001Righty. So, we are going to reconvene to open session. Be resolved that the board of education reconvene to open session. The time is >> 7:13 p.m. >> 7:13. I'll make a motion for that. May I please have a second, Liz? And all in favor? All right. And that's everybody. And can you please stand with me and uh join me in the pledge to the flag to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. So to start quickly a couple things not on the agenda. If you're looking around the room this is really cool. I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent, Anthony D. Carlo, to talk about what we see around us. >> Thank you, Mr.
002President. I appreciate it. So, um, next week is New York State School Board res recognition week. Easy for me to say. And, um, so we wanted to take the opportunity today to thank you, the board of education as New York State Board Association recognizes October 13th to the 17th as school board recognition week. It is during this time to raise awareness and the important work performed by the school board members. The polling central school district along with other public school districts would like to honor our members for their continued devotion to the students of Pauling. The school board members devote countless hours in building strong schools and helping students to achieve academic excellence. They make tough decisions and spend many days and hours reviewing educational concerns and fiscal responsibilities. the Pauling school district school board
003members to vote and develop budgets that align to the strategic plan, establish policy and make sure regulations and laws are followed, set the direction for student performance through the district's mission, vision, and goals, and support social, emotional, and physical needs of the students to learn in a healthy and safe environment. We thank you on behalf of myself, behalf of central office, school administrators, faculty, staff, and the like for all you do. not only next week, but all throughout the school year. So, you'll see in front of you some of the elementary school um students put together um some tigers with some sayings in them. We have some banners that are here. Also, the middle school um put together a nice beautiful banner that's up there thanking the board for all that you do each and
004every day. And the high schools is right there behind you thanking you. So each one of the schools um has worked hard to note the work that you put in behind the scenes each and every day and your stewardship in leading calling to be a uh a school district of excellence. So thank you. And also in front of you, you have uh a little something you can open your boxes um from um myself and there's something also there from the team and myself um just thanking you for all that you do. Okay. So you could take a look at it and we thank you. I see some laughing. What does that mean? That's smirking. >> This is great. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. Thank you for all you do. We appreciate it. Thank you. [Applause]
005>> And who says you don't get compensated in this role? This is I mean this is great. Uh, just going to read a couple. We are Pauling Proud. King of the jungle. Grayson, thank you if you're watching the live stream. Uh, we are Pauling Proud. Tigers are smart. Elmer, we are Pauling Proud. Tigers are the best. Scary, fun, exciting. Aiden, thank you very much. And there's a lot more. We are appalling proud. This one here, Tigers are fierce from Noie. Thank you, Noi. That's so cool. So, thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Thank you to middle school, high school, elementary school students. This that's really cool. So, thank you so much. And uh I'm going to present my apple right here for the whole time if you guys don't mind. >> That is really cool. Thank you.
006Thank you. >> All right. Um so, really quick before we get into our presentations that are on the agenda this evening, uh we have a special treat. Our uh our friend uh founder and partner of Districtwide Search Consultants, Robert Frier, is here. Uh we met with them this evening earlier to do some important work. And um Bob is just going to introduce himself, talk about his firm, and a really quick introduction for the community and for everybody here. So Bob, take it away and thank you so much for being here. >> Thank Thank you. Is this Yeah. Okay. Hi everyone. I'm Bob Frier, uh one of the co-founders of District Wise Search and uh your board has chosen us to find the next superintendent of schools for for uh the district. Uh we had our
007uh kickoff today. Just well, let me just give you a little bit about us. We've been doing search work in New York for superintendent searches for about 18 years now. Um all across New York and um we kind of come at it from a little different perspective. Uh everyone in our firm has um is is either on a school board or has been on a school board. So we kind of come at it from their perspective. We also have a uh an advisory uh board within our company of luminary um ex superintendent. So um we had our kickoff with the board today. Uh took care of of of a lot of administrative things that we needed to take care of and and got the um initial steps in putting a profile together. We will be
008uh reaching out to the various different stakeholders uh uh different union groups within the school um and uh as well as teachers, students, community uh we will have a community forum uh that will be a combination here and on Zoom at the same time so we can get the biggest audience. So, and this is everyone's opportunity to get input into what we should be looking for for the next leader of the school district. Um, so we are getting to work on it right away. Uh the application is going to open up uh a little over a week from now and uh the ultimate plan is that the board has a slate of finalists um late February, beginning of March uh and then uh within a month from then uh they are able to pick who
009they choose to to lead the district next. So that's um that's about it. Thank you so much. And uh the kickoff meeting today was great. I know I speak for everybody. We're excited for the process ahead and the amount of experience you guys have. Uh we're really excited to get started. So, >> we're we're excited to work with everyone and to meet uh the staff and the community as well. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. So, uh on to our presentations that are on the agenda for this evening. The first of the presentations is going to be the auditor's report of June 30th, 2025. uh Mr. Brent Jensen um from uh the EFPR group is going to present. So Brent, turn it over to you. >> All right. Thank
010you. I am Brent Jensen. I'm a partner with EFPR Group. Um in front of you in your board package should be the draft reports and I'm not planning on going through it in significant detail. I plan on being pretty brief tonight, but if there are any questions, feel free to jump in at any time. Um, in terms of our audit, we expect to issue unmodified or clean opinions in relation to the financial statement, your federal compliance audit or commonly called single audit and the audit of the extra classroom activity funds. The audits were performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and governmental auditing standards and the financial statements are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles within your financial statements. By far the most important information in there is your general fund financial
011statements. I'm going to give you a little picture of that real briefly. Um, first, so your general fund had revenue this year of 45.9 million, up 1.1 million from last year, whereas your general fund expenditures were at 44.1 million this year, which was up about 2.6 million. You also had transfers to other funds of about 200,000. All of that left you with a positive change in your fund balance of about $1.6 million this year, leaving you overall fund balance of $19.3 million. of that overall fund balance, approximately 2 million of it was in the unassigned class, which is at the 4% New York State legal limit for the maximum allowable of unassigned fund balance you can carry forward for one year to the next in comparison to the next year's budget. Uh, the one thing
012I do want to mention about all of that general fund information is the growth rate on revenue and expenditures. your revenue at $1.1 million growth versus your expenditures at $2.6 million growth means that your overall change in net in uh fund balance was going to be down about $1.5 million in comparison to a prior period. And as I mentioned previously, your net change this year was about 1.6. So one more year like that will essentially wipe out that positive trend you have on your change in that fund balance. Um that's overall you're still in a strong financial position right now, but it is just a trend line to keep an eye on as a board. Keep in mind as you build your budgets and make your decisions throughout the year on various expenditure decisions or
013anything that might affect revenue growth. That's you're not alone in this state. That's a pretty common trend I'm seeing in school districts, but it is something I wanted to call to your attention. Also within the report, there is a governmentwide financial statement in addition to multiple other funds. The governmentwide financial statement includes all of the funds that are part of the fund basis financial statements. And it also includes a number of items that are required by the government accounting standards board to be part of this financial statement. All of those items can make this statement kind of confusing and difficult to use to the average reader. Um, so I do want to mention a few things about this statement and make sure that there's a general understanding of what those things mean. Your revenue in
014the governmentwide financial statement is 48.5 million with and expenses are 46.3. Those both generally largely mirror what we're talking about in terms of the general fund financial statement, which would be what you'd expect because the general fund really is still the engine that drives the government overall financial picture. That results in a positive change of 2.22 million to the net position of the district, but still leaves you with a deficit net position of $55.7 million. That I know it sounds like a scary number when you just look at a deficit of almost $56 million for a district of this size, but the reality is single biggest cause of that is something that the government accounting standards board requires you to put on your books and it's called other post-employment benefit obligations. It really means it's
015the future cost of all retirey health care that you are committed to both for your current retirees and your current employees is determined by an actuary. It's a very large estimate of what they think if you had if you had to close the district today and settle all those contracts, that's what they think you could actually settle them for essentially is about $97 million. That number is a massive number on every single government's financial statements and drags most government financial statements into a deficit position in New York State. that $56 million deficit is not a major concern to the district. And that's what I really want to emphasize is that just because you see that in the governmentwide position does not mean that the government is in significant financial stress right now. The much more
016important piece is as we talked about that general fund picture which is still very strong although has a note of caution. So in terms of the overall financial picture that's all I really wanted to talk about. I have a few minor disclosure it items I'll go through unless there's any questions on that financial picture. >> Um, thank you. Mr. Jensen, can you add a little bit more texture to or explain the fund balance that you mentioned um earlier in in in your presentation? Can you give a little bit of background about is you know Pauling in a different situation than most of the districts in the state? Um, I would say you're in overall a pretty strong position right now in terms of fund balance. As I mentioned, you have $19.3 million. So, you have
017a little bit less than half of your budget right now in fund balance. But I will note that already about $4 million of that is when a category is called assigned, which means you've already built that money into your next budget to come. leaves you about 15 million that could theoretically be appropriated to future budgets beyond this coming year. Um have about 13 million of it in what's called restricted categories. As I talked to you all earlier tonight in the meeting, I I mentioned that those restrictions are extremely important because your budgets are built on really a pretty fine line in terms of what your revenue growth year-over-year can be given where most of your money comes with with a uh 2% tax cap and with state aid that is not in your control. So
018given that you really have to have these restrictions in place to fund things that are one-time situations. So, if you have significant retirees and you need to fund the retirement cost, you need to have what's called an ELAR reserve or employee benefit reserve. Um, if you have a significant change in the pension rate because the state financial system starts to struggle due to any type of financial downturn to have that additional money sitting there in these reserves to fund that. Otherwise, you have to start subtracting from your budget elsewhere to fund those those temporary items. So, they're extremely important to keep there for those things. And that's where you have about 13 million of that. So overall, as I mentioned, you're in a sound financial position. There's nothing that indicates an immediate struggle. The only
019concern I really have is that trend rate of what's happening with revenues and expenses, which is something that I think most districts in the state are starting to see a struggle with just because reality is you are limited in what you can raise in revenue. Most of it's going to state aid and come from taxes, both of which are very much kept revenue growth items. And your your contracts and various other inflationary items within your expenditures are raising faster than that right now. >> Thank you, >> Mr. President, if I may. Um, I just wanted to say some thanks. Um, first of all to Mr. Jensen and his team at EFPR Group. um they were very professional and we have a pretty tight turnaround time and they are very good at working with us around
020that. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. I would I would also emphasize that your team does a great job and gives us everything in in a manner that allows for this efficient turnaround because really this window that the state requires for school districts is a very fast window for governments of this size and is dissimilar from what other governments of this size are required to do. There is no 105day turnaround requirement for towns or cities or villages. speaking of our team. So, um you know, I just I always like to remind everybody that this this financial statement and the audit is basically the result of an entire year's worth of work um by the business office staff. Um and everybody contributes and um I do I want to thank them for their hard
021work all year long. Um and especially I need to thank our treasurer, Mrs. Hubil um because she really is the point person um on the audit and uh she puts uh an incredible amount of work and gives up her summer every year to make sure that it gets done. So, thank you >> and Mimi, congratulations to you because you are the orchestra leader that gets it done. Um and you know, uh this is not just this happens in like we talked about, you know, August getting ready, but throughout the year, Mimi meets with her teams on a weekly basis. you talk about things that are happening and developing. So, uh, you know, the band is only as good as a leader. So, kudos to you on a job well done. [Applause] >> Anybody else have
022anything to say? Any questions or >> on on that? >> The last thing I had to mention is that amongst the documents that are in the draft, there's also a report to the board document. It requires a number of disclosures that we have to make to the board. Um they're in your written copy. There's just a couple of them I'm going to call out real quick. Uh amongst them, the accounting practices and policies are described in note one of the financial statement. There is no nothing or sorry, no transactions that lack what is called authoritative guidance or consensus. Just means your policies are what is required for the transactions you are doing in accordance with general accepted accounting principles and you have policies for all of the types of transactions you are doing. Um the
023performance of any financial statement does require a certain number of accounting estimates. Amongst your largest are the things that are actuarial in nature. Your pensions and your other post-employment benefits. Uh we do look to see that they are reasonable and consistent with standard. Um we found no issues with those estimates. And also the reports are currently in a draft form. We expect them to go final over the next couple days as we work with Mimi to do that. Uh the largest thing that's left is going to be what's called the management representation letter where your management makes number of representations to us about the data that was provided to us throughout the audit. That's really the only other things I had to mention. >> Thank you so much. >> That's good. All good. Thank you,
024Brent. >> So moving on from that presentation, we have our second presentation of the evening. It is going to be a capital project update um from CS Arch and the Palumbo Group. >> Uh good evening everyone. I'm uh Greg Clo with CSR and Tom Chester from the Plumbbo Group. Want to give you guys a quick update. It's been a while since we've uh since we've been here. So, um, all right, we got it. Something Somebody's moving. All right. Um, all right. Here we go. Um, so we do want to go through uh all four all four phases of the project uh pretty quickly. Um, phase one and phase two um are already complete and we are working on uh phase three and phase four. Um you see there for the completion of phase three is
025to be determined. As you know, we've been having uh an issue with our general contractor and that they defaulted from their their contract. Um we're currently working through a resolution to that with the shity. Tom's group has been really taking the lead on that and uh we hope that we're coming to a conclusion on that shortly. Um we do have some avenues for getting that back on track. So, um, at this point it looks like that project will run through next summer. Um, but, uh, hopefully we get it back on back on track shortly. So, um, so phase one is completed. Um, just to remind you some of the work we did here. We'll get through this pretty quickly. Um here at the middle school, we did some interior work, mainly the bathroom renovations in
026order to generate uh building aid um for the uh the field work that happened outside as well as the high school. We did the gymnasium uh floor replacement and the upgrades there. Um and then we built your your track facility that's uh really being utilized nicely tonight. It was nice to see that under the lights when we got here. So, uh, that was all completed in phase one as well as the additional parking lot that was built between the middle school and the high school and, uh, the other roadway improvements. Phase two also completed. Um, that was work concentrated on the on the high school uh, proper. So, we did have the uh, the tech suite edition that's in the upper leftand corner there. Um the other photos on the page there are the interiors
027of the tech suite and the adjacent computer lab. Uh that's all part of that building addition. Uh then we had the cafeteria uh relocation and renovation. So that took the cafeteria from upstairs, brought it down into the lower level and uh I took that was where the tech suite was previously. That was also nice to see that being utilized tonight when I drove in. So um then outside the cafeteria we have the courtyard and the plaza. Um so the grand staircase and the uh which provides you access into the building and uh ADA compliant access into that that side of the building. And we have uh the music suite work. So both the band room uh you know the the band room reconstruction and the coral suite. So we have some photos here of the
028completed band room, adjacent uh music uh practice rooms and the music storage or instrument storage rather and then the coral room down the hall. So the uh interior renovation of that and fit up. Then we uh completely gut renovated uh both of the locker rooms there. So, uh, the boys locker room and the trainers office and the girls locker room and, uh, bathrooms as well. So, those have both been completely uh, completely uh, gutted and renovated. And then we get into the, uh, the library as well. So, carpeting, ceiling, lighting, uh, things of that nature in the in the library. Um, again, as as with all the buildings, mechanical upgrades throughout. So, an extensive mechanical uh system uh throughout the high school. Um, and then just other we have new electric service, new switch gear,
029uh new main distribution uh for your electric service, and we get into phase three. And uh I'll let Tom update us on where we are, but as we said, we're hoping to get that get that moving again shortly. Hey everyone, how are you? So phase three, um the elephant in the room. Uh we're we're stopped. Uh we are working with a contractor. We actually have a uh a meeting date set up the end of this week to go through the scope and hopefully finalize things, get things moving again. Um fingers crossed. So we did renovate uh two classrooms into the new library. So that work was completed. Uh we did eight of 11 bathroom renovations. That work was complete. Uh the secure vestibule and the main entrance. Um that work is in place. You can
030see when you pull up to the building now. uh the library uh which was the the old library which is now the new main office close to the entrance to the school makes a lot more sense. Uh the nurse's office was moved into there as well. Um and then in the classrooms there's 22 classrooms we had to do uh work directly in and 12 of them uh the equipment the piping is all set and ready. Uh equipment set on the roof and that's where things kind of stopped happening. Um, a lot of work happened outside that first summer. I'd say we're about 70% complete there. Um, interior doors, we replaced interior doors throughout the building. Uh, they're about 75% complete. Uh, in the, uh, primary transformer works. So, we're building bringing in a new electric
031service in that building as well. A whole new primary distribution. All this new HVAC equipment requires a lot more power to run. Air conditioning takes power. So, um, we've got a lot of the work in place. Um, gear is arrived. It's on site. It's being installed right now. That's about the only work that is currently happening that's not affected by the default of the general contractor. Um, and then coming up in the uh the rest of the year, we have the rest of the classrooms to do. Uh, we have to renovate um an old shower room that's not really being used into uh bathrooms. We're going to be putting two bathrooms in and finish the rest of the HVAC work. These are some shots of the the finished work. Um I don't I think all
032of you have been through the building. Um some of the renovations in the bathrooms entrance. I lost the mic there. Uh so we have the secure vestibule, we have the canopy. Uh you walk up, you have a transaction window. So someone from outside can't just walk in the building. Um they have to be checked first, then they get let in and there's a there's like a a two door trap. So you can't just continue to walk in even at that point. So um that was that was a nice thing to get done. The new main office um seems to be the space is working out. So it came out really uh really good. I think it's a good use of space. Uh you have the nurse's office on the other side. Big improvements from what
033it was. And then this is just again the classrooms. Not much happened in the classrooms that you can visibly see. It's it's behind that sophet which is that top piece in the uh by the ceiling there. There's a bunch of HVAC equipment and piping in there. And that's what's going to provide you your air conditioning and your heating. uh some of the work outside. We refinished the front steps. Um I think there's one more to do. Uh some shots of the primary electric going out. And that brings us to phase four. So phase four, this building, the middle school. Matter of fact, my superintendent's right here tonight, too. Uh we're working right now uh one classroom at a time at night. Um and a little work on the roof. And every night we'll do a
034little more, a little more, knock a classroom out, move on to the next one. This way the summer comes and we're not trying to do 30 classrooms in one shot. So this summer we hit a good chunk of them. Um, and we're just going to keep keep going. So again, some of the big uh big big items in this phase are renovating the band room that's scheduled for this summer coming up. Uh, the second floor addition um is in progress right now. Also, we added a I think it's an office and storage area off of the music area. Um, so that work is happening right now. Um, we are going to renovate the home and careers and the agricultural and greenhouse spaces next summer. We'll also continue the mechanical upgrades, the rest of the classrooms
035that need to get done. Um, and there's various various other things that came from the previous BCS, which you're going to hear more about the new BCS shortly. Uh, we have some interior door replacements that are going to be happening. Uh, the roof, uh, when I did this, it was about 90% complete, probably probably pretty close. Uh, they're still up there now. Um, we did some work out front with the curb and sidewalks. Um, and some drainage improvements in the back of the building. So, Um, this is the overall upper floor plan. So, if you look, uh, this thing doesn't point. Uh, upper left, it's like a purplish box kind of around where the orange boxes are, the big orange spaces. That's your music area. That purple area is the addition that was built. So,
036the door to go into the existing space is not there into that music classroom yet. Um, but we're enclosing that space now. So these are renderings of what the other spaces are going to look like when they're finished. And this is views of that addition. So that's up on the roof that that second story edition being installed, walls going up, and that's as we're starting to close it up. It probably looks a little different now because that's from a week and a half ago. um a lot of HVAC work. So again, every single classroom is getting uh getting a unit and we have units on a roof uh for fresh air. So you're going to have uh all up to code ventilation in the building equipment up there just like the high school. This is
037the roofing. Uh we actually were going to do this roofing. We were slating it for next year, but the contractor wanted to get to it and they did. So, uh they got the roof replaced. So, it's all new up there. Uh yellow line is the drainage in the back of the building at the base of the hill that comes up to the school. So, that that drainage line is installed. And in the front there, that red line is the curb. And that dark gray sidewalk has been replaced. And then we we've replaced another little piece just adjacent to that as well. That's some of the outside work. So, we are here um to make sure that the the construction workers don't intermingle with staff and students. Why we're here on shift. Uh we're here to
038make sure it's cleaned up for the next day so school can operate. Um, there's going to be inconveniences. It's construction. We do our best to limit that and minimize that as much as possible. Uh, while work is happening, our superintendent, she's actually here tonight, is here all the time. We don't we don't leave people unattended. And we we make it a big point with everyone that's working here that communication goes through us so that they're not having side conversations that we're not aware of. So, uh, so far the project's on track. It's going well and we're going to keep keep going, questions. >> Thank you guys so much. Uh Greg and Tom, uh anybody else have a question? Um yeah, >> question you said about the meeting that that's occurring this this coming week. You
039said >> Friday morning. And you're hoping to get from that meeting that the work will >> I'm hoping to get a sense that the contractors got the full scope covered because they're remember they came in on a takeover so work is incomplete. So we >> we provided them detailed drawings of what needs to be finished but now we want to sit down with them and make sure they have the full scope covered. >> Okay. >> And then they're ready to submit their price right after that. Have we met with is the insurance money are we still in negotiations with that as well or so we we got this contractor to work with the shy and they're very much interested in having this contractor do the work. So we want to make sure before they present
040their price to the shy they have the full scope. The last thing we want to do is they say okay and then we're missing pieces. So, we're going to take that extra step just to make sure we're good before it gets to that point with the shity. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Sure. >> I was just going to say, Greg, I just want to point out that um you know, the phase three um and the pausing of that work is obviously not due to anyone in this room. Um, I want to get the appetite of the board. Um, if people would be interested in composing a letter and I know the whole process was followed by the law, but would it be safe to say that from the beginning there were some questions or whatever
041as a result of having to follow the law as it is written with who we had to go with as general contractor, what ultimately happened and ultimately that not being the biggest surprise in the world. >> Correct. Um, basically if a contractor can write a bond for the value of the work, it's very hard to say no to them. You can, but you can also be in litigation over it. So, it's it's tough. It's tough. The the rules aren't exactly great. >> No, they're not. But I you you know, things don't change if things don't change. So, I think you have a right to advocate and say, you know, it what does it mean if it says it's supposed to be a responsible bid? Here's a case in point that everybody knew. Although I wasn't
042here, I've been through it. Went through very similar in in Mayak. I lived it. So I'm a I I can speak to this so the public understands. Yeah, you should because that's the only way it's going to change. If the powers that be in the professionals are forewarning you of a situation and there's nothing you can do about it and then you get stuck with it, that's just not fair. So I you that's what advocacy is for. So again, I can't tell you what to do, Mr. president of the board, but you have every right to advocate and I would strongly suggest that you do. >> I just follow up on that. Do you mind just taking a minute and explaining exactly what happened because I think it's important for the public to know cuz
043people have asked us, you know, what's going on at the elementary school cuz things seem unfinished. Do you mind? You don't need to take long, but just explain exactly what happened. >> The contractor was not paying his subs and his vendors. They weren't showing up. He started to not pay his workers and they started to not show up after two, three weeks of not being paid and then they defaulted. >> You knew that though. You had con concerns before you >> I I didn't know there was concern. Yes. Um but he had also done a lot of work. He showed that he had done a lot of work. So um >> but but per the way it's written to Anony's point everything like we had to go with quote unquote this responsible bidder otherwise we
044don't then we're in litigation because we denied them the bond that they quote unquote you know were all deserving I use that word very whatever but that we had to do that um or we would have been in litigation that we probably would not have been >> successful we might not have started the project >> yeah so that's the part I mean if if we can just get a gauge as a group if people >> it wasn't a quick decision. >> Sure. >> It I think we awarded all the contracts and then came back and awarded the GC last. You know, we had a we actually rebid. Yeah. So, we didn't we didn't take it lightly. Uh we did run them through the ringer to make sure and it started off okay, but as soon
045as work got heavy and fast, it caught up to them. They just couldn't handle it. >> That hence responsible. work nice and slow. They might have been able to hang on. >> School work goes quick in the summer. >> Yeah, I I think we owe it to the community. I mean, to again, nothing changes unless you you try and uh I think we write a letter that just shares our concerns with a local representative or something that just says, "Hey, we had our concerns from the beginning of this process as the laws written. We followed it and look where we are. Look where our students are. Look where our community is as a result." I'm not sure what the final solution is, but we're just I mean we I think we say something if that's
046per the for the group what direction we >> So, um who does that letter go to >> or local congressman? >> Probably like Yeah, I would I would go to somebody local in Yeah. Assemblyman, congressperson >> or all of the above. >> Yeah. Yeah. You got to get it up to Albany to to the commissioner. >> So So ultimately it's a tax burden, right? So I think that's really the crux of the issue that we're left taxpayers here in Pauling are left holding the bag. Foreign error the ivory tower else have any other questions for Greg or Tom or >> Thank you guys. >> Well, you're going to hear from Greg again real quick. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. And on that note, I think it's important to note that that through
047the general bidding process, you know, uh council was involved, you know, and we didn't um awarded that contract was was vetted to the fullest extent of what we could do. Um very difficult to get on the disbard list as a contractor to be a unresponsive bidder, right? So um so unfortunately it it went this way but hopefully with the uh you know the insurity if we can come to agreement with that contractor they hold the price right and the work gets done uh a little delayed but but it all gets complete. So, okay. Uh, moving on to the next presentation, the building condition survey. And in the work that we just kind of went through, you saw some notations about the 2020, uh, building condition survey and some work we're we're completing now. Um, I
048don't recall who was here in 2020 when we did that. Um, so just to give you I want to give you a quick um thing. Um, I'll give you a quick update as to what the building condition survey is. Um,'s going to sign in. >> Password is not password. >> Is it one, two, three? All right. So, um, a lot of text here. I'll kind of breeze through it. So, the the the BCS is a New York State Education Departmentmandated survey, um, that each district has to go through every 5 years. It basically is a way to force districts to look at their buildings and take a holistic look and start to plan things. So, um, we're really looking at the existing facility and site. Anything that's a student occupied, um, regularly occupied building, we
049look at. And essentially what we do is assess the the, um, remaining life of building materials. Um, if something is assessed to have a life of 5 years or less, then we have to put a dollar value to it. So, at the end of the day, you'd get a summary list of everything that we think should be addressed, doesn't have to be addressed, but might need to be addressed within the next five years. Um, and some some dollars associated with that with that work. Um, we also then give the building a rating, right? So, at the end of the survey, each building will have a rating, and I'll go through that in a in a second. Um, your survey has to be completed and uploaded to the SED website by March 1st of of 26.
050So, couple of things. So, each system, so roofing, for example, is considered a system. Each system gets a gets a rating from excellent down to critical failure. Um, anything that's rated unsatisfactory um, you know, is unreliable or exceeded its useful life. So again, if you have a roof that's 40 years old, we only expect it to last 20 and it's not leaking, it still might be considered unsatisfactory because it's exceeded its useful life. Um, some of those systems are classified as with an H as health and safety or an S as structural. So if any of those are unsatisfactory or or below, it will push your building into that condition. So again, you can have something I'll use a roof. That is a health and safety item. If it's leaking and uh needs to be
051replaced, now your building might be unsatisfactory just for that one item. So, even though if a building is unsatisfactory, it's not it's not a panic um situation. Your building then uh gets a rating like I just said, again, excellent through failing. And in the unsatisfactory column, you'll see any HNS system rated U or unsatisfactory or below and puts your building into that rating. So, um, so essentially it's looking at the parts and pieces and then seeing how that impacts impacts the building. So, it's a survey. Here's one example of interior stairs. You can see it's got an H next to it. So, first is do you have interior stairs? Yes or no? What's the condition of the stairs? So we would make that judgment call. How what are the stairs made of? When was their
052work done? How long do we think it's going to last? If that uh useful life is 5 years or lower, then the cost to reconstruct their place would have would have money associated with it. So it's pretty pretty simple uh survey. So after we do that, then we will with you establish the uh the five-year plan. So, the building condition survey just looks at what the building is currently. Um, the five-year plan, you can start to address your programmatic or other facility needs, like do we need to renovate classrooms for a different a different program and and that the five-year plan then would start to incorporate those things into the BCS findings and start to plan when you would do that work through uh through capital projects. So, some preliminary observations. This is just touching
053on some things. We're going to give you in October or this is October uh by the end of the year a uh a formal presentation to go through these things with when the budgets get to get assigned, but over the summer we completed our fieldwork when school was out. So, we've been through all the buildings and some observations. Uh you recently are coming off a project, right? So, we've done a lot of a lot of work here. But at the elementary school, there's still some parking lot and paving uh that didn't get parking that didn't get done. Uh playground surfacing could be replaced. The athletic field improvements. We do have a softball field over there. So, u maybe some some improvements there. That fencing is starting to get a little tired. Uh infield could use
054some work. So, there's also some brick refurbishment. That's basically masonry. And you can see a photograph there on the bottom right of some cracks and and some things. So we could we could do some masonry restoration there. Uh replacement of the windows and exterior doors. Um that is one scope that was in included in the last uh project that due to funding at the time when we did that work, we couldn't we couldn't complete that scope. So So that's still on the BCS. Um the roof again, we're getting to a point where the roof um uh warranty will be expiring. So we should start to be start to be planning for that. uh classroom flooring uh in some of the older parts of the building. Again, there's some older ceilings that weren't done in this
055previous project. And then refurbishment of the elevator. So, nothing uh nothing really um unexpected there. Uh middle school, again, this building, your newest building, um we did address a lot in the uh in the current project, but again, there's some some parking lot improvements that can be made um uh with the asphalt. Um, on the exterior there's a there's a photograph. You can kind of see not really deterioration of the of the ephus on the brick, but we probably want to clean that and probably want to repaint the ephus that you have upstairs. You can kind of see some of the mildew starting to to form on that uh joint between the ephus and and the brick. Um, the carpet, you got carpet in your corridors, you know, again, not something that we typically would
056put in today. Um, so maybe replacing that carpet with with a uh a um sheet flooring or some resilient resilient flooring. Uh and then refurbishment of the elevator there as well. High school. Again, we've done we've done a lot there that we just kind of uh looked at in the previous uh presentation, but again, there is some parking. Some of this uh uh paving rather some of this paving was included again in the last capital project and we had to pair it down a little bit. um when we bid that work. Um baseball field, we want to look at some uh drainage improvements uh up there and around around that field. The chimney refurbishment, again, there's some masonry restoration uh restoration there. Roof, again, uh I don't know the date of it, but coming up
057to the uh to the expiration of the warranty. Um there were a bunch of areas where we where we took out uh corridor lockers uh in the last project and one of the the thoughts is is that working out because we kind of reduce the number of lockers there. Do we need to put lockers back or do we need to do uh something else with those with those cubbies that were left where the lockers were removed. So that kind of bridges into the five-year plan, right? Because that's really not a ECS item, but uh made the list anyway. um service elevator uh replacement uh looking at the the uh gym bleachers. Um the gym air handler, that's one that we although we did a lot of mechanical work there, that gym air handler, it's a
058zone little isolated system, uh we did not replace that in the last project. So, uh maybe in the next 5 years that would that would come up for replacement. And then the BCS or the uh uh the building automation system. That's kind of what controls your mechanical equipment. We do have multiple vintages and multiple systems there. So integrating that into into one system would be uh would be ideal. Um transportation facility. Again, there's some drainage out there we'd want to address. Uh the bus lift and the vehicle exhaust system we're actually doing now. Um, so, so again, that that's work that has to be done, but but we're working on that on that right now. Um, so as we've gone through these, I haven't given you any numbers, any budgets yet, but all the buildings
059are going to are going to be satisfactory when we're done based upon what we've seen. So, um, and next step, uh, is where we are. We're drafting the, uh, the scope and budgets. uh really review that with Gary and his staff and the administration, start to finalize that stuff. Um we then would present that to the facilities and finance committee and uh get that ready to upload uh to the state. And at that point, we can come back here and present it publicly or we can just go through the committee. Um whatever whatever you'd like to see. Um, and then the 5-year plan again would start with the BCS and we would again start with conversations with the administration and um any planning committees that you'd like to us to interact with and start to
060develop that plan. Uh, one thing I would say is that the um from that we develop an executive summary. Whenever we submit a capital project to the state, that five-year plan executive summary has to be included with that project. So the state then wants to see that you're thinking of these things. Um and that's it. Bruce, any any any questions? >> I was just curious uh with the turf and the track, does that have a lifespan? Is that something we should be planning for? >> Um it does have a lifespan and I don't think we need to plan for it yet. Um, I think the warranty typically they're saying 10 years uh before a recote on the uh on their track running surface. Um, and that's something that you you would want to stay ahead
061of as opposed to getting behind it, right? Because a lot of districts do wait until they start to see deterioration and you know, you don't you don't want to get any any damage from from waiting. So, >> thanks. Before you move to your next item, can I just take one minute of your time? You don't know what's coming. Oh, Joe. So, Joe came to me uh about a week ago. Uh something that kind of touched him and we talked about it and I told him, you know, go ahead. So, I'm going to let Joe kind of tell the story and Okay. I don't know if you really know me, but I've been on this in the school site for about what, three and a half years already. Um, I did phase two project and I'm
062the project super. Um, and I'm now on phase four and uh pretty much working nights. Uh, you don't see me around during the day anymore. Do show up occasionally. Um, walking through both schools. Um, I worked on the Renault over at the high school and we did the music. uh um suites, I call it that. And I was walking through the site and just doing my rounds and getting ahead of things. And I walked into the music room and there was a beautiful uh wall of guitars. And right in the middle was a bass guitar. And in my past life, real quick, I was a professional musician, a bass player. And I saw that bass guitar. And of course, I walked over. I looked at the bass guitar and it was needed some work and
063I said, "Gee, if I was a student or a young kid um wanting to play, I think it might have turned me off and I would have probably gone a different avenue." So, uh, spoke to the owner of our company and, uh, Lou and of course Tom and I explained what I wanted to do and they stopped me in my tracks and says, "Go for and what I did. beautiful player base for school district to use here in middle school and um um actually uh it plays pretty nice and it's honor one of my recordings and uh another year from now maybe you'll hear it on album I did use it um but anyway I want to donate you know the plumbbo group of course >> group wants to donate this guitar to the music
064program >> music [Applause] Uh that is that's awesome. Thank you so much. I was going to say I know you said it plays well. I was going to say maybe you have to prove it. I don't know if you if but we'll we'll take your word for it. Well, yeah, we'll take your word for that. Thank you so much. I mean, that's incredible and uh that benefits kids. Like, that's why we're all here. And uh that's amazing. So, I bet you some kid is going to look at that guitar, take an interest, and who knows where their life is going to go as a result. So, that's so cool. Uh yeah, and that's that's that's why we're all here, right? So, that is awesome. Thank you so much to Plumbo Group and everybody that's a
065part of that. Um is he right, Mimi? You had no idea what was coming. I didn't know what was coming there. So that's right. But thank you guys so much. Seriously, I'm just one more time. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Joe. Thank you so much and everybody involved. Um and obviously thank you for the presentation. Thank you for always working collaborative collaboratively with I don't think I could say that either tonight. Um with us every time we meet with you guys. It's informative. It's helpful. and uh the partnership um is a good one. So, thank you guys so much and and Joe, thank you so much for that. Palumbo Group, CSR, thank you guys tremendously. Um, anybody else? Anything before we move on? >> I just want to say I'm like blown away
066tonight. I swear I'm like on the verge of tears between the Tigers and the posters and the guitar. Just the sense of community in this room tonight is astounding. And thank you to everybody. every student that wrote their name. Look, I'm really gonna cry. Um, everybody, thank you. Thank you so much. >> All right, so we'll move on from that. Um, thank you guys, everybody that presented tonight. And we're on to item number seven. There's nothing here, but just as a reminder, these are administrative reports that our um, admin works on to provide. They're on the agenda. talk about our buildings, different systems in place, happenings, a lot of information, a lot of time time spent um producing these. So, for anyone at home, I would definitely recommend looking on the agenda, looking at these
067administrative reports, and uh again, a lot of good information inside of those. With that, we're on to number eight, which is the agenda order, and I will turn it over to Laura, our district clerk. >> Thank you very much. Um we only have a short addendum today. There are four items on the consent agenda. um one is half um it's an appointment for half of an extra assignment for our so studies teacher at the middle school. Um there's also the appointment of a substitute food service helper as well as a leave of absence for a school bus relief driver and the assignment of a student teacher. >> Great. So with that said, uh resolve to approve the filing additions, deletions, changes, and order of the agenda as presented. I'll make a motion. May I please
068have a second? Dr. Walsh. And all in favor? >> I. And that's unanimous. Okay. Uh with that, we move on to item number nine, which is visitor comments on agenda items only. And there are none. That leads us to item 10 on the agenda, which is board remarks. Does any board member have remarks uh this evening? Just wanted to say that our meeting uh prior to this with uh district-wise was really um I thought it was great, very informative. Um I appreciated everybody's honesty as far as moving forward and I'm really excited about the process and working with them to find our next leader. So I'm just excited to work with all of you and can't wait to get uh other stakeholders involved and get their input and move forward. So I'm looking forward to
069the process. Yes, I um I agree the uh the dialogue that we had just before this meeting and really everyone just putting you know their thoughts in on on what it is that we're we're looking for as we organize ourselves for the superintendent search. I also just wanted to say thank you to uh all the students, staff, faculty for putting together uh all the the schoolboard appreciation week stuff and the cards and everything. It was really really awesome and very moving. So, thank you very much. Great. Thank you. I'm sorry my phone is here. We're talking with Ryan. Just give he wants a fiveminute warning. So just trying to keep him with where we're at in the agenda so he's not sitting on Zoom waiting when we go into exact later on. So I apologize
070that that's out. Um but just want to make sure I'm not wasting his time. So uh board marks. Thank you guys for everybody. Michelle, thank you for your comments and Mike and Keith, everybody. Um let's move on to item 11. It is our student board member remarks. So if you guys have anything, this is a place that we would hope um you guys feel empowered to share and obviously we'd love to hear anything you guys have to share. So anything you want to start? Whoever would like to go first. >> Um good evening everyone. I I'd like to take a moment to highlight what an incredible past week it has been for our school community. This past week's homecoming events were a huge success and I want to express how proud I am of the
071effort, dedication, and school spirit that went into making it all happen. Our student council worked tirelessly behind the scenes to plan and organize every detail of homecoming week and the homecoming dance. From decorations to spirit day activities, every part of the week reflected their hard work and commitment to creating a memorable experience for for our students. I also want to recognize and thank Mr. Delaro for helping put homecoming week in place. I had the opportunity to attend a few student council meetings during the planning process and I saw firsthand how much time, creativity, and collaboration that went into making this week um such a success. The results were clear. Participation across all grades was strong. School spirit was at an all-time high and the dance was an amazing celebration that truly brought our school together.
072I share many of the same goals as your student council, particularly the goal of increasing school spirit and enhancing the overall student experience. In the future, as student liaison, I hope we can work closely with student council to help them make more events that increase school spirit and student experience. I believe that by working together, we can strengthen communication between students and continue to make our school a place where everyone feels connected and proud to belong. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. No, thank you so much for sharing that and thank you for all your work um in working with the council and writing that up and anything to add for this evening or >> I just wanted to say I completely agree with Nala that this week like coming from a
073student's perspective it was beyond how we were talking about it at the start of the school year that we really wanted to make sure we had a lot more pride in our school and showed a lot more like calling spirit in general. And I never seen in like all four years in my high school, I've never seen it at such a high as this week. And I think it was amazing. Just wanted to compliment that. [Applause] Thank you guys so much. Um and we're on to item 12, which is our board vice president comments. So turn over to Dr. Welsh. Thank you. Good evening. It has been a few uh weeks since we last met and a lot has been happening. Um I was able to attend back to school nights at both the middle
074school and high school and as always I was impressed by the efforts of our staff. There were community partners there on both nights as well as students who were directing families and showing off their school. The high school sponsored a financial aid night and a college application workshop which I can attest is very helpful for those senior parents. I believe there's a career day coming up at the end of this week which is something new. So, I'm really excited to hear about that. Our 10th graders will be sitting for the preac at the end of the month. And it's crazy, but we're already actually halfway through the first quarter and progress reports will be out on Friday. The elementary students have been busy with team community. Thank you to the PTA for their effort and
075support for their picture day and they also sponsored the book fair a few weeks ago. Um, I think that Nala probably said it better than I could, but um, the homecoming week was really, really amazing. I will just make sure to thank the Tiger Club, the PTA, and the PTSA. I really can't tell you how much work they did. Um, as a volunteer in the PTSA, I'm privy to their text change and their early morning exchanges and their late night exchanges, the balloon wall that they spent hours putting together, the pompoms that they collaborated on. Um, the Tiger Club getting the photos of all the teams. But it really, really was an amazing weekend. Um, it was great to see everybody come together. As for the dance, I got a sneak peek when I dropped
076off. Um, I saw Miss Ronaldo. I hope you've se saw the pictures on social media. She she makes this mocktail bar that she puts a lot of time and effort into. It was really impressive to see and I believe the turnout was, you know, at an all-time high as well for that. Um, in terms of sports, I saw a lot of sports this weekend. Um, the football team continues to amaze us. I think they were 48 nothing. Um, I saw the modified soccer team suffered quite a loss on Friday. Um the varsity soccer game was tremendous on Saturday against Croin. I think one more minute they would have had them. Um the JV game was great. All of our teams are really doing well. Field hockey had their senior night tonight. I heard a lot
077of cheering as I walked by. I was just at senior night for cross country. They were at the league meet today. We had several athletes um qualified for all league. Um I want to thank Mr. Arnold. I don't know if you everybody knows him, but he must have announced, you know, 12 games this weekend. went from soccer to volleyball to field hockey, back to soccer. Um, and this is, you know, these are all people giving their time for our students. So, um, it was really great to see and I think kind of, you know, echoing what Nala said, it's just always a reminder of what a great community we have. Um, make sure to keep following our teams. There's a lot of games coming up. I think a lot of our teams are going to
078be seeing some sectional play, so make sure to get out there and support them. Um, sports physicals are available already for winter sports. So, for families who have fifth through 12th graders, you can sign up with your nurse to get your physical. You do need a physical, an active physical to play a winter sport, and those signups will come out soon. Um, have a great rest of your week. >> Thank you, Jen. And now we're on to item 13 on the agenda, which is our superintendent comments. I'll turn over to Mr. D. Carlo. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, and just echoing what everybody was talking about the Tiger Fest. So, you know, the one individual who we really have to give a lot of credit to is our athletic director, John Belalushi. The amount
079of work that went in, the amount of work and time that went into making this successful is really in part because of his dedication and effort. And you know, I knew of John and you know, from from Mayor PAC, but being able to work with just a class act and a gentleman who goes above and beyond to not only organize, but make people people feel listened to and comfortable. And, you know, I reflect back um over the summer when him and myself joined together with the Tiger Club, PTSA, and PTA to talk about this event. And I just want to read what I sent to them this week uh in a letter. I want to extend my sincere thank you for the tremendous efforts in organizing and supporting our Tiger Fest homecoming weekend. This event
080was a wonderful celebration of school spirit, community, pride, and teamwork. This was accomplished in large part to your insights, encouragement, and support. From the planning stages to game day and all the activities in between, your attention to detail and commitment ensure that everyone ran smoothly. It was a great to see our students, family, staff, alumni come together to celebrate what makes Pauling such a special place. Please share my appreciation with your organizations and volunteers who contributed their time and energy to make the weekend such a success. Events like this truly highlight the collaborative spirit that defines the polling central school district schools and community. Thank you again for making TigerFest a memorable and positive experience for everyone. With appreciation, Anthony D. Paulo interim superintendent of schools. So again, thank you all. Um just a couple
081of notes um with regards to some transportation issues. The first being u tomorrow and Thursday there is going to be milling and paving on Coulter Avenue and East Main Street. So uh please understand parents that there may be some delays and some traffic concerns. Um, you know, Miss Saraphina, uh, Pam has worked with, um, you know, the town to make sure we're trying to work together, uh, to the best of our ability to mitigate some of what that traffic may be entering the elementary school. So, just please be aware of that. But this now is a little bit more important. So, I share this with the board prior to sending it out to the community, and this is with regards to the AM arrival down at the um, the elementary school. Um, I spent a
082good two weeks myself, Pam, um, our SRO Espazito, um, Miss Revas. There are some concerns down there. Um, and it has to do with arrival in the morning. There have been some accidents over the past couple of years because of people, um, walking across the parking lot. Um, we've had some, you know, students and families not following the pathways that should lead from there. We have people that are exiting the one way coming in and going out because they want to run to get back to work. So, what we notice is the following. We are going to switch in the morning. So from 8:35 to 8:45, instead of using the loop down below, you can actually go to the front of the building, have your child on the right hand side, drop and go. Okay?
083Which will make it a lot safer. We don't have to worry about that. And we really look to see the majority of those drop offs are at that time. So they'll be able to come in more safely, go in and and and drop their child off between 8:45 and 9. Now the buses are coming in. we'd go back to regularly down in the loop down in the parking lot area, but we really want the students to get out of the car and come up and proceed. Um, at this point in time of the year, there's no need for parents to park, walk across while traffic is working to to to drop their student off. If after that time, you know, the buses are there and you drop your student off, um, you're going to have
084to come in and sign them in because, you know, everybody, our monitors and aids are back in the building working with the students. So, I'm going to be sending this out on Friday. We're going to be starting it on Tuesday. And it really is a matter of of health and safety, right? Uh, it was a collaborative effort. We spoke about it. We worked together. And I am just informing the board that um I would like to move forward with this um as we continue for the rest of the school year and then hopefully this will become a part of what we do you know each and every day questions thoughts on any of that. Okay. Thank you. And last but not least this Friday and I want to share this with everybody because you know
085we talk about college and career readiness. We talk about our students um really getting a a good sense of what jobs are about, what commitments about, what goes into making of a specific um job and the requirements for it. And um Principal Kalen and um our teacher Casey Stetcher have been having conversations over the last couple of years with regards to looking at ideas of, you know, getting students into working, interning, and volunteering. and um they have developed a a class um this year that is really centered and caught around ELA standards but then also works on you know students looking at different modules and articles that center around not only um English language arts but the job field and and then questions are asked of students to reflect on some of the articles that
086they're looking at um virtually and and getting really ind depth into what really a job market is all about. And as a result of that in conversations this year, um we are going to be starting a uh career day. It's going to be this Friday. Um we're excited about it. Um it's going to be um led by many um appalling high school graduates who have now gone into the market uh and are in specific jobs in the area. We have about 11 presenters. Every 11th and 12th grade student will be part of this inschool field trip. Casey did a Google form to ask students to choose who was the who were they most interested in listening to. Students get to listen to five different speakers. Some are in person, some are virtual and all 11th
087and 12th graders will meet in the auditorium period 2 for a welcome message. At the end of the session, we are having a community lunch on the baseball field and we're providing lunch to the presenters and thanking them as well as the teachers who are helping to supervise. Um we hope that this will become an annual career day and that in the future it will be open to all students. So in education we should al always be looking to think outside the box. This is a perfect um you know collaboration and thought from the building principal, Miss Callen and a teacher um and really meeting the needs of our students and taking the importance of understanding what job creation is and and and what really world will be outside of um here and also bringing
088our own graduates back I think is powerful. So I just want to share that with everybody and that's going to be coming this Friday afternoon. And uh Mr. President, that is my uh update for this uh session. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. And and thank you in general all the work you're doing and uh it's all it's very much appreciated by all of us for sure. >> Thank you. >> Um on to number 14 on the agenda. This is our consent agenda. Uh so it reads be resolved that the board of education approves all aster items as the consent agenda. I'll make a motion for that. May I please have a second? >> Second. >> And Mr. Maine and all in favor? >> I That's everybody. And on to 15, we
089have the minutes. So it reads, "Be resolved that the board of education approve the minutes of the following meetings." And this meeting was September 16th, 2025. Our last board of education meeting. I'll make a motion for that. May I please have a second for the minutes on September 16th? Michelle. And all in favor of that I and any extensions I Sandra. Thank you. All right. So that's going to bring us leave to board of education but just making sure. Um so for item 19 board of education I guess just go unfinished business. board of education. I want to I'm going to talk about it now if uh people don't mind instead of unfinished business. We were having a conversation about the curriculum committee and the uh interest of the board and I know a couple
090people were speaking about we really didn't get the whole gauge. I know we were talking about the potential for a hybrid maybe looking at some different options. I just wanted to bring it up one more time in the weeks since our last meeting and and and watching back our last meeting. Um I come back to it in a sense of I feel that this could be a real benefit. And if others do not feel that way, that's totally fine. I just want to bring it before everybody to see as a majority if we have that majority to go ahead with the curriculum committee. I think we just have a lot of things going on right now uh in terms of adopting uh foundations and curriculum in the elementary school in terms of looking at different
091resources and personnel if we have enough, if we don't have enough. And I uh in looking back and researching other school districts, I just think this would be a real benefit to our school district and the challenges we face this year to be able to have a really transparent look at these decisions that aren't necessarily here. Uh and if people are interested, they can serve on the committee. If people are not then they don't have to obviously um and obviously this would not be something that has a meeting every week. It would be something that just specifically now between now and budget time we'll have a certain goal um looking at resources personnel etc budgeting how can we best spend or how must we spend that money and then maybe beyond that would just get
092updates into how MTSS is working. So, I know we had this discussion last time. I'm not going to go into much more detail than that. But with that said, um I guess I just posed the question. I get just show hands if people are interested in going with the curriculum committee or are people interested in going with kind of everything public out in front of here. So, uh if people are interested in a curriculum committee, uh if you could raise your hand. Okay. And that's for and if anybody's interested in serving on the curriculum committee, uh, would you raise your hand? I'll be interested in that, too. Um, so Keith Shell Zack and we can talk about that the next meeting. Just talk about when we're meeting, talk a little bit more about it. Um,
093I just think the work that we're looking forward to doing is is important and by having the committee, I think the work can be done with more fidelity. >> Yeah. Just a a quick reminder, uh, Mr. President. So at our next meeting on October 21st 21st 21st 21st um Jenna Savali will be presenting the the that that kind of kickoff understanding of where we are on the process and and what's happening to the entire board and then subsequent the committee can then get a a deeper dive as we're doing that work along the rest of the way. So I just wanted to I didn't want to I know the last meeting we talked about it and she is coming on the 21st to to give you that kind of an overview. So, I think it
094works out great. So, thank you. >> Cool. Thank you for that. So, uh again, we'll have more information about that moving forward. On to uh number 20, which is unfinished business. The update on the superintendent search. Obviously, Bob spoke at the beginning of the meeting today uh as a co-founder and uh a leader in district-wise search consultants. Um we had our kickoff meeting today that k that Keith referenced before and I know I speak for everybody that we are beyond excited to get this work started. I think Uh Dr. Walsh and I have a list of nine things to do when we get home this night tonight just to get started and make sure the right people are contacted and who what roles everybody has. But um but we're excited to do it and and
095in having these discussions we are um relying heavily on their expertise and their experience and um so far even in the limited time we've spent with them uh it looks like the collaboration is going to be very beneficial. community input and engagement, stakeholder engagement, as Bob mentioned before, is going to be at the forefront, especially at the beginning of the process to know that uh everybody's voice in this community is heard. We're looking at doing surveys, we're looking at having forums, we are trying to make sure that everybody has input into this and by taking everybody's input, by taking the expertise and experience, um we are hopefully going to make a decision that is going to be leaving no stone unturned. So, uh we are excited. We got an idea of the timeline tonight. we
096have an idea of what work is to be done and we are super excited to do that. A couple of items uh for the community, there will be on the district web page, not yet. This will be in the future. There will be a page dedicated specifically to this superintendent search. So whether it be, hey, there's a form coming up or there's a survey out or here's the work that's been done, how many people perhaps are applying to it and what the timeline is, anything that we can provide that provides the community some input, some some up uh updates, information, um we are going to house that on the district website. Um and it's going to be as front and center as possible without having to click seven times to get somewhere that you never
097know existed, right? So, we are going to try to be as transparent and open and uh and communicative in this process as we can be. Uh and that's going to be in hopes of getting as much input from the community as possible, but and in the least just to make sure the community is aware of where the process is, what work is being done, and so on so forth. So, as always, if anybody would like to add something with the superintendent search, I'm more than happy to uh open the floor. Makes me feel good when nobody adds anything, by the way. Just want to mail everybody know that. No. Um, okay. So, that's that and on to 21, which is some new business. Um, so I was hoping to have a discussion regarding putting a
098system in place for updating and reviewing policies. Just a little bit of background here, and I have something that I would like to hand out as well. We currently have policy 2410, which is, as it names, policy development, adoption, implementation, and review. The goal with what I would like to have a discussion with tonight is just to codify a more proactive process. And again, I'm going to hand this out so we can follow along. I will read it for anybody at home as well. And meant to serve as a discussion piece that will hopefully drive a more a better system of looking at policies moving forward. So once everybody gets one, I'll start reading it. Um, again, the goal would be if if people are kind of happy with this language and want to look
099into something like this, the goal would be to work with legal to kind of marry what you have in front of you that was just handed out with what our existing policy is that has some specific lang language that I think is is still beneficial and still is worthwhile and keeping um to make sure it maintains, you know, some of that some of that legal ease, for lack of a better term. So, I'm going to read this not too too long. It is a little long. I apologize. You guys probably sick of hearing my voice over the last few minutes here, but um I'll try to go quick. So, it's just titled review and discussion of policies. And again, this was written up uh with my experience over the last three years on the policy
100committee, what I've seen that committee kind of do, how things have been done, and in my opinion, in my experiences, and in looking at other districts and in reading literature about policy review, a system here that I think is something that is more transparent, inclusive, proactive, etc. So it reads uh the board of education is committed to a transparent, inclusive and proactive approach to policy review and development to ensure all board members have the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to policy discussions and to promote open dialogue. The following procedure shall be implemented. So this is more of the review part. Um not much is changing in implementation as far as first readings, second readings, stuff like that. Um but this is more focused on the review. So item number one it says uh monthly policy review
101agenda item. So an idea at maybe the first board meeting of each month we can have a policy review and discussion item on the agenda. Number two, the identification of policies for review. So with that policy review, we would automatically put on the two oldest policies in the manual based on their original adoption date or their most recent amendment. And those oldest two are automatically placed on the agenda for consideration. So, we are actively looking at our policy manual. Again, starting with the oldest um one or two uh on an agenda uh underneath that policy review and discussion. In addition to the oldest two, any board member may propose additional policies for review during this agenda item. So, any of the seven of us that had a policy that warranted more discussion or wanted to
102bring up, that would be the time underneath that policy review and discussion. So you have the two oldest that are organically placed on there and then you have the opportunity for any board member to add an additional one from there. Number three, there would be an open discussion. Board members proposing policies for review. We'll have the opportunity to explain their rationale and concerns in open meetings. So obviously we are governed by the open meeting law. We can't be emailing each other and say, "Hey, enter board members here. I want to bring up this policy. Here's why I want to bring it up." That's obviously not appropriate in the least. This would provide an open discussion opportunity for board members proposing policies to have that opportunity to explain that rationale, any concerns or any ideas, perspectives,
103etc. that they have in wanting to look at a policy. And furthermore, all board members shall have the opportunity to discuss the identified policies and share their perspective. So whether it's the two oldest policies, whether it's a new one that whoever brings up, the board can have a quick discussion in open meeting to um to share their perspective, their context, etc. Next part, number four, transparency and public engagement. The discussions again are take place during open meetings and again that ensures transparency, public awareness, potential public input. Again, if these are on the agenda, the public would be privy that we're looking or uh going to talk about these two policies, the oldest two, and then obviously any that are added on. There's another public uh um comment period to be able to talk about that.
104I'll try to go a little faster. Um this is the biggest one. Number five, if you put a star next to it. Um this is the action part. So action on policies identified for review. So so far we talked about the two oldest would be on the agenda. Any additional policies that a board member wanted to bring up would would be placed there as well. And one of three things could happen from that point. So following the open discussion, people sharing rationale, perspective, etc. The board as a whole could vote to amend or revoke the policy depending on its need, depending on if it's still relevant, etc. So do we want as a group, do we want to amend it? do we want to revoke it? The board can decide to refer it to the
105policy committee for further review or the board can decide, hey, we need additional information and we can defer action to a future meeting. So maybe we don't have all the answers. Maybe we haven't had time to look into it. We can put it forward at a future meeting. Um but again, we can vote to amend or revoke. We can refer to the policy committee or we can request additional information or defer action. So again, it just makes a little proactive and transparent approach to policy. Uh on the back gets into policy committee. Again, policy committee doesn't go away. It still serves a role. The policy committee will conduct a thorough review of referred policies. So anything that's referred to them like always, whether it be by the superintendent or the district or whether it is
106from the board itself in an open meeting, anything that's referred to the policy committee, they will do a thorough review like always. They'll consider input from all board members and relevant stakeholders. Now with this what I'm proposing to everybody is that perspective that input is on the front end. So we are not getting too far out in front where all these changes are made and all a sudden it's brought to us as like a finished product and now we have to go back to the drawing board. All this perspective would be on the front end and the the policy committee can utilize this in order to do the work that they do. Um so they'd have a little more perspective and context for policies that they look at. And then obviously the policy committee third
107would draft any proposed changes or they would reaffirm current language as appropriate. A couple last things, the board review of policy committee recommendations. So like always, the policy committee will then present its recommendations to the full board. Board members will have the opportunity for discussion of those proposed changes before any vote and obviously the board will have the opportunity to request further review or modifications as needed. The superintendent has a role. The next item obviously the superintendent's role which is also codified in this um policy 2410 uh superintendent will maintain a system to track policy adoption review dates provide background information and recommendations for policies under review and the biggest one ensure all relevant stakeholders are uh are consulted during the review process. So who that policy affects getting that input having those people share
108their perspectives as well. And then lastly, the adoption of policy changes. It would follow the established process of first and second readings before final adoption, allowing for thorough consideration and public input. So lastly, just to summarize, this procedure ensures that all board members have an equal opportunity to initiate policy reviews, participate in discussions regarding policy, and contribute to the decision-making process. It promotes transparency, encourages proactive policy management, and maintains the important role of the polic policy committee while ensuring the full board remains engaged throughout the process. This did not come from nowhere. I've been involved in the policy committee for three years. And what I see in the work of the policy committee, I believe needs to be codified into a more proactive approach. The board has one of three main responsibilities. One of which
109being policy review. That is in our realm. And far too often did I go to a policy meeting and the perspective or the rationale or the context was only provided in the limited time 5 10 minutes before we started actively talking about a policy. One policy in particular that had to deal with Mckin Vento and stuff. I remember I did a couple hours of like research on and I was trying to find who weren Carmel made all of our surrounding school district's policy on it really trying to understand it compared to the NISBA sample. The main change we made to it was we changed a word uh the word homeless was really now not no longer used. It's now unhoused and that's all we did with it. So all this time because of the lack
110of context perspective etc was not really utilized in any productive way because the policy was really the policy is a legal required policy. It didn't really change much at all. This here in addition to other examples I'm more than happy to discuss this here I think just makes it more on us. It makes it more proactive and it codifies a system that will allow us to actively go through our book, our manual while having an equal share of uh opportunity, perspective, context, uh participation for policy. So, um this is something I've spent quite a bit a lot of time quite a lot of time on. Um but I am obviously open for however people view this. I just wanted to come with something concrete so it wasn't you know this discussion starting from nowhere. I
111just wanted to have something that maybe could start the discussion. And again, ultimately, I see a marrying of what I handed out here with policy 2410 in consulting uh in consulting with legal as well and how those two marry. But I believe that this does create a more transparent, a more inclusive among the seven of us and a more proactive approach for one of our main responsibilities, which is policy. So with that said, I open it to how people feel about that. I just have a couple questions. So policies that we're required to look at because there are required policies that come, you would then expect the superintendent to bring those to us at our like whatever at the first meeting of the month. >> Correct. And that so that can also be the ones
112required by law. Um in policy 2410, it also talks about that role there. And I think that's one of the big reasons that with legal that is going to be that marrying. Um so where something like that needs to be said, hey, we're going to be looking at this policy. it's legally required um and some context in a mo public meeting so it's open transparent um you know whether we have to read the entire I'm not saying we have to do our policy work out in front here I'm just saying that as far as this is what we want to look at this is why this is what we're looking at this is why this is the direction we want to go with this policy those more general things I think serve very well this
113open setting >> and then um under the superintendent's role where you list ensure all relevant stakeholders are consulted during the review process. So, I'm just thinking that if I bring a policy to the board at the first meeting and then we have a discussion and we vote to amend it, where was the the stakeholder feedback coming in, whether it was a principal or a teacher? Is that something that you would expect me to have given the superintendent notice so that the stakeholders were addressed or how how do you see that playing? >> So, the vote to amend is not bypassing first reading, second reading. Vote to amend is we want to amend this and then it goes through its normal channels. The vote to amend is more of a generalization as it is then these
114are the exact words we want and we're skipping over those steps. So essentially a vote to amend would be how do we want to look at it? Why do we want to amend it? What are we really trying to accomplish? Policy committee takes that feedback, takes that perspective and then does the work they always do >> and then they get the stakeholders. >> Exactly. Right. And then they get the stakeholders. Then we do first reading, second reading. Great question. >> So yeah, I'd like to follow up on, you know, on a number of things. I think um what's nice about um what we have here is that you know it it fosters um some open discussion about it. I think it's something that over the past couple of years I think maybe you know there
115was questions among some board members about how that happens and how that came to be. But I think you know part of what I appreciated about the process is that there was um there was a deliberate process and like cl you know clarity in the role of the superintendent primarily uh to ensure that there was that uh stakeholder engagement. So, you know, we can, you know, in my mind the how that happened maybe um you know, could be um improved upon or, you know, um I guess maybe made a little bit more clear. Um I I have um a concern specifically with 5A, right, with the vote because the word revoke is in there, right? And it and in this first pass, like reading it, something gets brought up in the first, you know, the
116first day of the of the month for that meeting. Um, it seems the way that this is written that something could come up and then people look around and they go, "Yeah, we don't like that." and then it can just go away the way that I read this uh without deliberation discussion. Um we also do have um a policy committee right that has um I believe like um an express objective you know a a mission and a role and so further on I think that the policy committee does you know sort of preserve its its function. Um but I think that that 5A specifically kind of negates or can take away um critical aspects of what I consider to be important in the process I think for all of us. So, what's nice here is
117that it's bringing things sort of up in the open that we can sort of hear input from people. Maybe um some stakeholders if they're present, you know, can can give us some perspective. But then I think that there needs to always be process, you know, some deliberation, some research. oftentimes there's legal that needs to be involved and we need to just make sure that we're dotting the eyes and crossing the tees and you know doing all the due diligence and so like my initial reaction to you know to all of this would be like I would just want to make sure that we're preserving all the things that are working. So, you know, to answer and uh 100% to answer kind of the same way with with Jen, that vote is not an official, it's
118not a resolution. It's not a anything like that. It is ga it's gathering the the will of the majority, if you will, to look into taking that step. So, obviously, any vote to amend would then be, okay, we want to amend this, and then it goes through its channels. We want to revote to revoke, it goes through its channels. It's just sharing proactively and out in front that this is a policy that either a is outdated, we don't do and if if good with legal and etc. we don't need it. This is one that I think the board would like to pursue revoking. So that vote is not it's revoked done over and that starts and stops here. That vote is >> we want to pursue that pathway that makes that exactly right. That's the
119will of the group in a public meeting to share transparently that that is going to be taken on again by the committee or by you know uh to be finalized. >> Yeah. So I appreciate that clarification, right? Because a lot of this is there are legalities in place, right? Like we can all think that something doesn't belong here, but legally it's required to be there, right? And so it doesn't matter what we think. >> For sure. >> Right. >> So we just have to make sure that we're abiding by the law in those cases. And so I just, you know, I worried about that because it was like, oh, we're going to vote to revoke something, but I I don't know, you know. So, but you're right. And I I agree 100%. this does not
120mean bypass any of that and like this is uh yeah I I think that's a great valid point and that vote is merely a hey this is the will of the board now let's pursue it in the appropriate channels and and checks and balances that occur with legal that occur with you know everything we're talking about first reading second readings with amendments exactly right so none of that changes I think it just puts like hey this is where everyone's feeling we have the opportunity to share that publicly openly and and now the policy committee is empowered in my opinion to work with more context perspective and and the work they do is not just in the you know 20 30 minutes they're looking at policy but oh that's right the other night we or whenever
121it is we discussed this we looked at that Mike brought up this point Zach brought up that point you know Ryan in our conversation with the attorney brought up this now we marry it and do the work we do with with more if that makes sense but that's a great clarifying question also to up on the back of what both Jen and Sandra just brought up so I've been on the policy committee for for one year so far, over a year. And so commonly um when we would start those meetings, um there were policies like the example that you brought up where we needed to change some verbiage or something like that. So with this uh policy on policy, the superintendent would ideally would come to the meeting with that pol with whichever policy, right?
122the most outdated one and might provide you know uh a very general just saying like hey we need to look at this policy because it it could be like we need to change some verbiage or something like that so we would have a flavor for what that would be the intent >> 100% the intent no way is to do policy work for 3 hours every night in this meeting but to me it would be very beneficial you know Mr. Carl says, "Hey, the policy committee is going to be looking at, I'm making this up, a homework policy next month. We have uh, you know, some new data, whatever from building principles that we are going to be looking at in policy committee." That's it. And now we have perspective. And now from there, again, we
123go right down the list. Keith wants to share. Oh, with homework policy, I would, you know, I see how it currently reads. I would be in favor of language that does this or Michelle can share. And no work is being done. Perspective and context is added. And then when the policy committee yourself, Sandra, Liz are able to then do the work, now you have perspective and you can, you know, hopefully utilize as many as possible to do the best work. That's >> Yeah, that's actually something that I find very beneficial about this because with the policy committee, um, we would always get the copies of the policies that we were going to review at the meeting in advance, which is is great, but but having that additional context before going into the meeting of exactly
124what it is that we're going to be looking at. Um, finding that out at a board meeting prior to the policy committee meeting, I think, is is very helpful. And then also um I like the concept of of giving the public uh that sort of high level flavor of what it is that we're going to be aiming to accomplish at the next policy committee meeting and then uh sort of I'll call it like spanning a couple of public meetings. So, if you were a community member and you heard that uh two or three or four policies are going to be looked at, um you might not have um the time or the opportunity to come to a board meeting and potentially want to share comments about it, but you could provide in writing to the
125board, hey, you know, I know you all are going to be looking at this policy. Uh here's a suggestion, and I I'm will always advocate for any any any additional avenues for the community to participate in this sort of process. So, I I I like I like what's written here. Um, could you clarify? So, could you just walk through one? So, would we have the would when we get the agenda, would we have the policies that we're going to look at ahead of time? >> The ones that are the two oldest um would be on the agenda at that time and any policies that people wanted to bring up, we could decide, you know, how to do that. We can even do that proactively where if board members want to send to before our agenda
126setting meeting like hey this is something that Liz wanted to um bring up as far as a policy goes that would go under that item as well either proactively or at the meeting that night just so people can prepare as best they can and um and yeah so that would be a way of doing it and in my opinion I think a vast majority of those older policies are not going to require hey this is the policy it's legally required it's just not been adopted because it's it is what it is we're we're going to vote And when I say vote, it's just a is everybody good with just leaving it as is? Yes. Okay, good. That's done. That's what I mean by vote. I don't mean like an official resolution or anything like that.
127Yeah. >> Also then on so just of hearing you go through this, right? Like imagine everybody here comes in and says, "Oh, I have a policy." Right? So now all of a sudden there's two oldest plus whatever is legally you know required to be looked at because of you know there's some legal urgency some change and then there's additionally seven potential policies for you know for review and perhaps referral to the policy committee like so the question is not so much whether or not the process um or this idea works is I I do like the idea of having sort of more context and you know and and more time to review this but >> you know it could create bottlenecks and so I think maybe giving some thought to sort of the volume or
128um I think definitely help that I think you're right and our policy book admittedly is relatively um narrow compared to some schools that have a lot of very I call it in the weeds policy so we don't have a lot of that a lot of ours are legally required and all that but you're right the potential for that exists and I think all of us via a discussion and via whoever's chairing or the entire policy committee can say hey look we are getting through three policies a meeting or two or four or this one's short and this you know a little longer I think that's where it needs to be an open conversation like okay this policy I bring up one about um again it's not pressing you know that's not going to be done
129at the next meeting that's going to be you know down the line and we organize it that way together in a in a public setting but I think language can hope and can help codify that too like understanding it's not going to B7 and that automatically has to be done now and this and that that there is going to be a you know that there is the potential for limiting per meeting or there is the potential for you know giving a hierarchy of importance to this one over that one and uh so I think some language could definitely help control that or prevent that for lack of a better term but I think that's a good very good point. So the other question that I have as you're talking through this, right, I mean this
130could be sort of like just a a practice that we that we embrace as opposed to creating a policy to codify that this is the way to you know to do it like you know we sit here and we and we talk and we discuss and there's just a sort of like a way to do this. It's I mean because I I do like >> I do like this idea. I respect open it up, you know, and and and and talk about it. But >> if we go ahead and and codify it and then two months later we go, oh, you know, this created these unforeseen, you know, consequences and now it's codified and we need to amend it and change it and then we have to go back and rejigger. Um, >> yeah. No,
131I think I think it's another great point and uh and I appreciate the discussion and um I think you know just because this is the oldest two policies. I just think now is a great time with an inter superintendent with the new superintendent coming in. Now is a great time to go through the book and this naturally does that right. Um, but with that, I think that I I understand what you're saying and believe it or not, I spoke with the previous superintendent about codifying something. It was like, oh, this is the practice, but then people leave and the practice kind of disappears with it, right? And I don't think the practice was perfect, but I'm hoping as a group that we can come up with that practice and codify it so it survives beyond
132us. and when it has something that we promote that's transparent and so on and and things that have happened in the past like being told like the policy committee already spent all this time on this let's move on that doesn't happen that should never happen >> I agree but that also wasn't codified that was just a practice that they have >> well that's and that's I mean that's true too and I'm just hoping that by codifying it just stuff like that you know does not happen that the practice is not based on the personnel that the practice is best based on best practice that you obviously is amendable and and is not set in stone. Even though this is something that maybe would be adopted more recently, we understand that policy can be, you know,
133sometimes the ones that are most recently adopted need to be looked at. This isn't just old policies. >> I mean, I I like I like I like this sort of flea free flow of um of conversation because I think, you know, inherent in what we're discussing here is flexibility, right? So I'm hearing like we're we're you know flexible in you know how we do this and you know and and and that I think is also maybe critical component to this. It's like we have to be able to build in some flexibility. Like if you know I would be uh in favor of looking at codifying something like this so long as you know flexibility is built into the language so that we have the ability to pivot if we need to because maybe something didn't
134work exactly the way. >> Yeah. I hope you don't see this anybody as like >> if this is not adopted word for word. That's I just know how how I read something. If you give me a broad idea and there's not something to kind of go on, it's very hard to especially with how much there was to it. I just was hoping that this could serve as a foundation of a general idea and what you're saying the flexibility and what we're saying in in the potential bottlenecks and all these things could then be added in here and and not prevent but to hope, you know, hopefully best practice this uh this process. So, please don't think that this is, you know, all or nothing. I'm I'm happy that this is an open exchange and uh
135and I think you know in general we can continue this discussion um you know in the future once people have a chance to think on it and look at it. I'm not expecting anything tonight by any means but I just want to share where I'm at in in the general goal and I think everybody understands it to a to a general effect. >> I just ask a question >> always >> obviously you put a just one maybe maybe you obviously put a lot of time and energy into this which I appreciate. Could you just simplify where this came from maybe in three because we always talk about goals like what what's the purpose of doing something? Why are we doing it? >> You've obviously spent a lot of time on. So just simplify three goals
136because I think it would be good for everyone to hear why where this came from. >> So this is all from experience. None of this is is from anything other than um experience in serving on the policy committee and my time on the board. Uh and then obviously reading a little bit of literature as an after uh as based on those things. So um in experience in policy like I said often and I think Mike said it as well uh there was context missing that when we arrived at a meeting the context was provided in that immediate moment and I don't know if I speak for everybody but I don't you know making decision like that without having a chance to digest and all that is difficult at times and and we're changing language that's
137going to that's going to run this school district and we don't you know we didn't have any prior proactive context. So I think that's number one is making sure everyone here has the ability to proactively and on the front end participate in this in these discussions in order for the policy committee to have more perspective more context honestly to do a better job that's not anything about people on the policy committee now I can just say that for myself I would have been a much better policy committee member if I had that perspective input context etc >> gathering more information >> as much as much as possible and and exemplars etc. And then uh number two is the idea of of codifying it. So um I just think that and this has been an experience.
138Uh somebody sitting up here over to my left was told in a meeting that the policy committee already looked at this. Why are we still discussing it? Um that should never happen. That will never happen again. Okay. This is everybody is is equal in terms of policy here. We are all equal in terms of everything we do up here. And uh I just want something codified that that really highlights that that everyone up here has the same ability to bring up a policy to discuss a policy to question something and uh and then these discussions can happen. So uh that's another big reason for it. Um, so context, you know, inclusivity with everybody. Those are really the main reasons. And, uh, again, these are all born out of experiences that I and others um, that
139I won't speak for, but that I have that I've gone through that I just think deserve to be rectified for the next person that sits in my seat and your seat. >> Well, I really appreciate you bringing it up, Zach. I mean, this would have been my first time being on the committee, so this is I think this is a really great outline. I'm really looking forward to kind of seeing how we're going to use this. I'm I'm open to it. I I like I appreciate you clarifying sort of the the revoke part um and that this could be massaged. I know that's a word Sandro loves to use, just like the language and massage it and be flexible, >> but I think that we need a framework and so this this thank you for
140the your work on it. >> Oh, no problem. And again, I'm not expecting anything tonight. And I'm just thinking maybe we can put this under unfinished business for our next meeting. And anybody that would like to share, anybody that uh again, I'm not married to this by any means. I just wanted something very, you know, concrete just so people had more of a framework to go off of as opposed to, hey, here's a general idea I have. And I don't think that would have been very productive. So >> I just ask one more question under number five, ABC, B, C. That that order could be changed. Correct. No importance to A, B, or C. I just feel >> so if you didn't have it lettered it would those are just right those are just actions
141that are possibilities. >> Yeah. Three bullets. Honestly I use letters because the numbers are the the headings. So I didn't want to put five one two three and then make it >> because I think I think that goes back to what you're concern I mean maybe it's just because top one is vote to men or voke a policy but any of those three actions are equal in say it could be first. If you switch the order it wouldn't matter. >> Yeah. When I when I read the word revoke, and I guess it's probably only because I've been on the policy committee for the last year, there I think there were there were a couple of instances this year where we I believe we got rid of something because it was no longer applicable. It wasn't
142it wasn't required. It was not significant whatever it was. >> Yeah. And that that word's the I I didn't choose that word. That word is one I found. >> I read it a little differently. Like I didn't >> No, that word is what I found when it nobody used the word erase a policy. No one says dismisses a policy. Revoke seems to be the word that's used. So that's kind of why it's there. Just go with whatever. So, um, so if it's okay, but I I would love to just continue this conversation next time. Any ideas? Um, general framework. Again, I explained all that and hopefully we can just come up with something that that makes it again, as I said, more transparent, inclusive of everybody and and proactive so we can do the best
143work uh in our policy this year. Could you email this just so that maybe we can put notes, you know, as they come up and we could maybe share that. >> Um, yeah, of course. Um, for sure. I can definitely um I just make a note. Um, share digitally and and then people can bring their um >> I just write notes of course next. >> Yeah, that's perfect. I will definitely do that. >> Cool. Well, thank you everybody for your time on that and um again, great discussion. I appreciate everybody's input for sure. Um, second visitors comments. I'm going to assume there are none or there may have been, but then our conversation about policy policy might have might have thrown them out. Um, okay. Um, I have spoken uh way too much tonight. So,
144the board president comments are next. Um, I just want to give a sincere thank you um for all the audit work. Um, thank you so much uh to you and your team. I mean that is that is really the most important financial stuff in this district is so beyond important and I know just up there reading numbers and a lot of it can be but it it is so appreciate all the work Mimi that you and your team did. I just want to say, you know, thank you tremendously um to our superintendent again with the Tiger Fest and homecoming. That's something that's been a long time coming that a lot of us have been looking forward to reviving and PTSA, PTA, Tiger Athletic Club, everybody that played a part in that deserves the biggest of
145thank yous. The biggest as as Dr. Walsh said, like these are people that are doing this with no compensation. They're doing it as a service to the kids. That's why we're all here for the kids of this school district. and it goes far beyond these tables. Um, uh, Mr. Arnold, as you said, announced, I think I heard his voice in seven different sports between, uh, last week and this week. Um, so just for people like that, that's what really makes, uh, a small school district like ours and an amazing community like ours just punch way above its weight class. And, um, that's something that's really exciting. I mean, look at these tigers and all that here. The the signs. I mean, this is incredible. Um, this is so cool. and it would really put a
146smile on my face um tonight to witness. Um I'm going to leave with this. I went to the modified girls soccer game. Actually, uh Mr. Mine and I went to the game and they played uh Hen Hut. They were down a girl the entire time, 10 against 11 and they won 5 to four. And I thought that that was just such a great microcosm of like who we are as a district. Like even though we might not be the biggest, the you know, whatever, but the fight in these girls, the hustle, these the other team is subbing like crazy. They have all the resources and our girls no subs the whole time running out there and they win the game and it's just like watching that like that is a great microcosm. Yes, the football
147team dominated. Yes, the soccer team looks amazing, but like that was really cool to witness and it just shows that um we offer a lot even though we're a small school. We punch above our weight class and it is uh a pleasure to serve in this role with all of you here and and all the people at home that make this uh an amazing community, amazing school district. So, I'm going to leave on that note. Thank you to everybody that that wrote us letters. Thank you Mr. C for that gift and all that um for board appreciation week. Um and that's that's all I got. So thank you to everybody. Um lastly, we have one last proposed executive session. Um so be it resolved that the board of education enter executive session to discuss the
148superintendent search with council. The time is >> 9:05 p.m. >> 9:05. I'll make a motion for that. May I please have a second? Uh D Liz and all in favor >> I thank you. And do we have to Laura? Do we have to say no action will be taken? I'm sorry. Do we have to say no action be taken on that one? What do you mean for >> for that executive session? Do we have to make a explicit note like no action will be taken? >> No. Okay. >> I don't think so. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Are you talking about Name everyone. She had All righty. So, uh, yeah. Good. Uh, we're going to adjourn the meeting. Resolve that the board of education um, adjourn this meeting. The time is >> 10:15 p.m. I'll make a
149motion. May I have a second? >> Jen, all in favor? I. That's unanimous. Good night everybody. Thank you so much.