001good evening we'll Now call the meeting to order would you please join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all may I have a motion for the approval of the agenda that's Dave and Sarah thank you are there any questions or comments all in favor all opposed motion carries thank you next we will have our principal report from Mr Edward foot of Thornell Road Elementary good evening well thank you for having me again this year I appreciate uh coming back uh first of all um I'm excited to be able to brag about our school as always and it was great to see the board um
002for our board visit this month so hope to highlight some of that work that you saw around the hallways um we focus on our thorell road family that you'll see you'll hear family a lot uh in our halls and uh that's a picture our current family picture we take every opening day and I got I have to tell you we've had uh probably the best opening of schools that I've had in my time as an administrator it's about 11 openings so far um it just was a wonderful start to the year at Thornell um I wanted to highlight before I begin I know it was last year but that was my first graduate walk with all the mending grads back what a special event that was and as a former menden grad myself um it
003was so great to see um basically adults get on the playground and take that picture and so I thought that'd be kind of fun for you to see but what a special time and and that sort of just brought that whole family feel to the end of the year together for me so I wanted to highlight that um I've just framed tonight's quick presentation around our um mission statement of teamwork respect and Excellence for our students again this year um we'll start with teamwork um a lot of this is thank yous but it is updates we had such a great opening and that was in part to our main office um and and one of my goals is that um Thornell feels like a welcoming environment for our students and our families but also to
004all of you our district office staff um that's our picture of our three office staff and McKenzie from uh our our technology Department um and so just uh including everybody in our school is a is a big priority of mine so I want to express that that they've all been essential um our transportation department really worked closely with us on our our kindergarten orientation so one of my highlights so far is that middle picture if you can see there um that we did our kindergarten orientation a little bit different we had the parents uh join the students on the bus this year so for some of them they said it's been 30 years since I've been on a school bus and so I said get up there you know and so they um wrote it
005and what a wonderful time and that was a change uh from previous years so thanks to Carla and all the um staff at transportation for for welcoming that idea and I think it just alleviated anxiety on our kids we had some kids go I wasn't going to ride the bus but I think I want to and it just kind of brought that feeling that we were hoping for um and then our kindergarten team was phenomenal just to welcome families uh before school was starting uh including some of our bus safety drills that the kids did so well so um as other teamwork you see our Board of Ed the artwork is from Thornell this month uh the dot project Helga lubers and our our art staff um have highlighted a curriculum project uh aligning it
006kindergarten first second fourth third fourth and fifth um so even though it's the same project a different Theme by different grade level with a different point of view so that connectedness is really a part of our special areas um on the left is our again an example of um the wonderful Library instruction from Jan ovino and maker space so integrating Library standards with technology just just the teamwork there is phenomenal um this this is uh from our our real focus of our teamwork of our staff this year is our strategic initiative uh we had a fantastic conference day uh just a week or so ago um in in all honesty that those middle pictures are of Valentine's last year because I couldn't find staff working together because I didn't take a single picture um we
007were so focused on the work talking curriculum which is you know after our first year was really the first deep time to talk about that um that I didn't take a single picture which is very unlike me not to take photos of of kids and staff um the the right and the left is our work I swear uh those are actual posters from our um Deep dive into uh into the vocabulary development um uh but we had just a great time to talk about kids talk about learning um and have all of our staff including our prayer professionals which was huge um working together common understanding and then moving forward so I thought it was a great great kickoff as far as our teamwork um uh respect you guys have heard our part partnership one
008of the strongest elements I think at Thornell road is our partnership with our local veterans with our Jewish Federation and and obviously uh none the more important our our schoolto school partnership with acea and just showing support um from one school to another over the past couple weeks so um just they continue to do well we're a hub for Honor Flight and so I you know I had uh some of my friends who I coached their daughters giving me envelopes saying oh you're the Hub at Thornell could you deliver these you know and and just that Community Connection felt really great this fall um curriculum connections this was from the end of last year uh honoring a writing project um that students did with veterans and another writing project that will honor kids uh this
009Friday um uh one of our fourth grade classes Tony stens Oliver's class um won first place in in again uh for research uh so they're back toback winners and we'll be honoring those kids this Friday so um really nice connections to the curriculum and support from our community as well um as far as Excellence goes that's the book that we'll be honoring on the left um and it's called six miles on the Eerie Canal uh they um took six members that are buried in the Pittsford cemetery and studied their history and their contribution to the area and the canal um using uh for sources and then published that book and that's the book that won this year for the N um New York State archives Association and that was their picture from last year so
010we'll take another one of those uh this Friday we again did our summer reading program which had even more kids involved than last year uh the total minutes there bested I think last year 190,000 minutes uh and to see the participation from kindergarteners all the way up um those are our grade level picks and how excited they were to come back from the summer and how many minutes they read just that focus on literacy is always uh so great and um our kids are just amazing uh best state test results I've seen at a school so that was pretty cool to see too as a side note so thank you to our um librarian Miss aino and our our um mesh our EA in there and then our reading teachers for organizing that again um
011one part I did want to highlight I think we've broadcast this enough but one of our pair professionals U Miss Barb Kane pictured on the left uh she was recognized with a golden apple all after three days of school um and so that seems quick but when you hear her story you're like that makes sense she's 40 years as an OB GYN nurse and in healthcare and decided to do a second career after that time and has been with us since 2015 uh working with kids as an EA and and their story of working with a student great piece on um from news8 uh and highlighted that but the real reason I also wanted to um showcase this is just that that pair professional group I have been so impressed about how they are working
012with our kids and the level of service out of our pair of professionals and again including them in the um uh our conference day and and the work that our one-on-one is doing has just been a highlight of the start of the year um I think we've had our best start because those kids feel so settled and supported and we're moving right into the school year so it's been a it's been just a great um source of teamwork and Excellence by that group I just wanted to highlight them uh as a whole um thank you for all of your support I I know I've been instructed you know keep this nice and uh brief and uh be uh show cute pictures of kids and uh it's a winning formula so um who told you to
013keep it brief um I think it was uh nobody I just guessed so uh thank you again for all your support thank you for coming to all of our events that I've never seen uh as many people come to everything we do as much as all of you do and it makes a difference our teachers after the visit just couldn't couldn't get over how how many people came and the conversations they had and I hope you felt the same way you know when you talked to our staff too so um if there's any questions I'm happy to feel those but it's just been a a great start at Thor now happy to be here yeah thank you you good thank you so much all right thank you have a great [Applause] night next we will
014have an approval of our minutes from September 12 2023 second that would be Kim and chff all in favor any opposed the motion carries thank you and next we'll have board recognition please please you're welcome to come forward and speak comes everybody uh good evening um my name is Carrie Hoffman I am the newest president of Pittsburgh educational office professionals so I'm here on behalf of our association this evening um the members of the Pittsford educational Office Professional Association recognize the significance of the duties and responsibilities assumed by the Pittsford school's Board of Education members in grateful recognition of the dedicated service that the Board of Education members provide to all of us in the pittsbur uh Community the pittsbur education of office professionals has donated $100 um in in your honor in support of
015Pittsburgh Youth Services um we acknowledge and appreciate the commitment and contribution of each member on the Pittsburgh Board of Education and we greatly appreciate your support so thank you and I'd like to present Miss Scott thank you so much car hi good evening I'm like a fan girl right now I'm so happy to see all of you but my heart's beating a mile a minute so I'm a little nervous um good evening it is really a pleasure to be standing here today I got to do it last year so I got to do it twice so this is exciting Good Luck Kristen for next year um on behalf of Pitts Central PTSA uh I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each of the seven Pittsburgh community members who are serving on our Board of
016Education uh as I thought of ways to thank you for your service um and your commitment to our students I came across this quote which I actually shared in our e newss it says um public schools are the Bedrock of our communities in our country democracy thrives with educated citizens capable of critical thinking and civil discourse and it is our local school boards who are ultimately responsible for Student Success and I was like hm yeah easy no problem right no pressure right um so so for the countless hours you spend listening learning engaging with members of our community to best meet the needs of our students thank you for your partnership with PTSA as we work together to build a strong community and support all students and families and schools thank you um for the
017pride and uncompromising drive for excellence that you expect in Pittsburgh thank you and most important for the courage and dedication you exemplify in this role thank you so much you do it you do this all with Grace um and with great respect for the enormous and important task at hand uh in your honor Pittsford Central PTSA has made a donation to The Pittsford Education Foundation and I hope you enjoy your week of recognition thank you good evening everybody uh Stephanie worel from the Pittsburgh District Teachers Association I'm one of the uh vice presidents um I'm here representing the nearly 800 members of pdta we want to express our heal heartfelt gratitude and say thank you for supporting what we do as Educators we are in awe of the countless hours you dedicate to this volunteer
018position from all of us within for all of us within pcsd and the Pittsford Community the commitment you have made to collaborating with our organization through our recent round of contract negotiations with advocacy and action for Safety and Security and even during casual encounters while on building visits um all of that is to the utmost important to importance to us uh to show our appreciation members of the representative assembly have written personalized messages in the card at your seat um and pdta has also made a donation in your honor to both the Pittsford Education Foundation and to Pittsford Youth Services thank you so much for all you do appreciate it thank you Stephanie d hi I'm Scott Barker Pittsburgh District Administrative Association president and yes I did retire from my job but still holding this
019position um and I'm glad to be here so I I appreciate the time that the board has given us and first I just want to say thank you um I'm not sure if the students in attendance know this but everybody that is sitting here as a board member they do this in a volunteer basis and the hours that you put in for our school district I'm not sure if thank you is strong enough but we really do appreciate it when I was thinking of your work the term that came across for me was servant leadership and when you define servant leadership it says that people who are focused on the growth and well-being of its employees and other stakeholders in their organization servant leaders seek to help the people they serve grow as individuals and
020we all got into this business to help our students grow and you all do that on a day to-day basis you model servant leadership in our community and schools and we thank you um in recognition of all your work and a show of our appreciation pdaa has made a monetary donation to the Pittsburgh student opportunity fund and on behalf of our 23 members thank you for all you do for our schools and our community to make it the absolute best thank you so much okay what they all said I don't know what I can add I'm Barb Shapiro I'm here tonight representing all of the hundreds and hundreds of retirees of the school district including our support staff our administrative staff our professional staff and I come to you tonight to thank you uh every
021day should be board recognition day that's what my mother used to say every day should be Mother's Day but it's true uh we are so proud to have uh spent our careers in Pittsburgh and uh we continue to be very grateful for the support you show us even into our retirement uh we know how committed and dedicated you are to the students the families the staff the inservice staff and the retired staff and we very much appreciate it uh a school district as Pittsburgh that is so successful and is a model for the Excellence of its students and the learning of its students can only be that way if it has good leadership in its Board of Education and we've been very blessed to have you as very very committed leaders we're thankful for it
022and we continue to stand by you and if there's ever anything we can do to assist we're here to help you thank you and uh we did not make a monetary donation we gave you cookies but maybe next year we will okay you got to have something sweet thank you again thank you we appreciate you okay all right at this time we appreciate all of you thank you so much for your thoughtful remarks we appreciate that um next we will have our um Board of Education reports and so as as in in um representing our community we attend several um when Ro County School boards Association meetings um and our board leadership our next meeting is November 8th we will be represented there executive committee is forthcoming information exchange committee our next meeting is the
023eth and Emily will be in attendance s Labor Relations Committee our next meeting coming soon um legislative committee um Sarah is our committee co-chair of Maroa County school board's legislative committee and also Sarah spoke and um presented at our executive committee meeting um she gave wonderful information we appreciate her advocacy on behalf of all of us um in M County School boards and at our district we're so lucky to have Sarah in that role and and next um steering committee next meeting which Sarah is also a part of that dates to remember coming up um we have yes sir okay oh yeah yes um audit oversight committee um meeting we we were in attendance at that and um our chair was selected Renee kazakos what's there and Mike can do all and Mike will do
024a followup when we get to the credential reports okay thank you other dates to remember are Board of Education visits um tour at Allen Creek um our schools will be closed for Veterans Day on November 10 November 22nd through 24 we're closed for Thanksgiving recess and November 28 is our next regularly scheduled meeting okay so next we will have financial reporting and any updates for Mr vby okay thank you very much for your consideration uh first is the acceptance of the treasures report um this is always uh you know in conjunction function with the audit so you you can see that June 30th report is just the year close um we don't have a lot of activity uh in the summer months in terms of Revenue um and obviously expenses until back to school so
025very little to report we you know we get some standard um summer state aid payments in um you know again you're seeing an uptick in interest earnings you're going to hear me say that you know uh with the with the interest rate environment that we're in uh that continues to look favorable and then the second quarter sales tax from nro County at 1.8 million which was in line with expectations um for the period um and then a slight receivable uh for the August excess cost uh really nothing to report on the expense side um and you know no update on Food Service until we really get into the first operational month thank you Mr besby we have several action items and um the first one will be an acceptance of our treasurer's reports for June
026July August 2023 may I have a motion Emily and a second from Dave all in favor all opposed the motion carries next we will have our fourth quarterly extra classroom activities report that you reviewed during in your board packets may I have a m to accept that Jeff and Kim are there any comments okay hearing none all in favor all opposed the motion carries thank you next we'll have um external audit report and management letter resolution again for your consideration is that uh you know the annual audit report uh this is typically when it's approved um by S guidelines in October uh that audit took place over the summer audit uh the audit oversight committee met on October 6th or 4th uh Tom Zuber uh the district's uh main auditor gave an unqualified opinion which
027means there's no concerns with the audit whatsoever um you know we we kind of kitted around a little bit about the treasures report reports um you know that we talk about each month no surprises additional sales tax interest earnings and state aid from bosis uh drove revenues um the use of federal stimulus funds helped to offset some of the expenses so the district performed very well overall um you know the the the challenge that we spoke about again and this will be a recurring theme is this current year is the last year for federal stimulus funds so you know that'll be part uh of the budget discussion um in addition I just in terms of big buckets as you recall last year the district was authorized to spend 14 $1 million from Capital reserves you
028know that's voter authorized voter approved voter authorized as well as Board of Education approved and authorized so we had some of the funds to offset and replenish the capital reserve um but overall overall our fund balance decreased by 6.4 million so if you think we spent 14 and offset by 6.4 that's still a very positive uh performance so it'll be important to replenish those reserves I think we you know had a great start to that at the end of last year's fiscal year uh we had one finding regarding W2s and um that finding is part of the uh response uh letter that has to be approved separately for State education purposes so that covers the next agenda item um and you know this is something uh in terms of process that you know we do
029on an annual basis for the board to approve both the audit and the corrective action plan um the claims a aor review the report as well there were no significant findings and I'm pleased to report on the superintendent's conference day that we did district-wide training and I think um a number of people were very complimentary about that training so uh I hope that's going to reduce you know maybe some of the infractions that the claims auditor takes care of uh in terms of that process prior to approval so we were very happy about you know being able to offer that training um the administration reviewed potential increases in tax exempt exemption limits for seniors that requires board action uh so we're going to wait and see what happens at the Town level and we may
030be bringing that uh as a future uh agenda item so we we talked about that what that means so just want to give the full board uh heads up um and then finally uh from a fiduciary responsibility uh standpoint and I do this as well during the budget review process we reviewed Reserve funds so it's important always to note that on the board of education minutes as part part of our uh report out that we reviewed them at committee and then we'll also follow up during budget and our next meeting is scheduled for December 6 that concludes the report thank you so there are numerous action items um we will begin with the external Auto report and management letter resolution is there a motion to accept that Sarah and Kim thank you are there any
031questions okay hearing none all in favor the motion carries next we'll have the Pittsford external audit report response is there a motion to accept that Jeff Sarah questions all in favor all opposed motion carries thank you next there's action on um insallation of cameras on school bus stop arm resolution so yeah for your consideration this is a a neat item this is new from enroe County um this was passed a year ago you may have heard or or saw the press release on it um there's currently three other school districts that are participating I anticipate more you know we'll sign up for the program uh there's no cost to the district it's funded um you know from whatever fines they're anticipated I think it will you know make um our bus routes safer because there's
032now a consequence uh where you're captured on camera so that's the whole promise behind it um as soon as we resolve what happens if we take the cameras off the bus we plan on moving forward with this but we need a board of education approval prior to you know that stuff so appreciate your consideration thank you so is there a motion to accept this move Jeff and Emily are there any questions for Mr besby I I did just have a quick question part of that service is that they monitor those cameras too is that yeah they they the data goes directly um to them so we don't have we're not we don't have any part of it so it'll just be more or less um the communication goes directly to whoever violates it we don't
033administratively we don't get involved we're not going to handle complaints it it it goes you know it's just we're just the uh you know that the really the means of the camera monitoring per se for the program okay thank you are there other questions okay hearing n all in favor all opposed the motion carries thank you Mr vby okay next for your consideration is the adoption of the budget calendar so it's hard to believe that the budget process starts now but here we are and uh offic officially it starts with the release of the documentation all the budget Originators on November 1st so because of the timing you know we're you know we're going to review it and ask for approval tonight for the actual calendar itself you saw the budget formulation dates in your
034packets so is there a motion to accept the calendar as presented Sarah and Kim second are there any questions okay hearing none all in favor the motion carries thank you and next for your consideration is the Declaration of scrap equipment as uh provided to you thank you is there a motion to accept the Declaration of scrap equipment Emily and Dave thank you are there any questions hearing none all in favor I'll oppose the eyes have it motion carries thank thank you so the bid Awards will be seen on the um will be a part of the consent agenda thank you so much Mr besie next we'll have our human resources report from Mr Clark thank you good evening first for your consideration is our professional staff report we have three certificated staff appointments 16 School
035related professional appointments three teacher fellow appointments three School related professional resignations one auxiliary resignation for retirement two School related professional resignations for retirement we have revised fall coaching salaries and we have winter coaching salaries and volunteers for your approval may I have a motion to accept the professional staff report Kim second and Sarah thank you are there any questions for Mr Clark okay hearing none all in favor all opposed the motion carries Mr CL all right thank you and next for your consideration is the support staff report we have three clerical appointments four clerical resignations One Summer helper resignation One Transportation resignation for retirement One Transportation termination four custodial appointments three custodial resignations one food service appointment and three Food Service terminations is there a motion to accept the support staff report Dave second from
036Emily are there any questions okay all in favor I'll oppose the motion carries thank you thank you and then finally for your consideration we have a memorandum of agreement under the consent agenda thank you next we'll have a curriculum report from Mrs Ward thank you thank you for having me here tonight this is the my annual opportunity to share with you the results of our 3 through eight uh Ela Math and Science assessment program and um I just need to start by giving a enormous thanks and shout out to Jeff Kimmer and the folks in the data team office who really are very much responsible for pulling this information together and making me look good when I stand up here in front of you to share this information so thank you for that there is
037also I probably don't need to point this out to you know there's a tremendous amount of backup in your board packet um I'm really distilling the presentation down to um really the big highlights and the essentials but certainly you have a lot of information a lot of additional um data and charts and graphs in your packet so at any time if you have any questions about anything in there please feel free to um ask away so typical process um as usual ual although this year the scores were received a little bit later which was a little bit puzzling since so much of the testing has now gone to computer-based we were all hopeful that that would mean scores would be turned around a little more quickly but um instead of coming to us in August
038we received them from the state in September um we then take that information and we um work with building administrators and District administrators to look at the data at a build at a district level building level and then at the building level they also look at the data um at individual student students level um so that we can use that data to help Drive decisions about students who need additional AIS supports as well as um I work with the data with our standards leaders to look at any implications for um District curriculum and assessments um you know just at a very very high level you can see how our students did this year the science 4 assessment was not held this year um this past spring it is we're in a transition point so this
039school year we're in now will be the first year that the elementary Science assessment is given in fifth grade so our current fifth graders who were fourth graders last year did not have to take a science test last year they will take the new state science science test um this school year some things that are really important to point out before we um get into the data itself is um really has to do with the fact that we've had significant changes to the data and the assessments themselves over the last several years so you may remember 201920 all state assessments were canceled because of coid we were all working from home at that point of the year in the 2021 year that was the year we referred to here as a temporary learning model year
040so we had kids in hybrid and remote and the state significantly modified the assessments that year they took what are typically two-day assessments two parts and they distill them down into one-day assessments um and they they really um very much gave lots of room for Choice around whether to take it or not our students who were learning fully remote that year were offered the opportunity to come in to take the state test if they chose to do so but the vast majority of them of course did not um and so we don't even share results from that year as we look longitudinally because it was a completely different kind of testing environment 2122 we went back to the preco format of the test they were two-day tests now um the science test went back to
041a written test in a performance lab assessment um and so you'd think well great we're back on track but then this last past school year finally um was the first year that the state altered the content of the assessments to be aligned with the Next Generation Ela and math assess uh standards um previously we had been aligned with the common core standards the the roll out of the assessments aligned with the nextg standards was delayed due to all of this coid break but um so you have at least these four years where it's very difficult to make any draw any real solid conclusions when we look at the data longitudinally and I say all that knowing that I'm about to show you some slides that look at the data longitudinally but we really need to
042keep in mind that there's um there's a a faultiness to trying to draw a lot of conclusions from those year-over-year comparisons also important to note that we are moving into the computer-based test environment so this past school year we and Pittsburgh did computer-based testing for all of our students grades 3 through eight for the ELA test and all of our students grades 5 through eight took their math assessment on in the computer-based format going into this school year we made the decision to move everything to computer-based testing so all Ela and math grades 3 through eight will be computer-based the science test which will be brand new this year the state is not even giving us an option of paper based test for those ass for those science assessments this year they will be completely
043computer-based the lab portion of those assessments will no longer be part of the testing experience there are now four required lab experiences that all students need to have as part of their instructional program prior to taking the state test at their grade level so it's a very different look for science going into this year so again changes are being are being made so with all of that reason for not looking longitudinally here's the longitudinal look at our performance in ela um it is you know it is always an interesting Peak at it um you can see we pull um the 21 data right out because of the one-day tests that were given there and I will say and when we look at this um slide for math as well where you see for our students
044some Peaks and valleys and ups and downs um if you look in your packet at the three-year um comparisons across the county you you'll see very similar patterns um across the county in terms of the ups and downs so where you see some of our scores going up this year that was a very similar pattern across the county where our scores went down again very similar across the county which says to me that those ups and downs have more to do with the test construct and the test the difficulty level of the questions than anything particular about instruction or particular cohorts of kids clearly the the differences are different in every District but the patterns fall out in a very very similar way um the three through eight assessments every student does get a score
045on a one to four scale um with level four being considered a Mastery level threes and fours are are proficient in Mastery so we're always striving to make sure that kids are scoring at least a three on the assessments it is always kind of pleasing to my eye to see the four the percentages of students who are hitting Mastery on these assessments um being a fairly significant chunk of the test takers those are kids who are demonstrating Mastery and their grade level standards and so we can see that across um all six of the ELA assessments and then when we look at the county data um again this is Ela grades three through five Pittsburgh's um performance is represented by the blue um bar on each of the graphs and then the other districts on
046the east side of Monro County are represented by the other bars we do take the names off um because this is their data to share with their communities at this point and not ours necessarily um but again we can see that our students do very well in comparison to students around the county on all of our Ela assessments and then similarly when we look at math again the Peaks and valleys are similar to what we see across the um across the county looking at the longitudinal data um and again we have nice proportionality in terms of the percent of students actually achieving Mastery on these math Assessments in most of the grade levels always important as a reminder when we look at the grade eight math that that represents um a much smaller proportion of
047our students students who take algebra in 8th grade do not have to sit for the math 8 State assessment they take the algebra region exam instead and that um qualifies for their um required state and federal math assessment at that grade level so then again we see the math results um grades three through three through five um in a countywide comparison again very strong showing across all of those assessments really nice to see how well our kids continue to do science um again there was no fourth grade Science assessment given this year so you see no Gray Bar there for fourth grade eighth grade science we did experience a little bit of a dip um in performance there you can see that year overy year um and again the eighth graders who take earth science
048do not take the science 8 test so this represents about 50% of our eth graders are eligible to take this science Aid exam and then you see how our science 8 results stacked up against the county or the east side of mon County anyway and then we continue to track our refusal rates and we see the similar patterns year over-year now pretty consistent story um small percentages of students in the um Elementary grades um still having parents choose to not have their child take the test and as you increase in the grade levels your percent of students who are opting out of the test increases um I think there's a a social pressure piece that um goes into place there there's um you know lots of different reasons why families choose not to have their
049children take the test that's certainly we put that in the family's hands at at this point um it becomes a a missing piece of information about a student but it's just one piece of information and we have lots of other ways to um understand who our students are as Learners that we value as much if not more than their performance on the state assessment and those are our science rates as well so as always um we take all of this data that you're seeing in a very high level aggregate um sort of Storytelling here and we break every one of those um test results down by the subgroups um that we are required to report at the state and National level that subgroup breakdown some of that is in your packet we also take a
050look at it at the central Office Team level I share it with a district leaders District administrators standards leaders um and we really have some really good conversations about what the data is telling us how our subgroups are performing and what kinds of interventions we need to be putting in place in order to close some gaps we continue to see in some of our subgroups we certainly use the data to help us Target some professional um learning for our staff and of course we use it always to inform curriculum and assessment development um as well as acquisition of resources to make sure that we are putting the best instruction in front of our students to allow them to achieve proficiency if not Mastery on each of these assessments and with that if you have any
051questions or looking for any additional information I please let me know Melanie if you just really quick the board had a question uh that you answered um relative to math8 can you just put some perspective around um those numbers there yeah so it was um about the refusal rate uh about the whole population that can that that actually takes the right so um again if a student is taking algebra in 8th grade um they do not sit for the math a test they're not required to sit for the math a test test about half of our eighth graders take algebra so they're taken right off the top in terms of looking at students who would sit for the math8 test so when you take the number of students who are actually expected to sit for
052the math 8 test and then you look at the number of eighth graders who then choose not to sit for the math 8 test um we're looking at at that point I think this year we had 111 students who were expected to sit for the math 8 test who opted out of the math 8 test um which was about 45% of all the kids who should have been taking the math a test if you follow all my numbers there it's about a quarter of the total eighth grade population but it's a pretty significant chunk of the kids that we would have expected to take the math8 test um so um you know we've always reported the data this way the 24% representing the number of kids who opt out of the math a test compared
053to the total population of eighth graders that year um knowing that we also have um half of our eighth graders who are going to take the algebra exam and not take the math Aid anyway so it's there's a little bit of number sifting that you have to sort through to figure out what that story really is so you yeah no problem okay anything else thank you okay I'll be back next month to share the secondary high school results oh beautiful thank you so much so next we have a special education report from Miss Woods good evening the committee on special education recommendation are on the consent agenda this evening and um you also have the first reading of our updated special education District plan um that is our plan that is updated every two years
054for board approval um this year we the updates and the revisions were made in conjunction with the special education advisory committee as well as the SEPTA um parent advisory group thank you next we will have our superintendent report than thank You Ren there is not a need for an executive session this evening a few thank yous uh first is thank you to the pitford Education Foundation for donating $2,000 to our um Pittsford student opportunity fund and actually thank you Barb barbs also sits on the pittsbur Education Foundation um with me as as does Jeff uh that um pledge after working with Shaina um we thought $4,000 a year is approximately right so the Education Foundation will also um donate another $2,000 in January and that money goes to um any kind of uh supplies or
055needs uh that students um shouldn't have to incur uh when they can't afford it so it could be anything from eyeglasses uh to some parts of Health Care to um clothes to um yearbooks to prom tickets uh so that money is is really used to uh to support our kids I also want to um say thank you to PTSA for donating $88,000 for the cultur to the cultural arts uh which is another reason to highlight the super sale U making sure that we're all attending the super sale that money goes directly to our buildings it's ptsa's largest fundraiser um it's great I normally get my kids Halloween costumes there but they're too old no so remember buying a doll house there and painting it paying for my dog great uh donation of $2,000 from PTSA
056for sources of strength program at mendan and southernland high schools thank you for that and a donation uh another donation from PTSA of uh $1,695 uh from southernland high school PTSA for an Leed stock ticker display sign with live content for the financial classes at Southern in high school so thank you and then last I just I I um uh do want to share a little bit more uh relative to board appreciation week or recognition week you heard everyone talk about your sense of volunteering uh and your commitment uh I do want to highlight some things that that this board does not just show up for board meetings um you also attend information exchange Labor Relations legislative and steering meetings you serve on the audit oversight committee teacher Center committee uh you tour our 10
057buildings at 7:00 a.m. uh followed by um meeting with staff you are well read and well prepared prior to board meetings and that sometimes arranges between 150 to well over 400 pages of information thank you for staying late when we have executive meetings um for attending multiple professional development Retreats including a two-day workshop over the summer and often been an additional summer day uh for um Retreat and and tending to U professional development uh you attend everything uh you attend special events like homecoming uh the duck drop musicals sporting events classroom visits candl light night and so many others uh Town Village School district meetings vice president and president of the board uh meets with me several times in the morning uh you attend graduation retirements Sports Excellence Banquets uh you attend Power hours and
058other forums you attend our Unified sports and bowling and basketball you visit classrooms to recognize our staff through honor and educator you attend Financial Training uh you attend Saturday morning legislative breakfast uh you are present for opening day ceremonies you meet with stakeholders you support all different types of service projects you write articles for your newsletters our newsletters uh you donate funds uh to staff and students that are in need on a weekly basis you attend multiple meetings which take you away from your family you treat your roles as a full-time job and you are volunteers you are student centered and you care deeply for every child's success and well-being you modle citizenship you model respectful dialogue and you modle Goodwill for all and I thank you and wish you all a wonderful Board of
059Education week thank you thank you thank you and so at this point is there a motion to accept the consent agenda moved Jeff and second from Kim so with that um are there questions hearing none all in favor okay all oppos and the motion carries is there any old business okay yes okay is there any new business yes okay I just wanted to quickly share that our um legislative Zoom advocacy day in December for mcba we got to we had to change the date of that after hearing some information that uh the assembly majority will all be in Albany and in conferences the entire week we are pushing it back to December 11 so I just wanted to make sure that was on everyone's radar um we'll have a invitation out for that in the
060coming weeks should be the beginning of November so just wanted to make sure everyone had that on their radar that's normally around 8 till noon um we'll have two sessions at 9:00 a.m. and 300 p.m. it'll be an hour and a half for each one thank you so much Sarah thank you and next we will move to our public comment and we will start out with um Katherine Doyle would you please come forward I don't know that I've ever been first before okay thank you very much so okay I'm here today I he can't click do I get extra time you do I'm going to speak fast um so I'm here today in support of my colleagues the teachers Librarians of the Pittsford Central School District in their role to present information that is appropriate
061for everyone in our community and with all the book Banning talk that's been going around and hearing about the racy parts of library books being read during public comments I just want to remind everyone that it's important that we have a library that represents everyone different colors different gender Expressions it's important that you can see yourself in the library and that literature helps us make sense of the world and the experiences of people in Pittsburgh you know we think of ourselves as a nice upper class Community but we have problems just like everyone else and some of these kids need help and these books help kids and and they have uncomfortable truths in them but life is full of uncomfortable truths and we need to learn how to deal with them right so that's something
062the library can help us do so in a recent meeting um someone at the Bose's level said that Pittsburgh was very sound on this issue and I'd like you to continue to do that and thank you and I appreciate your time today and I have a minute that I yield up to the universe thank you Miss Doyle next we will have Mr ker come forward please my name's uh John ker I grew up on Arlington Drive and I've resided there for 40 years raised three children my pronouns are she her and hers I am not vaccinated but I identify as vaccinated as of now my name is not John it is Joan that was quite simple all I had to do was change an H into an A and suddenly I identify as a she
063now I'm a grown man within the law unlike a minor child I can pretty much do anything I want to if my mother and father oh I'm sorry if my parents had heard me sorry if I offended anybody by saying mother and father if my parents had heard me say my last statement they would have especially my father kicked my ass and if my three children Tri make a statement like that Mr ker what in public comment you were supposed to um give a summation you were supposed to State what you will be saying in FR of students today decided to change it well that's not an option yes it is so we I just did it I changed it okay if you don't want me to speak next month I won't but I can
064change it and I'm gonna so I would first before before we even make a decision I want to apologize on behalf of anyone that's listening to this and for our students that are out there this is why we we do ask people to submit their comments first um so that we know apologizing for I think it was very offensive what you just shared I think it was offensive to our students Library get much worse than that I think we should do not call for a recess okay much worse go so at this point Mr ker we will be calling for a recess we appreciate your prior comments and we appreciate the comments that you reported to us good faith so I can't speak anymore thank you we thank you for your time and patience and
065now we would like to have a motion to resume our meeting Jeff and Emily all in favor all opposed that motion carries so at this point um we would like to resume the meeting with the next um person what what I'd like for you all to understand so what I'd like for you all to understand is that when you decide to engage in public comment there are boxes to check off and you agree to the IDE idea that you are writing your statement that will be shared with the public and so when they when you go off chart like that then you know it really it it finds we find ourselves in an ill-prepared State and open to comments that may not be sharable with the children of our district so we're not we're going
066to move forward obiously agree with what I said the next person is Michael shaunessy who will be given the floor to speak Mr shauny are you coming forward to speak Mike Shaun see Standish way again as stated previously myself and the Pittsburgh Comm Community are baffled and continuously appalled at how the PS pcsd Board of Education can look at themselves in the mirror daily without disappointment in the lack of the most basic approach and support for the children and students of Pittsford Central School District Community the multiple comments shared monthly with the Board of Education over the past recent years indicate your culpability and this lack of support plus the complicit nature of your irresponsible lack of actions to take corrective action when provided the opportunity to do so board of education has decided that
067limiting comment from the overall District Community is justifiable and acceptable well it's not last month I submitted my comments with the understanding that since I was not present my comments would be read on my behalf per the confirmation quote uh note the first 10 residents who submit comments will have the opportunity to read their comment at the meeting or they may choose to have their comment read on their behalf we we have been advised by the board that they have eliminated the second option based on the 8 8330 decision policy changes of the 88223 Board of Education meeting it was a surprise to me and I'm sure to many others at the end of the August 8th meeting superintendent Perl challenged the detail presented relative to the current 2022 2023 rankings of from public school
068review in particular the Monro County rankings Pittsford suin is fifth Pittsford Menan is eth based on superintendent perils re perils research at the meeting he stated that US News ranks Pittsford Central School District high schools number one without mentioning the same Source provided the following Pittsford Southern High School is 310 and the 2022 national rankings pittsbur Menon is 286 in the 2022 national rankings in 2012 Menan was ranked nationally 107 suland was ranked number 23 additional research from Nish ranks Pittsford s Pittsford Central School Districts number 19 in the schools districts across New York State behind Brighton Central School District which is number 14 the week before last news radio wh 1180 cited another recent poll of the re Rochester area school districts and Brighton Central School District was mentioned as number one in the
069Rochester area there was no mention of pitford Central School District overall this should be and would be a concern to the parents and residents of Pittsburgh what should be done by the board is to collaborate with an approach with the parents to address this issue of this significant drop in rankings instead of the pcsd focus on seal plus placing pornographic and transgender focused books in our school libraries together let's pull this together in the rankings up to number one again and stop settling for a continual decline in rankings thank you and our final public comment will come from Mr Skuse at the past two Board of Education meetings president Scott told us that the best way to communicate our concerns with the board is by email I sent an email to each of the board
070members asking the question why do you want to have obscene books in the Pittsford schools I received a response from president Scott that was nothing more than a cut and paste from the pcsd policy manual about policy 8330 this did not answer my question at all I resent the question to each of the board members three times over the past month and received no response so the instruction to email our concerns to the board members as being the best way to communicate with them was obviously disingenuous I'd still like to know why each of the board members wants to have I've seen books in the Pittsford schools we all know that it has nothing to do with inclusion or acceptance so what is the reason each of you is an elected representative of the people
071of Pittsburgh and has a fiduciary duty to address our concerns you are not fulfilling your fiduciary Duty in any way so I'll ask the men on the board what kind of man provides obscene books to Children men are supposed to be leaders they're supposed to set an example by which others should live their lives each of you is also a father what kind of father provides obscene books to Children there clearly is something fundamentally wrong with each of you men are supposed to to be strong and yet none of you can muster the strength to answer my simple question now I'll ask the women on the board what kind of woman provides obscene books to Children women bring children into the world and are supposed to nurture them and protect them each of you is
072a mother why are you steering our kids down a very dangerous path with these obscene books each of you has a fundamental defect why are you doing this to our kids and why are you unwilling to answer my very simple question if you're proud of your decision to put obscene books in the schools then why won't you tell us why you're doing it tell us the benefit they provide our kids if you think I'm wrong to object to these obviously obscene books tell me why don't just sit there in silence answer the question we thank you all for your comments this evening and with that is there a motion for adjournment Sarah Kim all in favor all opposed motion carries thank you so much for your time thanks everyone