Pittsford Board of Education Meeting - February 28, 2023

001Good evening and welcome to the Pittsford Schools Board of Education business meeting. Can you please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. As we begin, may I have a motion for approval of the agenda? So moved. Sarah and Dave. Second. Are there any questions or discussion? All in favor? All opposed? The eyes have it. Thank you. Next and first on the agenda is our robotics presentation from the Pittsford Panthers robotics team 3181. Hello everyone and I just want to start off by saying the things that were handed out to you, they include all the charts and graphs that will be

002disclosed during the presentation in case you want to look along yourself. So hello first off, I'm Addison Truscott. I would like to thank you all for the opportunity to speak. I'm here on behalf of Pittsford robotics team 3181. We had the opportunity to speak to the board last summer and we would like to follow up. We are looking for $8,000 to support our team. But before I tell you what the funds would do for us, I'd like to share what our robotics team is and more importantly what the team offers Pittsford. First robotics is a terrific program. Our Pittsford team encompasses both Sutherland and Mendon. We have about 58 students and five parent mentors. Our team was founded in 2010 by Mr. Holiday and he is currently the only teacher supporting our team. We have

003been looking for a mentor teacher to help but nobody has taken the offer as of now. The robotics team offers students a wholly unique opportunity to work on a project as if we were in the real world from brainstorming to prototyping to the final design and build. Students work to build a large scale robot that can compete in the given compete the given task of the year. We need to have a finished robot in about seven weeks so we can compete in competitions regionally against other teams. This year we are traveling to two competitions, one at RIT and one in Pittsburgh. If we win at one of these regionals, we will be have the opportunity to go to Houston for the championships where we will compete against teams from all over the world. The robotics

004team allows kids to develop their skills in STEM giving them amazing opportunities for their future. We have sub teams such as mechanical, electrical, CAD, programming but we're not just limited to the technology. We also have art, marketing, business, media, leadership programs teaching students how to be team players and understand how to come together for a common goal. Building confidence and communication skills. Students come out of our program ready to face all aspects of the real world. We want our robotics team to be able to give back to Pittsburgh. The First Robotics competition allows each team to spend up to $30,000 for our robot. We currently don't and have never had this amount in funds to build our robot. Even though we work hard to get sponsors for our team and fundraise, we have always been

005limited to what we can build based on the lack of funding for our team from the school district. This year we received $10,000 from sponsors. The $8,000 we were requesting would be spent in multiple areas. $6,000 of the dollars would go to pay for the our team's entrance fee for our first competition which is at RIT. Other teams locally, such as Victor, HFL, and Fairport receive at least $6,000 to pay for their from their district to pay for their first competition at RIT. So, now we're going to get into the charts, and I want to say before we're getting into this, we can assume all other local teams are receiving roughly the same amount from fundraising and sponsorship. So, this is Pittsford in comparison, and this is a general comparison, and we'll get more into

006it as we go forward. So, the district funding is broken down into multiple subcategories. So, the first one being money directly to the team for materials and competition. The second one being the stipends, and the last one being bussing. So, we're going to get into that now. So, this is the district funding in comparison from some of our local districts. So, the first one being Victor. Victor, their district gives them about $15,000 to work with, which pays for their first competition and a lot of the materials that they use. Fairport gives them about $19,000 for their competition and materials as well. Well, H So, HFL and Rush-Henrietta are a combined team, and together they put in $6,000 so they can pay for their first competition. And this is Pittsford in comparison to the other teams.

007Do you have any more slides with Pittsford class? Yes, sorry. I'm I'm sorry. Yeah, okay. So, this is the stipend budget. So, Victor gives $5,000 for their head coach. Fairport gives $5,000 as well for their head coach and two $3,000 for their two assistant coach coaches. So, HFL puts in 2,500 for their head coach, and we give our um head coach about $2,100. So, this is the bussing in comparison. So, we have Victor, Fairport, HFL, and Rush-Henrietta. They all give bussing to both of their competitions. I say Pittsford is partial because this year we are they the school is paying for our busing to RIT, but not our busing to Pittsburgh. So, the other $2,000 would go to lowering the cost for students on the team. So, as of right now, our dues for the

008team are $100. Please make a note, we do not require dues to be paid. We currently pay the dues and everything for the students who do not have the money to be on our team. Having this money, the $2,000, would allow for us to still pay for them without lowering our materials cost and allowing us to offer services to transport kids from the school to the city for competitions and practice. The 2,000 would also go to buy the actual materials such as aluminum, bolts, electronics, and other robotic materials. So, having the district pay for the RIT competition would allow for us to attend more competitions, which provides more opportunities to win and be selected to go to World Championships in Houston, Texas. For each competition, only three teams are selected to advance. And this year,

009in order to attend another competition in Pittsburgh, the students are paying approximately $420 each to attend. This cost limits the number of students who can attend. So, this is Pittsburgh as a whole in itself and what we're bringing in. Again, we do not require people to pay dues. So, the sponsorship, $10,000 which I was talking about, we did a fundraiser where we sold cookie dough and we made a little bit less than $2,000. When we had the dues all together, it was about 2,500 and the travel from the team is what all of the parents, students are putting in for the competition at Pittsburgh. So, some of these teams are also considered co-curriculars, meaning that more funding is available for their team's needs. We are only asking for you to provide what is being given

010in comparable school districts. By the end of the season, students have at least put in 100 hours and each week, students put in 30 hours of work time during the build season, which is January 7th through March 15th. Uh we as students put in the time just as our school sports teams. In fact, we are considered a competition team. We have new games each year. We must develop a strategy and skill to compete and our competitions are against other teams. This should make us a co-curricular. Other districts actually provide varsity letters as well as letterman jackets for their senior robotics students. So, co-curricular status. So, Victor does not consider them a co-curricular, but they do have that they are considered an extracurricular and they do provide special things for them as well. Fairport, HFL, Rush-Henrietta

011are also considered co-curriculars. We do get sponsorship from companies and we do fundraisers, but we are not able to get enough money to pay for our robot and do everything we want to do to improve STEM awareness for the community. Currently, our team works remote STEM to kids in elementary school. Last year, we would routinely go to Allen's Creek where we would have a fun activity for the kids to do that would promote an aspect of STEM. In addition, we participated at Mendon Center STEM Day this year and we are continuing the STEM program at Allen's Creek and the kids are beyond excited to learn. But, what about life beyond Pittsford schools? Many of our alumni and seniors this year have been provided with many job opportunities and lots of scholarships because of being on

012our robotics team. RIT has specific scholarships just for people who are in robotics through FIRST Robotics. Some of our alumni have been given these scholarships which allow for more financial stability through college. The students with this scholarship are given $8,000 per year and another scholarship from RIT gives up to $100,000 in scholarship. So, robotics is not a club. It's a team. We compete, we have coaches guiding us, and most importantly, our team is a family. We care about each person, we work to make this team successful together. Each student on our team matters and they deserve the same opportunities to thrive in what they love doing and what they're good at. By providing our team with the $8,000, you can allow for us to give everyone the opportunity to grow and learn. And regardless of

013your decision, we would love to invite each one of you to our Finger Lakes Regional competition this year, which will be at RIT March 16th through the 19th, and any of our meetings in between. So, thank you for your time, and we'd be pleased to answer any questions, and following that we'll provide a robot demonstration. You were awesome. Thank you. So, just so you know, before you came in, I just said it's up to the board. I think you're I'm all in with it. So, just so just to be clear, uh Ms. Labar, can you stand up, please? Are you a Sutherland Amendment teacher? Okay, and And I advise three clubs, many of which some of these kids are So, I I'm hoping we also found you another coach right there. Yeah, we're hoping. So,

014I I'm going to just I just want to share with you where we were from our last meeting. So, from our last meeting, what we did uh was pledge to look at um where other clubs are, and and I don't like seeing that Pittsburgh pays zero, and other districts pay a lot more for robotics. One of the things that we do in Pittsburgh is we offer a a breadth of of clubs. So, as we consider this, which I we certainly are considering, um know that we're also trying to figure out where robotics falls um in the landscape of Science Olympiad and Mathcounts and Academic Challenge and Math League and World Language and Physics and Chess and Odyssey of the Mind and DECA uh DECA Nationals, Virtual Enterprise, etc. So, we offer a lot for our

015students, and there's a lot of expenses for all the clubs. We 100% see the value in this, um and we are seriously considering um your proposal, and I think your presentation was spot-on, and I can't give you enough credit for coming in with the confidence um, that you showed, and um, the conviction. Uh, I think you represented Pittsburgh Robotics beautifully tonight. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I mean, I couldn't have done it without any of these amazing people here. They love me, they support me, and they just give so much to the team, and that's why I'm here. Okay, let's see the robot. Okay, Devin, you ready? I'll turn it on. Is the ball going to eject from there? No, we made sure it Is there We're We're We're on high alert right now. We

016All your judges and stations are safe for tonight. So, it does take a minute, and so, this year, or so, this is last year's robot, and this year we have a new robot. We're using a swerve drive. It's a similar size, but I don't know. It's fun, it's exciting, and I think the fun thing about it is we like to name our robots. So, this one we have in is like Nye, cuz Bill Nye, the Science Guy, and this year our new one is Rattles, cuz of a funny story the robot surrounding the chassis. What was the challenge for this robot this So, yeah, the challenge for this robot was to be able to take in cargo, which are these large tennis balls, and be able to shoot them into these two hubs. So, they

017had a lower hub, which was like a big basketball hoop, basically, and they had one above it, which was the higher basketball. We would go, shoot, and you'd score points that way. And the other part of the challenge is the end game. So, we had a climber on here. We did have to scrap it for the parts so we could use it on this year's robot. And but part of the challenge was there was a hanger. So, you would drive into the hanger and climb and you would gain more points that way. So, we were actually able to go to the second highest one on that which made us very valuable. We actually ranked fifth. No, we ranked third. That was our highest one in the ranking last year. Uh Devin, take it away. It

018is connected. Those are the pneumatics. They make the intake go up. They have compressors. Thank you. Is that all um geared towards flat terrain then? Yeah. General mostly, yeah. There's some bumps on the field with our like wires and stuff connecting things, but it's mostly all flat. That's amazing. I think the battery is dying. It's okay. So, this year's challenge is How do I describe it? So, you're trying to pick up cones and cubes and place them on these like rungs that's almost like this like connect four kind of thing, but you're trying to connect three in a row on the same level and that's going to allow you to score points. So, we have this arm mechanism that we're working on so it can pick up cones and cubes from shelf, the ground, and

019you'll drive and the special thing about this robot or this year's robot is that we have a swerve drive, so it can basically do like pirouettes and like go all around the room really quickly, really fast, spin everything all at once, and it's really amazing. And the challenge was kind of small this year, but another part of the challenge is this charge station is what they're calling it. So, you're going to drive up onto it and try to balance it out and it will light up once you've balanced and gotten the points. I do have videos for you about the shooter so you can see without getting damaged. And I also have the climber, too. She got us. Wonderful. That was a great shot. And then, I don't know how to get back. What? Oh,

020thank you. All right. And then, this one is the climber. There we go. Keep going. From the other one. Thank you. We are so proud of you and team 3181. You represent our schools well. Thank you. As far as a follow-up, I um my hope is to have uh our budget very close to final towards our uh next board meeting. And so, within the next couple weeks we should be able to uh be able to provide you with an answer. Again, it's really up to Mr. Scott and Mr. Arreste who's not here tonight. But you have my full support. Thank you so much. Yes. Nice job. You did beautiful. Thank you everyone. And you all are welcome to stay for the entirety of our meeting or if you would like to exit at this point,

021it's up to you. Mrs. Lavers is right behind you if you want to talk to her. As Ms. Julian comes forward for the principal's report from Minden High School, um we would like to thank you for the opportunity to tour the building, to interact with the staff. And also we had the opportunity to um explore the pool complex and the locker rooms there. And it was it was a great opportunity. So thank you, Principal Julian. Ms. Julian would like to ask to pause our report and report next week when there's no children here presenting such amazing things because there's no way we can follow up after that. They just did an outstanding job, but thank you. Um we're very lucky to have had you in our school and we appreciate you coming to take some

022time to spend with us. Um we just want to highlight some of the amazing things we have going on at Minden this year. Um in a year where we were taking a step back, Minden may have done that in some ways, but in some ways we continued to move forward for the for the well-being of our students and our staff. So this year our areas of focus have have included the things that we've been focusing on for the last four years. Um social emotional learning, instructional practices, health and safety under the umbrella of supportive environment for all, but most importantly continuing to elevate our student voice and making sure they're parts of our process along the way. So tonight I'm just going to highlight some of the work that we've been doing at Mendon this

023year um under the guide of our ILT, our instructional leadership team. Thanks, Jeff. And under the guide of our instructional leadership team, which is really the heart of what we do at Mendon. Um it's an amazing committee of teachers and parents and students who helped guide the work around all things and all aspects related to our areas of focus. So, without them, we really wouldn't be the school that we are. And I feel very lucky to just be a small part of that and have Laura and Andrea now leading and working within that team as well. We've had some changes to Mendon with Kelly Selky leaving us after many years. So, Andrea has joined us and we think she's filling in nicely. Um but Laura really has stepped up and done an amazing job this

024year. So, I just wanted to take a moment and thank her publicly for all of her work, too. So, thank you. So, for social emotional supports this year, we started the year in October with a student survey that was developed through our um mental health specialist, our counseling staff, and most importantly, we had some seniors add to the voice of it. It's basically a trusted adult survey and a connection survey. Our students were very clear that they don't feel trusted adult is the right term. They feel connected makes more sense from their lens because trusted is a different word than connected and they want to make sure students and staff feel that connection throughout everything we do at Mendon. So, in October, um we were able to provide a survey. 85% of our students took

025that survey um through phys ed during the um time in October. And what was great about it, as you can see it there, they were able to use their devices in 9th and 10th grade and then 11th and 12th, they used their cell phones. And And basically, what we asked are how are students feeling? We wanted to do a check-in after we've come back. Now, it's been a couple years out of the pandemic feeling and where were they in terms of how they felt about welcoming and inclusion at Mendon? What supports might they need moving forward for the school year? And who is their connected adults in the building? So, we had great response to that and 60% reported they were either very happy or somewhat happy in in October, which was great news to

026see and we saw it across the board in all of the 9th through 12th grade. 60% reported being little stressed or very stressed and what was fascinating about that is when you drill down into the data, it's primarily our 11th graders, which what are they doing in October? Taking assessments, they're getting ready for college, they're doing their planning and whatnot. The 9th and 10th graders, those numbers were much lower. So, it's a little skewed towards the 11th and 12th graders. But, 75% of our students felt overwhelmingly welcome and included in our school, which was a huge celebration for I our ILT and our staff as well. Um, one thing that came out of the survey was one of the supports they felt they needed was overwhelmingly student shared repeatedly throughout at all levels that if

027they had connections with teachers and staff members, not just teachers, but staff members, and teachers were supportive, helping with flexibility, check-ins from time to time, that was what pushed the envelope for them. So, that really says a lot about our staff and we feel very excited about that data because then what we did with this data is we used it on our superintendent's conference day and we shared it with all of our staff members and then we did what's called the connected adults or dot project activity. Where staff members were given eight yellow and eight red dots. Every child's name was placed on a board. You can sort of see them in the pictures. I did blur the names, so if anybody was looking, they're all blurred for privacy reasons, but you can see the

028staff and the eight yellow dots represented students they felt connections with. Each of the dots had their initials on it. And then they had eight red dots for any child they were concerned about whether it was an academic reason or a social emotional reason. Every staff member took those dots. We did it for about 25 minutes. They walked poster to poster to poster and placed dots wherever they felt they had a connection with a student or they felt concerned about a student. We ran out of dots. Teachers were asking for more and overwhelmingly students had connections. And staff felt those connections and then staff highlighted the red dots for the students. Using that data, our IST teams, our instructional support teams, they've gone back to those posters time and time again to make sure when

029a student is flagged for instructional support team, they can find that connected adult to that student and use them in a way that helps so the kid knows that they have that adult person in the building. But we took it one step further at Mendon. So, using that, we then created these guides, these charts, where each staff member was We went through the data and we combined the connected student survey with the dot project and we created this template for staff and every staff member in the building received in the fall when our students participated in the survey, we asked which teacher or staff member they were connected to and the following students, in no particular order, did say you. And so every staff member in January got this postcard. So they could see who

030the students were that they had chosen and were connected to them. This was around the same time that we started doing our WIN efforts. So we started WIN in October and what's been amazing about WIN and I know you've heard me talk about it for, I don't know, 5 years now, sorry, but I'm bringing it back again. This time what we did was an amazing collaborative effort and I keep using the word amazing because this is truly one of the the best committees I've ever been on, no offense to anybody else who I work on committees with, because what it did is it combined Mendon and Sutherland. And Mendon and Sutherland had a team from both came together to figure out how do we best represent WIN Time as a district for the two high

031schools. Working together in small group through a series of four meetings, we came up with something that was completely different than what WIN Time had been for Mendon in the past. And what we've done is we've separated WIN, which is what I need time from PLC time, from the professional learning community. And we focused just on the what I need time, and that meant every staff member was available at the same time for kids. Rather than trying to balance PLC time with the WIN Time. What that's done for us is that every Wednesday for 35 minutes, every staff member who is available at that time, cuz we do still have some traveling teachers, we do still have some part-time teachers, etc. We've rostered a small group of students somewhere between 10 and 15 students to

032them as a connected adult. But it's really a structured study hall. So students can come in and work on what they need to work on. That's where we are right now with this phase. But what we did is using the connected adult data from the survey and those posters, staff were able to then go through and select students that they had connections with in the first round of WIN Time. So those teachers who had the connections were pulling students in or those teachers who needed to identify students who knew were having a hard time, they were able to pull them in. And then the rosters were mixed up randomly from there. But 15 students, no more than 15 students are available to meet with with teachers in their small groups. We just did it the

033Wednesday before break was our first one. Minor hiccups here and there, but overwhelmingly a Mendon success. I believe Southerland had the same, but you'll have to wait for Mark's presentation. We're doing it again on Wednesday, and the goal is to do this every Wednesday till the end of the year. This Wednesday coming up, we're going to collect data from the teachers about how it's going so far. And at our next ILT, which is Tuesday, we'll talk about what do we need to tweak to make it continue to make it better for everybody, students and staff. The goal of WIN is obviously to provide that what I need time. And today I I got to go to some different department meetings and to hear from the staff them talking about, "I'm going to do this. I'm

034going to pull this kid in." It's very exciting. And so we're thrilled to be having and being able to do this again. But all of these pieces, from the social emotional support to the instructional strategies, are all tied together. And ILT is leading that work. Of course, we continue to talk about health and safety practices that we are working on at Mendon High School. And how we're doing that is through the things that we've highlighted before for all of you through our community circles monthly. Our mental health team is running community circles. They are based on things that are happening around at that time. So, for example, in January when we did have midterms and Regents week and it's the end of the semester, there was one around stress and how are you feeling at

035this time of year and how can we help and what supports do you use? We've seen increased circles in academic settings. That's a math class that you actually see a circle sitting in, an academic circle. Um I hit that one particularly to show you that even in a math setting, we're using academic circles. We've continued our freshman forum. We've expanded it by a week because now the administrators go in and work a circle with the students so they get to know us as they come in for freshman and we talk about things with them. And then we're refining our discipline practices and trying to use more restorative pieces there, too, including things like reflection sheets and student contracts. And Laura and now Andrea are helping to lead that work in really positive ways with our

036counselors, but also with our staff members. Um we're trying to close the loop more with staff members so they can see what's actually happening. And so the students and the staff are connecting. It's all about relationships at Mendon. You see that between the staff. You see it with the students and the staff. And we're really trying to grow it with the students in general, with each other. And that's where some of the highlights of this year are coming from. I would be remiss if I didn't mention our Black History Month that we're coming off of and the fact that our Rock to Change students, and this is where the elevating student voice is so powerful, especially at the high school level, our Rock to Change students took this on entirely. They told me to take

037a step back and sit down and they would be happy to do the work and they did. And so what they did and what they created were several posters that they're highlighted on the walls for you to see around different famous people. They chose the theme Black Excellence and they talked about what that represents and what that means. And then they found figures in our community and abroad that really focus on Black Excellence in their terms and their criteria. They developed playlists from key musicians all the way back to ragtime and jazz to current day, you know, Beyoncé. So and they played those on our Friday morning announcements each week. And then they created announcements for our video show that played and and highlighted people like Sally Cook Sally Covington who was a teacher in

038Pittsburgh for so many years. So they really embraced this um and I gave them the night off. They were willing to come and talk, but I told them they didn't have to. And then finally, the last highlight I want to share is the day you visited, um we had our first ever Heritage Day. This idea was proposed by students last spring to us. They came and like everything else, our ILT really is the heart and soul of our school and really does give it thumbs-ups and thumbs-downs to all the work that we do. So we told the students if this is something you want to do, bring it to ILT. And they did. And they came back multiple times to share their ideas and vision and as they were honing and refining it this year,

039they came back again. We had over 30 students and staff members participate in Heritage Day. It was such an amazing event because students were proud of their culture and heritage, and they were showing it off by the pictures you can see. The other students were so amazed and wanted to participate that they can't wait for next year. Our fear is the majority of students on the planning committee, unfortunately, are all seniors. So, the goal is to tap some of the sophomores that were also part of it and help them now lead the way. We had a teacher, Judith, who agreed to advise and work with them on this, and she did, but she really stepped back and let the kids This was their energy and their effort. And this is one of the greatest things

040about working at Mendon. Our kids are so amazing, and when we get out of the way, they do great things. But, our staff are equally as caring and want to help, and when kids come with ideas, we figure out a way to make it work. And so, I'm just lucky, like I said, to be a very small piece in that cog, but it's really a tribute to our students and staff and our ILT that has really created a space where we want everyone to feel welcome and included. And it's through these efforts that we can see we're doing that or trying to do that. Questions? Are the parents made aware of these personal student and staff I'm I'm sorry, the questions are for the for the board. So, just to be just to be clear,

041the the what a Board of Education meeting is is essentially a business meeting for the public to attend. But, we do allow public comment if you have public comment at the end. I would just say I I've been to and you can ask Deb how many times I say I'm running over to Mendon, and I'm probably there more than you know because it's a delight to to see how amazing our students are there and I can see the connections. I can see the staff connecting with kids, the kids connecting with staff. I can see the kids feeling good about being at Mendon. We're in a much better place than where we were 2 and 1/2 years ago and I have to applaud your efforts and the efforts of your staff for really focusing on what

042kids need and that's why we're here. All right, so thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. And next we have the opportunity to have Amy Thomas, our current Monroe County Miss School Board Association Executive Director with us and our immediate past president. We are so happy to have you, Amy. Hi everybody. It is so cool to see everybody. I'm so excited to be in this room. It feels a little bit different to be on this side of the table, but excited to be here nonetheless. So thank you for having me. Um you all know who MCSBA is, Monroe County School Boards Association, but what I have done since assuming this role back in June is to go around to all of our local school boards and just refresh your memory on what we do

043at Monroe County School Boards and a lot of people don't necessarily know what we do. So I never took that in, I guess, when I was sitting behind that desk, but there's a reason why you have an agenda report on Monroe County School Boards and it's because of what you as school board members do to educate yourself and keep yourself current on topics. This is your professional development that is offered to you on an ongoing basis. So, with that, I just want to give you a brief presentation. Normally, I have a PowerPoint, but I I figured you didn't want to see my PowerPoint, and I was So, it's just going to be a short um presentation to each one of you. And and more or less, I want it to be an uh a presentation

044to the community because I think the community needs to know who we are, what we do for you. So, a refresher on who I am. Hopefully, you haven't forgotten who I am. Um but, as most of you know, I started as the executive director back in June of 2022. Um I served as an officer of Monroe County School Boards Association while I was also serving as board president of Pittsford Central School District. And as you all know, I was a a Pittsford Central School District board member for 9 years. Um prior to that, I've lived in a lot of different places that I think probably that's what they looked at me as a potential executive director, where I've been, what I have done with my life in the realm of education has taken me to

045a lot of different places. So, here I am today. Um why is MCSBA valuable? As elected officials, board members recognize the importance of continuous learning, and I appreciate that. I think our community appreciates that. MCSBA helps to develop leaders throughout the county through our program offerings and trainings. Um which I'll highlight further on into the presentation. Throughout the pandemic, that was a great opportunity for our board members to really learn how to be better leaders through a crisis, a unique crisis. One that we all needed to lean on one another during that time. During that time. Sorry. MCSBA prepares and educates board members on current issues facing educational leaders and how to prepare for the unexpected. So, the partnership with Pittsford Central School District, I had to do a little research on this. Um, since

046we didn't have computers back in 1970 when MCSBA was established, according to our historical timeline, and I know Jeff, you're not going to like this because it's not data-driven like you have your data, but Pittsford has been involved in Monroe County School Board since its inception. So, I do have a fun fact, and I'm hopeful that somebody knows the answer to it because I certainly did not. But in 1972, there was a Pittsford board member and former board president from Pittsford who was hired as the first full-time executive director of Monroe County School Boards. Does anyone happen to know who that might be in 1972? Any guesses? Don't say Kim McClusky. She'd be really upset. So, what was I doing at age two? We don't know, Mike. We don't We don't want to ask a

047lot of questions. No No guesses? Her name is Jan Packard. She's up on our wall at Monroe County School Boards, and if you want to look that up, she was a former Board of Education president here in Pittsford and became the first executive director. In 2023, a couple things we've done a lot of things in 2023. Um, but one was really looking at our mission statement. So, when I look at the mission statement, there were a couple of words that we needed to tweak based on what's happening in education right now. Um, so right now, it was just approved at our executive committee meeting that MCSBA is a member-driven organization providing support to public school leaders as they strive to provide an equitable education for all students. Um we serve our members through the following

048areas. A commitment to improving local school board governance, promoting state and federal advocacy positions on behalf of our member districts, delivering a broad range of leadership development services and training for local school board members and staff, encouraging collaboration with community-based organizations, elected officials, and other state and local educational entities in the area of common interest. We support 21 districts, every single district in Monroe County, three surrounding districts, Victor, Kendall, and Holly, and BOCES 1 and 2. We have 192 members, which includes Board of Education members and superintendents. So, what do we do? We have 45 professional development programs and trainings for our membership throughout the year. Three standing committee meetings every month, information exchange as you all know, labor relations, and legislative, which is tomorrow, Sarah. Four board presidents meetings, two law conferences, two social

049hours, and an annual meeting in May open to all of our members. Two to three district clerk seminars. We facilitate board retreats and moderate meet the candidates nights. Annual prospective candidate seminar training, which is coming up in March. The community should be aware of that. It's on the 25th of March. New York State Education requires that our board members have board governance and fiscal training every year. Well, when you're first a newly elected board member, so you have 12 hours of mandated training. We produce two publications, Best for Less. Hopefully, you have received that and facts and figures. And we facilitate tax bill printing for the entire county. Our legislative committee, of course, I have to highlight that work because that is one of our committees that um all of our schools really rely on

050for advocacy. We develop legislative priorities within that group. We coordinate sub-committee work on advocacy position papers. We have a committee uh sorry, community outreach advisory committee, which is COAC. And we create advocacy talking points for board members through that group. We attend local appointments with legislators. We had a December one-day Zoom meeting that, thanks to Sarah Pelusio, who is our legislative liaison this year, and she's also a legislative co-chair, she has done a lot of work this year for us to help coordinate all of these efforts, which is a large undertaking for our organization. Um we develop and lead an annual legislative breakfast, which this year was on the 4th of February. Thanks to those who bore the um frigid temperatures, not outside, but inside. And next year uh the new venue will be a

051glacier of your choice. So, um yeah, it was very frigid inside. We're coming up on a March Albany uh a March trip to Albany, one-day trip that Sarah's helping us coordinate. And we're inviting Board of Regents, as we do every year, to our spring legislative committee meeting. Other changes, um MCSBA needed a little bit of an overhaul in terms of bringing us up to 2023, 2022. So, I surveyed the membership to see what we needed to improve when I took this position. Um and really out of that survey, what I learned was that this organization is a way for people to network. So, how can we best do that? We We completely redesigned our website to include um two board specific blogs. One is for board presidents and one is my blog, the executive director

052blog, for members to be able to ask questions on a regular basis. So, essentially, I'm available to the membership 24/7. Um you're also able to obtain real-time information, any articles that I may see, anything that's of relevance for school board members, I will post onto the website so you have full access to that. And we've also added two social hours, which coming out of pandemic was something that the membership really felt was something they needed, something they wanted. We also have improved our remote access for information exchange and labor relations meetings. Hopefully, those of you who have zoomed in have noticed a noticeable difference from last year. We invested in some pretty high-tech um microphones and uh our feedback has been very positive. And then the last thing is we are going to go through

053it a mini rebranding with a new logo for next year. So, things to come, we have a lot to do um on our radar. We have a one-time login. I know a lot of people have been frustrated with logging into the website, so I'm trying to make that a little bit easier next year. But I have to thank Pittsford in general because I have to thank you for for continuing to support Monroe County School Boards, including it on your agenda, reporting out on the good work that's being done that people don't see and they don't see how much time you spend beyond being at this table to educate yourselves and to remain current. So, I thank you for that. I thank you for your support and anything you need from me, you know how to

054find me. Um but if you have any questions, I'm open to any questions you have. Hearing none, thank you, Amy. Thank you for circling back to us and putting us on your calendar. We really appreciate your time. Of course. And Amy, I would just say that um really appreciate your work as um the executive director and certainly have seen um how practical um you've made the position as far as supports for school districts and um everything from the website to the legislative to um what we need right now is at our fingertips. So, thank you for all of that and more. You're welcome. You're welcome. My pleasure. Thank you. Next on our agenda is approval of the minutes. Are there any edits to our minutes? Hearing none, is there a motion to accept the minutes

055as presented? Jeff? Second. Second from Renee. All in favor? Thank you. The minutes are presented as received. Um we have Board of Education um reporting tonight from our um legislative co-chair of legislative committee co-chair, Sarah Pelucio. We really value the work that um Sarah is doing this year in that area and really in the past also. Thank you. Thank you, Robin, and thank you, Amy, for sharing half my report. I appreciate that. Um just uh add a little bit about our trip to Albany next week. We have 24 members from across the county that are attending, including three from Pittsburgh. Dave, Emily, and myself will be representing our district. We have a full day of appointments uh with the governor's team, with a state aid, with the two uh chairs of the education committees, and

056a few of our local legislators mixed in there as well. So, a full day of appointments, and we hope to get a lot done. So, um we do have our committee meeting tomorrow, which I will be at, and we'll just be preparing for uh that trip, and also doing a quick debrief on our legislative breakfast as well. So, lots to come. I will share out on our trip at our next meeting. Thank you. Thank you so much, Sarah. And we have upcoming dates to remember. On March 2nd, there will be a board visit tour at Calkins Road Middle School. Um by show of hands, can we determine who will be there? Thank you. So much. Also, on March 8th, Sarah and um Amy alluded to the NYSSBA Albany one-day advocacy trip, and we are pleased

057to hear about our three attendees from our school board, who will be advocating on behalf of our school district. And finally, on March 14th, that's our next regularly scheduled meeting. Next is our financial report from Mr. Vespi. Uh yes, for your consideration tonight is uh the treasurer's report. And um the only thing to uh to note is the uh receiving of the STAR payment, and obviously, we still are operating very very well in terms of interest earnings. Um the only I guess, you know, one additional comment that I would make is that um our food service budget continues to perform uh very well, um kind of uh unexpectedly, and um you know so that's very positive information and we're starting to look at investing in some of the equipment that needs to be replaced because

058of really a positive year so but other than that you know things are pretty routine you know as of the you know as of the end of this month. Thank you. You all have reviewed the treasurer's report and in our board packets at this time is there a motion to accept the treasurer's report? Jeff the second from Sarah are there questions or discussion? Hearing none all in favor? All opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. Next we'll have the human resources report from Mr. Clark. Thank you and good evening. First for your consideration is the professional staff report. You'll see one administrative change in status from probationary to tenure, one teacher resignation for retirement, one auxiliary resignation for retirement and we also have spring coaching salaries and volunteers for your approval. May I have a motion

059to accept the professional staff report? Renee? And Dave? Are there questions or discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Any opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Next for your consideration is the support staff report. We have one clerical appointment, one clerical retirement, two transportation appointments, one custodial appointment, one custodial resignation and we have one food service worker appointment. May I have a motion to accept the support staff report? So moved. Sarah, thank you. And Renee, second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Any up none opposed. The eyes have it. Motion carries. Thank you. And finally, we have a memorandum of agreement as part of the consent agenda. Thank you and received. And next we'll have our student services report from Mrs. Kataya. Hello again. Thank you for having us back. This

060is a very full agenda, so thank you for giving us a few minutes tonight to hear an update on the inclusivity advisory committee as well as our equity goals. And I'm very grateful to be joined by Mr. Vincent French, our coordinator for equity and inclusivity. And together, along with Dr. Taj Smith, who works out of RIT, we co-facilitate our inclusivity advisory committee. And this is the first time I believe that we've given such an update since the inception of the IAC, but one of our collaborative goals that we created last spring together in looking at some survey results and some data around our committee was a commitment to be able to communicate more transparently and openly about what it is that the IAC does. So, in addition to posting minutes and sharing things online, we've

061created a written mid-year report, which we've also posted and requested to be able to speak with the board as well. And as part of our goals, which Vincent will share with you in a moment, we also wanted to make sure that the IAC had opportunities to be regularly updated on the district's equity action goals, which all of you are aware we created together two summers ago at our leadership retreat. And so, part of what's happened this year is every month someone from a different department or someone who helps to oversee some of those goals have come to our committee to report out on the progress. And so, we're going to weave those two things together, so you will be getting two for the price of one and hearing about the IAC progress toward our goals

062as well as some updates on the district equity goals. And so, with that, I will turn it over to Vincent. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Excited to be here today. Uh just in case you don't know, my name is Vincent French. I'm the coordinator of equity and inclusivity for the Pittsburgh Unified School District. And so, just going to get right into it. Uh the Inclusivity Advisory Committee uh council is a 21-member committee comprised of diverse section a cross-section of volunteers um and community members and as well as community leaders um who were board approved by the district planning team after participating in extensive interview process, which included and involved PD um PDAA, PDTA, and PISC uh PTSA as well as the PIOP members. The purpose of the IAC is to promote inclusion and equity

063within Pittsburgh Unified School District community. The IAC works to provide guidance to the superintendent on issues related to inclusion and equity, which include, but not limited to, policy development, res- uh um resource allocation, sorry, and also professional development. IAC strives to create an environment where all members of the Pittsburgh Unified School District community feel valued and respected and the dialogue is open, honest, and constructive. We also challenge ourselves to critically assess policies and practices to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all members of our community. Our success statement, which was which was board approved and came about as part of our charter, um guides our work and it serves um to answer the question of what success will look like in 2025 if PC- PCSD um is modeling a fully inclusive environment. Our

064goals here uh for 2022 and 23 uh were based on direct feedback that we received from our committee survey. Our focus has been um on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the committee. The IEC recognized that we had a wealth a wealth of knowledge and expertise within our membership and we wanted to leverage that knowledge and that expertise to respond to the needs of the district and working to increase our expertise as well. Our second goal there as you see is is recommending communication or strategies to the superintendent. It's important for the district to communicate its progress towards equity goals and to the community in an open transparent manner. I'm providing some updates on our progress for the IEC. We implemented a meeting format in which the format supports the social emotional needs of all

065our members allowing for members to check in with each other and protocols to promote active and listening. And so at the beginning of our meetings we would have a warm open and then to a close we would also have a optimistic closure. We also have invited experts in the field of equity and inclusion within the community to to present at our meetings via video and research-based documents to deepen our understanding of important issues and provide opportunities to reflect and engage in meaningful discussion. As a community we have also made significant progress to include student voice and perspective in our work. This year we were able to bring in two fresh new students and we're also looking to build that capacity so they're I believe they're ninth graders or tenth graders so that we can build

066up that leadership capacity and they they won't be just be there for one year but we can have them there for a few more years. Another important goal for IEC was also updating equity goals at each meeting to regularly assess our progress and adjustments and we'll speak a little bit about that a little bit later in our presentation. But it's important to hear from the community members in supporting in the development of our of our number of feedback and mechanisms. So we reached out to our community, providing feedback, and offering um insight into the work that we're doing. We're always looking for again more feedback and provide opportunities for that. And so with that, we're just going to go through some of the equity goals that we were able as a committee to receive updates

067on, um, and now we can share some of those summaries with you. And every person who came to give updates to the IASC, um, also requested feedback on whether it was a protocol or a process or, um, um, the the work as it was, um, when they presented to us. So you'll see, um, part is the the language from our equity action goals. Um, so this one was around the code of conduct, which you know well, um, has been approved by the board twice, um, last year and then this year. And then, um, having resources for training around the code of conduct and DASA. So, of course, we've updated our website and made it more front and center and easy to, um, find those DASA resources, not only the incident reporting forms for families and

068students and staff, but also training resources and videos for families or students to be able to look at to understand what the DASA process is and what their rights and responsibilities are. Um, more importantly, our Dignity Act Coordinators, there's one at each building, and I'm the Dignity Act Coordinator for the district. We met monthly last year and have met quarterly this year to create common training resources for all of our students and staff. So we took all the resources that were created in the past, put them together, and so now we know all students at each level are receiving the same essential information about the Dignity for All Students Act and the Code of Conduct. Um, this year, we also included, in addition to the common staff training, training around threat assessment and our behavior

069intervention teams. We also have increased the restorative justice training that our staff have been through. So throughout the past four or five years, we've had, um, Peery, our partners in Restorative Initiatives, um, work with several members from each school building around community building and the importance of community building and the process for that. That's a 3-day training. And in addition to continuing to bring in more people to that training, all of our building administrators received the Restorative Justice training and all of our school counselors were released for 2 days to receive that same training as well. So, as we're building the structures with the code of conduct, um, and our data protocols, we're building up the capacity, um, as well. And that training will be ongoing. Uh, another one, um, around our data team, which

070has been able to provide just a huge amount of data, including a dashboard that allows us all to go in and be able to tease out, um, different subgroups around so many different areas from attendance, grades, um, and it really helps us be able to start thinking about what metrics will help us to see what the impact is of our work. Um, there's some things that from that data we've been able to already, um, have an impact with. So, um, being able to look at what are the responses to the behaviors when students out for, um, suspension, what are the types of responses, um, we've even been able to add in a restorative piece so we can pull that data in the end to see what the impact is of all of those restorative responses

071if they're there. Um, we had, uh, Elizabeth Woods come and present on the special education work that's been happening for the last several years, um, on SEAC, the Special Education Advisory Committee, to decrease the disproportionality, um, in behavioral removals from classrooms for students with IEPs, which included, um, training around implicit bias, um, making it more aware, uh, an awareness level for our administration, which, um, we actually ended up including within our code of conduct, and, um, having a process at the buildings for support even when a, uh, suspension was considered for a student with a disability, which allowed the pupil service team to come together and see if there were any other supports that might need to be put in place. And then of course in our code of conduct language we've had as you've

072seen specific language calling out disproportionality for race, special education and socioeconomic status and myriad of other items that we ask administrators to consider prior to deciding on a response. We also had something that Melanie spoke about earlier in her budget presentation having equity analysis protocols for curricular and non-curricular learning experiences. So she came and was able to give the IAC an opportunity to give feedback on the protocols for first the instructional resource protocol. So the that was a combination of a lot of different resources and many different groups coming together to come up with something that allowed teachers to go through a process to decide first that something's instructionally sound but also that we're asking them to look through that lens to make sure that in terms of diversity representation and cultural appropriateness that it's

073the best resource that we can be using. And then the same thing for the special events protocol which came this year where we're looking at when we're bringing in special events or planning special events for our students or could be speakers coming in that we're also running through a protocol looking for that instructional integrity as well as cultural appropriateness. Both of those items are now part of our equity toolkit which lives on the curriculum and instruction portion of our website if you'd like to go look at those. And with that I'm going to turn that over to Vincent to talk about our student advisory council. Thank you. Thank you. The the student advisory council is will be as part of equity goals was will be creating a um a council to work with the superintendent

074and school staff to elevate and engage student voice and make recommendations around the district our This is also part of our effort in our attention to elevate student voice within the district. Um established or reestablished rather in 2019 after COVID, uh the superintendent student advisory council is comprised of over 16 uh student leaders from from all grade levels from 9 to 12 between Milford High School and Southern High School and they work to provide um the superintendent other uh district officials uh uh student perspective on the the issues and initiatives that we're having here in the district. Uh the student charge committee provides voice in on district issues and initiatives and students are currently in the process of creating a shared vision as well as a 5-year strategic plan of what um the work will

075look like um here in the district um aligned with the uh vision of the district as well. The student advisory council members also provide perspective and voice um on the building level as well as part of the IOLT and also the uh principal cabinet as well. Um they do such wonderful work. We actually just went went with them today um and they're just really just wonderful wonderful students um active student leaders uh just doing amazing things. I'm just really happy to be part of that uh group as well in supporting them. Another equity goal here that we're providing updates on um is embedding professional learning opportunities here within our building level and district level structures for all faculty and staff that address and promote equity and inclusivity as defined in the equity policy. Uh since

0762021 all staff have gone through equity goal training and is also providing new staff via the induction process. Uh April 2022 around superintendent day, uh we provided restorative practice training as well as code of conduct training through Perry and Children Institute turnkey turnkey that for all of our staff members. Um our equity toolkit as was previously mentioned um is provided uh introduces rather our our staff um and new teachers and uh sorry our equity toolkit induction has been part of our new teacher induction process which is led by assist assistant superintendent of instruction Melanie Ward and director of the teacher center Julie Barker. Our equity series also, um comprised of eight 2-hour modules, is organized around the New York State CRVSC principles, which includes welcoming affirming environment, high expectations and rigorous instruction, inclusive curriculum and

077assessment. All teachers across the district, um by 2023 will have received training in LGBT plus training um around appropriate vocabulary and gender neutral language. Uh last year we had started with the secondary uh schools and this year we're focusing on our elementary schools. And then last but not least, um my part here, um our equity goal uh was creating a media campaign showing who we are as a district, highlighting uh Pittsford families and students that represent all areas on the diversity wheel. I had the great pleasure being part of this work of this exciting work, which was led by um the director of communication department Nancy Wayman and her uncomparable team, um Lori Everhart as well as Elise Jones. Um and in this in this video, if you haven't seen it, it's called I am

078Pittsford it's on our website. Um this is again exciting work but did you see being able to be there and see the students um uh be part of this work and share how they feel included and how they're feeling valued by the district. Uh the importance of this work was about representation. It was about ensuring that students feel uh seen and that they're heard and that they're valued. It also um worked well for us in that it was intentionally meant to build um community and to learn about each other and foster sense of belonging. But also, the intention was to challenge bias and promote a culture of respect, uh inclusion, and understanding. Thank you. Um just a couple more here. Um actually at our last month's meeting, um Shawn Clark was able to provide us

079with a lot of information around the work that our human resources department has been doing toward um these equity goals Uh not just around increasing our hiring but also our retention of diverse teachers and updating the district website and postings in addition to a culturally competent interview committee training that he created really at the start of his time in this role. We were able to share that with the IAC and they were really thrilled to see that knowing that we have many different administrators running different interview committees across the district for a variety of positions that everybody's receiving the same training. So they were really happy to see that and that through our work with PDTA and the PDTA president making sure that teachers are aware of affinity groups within New York State Teachers Union

080for teachers who want to be able to find connections with people with similar experiences. And we've also been able to provide additional mentor opportunities for teachers and administrators who again may want to connect with somebody outside of the district. And last but not least one of our equity goals was around inviting diverse voices and when I went back to think of the the origins of our power hours really more in response to some things that had happened within our community where we needed to bring people together and do some healing and we brought Perry in and really over the last year and a half we've been able to be much more proactive and now we're at a point where we have 100 plus people showing up for a power hour on a topic that they

081have been able to give us feedback on so that we can bring it to the community. So being able to have that feedback loop with our community members to say what else do you want to know about and they can respond quickly and then within the next few months we can bring in someone like Scott Fitch who came just a few weeks ago maybe just two weeks ago and had such a powerful presentation and so it's nice to be able to see that truly having that dialogue with with our community. One of the things that we've really been working on now is grappling with and now what? Right, so now how do we know what the impact is of all of this work? And this is really all hands-on deck work. As you've heard, this

082is the work of many of everybody. And it will never be a check mark of well, now we're done. But how do we know that we're making an impact? How do we know what that impact is? How do we know what the additional gaps are? So, we've been continuing to look at drawing on what are the metrics that we need to start looking at. How will we assess ourselves in those ways? And then what are those intangible things? So, when I go back to the goal that Vincent was talking about around increasing student voice. And when our principals were were charged with increasing student voice in their buildings and making sure that students were on ILTs and they were coming to board meetings and on different committees and that we had opportunities for them to

083be able to share who they are and what they want their school to look like. And then I see the principal of Menomonie High School standing up and sharing that we have student-driven activities around equity and students feeling genuinely proud about who they are. And being there at that Heritage Day was just one of those intangible moments where you say, "Wow." When I go back to that success statement, this is what it looks like. When our students walk through the door and they don't have to leave who they are before they walk in. And they can not only be themselves, but be proud and share it with a community where their peers are also standing there saying, "Tell me more. This is so exciting." So, the work is certainly not done. We'll continue to report

084back and work on next steps and see what we can do to determine what that impact has been. And we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Questions? Shane, I was add that it's interesting and Vincent, you can uh attest to this as well that the conversations that our superintendent's advisory committee have been much less reactive and much more proactive, a lot more positive comments from our students and uh a lot more aspirational things that that bring us back to things as simple as how do we bring our school together to become closer with more grade level activities, with more getting to know you activities, with um some simple things like that. And another school um shared that they would just like to figure out how we can get more streamlined communication from

085teachers and our peers to what's relevant in school today. So, it's a you can see the impact of the work and really want to thank you and thank Vincent for for all you're doing. Thank you for this exciting time in student services. It's nice to see the power hours that the numbers increase and all of the community engagement in that area. So, thank you very much. Yes, thank you for your support. Appreciate it. Thank you. Next on our agenda is our special education report from Ms. Woods. Good evening. You will find um CSE and CPSE recommendations on the consent agenda. Thank you. And next we have our superintendent's report, Mr. Pierro. Thank you. There is a need for an executive session tonight to discuss the employment of a particular individual. May I have a motion

086to accept the call for executive session? So moved. Second. Renee and Sarah. All in favor? The um motion is is um accepted. Thank you. And next oh. It's okay. Go ahead. And for your consideration, the approval of the 23-24 school year calendar. You viewed the the um 23-24 PCSD school year calendar. Is there a motion to accept that calendar? Dave and Jeff. Any questions or discussion? Okay. I'll talk more about the eclipse day later. Oh, okay. Okay. That's exciting. All in favor? None opposed. The motion carries. And for your consideration is the 23-24 budget guidelines. They were presented at our last board meeting. So you um have reviewed the 22-23-24 budget guidelines. Is there a motion to accept them? Renee and Jeff. Any questions? All in favor? None opposed. The motion carries. I just have

087to read. I I've been looking at my cell phone a little bit tonight and I don't want people to think if there's anything going on other than my son has texted me 20 times. His first one was Sutherland is down by two. It's almost the end of the third quarter. And I said I'm in a board meeting. He said it's now in overtime, Dad. Sutherland was down nine with three minutes left, hit a tie shot with two seconds. I'm in a board meeting, Tyler. Tied, 30 seconds left, double overtime now. And I had to say, "Oh my gosh." We're all cheering in the in the Monroe section. It's crazy here. Sutherland's about to win, made all of their free throws. Monroe went two for 10. Game over, Sutherland won. So, um Sutherland basketball team advances.

088Uh which I wasn't expecting a play-by-play uh this evening before that while we're um also at it I got a uh text from Scott Barker, our athletic director. Our uh boys alpine ski team uh won states today at Bristol. And our uh girls uh Nordic team finished second in states at Bristol today. And then might as well keep going. I and I forgive me if I miss anything here. Um so our boys Sutherland will uh continue uh in the sectionals. Our Sutherland girls basketball team beat Mercy. They continue in sectionals. Our hockey team just won sectionals. Um they will continue with states. Our swim team uh won sectionals. They are continuing to states. Our cheer team, gymnastics, and Mendon indoor track are all moving on to states. Um I think that's it for now. So

089our uh athletic teams did they're very, very well. And again, if I missed a team, it's just because this is kind of on the fly. Uh so a couple updates. Um one, we've had uh an issue with our locks um in large assembly rooms that we've been trying to contend with uh since the beginning of the year. Uh today I had um the um fire marshal from the town of Pittsford come in um and um allow us permission um as we uh apply for a variance to uh install uh what we call night locks um which would only be accessible in the in the event of um an active shooter, uh which would allow every single room uh to be locked in the worst-case scenario um in a matter of a second. So I'm really

090happy about that. It'll be a short-term solution um until the capital project vote, which we're hoping is positive, which then will entail uh removing some doors, replacing them, replacing the hardware, um, uh a lot of additional work. So, feeling really good that we have, um, a resolution right now to, um, starting to install, um, locks across the district. Uh, I shouldn't say locks. Uh, in intruder, um, prevention mechanisms in in every single room. So, um, that's really good news. Uh, I heard someone allude to, um, the fact that we had Scott Fitch come to talk to our students about social media. And I would just ask us for a second to all think about when we grew up. Um, so bring yourself back. All the way back. Don't cry. Don't Just I don't want to

091trigger anything here, but bring yourself back to middle school, high school. And think about your life at that point. So, whatever happened during that day, happened during the day. If there was an issue during the day, you went home and you moved on with your day. Um, today with social media, issues happen during the day. They continue through the day. Sometimes they're perpetuated through the day. Um, they carry on through the night. They carry on through the weekend. Um, kids do amazing things on social media. They also do and make terrible decisions on social media. We have students that are bullied. We have students that are excluded. Um, we have students that, um, um, are capitalized on, um, uh, from, um, just like adults from different scammers. Um, there's a lot of a lot of

092changes, um, in our world right now because of social media. So, this year at the beginning of the year, I talked to, um, the high school, middle school principals. I talked to PTSA because we've been seeing a lot of students, um, being harmed by what's on social media. Um we've seen students harmed by actions they've done on social media um and been victims on on the other side of it. So, I guess I would just ask you to set your mind to to really think about what it's like to be a child today. It's the exact same stress you had when you were growing up. However, you have social media to keep that stress going and to magnify it, right? So, um before what one or two people knew, now a thousand or two thousand

093people know. Or what one or two people thought was the truth, now two or three hundred people think it's the truth in your school. And it's really tough to overcome. So, there's a lot of power behind um what you are doing on social media. So, we asked uh Scott Fitch to come in uh to talk to our students to help them through. And And Scott's great. Scott is um a champion um for all good for all kids. Um he is a long-term long-time uh basketball coach at um Fairport. And he's also coached and and played professionally. And he's seen firsthand how harmful the consequences are of inappropriate social media posts. He shared examples of his students that lost scholarships uh that were no longer recruited um because they did um a background check and what

094was posted. Really good kids, solid A kids, no behavior issues in school, uh but colleges went um looked at their social media and saw a lot of bad things and had uh revoked um any kind of scholarships. And um I've seen the same. So, I've seen our students um I I've actually not hired employees um because of things that are um planted um and and and shared on social media by by by people that just aren't um ethical. Um so you know, when I think about Scott's impact, he he So, he went and spoke with Sutherland, Mendon, Cochran's and Barker. And um he really sent the message about pause before you send. Right? So, we have to get into that motion of um you know, students are so used to immediate gratification or sending something

095out immediately, but to stop and think and think about the consequences of what it's like before you send something. Uh and to encourage people to use social media for real positive things, cuz social media is amazing. Right? Think about all the the money that's generated for great causes and and other things that that students and and and adults have done. Um the other thing I would I would just share that that that strikes me as as a as a dad of um three 20 between 16 and 20-year-olds um how important it is for me uh to take the time to talk to my kids about what's happening in their social media life. And so, literally, it it's sitting down with them saying, "Tell me what's going on on social media right now. Tell me what's

096where where's where's is there drama? Making sure they're not participating in it. Just checking in to make sure they're okay." Cuz there's things that are going on and students will go right into their your children will go right up into their bedroom. And they'll hide it, and you don't know what's happening. Um so, you have to check in with your kids. You have to. And and knowing that the screen time part is is is addicting for kids. Um monitoring how much they're on their phone. Um don't be their friend. Be friendly with your kids. Um you're their parents. And so, I would just ask for um, all of us as adults um, to not just try to be friends with our kids, but to give them guidance, really good guidance about being good people. Um,

097and and what that send button means and and how it leaves a trail uh, forever. So, um, I I offer that to to parents and and I think Scott touched on that. And I would also say that what parents send on social media is very embarrassing for kids sometimes. So, know that when you hit send as a parent or when you post something as a parent your kids are not reading it necessarily, but your kids' friends are. And so, when your kids go back to school um, they're going to say, "Oh my god, so-and-so's mom or dad, did you see what they posted?" And they're going to feel the consequences of the adult posts. So, we need to be really smart about when we talk about social media and safety and sanity and looking out

098for ourselves and our kids, we need to think as parents what we're sending. Um, and and what our kids may be receiving. Both electronically and and at school. The last thing I I I would share about this is that you know, we have in our school district we we've tried really hard the last couple years is to um, ask parents to go through a level of chain of command to to connect with the person closest to an issue at school. So, I'm looking at social media today and there's a post and then there's a post and there's a post, there's a post. And and it didn't happen. It just didn't happen. But when someone sees a post, it just automatically happened. Like I'll say to my my daughter, "How do you know that?" She'll say,

099"Well, it was on TikTok." Oh my gosh. I I'm failing you. It's It It doesn't mean it's true. If someone posts something, it's not true. It could be, but it also could not be. So, I would just ask parents that if your child is coming home with something or you have something to share or you're hearing something, instead of replying to a post and keeping it going and going and going, just contact the chain of command. Contact the the the the teacher or the principal or me or whatever office is the most appropriate. We used to be in the day, so talking about pre-social media, that when there was an issue, we would try to work it out one-on-one. And I feel like that's escaped us somehow. I feel like a lot's escaped us somehow.

100But that one-on-one time, that person-to-person time, um I want to talk to you about my child. And I want it behind the door and and and and I want you to help me through understanding what happened or how we can help our student. And it's gone from that to um let's let's throw it all out there and watch it when watch it compound and and exasperate and and and and have, you know, half-truths in it. That's what our kids are experiencing. So, as adults, what we need to make sure that we're doing is that we're checking ourselves, checking our kids, so that we can get back to the point where that needle is more in the middle, um and not all over the place with with not knowing what to believe or or or or

101what's what's true or not. So, um it's a big deal. We we put a lot of time into this because I do see firsthand uh the impact that social media's having um on our students. Um I see the impact it's having on our our staff. I see the impact it's having on our families and our community. Um so, with that's with that said, I would just extend that, and this is my last part of of my report, is when we're in this room at least um we have to realize that we have neighbors, we have families, we have community members that are living together in a lot of different ways. We're sharing a building, we're sharing a neighborhood, we're sharing a community and we need to love each other. We need to respect each other.

102Um and so I would just ask and I and I'm not sure if Robin's going to speak to this or not. Whenever we get in the public comment and I'm really proud of Pittsburgh because our public comment's been great. But when we get in the public comment know that what you're about to speak to will impact kids that are watching on the other side. It will relate to everything I just talked about with social media and it's going to impact your neighbors, your loved ones, or someone. So I just ask that we're always respectful. We can always have dialogue. We can always always always have dialogue. We can't keep our minds closed and have it one versus other in anything that we talk about. Um that does happen in a lot of districts. In this

103district it doesn't. So in this district there's an issue, we talk about it. We have dialogue. And someone's not going to be happy with the decision but it's not going to be made behind closed doors. So we need to respect humanity and respect each other and respect our neighbors. So with that, I thank you. So next um may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Jeff? And Sarah? All in favor? All opposed? The motion is accepted. Is there any old business? Is there any new business? The next section we'll we'll engage in is um public comment. And um I was going to um read the public comment section, but many of you read it before the the participants read it before you decided to um come before us and share your concerns. And

104so with that, um we have six people engaged tonight in public comment, and based on their attendance this evening, um we won't have to verify if one person is in attendance. So, the first person we'll call forward is um Lori Lykens. And as you come, please again announce your name in case I've mispronounced it, and state your address. I am Lori Lykens. Um my address is Six Town Gate Lane, um here in Pittsburgh. Um So, part of what we all value is to notice the positive and meaningful work that's done throughout the district. And I wanted to highlight one of those examples with your technology and data services department. This year, PTSA wanted to give all parents an opportunity to weigh in on meeting times, events we organize, ways in which we can better serve

105all families in the district. Um and I wanted you to know as a board how helpful the technology and data services department, and especially how helpful Dr. Jeff Summer and Rebecca Hyatt, who I don't think is here, have been. Um despite all their other responsibilities, they were quick to offer help uh and collaboration so we could use a system that would reach more parents, not just our membership, but our non-members from PTSA, and and engage them with with meaningful feedback. Um they were enthusiastic to discuss survey design and tradeoffs as we developed the survey, and they were very very patient with many rounds of edits as we sought to also work collaboratively with lots of different viewpoints and committees within PTSA to make sure we could capture a lot of different pieces that we were

106trying to do with the survey. Um we recently received the reports um and we will be analyzing them with our organizational review committee meeting tomorrow morning. Um so for now I just wanted to express on behalf of PTSA our thanks to you as a board of education for facilitating and prioritizing our work as an organization as well as recognizing the time, energy, effort, and enthusiasm that both Jack and Jeff and Becca have put into this project. Uh there are many times that we're all focused on what we could do better in the spirit of continual improvement um but this is it's also important just to simply acknowledge the examples of partnership and collaboration that have gone really well um and that help us all grow. So this is one of those examples. Um thanks again

107for all of your support. Thank you, Lori. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Next we will have um William Skews come forward. And please, sir, restate your name and your address. Thank you. Hi, I'm Bill Skews. You have all my contact information. I do live in Pittsburgh. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to ask you to go on a journey with me. Imagine we're at one of our fine Pittsburgh parks to watch a kids ball game. It's a beautiful, warm, sunny afternoon. The game is going well, the kids are having a great time, and the parents are happy. Now suppose I start talking to the kids about masturbation, intercourse, fellatio, and cunnilingus. You would imagine their parents would be properly outraged, have me arrested, prosecuted, thrown in jail, and labeled a sex offender for the rest of

108my life. All very reasonable and expected actions. But when the Board of Education, librarians, and teachers do the same thing, nothing happens. Nothing except the warping of our kids' minds that will affect them for the rest of their lives. What's going on with these pornographic books in the schools isn't education. It's child abuse. Let's try another scenario. At your daughter's 15th birthday party with a group of her friends and family gather around. Are you going to give her a copy of Girl in Translation and maybe read a little bit from it to the group? I'd never been naked with a man before, and Matt's skin felt warm and rough. He must have taken care of the condom somehow, and then suddenly he was inside me. I gasped. But it hadn't hurt as much as I

109had expected it to, and then I couldn't think at all anymore. When he finally came, he started to cry again. I held him tenderly in my arms. We lay there together, both breathing hard, returning to ourselves. Your reaction tells me that you would not give this book to your daughter. Then why is it assigned to 15-year-old 10th graders? I've included in your handouts a printout of a page from the US Department of Justice's website that discusses obscenity. In it, it states the following. Federal law strictly prohibits the distribution of obscene matter to minors. Any transfer or attempt to transfer such material to a minor under the age of 16, including over the internet, is punishable under federal law. It appears that the members of the board, the supervisor, some of the teachers, and some of

110the librarians may be guilty of trafficking in pornography you our children. I point this out because if you're not interested in taking care of our children by not providing them with pornography, maybe you'd be interested in saving yourselves from serious legal action that might land you behind bars or at a minimum expose you to an awful lot of public attention for your role in this child abuse. I suggest you read this handout in its entirety and not ignore it. It might be a very good starting point for the discussion you should have with your attorneys. Thank you for your time. William. Can I ask you a question? Sure. Have you read the book Girl in Translation in trans- I've read sections of it, yes. Do you know how many around how many pages are in

111that book? Uh several hundred. So, from my understanding The section I read was from page 250. Okay. So, this is a story, if and correct me if I'm wrong, about a um family who emigrated from Hong Kong to the United States. And she's caught between the pressure to succeed in America with her duty to family um along with her personal aspirations. Thank you. And of the 300 pages, um I believe 298.something um are is is is pure as they can be. So, I I share that with you only because context is important here. When you bring up pornography, um and and talk about um the the words that you used, it's important that you share it in context because this book is not about pornography. Um this is a a a 300 page book with

112an with an excerpt in there that we're looking into right now, but it's not a pornographic book. Um and and I think, you know, you've you've now spoke and I believe that um one of your um relationships have spoke before. If it's um No, it it hasn't been. Okay. So, this is our second person that spoke about this. There's a process that we're going through right now. Anytime there's a concern about a book, we review that book. And we do that with an open mind. I'm hard-pressed to to to listen to some of the terms about the board and me and others having pornography that's out there and just leaving it at that. So, this is a much deeper book that may or may not stay on our shelves, but it's not a book about

113pornography. It's And if you've read And I'm interested why you only read sections of it because if you were really interested, you would read the entire book to get its its entire depth of of what it's about. What we're faced with is really the context of you know, is one paragraph enough to ban a book? Is one sentence enough to ban a book? What if the entire book is is amazing, but there's a picture in it that's that's that you wouldn't agree with and I wouldn't agree with. Do we keep it or not? These are the discussions we have to have and we are having because we're going through that process. So, I want you to know that process is being followed right now. But I also want you to know there's a lot of

114viewers There could be a lot of viewers. There's probably people videotaping in the background possibly or or certainly this will be posted. Context is also important. We don't have pornographic material like that. You know, as you described it. So, taking one thing in an excerpt out of context is one thing. And it And I would also say it's not a mandatory 10th grade reading for all of our classes as well. So, it's important for the whole picture to be shared. So, thank you. And thank you for coming tonight. Thank you. Mr. Skeats, we heard you. Next we have Layla Melendez. If she's not present, we will move to Dwayne Serbone. Good evening. Dwayne Serbone, president of the Pittsburg District Teachers Association, 42 West Jefferson. I thank the Board of Opportunity for the opportunity to speak

115to the upcoming 2023 capital improvement project. As teachers and SRPs, we recognize and appreciate that a significant amount of money is required to maintain facilities at the most basic of levels to keep us operational. Issues with leaking roofs, busted pipes, and a lack of power are unfortunately in the forefront of our minds. However, we're grateful that this plan goes beyond that to address a few greatly needed improvements. We respect and acknowledge that there are clearly interests that have been identified that were not able to be included in this current project. Although we welcome such future investment in our facilities, at this time we're pleased to observe that this project can be carried out without a planned increase to the tax levy. For these and many other reasons, I'm proud to share that the PDTA Representative

116Assembly has voted and has endorsed this capital improvement project. Our members appreciate the notable investment in school safety and security across our buildings as well as movement towards equity of instructional space. It's very unfortunate that the need to provide increased security measures in our schools continues to escalate in in the light of horrific national tragedies. These measures proposed are substantial piece of the puzzle moving us forward providing a safer and more secure learning environment for all. Safety of students and staff is a foundation in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. No other learning can or will occur without that first being met. Additionally, as I would assume you've noted during your Board of Education building visits, there remains inequity in our instructional spaces. The steps proposed in this plan recognize that and again move us in the

117right direction. It's simply not acceptable that students' instructional opportunities are limited simply because they attend a school in a building with a different mascot than their peers. Anyone who has tried to implement a science lab safely in the restrictive spaces of Mendon High School or simply attempted to keep paper from curling in the trailers of Barker Road Middle School know these factors too well. Thank you for calling out the need for improvements to our science, technology, and mental health spaces. We know that this capital project does not include all that we desire. But we do recognize that it moves us a long way. As president of the PDT on behalf of our members, we appreciate this fiscally sound approach to investing in our schools and look forward to continued conversations regarding ongoing improvements. Thank you.

118Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sabram. And next we'll ask Marky Hutt to come forward. Okay, if he is absent, we would like to ask Shari Downey to come forward. Firstly, I'd like to apologize for asking a question out of turn earlier. I was unaware I couldn't ask. Um as a continuation of the last meeting, the update is that none of the books have been removed and the lack of consideration resulted in the isolation of at least one student for um at least one student by means of being sent to the library for a minimum of two weeks in order to be spared the graphic and romanticized depictions of drug use, promiscuity, and date rape. Those were not small things. They were not just a few passages. It was scattered throughout the entire book. Are you

119talking about your child? Um while all the students continued their lesson. At the beginning of the last meeting where students were receiving awards, a speaker was praising a student for her approach to problem-solving. They voiced admiration for her approach um to not just complain about a problem, but by coming up with solutions and presenting them to make change. We as adults expect the same consideration. I'm here with the same plan in mind to provide solutions. Even though our children should be in safe hands while at school, you guys have been made aware on multiple occasions that that is not the case. And the responses have been nothing more than I hear you. The lack of action and care is what has created a situation where many of the adults at the school can no longer

120be trusted. Our dis- I feel many people feel. I'll make that a feeling statement. Our direct Our district has developed a long-standing problem with transparency for the parents, safety of all students, and therefore have work to do to regain the trust of the community. As you know, I'm here to speak about the book problem in our district. I've spoken to over 10 teachers and other relevant adults at the schools for the past 3 years and have been met with pleasantness, but also rude teachers and staff, and kids that have to live with what they've been exposed to and no real solutions except to pick up the pieces in the background. These topics span across multiple subjects regarding sexual videos that were slated to be sent to the skit to the kids school-provided laptops, for which

121I discovered and helped stop along with the help of the teacher who planned on sending them. I'm not sure if any of you are aware. Not properly dealing with allegations of sexual abuse, not responding to reports of drugs on the school property, alcohol-related reading and teachings about the benefits the benefits that alcohol has had on our nation, and sexually inappropriate reading both mandated and provided. In the spirit of the five easy of the easy five-step instructions that I read last time, um I have come up with a five-step solution to help handle the problem of the obscene books in our district. Sex books, step one. Responsible school district officials work with community volunteers to quickly gather a list of books that are unquestionably inappropriate. Since the school clearly does not have such a list, it

122is vital to outsource this task. Step two. A team of school personnel and volunteers is gathered to sweep each school at every level to immediately remove the books in question. This can be completed in a single day. Step three. Remaining books are further screened using the resources outside of the school to help hunt down and remove these and spare our children because I know that you guys care because you say you do. Step four. A team is created with representatives in the community to develop new rules regarding how books will be chosen chosen and how our money will be better spent on wholesome and relevant books. Now for step five. Incoming books will be properly reviewed um by responsible, trustworthy adults, and all books will abide by federal and state laws as well as recommended

123reading ages stated for each of the books. Furthermore, as an act of good faith, Excuse me, Sherry. I wanted to give you the opportunity to list all of the five steps. did. Thank you. notify parents that due to oversight, their students may have been exposed to explicit content and therefore invite the parents to open a discussion with their child to make certain that they can discuss topics that made them uncomfortable, scared, disgusted, or confused. And I can assure you that if the board was uncomfortable hearing my readings earlier this month, Ms. Downey, your public comment is ended at this time. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Are you doing everything you can to keep the kids safe? Thank you. Sherry, um so you said, "I hear you." Well, we're saying is I

124hear you and there's a lack of action. So there's a board policy right after you completed the work that we've been asking you to do. And now now now the second you the second you submitted what our policy said, we then convened a committee. We had to borrow books cuz we didn't have enough of the books for the committee to read. That's how few we had. So, we had to borrow books from other districts and we're reviewing them per our policy right now. Good. So, so, so I can't you can't say there's been a lack of action. If anything, we've we've we've it's listed now to beyond 3 minutes the first time, beyond 3 minutes this time. We've also taken action on your requests. And and you're welcome. And we're doing so and and I

125believe, and I could be wrong, we're doing this as a community member, right? As someone that doesn't have a child in our school system. have a child? I Do you Do you? Thank you. Okay. So, my understanding is there is not your your child is not in our public school system is is my understanding. But, we're still taking your concerns seriously. And we're working on them and per our board policy. And we'll we'll continue for anyone that has concerns. We'll continue to be respectful. We'll continue to be open-minded. We'll continue to listen. And we'll continue to take action, which is what we're doing, which is what confuses me right now. Because we did listen to you last time. We followed up with you. And then here we are up with you guys. And here we

126And here we still are. So, I'm not sure where this is going down the road, but know that what we're doing behind the scenes is convened several people to listen to to the concerns you brought forward and looking and reading and processing through the books for much of the criteria you shared. Right? So, we are looking for developmental appropriateness, age appropriateness. Well, I appreciate that, but that's not what you shared here. You what you What I heard you say was that nothing's being done. It's not being done quick enough and it shouldn't have occurred in the first place. So, we're offering help. Thank you for with the other book. Okay, thank you. Sarah and Renee. All in favor? The motion carries. Thank you.