February 12th 2026 VCS BOE Meeting

001Hello everyone. Welcome to our February 12th, 2026 board of education meeting. As we are already in session, um if you can please stand for a moment of silence, Mr. Adams, would you lead us in the pledge tonight >> 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. >> Welcome to everyone who is here tonight. Uh let's get started. Item 1C, public participation reminder. Persons wishing to address the board must sign up prior to the start of public session. Speakers must register on the form provided by the district at the entrance of the boardroom to maintain a first come first serve process for the purposes of following up with the speakers. The speakers must

002provide their name, address, telephone number and or email address to limit comments to matters which may be properly discussed during public participation. The speakers will provide the topics. Any group or organization wishing to address the board must identify a single spokesperson. Item D. In case of emergency, would everyone please follow the exit signs to the outside of the building? Please stay completely clear of the building to provide space for any emergency vehicles. Item two, approval of the agenda. Can I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I I. >> Any abstensions? Any opposed? Motion carried. Dr. Teranova. >> Thanks, Mrs. Casti. Uh, in terms of my superintendence update, I'd like to talk just uh for a brief amount of time about our work on

003student social emotional support. I know the board had some questions. I believe it was from last month about how we are continuing to focus on student well-being which stem from a excellent presentation from Mrs. Ryan, Mrs. Mark Mc Merry, and Mrs. trip. We also know one of our three major focus areas of our district is student belonging, sense of value and well-being and uh so certainly that's a focus we have every day. Questions from the board were raised specific to the Panorama data platform which is a data survey platform that helps us measure social emotional skills and students school climate and student well-being. Uh there was a couple questions. The first one was how do we compare to other districts with this social emotional data and is it comparable? Panorama is a nationally normed uh

004data field. Victor falls within the 90th percentile compared to similar size and demographics for students sense of belonging which is great. Not what we want though 100%. Uh but it is in the 90th percentile. We also had two other questions from the board. What are we doing for kids in the percent that do not feel st a strong sense of belonging was one and is there a correlation between belonging the involvement in outside activities and connections to at least one adult and so I'll just try to answer that briefly in terms of what are we doing with kids who don't necessarily according to these surveys have a sense of belonging uh they're asked a question actually it's it's questions that are asked to kids in grades grade grades 3 through 12 and Then each building's

005uh pupil service team looks at and analyzes the survey data and identifies students who are need of more support and connections and they'll work with those kids uh in seal areas like self-awareness and social awareness and the sense of belonging to identify actual supports that they might need. It might be just holding on to a or connecting with a trusted adult or it might be more extensive like supporting the parents and the child with uh mental health support or even work and referrals to the family support centers or Rochester regional counseling. This is something I'm very pleased that every building is focused on in their own way. looks different for our youngest learners at the ECS than it does at the high school. But ultimately, what we're trying to do is really tease out, are

006there kids that can't recognize an adult who they feel is connected with. Now, at the ECS, the good news is most four and 5year-olds are connected to their teacher. So, it's a different way of kind of looking at things, but certainly as the kids get older, that's an important point. And then they are also in their own way asking teachers to identify kids who they feel strongly connected with. And it's the kids who aren't on either one of those lists. They don't have an adult and the adults aren't mentioning the kid that we really need to keep an eye on. And the high schools doing at the oldest level are doing great things around trying to tease out that data. But all our buildings are doing it. In fact, Amanda Burn at the primary uh

007building brought this concept which is termed relationship mapping to our whole principal group. So, we're doing our everybody's doing their thing around it, but it's really trying to tease out the kids who don't have that sense of belonging. Um, the other thing I would say is into the question, should it, you know, is it important that kids are involved in outside things other than classes and does that help build relationships? I think the obvious answer is yes. Um when in our equity audit that we did last spring, we found out that approximately 60% of students in grades 7 through 12 are involved in athletics. And and in terms of major in terms of musical ensembles, which are choices, not music class, in grades 2 through 12, 40% of students 40% of students are involved in

008musical ensembles. This doesn't count clubs and areas and other things like DECA and robotics or musicals and play. So we have large percentages of kids involved in outside experiences beyond the classroom, but we need to try to promote that even more. Um, and I think that's one of the main reasons why we are so focused on having a comprehensive education in Victor and why this board's done such a great job in helping to support that through our budget process. The only caveat in this that we've also learned through the data, especially at the high school, is sometimes when kids are involved in lots of things, they put a lot of pressure on themselves. So, you got a kid involved in advanced placement courses, music, athletics, so on and so forth. Sometimes that can be a

009negative if they're putting too much pressure on themselves and they're not able to really manage their time. So, that's something that I know the high school especially is looking at and working at, but I know the board had questions around that. So, I wanted to make sure I I answered those and certainly bring more questions forward because there's nothing more important than our student mental health support. And then two real brief shoutouts. One to the board of education for their continued advocacy uh which we've talked about frequently around trying to get appropriate state aid from New York. Uh they're going through the process now over the next three to four to potentially five months, but we're going to continue to advocate. appreciate the work that the board is helping with to set up a series

010of second meetings with legislators over the next four weeks to advocate for fair funding from New York State. And last but not least, just a huge shout out to some amazing groups of professionals that have kept us going during probably one of the coldest winters I can imagine or or been a part of in a long time. That includes our facilities and maintenance crew are out there at 3 in the morning clearing snow. uh includes our obviously our transportation staff and bus drivers who are the first line of defense to bring kids in from the cold and a huge shout out to our traffic control personnel who are out there every day no matter what the weather is. There's endless examples of so many professionals keeping us safe. So I just wanted to publicly thank

011those groups for the work they're doing and hopefully it'll get a rest bit over the next couple weeks. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Teranova and let's all hope we get a respit from this weather over the next few weeks. Item five, public participation. Although the board's work is open to the public, this is not a meeting with the public. At this time, privilege of the floor is offered to those who have signed up to speak. The chair will be happy to recognize those of you who wish to speak. When you approach the microphone, please identify yourself before you presenting your thoughts. Individual comments will be limited to three minutes and the total time for this portion of the agenda will be limited to 30 minutes. Please note issues related to spec specific school district

012personnel or students must be brought to the attention of the superintendent of schools privately as they are not discussable at this venue. At this time I'd like to invite John Prader. Am I pronouncing that right? Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for your opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Jonathan Prader and I am the vice commander of the American Legion and a disabled US Army veteran. I am here to respectfully ask that the Victor School District adopt two important veterans property tax exemptions uh authorized by New York State. Um that's 458 and the new one 1153 or 1183. 458. The alternative veterans exemption provides partial school tax reduction for veterans based on honorable service, combat service, and service connected disability ratings. 1183 passed in 2024, I believe it was, provides

013a full school tax exemption for veterans who are 100% service uh disabled or individual unemployable. That's another rating that the the VA gives us. Both laws give the school districts the authority to opt in. Many towns and school districts across New York have already adopted. Some counties and municipalities have begun adopting 1183, but Victor School District has not adopted either exemptions, even though many of our neighbor communities uh support their veterans in this way. Every veteran in this district volunteered to serve. Some gave their lives, others like myself with permanent disabilities, some visible, many in uh invisible. I am rated 100% service connected. In 2003, uh, in Iraq, I suffered a life-threatening injury and only because my soldiers ran back into enemy fire and pulled my lifeless body, I'm here alive today. I owe each

014of them um a handshake and a thank you. Um, and it's something I'll never be able to do. Not because I don't want to, because every one of them are dead. And it's not because they lost their lives over there. It's because they all took their lives. So that's the the wound that you guys don't see, the PTSD. The only reason I'm standing here today is because I sought help for the sake of my family. Because of my injuries, I am unable to work. Veterans like me live on fixed incomes, and these exemptions provide meaningful financial breathing room. These are not luxuries. These are lifelines. Some may worry that adopting these exemptions will shift a small amount of cost onto the taxpayer. I understand that concern, but I ask that you also understand the perspective

015of the veteran who carried the weight of service, sacrifice, and trauma so that others will not have to. If school school districts across the state and country can adopt this local law and if local governments can also adopt it, then Victor can too. In fact, Victor has the opportunity to be one of the first districts in Ontario County and one of the first in New York State to adopt the full exemption under S183. that would show the true leadership and genuine commitment to the veterans who live here. We are not just veterans. We are not We are your residents. We are your neighbors. We are your family members. We are parents and grandparents of your students. I am proud of my service to this nation. And I continue to serve my community along with my

016fellow veterans to the American Legion voluntarily because giving back is who we are. On behalf of the veterans here in uh the Victor School District, I respectfully ask that you adopt both uh 458 and 1183 and stand with those who served. >> Thank you, Mr. Prader, for your comments and your service. Uh Adam Thompson. >> Good evening board members from Victor School District Education Board. Um I too am my name is Adam Thompson. I served 12 years in the United States Marine Corps. I also am here with on behalf with John as well to ask this. Uh I'm here to ask you guys to adopt the same uh provisions for New York State uh property school taxes for victors uh school districts. Uh the exemption obviously applies to only veterans that are rated of 100%

017or more or 100% disabled uh service connected through the VA. uh individuals that uh whose injuries or conditions are totally and permanent which means they can never be taken away from them. Okay. Um I know that there are three districts in Monroe County that actually give this and award them. One is Gates Chilai, one is Brockport and the other one is Calum. Now I know that Victor Central School District is a very pristine uh district. So I don't see there should be an issue for us to actually try to move forward with this as well. um adapting these things exemptions would demonstrate um faith for our veteran community that actually would be able to um subsidize some of their cost for their living expenses due to that. Um John already touched on that so I

018don't beat a dead horse but I respectfully do urge you guys to consider adopting these exemptions so that um those who have served and given the most to this country and to us that are not left behind and at the local level. Thank you for your time and your considerations. I yield my rest of my time. >> Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Again, we appreciate your comments and your service, and our board will uh review your comments with uh due diligence. We appreciate you coming. >> Thank you. >> All right. Item six, accepted. Acceptance of consent items A through Oh, it's long. A through L. Before I ask for a motion, um, are there any comments or questions? >> So, if I may, I want to congratulate and recognize another series of amazing people who are

019retiring from the district at the end of the school year. includes Anmarie Cry, uh, wonderful foreign language teacher, Suez, our amazing workbased learning coordinator, Jane Galina, uh, really a hallmark of the UPK program, uh, Anthony Manton, an an outstanding science teacher at the high school, and Sean Rucker, who is uh, an incredible coach, but more importantly, an amazing teacher uh, at the high school. So, unfortunately, we're losing those five. uh to retirement. It's been a theme over the last couple years. It's that age that they're hitting and uh we hope that some of them will come back and either sub for us on a day-to-day basis or even take some long-term subs. So, just really appreciate uh their service to the district and thank them. And then the other piece is as part of the

020uh consent agenda is the 2627 school calendar. Um, I appreciate the collaboration with the different associations and Dave Pasro's work to to try to, you know, it's very similar. It's very connected to the Boseis calendar obviously, but there's some there were some different decisions that need to be made. And I will say that I believe December 23rd is a holiday is is a day off for Victor. We're able to squeeze that in and still maintain our days. So, um, it's not the full two weeks. So, I know some people are going to be disappointed, but it is uh one more day than we normally have. So, uh just want to put that out there and thank the people who worked on the 2627 school calendar. If the board does approve it, then we will make

021it public through our website tomorrow. >> Any other comments or questions? Um, uh, thank you to for some donations. Uh, 3,000 from the Buffalo Bills Foundation to Victor Central School District will be applied towards funding the flag football modified a team for this spring 2026 season. Um, 3575 from the Victor Flag Football Booster Club to the Victor Central School District to be applied towards the purchasing of 30 parkas for the Victor Victor varsity Flag Football Team. So, thank you for those. Can I get a motion to accept uh consent items A through L? >> Motion by Tim. >> Second. >> Adam. >> Oh, Adam. >> All in favor? >> Any abstensions? Any opposed? Motion carried. Campus News. >> Good evening. I'm Rob D. Rose, the principal at the Early Childhood School. Thank you both for

022your service to our country. We appreciate it very much. Um, I also have the privilege of sharing out about our campus news for the Victor Early Childhood School. Uh, February's been a busy month already. It's been productive as well. We've recently completed our math, ELA, and SEAL data days. These important meetings bring together teachers, service providers, and administrators to closely review each student's rate of learning. This collaborative process ensures that all students receive access to the supports, strategies, and interventions necessary to make meaningful and adequate progress across all areas of school. We kicked off the month with a schoolwide assembly focused on our positive tone for February, which is acts of kindness. Throughout the building, students and teachers are creating kindness chains in their classroom. And each link represents an act of kindness, serving as

023a visual reminder that kindness connects us all and strengthens our school community in powerful and positive ways. This week, students and staff are also celebrating the 100th day of school. This milestone is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the incredible learning, friendships, celebrations, and growth that have already taken place this year. We're so proud of all of our students and what they've accomplished so far. This is the time for our Victor and Farmington families to be registering their young ones for UPK and kindergarten. Students who will be four on or before December 1st are eligible for our UPK programs. Students who will be five on or before December 1st are eligible to register for kindergarten. Families can call the school or visit the district website to register their child or to find out more information.

024As a third tri tr trimester quickly approaches, our students and teachers are focused on elevating and leveling up their learning. Right now, first graders are strengthening their reading and math fluency skills while deepening their understandings of complex math concepts and building strong reading comprehension strategies and skills. Kindergarten students are now continuing to develop their number concepts and applications, as well as beginning to apply what they've learned about reading to connected and decodable texts. And I absolutely love seeing our young kinders pick up a book and read it on their very own for the first time. Not much brings me greater joy than that. It's a lot of fun. And that's happening all across our kindergarten classrooms right about now. PreK students are actively engaged in their play-based learning environments, building essential school readiness skills and

025developing foundational skills in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. Our teachers, staff, and faculty are deepening their learning and application of thinking classroom practices which promote collaboration, critical thinking, and rigorous learning. In addition, our faculty and staff are continuing to review student assessment data to drive instructional decisions and refine classroom practices to best meet the needs of all learners through the PLC process and cycle. Finally, on behalf of the entire VEX community, I'd like to congratulate Jane Galina, like Dr. Teranova mentioned on her upcoming retirement at the end of the school year. If you don't know Jane, she works tirelessly for each child under her care in the UPK classroom as well as her colleagues. She's often here late at night on indefinitely on the weekends uh because of her love and admiration for

026her profession as well as the students and family she serves. She consistently goes above and beyond. She's creative and embraces challenges with optimism and determination. She'll be greatly missed by her entire community of faculty, staff, students, and families. Also, Coach Rucker, he was my baseball coach, so congrats to him, too. I was mainly a pinch runner, but uh, you know, I contributed to the team, so congrats to him as well. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. D. Rose. I'm sure you were an excellent baseball player. Good evening. I'm honored to share the canvas news for Victor Primary School for February. Uh February provided an important opportunity for reflection, celebration, and refinement of our systems at VPS. This month, we held our academic and social emotional learning data days like Dr. Teranova was referring to. Um

027during these sessions, a collaborative team reviewed our data and that included things like universal screening, progress monitoring, and qualitative information. And as a result, we were able to notice the measurable growth that our students have made in many areas and successfully exited students across all of our supports, including math, AIS, reading, AIS, counseling, primary projects, and even mentoring, which left Dr. T without a mentee. He was such an effective mentor. Um, these exits reflect both the effectiveness of our targeted interventions and the increased strength of our core instruction. In alignment with our district's focus on belonging, we integrated a new data point regarding students social emotional well-being. As we mentioned in our last um monthly update, faculty and teacher aged engaged in engaged in structured reflection and identified each student that they have a for

028whom they serve as a trusted adult. So not just everybody that they know their name or they would say hello to someone who would come to them if they had a problem. This exercise reinforced our shared responsibility that every student needs to have at least one strong positive affirming relationship within our building. And through the resources at Harvard, we were able to immediately analyze subgroup data and notice which groups had more connectedness than others by race, gender, and both measures. Our next phase is gathering student voice to better understand who they consider to be their trusted adults and actually communicate that to our staff members to ensure those connections are intentional and responsive. In addition, we've considered how can we continue refining our multi-tered system of supports. This month, we established a framework for standing

029bi-weekly meetings specific to math, reading, and social emotional learning. These will include interventionists and instructional coaches. During the meetings, Tim teams will systematically review all students who are currently receiving intervention to determine if they're exceeding expectations, meeting expected growth, or not yet meeting expected growth. This will allow us to be more responsive with timely adjustments, intensification of support when necessary, and strengthening the alignment between the classroom and intervention settings. Our goal is to be more proactive, more consistent with their resources, and more responsive to students who are already connected to support but not responding the way we expect them to. In addition to celebrating academic and social emotional growth, we also celebrated literacy through our Scholastic Book Fair. We're deeply grateful for our partnership with the PTSA. And this year, we're especially proud of the

030intentional efforts to make sure that all students were able to leave with a new book in a manner that was discreet and respectful whether or not their caregiver could send money in with them. The implementation of a new ticket system and share the fair initiative was highly successful, placing more books directly in the hands of students while preserving their dignity and inclusion. Overall, February's work reflects our continued focus on data-informed decision-making, strong adult connections, belonging, equity, and the ongoing refinement of our systems. Thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Jamaro and I'm the principal at the intermediate school. Over the past month, our students have been focusing on empathy, which is our current character trait. We will be diving deeper into this work. During our grade level assemblies at the end of the month

031after break, in addition, during our monthly social emotional learning lessons, students have been learning about the difference between conflict and bullying and developing skills to navigate peer conflicts effectively. Our school counselors have done a phenomenal job. supporting this work by helping students identify the facts in various conflict scenarios and think through strategies to regulate their emotions before attempting to solve any problems. We also recently held our second round of data days similar to the ECS and VPS during which teachers and intervention teams collaborated to analyze student data and ensure each child is receiving the support they need to continue growing and working toward their goals. The level of collaboration and communication among staff as well as with the families who support our students has been very impressive. In addition to this work, we continue to

032see strong engagement from students across classrooms as teachers design learning experiences that are both rigorous and developmentally responsive. Recently, our staff learned about ideas from building thinking classrooms with our director of math and science, Carrie Goodell, and how these ideas can be applied to maximize student engagement and thinking across all subject areas. It has been amazing to see how many staff members have already started incorporating some of these ideas into their daily work with students already. As we move into March, we're excited to build on the progress our students have made by continuing to provide engaging learning opportunities within a safe, supportive environment where the strength of our Victor Intermediate School community can continue to shine. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Uh Brian G, the principal of the junior high school in Victor. Happy

033February. A little snowy out there for all of us, I would imagine. Uh so a couple updates. Um our building council, as I've mentioned a few times, we're working on our career day again for this year. Uh we decided we wanted to open it up to community members as well as existing businesses that Sue Uts had connected us to. And we're proud to say we already at this point have 30 people who are interested in coming in to present. that represents a dozen different career clusters and countless different positions within each of those career clusters. So, we're now considering if our students will have an opportunity to not only have individual sessions uh with presenters, but also be able to experience a more traditional kind of job fair, career fair, where they can travel to

034different booths as well. So, they can get a chance to experience multiple career clusters this year. Last year, they were only able to experience one. So, we're very excited about the evolution of that. Uh, in the honor of uh getting close to uh Valentine's Day, uh I had the pleasure of going into our library the other day and watching uh Rachel Scott, who was our librarian, do a speed dating event uh with kids and books, and it was fantastic. She had a dozen different stations set up, more or less, with every genre out there. Students would go by. She gave them a few things that they could do to kind of identify, is this my right match? Is this the right fit for me? They traveled around and at the end of the speed dating

035rounds, they got to go back to grab whatever book they wanted. And I haven't seen kids get this excited to make a beline for the mystery section or make a beline for the romance section and hope that that book that they they thought was their match was going to be there. It was absolutely fantastic. Um side note to that uh we also had a chance for a couple of other teachers um with Nate Wolf, John Hannah and Matt Bowererline today hosted uh teachers from another district came to visit our technology department. We've been recognized as a project lead the way school of distinction now for many years and we are proud to be able to host a group of teachers to come by observe our classes talk with our students and get to meet with

036our teachers to find out what is it that we are doing that continuously has us ranking and doing so well in the area of technology education that was quite exciting I'd also want to thank a few other people uh Shannon Mark and Nikki Ryan one of our counselors and Ashley Van Cowenberg our family consumer science teacher for seventh grade for expanding opportunities for our 1213 students to have a full integrated opportunity to move into our home and careers classrooms um with their same age peers in a fully sort of integrated model. That's sort of new for us to do it in that in that uh course. So very proud of that. And then just two other quick things. We have our sixth grade parent night coming up the week after February break. Uh we're looking

037forward to welcoming the new families as they get ready to transition. It's a big group, so we're hoping for a good turnout of parents as well. And then lastly, tomorrow is the world premiere of our live morning show. I want to thank Erin Isaacs for helping get that organized, Angelo Fonte, and I got three kids who are super excited to be able to go live on air tomorrow uh for the first time at the junior high uh to do a live morning show. So, tomorrow's the pilot, and like any other pilot, if it goes well, then it gets picked up by the network and we'll do it every day. So, that's what we're hoping for. Enjoy your February break, everyone. Okay, everyone. Uh, good me. I'm Brian Castle, principal at Victor Senior High School. We

038have a few updates on what's been happening at the high school this month. Um, just want to mention that last Thursday for those who were able to attend, we had our third annual black scholars recognition. I talked about this um last month. We're 26 Victor Senior High School students. Uh we're recognized um as black scholars to the Urban League of Rochester. And a special shout out to Dennis Cole who is a safety specialist at Victor Junior High School. He was our keynote speaker. Gave a great message, fantastic message to the students um where he basically said, "Everyone is born into what he calls average. We have to rise to be above average." And he really challenged the students to do that throughout their lives. So, I thought it it was a great message. Um, last

039week, one of our new business teachers, Joe Sedari, brought students to a junior achievement competition in downtown Rochester. Um, junior achievements programs in the core content areas of work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy ignite the spark in young people to experience and realize the opportunities and realities of work and life of the 21st century. And last week was the National Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge where I'm proud to say that our teams, four of our teams finished in the top five of the competitions at Junior Achievement and we took the top three spaces. Uh so we took one, two, and five. One, two, three, and five. Uh so I just want to say thank you to Joe for for bringing that to Victor. um to to just comment on something that Tim and Amanda talked

040about with our SEAL updates last week. Um we sent to uh all of our students a brief check-in survey that consisted of two questions. Um the purpose is to give us an idea of how students are doing now that we're past the midpoint of the year. One question was about res resiliency and coping during difficult situations and the other question was about student connections with trusted adults. 97% of our students responded that they feel like they've got the skills to handle challenges in their life. And 96% said that they have a trusted adult outside of the home who they can connect with. However, what that meant to us is we've got a a gap of students who we who we need to check in with. And we were able to identify 34 students through that

041survey um who um who we followed up with individually who expressed that they might need assistance in these areas. Um, this information gives us an idea on the pulse of the building and how we can help students who might need a connection or or some assistance with resiliency and we were able to follow up with those students and it was much appreciated. So, I'm glad for that work. Um, next week, this is the first time we're ever do we're ever doing this. We're doing a February break two-day credit recovery opportunity for some students who might be in danger of not passing a required graduation course. Um, these are some selected students who are going to come in, have the opportunity to make up some work. Uh, thanks to the generosity of their teachers who are

042going to provide that work. I want to say a special thank you to Kelly Clink and our transportation department who is going to arrange to pick up the students who need transportation. Alex Tapole in food service who is going to feed the students lunch. And I also want to thank uh Dave Pasero in our uh HR department who is supporting a teacher and a teaching assistant who can come in and help students with this work. Um and finally, I want to give an also an update about the senior high school library, Danielle Westbrook, who is always thinking outside of the box. She is doing a winter games experience uh modeled after the Olympics where teachers can sign their students out to come down to the library for a period if they want. and she has

043all these interactive um competitions where she's trying to reinforce key academic and social skills in a fun and engaging environment. She's actually doing an opening ceremony uh where she will teach the students about the history of the Winter Olympics and share fun facts about this year's city uh host city and sports. And then some games like table cup tabletop curling, bobsled book stacking, which is where students use critical thinking skills to build a ramp out of discarded books and then they send like a a toy car down it and and whoever's who the the sled that goes the farthest wins. um Olympic events charades where students have to compete against each other to see who can act out the most winter Olympic events and my favorite paper plate ice skating where students are skating around

044the library um on sliders and paper plates and at the end they do um a closing ceremony where it's a closing medal ceremony where they give you know trinkets to the kids who who win. Um, so I just I gotta thank Danielle for for really going outside the box there on that one. So, and and the kids love it. I was in a meeting today in the room next to the library and she's playing like the Olympic theme and it's like blaring and so the kids are all into it. And I also know we that we had a couple of um field trips this past month. So you see at the top there, our V varsity cheerleaders competed at the National High School Cheerleading Championship at the ESPN Wild Wide World of Sports in Orlando

045where they took 13th place um in the national uh competition. And they want to thank the board of education, the athletic department um for their continued support of our program and teams. And our wrestling team went to a tournament in Delansen, which is outside Skenctity on January 23 23rd. The team finished five and one and took second place. Um Craig Caper. So the trophy they gave is a mini sledgehammer, which I find unique to give a bunch of wrestlers as as the trophy. Reminds me of bat day at Yankee Stadium. I think there's just some things you probably just do once, but um so so they took second place and and they got a sledgehammer trophy. So um Craig Caper is thankful to the board for for their support of that. >> Okay, >> thank

046you. And tonight we are very excited to welcome our student board members, Aiden and Isabella, up to share uh what's been going on in the student world at the high school. Good evening everyone. My name is Aiden Count. I'm one of the student representatives to the board of education. Over the last six months, I've learned a great amount about what goes on behind the scenes and how decisions impact the students and the entire district. This past weekend, fellow members of the board and I went to the Monroe County School Boards Association legislative breakfast where we worked with local school districts, senators, and congressmen and woman to advocate for what is needed for students to succeed and for the district to thrive. These these decisions reinforced our commitment to strong leadership, collaboration, and long-term success for

047our schools. Furthermore, the superintendent student leadership council has been working to generate ideas to improve and solve issues in the high school. The council meets once a month with 50 selected school students to discuss items that are important to the students. Some of the topics that are being discussed are college of career prep, safety and security, and the student assistance program. These are just a few of what students are working on. With the guidance of Dr. Terteranova and the senior high school administration, we are committed to providing strong support for the entire school community. Thank you. >> Hi, good evening. I'm the other student board member on the board of education. My name is Isabelle Blanco and I'm a sophomore at the high school. During my portion of campus news, I will be addressing the

048workbased learning program. To begin, since I don't believe she's recognized enough, I'd like to simply give a thank you to the brains behind the entire workbased learning program, Mrs. Uts, which she seems to be common theme tonight. When I told her I chose to highlight this topic, she was overjoyed and insisted on helping me with ideas. I gave each of the board members and I tried to give like everyone a bookmark, but I ran out. Um, they have a QR code to her website and her email. She distributes these bookmarks throughout English classes in order to promote her program. Currently, Mrs. Oz is encouraging many juniors. Even though every high school student from 9 through grades 9 through 12 can participate to take advantage of the opportunity she can provide in the coming weeks, Mrs.

049Mrs. UTS has already helped more than 81 plus students to take advantage of programs participating in job shadows, internships, work study, and career volunteering. Now, I would like to briefly share my personal experiences. In the past two months, I have participated in two job shadows. One at Harris Beach and another with Senator Helman. Both were delightful experiences and in just a few hours, I learned so much. It's truly such a privilege to be able to take advantage of these opportunities. At both of the shadows, I was able to have meaningful conversations with numerous adults, build connections, and have honestly just a great time. Lastly, on this topic, I would like to extend my congratulations and deepest thanks to Mrs. Udds. I'm eager to see how our program continues to thrive this year. The next topic

050I would like to quickly touch on and adding on Aiden's previous overview is legislative breakfast this weekend or this past weekend. A couple of other board members and I, including Dr. Teranova, attended this weekend. At the breakfast, we were able to listen to many fellow students speak on issues in their schools. Although Victor has been able to effectively help these issues, specifically mental health, Aid and I have decided at some point during the coming months, we, as other students did, will ask questions to our peers and teachers for feedback on how we can better our school environment overall. These questions will include, but are not limited to, "Do you do you feel safe at school and why?" or what do you think our school could do in order to combat mental health issues to which

051we can take down data and demise solutions or action steps in order to make all students feel comfortable. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you both uh not only for tonight and sharing your experiences with our work-based learning program, but thank you for the time commitment you have made. Uh it was great having you at the legislative breakfast. I know many of our congressmen and senators and assembly people uh spoke very highly of both of you and your engagement over the weekend. So again, thank you for all you've done this year and and the constant engagement and collaboration with us. All right, we are on to item 7B, our capital project update. I see Christine and George. I don't see Allison. that I'm sure you'll all share who's here. >> My name's uh Cameron

052Connorth with SWBR. I'll be speaking on behalf of Alison. >> Uh so work has begun for phase one of the capital improvement project. Uh so work is ongoing at the operation center uh the former bus garage and the learning center. Um and then uh phase two will begin September 2026 and then phase three is starting design. So we're in schematic design phase for uh for phase three. >> I'm Chris Mgler. the project manager living up here at the campus trailer. So, we've kind of got three bodies of work going on right now on the campus. You've probably seen the fence around the YMCA, which is the learning center. So, that's getting started. We've got the operations center that's being turned into the automotive technology classroom. And then we've got the PA system. So, the clocks

053and the message boards that you see in the rooms are going to be updated to a new BIP system. So overall, we had a good bid opening. I think we probably saw this in December, but we were able to come in about a quarter million dollars below the referendum budget because we had some pretty good participation from all the trades and uh that included a pretty big increase in scope at the learning center. You know, as that design evolved, they found more more work that should be done as we have that building under construction. So that was a very positive outcome for us. We're hoping to see the same kind of participation in phase two. So, as we've gotten started, the operations center is in the demolition phase. We've got the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing

054work done. They're taking the structure of the building out now that'll allow us to put the new facility back together. So, that should take roughly the balance of the month. The learning center is kind of in a similar state. So much of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work has been done. Uh the general demolition's been done and now they're doing the asbestous abatement. So the pre-demolition survey or pre-construction survey showed us that there was asbestous below the floor. That's all being taken out. So that'll be 100% abated uh when we get the facility back together later this year. So the primary school is where we started the campus notification work. So speakers, clocks, PA systems, that's all going to be updated and we'll go building by building throughout the rest of the year to get

055that installed. Then the last activity that we'll start here will be on the soccer field. So that's going to be upgraded to a turf field and that'll take roughly from April to August to be done. >> I'm up. Nice to see everybody again and to two gentlemen here. Thank you very much for serving. Appreciate your service. Um, so when we were putting together phase one, we noticed that we didn't have enough parking when we were going to take the building for phase two. So we created a phase which is now 1.5. So we're adding a parking lot behind the intermediate school which was part of phase two and again we created another phase which is 1.5. Um the cost for this is again we carried this number down is $1.44 million. We originally had slated

056a million dollars for this work. uh for 34 spots. Uh we found it a lot more economical and we needed the spaces and the spots. So we looked at providing 71 spots and that number would have been $1.2 million um $1.25 million. So then again we looked at uh how much parking would be required and we also noticed that we didn't have enough parking and we wanted to make sure that we had everything situated. You have really one shot at doing this and it's also aided. So, we wanted to make sure that there was the aability portion of this. So, we looked at 116 spots to create um more parking, especially for to eliminate some of the congestion along that road. Uh which ended up being $1.44 million. So, we had quite more than triple

057the parking spots um for this area at a very economical cost. So, that's why uh 1.5 was created. So phase two, um the building uh addition, so the cafe and classroom uh additions is $23 million. Building renovation work is slightly over $15 million. The campuswide site campuswide site work uh which is the sidewalk sidewalks, roadways, and bleachers is close to $4 million. Um, and this was originally going to happen in phase two, but we moved it to phase three and brought down the HVAC work from phase three into phase two at $2.6 million because of the state mandate. So, we're going to be air conditioning the large spaces. So, again, with the new regulations that the state's putting out, um, we're being proactive to again get all that air conditioning work done, HVAC work done.

058Uh so the total is uh 44 uh.5 million. Just to add something that we've also strategized to try to bring that number down during bid day is typically we have six primes which is either site contract, general trades contract, uh MEPs, mechanical plumbing, electric I'm missing one um roof. Thank you. Uh so what we're doing is we're strategizing and we're actually going to break it out into uh additional uh pieces or parts. We're going to be adding steel, windows, and framing and drywall. Again, this will spur competition to drive those numbers down. Um otherwise, the general trades contractor will have all of those other components, the ones I just mentioned, and basically they mark it up about 15%. So by breaking these out, it's a little bit more work as far as coordination. However, it

059will drive those numbers down, recoup dollars, and again, all of this stuff is aidable. So, these are the changes that we're going to make and again to drive numbers down. >> So, as I said earlier, phase three is starting the design work. Um, so what that includes is some work at the intermediate school. So, a cafeteria addition and a classroom addition on the northeast corner. Um and then some additional building renovations to the toilet rooms at the intermediate school, primary school, and the early childhood school. Um and then as George mentioned, the campuswide site work that is being moved from phase 2 will be included as part of phase three. Uh and then the total current estimate for phase three work is $21 million. >> Any questions for us? What's the timeline for the air

060conditioning in the large spaces? So, like timewise, like uh this summer, next summer, >> it won't be this summer. Uh so, we're going to be going out to bid, let's see, drawings in probably June of 26. It's going to take us about six months to get the equipment. At that point, we'll commence with the work. Um the exact time for us to put it in I don't have a schedule in front of me but >> but definitely over the >> 27 and um because there's additions on to intermediate cafeteria you're going to do the additions first and then air conditioning. >> There are different sections of the building. So it's we're going to try to do it concurrently. So as they're building the front and the additions you know that that scope of work is

061separate. So that the uh mechanical contractors can actually tackle that work separately. By the time you get the steel up and then you got on get on the inside of the building and do all your rough work, you put in your steel studs and and the rest of the the mechanical portions of of of the work. Um we can actually work on different sections and and be able to put the air conditioning in. >> That's our goal. >> Thanks. >> Other questions? >> Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you. >> I will say it was exciting seeing the fence go up. When you start to see from the outside view all the things that are happening, it's just really exciting to watch that uh start to grow and change. >> Thank you for our

062update. >> Thank you very much. >> Item 7C, management plan update, grades three through five. Karen Finter, Kira Kierani, and Jim Mura. Sorry, there was a lot of traffic there to get through. Thank you both very much for your service and for your words tonight. Thank you. Um, and happy 100th day of school as well. Um, good evening. My name is Karen Finter and I'm the assistant superintendent for instruction in the Victor Central School District. I'm so pleased to be joined tonight by Miss Kira Kinsy and the director of PK-12 Humanities and Mr. Jim Marorrow, the principal of the intermediate school to share some of the incredible work that's been happening this year. Tonight, we want to share an update regarding our work on the year four management plan specific to the learning and instruction

063pillar. We'll focus our presentation tonight, as we've done throughout this year, on a specific grade band. We'll be focusing tonight specifically on ELA in grades three through six. So, in tonight's presentation, we'll review the alignment of the year for management plan and the Victor model of instruction to the building goals that are tied to learning and instruction. We want to highlight action steps related to these goals tied to our building and ways that we're refining our systems to collect, share, and use data to target instruction as well as to share examples of the student centered standards aligned instruction happening within our 36 ELA classrooms as a result of the professional learning and collaboration tied to the implementation of our new curriculum resource CKLA. So, just to review, um, our year four management plan this year

064really is a lot of refinement of the work that's been done over the last few years. And so, it's that refinement and deepening of practice that we want to highlight tonight. And what you'll see will cut across many of these action step areas. The blue starred bullets represent where we intend you to see those areas of overlap in the work that's been happening across our grade level teams, our PLC's, within faculty meetings, and certainly within the day-to-day work that's happening in our classrooms. All boiled into that backwards planning, student centered learning environment that's so critical for our student success. A product of our management plan is to is that clarity regarding the essential elements of instruction across the district in all classrooms and all levels. Our model of instruction is a collaboratively developed framework to

065support instructional staff both admin and teachers by identifying those practices that form the base of highquality instruction in Victor. As I said, the heart of it is that backwards planning, student centered, culturally responsive learning environment. I'm now going to turn it over to Miss Corinsy, who'll be highlighting how we're growing our practices around differentiation by leveraging assessment data to drive planning and instruction. >> Good evening. I want to highlight the work we implemented this year around assessment and differentiation. We identified two areas of focus. One, we wanted teachers to engage in analyzing their benchmark data and use that data to help them intentionally plan for their wind block. The data we wanted to use was oral reading fluency. We know the importance of ORF as a predictor of reading success. It bridges word recognition and

066comprehension. When you administer the this reading measure, it can give us the temperature much like when you go to the doctor. So when you go in and it's 98.7, you're pretty good. But when it creeps up and you get into um 100 101, you start to ask and dig a little bit deeper. What are some of the symptoms? While we administered the ORF in the past, there were some improvements we knew we had to make in order to effectively use the data to support decision instructional decision- making. In the past, four or six grade level teachers were administering the ORF in their classrooms, but not within the Ames web system. There wasn't consistency on how the assessment was being administered. So in order to streamline this, we utilized a schoolwide assessment team known as SWAT.

067And this was made up of AS providers and our humanities team. This allowed us to build consistency and standardized benchmark administration across K6 classrooms. With consistent administration, we are now able to collect data to see vertical progression from year to year and track this information with our data system. We now have the ability to put consistent data in front of teachers to analyze which allows them to differentiate instruction by creating student uh fluency profiles. and PLC's we provided professional learning on the building of these profiles to individualize instruction for all learners during their win time which is what I need is a time block that is designated to address individual needs which could be remediation like possible AIS support practice or extension of learning This is the time where some students could be pulled out

068of the the classroom for intervention while others are left in the classroom. Teachers deliver instruction that supports the core through practice and extension of learning. Casting this wide net and sifting and scooping up for specific needs will help us to meet the needs of all of our learners. This is an example of what a win structure could look like in a classroom. You could see targeted as a teacher group small group instruction based on those or fluency profiles that yields direct corrective feedback applying their knowledge and we start to see these students making gains as they receive that feedback. Another piece of the structure could be book club where they're applying their independent reading skills and building their fluency. And like I said, the decoding and the word recognition um coupled with the fluency practice

069yields comprehension. In the right hand corner is independent reading and writing where we have our students use their background knowledge from their reading to write about it and then they read about um their writing. So it's a reciprocal um relationship that strengthens our literacy skills. So out of back best practice. And then in the upper right hand corner is an example of our boost um which is an adaptive program that um also complements our core program of CKLA where students take a practice placement test and then the system is adapted to meet their needs. So, it's another opportunity for them to practice their individual skills. Now, I will turn it over to Jim Morrow. Thank you. You can see in that picture, the teacher and all the students are very happy to be doing all

070that work during our wind blocks. So, uh to bring it back to our model of instruction, we just really wanted to highlight the pieces of the model instruction. And you can see in red up there, collaboration and engagement as well as the implementation of high impact literacy practices. So as we have implemented that CKLA resource uh during ELA instruction, our teachers have spent time to learn more about those high impact literacy practices and how to embed those practices into their instruction to make sure that they're fostering that collaboration and engagement amongst all students. This work is directly connected to our building goals at both the VIS and VPS. So you can see at VIS um one of our building goals is really focused on that increase of student uh academic achievement through those student centered

071learning experiences. And then VPS has a specific building goal around utilizing that backward design process to help in improve instructional practices as well. to further touch on um what Miss Kinsy was talking about earlier about that reading and writing connection. Students have really been working over the past uh few years to be able to build and apply their background knowledge which is which is one of the critical components of those high impact literacy practices. the reading uh students are engaging in within the CKLA resource fuels their writing and then simultaneously when they are writing that also enhances their understanding of what they've been reading as well. So they're reciprocal in that way and our instructional coaches Andrew Price and Lauren Les have been really working hard to collaborate with teachers to bring that connection between

072reading and writing to life. So tonight, we'd like to showcase some student work that really highlights that connection between reading and writing. Here we go. So, we're starting with an example from one of our fourth grade classrooms um where you can see students engaged in reading a poem by Nikki Giovani where the author used a lot of very vivid details in that work and students really went through and marked up and annotated where they noticed those details in uh the author's writing. And then the first step was they then took all those vivid details to create a visual um from what they're they're taking from what they're reading. And then the next step of that was they too were then taking a memory that they had of their own and thinking about how they could

073use those same different literary elements and using vivid details to be able to bring their own memory to life. for people who would be reading their own writing. So you can see the example from everyone's favorite the Great Wolf Lodge experience and um the details that that uh student is using in their writing at an early level. Okay. Um our next example um again from fourth grade is showing another example of how students first engage in that critical um close reading practice where they're identifying some different literary elements. Um, in this case, you can see they're reading uh Langston Hughes poem where they're really looking at the use of different simileies and being able to then um identify what the the actual meaning might be of some of that literary um and figurative language that's

074being used in that poem and translating it into their own words. And then um this is my favorite example. I think they then um took some uh what they learned about simileies and what they were reading to do some of their own writing where they started to use simileies to answer the questions of what happens to your teeth when they aren't brushed. Um and you can see some of the examples there like um weakening like a tired army or um howling like a dog. This then progresses to fifth grade where students are really then also highlighting that that idea of using reading to build that background knowledge and then applying it to their writing. When students in fifth grade were really looking at ancient civilizations, doing reading along that and then really including a lot

075of detail to support different evidence they were finding in texts and things they were learning about the Maya, Aztec and Inca cultures. And then lastly, um, it kind of culminates really students have begun that writing process starting really early on in third grade and moving all the way up into sixth grade where students are really taking everything that they've been building where they're building that background knowledge that's cyclical up through the different grade levels, being able to incorporate a lot of different literary elements that they're seeing um, from authors that they're reading about and really enhance their writing um over over the years to this culminating spot they get to in sixth grade, which uh we're very proud about. And then lastly, what we wanted to end on is we wanted to show um some

076data um in just a short amount of time here in our NWA, which is one of our benchmark assessments that we use um for all students. um from just the fall administration of that um benchmark data to the winter um we're proud to say that in even in the fall um we were always in in the graph up there that quadrant of high growth high achievement which is where we want to be but just from the fall to the winter we remained in that high growth high achievement category but you can see at each grade level which are represented by those points that we remained in that um high growth and then started to slide along along that high achievement along the x- axis as well. So, we're we're maintaining that high level of growth,

077but also seeing an increase in pushing students on that higher achievement end as well. So, we're really we're really hope hopeful and and that this continued work that we've been engaging in is going to uh happen not only in literacy but across all practice as well to continue to push our students to reach that full potential that we know they have. Hey, questions for us. >> Just a quick question clarifying. Um, first of all, love all the things that you're doing, reading and writing, very important. Um, getting back to the assessment that you do is, did you say that you're having like um like one team assessed all classes? So, it's not their home room teacher assessing them. It's like an independent team. I love that for consistency. That is awesome. So, um >> we

078we ended um we added that to um our 46 this year. So, it's a SWAT approach where we have our AS providers along with humanity humanities team and we train and get a baseline. So, we review all the materials at the beginning of the year so we're all on the same page and so we can standardize that administration and build that consistency. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a wonderful, you know, wonderful thing. You you see it in the older grades, you know, like you train teachers how to, you know, uh, how to score the regents and stuff like that. But I I think that really does add a nice level of, you know, accountability kind of like the people doing the assessment know what they're looking for. So it and it takes a little

079bit off the classroom teacher, the home teacher, too. So yeah. So great. Thanks. The AS web assessment for four through six, is that still timed like the younger band or no? >> Yes. >> The constraints, >> it's a one minute. They get two um passages at one minute a piece. So, it's a one minute probe that we um administer for that for that um assessment. >> Okay. Um thank you. And then my second question with CKL CKLA at three through six, how does super kids, which is K2, transition into what you're seeing within this grade band because it's two different programs. And I'm curious about how the how the merge occurs from two to three. >> Yeah. So, we're actually in the process of um looking at those pieces um specifically in the scope and

080sequence of our phonics instruction because we want kids by the end of second grade going into third grade to be solid in the code. So, in that bridging to CLA third grade, we have to look at where um where if any of the um missing if there's any gaps in that. And so as we move through the program and we know more about how students are doing with um the code and applying of those skills, that's where we're making plans to um fill up any of those pieces that may not be intact by then. And then that's also um true with the writing routines. Like Jim mentioned, the writing routines for CLA start in third grade and they build all the way through. So, we're also looking at superkid second grade um writing and we've

081already started to work with the second grade teachers on um the um simple view of writing and looking at transcription and composition to try to build in some rigor and expectations so we can bridge um the writing routines as well there because we do see that we're going to have to do a little bit of a lift there to get kids prepared for third grade and some of those missing components. So, we've been spending time looking at student writing through the lens of transcription and composition, analyzing student work, and making some adjustments to that um particular um some of the particular writing experiences. >> Is CKLA exclusively 36 or do they have a K2? >> They do have a K2. >> Okay. Have you looked at that at all or that's off the table currently?

082>> Well, coming um currently they are in year three at Super Kids. So they had just adopted that program um as of so this is their third year in. >> Have you received feedback from K2 about how they specifically grade two teachers how they see >> their current second graders coming in with the skills within that first three years. So kindergarten first. So your current second graders have had all three years of super kids. >> Yes. So we'll see that um that group in particular against third grade. will look to see um how that meets up as well for our third grade um grade level standards and expectations. So, we're looking for that that lift from second to third. So, that is our first group. Okay. Thanks. Thanks. Any other questions? All right. Item 7D,

083budget development. Good evening everyone. Um, tonight we're going to continue our development of the 2627 budget focusing on the non-personnel updates from the office of instruction and of um, pup pupil services office. Um, our agenda tonight includes reflecting on our core budget goals as we do at each of our budgets. It also includes a review of our non-personnel items for the office of instruction, pupil services, and an update of our non-personnel cost to date. Um, as along with a review of the U budget calendar. As always, our primary mission is to maintain a comprehensive education uh that the community expects while aligning resources with the district's strategic plan. We are also focused on fiscal sustain sustainability, stabilizing reserves, and maximizing every impact, the impact of every dollar, and securing um maximum state aid for future

084years, all while maintaining full transparency throughout the process. the office of instruction. Um you'll notice a very stable budget here. Um contra contractual services and supplies for both curriculum and inservice um remain flat. Um but uh we are seeing a slight decrease in the textbook line. Um this is by far the the largest bucket um of the office of instructions non-personnel budget. Um through state aid we receive an annual um aotment of $5825 per student in textbook aid. Um there is a slight reduction in this line from the prior year just because um uh to get it in alignment with what we are actually receiving in textbook aid from uh the state. So overall, um, the Office of Instructions budget is going down, uh, 2 $2,23 or 6%. Um, the pupil services budget shows a

085little more movement uh than uh the office of instruction. Uh, but that's really due to the mandated services um um that are part of that uh this department. Overall, the people services non-personnel budget is projected to increase 30.4% or $579,212. Um, I recognize that 30% is a big increase. So, I want to break that down and I'll do that on the next slide. The student with disabilities um contractual services line uh that's increasing by 56,657. um that is to meet increased demands for our outside contractors uh that we use and uh reviewing we took a look at the uh historical averages on those lines as well as we had done in previous um budget uh presentations. So this line um what this line covers is um special ed services for students who are on home

086instruction um home hospital instruction um homeschooled students uh and tutoring for uh students in partial hospitalization and also a behavioral tech that um we had to contract out for a student in the district. So, the three-year average on this line, I'm going to go back to show you that the three-year average on that line is about 449,000. However, um actual fullear expenditures in the 2425 fiscal year, as I said, we tried to look back at history and really align things the with what we where we think things are going to be. Uh so, the the three-year average was 449, but 2425 was $398,000. So after meeting with Karen Ryan and reviewing the projected totals for the current year 2526 and looking at all of the other factors, uh we're budgeting conservatively at $390,000 on that

087line for next year. Still below our three-year average um and uh we're just trying to find efficiencies uh and how we use our outside contractors. the student with disabilities um tuition line. Um uh that 1,586555 um that is for 18 students in outside uh private placements um plus we have a small amount for charter tuition and uh students in foster care and other districts as well. So this is an increase of 485,555 from the prior uh year. However, um when we present to you in future budgets on our Boseies lines, uh at this point we don't have all all of our Boseies numbers. So, we're going to do a presentation on all of our Boseies lines collectively. Uh when you when we do that presentation, you will see a flat or decreasing amount in our

088Boseies line. So, we have shifted some of the student enrollments from our Boseies placements into uh some private placements. So, that that will explain some of that. Um this line we actually built from the ground up this year. We literally looked at every student enrollment that was projected for next year and we actually uh we do have a cushion in there for one student uh if we have movement in that in there. So um when you compare it also to our 2425 school year actuals, our 2425 actuals were 1,462554. So that swing from 2425 to 2627 budget which is spans another year uh is only 124,000. Uh the health services line is another line that uh is increasing uh that's going up $40,000 and that's really um increases in health services uh aligning with historical

089spending. So um we have if we have students in private schools going uh in another district that other district can charge us for health related services um nursing services that are pri provided to those students. So in prior years we didn't um budget for all of those. So we're right sizing the budget for that to make sure that we're um actually budgeting for what we think that's going to be. Um so it also includes our school physician and um um any like sub nurses and things like that outside the district. Um so the supplies line, it's a small decrease of $3,000. That's just shifting funds from the counselor's line counselor's line that were in her budget last year into the building based budgets. Um overall the non um personnel spending across all departments presented thus

090far in our budget season uh including transportation, operations and maintenance, security, buildings, um the office of instruction and pupil uh services. Um overall that is going up 797,664 from the prior year. So in the gray you'll see the 25 26 numbers. Uh that's 9.35%. I know that seems like a big number but when you look at overall that 7.7 million uh as a percentage of the 2526 budget overall is only 7% of the overall budget. So it's it might seem like a a big increase. However, it is um really being driven a lot of this here is our um students, our special needs students. Also, I want to note on here, you know, I I did mention briefly um that we don't have our Boseies numbers at this point in time. There's a lot of

091information that at this stage of the budget is still kind of unknown. Um, as we get further along in the budget process, we will have more concrete numbers and be able to give you that information. Uh, we're going to be presenting on the the personnel budgets um over the next two um two budget presentations. Um, you know, at this point in time, we have two contracts under negotiations. We don't have final numbers for those yet either. So, um, some of it is, um, you know, we're going to kind of look at where when we presented in December, we presented 4%. We're going to lock down the numbers that we do know, uh, and do a best do our best estimate on what we what we know about where things might shake out with negotiations. Um,

092again, in health insurance is another big um X factor. Um, we do we did plan when we presented in December a 15% increase over overall. Uh we did just get the final numbers for what the rate increases are going to be for our health insurance for next year. So I'll go back in now and try and take a look at those um plan by plan um on all of our enrollments and see if we can't um drill down a little tighter on that number. Um, one of the other things that is not included obviously in our Bosey's budget, a big portion of our Bosey's budget besides our student placements, our students with disabilities that are placed there are also our technology uh that's a a big piece of our um Bosey's budget as well. So,

093we'll be be presenting on that. Um, additionally, at the next meeting, we haven't really talked at all about our debt service lines. um that um aligns really with our um building aid. So, I'd like to talk about that at our next meeting. I do have a a a meeting with our financial adviserss to talk about how some of the financing and for the capital project what its impact might be on the 2627 budget um and if some of that can be pushed out into 2728 and what that might look like look like um given the fact that we're now heading into phase two of the project and that's a bigger portion of the project. uh we'll be running out of the reserve funds that we've been using to fund phase one. So, we will have

094to do some financing, but when that comes due is when the interest payments are due. So, we have some some uh decision- making uh on that part on when those those payments are due. So looking ahead um our next um meeting is Thursday, February 28th or 26, excuse me, when we'll discuss revenues, the tax cap calculation, Boseies, and any of those other costs that we haven't really uh haven't previously presented. Um note that the deadline for the submission to for the tax cap is the very next day after our meeting on the 26th. So it's due on the 27th. So we'll we'll be talking about that. Um, we'll have a personnel update on March 11th and a budget workshop on March 26th. Um, and we'll at that time have a rollup of all of the

095expenditures and revenues at that time. Um, budget adoption is scheduled for April 16th and with a budget hearing on May 5th and the budget vote and election on May 19th. At this time, I welcome any questions that the board may have. Christine, I have a question. Um, within Office of Instruction Non-personnel Textbooks, just for um a little bit of added background for folks listening at home, can you define like what encompasses a textbook? So, yep. So, it's it's interesting how our aid works with with our um textbook aid. So we it's part of a larger package called instructional material aid which has four components which is library materials aid, software, hardware and textbook. The software, hardware and textbook are all kind of interchangeable because some textbooks could now be considered software, right? >> So um

096we are able to kind of flux that around. So g right sizing this line really might not necessarily have an impact on the number of textbooks that we can purchase for example because we um uh move that money around between those lines. So, if Angela has a need because she's buying software for something uh that is instructionally based and it's more than what she has in in the um software line, the state aided software line. Um they work together to with uh Karen and and Angela will work together to move that money around to make sure um but yes, it could be textbooks, it could be instructional material aid. Um again, it could be shifted into software, could be shifted to hardware. So it doesn't necessarily have to be wrapped in a brown paper bag.

097>> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. Can you speak a little bit to what the formula is then for textbook aid? Like how is that? >> So it's a per per pupil basis. It's it's a set amount $58.25. Um library is like $6. Um see actually I might have the numbers um here. So no I don't. Um but yeah, so they um it's just there's they're very small. It's not a large amount, but it's on a per pupil basis. So it goes based on enrollment like what was submitted with our um I don't know if it's the October bed state data that they're utilizing. >> Um so then textbook and IMA aid, is there crossover to Boseies to get us aid through Boseies for this? >> Nope. No, no, that's that's outside of

098it. So it's it's it's it's basically we run through the software and hardware aid the things that um we can't either cannot purchase through Boseies or it doesn't make sense to purchase through Boseies. So it kind of gives us some flexibility. We always try to go the route of Boseies first because then we get Bosey's aid as well and use this save this for the things that we cannot get other aid on. So this is you know you can't use this on other things. you can shift between those three three buckets. Um but you can't spend it on something else and transfer it and buy something non-instructional related. >> Okay. So then with the state um they probably wouldn't provide their formula for book aid to us. >> It it it is out on their

099it is out on their site. I don't know how they come up with a $5825 that's the same for every district across the state that dollar amount. So it's on a per pupil allocation. >> Okay. where they came up with >> New York it's that $5828 per pupil like for us downstate Chicago like wherever >> correct and where they found $58 is enough to cover a textbook I don't know >> okay thank you thanks any other questions thank you >> thank you All right. Item 7E. We're going to approve some trips. Victor indoor percussion to Dayton, Ohio from February 27th to March 1st to compete in the WGI regional competition. The Victor Indoor Percussion Ensemble to Dayton, Ohio from April 15th to April 19th to compete in the World Championships. DECA to Atlanta from April

10025th to April 29th to compete in the International Career Development Conference. Seas Club to Sarinac Lake from May 29th to May 31st. And a high school Japan trip for spring break of 2027. Any questions or comments about these trips? I just have a quick question. um on the uh form that they fill out for the trip request form. Um one of the line questions is um does the district have to pay for anything? Is there any cost to the district? And honestly, most of them say no, but one of them this time said yes. How do we know what is that cost? Is that listed somewhere else or it's just a yes no question. So >> which trip was it? >> I want to say it was the Deco one. it's probably then budgeted. >>

101I mean, there's certain trips that we do uh budget for if it's um related to school. So, I'd have to check that one out and I can get back to you on that, but it it would it would be dependent on what our budget is. Many of these uh trips obviously are extracurricular experiences that are funded >> by um the group. >> Yeah. But there are certain connections that we have with some clubs that have that. You have an answer to that >> if it's the DECA one. Um there are students who for DECA they qualify um and they may have financial difficulty. Oh, no. I'm sorry. The the DECA one is for the actual advisors uh where the district picks up the tab for the adviserss to go on the trip. Uh that's something

102that we've that we've done annually. So I think that's what the charge is for. I'm sorry. The contributions that we get from other businesses can help support uh students who might have financial difficulty. We don't want to turn someone away because of finances. Um but for Suats and Mataya um the district has generously usually supported um their ability to go. >> Okay. True. Okay. Yeah. Because like normally that line is no and it's like oh wait, you know there's a yes, but it doesn't say what the dollar amount is. But that explains. Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Ciestasto. All right. Any other questions? Can I have a motion to approve these trips? >> Elizabeth. >> Second. >> Adam. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any abstensions? Any opposed? Motion carried. All right. Uh

103item 8A, meeting reports. Oh, I'm sorry. We had another trip and I missed that. No, we just we did approve all those. Those are the ones we just all approved. Yeah, we're good. It was just a little flag. Uh it item 8A, Monro County School Boards Association Committee reports. Um we did have a leg legislative committee meeting on February 4th. The bulk of the discussion during that meeting was about the legislative breakfast coming up that weekend um and who was attending and what uh our you know proposals would be uh and what we would be discussing with them. Um and then it was solidified that the Albany Day of Advocacy will be five members of the legislative committee attending. Um they're going to try that this year to see how it goes. So far, what

104it's looking like is they're actually able to get more meetings with our legislators there because they're a smaller group of people versus the normal 20 or so that used to attend. Um, so they're going to give that a shot this year and and and see how that goes and uh if it works, you know, better that will continue. Otherwise, they'll find a new way for advocacy day. Uh, and that's all I have for that committee. Um the district operational will have a meeting the not this week the week we come back from February break and I believe it's on healthc care which would be good for us to listen to. So, if you aren't a member of district operations, they always load. I think within the next like four or five days, NY's really good

105at getting the info online if anyone ever wants to watch any of the meetings because I watch from my classroom during my lunch. I don't attend in person, but they're very informative. That is a reminder that the Monro County School Board's website has recently been updated. You should have all received an email on how to log in and set up your new password. If you did not, um, please let us know so that we can make sure to let Monro County School Boards know. Anything else from Monro County School Boards meetings? As Dr. Tanova said, the legislative breakfast was great. Uh, we had a lot of great conversations. The student speakers were excellent this year on topics uh, from mental health to safety and security. All items we continue to talk about and advocate for.

106Um, and again, thank you to Bella and Aiden for being there with us. And I would just like to say um you know for folks in our district who might be listening in, what I took away in addition to how proud I was of our student reps and so impressed with the other students who spoke, I was equally impressed with our elected officials who came. And across the board, regardless of whose table you were sitting at, they were very invested in the conversation, incredibly supportive of our schools. Um, and I feel that, you know, there's there's definitely a bipartisan um, approach to making sure that our schools get what they need. And it was very very um, uplifting for me to experience that. Yeah, I do want to echo like when you're talking with the

107actual um legislators, they multiple ones said how um how much they collaborate and work in a bipartisan fashion and unfortunately the public opinion is not the same but like behind doors they they are all working together. Um so that was really refreshing to hear. >> Yeah. And they all clap for each other too, which I thought, you know, they they really put into action and, you know, were hugging each other and shaking hands and you could tell that they do have like really personable relationships with each other. So, it was just it was really good for me to see that. >> Uh item 8B, any standing committee updates? Um I had IPAC meeting this week, which is always exciting to see what they're doing in uh inquiry. Um uh a lot of uh coding with

108uh Scratch and they got some new robots and um doing some engineering challenges in intermediate uh the typical toothpick toothpick bridges but also a um paper and tape ball run kind of thing. Um and then the uh stock market and book clubs. Um they're also uh intermediate has a new librarian who has a lot of artistic skills. So they're working together to do some uh creative opportunities for students which is awesome. Uh one of the exciting ones I liked is um in second grade, second and third they're doing keyboarding. Uh uh Christina set up a a keyboarding program using a program and it was you know it took a lot of effort on her part to get it kind of set up but it you know it's the kids really enjoyed it and it's just

109such a skill that they're going to need their whole life to instead of hunting and pecking to like actually be how know how to type. Um so I'm I'm hoping that that keeps going. Uh, one of the sad things that I'm hearing from them is that, um, and I think all of our educators probably know it, is that kids with the, you know, technology the way it is, the attention span of kids is just shorter and shorter, like a 30-se secondond attention span. And that puts more work on our teachers for their planning, like um, just, you know, how they plan out an activity. they have to plan it, you know, so that, you know, they're not overwhelming the kid. So, it's like, you know, just kind of thinking bigger picture. Um, trying to get,

110uh, kids attention spans a little bit broader, but the teachers are working on it. Any other standing committee meetings this month? No. All right. Item 9A upcoming events. Uh, as Christine just mentioned, we have our budget workshop on February 26th at 5:30 here in the boardroom. I know that we have a situation with the sixth grade. Um, >> there's a there's a little bit of an impact for three board members who have rising junior high school students. Um Brian Geese sent out an invitation for parents of um incoming seventh graders to attend parent orientation literally that same night within that same time frame. >> Well, isn't the I thought the or that was 6:30 and we're 5:30 for >> It is at 6:30. We can keep it to an hour. The district clerk would be

111happy with that as well. >> Yes, because the district clerk is also the parent of a rising seventh grader. So yes, let's attempt to keep our February workshop, budget workshop from 5:30 to maybe 6:50 or >> 6:25 so that we can move from some folks over into that building for them. >> Christine, can we just do it now? You want to just do it right now? Not like she's driving home to Madina tonight, but um or maybe just with parking and weather like 6:20. >> Sure. >> Think we think we can do that? >> I'm flexible. >> Okay, great. Thank you. And I know there are probably other items that we wanted in that March or in that February workshop. We will address those at another time so that we can make sure we get

112all of you to your sixth grade into junior high. >> Thanks everybody since it impacts four of us. >> Uh 9V next regular board meeting is on Wednesday, March 11th, not the 12th because the incredible district orchestra concert is on the 12th. So we will be here on a Wednesday in in March. Uh and then we have our board visit to the facilities and transportation departments on March 18th. Um and another budget workshop on March 26 at 5:30 here. Any other comments or questions about those? >> All right then. Uh can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Right. >> A second. >> Elizabeth. >> All in favor? >> I uh anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carried.