explain that in more detail I'm going to invite Chad Alexander from lamp and he's
067our construction manager he can do a much better job explaining it than I can good evening so as a typical process is we we break the construction up into trades and those all went out to bid about three weeks ago and the bids were received today so before you are the trades that we would like to have authorization to issue letters of intent to and we will bring back four actual contract approval in December however we would like to um give the trades the opportunity to go ahead and begin the material procurement process only because of the long lead times we're experiencing these days particularly with kitchen equipment and wood doors and HVAC equipment so we want to try and get ahead of that so we'll be conducting scope review meetings over the next few
068days and based on the outcomes of those we expect to be able to then look to issue letters of intent to those apparent little bitters questions what's the exposure to the district with them going because it sounds as if you're saying with the letter of intent they can go out and get materials procured start the shop drawing process and whatever else what's the exposure to the district if you decide that one of those contracts can't be let to them we would not be asking them to put any deposits down on on cost but basically getting our line our place in line to get those get those materials and get those those items but nothing would be there'd be no exposure um with the letters up in time I can speak I'm in my private life
069I'm in the plumbing and HVAC industry and I can speak to the importance of getting in line because uh the supply chain issues that industry have gotten worse lately and if you don't act soon by the timelines we need to have this material you could be in trouble so I can speak to the urgency there other questions um I would request as a part of the contract a list of the quantity of bidders in each straight package and numbers I'm not asking you to give that now but it's important for at least me to realize the coverage of that so I'm aware of what our how competitive the bid Market was for us at that time we can include that information with the documents we'll be providing it thank you don't we usually get that
070yeah yeah we just I know it just bid today I'm just so still figuring it's just confirming that we would get it you want to make sure we get it because this is a little different than normal yeah about six hours ago actually anyone else great then I would entertain a motion that the board authorized letters of intent to bid trade contractors as outlined blue summer move by mensler is that you yeah second by kilburg all in favor any opposed all right um that was all of the action items tonight but we are going to move to comments before we go to closed sessions so I'll start with Lisa um it is board member appreciation day and um I am pleased to take this opportunity to share how much I appreciate the work that you
071do you work tirelessly you have so much information that you need to go through you have people that are contacting you and they are entrusting you with their um their most precious gift their their children but also the whole Community is looking to you and you have made this a destination district for teachers and students I know that Cindy can attest that she continues to get families every day coming in to register this is a place where students and families want to be and also this year I want to say that you really have made such great strides in your teamwork and and really committing to continuing to train and to revise your protocols and those types of things because you want to be a great team because that's how great things happen um and
072so you're a good example to the rest of us in the organization I also say that that Vision that you've set and you're pretty clear does impact not just people with students but people throughout the community there's reaping the benefits of a strong education system and you guys have really made some great strides and from where I'm sitting I think that some some of your the things that you do best are listening and communicating it's really important to all of you to build relationships with those in the community and those on the staff and I think that is really helpful to our cause and you also make very informed Decisions by doing your due diligence and attending committee meetings as observers and reading everything and learning as much as you can about this district and
073our community so to Circle back to the metaphor that we had at the beginning of the year thank you for everything that you're doing to put our little astronauts on the moon so thank you thanks Lisa Chris um as a parent of a senior things look different and I just want to say thank you to the community specifically going through the state experience for cross-country was unbelievable that the outpouring of support from alumni from coaches from the team from just everybody who was there it was amazing how much we support our students and as a parent it was extremely emotional and I am extremely grateful to the community that is helping raise my children so thank you for everything that the coaches did for cross country I know the same thing happens for band the
074same thing happens for football cross country just happens to be where my focus is because that's where my child is um but I know that this happens everywhere I see it in the three sports that my daughter plays I am internally grateful thank you I want to start by thanking everybody who's in attendance tonight everyone who spoke our student ambassadors uh everyone who emails the board over the course between our last meeting we do listen and read everything and it does inform our decisions so thank you I want to thank everybody in the community who voted in the November 8th election I think last I looked about 65 percent of registered voters in Batavia participated which uh was beyond my expectation so that was great and like Lisa's mentioned we really won't know the results
075of that until next Tuesday so I know I'm refreshing the County website quite a bit these days so we'll be watching that closely but thank you for everyone who participated in voting and then I just want to share uh three examples of me witnessing our students in action um the first was on November 6th um a lot of Batavia students participated in the United Way day of caring leak Leaf raking event so this was a Sunday afternoon between one and three and a lot of our students participated in raking leaves and getting them to the curb they were helping assisting senior citizens veterans and those with physical limitations and helping getting that work done and it might seem like a small thing but those small things really add up and make our community a great
076place to live and as someone who will be eligible for his AARP card in three weeks on behalf of my fellow senior citizens I want to say thank you for doing that um I want to say you know the student ambassadors mentioned it but I attended the production of 42nd Street on the 5th and I want to say um I was just blown away by the singing the dancing the staging the lighting the direction the performances I mean everything was incredible I mean I'm not an official like you Steve a musical theater but from I see it was uh it was like a Broadway level production I mean I couldn't believe these kids and I've known a lot of them since they were This Tall so it was really amazing The Joy really coming off
077that stage was evident to everybody there and then I also want to thank the parents because I know nothing like that can happen without the support the fundraising that's a lot of long nights for those families so thank you if you have not been to a production you really should go this one I think you'll be blown away put on and then finally I just want to congratulate the football team I've been attending all the games and it's been a real fun ride to see what they've accomplished they have advanced the semifinals the 787 semifinals they're playing like Zurich on Saturday and you know I would encourage everybody in the community to drive up it's about an hour drive to get up there and support them they're a gritty and talented Bunch like Zurich is
078a formidable opponent we have a little history with so it should be a really competitive game so I really I'm proud of them and I hope that the community goes out to support them and I just also want to say that you know I think Saturday will be the last game the last Saturday was the last game at Bulldog Stadium and I think now more than ever I realize that the game is just one part of the event and you know that Saturday's nights or Friday nights and Saturday afternoons are really about the football team but it's also about the band the flag core the cheerleaders the dance team uh everyone working concessions and security and the announcers and um you know that Collective is what makes Bulldog Stadium a special place on those nights
079and so I'm just really proud of what we've accomplished and I just hope that I wish the team and everybody associated with the team luck and go Bulldogs and Happy Thanksgiving to everybody thanks sir I'm just gonna say Happy Thanksgiving because if I say what I want to say it'll bring everybody down from okay thank you sir Craig okay Happy Thanksgiving um I'm gonna start off with like congratulations to all the sporting events and I mean the the track um and cross country and everything else that was occurring with that that I've been following a little bit I congratulations to them and all the parents that helped those kids attain what they were able to attain I saw something recently about swimming as well so kudos to those guys and gals as well so it
080seems from a sports perspective at least a lot of everybody's hitting on all cylinders and doing the best they can and that's all anybody can ask for and a number of are receiving accolades for it I'm going to jump on the 42nd Street train a bit um I if we've had a number of interactions with people that went and they all kind of come to the realization about kind of the quality and the level the performances of the kids but one of the things I I hope people kind of realize that I try to do a little bit is not just about that thing or that moment it's to help everybody understands the input and the effort that goes in advance of that so Riley who was here before is everybody probably has realized this
081is my son you know I'm no longer here he played in the pit with a number of other kids and they were literally in a pit in the front and the show actually has a funny moment where they pick on them a little bit and that's a lot of fun um but they um they amongst all of them if I understand and I hope somebody corrects me but it's still a good story if it's even if it's not true is most of them that played and did the tap dancing did not know how to do tap dancing until last summer that's if you watch that show that is incredible that they can do what they did to the level of synchronization that they were able to do and pull that off four or five nights
082in a row without the other other people don't realize is if you're familiar with a term called Tech week that happens a week or two beforehand I haven't seen my son in about three months it feels like because he's going to marching band move from a number of those kids in marching band moved right into the pit and he was walked out of school went right over the beefac effectively more than a few times my wife and I brought him food so that he could go back into his little hole and just keep playing until nine o'clock at night these all these kids do this incessantly all the time and so I applaud them not only for achieving all the work achieving for what they did in the show that they did is and it
083is also applauding all the effort that they put into it to hone the craft and to do what they love with that I'm going to pass it on to RJ if you don't mind you feel free thank you um so congratulations again to the football team and uh good luck congrats to marching band I actually I don't know why I couldn't grasp it are they going to the finals or no it happens all in one day it already happened it already happened okay and it was third place is that what happened they placed third in their division so if you pardon me for a minute yeah that's what I'm asking you the way to be thinking about it is like the football plays in there you know seven hey am I right on that yeah
084seven yeah I bet you know what division marching band is it's the same effectively so they they placed third in seven a let's say Okay imagine if football took all of their divisions and then everybody played each other again to determine who's the best in the state so they placed third and seven a and then they competed against every other band that was either first second in most cases in the state in their area so and they do that on the same day that's why I never said we performed again that night all right thank you for the lesson you're welcome did you guys coordinates with Craig could you last speak then no no they did a great job just imagining that my daughter is gonna do the marching band so I need to start
085yeah yeah um uh thank you to Aaron for the update on the Dei committee um knowing that there's immediate actions that we're going to hear about next month was music to my ears I feel like I've been waiting to hear for that we've been asking for immediate action or lots of people have been asking for media action so I don't know if we can even call it immediate action since it's been like two years year and a half so actions that were going to be able to actually um compare ourselves to to see if we've had success would be great to hear um this is the time of year where people are going to be out signing or asking for signatures so good luck to everyone who's going to be running for the school board
086in April I've heard rumors that there's going to be a good amount of people so if if you're out there and you see someone with a clipboard please help them out and give them signature I was telling other people when I was doing it that it doesn't mean you have to vote for them you're just you're just helping them get in the ballot those those you know but I made it you know what that is my stance um and then finally I just want to bring up the the building our feature together the referendum there was I think we're at 14 000 votes so far with them still being counted and I was looking at the history of the YouTube Watchers for this meeting and I don't there was like one month where there was
087like over a thousand viewers so to our 500 fans out there that are watching this if you could ask your friends and family to watch or at least go to the website so that they know what they're voting on that's like the rudest thing I think I've ever said is if people didn't know what they're voting on but if there's 14 000 votes and there's less than a thousand people that are viewing our discussions I don't know if that translates at least in my head that people are voting Beyond just seeing the measure of 140 million dollars and they're thinking beyond that so I'm hopeful that if it doesn't pass this time I know that I'm going to be talking towards us trying to do it next um but uh that's it for me thanks
088Sarah Jay Aaron okay so I have a little bit tonight so it's not a piggyback on something that Chris said because it really resonated with me about take it takes a village it takes the village and the reason why that resonated with me is because Mr Owen was here talking about the wonderful fabulous marching band and right before that he was at a meeting with parents talking about a fantastic trip that the music program is taking over winter break and he said I'm going to be here for 25 minutes to answer questions and then you have to go to the board meeting and show off our program he didn't say show off her program I said show off her program but my point is is that there are so many people that are helping us
089raise these fabulous fantastic children the music program the stage program the athletic program the arts program I could keep going and going and going but these individuals are helping all these kids find their individual passion their connection and their happy place and I am just so so thankful for all of those people who touch each of these children's lives in such profound ways and that brings me right into our Thanksgiving season I am so thankful for this board I'm so thankful for our community I'm so thankful for all of the people who are helping us raise our children um and I I just want to express my appreciation to this board again each of you are true servant leaders and I am touched by all of you I know our children are individ indirectly affected
090by each of your work and thank you so much for taking on that role it's not easy but um thank you for your service leadership and that's all I have tonight thank you Aaron yeah the joy of going last means there's absolutely nothing I could say that it's half what any of you said so I will just move on to our closed session um so I would entertain a motion to move to closed session for the following reason the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint Lodge against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor
091in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity however a meaning to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the local government wage increase transparency act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with the open meetings Act yes thank you moved by myself second by Mathis all in favor all right there will be no action after our closed session meeting yeah that's fine and it's like are we supposed to take them did you um I couldn't tell Riley was your son or anything right oh my God that was just stupid