001good evening everyone and welcome to the Pittsburgh Board of Education meeting if you would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and justice for all could I please get a motion on the agenda all those in uh wait any edits all those in favor any opposed that carries thank you if I could please welcome Miss konar to the potom for her report the one and only please stand oh thank you thank you thank you all right this is slipping I'm not happy first of all I would like to introduce everybody to my family who they're here tonight my husband Alan Osborne everybody calls him Coach because while he was teaching he was also a coach Fabulous Coach my daughter-in-law Jill my grandson Isaac who's in sixth grade at Calkins Road my son Gabe and Eliana
002is on his lap and Eliana is a kindergartener at Mendon Center and my grandson Chris who's in second grade at Mendon Center and my daughter-in-law Patty who is a teacher at Sutherland High School oh thank you this is wonderful you're out of time [Laughter] I am just warming up and thanks to all my Jeff Road friends that surprised me and showed up tonight so this is definitely a celebration now I will start good evening I have had the opportunity to present aboard it to the Board of Education many times over the past decades as a building principal on some of these occasions I show up tonight is one of those occasions I have also been aware of the continued thirst for data data makes our world go round as it informs our next lesson in
003the classroom and our following action steps as a district this presentation is chock full of data it is subtle crafty but substantial so please listen closely to the story I'm living my wonderful life I'm minding my own business when Sean Clark calls he asked me if I would be interested and I leave the conversation with uh let me think about it please I then open up my drawer of pearls and ask if any of my pearl necklaces are up for the task at hand and I could almost hear the necklaces saying shouting shouting pick me choose me so I walk into Jeff Road Elementary on Monday January 9th to introduce myself and this is what I see I see Annie Sanford Kerry Maslin and Tori Berra all Sutherland grads who are teachers I see Julie
004Wilson Melanie Ernst and Evie Costanza my grandson's past teachers I see Mary kokinda and ilt Buddy from way back I see Liz Bartolotta a Sutherland parent I see Dwayne serbone a friend for the years then I see Laura griffoni wearing a Mickey Mouse headband she's a new bestie that I just didn't know yet I then see Barb Shapiro with her reading dog actually reading a book as he's walking along a past colleague and always a wonderful friend I also see a staff that is ready to create a new future I see a staff with fortitude they showed up they are a force of all that is good they are ready to carve A New Path so here we go we are creating we are digging in we are Innovative classroom communities are in design to
005phase in for the 23-24 school year these communities run deeper than class lists it will be a classroom where students teachers and staff can Thrive tap into each other's blend of strengths and needs to be our best where we all watch out for each other we are weaving our Incident Management team and emergency preparedness into our lives at JRE to build a sense of security and empowerment we are going all techy with the parent questionnaire for placement we are looking for efficiency with a nod to our families that gather information and communicate virtually we are in partnership with PTSA our co-presidents here tonight to give our students a rich enhancement to school life we have a video for you It's All About Us taken from January to April thank you from the bottom of my
006heart to Aaron Brady and thanks to Anthony Juris who knows better than to let me push buttons so I will let him push this button [Music] by the way [Music] listen there give me all you got and don't hold it back [Music] no offense to you don't waste your time here's why because I'm happy [Music] cause I belong s [Music] if you feel like that's what you want to do bring me down [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] understand no offense to you don't waste your time because I'm happy [Music] Ness [Music] bring me down okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you feel like happiness is [Music] I should probably warn you I'll be just fine [Music] no offense to you don't waste your time here's why because I'm happy [Music] let's go Bring Me Down [Music]
007[Applause] [Music] if you feel like happiness is [Music] [Applause] us lots to celebrate so to conclude one of our first tenants of Education watch the action determine outcomes and plan going forward using the end as our beginning and this is the action I see at Jeff Road I see a community of school family I see a full staff who gives without reservation without stipulation and with purpose I see a full staff who strengthens us all at JRE and our full District I see a full staff with an open mind a warm heart and a listening ear it has been an honor to serve thank you for thinking of me thank you [Applause] Miss Connor Thank you for answering the phone when Sean called and thank you for that presentation it was great I I will
008add I want to thank your family for sharing you with us uh it's uh it's super hard for parents and students and staff to go through a mid-year transition and leadership in any building and when when Sean and I were talking about who we could possibly call you were the first one that came to mind and and just as a side Liz and I were both colleagues as principals [Music] um I was a lot younger than that I was I was just a baby but I always looked up to Liz uh as a principal colleague and she probably has the most beautiful heart um that that you could find and what Jeff Road really needed this year more than ever was love I needed guidance someone that could facilitate student learning and the song was
009perfect because I'm happy you brought a lot of happiness and joy to Jeff Road into the district and we thank you Liz for for stepping up and for all you do [Applause] okay next on our agenda is the 2023-2024 proposed budget presentation and adoption so there's there's 75 people here for Liz you do not have to stay for the entire board meeting so coach thank you we'll call it time out here for you foreign [Laughter] okay well here we go uh so the agenda for tonight is to go over our uh our guidelines our enacted budget proposed budget summary of Revenue uh all the propositions that you'll see at the end I would highlight that none of the propositions have any impact on the taxes let me answer any questions and and listen to any
010comments you might have the purpose of tonight as we think about where we've been so you've heard so far over well over three hours of presentations relative to the budget and that primarily was done behind the scenes with different um administrators and and staff that have any significant control over budgetary areas that work has been brought together it's been processed through the district planning team several times it's been juxtaposed to the tax cap and tonight at the end should the the proposed budget be approved it will shift from the work of the District staff to that being your budget if that makes sense so with that you've heard in all of our presentations how important our budget guidelines are and these serve as the Cornerstone to how we decide to spend our money how we
011make decisions relative to our taxpayer money to the experiences we want from our students so in here you'll see things like it was a priority for us this year to make sure that our schools remain safe from a physical and emotional standpoint that our facilities remain safe and that we continue to increase that safety you'll hear things throughout it's critical that in our school district that we continue with a rigorous engaging curriculum that supports our students we believe in the whole child so recognizing that all students have different needs different desires different interests we provide a breadth of opportunities for our students that we did not want to lose those we also wanted to make sure that we continue to make sure our students feel welcomed and affirmed and and bring in that the concept
012of inclusionary practices so our students can feel safe and validated our whole mantra for the last several years is that it doesn't matter who you are when you walk through our doors you're part of our Pittsford family and we want to make sure that you feel good about being here and we've done everything that we can to promote that professional development is huge in any organization so you'll see in our budget a budget that reflects our need to continue a high level of professional development so we can continue to be on The Cutting Edge of best practices especially as we consider bringing on new staff this year we have about 43 retirements when you look at paraprofessionals and teachers combined that means those are 43 new bodies into the Pittsburgh Central School District and professional
013development is an area that allows all of us to continue to grow together also this year we recognize that we've gone through our community and our nation has gone through a significant impact whether you call it a recession or high inflation but the cost of living has gone up so we need to make sure that we not only provide a high level of engaging rigorous curriculum and experiences for our students but also do that in a way that's sensitive to our community and so we've done that not only thinking about this year but the next five years in advance of how we're going to make sure we're able to maintain and sustain the the high quality that we deliver but we're doing it this year with the tax cap that's at .08 which which is
014not 0.8 it's 0.08 which means it's very close to zero which means that we're asking the community for very little of an increase to the levy while at the same time being able to sustain a high level of education for our students uh we have leaned on our partners we do a lot of sharing with our town and our village I think it's it's a feather in our cap that we maintain the highest level Bond rating that a school can have we've just passed a referendum at the highest rate in our history and that is important to note because the money will help with our infrastructure which will help with the community's investment which will help our students be able to continue in education in the type of environment physically that we would expect in
015Pittsburgh we've done a lot of advocacy with legislators not only relatives of funding but other areas in particular end of note is the exhaustive practices of going to Albany and writing and signing petitions and going on the senate floor and asking for more state aid for our fair share and we're finally getting it so while we have a .08 tax cap we're able to offset that Revenue because our state aid is finally becoming whole again it's been a tough year to try to figure out our budget because there's a lot of moving Parts some of the parts helped us this year some of them heard us this year and and our goal is to figure out all these moving Parts in the next five to seven years and and how they're going to impact us
016our utilities have almost doubled uh in cost this year I think we're right around six hundred thousand dollars more in utility costs are funds from the federal government will be expiring next year so we've had about six million dollars in federal funds some of them went away this year some will go the rest will go away next year so as part of the long-term planning we're going to have to make decisions about what we're doing with Staffing that's specifically allocated due to federal funds so that will be in future budgets we've done a lot with bus drivers and and other hard to fill positions which has impacted our budget specifically because of compression and minimum wage so we are forecasting minimum wage to be at fifteen dollars we have several employees that are under 15.
017so we had a raise their hourly rate to 15 which caused the domino effect based on how long other staff members in that area have been with us so that is an increase to our budget we also have more students that are attending our BOCES programs which are phenomenal which means that they're with us part-time and they're at BOCES part-time to learn a trade or a craft and and being able to leave not only with a Pittsford diploma but with additional degrees and certifications for being Workforce ready we've also finished this year our one-to-one initiative so you'll see that as part of the budget so all of our students will have access to a one-to-one laptop as well as accessibility so you've seen where we've been in excuse me where we're heading May 16th is
018our budget vote this slide really um is a huge benefit um while the the state has not finalized their budget it's it's late for the first time in a long time it's really late they continue to offer extenders which means that we feel very comfortable that what's in the budget will maintain in the budget the other part that's really positive here is that in the governor's budget this year we are receiving what the formula says we should receive for financial first state aid which is a huge positive so I'm going to turn over to Mike vespie but before I do Mike joined us this year and I had a lot of balls in here with with bus drivers and with a referendum and with federal funds and with our budget and he and Leanne have
019done an amazing job putting all these pieces together and creating our budget in real short order so thank you Mike thank you Leanne and with that I'm going to turn over to Mike thank you all right thanks Mike I appreciate that and I'm going to again give credit to Leanne she really puts everything together and when we look at the process I'm gonna just back up real quick um we start the process officially in terms of the calendar in November we had meetings with every budget originator throughout the district had about I think we took away about 35 bullet points and everybody had an opportunity to talk about what the current budget offers what what improvements they'd like to see and really that helped put this budget together so there's a lot behind the scenes
020that took place before we got to that first budget Workshop final requests were submitted in January and then as you see that set the stage for the budget workshops that Mr Pirro mentioned you know you've already spent probably three and a half four hours you know going through this information at our previous meeting so really a lot of work goes into the budget while we say that the budget process officially starts November 10th it's really a year-round process in terms of administering it it's just that the development actually starts then in terms of the state aid estimates it's just an outline of some cautions there's a lot a lot of times people will look in social media or find an article in terms of state aid these are estimates and an interesting uh interestingly enough
021I had some colleagues who are new to the field say oh gosh what are we going to do right or can we ask the board to adopt a budget because the state budget is in time and if you've been in the game long enough we were always used to not having State budgets on time so what we do is we build in contingencies and we're conservative in terms of our estimates so the numbers don't always match up to the estimates because they're based on estimates of expenses in this current year so we're always conservative there the other aspect That's Unique if from an advocacy standpoint if we continue to have late budgets we're really going to have to talk about that because in the past Boards of Education have been able to modify the actual
022tax levy in August when you want to set the rate that's no longer you're no longer able to do that because of the tax cap legislation so this will have to be something that we really keep an eye on but again as as Mr Perry alluded to Good News you see about 4.3 million dollars more in Foundation Aid after you know really more than a decade of advocating for the district's fair share of foundation Aid the district has really been underfunded for the past 10 years in terms of State support and when that happens from a revenue standpoint the taxpayers pick up the difference and so it's it's amazing and it happened at the right time in terms of our Revenue as you'll see in the next slide um you see that property tax levy
023proposal is .08 and as you recall in the first budget Workshop I covered the tax cap factors and assumptions in depth when we talked today about about the discussion tonight the nice the nice thing is we're now on the other side of we know exactly what it is based on what happened in terms of the March 28th referendum so some other significant factors um you've got the overall state aid increase right and then you can see the increase in the County sales tax budget and then the other local is the interest earnings increase that you know is good on one hand in terms of our investments but maybe not so much on the economy when we put all of this together in terms of a balanced budget this is the first time you've seen it
024all you know it's this is this is all coming together tonight the budget to budget increase is 3.95 percent or 155.5 million and you can see in each of the budget program areas the changes in each of the areas and I'm not going to you know for the sake of time really you know Mike just mentioned all of the significant factors that have gone into that in all of the presentations from the administrative team we've really went you know school by School in area by area in terms of what's changed within this budget including the undistributed budget you'll see that decrease is based on debt service so what are we looking at all schools proposed budget increase of roughly 5.97 percent and you can see that increase in Career and Technical education that was mentioned
025the elementary school budget that was previously outlined in the budget Workshop three middle schools and then high schools um Central student services an overall increase of 2.84 percent and then 6.75 in the central instructional services Central admin you know really the the only increase of substance is for the automated voting software which is the first year expense and we put it through BOCES so we'll get Revenue to offset that expense in the in the following year and I would say that it really went well in terms of the March 28th vote so I think we're already seeing a return on our investment in terms of less labor in the back office in terms of the budget poll books and the efficiency so it's been outstanding so far really Support Services is the story we've got
026the increase in transportation contract expenses contract transportation and in in salaries for renegotiated contract and then the big change in Factor on the budget is the reduction in debt service which really we talked a lot about from December until now as we went through the process with the capital project vote so what does it all look like together you can see 40 percent schools Thirty thirty seven percent unallocated expenses 12 Support Services and seven percent in central student services and we look at the administrative ratio which I'll show at the budget hearing we try to keep that number under 10 percent when we look at the three-part budget this is just a different way of looking at the budget overall by object of expense this is what's required by the state when we look at
027the chart of accounts so you can see overall the increases in salaries and benefits really constitute if you look at those two numbers combined really makes up the majority of of of a School District budget we talk a lot about supplies and materials but you can see from a percent of budget standpoint it's really minor and again that huge decrease in the district's Debt Service again some information to look at salary and benefits are roughly 79 percent by object and then what the increase is and then this is a different way to look at our revenues what you see is 72 percent of the revenue comes from the tax levy 18 from state aid and that's where we've actually seen a positive shift in the last two years we are going to continue to advocate
028for more State support which is difficult for our district because of the wealth factors being above average wealth slightly but in you know and and the factor that that drives in terms of the formula so we always have to be very conservative because we do derive the majority of our revenue from the tax levy not this year though based on that .08 which is really you know nil so now I'm going to get into the the legal requirements of what takes place so the first aspect of the vote is to vote on the budget then the second aspect is the capital reserve fund and this is for the normal bus purchase which is no impact because we're using savings to pay for the new buses we're going to create a new capital reserve because we've
029already we've used all of the capacity and the previously approved reserve and then we spent a lot of time during the capital project phase of our discussions on discussing the swimming facilities Reserve that has to be voter authorized as well as a new capital reserve we've covered the information on bus purchases we are reducing the fleet by four buses we're looking to withdraw 1.7 million which will generate about 1.2 million in Aid back so roughly about 69 percent and here's a breakdown of the buses we are purchasing for the first time seven passenger SUV because we're hoping that if we continue to experience a labor shortage we can use this vehicle to do more individualized specialized runs that come up rather than using a big bus and we've we've found several times that you know
030this year that that would be very helpful again no impact on the tax levy or tax rate and here are the actual Reserves that you'll see when you go in to vote just some summary facts .08 in terms of the tax levy is really the smallest tax levy increase since the Inception of the uh of the tax cap so this is really I think a positive news uh in terms of of putting this budget forward and 3.95 from a budget to budget increase is really I know it seems like it's hot but it's really not in comparison to some of the inflation-based budgets that I've seen in the county so I think what you're going to see from a summary standpoint is we're probably one of the lower budget to budget increases in the county
031again you know I think a great job was done in terms of foundation Aid and and what took place and that's something that we're going to be very we're very happy about we're going to have to be we're gonna have to monitor it because now that the foundation Aid is fully phased in and fully paid we're not really sure what's going to happen next in terms of future state aid proposals so we always celebrate for the moment in terms of this budget proposal but we're certainly going to be cautious in a long-range financial plan as we look to the Future so Board of action uh required is first you'll see in your packet the authorization of the budget adoption and then you also have to approve the property tax report card which is attached in
032your packet and then Leanne tomorrow after that's approved because it's a requirement to do so within 24 hours we'll submit that information to the state the state will then make sure that that information is published throughout the entire State prior to the budget vote day um the tax cap and proposed tax levy submission now is official once you you vote so we'll go make adjustments and I can finalize my memo to Mr Piro and we've already taken care of the administrative salary disclosure I am required and I'm going to be brief but I am required to discuss the ARP um and that's the the federal funds that we have remaining that need to be spent and then I've got to review the district's plan for foundation Aid talk about a little bit of irony the
033state has withheld the district's Foundation Aid for over a decade and then when they finally give it to us which was promised to us starting in 2007 we have to do a plan and talk about how we're now we're going to spend the money because it exceeds a certain percentage so we've met as an administrative team and discussed that and we had to do the same thing last year we published the information on our website we make it available for public comment and feedback so that is a requirement so those are all the legal requirements so the American Rescue plan the ARP funding um we're using it for coordinator of diversity inclusion and homelessness tutoring center staff we're doing quite a bit in terms of our network and to protect it and when is online
034testing it's tomorrow you know so you know we've got a lot of funds made you know make to make sure that that's all going to go smoothly and employee benefits we have done some amendments for mental health services literacy coaches math and reading Specialists and potentially we're going to look at do an amendment to get more devices in terms of a replacement plan and or supplies so the information is available and required to to cover this publicly and then ask for any feedback from the community got to do the same thing with Foundation Aid the increase again that it's money that really has been owed to us there's criteria for what we can spend it on so I outline that and then just in summary uh we have enhanced and increased um Staffing to meet
035the needs and some of the Staffing was in place but the Staffing is there for increasing graduation rates and eliminating the achievement Gap Etc we've used money for supplies and materials and software again for Hardware network security so some of the same things this money is going to be used to offset utilities it's Opera it's our general operating expense we've had that huge increase in utilities and the same thing for transportation and then certainly addressing social emotional health and adequate resources for our ell students so roughly 5.8 million we have a 6 million dollar plan that covers what we're going to use the funds for again we're open to comments and feedback in that period before we officially submit the plan to the State Education Department public hearing is May 9th I'll cover some of
036the same materials I'll probably go a little quicker and um I also have to cover the budget and the three-part budget format when I do the public hearing I also talk a little bit more about the property tax report card in particular the use of Reserve funds and what we intend to do with it so that's also enclosed for your consideration tonight and then of course we have the budget vote questions all right at this time I would entertain a motion to approve the proposed budget and um the propositions thanks Sarah thanks Emily any discussion I'd just like to quickly um say that you know the budget boils down to a number a tax rate and a levy rate but so much goes into it a lot of it's been discussed tonight but is Mr
037vespie mentioned it's a Year's work um an ongoing process to develop the budget and um Mr Pirro Mr vespie Leanne um all the section heads all the different District planning teams put countless hours in developing that budget and the presentations that we see here that help the board synthesize all this information together so I just want to give a heartfelt thanks on behalf of the board to everybody involved in that budget process we really do appreciate it it helps the district operate in a very efficient and effective way so thank you for that any other comments okay all those in favor any opposed that carries thank you with that we'll move on to approval of the February 28th minutes I will be abstaining as well Emily the second thank you any edits all those in
038favor any opposed that carries boss will be passing um you need a motion rather on the March 14th minutes um Renee you'll be abstaining can I get a motion in a second thanks Emily and Sarah any edits all those in favor any opposed that carries as well thank you moving on to Board of Education reports um with several meetings uh I know Sarah you wanted to report out thanks Ted I just wanted to quickly say we had our last legislative committee meeting last week we had Regent nor would come in and talk to us a little bit about what's going on from his office and he does a really nice job of kind of bringing everything back to people and students and sometimes that gets lost when we're talking to Albany and talking about numbers
039and Aid and everything else that we need for our district but I love the way that he brings people back to the Forefront and just like we do here in Pittsburgh students first so it's a great presentation unfortunately Regent Hale was not able to join us but we looked to schedule something with him in the near future and I know we have on here a meeting for May 3rd but that's been canceled so we won't be needing that to wrap up our season so great thank you anybody else have anything all right moving on to dates to remember there are a number of them starting with April 24th it's the PTSA lifetime achievement awards we have a couple past board members that will be being honored there so hopefully we'll see all of you there
040schools will be closed on April 28th for superintendent's conference day May 4th we have a visit over to Sutherland by show hands who will be attending great thank you um next regularly scheduled board meeting will be May 9th and uh got the May 24th is Mineral County School boards association annual meeting with that I got to do a motion to receive the capital project vote I need a motion to approve the capital project Bond resolution not that one just a regular motion of acceptance to the record of the March 28th Capital project vote can I get a motion for that thanks Emily thanks Dave uh any kind of discussion all those in favor any opposed that motion carries thank you moving to the BOCES annual election um by a show of hands for each seat
041um no motions or seconds needed we're going to be doing three seats for the BOCES board um looking to resolve the cast one vote for election for Amy West resident of Ohio Falls Lima Central School District all those in favor any opposed great seat number two cast one vote for the election of Lisa Layton resident of Penfield Central School District all those a favor any opposed great and for the third seat election of Rebecca Hicks resident East Rochester Union Free School District all those in favor any opposed excellent and then on the administrative budget vote for BOCES um ask for approval by a show of hands for the 2023-2024 BOCES administrative budget all those in favor any opposed that carries thank you very much okay moving on to Mr vespie in the financial report yes
042for your consideration as the acceptance of the March Treasures report um of significance is the uh the 2.3 million dollars received uh and and taxes from Monroe County so we're made whole by the county and then an effort is made to collect those taxes so that Revenue came in on the revenue side on the school lunch side we had earlier conversations we again we continue to do well uh participation is up um and and that's offset also by the fact that we're at minimal labor and short labor in some areas so um we continue to do well in that in that budget and in the spirit of maintaining really a neutral budget we we continue to look at investing in our equipment and and replacement and repair that concludes my report great thank you can
043I please get a motion to accept the treasurer's report thank you Sarah thanks Jeff any discussion all those in favor any opposed that motion carries okay also for your consideration is the third quarterly extra classroom activities report uh can I get a motion on the third quarter extracurricular activities report thank you David thanks Renee um I need to edits all those in favor any opposed that motion carries all right next for your consideration uh is uh an adjustment to the tech sir Sherry Reserve uh and that's from the reserve fund to unrestricted fund balance and and the reason for this is because we we recently settled one of the tax certs and we had additional funds for a worst case scenario budgeted so before we do a year end we have to do a Reconciliation
044and we have to transfer those funds out so that those funds will go to unrestricted fund balance which at the end of the year if we need to reallocate into any of the reserve funds we'll have the ability to do that but it's better to be proactive to do this now than to let it become an audit finding you know where they say that we're holding on to to too many funds and so that that's what necessitated this by doing it early this gets us ready for the audit at your end okay please get a motion on the tax sure Sherry Reserve thanks Jeff thanks Renee any discussion all those in favor any opposed that motion carries next for your consideration is the approval of next year's Food Service budget and price is again very
045proactive to do it now to get that set two key points in terms of the Food Service program one is we're still we're watching very carefully what's going to happen at the state level in terms of funding the the school you know Food Services Program because it's both breakfast and lunch so if that happens you know we may be in a situation where we consider moving back into that regulated program depending on the financial consideration certainly that would take some time and it would also require more Staffing which we already struggling to get but we would have to take a look at that at that point right the other thing that's significant is obviously in light of the reports that I've been doing on a monthly basis there's no recommended change to the pricing that
046currently exists so I think that's positive news in terms of next year very good may I please get a motion on the 2023-2024 Food Services budget and prices thank you Robin thank you David any discussion so unfortunately uh you know there's pros and cons to everything unfortunately when you have a state program the what we serve and how we serve it is very regulated um and it and oftentimes being in the program leads to food waste but you have to put the items on the plate you have to offer them and so with the the requirements the nutritional requirements right and the regulations and then what's required in terms of the offerings we would need more staff to assist with the preparation and what we have to have available you know but on the flip
047side the funding will come directly based on participation and I will say this to be positive 10 on a positive note the menus and the foods that are available in the program compared to when the regulations changed um you know some seven or eight years ago there's there's more options that are you know that are healthier and and appealing if you will then kind of the shock to the system when it first happened from a regulatory change so you know just to be fair things have changed so it wouldn't necessarily be that negative but we'd have to look carefully at it obviously any other questions I might have a question I'm not sure if that was to happen and the universal lunches were maybe approved over the summer is that something that then would go
048to the state or would it if it was a federal program would it just automatically we would have that in New York state and we would maybe even consider it for the fall or we would we be looking further out than that no so the state would off you know the state obviously authorize the funding right so that that's a big decision for from the state standpoint and then this the earliest that I could see this happening would probably be for the following year because we'd have to we'd have to send staff to training we'd have to make sure that we have a plan going forward um and the other complicated is to speak frankly and we have you know a long-standing director that is is retiring and so we're going to have you know
049new staff that's in place so with a combination of those things from a leadership Viewpoint I think it would be something that we would consider for the following year maybe we'd be able to run it in tandem maybe a year from now and then Implement for the following year yep any other questions okay all those in favor any opposed motion carries okay for your consideration is the capital project Bond resolution this is the resolution uh it's it it comes from our attorney it's a requirement to um uh basically authorize now the financing of the Project based on the uh the approval on March 28th so this is the procedural vote that you need okay can I please get a motion to approve the capital project Bond resolution thanks Jeff thanks Robin um I will be
050doing a roll call vote please say either yay or nay myself yay Robin Dave Burke yes Jeff Casey Emily K Sarah Palacio Renee Sanchez kazakis yes the motion is carried thank you okay um moving on to Mr Clark in the Human Resources if we could just bring up the Sutherland easement yeah just sorry yeah just so so real quick this has already been something that the the board authorized it was quite some time ago um in order to just bring us all back up to speed in terms of The Proposal uh we assembled um our architect myself Jeff Beardsley and the representatives from the village that attended the easement if you if you picture the Bus Loop at Sutherland on off of the Southern Street it's right the easement would go from that top corner
051all the way down past the tennis courts essentially a new water main what's changed since it was first reviewed in 2015 is they'll do that lateral Drilling so the concern was that they were originally going to have to cut down all those trees they'll go they'll go right underneath the sidewalk the trees so there's very little disruption uh it's not scheduled for this summer it would happen the following summer um you know so our only discussion is to to look and see what activities are taking place but really minimal impact on that driveway um and it's a really good thing that we had the discussion in terms of the collaboration that Mr Pirro mentioned earlier because uh the village was considering Paving that street now they'll hold off because once that new water main is
052put in then they'll redo the hydrants across the street you know so you'll have disruption there so um I didn't see anything after our meeting and discussion with our team and our architect and and Jeff Beardsley that would really you know change the decision that was already made it's just now the project has been approved so um so it's really just a discussion item to bring you up to speed in terms of it I don't think there's further action that's needed at this time thank you now we're moving on to the human resource report Mr Clark thank you good evening for your consideration we have the professional staff report you'll see three screw-related professional appointments one supervisory technical appointment one appointment for a teacher fellow one administrator resignation for retirement with 28.3 years of service
053one certificated staff resignation for retirement with 35.7 years of service we have 18 School related professional resignations for retirement totaling 288.49 years of service two certificated staff resignations for school-related professional resignations one supervisory technical resignation and we have spring coaching salaries and volunteer approvals for you as well may I please get a motion on the professional staff report thank you and thank you any discussion all those in favor any opposed the motion carries thank you next for your consideration is the support staff report you'll see one clerical appointment one clerical retirement with 24 years of service One Transportation appointment two Transportation resignations One custodial appointment one custodial resignation we have one custodial retirement with 25 years of service one food service appointment and two food service worker retirements may I please get a motion on
054the staff support staff for so this is a tongue twister support staff report thank you Robin thank you Jeff any discussion all those in favor any opposed that motion carries thank you thank you uh next for your considerations position Auditorium and theater coordinator which is part of the board packet happy to answer any questions about that if you need to may I please get a motion on the auditorium theater coordinator thank you Renee thanks Emily any discussion or questions all those in favor any opposed that motion carries thank you next year consideration is the position student and family engagement coordinator which we are taking a a current position that is going into retirement and just doing a little restructure with that and the information again is in the four packet be happy to answer any
055questions if you need okay thank you uh may I please get a motion on the student family engagement coordinator position thank you Robin thanks Renee uh any questions all those in favor any opposed that motion carries thank you and finally we have um first readings for tenure for your consideration thank you very much moving on to student services in muscata good evening for your consideration there is an application for ETC which is a foreign exchange agency that would like to be considered to be added to our list of approved agencies and if approved they would be able to start bringing students to be considered for our Foreign Exchange program starting in the 23-24 school year thank you can I get approval of the foreign exchange agency please motion thanks Sarah thanks Jeff any discussion questions
056all those in favor any opposed that motion carries thank you special education report Miss Woods good evening all committee recommendations are on the consent agenda thank you superintendent's report Mr Pirro thank you there is not a need for an executive session this evening for your consideration we do have a field trip request to Orlando Florida and that is for Mendon High School Deca team may please get a motion for the field trip request thanks Emily thanks Renee any discussion questions all those in favor any opposed motion carries and not to be outdone we also have a field trip approval request to Orlando Florida from the Sutherland High School DACA team motion to approve the Sutherland High School field trip request thanks Dave thanks Jeff all those in favor any opposed that motion carries I'd like
057to thank Girl Scout Troop 60211 [Music] for Their donation of 1954.90 for the purchase of a new Gaga pet to include five balls and a rule signed to be placed at Thornell Elementary School if you have questions about what a Gaga pit is please ask someone other than me okay well so I look forward to that so thank you to the Girl Scout Troop for that donation uh just a couple other pieces of business uh to the seniors where they go are you kidding me they left early so the two seniors that are left you could take tomorrow off and congratulations for being in your final quarter of your high school career and thank you for being here tonight [Applause] if you could text them it's too late I am not signing your forms anymore
058I just wanted to say congratulations to our seniors for this being your final marking period uh finish strong please try not to sneak out of your classes like you do board rooms and uh go ahead and get out of here you too can feel free to go too have a good have a good night everyone all right uh this week we are meeting with uh several um different agencies to talk about the PGA tournament especially as it relates to Allen Creek a little bit worried about the location of Allen Creek to Oak Hill and what that traffic pattern is going to look like I do know internally we're looking at hiring security for the front of Allen Creek for both any unanticipated traffic that may try to come in but also any pedestrians that may
059be trying to cut across then that whole concept of any strangers on campus so our last piece of business is really going to be looking at the routing I'm trying to con under better understand what streets will be one way how it will impact our buses and our transportation with enough time to communicate to family so that meeting I believe is Thursday morning some more to come there we've been through a whirlwind the last two weeks with a lot of threats and now Pittsburgh but but locally we've had evacuations we've had lockdowns we've had some credible threats I'm not not incredible threats and we've watched five local districts go through different types of emergency procedures after the first one which was Hilton who received the pipe bomb threats they went into an all-district evacuation which
060caused us to convene our team to see how we would do a nine school all district evacuation what that would look like and what our Readiness is for um so internally we found some gaps we also learned a lot from Hilton so we invited the Monroe County Sheriffs to an all administrative meeting we did our tabletop exercises to better prepare for different scenarios specifically we talked about what would it be like for to evacuate all nine buildings one of the things that I really appreciate in the county is that we all share things that work well and things that don't work so well so areas that I feel probably across the county where people would fall down school districts would fall down or into two areas one is in communication to the families immediately one
061of the things that we learned from Hilton um was that once parents found out via social media that something was happening and that there was an evacuation parents flooded to the schools which caused both chaos and more of a concern relative to safety because emergency vehicles kind of get through and now you're contending with crowds and so we've worked on and Nancy does a great job with us along with Nancy but the Monroe County Sheriff's um public information officer being able to communicate real quickly to families to share as much as we can in a short amount of time with a sentence that says more to come um but what we what we learned is we need families to understand that we know what we're doing in this in this these incidences uh and the
062best thing for them to do is to just wait for the next the next text message uh we looked at our evacuation sites we looked at our staging sites um and probably the hardest thing looking at nine buildings and six thousand students is that whole concept of reunification of students with their families and what does that look like so I will share that we have more work to do to make the that process uh better and more comprehensive we never really thought of a scenario because there are geographic distribution of our schools where all nine buildings may have to evacuate and and sure enough there there's uh Hilton just one through one that we we never thought of so that will be work that we continue to do do this now through the summer and
063then the last thing I would just highlight is our Capital project again was passed and now the community is going to see a lull of um they're not going to see anything happen for a little bit because now we're in the design process and we're prioritizing in the capital project what's next anything that we design has to be sent to the state for approval that state approval process is around six months um at the worst the the years ago it was up to a year they're better staffed now so our best estimate is five to six months for approval so we are in the design phase of uh 10 vestibule entrances so remember we have the the entrance here for parents and District visitors and then we have our nine other buildings all with different
064subtle differences that we're going to have to design to make the the the one-door entrance as secure as possible we're also in that design phase looking at doors locks cameras so we prioritized all the safety stuff first that should be done in June we have a pretty significant meeting tomorrow with our construction managers and our architects and so we're hoping that that work is done in June we're able to submit it shortly thereafter to the state and then have approval at some point next year where we can begin in the spring all of that the security work the other things that we've done in the in the interim as we've secured all of our large rooms of assembly so right now our our gems our auditoriums this room that prior there wasn't a mechanism to
065lock it from the inside and so now um that that's that's done so we feel like and we do while we do have to wait we feel a lot better waiting knowing that we have a way if we do go into lockdown to secure in real short order every room uh so I don't know if there's any questions around where we are with a capital project or with our drills okay thank you thank you Mr pero uh moving on can I please get a motion on the consent agenda thanks thanks Robin any discussion all those in favor any opposed that motion carries thank you anybody have any old business anybody have any new business I have one item of new business and uh that is I'd like to announce with mixed emotions that after nine
066years I will not be seeking a fourth term I do plan to have some future remarks at a meeting in the future with that we will move on to public comment yes nine years of service they had your commitment and dedication to our district and I am announcing that I am seeking a second term as a Pittsford School Board member and please vote in the upcoming election on May 16th and budget vote and thank you for the opportunity to serve thank you Robin anybody else have any new business okay moving on to public comments prior to public comment this evening I would like to say for individuals that aren't comfortable with our public comment process or sharing your comments in this format you can still reach the Board of Education via an email there are
067alternate methods the board meetings are to conduct necessary business in front of the Public Public comment is not a required component of the meeting with that we will begin our public comment for this evening you are reminded that you are asked to state your name and address remember that we have young listeners watching and learning keep your comments to three minutes or less and also I know that tonight with what's been submitted we're going to have contrasting views on issues please be civil and cordial to each other and respect people's differing opinions our first person this evening is Michelle marks hi hi I'm Michelle my address is 14 Ravina Crescent as a relatively new member of the Pittsford Community my husband and I chose to live here for a number of reasons but Chief among
068them was the reputation of the Pittsford School District like many members of our community we value a strong public education system one of the qualities that I personally value most in a school is helping students learn to think for themselves I think that most of us would agree that we want our kids to graduate high school not only knowing how to solve for x the history of World War II and how to write a research paper but also how to make decisions based off of available data and how to live out their own personal values how can this happen if we are Sheltering our kids and controlling the minutia of their lives when we want to have books removed from a curriculum or from the library we are stealing growth opportunities from our children what
069better way to bring up difficult topics than through literature I love reading books with difficult topics to my children because I want them to know that nothing is out of bounds for discussion with me or their dad I want them to hear new thoughts and ideas and talk to us about them in order to allow students to think for themselves we must give them the time and space to grow while offering an open supportive environment to discuss difficult and nuanced topics with information and imagery available to our kids at every turn it's more important than ever to help our kids develop their own inner voice at the most recent Board of Education meetings there have been comments about books which were felt to be inappropriate for high school students one of these books is girl
070in Translation by Gene Kwok the book is a 290 page coming-of-age story about a girl who immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong it is a fantastic book and I can imagine it would bring up a lot of good discussion in the classroom around topics like being an immigrant family Dynamics and the myth of the model minority among others and yet because of a brief less than one page in non-graphic sexual encounter some would have this book removed to think that teenagers are not mature enough to deal with this topic does not does not give them enough credit takes away a valuable learning opportunity and ignores reality because teenagers know about and in some cases have sex we cannot and should not deprive our children of learning opportunities because of topics that we are
071uncomfortable with if a parent does not think a book is appropriate for their child they should discuss their concerns with the teacher and request an accommodation for their child I would highly encourage parents to read this book so they can discuss it with their child because it is the best book that I've read in a long time and it is well worth the read I actually appreciate that it came to my attention due to the backlash it's received because I'm a better person for having read that book thank you Cube our next public comment will be from Michael Shaughnessy before I start I just one one thought about the uh preparedness uh uh project is going to be reviewed as far as lockdowns and evacuations will be reviewed over the summer uh if there's anything
072critical I guess we should do that sooner than later I mean it was all experienced very traumatic situation of reasons with our neighbors thank you okay my name is Mike Shaughnessy I live at four Standish way uh my subject is the parents Bill of Rights Act speaker Kevin McCarthy who made the parents Bill of Rights Act a priority during the early weeks of his tenure said Republicans were keeping our promise our commitment to America that parents have to have a say in their kids education the bill passed 213 to 208 with five Republicans mostly members of the House Freedom caucus voting against it it would require schools to publish course studies and a list of books kept in libraries as well as a firm parents ability to meet with Educators speak at school board meetings
073and examine School budgets representative Lauren bobert successfully added amendments that would require schools to report when transgender girls joined trans join Girls Athletic teams and transgender girls are allowed to use girls school restrooms and locker rooms the bill would allow and require Elementary and Middle School to get parents consent to change a child's gender designation pronouns or name that's the essence of the bill summary why was this bill needed one can only think that as a result of some levels of irresponsibility exhibited by school boards and so many others across our area and our country that possibly these things need to be considered and supported from a federal level as you know and are totally aware being a parent it is difficult to find time outside of work and raising a family to get it
074engaged and attend Board of Education monthly meetings the parents like us at all all during those stages of Our Lives placed our trust in the boards of Education to take care of our pits for children and students the Board of Education took significant advantage of this situation over the past approximately 10 years or so and totally failed our Pittsburgh Central School District children why did you allow that to happen why would anyone vote against this responsible legislation of the approximate 33 pornographic books searched for possible inclusion in the Pittsford Central School District Library System 12 were found so far to be in the Pittsford high schools and middle schools this leads me to believe this is just the tip of the iceberg of the roughly 134 000 books in that population that are estimated to
075be across the district not as it was mentioned there are only one or two in our high school libraries in most cases as was stated by the Board of Education additionally of these Pittsburgh Central School District pornographic books they exhibit a range of profanity from 33 to a thousand words per book or an average of 116 words per book if you could wrap it up there is a word there's a war against our children it is extremely difficult to understand why thank you Amy Orton I don't want to go over three minutes so I'm gonna try real hard okay Amy ORD 15 Sunrise I just want to talk to you uh tonight about social emotional learning I keep hearing about that um I hear about that more than I hear about reading writing and math
076at these school board meetings in Pittsford instead of being traditionally for children shown to have some Behavioral or emotional need where a trained psychologist or counselor works with them now all students receive social emotional learning here it's embedded into the curriculum K-12 and teachers administrators the whole school is on board with it it's it's it seems pretty intense here and I've never really seen anything like it it seems to be um talked about in the classes several times several times a week There's phrases I even hear it coming through in the morning announcements at times every job as I've ever had that I've ever had as an adult has been bringing SEL into school systems and I just feel that it's more intense here than than sometimes than some like alternative high schools or some
077BOCES I think you're throwing a ton of repetitive psychological information at the kids that is too much I hear kids say it's like they're trying to get into our minds or they're trying to tell us how to think I hear parents that have said we don't handle our problems that way I don't want my kid to be you know responding to um like a stressor that way that's not how we do it in my family you know it used to be more like Mr Rogers how to be a good friend um you know resolve conflicts but now um that was called traditional SEL that's expanded into something called transformative SEL which focuses on mitigating inequities between individuals kind of like making everyone the same um casels the big organizations the organization behind this um that
078tells schools they need to integrate the content related to race class gender into learning incorporate by incorporate bias awareness students lived experiences promote students to take action for social justice I also see that you have information coming in from learning for justice it's the kid the the child like version of an organization called the Southern Poverty Law Center Southern Poverty Law Center in Castle they're not really middle of the road players that just care about kids they are far leaning to one side organizations the Southern Poverty Law Center is radical they're on the news a lot for starting Fires at like police training centers they harm pregnancy counseling centers and you know I saw this online when you go on their website they have a hate map and you can just look around the country
079and under that hey man there's people they call people their traditional Catholics and other other churches are listed so you know as a parent and a psychologist I I don't consent to my kid learning learning this or from from you know uh a curriculum like this especially you know K-12 I wouldn't want to see what my kid is going to end up like when she was a senior um you know Point Blank social emotional learning can be a strong intervention used to change Behavior done by trained professionals when needed to every parent in the room here you just don't hand over your child's social and emotional well-being or mental health skills to random whoever at the school especially when there is no problem with it just like going to the doctors and giving them medicine
080when they aren't sick there is risk of harm well real quick I'm not trying to be rude I've looked at your model and I just see some flaws in your model I think it's too big it's way too complex and it's really not going to work you have social emotional learning and mental health and they're clumped together but actually they're actually two different things and in two different models and I'd love to maybe maybe talk to you guys about that a little bit more in the future thank you very much [Applause] William excuse I want to discuss the process for getting to speak at the Board of Education meetings I think it's important for people who are here and watching online to understand how it works the first step is to ask permission of some
081Anonymous person to speak to the people who are our elected representatives the next step is to submit your name physical address email address and telephone number the next requirement is to submit in writing the statement you want to make then if you're approved by this Anonymous person you have a time limit of three minutes to make your statement of course before you start your statement you have to state your name and address even though you've been called by name to speak you are bullied into stating your address for the whole world to hear even though the board already has this information and more the stating your address part is especially troubling since it invites potentially serious problems for the town citizens who would like to speak to their elected representatives who knows who will show
082up at our front door at any time of day because of this this process is clearly meant to intimidate people from addressing their elected representatives these people don't want to hear from us we're their subjects they're servants we discuss them by our mere presence they certainly do not want to hear what we have to say or God forbid what we may ask of them these board members think they are rulers are Bettors now let's talk about the process of challenging the pornographic books that are in the schools this is a very secretive process the people who are chosen to do the review requested by a challenge are drawn from the same group of people who put these filthy books in our schools in the first place we don't know who they are what their backgrounds
083are what their areas of expertise may be we know nothing about them during the secretive 60-day process the board and the superintendent use it as a shield from having to answer any questions about these pornographic books it's clearly a sham designed to keep parents and taxpayers silent and removed from the day-to-day functions of the schools each of these processes I've described are designed to keep parents and taxpayers away from the board members and the superintendent we should ask ourselves why what are they so afraid of what are they hiding what is it they don't want us to know I'd like to remind the members of the board who sit through meeting after meeting in Stony silence that this silence does not prevent you from being held accountable for your actions even though you are controlled
084by an outside group you will not avoid responsibility and criminal prosecution for providing and trafficking in pornography to minors absolutely I'm not sure sure where to start other than you know I I think it's okay to disagree with one another I I certainly disagree with 100 I think of of what you said except one thing I do agree with it is a shame that we've come to the point where we have to be so regulated with public comment part of the reason is because we've had people come in and speak and that's led to kids leaving in tears it's led to people on the other side viewing it it's led to people's names being shared that's been harmful to the community part of our job is to protect everyone part of the reason you give
085your name is so we get lots of foils because people feel that we're not transparent and and we get challenged on a lot of things so we get challenged if that person is speaking as a resident or not so part of that process is to show that you're standing there in front of us saying your name and your address showing full transparency that you're here you're a resident you have a perspective and you're going to share it the other part that I was just disagree and I know I know for a fact I'm not going to change your mind I I promise you this when I hear you say you share things and no one listens or cares and where we or we sit Stone faced that's not the case and I will tell you
086what this this book challenge in the 60 days it's not a farce in the 60 days was meant for when a book is challenged not when four books are challenged at one time and the people that are in that process are all reading all four books they are looking at ways to assess the four books objectively including looking at the term pornography what that means what's the legal definition what's the purpose of the book what's the intent of the book what is the educational value versus any harm that it causes does this is this book helpful to others how many they're going through the gamut um and and the time oh my goodness so we have several um people that are impartial despite what you you might allege that are looking from all these books
087in an in an objective manner we don't want books in front of kids that are damaging and it's our job to do our due diligence to make sure that the books we put in front of kids or the books that are accessible to kids um our uh developmentally appropriate and certainly are not pornographic that's what we're that's the process that we're in right now so one book to review we have the 60 days for the committee to make a recommendation we have four at the same time going on right now with the same people that we're pulling together having conversations with so that they can come with a recommendation that is uh and and an intellectual determination based on a a set of of criteria the other thing that I I would share that's that's
088that's very interesting you're right we have over 130 000 books in our libraries and three of the ones that are in our library I think there's there's one of them is at Sutherland one is at Mendon and one is at both Mendon and Sutherland and when we look at how many students have checked those books out a year we average between 0 and 1.5 and at the same time we're spending 30 plus hours on reviewing this they're they're and I guess it doesn't matter if zero or four people check it out but but I share that with you for context um that that we are doing our diligence knowing that no matter what decision is made there's going to be people like you to disagree or agree and there's going to people on the other
089side that disagree or agree our job is to do our best uh to be objective and not let our personal views get in the way of of what should be in our libraries or not and what books are taken away or not our diligence is there the the people around this table and and boy don't and Amy I'm sorry but when you said we spend way too much time on SEL I guess my comment is thank you to that because when when you look at what our kids are doing right now you walk into an elementary classroom doesn't matter what household you came from or what your what what your background is you sit down and and you are uh in on the carpet crisscross applesauce um introducing yourself to your your classmates talking about
090the weekend bringing yourself down um to to to decompress knowing you're in a safe environment so you can focus on reading so you can focus on math so so that that's the part that really Burns me when you keep saying that and I and I get you you have your credentials of being a psychologist or a psychiatrist I'm not sure which but our staff are trained you heard me in our budget guidelines talk about a robust professional development it is robust we never put a teacher in front of students that aren't competent enough to talk about SEL we're going to disagree in a lot of what we do in education because right now a lot of social issues are brought in education that never were before we will continue doing our diligence we will continue
091saying we're wrong when we're wrong and we're going to get better or we're on the right path our Focus will always remain on what's best for kids and it's really hard to communicate this um when you're not in our schools because each of you are coming from your own family when you put 6 000 students in a district all from different backgrounds different issues different abilities different disabilities and we put them all together our job is to make our schools like a microcosm of our society and help students learn how to navigate things that life throws at them along with Reading Writing and math and by the way our Reading Writing and math scores are pretty darn good I also I I'll end with this I want to thank you Mr Shaughnessy and Mr skews
092for coming in I know you've been here multiple times Amy you've been here multiple times you and I have met before you believe in something and you're communicating that it's not being knocked out we listen to what you're saying we may not agree we may agree with some but we're listening and thank you for coming in with a different perspective and others for a different perspective that's life we're going to have different perspectives tonight what happened I love we had different perspectives we had different viewpoints and oh my gosh no one's yelling we're talking about it and I appreciate it I appreciate everyone being here and feeling comfortable enough to share their perspective uh I have one more public comment to read but I also wanted that's okay no and I also have one comment
093that I'd like to make in Mr Hughes I'm not I'm not going to change your opinion but you said one thing that really struck me um to the core and and I want to say this for everybody else that's listening in this here and I addressed it before public comment we are not trying to bully or intimidate people to not come and speak um and if people aren't comfortable with the process and they want to address the board there are there are alternative ways to do that we respond to all the emails that we get um so there's that way and I'm about to do another way um which if you're not comfortable coming here and speaking in front of everybody you can submit your submission through the online process and I will do what
094I'm about to do and that is read it for you and so this comment is from Dorothy Bausch Barker from 17 Northfield gate Pittsford New York our libraries are Refuge refuges for our students and places of learning about New Perspectives cultures and thoughts Banning books is unacceptable if parents do not want their own children to read any particular work they are free to prevent that in their own home however it is not okay to ban books for all students many books that self-claimed experts are denigrating focus on black and brown stories or lgbtq stories it can be hard when changes to society leave some folks feeling scared and uncertain that does not translate to the right to force themselves into the lives of others claims of pornography are false according to the definition and simply
095inflammatory in order to elicit an outrage reaction this then leads to action without thought or time for consideration removing the stories of historically marginalized communities increases the already already high risk for violence against these populations and extremism leads to violence in general our libraries are already doing a wonderful job of thoughtfully considering what to add to our libraries let's let the experts do their job that all of our public comment for this evening if I could get a motion to adjourn thanks Robin thanks Sarah all those in favor any opposed emotion carries our next meeting is May 9th thanks everyone