001good evening we are now calling the September 12th Pittsford Board of Education meeting to order and we let's begin with our Pledge of Allegiance and to the Republic for which it stands one Nations thank you please join us in a moment of silence for those loved ones who were lost on September 11th as you know today yesterday marked the 22nd year of that 9-1-1 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center the Pentagon and the United Airlines flight 93. we especially remember Todd polino amending high school graduate who passed away in one of the Twin Towers Todd was an academic All-American for the Minden soccer team thank you may I have a motion for approval of our agenda second thank you there's a motion by Jeff with a second from Renee are there any questions or
002comments all in favor any opposed the ice habit thank you next we will have the approval of the minutes from August 8th 2023 yeah Sarah and Dave any questions or comments adjustments with that hearing none all in favor all opposed there's one abstention Renee and the motion carries thank you so next we will have on Board of Education reports and we've been very busy um with the beginning of our Monroe County School boards Association meetings and many of us have attended those in our um roles with the mcsba and our next board leadership meeting is well it was September 6 because I was there and um well the big takeaway from that is please RSVP to all Mitzvah meetings and that was the big takeaway also please um go to the website and there will
003be updates over the summer and make sure that you're able to go in and um interact with your um individual committee work and next um we will have the next executive committee meeting will be October 11th information exchange exchange committee is coming up and we have our own superintendent presenting on tomorrow I believe um yes it's tomorrow September 13th that's exciting and the Labor Relations Committee report September 20th yes Emily and we have a report from Sarah Palacio who is our legislative chair co-chair for mcsba thank you Robin yet we had our first legislative committee meeting last week somewhat low attendance due to a couple of situations but the core of our group was still there and we talked about our legislative priorities for the year and our potential position papers that we're looking to
004either update from last year or add to so we have a good start with that not a whole lot has changed from last year to this year our priorities remain relatively the same with zero emissions buses being a high topic a high priority for us right now looking to maybe add a paper about minimum wage I know that's a big topic for all of us coming up and the financial situations that we're all looking ahead at so that's going to be a big one so right now we're forming our subcommittee that will look at the position papers and and bring those forward to our legislative Committee in November and then to our steering committee for approval then also some dates that I just wanted to mention I know Deb passed out our calendar updated mcsba
005calendar today but just to highlight for you in December we'll have our advocacy Zoom day it's listed on the calendar actually as Monday the 6th but in fact that's Monday the 4th of December so I will get that corrected and we'll have a new copy of this at our next meeting I'm sure but pay attention to that day and I will send out more information about that we've also got our legislative breakfast which is February 3rd this year it's a Saturday in the past it's always been a DoubleTree big joke last year that we didn't have any heat in the building so we have a new location it'll be at Shadow Lake so something look forward to there a nice change of venue and then in March following the meniscus conference in Albany we're looking
006to have probably it's going to be a one day trip to Albany for us this year we would like to have it on that Tuesday to overlap with the superintendents it's going to depend on the legislative session calendar which we don't expect to have until probably the end of November so waiting on that and other than that just a couple things from the mcsba off office we've had a couple of meetings in the past month or so we met with Senator Cooney I know I shared my report with everyone there that was such a great meeting we're really looking forward to having a relationship with him at the county level this year and then yesterday we sat down with Congressman Morelli and talked a little bit about the Hot Topics that he is dealing with
007as far as education goes so possibly something to to look into there as far as our efforts with the zero emissions Transportation but we're working on that and going to see what comes of that but as far as the universal meals which has been a big priority for him and also school safety two huge topics that he has not seen much progress on either of those right now so I'm fortunate to hear that but hopefully we'll be hearing some things from our state legislators that we work with this year and that's about it thank you so much Sarah and also we'll have the steering committee meeting in November so upcoming dates to remember I'm September 25 the schools will be closed for Yom Kippur um October 5th we have a board of education visit a
008tour of Thornell Road Elementary School and my Chopin's gonna see who can attend thank you so much we appreciate that and on October 6th the schools were closed for superintendent's conference day October 9th the schools are closed for Columbus State indigenous peop indigenous people's day and on October 17th is our next regularly scheduled meeting so next we will have a financial report from Mr vespie all right thank you very much for your consideration uh is an update to a corrective action letter that is now two years old and the technicality once it was reviewed is that the corrective action letter was dated prior to the report so this is just a very technical aspect in terms of a date and then it needs reapproval by the Board of Education and then we'll submit it to
009the state so is there a motion to approve the amendment to the corrective action letter it's a motion from Renee with the second from Kim are there any questions hearing none all in favor all opposed the eyes haven't thank you all right next for your consideration is a budget transfer request I know it's early in the year we try to budget the categories for paraprofessionals by location due to the federal report actually that we have to submit in December and there's been a lot of movement in that area and some additions and so we need to transfer money in between those codes so we need the latitude to do that thank you is there a motion to accept the budget transfer report David and Jeff second are there um any questions or comments hearing none
010all in favor I'll opposed yeah I said but thank you okay next for your consideration is another emergency project I think last year I said that it's rare that we would have one emergency project with the Sutherland roof and now we're back in a similar situation where we've had both heat pumps fail at the Calkins Road Middle School and that controls the auditorium so it's not so so here's the good news the good news is that the funding source was approved in the capital project that was voted on last year the bad news is we need to move up the timeline to get that those you know those repairs and those drawings and the emergency project allows us to do that so in order to declare it as an emergency you first have to pass
011the secret resolution um which obviously uh is a negative declaration and then you'll do that first and then approve the emergency so they do have to be separate votes but that takes care of items three and four okay so is there a motion to First accept the emergency Capital project declaration for the HVAC system at Coggins Road secret face okay is there a motion to accept the secret first thank you Sarah and Jeff are they questions about that hearing none all in favor the eyes have it thank you so much and second there's uh is there a motion to accept the emergency Capital project declaration Kim and Emily any questions on that okay hearing none all in favor all opposed you guys have it thank you all right next for your consideration uh is the
012appointment of the Deputy purchasing agent we were able to hire someone um relatively quickly and this title is typically assigned at the reorg meeting in July so this is just a procedural aspect and we will keep um Leanne on Just for this week because the purchasing agent is not in this week so we thought we'd just extend that for the rest of the week in case we need to prove something thank you is there a motion to accept our new Deputy purchasing agent is Emily as with the second from Dave are there any questions hearing none all in favor all opposed the motion carries thank you all right thank you next is the for your consideration is just a declaration of surplus equipment as part of our replacement plan and purchases over the summer so
013we'll Surplus this equipment and some of it will go to auction and some of it will just be disposed of thank you you've seen the pictures and and the report of the Surplus equipment is there a motion to accept Renee and Sarah are there any questions all in favor all opposed the eyes have it thank you finally thank you so next we'll have the human resource report from Mr Clark thank you and good afternoon good evening first we have for your consideration the professional staff report you'll see two administrator appointments 14 certificated staff appointments one certificated staff increase in FTE 27 SRP appointments 23 changes in effective date for sort of certificated staff resignations for SRP resignations one school nurse resignation and we also have fall coaching staff salaries and volunteers for your approval thank
014you is there a motion to accept our professional staff report seven second Dave and Jeff any questions all in favor any opposed the motion carries thank you next for your consideration is the support staff report we have eight clerical appointments for clerical resignations six Transportation appointments six Transportation resignations six custodial appointments two custodial resignations one custodial termination we have five five Food Service appointments and two Food Service resignations is there a motion to accept the support staff report Renee and Sarah are there any questions hearing none all in favor all opposed in the motion carries thank you thank you [Applause] next we'll have their Student Services report miss cadaya good evening thank you tonight we have the code of conduct on the consent agenda for your second reading and approval we also have the 23
01524 emergency preparedness guide both documents have been posted for public viewing for the past 30 days and are on the consent agenda for approval this evening thank you and next we have our special education report from Mrs Woods yes our CSE and cpsc recommendations are on the consent agenda this evening thank you Miss woods now we have our superintendent's report Mr Piero thank you there is a need for an executive session this evening the first issue is to discuss uh proposed pending or current litigation and the second is the employment of a particular person is there a motion for executive session Jeff and Sarah all in favor any opposed the motion carries a huge thank you to Ted degeorge for the donation of 75 commercial three speed High Velocity floor fans that will be going
016to one of our elementary schools I'm not going to share it out loud because the other four are going to be really upset thank you as far as an update is concerned I would like to start with some good news um I'd like to share some recent recognitions that we displayed on opening day and um to be cognizant of our time these are a fraction of the things that we shared with Staff first in the recently released U.S news and World Report under best high school rankings Mendon High School and Sutherland High School were ranked in the number one in two spots respectively among all of the Rochester area high schools to determine the rankings more than seventeen thousand six hundred nationally ranked high schools were evaluated at the national state and local level and
017factors including math reading and science state assessment scores college readiness has demonstrated primarily on AP exams and graduation rates so congratulations to menden and Sutherland of the 17 680 U.S Public Schools ranked Mendon and Sutherland landed within the top two percent of U.S public high schools and both were among the top 250 and science technology engineering and math schools in America so hats off to our high schools um other things of note we're also ranked top one percent of 10 751 school districts in America we are also recognized by uh Nam Foundation as best communities for music education in America 100 of our varsity teams received the scholar athlete team award we were able to have 36 Scholastic writing and art Regional Awards that's including gold silver key and honorable mention our five elementary schools
018are ranked in the top ten of public elementary schools in the area and our two middle schools are ranked in the top three building off this great news our student Behavior has been great as we start this New Year we've continued our pre-covet initiative of engaging students in the learning by increasing rigor and authenticity through the development and use of instructional moves that allow students to be involved in complex and challenging thinking while at the same time improving practices that create a welcoming and affirming environment a quick safety update our large rooms of assembly now are secured with locks on the inside so all of our rooms are secured our designs for double entry blast resistant glass vestibules have been submitted to New York state for approval and then the final thing I would share
019during our project actually leading up to our project we had some questions about HVAC work in air conditioning and I think we actually have a public speaking comment on AC tonight so here's what we're doing at the moment um we have worked with our Architects to map out each of our buildings outlining the type of HVAC systems we have across the board conducting an analysis of what it would take to add AC to all second and third floor systems at Sutherland Mendon Allen Creek Barker Road and Thornell Road a rough estimate to add AC at all buildings locations of all CO2 monitors and air quality throughout the buildings analysis of electrical capacity to add AC and confirmation of types of air filtration systems we currently have across the district of those so that's two four
020six I think seven different areas we've asked our Architects to look into three of them are completed so I Look to continue to update the board and and the rest of those so with that that's my report thank you thank you so um is there uh approval of our consent agenda Renee and Emily thank you any questions all in favor any opposed and the motion carries thank you so next on our agenda is old business was there any old business is there any new business and our next section is our public comment and tonight we have three we have five public comments three people will be in physically in attendance and we appreciate that all we've heard all of the comments and they've been um shared with the entire board and also we'd like to
021let everyone know again that we are very accessible we're accessible by phone by email by snail mail and this is just one um venue to um connect with your Pittsford Schools Board of Education so with that I'd like to invite John kircher to come forward please thanks for having me um my name is John kircher I was uh raised on Arlington Drive in Pittsford 40 years ago I bought a house in Arlington Drive raised three children put them through the Pittsburgh school system so I'm kind of I've been in this building before but not under these circumstances um I'm kind of shocked and frankly offended by the pornographic nature of the the books in our schools libraries when my children were in school when I was in school National Geographic was about as bad as
022you could get in the library we've got material in there that I've certainly wouldn't read to my sister or much less my children um in my day and not that long ago when a baby was born it was either a boy or a girl and there was a lot of speculation on what you would name that they went through life as a as a female or a male now we see the world a 10 year old can't buy beer can't get a driver's license can't vote but he can sit here and dress up a boy can dress up as a girl and call himself a transgender without any parental supervision without any parental advice that I don't even know what to say I I can't believe that I'm sitting here talking about this stuff but
023schools uh have become political a school is nothing but government in today's world according to the Federal Department of Labor 90 of K-12 K-12 teachers and administrators align with the Democratic Party in liberal states like New York it's as high as 97 percent schools had become an arm of the Democratic Party now you can be whatever party you want to but we shouldn't be teaching our kids politics science arithmetic reading history has been replaced by inclusion diversity Equity lgbtq rights and now transgender rights don't call me a hobo phob or a transphobe because my younger brother is a gay man so I'm quite familiar with the with the environment I was kind of struck the other day I got a note from a friend of mine who has a student in school this is from
024The Barker Road Middle School it said and I'm quoting the first meeting the Parker Road GSA will be after school on Friday September 22nd any students staff who are friends family allies or members of the lgbtq plus community are welcome to attend if you have any questions so here we have a our school teaching sexuality gender Alliance where is that why aren't we teaching math and science and history I I don't know what the hell is going on here but um I guess I can finish with a quote from Ronald Reagan as I said before a school is nothing but government and Ronald Reagan that's probably a bad word to say around here but Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying government is not the answer government is the problem so I hope now I don't
025have any dogs in the fight right now my kids are older but someday I might have grandchildren and I tell you what I wouldn't send him here if they if they were at school age thank you thank you Mr Carter next we'll have that I just replied to yes with some of those Mr kircher thank you for for coming tonight I appreciate that one of the things I I just want to clarify and I think this is it's it's hard because we we say that schools aren't or they are political they're becoming political um ours our position is we can't let our schools become political or apolitical so I'm just responding to you if you want if you want me to respond to some of your comments that but they already had become so part
026of the comments that that I would respond to is that when I hear people come into the board meetings and talk about a 10 year old or a an eight-year-old or children being able to do this without you know parental input maybe we're a different District in all of our cases where we've encountered students that are transitioning in any way parents have been involved and so I I just hope that rhetoric can stop these aren't things that are happening in the secret we do our best to involve families and provide supports for our students all of our students I want to make that clear with GSA not everything is going to be science and math after school and again students need different supports and we need to provide different opportunities for different students and thank
027you for sharing the story about was it your brother so you know I I think about adults that are coming out today um in what middle school or high school is like for them when they were 12 years old or 14 years old and how we could have provided different supports back then this isn't about politics it's not about Reagan it's not about Biden it's not about Trump it's about humanity and seeing kids come to us and our job is to provide an environment where they can be comfortable so I I just caution people to separate what you're seeing from different media outlets and juxtaposing what you're seeing and saying that's what it's like here we are compassionate I like to say level-headed open-minded um organization that will do everything that we can to help
028our kids and help our families I want to thank you again for coming tonight in LGBT than there was on math science and I I get a system [Music] it's interesting isn't it because in our business everything's important math is important science is important English is important depression is is important making sure kids are are feeling included is important um how we can improve is important it's all important it's part of our business our our nurses and our um uh well-being of our students is important all of the programs our Behavior Specialists are important our stem programs important we're being asked and rightfully I guess to take on a lot and a lot means everything what we can control is to take it on in a way that's not political our job in our board
029has created policy around politics we are in a political organization we are a student first organization thank you I'd like to ask Angela Wilkes to come forward at this time hi my name is Angela Wilkes um I'm at 14 Thomas Grove talking about air conditioning um just want to say um thank you for starting the analysis um but we need to start really make a comprehensive plan for installing air conditioning in all of the Pittsburgh schools the Williamsville School District outside of Buffalo passed the capital project just last year in 2022 to install air conditioning all of their schools and they expect the Project's weekly to completed in 2026. they're starting with elementary schools and then they're going to install it in the middle and high schools the project from planning to implementation is taking
030at least four years and Pittsburgh doesn't even have a concrete comprehensive plan yet I know some preliminary work has been done over the summer to do an analysis of what it would take to add AC to the second and third floor HVAC systems at five schools but we need to do more and put a comprehensive plan together because it can take years to upgrade all the schools and lots not just put Band-Aids on the problem while adding AC to just a few rooms because it might cost more upfront but it might be a more efficient use of capital funds if we add AC to the entire build building all at once but we need to do the cost analysis to determine what's the most efficient way we can answer all these questions if you have
031a detailed plan to my children at Thornell and please go there when you go there on October 5th and check out the second floor they both are in unfortunately in the classrooms on the second floor and it was literally unbearable to be there for orientation last Wednesday the auditorium had no airflow it was so humid that you couldn't even focus on listening to the teachers discuss the fifth grade curriculum all I could do was fan yourself with a paper hoping it would be over soon so you could Escape only to find out it was just as hot in the classroom and the rest of the school and it made me so frustrated to go from watching teachers dripping in sweat meeting their new students and parents and then walking past the main office and feel
032the cold AC blowing don't all of the teachers and students in the buildings are sort of the same comfortable environment to work and learn as the office staff my oldest daughter tends Barker and she said by the end of her first day last Thursday she couldn't even open her locker since her hands were so sweaty she said last year she missed her afternoon bus a few times because she couldn't get her locker open due to her hands being so sweaty we moved to Pittsford last year from Cincinnati Ohio and we're shocked that none of the schools in this highly reduced District have AC the elementary school my kids attended in Cincinnati was over a hundred years old my daughter asked me if they could figure out how to add AC to an over 100 year
033old building then why can't they figure out how to add AC to Barker last year was her first year at Barker and there were many days that she was so hot that she was she said it was extremely hard to focus and there was one day she overheated and felt so dizzy she said she walked straight into a locker message needs to be made a top priority since we will continue to have warmer and warmer temperatures each school year and poorer and poor outdoor air quality we're opening Windows is not even possible and my kids allergies and Asthma have gotten worse since moving here and opening Windows only makes their allergies and asthma worse and we don't want to get to the point where we have to start closing schools because it's too hot which
034has been happening in other districts across the country we need a comprehensive detail plan that shows how the district will upgrade the HVAC systems and add AC to all of its buildings over the next few years we have a new advocacy group with currently 79 members and our primary goal is to Advocate the Pittsburgh School District sorry um Justin wanted to be Equitable as Calkins is that's already dream of formal because all students and teachers deserve a comfortable environment not just people that attend Caulkins or work in the Minneapolis administration building thank you thank you Miss Wilkes thank you for coming tonight I'll just make a note it was horrible it was bad we all we went and toured um all nine buildings so we weren't in air-conditioned blown environment on the first day of
035school we went to nine buildings we went to all different floors uh and it was hot and um we're we're doing the information we're doing the work we need to do right now so like in any kind of big project or big proposition we're looking at Gathering all the data we need to gather bring the the data together to make the best informed decision and plan so that's the stuff we're working on right now thank you thank you and now I'd like to ask William excuse to come forward please I'd like to clarify something when I speak at the Board of Education meetings I am addressing the members of the Board of Education not your employee since February of this year I and several other people have spoken at each of your board meetings about
036the obscene books you insist on providing to the students in the Pittsford schools we have established that these books are indeed obscene by quoting sexually graphic excerpts from them and showing you sexually graphic pictures from the books and yet you insist on continuing to push these books on the children there clearly is no literary or educational benefit from these obscene books they're just meant to sexualize the children in an attempt to prepare them to be exploited by pedophiles and other sexual deviants is this the Legacy you want to leave your own children when they grow up do you think they'll be boasting about how their mom or dad filled the Pittsburgh schools with obscene books now I have a difficult issue to address it's difficult for me to speak about this because I know some
037of the people affected and they are very good people a few weeks ago there was an arrest of a Pittsford resident who was a middle school teacher in another school district he's charged with communicating with students who are minors by the internet and providing sexually graphic pictures to them I'd like to know how this is different from what you are doing to the thousands of minor students in the Pittsford schools your policies are a pedophile's dream you start sexualizing children in kindergarten under the guise of inclusivity and acceptance the sexualization gets more and more intense as the children work their way through the various grades by the time they reach Middle School they have had years of sexualization then they are assigned to a quote unquote trusted adult these people have access to these children
038all day without parental involvement how long until there is an arrest in the Pittsford schools of a teacher or staff member for the inappropriate criminal involvement with a student thank you Mr Excuse I I just I'm sorry and I know I'm an employee but I just have I have to speak out about just a portion of that it's Mr Excuse it's it's and from my perspective so you just shared your opinion from my perspective it's it's what you shared is just warped as far as the work we're doing with it with with with with a trusted adult so making a connection that our students in a real complicated World shouldn't have a trusted adult to turn to is it so in school adult or our students need a trusted adult to turn to and in
039every profession you're going to find exceptions to the rule that you just shared in our school district our students need to feel comfortable with our staff and our teachers and they do and I support that I support the fact that they need a trusted adult and I support the fact that we're doing the right thing for our kids relative to connecting them with adults that have their best intention in mind I'm going to leave it there thank you Mr skews right we're about we are very familiar with you at this point so Mr Excuse what I would like to say if you would allow me what I would like to say is when you complete the public comment process you were to State all of the comments that you will bring forward to the board
040so that we can be prepared to assist you in with your concerns and also we can be prepared for knowing that we have young adults and children viewing these meetings also that we would be prepared for that also and be mindful of that so some of your comments are extra and highly inflammatory however we hear you each time nine months and we welcome you to come next month thank you at this point is there a call for adjournment thank you Sarah and Renee all in favor all opposed thank you