001Okay, I just started the live stream everyone. >> But she shouldn't do it for long. It's going to ruin, you know, her Wow. >> Hi. >> How are you? >> Hello. Hi. How are you? >> How are you? >> I'm good, thank you. Okay. >> How's it going? >> Are you going to the chorus? >> Yes. >> Check two. by >> I was think I have to stop by to grab some things from my office. I forgot it. So I was like, uh, maybe we'll >> super mic. One, two, three. Super mic. >> President Mike. President Mike. Check. Check. I wanted to say nice to meet you. >> M number five. Like five. Mike five. Check. Mic six. Mic six. Check. >> Oh no, that won't work. It has to be Go Sabers tonight >>
002cuz I think they're going to have a tough time. >> And podium mic. Podium mic. One, two, three. One, two, three. >> I think that'll be good. I mean, there's good on the road, but >> not I mean, yeah, but >> feel like the pressure play off. I think we'll >> Thank you. Yeah, I Sorry. Excuse me. Yes. right here. Thank you. I got the kitchen. Just actually ask Jesus would help. >> Thank you so much. I'm Are you sure? >> Yeah. Finish. You want a second? Yeah. All right. Thanks. Thank you very much. That's what Clear. All right, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order at 5:35. Go ahead and stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands.
003One nation under God, indivisible and justice for all. If uh everybody could indulge me for a moment, we're going to start a moment of of silence, but I do want to just share with you uh how sad we are about the passing of Kathy Christ. She died on April 15th. Kathy was a devoted um clerk and uh the lifeblood of our athletic department. She worked with us for 24 years uh serving not only all our athletes and coaches but John Roth for such a long wonderful time. Uh and for so many of those years she worked of course you know side by side with all of us and uh many of us who I worked with her for many years Jude you've worked with her for all the 24 years um people are just uh
004very sad for her and for her family. Um and I believe her fiance also passed away this year, right? >> Yeah. >> So, um we've all had the privilege of knowing uh Kathy and like uh so many of our community uh will remember her kindness. She had sharp wit and she would tell us what's what. Jude would uh and she had incredible strength and we're definitely going to miss her. Uh prior to her work with us, she served honorably uh in the United States Air Force as well. So, uh, she left a real true legacy of love and built wonderful relationships, of course, with all of our school community. And we're going to keep her in our prayer. So, if you can join me in a moment of silence, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you
005very much. Thank you, Mr. Barson. >> Okay. Um, just a couple quick announcements. If you can s silence your cell phones and in the case of an emergency, we do have two emergency exits. We have the door you entered directly behind you and the door directly behind me. Uh, roll call tonight. We have Roger Broker, trustee. Ashley Dreer, trustee. Beth Krelin, trustee. J district clerk. Dr. Brian Graham, superintendent of schools. Myself, Saren, trustee. Jay Grover, trustee. Danielle Bruno, trustee. John Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent of curriculum, staff development and human resource. We have Cheryl Cardone, assistant superintendent of people's personnel services, and Dr. Douglas Wayland, interim assistant superintendent for school business and finance and Sienna Saris um our student representative um for the board of education. Um Charlotte Tower is excused. She has a track meet tonight.
006She is our other student representative. Um we have Joy Lamar. Um >> just waiting for her to jump. >> Oh, she will be jumping on here momentarily um by Zoom. >> All right. Great. Thank you everybody for accommodating our earlier start for our board meeting this evening. Um with that we will go ahead if I can get approval for our agenda this evening. >> And a second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried 6. You can just let me know when comes on. That would be great. Thanks. All right. Approval for the minutes tonight. If I can get a motion, please >> and a second. >> A second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carried 6. And we'll start with our students from the middle school. >> Dr. Palace, if
007you flipped the microphone on, I didn't turn. Thank you. >> Hi everyone. I am excited to introduce you to Lexi Young tonight. Lexi is an eighth grader at BCMS. She is one of our web leaders. She also um participates in volleyball and on the flag football team and she is a member of our chorus. Hello. Hello. My name is Lexi Young and today I'm here to represent the BCMS student council. Last week, students and staff wore their Sabers gear to cheer on our hockey team as they headed to the playoffs. State testing has also begun and students gave their best effort on the ELA test last week and will do the same for the math assessment next week. This week is bring your child to work day and many of the middle school teachers will
008be bringing their children to school with them on Friday. This month we are getting ready for teacher appreciation. Student council members came up with a spirit week for the teachers in order to celebrate that. We will also be distributing popcorn to all the teachers as a special treat. I am so grateful for all of my teachers and all that they do. So I was excited to give this opportunity to them. We are also preparing for our spring dance that takes place on Friday, May 1st. The theme is going to be a night in New York City. I'm super excited to see what everyone will wear at this. Thank you so much for your time and have a great night. >> Thank you. >> High school. >> So last night we had celebration of inspiration here
009at the high school which is definitely one of my favorite events and it's something that I've looked forward to for the last four years. It's just really nice seeing because our teachers put in so much every day. So, it's nice seeing all of our students just give a little bit back and pick one of their teachers or a staff member to give that award to. I do believe there was one middle school teacher, but um most of them are high school teachers, but it was just really nice to see everyone come together and hear what teachers had to say about their students after receiving the award. Spotlighters is our drama club here at the high school and next Thursday we have our annual one acts. So me and three other students with our student director
010Jamie Gray will be partaking in the short play Overtones. And then our other seven members and their student director Brooke Warner are participating in the Godfather of the Monkey Bars. Admission is $2 per person. And we've been working really hard the past few weeks. So we'd really appreciate it if everyone came and saw our show. >> It is the 30th of April. What time did you say? >> 7 p.m. >> I'll get back to you on that. >> It's fine. I can >> um our seal by literacy is something that a lot of us have been working towards all year long and this week are the presentations with our committees. So, um like I said, we've been working on this all year and most students are doing it either in Spanish or French, but any
011language that a student speaks at home was an option. I know a couple people are doing Arabic and Portuguese, but um I'm sure there's other students that are doing other languages as well. I personally am doing Spanish. I know the band and orchestra are leaving on Thursday for every two years they go on a trip. They are leaving to perform and compete against other schools around the country. So, this is always exciting for them. They get to go on their bus ride and just it's a nice um bonding experience for them. I know that for sure. The seniors just started a game called Senior Assassin. This is a studentrun game played by seniors where each participant is assigned a target. The goal is to eliminate our assigned person using a water gun. And all of
012this takes place outside of school and the school is a safe zone, so no one can get eliminated during school hours. And this is just like a fun game to bring all of us together and to bond before graduation. It's all fun, but it brings out some some competitiveness. So, that's cool, too. And, um, lastly, AP exams are approaching in just two short weeks. So, teachers and students both have started to prepare as those come about. >> We'll need afterwards. >> I have so many questions. >> Not to let any of her friends in the house. No matter what they say they eat. >> Did they not have that when your >> girls? >> I think it's newer within the last thing. >> It's got to be newer, right? >> I think so. Yeah. >>
013Yeah. Anything school is >> not. >> All right. On to correspondence recognition and good news with Dr. G. >> Yeah. Thank you everybody. Uh you know just uh in the course of time it's very rare uh to meet uh a teacher and a coach who cares so much about his students and is so committed. I think here in Grand Island we are blessed, we're fortunate to have amazing teachers, coaches, administrators and so forth, teacher aids, SRPs, but in in this case we wanted to shine a spotlight on uh coach uh Dean Santoro. He achieved his 300th career coaching win for baseball and that is really tremendous. Uh Brett Banker isn't feeling feeling well today. He would have been here to speak to the board uh as our athletic director with respect to Dean and Dean
014was going to be here but yesterday's game was canled due to weather and of course they're playing today. But uh for our community and for our board, it's just uh you know, this is a lovely uh selfie that uh one of those athletes took and posted and uh Alli Leinszik, you know, put out this press release uh in honor of this accomplishment. But I think uh more so than 300 wins in Grand Island, he is the second coach ever for baseball and the second coach ever for football. So just let that let that sink in. He he's a graduate of our school district. He's been coaching in both varsity baseball and football for a long time. He is a tremendous leader of students and uh this accomplishment is wonderful. Uh he'll probably forget all about
015this. But what we shouldn't forget about is the dedication, the love and support that he exudes every day for his athletes and his whole family. You know, his his daughters went here. I think he probably met Sandy here, right? His wife. >> And um when when he's coaching, they come. This is this they come to these events. His wife, his kids, uh his his daughter's following in his footsteps. His his mom wasn't work worked in our bus bus department. So, if you get a chance and you see Dean in the hallways or outside, just pat him on the back. He you know, he'll be gracious. He he doesn't like the the spotlight, but this truly is remarkable. And Duck, you played baseball at the collegiate level. This is a big deal, isn't it? >> Yeah.
016Yeah. So, any Yeah. So just I know he's not here but it's you know it's being filmed. Let's give him a big round of applause. >> So I um went to high school with Dean. So he is not only an excellent coach. He was an excellent athlete while he was here at Grand Island. Um he played baseball, football, and basketball. Um he was a star athlete. He was our star quarterback here at Grand Island um while I was here. So he I mean he's been dedicated to the sports. um I mean since he was a freshman in high school. So to see him excel at at the coaching level for myself is exciting to see. Um his family was as dedicated to him as a player as he as they are as a coach. So
017um for me it's really exciting to see him excel at at this level because it was fantastic to see him win as a player um on the field and on board. So um it's it's extremely special to me. Um so congratulations Dean um from all of us from the late 80s go by. So that's almost congratulations. All right on to oh public comment sessions agenda items only. We did not have anybody sign up. So on to instruction with Thank you very much. Uh we have uh two items on the agenda for curriculum instruction this evening. One is the or item eight is the ECMS French club field trip for seventh, 8th and 9th graders to Quebec City next year. This is a trip they can take by hand. And then the other item is our
018uh March 2026 uh curriculum update which includes the results of our um March 13th PD. So we need action on item A. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Tom? Okay. Can I get a motion for item A, please? >> No. >> And a second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. 70. >> Oh, she's buffing. 46 again. All right. Thank you. Sorry. I will make sure I turn and look. >> It just happened. >> Okay. On to personal instruction. Does anybody have any questions before I ask for motion to approve instructional personnel PI1 through PI6, please? and a second. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? >> Motion carried. >> Just checking in. Do we have an intro? >> Thanks. >> Samantha Tero, would you please stand up for me,
019please? It is my pleasure to introduce an outstanding addition to the Grand Island team, Samantha Fitzgerald. Miss Fitzgerald is a graduate of a Niagara University where she earned both a master of science and a certificate of advanced study in school psychology. She joined Huro Elementary this past September, bringing with her five years of experience supporting students with disabilities and a strong background in designing individualized supports tailored to each students unique strengths and needs. Miss Fitzgerald has developed valuable expertise through her work in a variety of local agencies and public school settings. She also holds specialized training in crisis prevention, equipping her with a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs of students, families, and the broader community. Since joining our team, Miss Fitzgerald has quickly become an integral part of our school community. She collaborates closely
020with faculty and staff to support instructional planning, promotes students social emotional well-being, and plays an active role in our students of the month program. In addition, she provides counseling services, supports the implementation of our MTSS framework, partners with school-based teams, and conducts a wide range of student assessments. We are thrilled to welcome Mrs. Fitzgerald to the Grand Allen Central School District and look forward to the positive impact she will continue to have on our students and school community. Congratulations, Mrs. Fitzgerald. >> Thank you. >> WELCOME. Think >> we're all set now. Okay, on to personal non-instructional. Any questions before I would uh like to ask for a motion for PNI 1 through PNI 3, please >> and a second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? >> Motion carried 6. >> Any introductions? >> On to
021finance. Okay, thank you very much. Uh, tonight we have nine action items and two information items. I'll review the nine one by one, then we'll ask for a motion or do you want to do them individually? >> Um, let's we'll do them all together. Do we want to do the budget separate? We'll do them all together. We'll do the budget separate. >> Okay, very good. >> So, we have budget transfers over $15,000. This um is for special ed tuitions and special ed uh placements. We have an obsolete bus that has 84,000 miles on it. It's a 2015 and it has mechanical issues and body rust. So, we're asking for it to be obsolete. We have two donations uh one for McGuire and Il Learning. Meuire is $500 and Learning is $600. And that is going
022growing readers for the middle school. I believe the next donation is for the SRP awards dinner and that's being given to us by zero eyes which is a camera system we have here and that's $1,000. We have a donation to the middle school emerging leaders from the Grand Island School Business Alliance Group for $3500. That's item B. Item F is another $3,500 donation from the Grand Island Alliance Group, School Business Alliance Group, uh to the technology department. We have the food service agreement for St. Stevens, which uh we had on before we tabled it. We answered the questions. It's it's back on the agenda. And we have the property tax report card. That is something that the superintendent certifies. It has to be sent to Albany as soon as you pass the budget, within 24
023hours. It alerts taxpayers to what the proposed budget is, the highlights of the tax increase, total spending, and enrollment changes. So, those are the action items. >> Does anybody have any further questions on that service agreement? And then I think we need to pull HL. We can approve that. So we approve the budget. Okay. Right. So we'll hold that till we have budget. All right. So I would like a motion to approve finance A through G, please. >> And a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried 70. Okay. And then we'll go on. Oh, because I just can't go. So, I missed the whole >> Oh, okay. So, we're So, we're six. Sorry about that. All right. Six. Okay. >> I missed it. >> Okay. All right. Sorry, I saw you
024there. >> All right. Um, so then the budget will be next. I before we just get to the budget and to the vote, I just I just really want to say um thank you to the administration and the staff. Um I know the board really um asked you and charged you to to not tax our community to to the max of the 32 3.2%. And we know it took a lot of work and a lot of effort um to really to give us a little over budget um and we appreciate that and I know our community will appreciate that um on um a budget vote date. So I just really before we did that I wanted on behalf of the board to say thank you for your work and your dedication and your acknowledgement to
025our community um on behalf through us as board members. um just to say thank you. Um our community has been very supportive to our board and to our school district and to our town for that and and when we saw that they they were asking for um something from us, it was great that we were able to give that back to them. So, um thank you for that and thank you for your hard work. Thank you to the board for for your hard work. It was it was um definitely um worth it. Um, so not Jackson to the cap is um is just great. So thank you for for everything and Doug, I know it feels on your shoulders and and to all the administrators and and to our building principles. Thank you. Um relief
026to our >> Thank you. >> So Doug, I do have the slides here. The board has seen these, you know, in great detail. Uh, just to reiterate for anybody new or watching in the community, uh, the board has, uh, charged us with the task of doing everything we can to not add to this budget and to keep it as lean as possible, uh, while protecting uh, the the goals of the district as it relates to the budget, which are listed here, right? developing a long-term sustainable budget designed to be the best diversified education program for all of our students, retaining our community mandated programs, and protecting the fund balance uh to the extent possible. Uh I'm not going to go over the strategic plan goals, but these are here. It's very important that our community
027understand that the board has adopted a strategic plan that we follow and John Fitzpatrick and the principles are leading the way in refreshing this strategic plan. You'll notice that in districts all across the state, no longer are people building five-year strategic plans. It doesn't make sense in an everchanging world. Uh so John uh this May >> May 5th is uh leading uh a refresh. This has only been with us for two years and I think it's t that's tremendous that we're looking at it again uh to identify goals but these are the goals that currently exist and the board understands these goals and they create a budget. They help develop the budget in support of these strategic plan goals. So we're grateful for their involvement in that. Doug, this is uh this is really the
028nuts and bolts of everything. If you want to just uh give the board and the community just another update even even though it's a little bit, you know, we've all heard this, but it's just good to refresh. >> So, this is the fourth time we're looking at the budget in detail. Uh you can see we started in February and now we're April 21st and we've come all the way to a 2.9% increase in budget and we're recommending a budget of 81,685,000. uh $85. So each meeting we had more detail than this. We went over all of the programs. We went over the staff. We went over the equipment requests, all of our concerns, and we were asked to cut it. So we went from 5.5 to 3.1. Now we're 2.1. May 11th, we'll have a
029budget hearing where anybody in the community can come in and questions about the budget. Uh we will have the budget booklet uh produced within a very short time and the district newsletter. We're looking at the first uh draft of that and that'll be going out very soon as well. That also highlights how we have reduced expenditures and use cooperatives like an energy and other things to save money. The next page is the revenues. This number has not changed. Uh we do not have a state budget. We are using the governor's proposal on state aid. So we're still awaiting a state budget. The state aid should not go any lower than the governor's proposal. That's typically been the case. So we're hoping for a few extra dollars there. The next uh page is the major expenditures
030in the budget. Those have not changed since the last meeting. Our last uh cut was 149,000 to these expenditures. So at the second meeting, we cut 1.8 million out of these expenditures. So you've seen that before. And as you look at this chart, you can see that a lot of these lines are negative when you look at budget to budget differences. The next page is the amount of money that was added in terms of positions to the budget and program. The only program that was added is our new literacy program for K1 and two, which is $150,000. Uh that's a priority in this district. There are two point4 positions, one in public relations and the other in high school art. And there are two breakfast monitors. We also added a few portable air conditioners. I
031was telling the superintendent that as we plug in these air conditioners, you know, our circuits are getting to capacity. So, you know, we have to be careful of that. We're going to have to come up with some procedures as to, you know, how to turn them on, how long they're left on, etc. But we are doing the best we can to keep the classrooms um under control with the temperature. Just before we flip the page for that, I just I just want to touch one more time on the breakfast monitors and why we are adding them. Um, we do have the free programs. Can you just go over that again so that you know everybody understands that the program that the state has in place is is covering costs essentially and the need for them
032is due to the state program. So what the state has done now you've probably read about it uh in various locations uh every child gets a free breakfast and a free lunch there's no application process it's just provided and it's going to be in effect for the next four years and from what they're saying of course you can't predict after four years but it's one of the priorities of the state so with that there's a tremendous amount of children uh taking advantage of this Um, and it is generating an awful lot of money. One of the memos I wrote last time, we talked about, you know, it's generating so many hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in revenue, but I didn't tell you what the expenses were. So, we're making probably4 to $60,000 a
033month profit. And this profit has to stay within the school lunch fund, and it has to be used to better the program. Uh, we're using uh some of the money to replace equipment, which is original. So the monitors are needed because of the number of children in the cafeterias. We have one monitor for example for 400 children and it's just in Huth and Kabine. It's it's just too much. So we're adding two um I'm sorry Huth and the middle school. We're adding uh two monitors in those locations to help with with control. >> Thank you. Uh the next page is the budget recap and that has not changed since our last meeting. Um this is a tax of 2.7%. Uh the cap is 3.32. So um it shows the anticipated levy at the bottom there
034of 42,976. uh it could go to 43,235, but we are in no way uh recommending that. We made sure that we stayed under the cap and this budget reflects only the things that we absolutely need. The next page is the estimated tax rate. Uh what is happening is um when I talked to the assessor, we have a $3.5 billion of assessment. it is at 100%. Next year it's going to 95%. So the equalization ratio is going to 95%. And what that means is uh the value of the property is going up to 3.6 billion. But the rate of tax applied to that um is going to be 2.6. So too much information there I guess because you didn't need to know that. But um what's happening is your rate is going from $11.94 to $12.26
035and that is estimated at this point. It's 32 cents per,000 and it's 2.68%. And the detail here is just using a house at $397,000 which they've asked me to use as an average. And if you take 397 just that number and multiply it by 1226 or in the past 1194 you will get your tax bill. So if for for a very quick calculation if you take the assessed value of your house multiplied by these rates you will get an estimated tax and then the star exemption is not known until the end of this month. It has been 33,140. That comes off your assessment before you, you know, apply the bill. The next page is the proposition. This has been reduced to 672,000. It is for four buses and one cargo van. >> And this is
036paid over five years. That's a separate proposition. So that's the budget in a nutshell. Uh 81 million6. It's the fourth and final time. This is the last day you have to approve it. And I think we've looked at it and you've given me some great um advice and putting it together. So the superintendent and I are recommending it to you tonight. >> Does anybody have any questions for them? So I don't have any questions but um regarding the budget itself but uh when we roll out to the public I do like page five because I know I mentioned this at the last meeting to show the public how we went from draft one at 5.5 down to you know 2.99. But what I think would be also super helpful for the public would be is
037if you take a tax amount like the 397,000 and say if your house is assessed at 397,000 if we would have passed it at 5.5 your taxes would have been I don't know 5,200 at 3.17 your taxes would be at you know 5,000 even you know I'm just guessing you know and then at now your taxes are at I calculated at $4,867 because I just think the general public if they see like oh my tax went would have been at 5,300 and now it's at 4800 in addition to what we see on page five. I think rolling that out for the average person to see that that would be pretty helpful. And that's just my opinion, but I just think, >> you know, like a taxpayer point of view. >> Yeah. I I I understand
038what you're saying, but you have to realize that there's two parts to a budget. There's the revenue part, which is the tax levy, and there's the expense part. We've been reducing the expenses. The revenue, the 2.7% tax increase has remained the same. So you you but I think um Joy if I'm understanding it correctly we could probably create a visual work with Ally and Lindsay get something on the the website that does really if she what she's asking I think is take this 5.5 even though that was attributed to 83,000 and show you know what that would have cost take that 5.5 attribute it to 81 million not 83,000 81 million show what that would have been and then show at 2.7. Okay. >> And and that will I guess visually communicate to the community
039that the board listened and they worked really hard to reduce as much as possible at the state level >> because I mean there were additions and there things that were cut and things that could have been added that we did not do in this year to keep our tax rate down, right? So there there was a savings there. There was things left off our budget savings, right? >> Our concept is that the individual taxpayer seats their individual seats from draft one to draft >> but I do and I do want to honor what Doug is saying because this slide also communicates just budget increases not I'm sorry tax levy increases right so I may have misspoke a little bit but it's it would be taking 3.2 attributing it to 83 million and 3.2 2 attributing
040it to 81 million and then 2.7 and that'll that'll tell the tale. So Doug, you were right beyond what you were saying. >> Right. It's both right. It's just how it's done. Um at the very end of the last meeting, we mentioned about looking into the breakfast monitors as being something that could be drawn out of the food service line. So it could be a little more self- sustaining from the money, the revenue that's coming in. Um, but it looks like they're back in the general fund. >> It is. Yeah, I I'll address and then Doug back. So Doug met with their auditor and Ashley is correct. I think it was Ashley or Ashley was correct. >> In the future, we could use the seed fund to pay for C monitors. >> The auditor is
041just suggesting to the district, let's just hold. they're going to do an audit and look at even though, you know, we are bringing in extra revenue for the food service program, we're still buying equipment, we're still doing things with that money. So, at the end of the day, at the end of the fiscal year, we will have a better understanding of what was left over. And if we apply that to one monitor or two monitors with, you know, with extra benefits, could we sustain that for years? So, he just he made that recommendation. Doug, am I missing anything on that? >> No, you're not. And it's it's basically what's called a journal entry at the end of the year. If you find that your school lunch fund can sustain the $40,000 of the two monitors,
042you just make an entry subtracting that from the general fund and putting it in the school lunch. >> So, but at this point, we're leaving it in the general fund because we're not sure the school lunch fund can sustain. We think we think it can just >> Doug, just to clarify, we're going to look at the end of the school year 2026, >> right? So essentially, this could go into the C fund going into 2026 27. So it's not we're not waiting a whole year. We're just waiting till the end of June, which is the end of our fiscal calendar $4,000 potentially that we should. >> Yes. Correct. which is actually thank you for for that. Very good question. >> But I just wanted to clarify it's not a whole year. It's just till the
043end of the school year that ends in um January. >> Any other questions? Any comments? And I will go ahead and ask for a motion on finance. I >> and a second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Motion carried 70. And then we'll go back and we'll do the report card now that we have the next budget. So now, sorry, no. Okay. Um >> uh we'll go ahead and ask for a motion for the T uh property tax report card, which is finance page, please. >> And a second. >> All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carried 70. Again, thanks to everybody for your hard work. Budget Susan was always long and um tedious and we did make it a little bit um for um more this year, but thank you again
044for your hard work and um I'm sure our community will appreciate a little relief this year. So, all right, on to Cheryl and special education. professional services. >> So I have two quick um items. If I could have um CPSC and CSC program recommendations I can have action on join us. I appreciate a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried to 70. Thank you very much. Superintendent report. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. shall be brief but know we just honored dean and um that was amazing. Uh we were very blessed to have Admiral Bob Worth visit our school remembered he couldn't come to the distinguished alumni uh event because he's still serving our country is involved in the mission but he did uh stop by here and we're so
045blessed to have him. Judy did a great job and Hillary thank you for being so open to him coming in last minute. Uh so we're grateful that he had some time again even though he was here in the fall to visit our students and visit our our staff. So >> very blessed. Uh James Neely and another chaperon uh did a great job in just returning Ashley from Peru. I know Sky would have loved to have gone on that trip. Uh so we're very blessed that we have teachers who will extend themselves during Easter break uh to give kids amazing opportunities. So, thank you to our foreign language department. Uh you probably remember that uh through our Casey's store, corn, our corner store, uh along with uh staff and faculty uh donations, uh our team went
046to Roswell and presented them with a check. The check was really for $2,460. It was very generous and uh we thank all of our students. It was very educational. I happened to join them uh for this event and uh it was just a great thing to give back to the community. Uh our sports teams besides having great coaches, we have great parents and students who support our program and all of these uh uh teams uh were identified by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association and there were nine teams uh for carrying a collective overall average of 90%. So, not only do our teams work hard, our parents support our program, but also our kids are uh doing really well. They're the leaders, and it'll be amazing to see what they do after
047they leave our high school. So, congratulations to them. Dne Brown was named by the Buffalo News as athlete of the year. uh that was a a tremendous uh honor uh for the winter sports and he is just amazing and I know many of us had a chance to see him here at school but also in the state champion well didn't get all the way in the championships but the tournament was fantastic so congratulations next year >> yeah not sure not sure but um we're very proud of him and uh the bandits uh came by Sidway and did a program and encouraged our kids to uh try something do. Just look at these pictures. Come on. These are amazing. Look at that. Look at these little ones. Learning a sport from a professional athlete. Uh, Growing
048Readers is doing great. This is part of our committee. We did a podcast and the big event is this Friday. Big fundraiser. It's sold out, I think, Jude. And, uh, should be a lot of fun. And if you were if you couldn't come to Groy readers, go to the fire department raffle, too. Right. That's also happening on the same night. So we wish them well. And uh Stacy Schwartterwatt and Cheryl Cardone was a guest speaker at Amelia Heheart night. So we thank her and for those contributions and uh influencing our children to consider STEM careers in the future. And our high school uh Christina Kenzie took a bunch of kids to a program be your own hero uh learning about different careers. It was at the Buffalo River Work. So, we thank her for her
049leadership in that. And this Oh my gosh, we got to play this. So, our our kids uh entered a little contest to see if uh Saber-tooth would come and visit their school. So, we'll just play it as you guys together. >> You heard? Don't give up, sabers. They didn't give up in game one. >> Don't stop trying your best. >> Don't give up and try your best. >> Go see who I hope you win. >> Make sure you pass the go. This is great. Ally happened to host >> a team to win the game. >> Ally happened to host weekend uh news on channel 4 and she actually presented this video to the audience uh over the weekend too. So hopefully our kids will win with their great recommendations for the Sabres. So congratulations to
050them and thank you for that. And that's all. We're also getting ready for the to graduates and we'll talk about that in the future. >> Thank you. >> Okay. On to the board of education report. We do have two action items. Um A and B. Does anybody have any questions? >> There was just two for >> correct. Yep. >> Yes. >> So, can I get a motion for A and B, please? >> And a second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried 70. Beth, do you have anything from the middle school here? >> Okay. And it's just um Gizbah, we are working um on our cruise night. We have um working on finalizing the details. It is June 24th. Um we do have our um sponsor for the food. Um we got our very
051first car signed up the other day. Um our rock is rocking. Yeah. Our DJ is coming back. She has volunteered again this year. So we're looking forward to making that bigger and better this year. Um, our golf tournament is Monday, July 13th. So, we're starting to ramp up on that. And we will probably soon be announcing a third fundraiser, but we don't let the cat out of bed. That would be in March of 2027. All I can say is get your running, she's out. Um, and that's um, so on to the public comment session. We did have a few people A couple people sign up. So, let me just read through this real quick. At this time, public comments are invited for these individuals who desire to address the board of education on any topic
052which is not on the agenda. Residents who have previously signed up to speak will be recognized by the president. When speaking, please identify yourself first. Speak clearly and loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear you. Speakers are requested to limit their remarks to no more than three minutes. to appoint a spokesperson if a concern is a group concern and if necessary or desired to supplement verbal presentations with written reports. Personal comments towards a board member of the community staff or board of education will be not considered appropriate. First we have Cheryl Sherry Nash. >> Y that'd be great. Thank you. I'm going to read it so I keep three minutes if that's okay. Sure. >> Good. Good evening members of the board. My name is Sher Nash and I have 11 children. They
053range from 34 to 12 years of age. I worked as a guidance counselor for Lake Shore Central School District. Also worked as a senation education director for many years. I want to thank you all for allowing me to speak tonight. I have to express several concerns about our current system and in impacting students and families based not just on observation but my own child experience. First, I'm concerned about students being promoted to the next grade level when they are not academically ready. This is something my daughter experienced in elementary school. I recognized she was struggling and asked that she be held back. I wanted her to get a stronger foundation. I was told this was not the school policy and that there are other children that were behind. The following year, she fell further behind.
054I made a second request that she be held back and that was denied. By sixth grade, sorry. By sixth grade, she no longer enjoyed school. She didn't want to go. She was struggling daily because she couldn't do the work. I had her independently tested. The results showed that she was performing at a third grade math level, a fourth grade reading level, and a fourth grade reading comprehension level while she was in sixth grade. This is just not an academic issue. It affects confidence, mental health, and a child's entire relationship with learning. Second, I'm concerned about the inconsistencies and expectations in elementary school and middle school. Students are of offer often promoted whether they complete the work or not. But once they reach high school, the expectation changes dramatically dramatically. Suddenly, students can fail courses or
055even a grade. By that point, habits have already been formed. As students have learned that missing work doesn't stop them from moving forward, it becomes very difficult to change that behavior later. As a parent, it's extremely hard to help unlearn that habit. Lastly, I want to speak about my son, Noah. Noah is very bright and has ADHD. He understands material and demonstrates the understanding of it by scoring high on his midterms and finals. >> 12 seconds. >> I'm sorry. He struggles with turning in homework assignments. Let's get right to the end. I have requested accommodations like extra time, but even when he completed the works, he only receives partial credit or it's not accepted. When we had his meeting this March for his 504 plan, not one seated teacher was in attendance. Now, after making
056a difficult schedule decision to take my daughter to homeschool, I'm getting calls and emails for documentation to prove her compliance with New York State. 5 seconds. This is this is something that really frustrates me and this is why I'm here tonight. I feel the system has already failed to to begin with and now I'm being asked to provide more things. Something needs to change. We need early intervention. But most importantly, we need to ensure that our children are not pushed forward. We need to make sure they're not left behind. That we need to give them the help that they need. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sher. Sherry, I know that Cherylyn Cardone will be in touch with you as well. So, thank you, >> Mike. Madigan. >> Oh, I'm sorry. All right. Are you sure?
057>> Okay. All right. On to the committee of whole items and information roundtable. We'll start with you, Roger. >> Um, just know it's very busy times. Uh we have the computer based starting this week for all the kids AP exams and regions and everything. So I just want to wish all the students the best of luck and hang in there everybody. >> Ashley I just wanted to congratulate on a wonderful coaching career and teaching career here at Grand Island. Thank you, Joy. >> I'm all set. Thank you. >> Okay, >> I'm all set, >> Danielle. Thank you. >> All right. Um, just real quick, I have I have a couple days here real quick. First of all, I just want to I want to say because it's one of my favorite events that the school
058district has. I was at the celebration of inspiration last night. Um it truly is remarkable um event that our school district does and I can't thank the PTSA um for sponsoring it and doing it every year. They do a remarkable job. Um our awards that our teachers received this year um were done in our tech tech department this year and done by students and they were beautiful and amazing. So I just want to put that out there first. Um it's it's just amazing that our students are able to to recognize um teachers, staff members that inspire them and they get up in front of an auditorium full of of people and they speak articulately about people that inspire them and it's it's it's moving. It brings the room to tears and it's truly amazing. Unfortunately,
059I came in his gears, but um if you ever get a chance to come in and and see it, it's it's really um what we're here for. And it really is a representation of what we work hard for at this table. And to see it in motion and to see the appreciation and the effect it has on our students is is rewarding. Um we did have teachers, we did have our librarian was recognized and there was a a prototypist, right? So, um, it's it's not just teachers that are inspiring and touching our children. It's all our staff. So, that um, April 28th, we do have our islandwide PTA meeting. It is starting at 5:00 PM. As all of our board members know, we do a presentation of our budget there to our PTA um, members.
060Um, this year, it would be great to have all of us attend if you could. Um, it's always great to have the support of our board there when we're hearing the budget. Brian will be there. D will be there. I know myself that Jay will be there. So, if you can make it, that would be great. May 11th is our next board meeting. And on May 19th, it is our um budget vote and trustee election from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. here at High School. So, get out and vote. And um that's all we have. Go Savers. I will call the meeting is at 5 6:30. Sorry. I get a motion >> 629 a second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. 70. Thank you.