Grand Island CSD Board of Education 3-9-2026 Meeting

001sir. >> Hey, the stream is live everyone. >> Live stream is on everyone. Hey, how are you? >> I was born this way. >> Oh. Huh? >> Got to get something. No, don't touch it. >> Are they sitting any? >> Where are you going to sit? >> Well, they can't cuz I have somebody else. Thanks. It's hard to stay in the chicken. barely. >> Okay, time for the mic check. We're starting with the podium. Podium mic. One, two, three. Podium. Podium mic. Oh, sorry. >> Mic number one. Check. Check. Mic number one. One, two, three. >> Super mic. Mic three. Super mic. That one's hot. Super mic. >> President mic number four. President Mike number four. >> Number five. Number five. Check. Check. One, two. Come on. Retry. Five. Retry. Five. One, two, three. >>

002Mic number six. 1 2 3 4 5 6 26 >> Testing 1 2 3. Testing one, two, three. Doing mic one. Mic one. Check. Check. One, two, three. >> Check. One, two, one, two. Oh, I see. It's for >> so it's like a known thing I think I think she sees it like front. Not yet. I didn't even meet yet. Oh my god. Oh yeah. So I'm not sure Oh, you can't Hello. Make sure that people know In the meantime, forward. because you hear everything. >> Thank you. All right. Good evening everyone. Call this meeting to order and start with the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation with liberty and justice for all. >> Hello everybody. Just have some sad news to share with

003our community. the uh one of our bus attendants has passed away. Uh Nancy Hollinger. She's been with us for 34 years and uh one of our amazing school bus attendants. We were very surprised when she passed away. Uh Nancy worked out obviously in our transportation department for a long time. served as an attendant and uh many of our children with special needs uh adored her and her personality, her disposition was perfect for the special education uh runs that she helped us with. Our drivers always looked forward uh to working with her. Uh just reflecting on her experiences and her lovely reserve nature, she was truly an asset. So, if possible, if you could join me in a moment of silent meditation and prayer, I'd really appreciate that. I do appreciate that. that uh besides working

004in transportation, she helped us as a lunch monitor and we're just very saddened by this loss. So, I thank the community for taking that time with me today and thank you very much, J. >> You're welcome. Thank you. Okay, with us tonight we have Dr. Ashley Dreer, trustee Beth Kreblin, trustee J District Clerk. Dr. Brian Graham, superintendent. Joy Lamar, trustee Danielle Bruno, trustee John Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent of curriculum, staff development and human resources. Cheryl Cardone, assistant superintendent of pupil personnel services, Dr. Doug Wayland, interim superintendent for school business and finance and Sienna Skeis, uh, one of our BOE uh, student representatives. Oh, and we Yes, that's right. Sorry, Sue. We have Sumaran attending virtually. Uh excused tonight are Roger Broker and trustee and Charlotte Tower, another student representative. Okay. So with that, if I could

005get an approval of the agenda for today. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carry >> 6. Uh, also the approval of the minutes from February 2nd. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. And motion carried. 6. All right. Okay. So, on to our student ambassadors. Do we have someone here from a middle school? Hi everyone. I am privileged to introduce you to Grace Chapato this evening. She's a sixth grader at BCMS and she is our publicity supervisor for student council. She's also in the band and chorus and she plays soccer and participates in flag football through community ed and she's hoping to make the team next year as a seventh grader. So that's really exciting. And she is a dancer. >> Hello, my name is Grace Juan and I am

006the publicity supervisor on the middle school student council event at BCMS. We did a spirit week leading up to our after school March Minute to Win It contest. The spirit week included many fun days like a gray outfit day on Monday, rhyme without a reason day on Tuesday, just like your alarm didn't go off on Wednesday. Thursday was flashback to Kday and Friday being 90 days. For a minute to win it, we had an inflatable and basketball station in the gym. And in the lunchroom, there were games in and food. For the games, we could complete every single one and turn the paper in for a chance to win a $10 gift card. The Ray winners were chosen at random from those who turned in a bigger heart. It was a lot of fun. Thank

007you for your time and listening to me tonight. >> Thank you. And for our high school, I think you're ups. >> So, this past week, we had 14 students from the high school go to Rochester for DECA states. Um, everyone worked so hard leading up to this and it was really nice to see it all come together. Even though no one advanced to nationals, we all learned so much and it was nice um just being together for the week. We were also with 3,000 other students from across the state. So just getting to meet other people from different chapters was really rewarding. Additionally, Marissa Sidi, Kabir Sandu, Joseph Donland, Max Sense, and myself were all named to the DECA Honor Society. And Mrs. Chamberlain was honored for 25 years of service with the organization. And

008I just want to thank Mrs. Chamberlain because nothing would be possible without her and she just does so much in our school. And for Deca, she was um she was running around that whole week um running the judges table, making sure everything was going according to plan, and she's just a superhero. She's amazing. >> That is so well said. Was there anybody else at this table that was adjudicating in Rochester that you might want to mention? >> Mama was also there adjudicating. Um she did a great job and I know um we had other Mr. Veronica was there adjudicating and I believe we had other Grand Island alumni there as well. So that's just right nice. Um even after you graduate, you can see how it all comes together and you can still help out.

009Um a group of us from DECA and AOF will be going to the Sabres game tomorrow when they play the San Jose Sharks. We get to go on a tour of the arena, sit on a panel discussion with some of their employees, and we even get to go on the ice after the game. So that's pretty cool. And they've been playing really great lately. So this is a great opportunity for all of us. Last week was Clash Week and of course we had our annual spirit week leading up to it. We had blue and white day, mathletes and athletes, decades day, tourist day and class color day. Students also had the opportunity to participate in lunch games that occurred during their lunch periods. We had pie eating contests, a quiz bowl, finish the lyric, guess

010that blank and minute to win it. And also on Friday during the day, which is which was our second year doing this, we played ultimate rock, paper, scissors. So, everyone starts the day with one necklace that corresponds with the color of their class. And they go through the day playing rock, paper, scissors. And if they win, they win the beaded necklace from their opponent. And the goal at the end of the day is to for your class to have as many necklaces as possible. So, it's fun. You kind of just go around the day just playing rock paper scissors with your friends. And it's just a fun way to get to be interactive and get involved. And then Friday night we had salsa night which is one of my favorite traditions here just before class.

011Nice get together with your friends. You get to dance. And this year is from our very own Miss Caitlyn Klein Schmidt. So that was a lot of fun. And we got to enjoy delicious tacos from Mavina. So that was always fun. And of course on Friday night after salsa we had clash and definitely will go down in history this year's clash. The seniors dominated victory after doing great all week in lunch games and dressing up. Um, we played games like battleship, the egg toss, mattress relay, tugof-war, and more. And of course, the infamous eat your breakfast in the food competition. I just want to say thank you to Miss Rustitz and Mrs. Braceland and all the student council and the officers because class is just a lot of work and it was just such a

012fun night. Of course, for the seniors, we won. So, that was a lot of fun, but it's just a fun night for everyone to get everyone involved. And for this year's change for change, so each um all the class officers have a jug that is the color of their class. So ours was pink for the seniors and class officers take turns walking around with the day carrying around their jug and collecting money. And this year it went to Roswell. So as a school we raised about $1,000 that would be donated to cancer research. And that's pretty impressive because we were just collecting change. So pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. So, it's really nice that everyone brought in food to or um change to be collected. And today, the unified bowling team headed out to Tana Lanes

013for their annual end of the season column meeting event and won first in the division. Top bowlers of the day included Jameson Hoffman, Zachary Flick, and Dominic Mucci. Logan Scott also received the heart of a champion award, which is given to an athlete who demonstrates integrity, perseverance, perseverance, and grit in sports. It was a fun and successful way to end the 2026 season. Um, we heard them getting off the bus today and they were all cheering and excited. So, that's just they were excited before they left and it was it was really nice to see them how happy and excited they were when they got off the bus. And just a couple like miscellaneous um spring sports kicked off today. So, kids are trying out for their spring sports and also celebration of inspiration forms

014were handed out last week. So, this is a long-standing tradition at Grand Island that us seniors really look forward to to be able to honor a teacher that's really had a strong impact on us throughout our years here. >> Thank you, Sienna. On to correspondence, recognition, and good news with Dr. Grant. >> Thank you. Uh, first I just would like to start off by recognizing uh Samira Johnson. Samra, are you here? I might have walked past you. I'm so sorry. Uh, I know Brett Banker wasn't feeling well, but uh, Samira, we're recognizing you for all the good work that you do, of course, in our district, but above and beyond that, you are representing yourself and our district in in ways that are ultra professional by writing an article, uh, telling a story and researching

015that story so that other athletic trainers could benefit from your expertise. uh and working a true case study that occurred in our district. Uh not only did you put this uh journal article together, but it was approved, right, by uh a refereed uh professional journal, but I'm just wondering if you don't mind if you could just say a few words about that process. And I know you're also uh in involved in a doctoral program where very soon you could be eligible to receive the DR in front of your name, which is pretty awesome. I also know that uh Tony Sice is here and he supports you greatly. Tony uh is one of your supervisors uh through uh the Niagara Medical >> Nagra Falls Memorial Medical Center. So smart, do you want to just say a

016few words about the process and what it was like to be published in this journal? Um, so for this article, I actually had no idea about what this injury was prior to a student athlete coming in and working collaboratively with Dr. Federo. Um, we kind of figured out what was going on and it was very interesting. We had never learned about this injury before. So, I did a little bit more research. Um, knowing about the Journal of Athletic Training, which is kind of our national journal. Um it's been kind of a career-long goal to find something that would be worth publishing and they're worth getting pushed through to publishing. Um so getting approval from the student, their parents, and then kind of getting all the information about this case, getting it all together and going

017through revision processes. There were three different cases that needed revision where they sent it back, fixed some stuff, sent it back to them. Um and then Tony Stra was extremely helpful during this process. um he works at Damon as well, so he's had a couple students work on this before. So, he was really great in guiding me through this as well. >> Yeah, that's that's really great. And the actual case study was significant enough to be able to express this across the industry, across the United States, and maybe even outside of the United States. Is that accurate? >> Yes. It doesn't happen often in sports, but it then falls off our radar if we're not looking for something like this. So, it's important that as athletic trainers, we're still looking for um cases where if

018things aren't lining up, then it might be something different than what we think, which is was the case in this situation. >> Yeah. Good. Tony, is there anything you wanted to add uh as as just somebody who works closely with Samira? >> Sure. >> Just to put you on the spot a little bit. >> Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Tony, if you could just let everybody know your title and the work that you >> I'm Tony Sus, the director of sports medicine at Falls Memorial and uh just to support Sam here and and the the work that she did on this project was significant. I mean, I was there to guide her uh in mentoring her a little bit in this project, but she did an unbelievable job in writing it and putting it together

019and and you you don't understand the number of revisions and things that we had to do to to get this approved, but she did a great job and uh um she she just did an outstanding work. So, >> yeah. Sar, did you bring anybody with you today? Okay. Would you be so kind to let us take a group picture? Why don't you hang tight because we'll do a group picture with our top 10 students and then we'll have you jump into that too. Okay, well done. We're very, very proud of you. Thank you. Oh, and up next, so Hillary, would you be able to uh share the good news of our top 10 uh seniors this year? >> Good evening, Board of Education Dr. program and district administrators. This evening, we are so proud to

020recognize our Grand Island High School academic top 10 for the class of 2026. These students have demonstrated exceptional dedication, perseverance, and commitment to academic excellence throughout their high school careers. Their achievements are a testament to their hard work, their intellectual curiosity, and their passion for learning. Beyond just their impressive GPA, these students also have balanced rigorous coursework, which includes AP and honors classes, and they've also excelled in extracurricular activities, leadership roles, and service to our school and community. Each of these students has made a lasting impact on our school, and I have no doubt they're going to continue to achieve great things in their future. I'm going to ask that each student stand as I call your name. We'll start with Colin Morgan, Elijah Castner, don't think he's able to name yet. Um, Audrey Holler,

021Ya Sta, Aiden Colombiaca, Columbia. Sorry, I'm pronouncing it wrong. I don't. Uh, Briana Riasi, Cleopatra Basilico, Gabriella Amato, Janelle Spees, and Cameron Harding. We're very, very proud of you. I know the board has asked in the past some questions like, "What's next after high school?" I don't know if you feel brave enough, but if you could join um Cres, Mrs. Cres Harvey at the podium just to share your next steps, maybe you know where you might be going to school after Grand Island High School and some things you'd like to study. Is this Colin? Hi, Colin. >> So, after high school, what are what are your thoughts? Uh definitely mechanical engineering and MIT. >> Okay, good. You're still still weighing your options? >> Yeah. >> Great. Does anybody have any questions from the board? All

022right. Congratulations. We're going to take a group picture next, but thank you so much. >> Is this Brianna? >> I am going to be going to RIT for mechanical engineering and automotive. option and I'm also going to be submitting division three. >> Congratulations. That's wonderful. Well done. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm looking to major in neuroscience, but I still >> All right. Just remind us of your name. >> Thank you. Thank you, Audrey. >> Hi, I'm Janelle. I'm going to study forensic accounting. I'm an entrepreneur. Oh, great. Have you looked at UB? >> Um, no. >> No. Okay. I just I just say that my son Sean's one of his best friends is actually studying forensic accounting at UB. So, I was just curious. >> He's looking to get out of the area. >> No

023worries. Thank you, Janelle. >> My name is Cleo. Hoping to study French and Tissoul education most likely at an university. >> Oh, wonderful. That's great. Congratulations. My name is Ya Stiga and I plan to pursue a doctorate in nursing and I will start with bachelor's at UB. >> All right, congratulations. >> My name is Cammy. Um, I'm undecided on the school, but I plan to study biochemistry and hopefully go into genetic engineering. >> Oh, congratulations. It's wonderful. >> Hi, I'm Gabby. I'm not sure where I want to go, but I probably want to study law or forensic psychology. >> All right, congratulations. Did we hear from everybody? All right, let's give him a big round of applause and we'll do a photo. I'll take a couple and then Ally and Alice will take some pictures.

024Get ready. Sorry. what the board can say to our students. Thank you very much. Thank you everybody. All right, we're going to get a quick picture of where did everybody go? Good work. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Okay. Sorry, guys. All right. So, on to public comment session agenda items only. We do not have anyone sign up for that. Uh, we did want to make mention of Trustee Sumarstein's location at 101 Walker Road, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 17201. Okay. And so that brings us to curriculum and instruction with John. Thank you. Uh this evening uh we have three items on the agenda. Uh item A is just for information purposes only. It's the February uh 2026 curriculum update. And item B and C are action items, please. The uh item B is the approval of the school calendar

025for next year 2627. And then item C is the memory agreement for. Okay. So if I can have a motion for curriculum instruction items B and C >> and a second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed. Motion carried. Fives. She's back. We're good. Okay. So, that is fine, sir. We at that point. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Patrick. Okay. Now, on to personnel instructional. Can I have a motion to approve PI One through seven. Got >> a second. All in favor? >> Opposed? >> All right. Motion carries. Six. >> All right. Personnel non-instructional. Can I have a motion to um approve PNI 1 through three? >> Motion. >> And a second. Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carried. 6 nothing. >> All right. And so that brings us

026to finance with >> Dr. >> All right. Under finance, there's 12 items. Uh five of them are action items and seven are information. Uh the action items are A through E. So we start out with budget transfers over of the amount over $15,000 and then I don't know you want to go each one or you want to >> I can talk about them separately. >> Yeah, why don't you talk about them separately and then we can >> whenever there's a transfer over 15,000 the board has to approve that and we have two transfers one for zero eyes which are uh cameras that uh have been placed around the school and the other one is for moving money within the school lunch department uh to buy necessary equipment. So that's A. On B, there are 25

027student desks at Kegabine School that are old and need to be surplused. C is an internal audit of the transportation and school lunch department. This is an audit that is required by state law and it is directed by the school district. In other words, we tell them where to go and look and we change every year the departments we're looking at. In the school lunch department, uh there were four things that the audit recommended and remember these are for internal controls to make our to make our departments uh more efficient. So, four items under school lunch. Um, budget to actual reports are not being given to the board and it's suggested that we do that. So, we will do that. There is no contract with St. Stevens School to provide lunches and breakfast and we

028do that on a daily basis and have done for years. So on the agenda tonight is a contract for you to approve and the treasurer needs to reconcile the school lunch accounts, the bank accounts. So we will we will also do that. So those are the four things to make the school lunch uh department uh better. In transportation, there's one item. Well, we measure the amount of diesel fuel that's being used by ourselves, the town, etc. We have the we have the tank and and the police and the fire and I believe others fill up there. Um while it is all measured by a FOB system, uh someone needs to look at those records on a monthly basis to balance the amount of gallons that were there and you know balance the records from the

029FOB to what we're actually using. So that's their recommendation. We do use a software system called Gas Boy and we're just not looking at those records. So that has to be done. D is the corrective action plan. Whenever you have an audit in a school district, whether it's your general fund audit annually or whether it's these risk management audits for internal controls, you have to do a corrective action plan if there's anything seen and the corrective action plan uh gets sent to the state and it tells them that we will follow through on these things. So that's in your packet. E is the contract with St. Steven School and we do provide breakfast and lunch there. We have a staff person that's there. Uh we provide the food. The staff person is our person. They

030cook the food, serve it to the children, but we've never had an official contract and that was recommended the information. Well, let's stop with the action. So, >> okay. So, we're looking for a motion finance A through E. >> I have a question about contract. Oh, go ahead, Sue. >> I just wanted that contract by our attorney. >> Yes, it was. >> All right. Thank you. >> And and uh he did recommend that we provide an insurance certificate that's attached to that and we've done that through our nicer insurance company. So, that contract has been reviewed by the superintendent, by the attorney, and the insurance the necessary insurance uh binders with it. Yes, >> that was Hudson and Russ, Mr. Jeff. >> Yeah, I figured. Thank you. >> I have a question about the contract

031with for the food. Are we required to provide that staff person? Um, are we being compensated or is that coming out of our budget for St. Stevens? Are we required? I know we're required for a certain percentage of our technology budget to be allocated for St. Stevens. I know that we are required to provide St. Stevens transportation. Is this another requirement to have the staff person um paid for by I'm I'm assuming it's being paid for by our district and that we're not being reimbursed for that. A staff person is dedicated to St. Stevens. >> It's being paid by the school lunch fund. A school launch fund is separate from the general fund, but it's its own fund, right? >> So, the money it collects, uh, the money can only be spent within the school

032launch fund. >> You have for years provided a staff member there, >> right? >> Um, >> I'm asking if it's a requirement. >> I know we've done it. I know we've done it and I believe we've talked about it before that it's not a requirement and I'm just wondering if we are doing a formal contract where we're just not being compensated as a district for I mean it's a full-time position and what it costs the districts what it is what is the when we're I don't know at the last meeting we were saying we were going to be very careful about the budget and the money being spent. So, I'm just wondering if this is a contract that we're just creating now, why we're not requiring that to be compensated for an employee that basically

033we're gifting to St. Stevens if it's not in fact required. And I believe we've discussed this before that it is not required, but we've done it. >> Um, I do believe it is required and that is something we should look in before we approve this contract. But I believe Ashley like transport like transportation comes out of your taxes. I believe I I believe that is a part of it but I I could I could be wrong because it has come up before and it came up when um we were in such a deficit and um they really just had a written agreement like letter from 1988. So there was something informal formal from 1988, but it was not a contract. So this kind of solidifies what was written back in 1988. But um I I

034I'm with Ashley. We need to find out if that is, but it is my understanding that it is part of what comes out of the um school taxes. >> I'm not sure if it's required or not, but Sure, we can table the contract. >> Yeah, >> the cost of the food too, right? >> Because this came this I know this came up back when we were operating at such a deficit too. And I thought we I thought at that point we may have answered these questions, but I think it's a good time to revisit them. >> Okay. >> For sure. Uh, these questions have not come up since I've been here. So, I do. >> No, it would have been quite a few years ago. >> I can check into both of those things and

035we can put it on the next agenda if you wanted on the next agenda. >> Yeah, if at the time we were um we were short staffed in our lunch um areas of different buildings. Um I we were short staffed and we were kind of looking at like well if we are not being compensated for this position and we don't have to could we bring this position back and use it use it in our buildings I think was part of the discussion. So I'm not 100% confident that it is required and that's what I would like to know and if it isn't is there a way to add any compensation into this contract because it is a full-time position that then we'd be giving them. And also um I didn't think of it but Sue

036makes a really really good point about the cost of the food as well and what is the compensation for that. So the contract might not need to be revisited in terms of >> you know what what is the compensation of Grand Island and and >> that sort of thing. So if we could just vote on all the other items and take this one out. >> Yeah. Just I think we need to clarify that. I know I I know we visited it years ago, but to understand what the responsibility of it is to to the private schools through the through the tax moneyies collected, I guess, is what we're looking for, right, Ash? >> Yes. Yes. I know we have a responsibility in terms of providing the transportation. I know that part of our technology >>

037something with food, >> but um I I don't think this was a requirement. I just add that it is discretionary. My concern is it becoming a requirement based on patterns behavior of the relationship over time. So like the slippery slope with that. So I think these are good questions and you know I look forward to hearing more at the next meeting. Thank you Ashley for flagging. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah. Do we need a motion to table E or A through D. We don't need a motion to table E. >> Okay. So, can I have a motion to approve uh finance A through D? >> A motion. >> Got a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carried six nothing and E will be tabled to the next meeting. See?

038All right. And then theformational stuff. The information is F through L and it starts off with budget transfers under 15,000 and there's a list of them in your packet. The treasures report uh for August, September, and October. The revenue report for August, September, and October. The check warrants for January and February. Extracurricular reports for the high school from July through February. Extracurricular report for the middle school July through February. And the last one was a memo on the difference between Versatran and Transversa which came up at the last meeting and um I put that in writing for you. Those are the information items. Do we have any questions on any of theformational items? Okay. I think that leaves us with our budget presentation. Okay. All right. That can get us started. Doug, go ahead. You

039have a question. I think >> No, I'm just going to say it's an 86 page. >> 86 pages. >> I appreciate that. going to get the highlights but before go ahead and start and then we'll have a few services and then >> that's right. So traditionally uh for our board and for the public uh this is during the second phase of budget development we also hear from our assistant superintendents uh regarding their programs that they oversee and some of the celebrations andor challenges that we have. Uh so um as we get started uh we do and always like to start with our mission uh and I do thank the board for supporting uh the work that has been done to build a strategic blueprint for excellence which did uh edit this mission and the mission

040is to inspire each student to achieve their highest potential by entering their unique pathway fostering academic excellence supporting personal growth and promoting social responsibility. So, we thank the board for their guidance with that. Also, uh for the last 10 years that I've been here, we talk about these budget goals uh all the time and just for our community uh to develop a long-term sustainable budget designed to provide the best diversified educational program for our students UPK through grade 12, retain all communitymandated student programs and activities, and to do our very best to protect the fund balance. So, I thank you always for your guidance. With that, I will bypass the strategic plan goals. You've seen this slide in previous uh presentations, but I do thank the board again for being part of this process uh

041guiding us uh allowing us to work on these goals and how these goals are supported uh in our programs. And you'll see how that is true uh today when Cheryl and John present their programs to you. As you know uh we are now in March. So, this budget development process has been ongoing. Uh, we thank the board for all of your guidance with respect to budget development for our community. If you're new to watching this, the board takes this role very seriously and we're grateful for their governance in this area. Uh, these are some of the meeting dates. Uh, obviously we're here today on March 9th. We'll do this again, the third iteration on March 23rd. Uh the board is keenly aware that the governor must enact her budget. Uh her deadline is April 1st.

042Sometime she's uh she or other governors have been on time. Uh the this governor has been late uh with enacting uh her budget. We're going to be paying very very careful attention to the enacted budget. uh the board maintained uh through my Friday memo that I I met recently with my colleagues and the new uh senator, the New York State senator, um Jeremy Zelner, and we went to his office and as a group of superintendents that are within his 61st district, we were advocating for our districts and the needs that we have. And we had a a very robust conversation with uh Mr. Zelner and he was just elected. So he's, you know, he's learning his role in this, but you know, it's a little bit like drinking from a fire hose, but he was

043very, very attentive and we're very hopeful that through his guidance, uh, public schools are protected in the final iteration of the budget. So on March 23rd, we'll bring uh the next iteration of the budget to the board and uh it is a tentative budget adoption date. Uh, or we could do that at a later date. So I thank you. We thank the board for paying attention to that outline of the budget development and today, you know, obviously we're going to be covering quite a bit and I'm going to turn it over to Cheryl Cardone to uh hear from her and her program and how that impacts our students and faculty on a daily basis. >> Right. All right. So, good evening everyone. Tonight, I'd like to give the board of education an overview of personnel

044services for the upcoming school year. >> Just a little closer to that. >> Okay. Um I'll briefly highlight the program services and staff that support our students academically, socially, emotionally, and physically across the district. As you can see on the PBS overview, pupil personnel services supports students from preschool through grade 12. Our department oversees all of the above. Special ed counseling and psychological services, speech, language, ENL support, and health services. All of these services work together to ensure that our students receive the support they need to succeed both in and outside the classroom. Um, across the district, we provide a continuum of special education services based on individual student needs. Um this uh slide actually is current on on what we're providing this year. We have integrated co-eing classrooms self-contained classrooms and consultant teacher services.

045Each school board building offers different program models depending on the student needs. In addition um at the bottom um you can see that we also um provide services for our preschool students and currently we have aboutund 145 pre and four year olds that we are servicing and when I started to date myself but when I started that number hovered you know a little bit below 70. So over the course of x amount of years you know 15 years we've actually doubled um those services for our preschool students. Um, just wanted to highlight some of our programs. Um, as you as everybody knows, we do have a special education extended school year program. It runs every summer for approximately six weeks, usually right after Fourth of July, um, to the middle of August. Um, the goal

046is to prevent regression and help students maintain both academic and related service skills. This program does run Monday through Friday approximately 9:15 to 3:15 and on Friday um the students do get to take um a field trip you know for those six weeks students um are provide the opportunities for social interaction and community engagement as well. Um and we actually do service in this special ed program 80 plus students and it's ever continuing and growing with those number of students. I do want to thank the board. Uh many years ago, you gave us uh permission to build this program and the um benefit for our families is tremendous for students to be uh transported from in Grand Island to a Grand Island school for their extended school year is so much better than going off

047island to other locations. And it just makes the quality of life and the quality of schooling so much better for children. So, thank you to the board for that guidance. >> And I just wanted to highlight too that in the last couple years, um, we do partner with Niagara County Social Services. David Jiha actually brought it to us when he was interning a couple years ago, but they actually provide us breakfast and lunch for the students as well. So, it's another program. Um, simultaneously, um, for four weeks out of the summer, we, uh, run an ENL summer program, uh, that runs half day. It's a KTO toy program focuses on helping students continue to develop their English language skills through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Um, they maintain language development over the summer and it

048helps prevent gaps that can occur when students are not regularly practicing English. Um, we service anywhere between 12 and 15 of our EML students K to 5. The nice thing is too is they join us for our field trips for the four weeks that they are with us as well. This is a great opportunity for them. Um last year, uh thank you to um Dr. and the board of education. We did institute or we did um come up with a Viking Voyage summer program for our students in grades four through six. Um the program focused on helping students build resilience, develop coping strategy, sorry, strategies and strengthen emotional regulation skills. Um the students did work with staff. We have actually three in-house staff members that work with our students on coping skills and managing challenge

049both in school and in everyday situations. And what this program really did also is we keep the connection for those students that really really need that connection over the summer with school. It provided them that opportunity. The other um unintended consequence was the fact that um our cute line kiddos instead of being at the middle school got to meet in the summer as well. So they form some of those friendships before they even enter those schools. It was a great program. Get about 35 students um and we will be running it again this year um for those weeks and already have three staff members that are ready to take this on. So thank you. Um Saba um the Saba program is a unique opportunity for students with disabilities to participate in adaptive ice skating program.

050It did start out with just one class. They actually Melissa Nestle um class started this and I am happy to say that we have multiple classrooms across the district that are now participating in this program. Every single building um has a um class or two that are participating in this program. We plan to continue that next year as well. Um Brett Finnen, our behavior therapist, actually works with the students on the you know, to help with their social skills, you know, when learning these activities. So, we have teachers, the a thing, and then we do have some of our principles that show up as well. Thank you for that. This past year, we actually transitioned from CPI. Um, CPI is a crisis prevention intervention. Um, and we actually transitioned to safety care. Uh, we felt

051that this would benefit our faculty, staff, and students more. And also instead of um contracting that service out through OSIS, we actually have three uh in-house trainers at the current time um we have Lawrence Stang, we have Jessica Hutchkins um and they actually have rep in it as well. Um safety cares is a crisis prevention and intervention training program. It helps um with preventing the training focuses on preventing challenging behaviors, safety, deescalation, and responding consistently across classroom and buildings. Um this year we have trained so far 66 faculty and staff. Um we have also um trained some individuals in transportation and we are also looking at training not only more of our faculty and staff but also some of our cafeteria monitors for next year too. So it's been a great um really nice um

052great system um know these behavior strategies across the board. All right. Youth mental health first aid. I think you've heard this over and over. He did meet our goal. Um, every single faculty and staff member were trained in two years. Right now, we are just concentrating on all of our new hires um that we have had over the course of this year. And they will be trained they will actually be trained by the end of this school year as well. Um, we are looking at retraining everybody because we have to do that soon. So, I've been working with John um and Jessica Hutchkins to ensure that that training will start all over again to make sure that we're training all of our athletes, staff, all of our stakeholders, athletes, um coaches, etc. First, um additional

053services. Um these services include um OTP, speech counseling, vision, hearing and behavioral supports. Um this year also at the high school we are offering our life skill students art therapy and then we also offer some of our students music music therapy as well. Um one of the things that we didn't put on here um or did make the slide was our family support services. Just wanted to remind everybody um that we are currently serving uh 60 students. We've had 70 referrals this year. We actually are we have our vacancies are in our buildings five days a week and three agencies are servicing our students. And then Jessica Hutchkins um actually met with a place called Sanctuary. So we will be partnering with another counseling agency to offer um some counseling services for our students and

054that will be housed at agency will be housing as we continue to look for new opportunities. Great. Uh personnel uh at current time we have 42 special education teachers. We have 17 teaching assistants and 37 teacher aids. Um also we have seven speech pathologists, six social workers, six psychologists, seven counselors. We have a plethora of eight nurses including transportation and we have five ENL teachers. So I just wanted to take this opportunity again to thank the board and Dr. Graham um for your you know continued effort and investment in all of the services so that um our students are supported. So again, thank you very much. Um, in closing, we are committed to supporting the social, emotional, physical, and academic needs of all students which is outlined in the strategic plan. And I want to

055again thank you for your support. >> I have a quick question. What is the cost to partners the partnership with the new agency that you just mentioned or is that at no cost? So everybody that we partner with Ashley, there's no cost to the district whatsoever. >> Okay. I figured I just wanted to make that clear. So if people in the community are listening, they're aware that >> we're not taking on additional responsibilities financially, but these are free um services that benefit our students and their mental health and and it's at no cost for us. Thank you. >> Any other questions? I just want to say thank you for keeping so many of our kids here on Grand Island of Peace Services. Dr. Graham, you too. I know you're a big advocate for that and

056it's just I think it's the best. So, thank you very much for that. >> You know, to tag on that, I I have to tell you, our principles, I have to thank them because, you know, they are in the trenches every single day. So, you know, part of that as well is the principles really do a nice job with helping keeping our kids here. You know, it's such an important >> Sure. I have one more thing with the biking Voyager program. It would be interesting to see over time with the self-regulation strategies that you're using if it impacted student behavior at the middle level at all, if our behavior incidences decreased at all and to kind of collect data on that because I have a feeling that this type of program just with the self-regulation

057strategies especially, you know, as students are, you know, becoming seventh and eighth graders, just having that personal the coping skills that's really what a lot of kids I've noticed over the years have lacked that self-regulation and the ability to cope with situations and especially when material gets more difficult when you move from elementary school to middle school. So just managing those emotions overall, does it result in over time a decrease in the um amount of referrals or discipline incidences among say seventh and eighth graders because I'm I'm assuming that you're targeting students that really really need to develop those self-regulation skills. So that's really the strategies for students with like ADHD, not having the regulation skills a lot of times that they need in order to control their emotions and their behavior. And that's kind

058of how they get into these um difficult situations behaviorally. So I would just be interested over time if we've had any decrease in behavior because I think it's a great program and I just wanted to add that as far as like data to be. We can take a look at that for sure. Um John reminded me too that we did start to start a similar program um over John, you want to talk about it second? >> Actually um some of the co money that we were given, we at the middle school, Jessica Hutchkins and Michelle Paige created a very similar group to touch base with kids uh who needed coping skills uh over the summertime. So it was pretty successful. I would say a lot of the students that were in that program initially were

059sixth graders. So, we got to see a little bit of how that impacted your life moving forward. That's great. >> I can work with Thanks. >> Sounds like you just created a second doctoral study for yourself. >> That's okay. One was enough on that. >> Yeah. The one thing I would also layer into this conversation, Ashley, is that not unlike our extended school year program for children with special needs, like significant special needs, uh, one thing that I think is at the root of this is that we don't have kids regress after the 10 months of uh, counseling and support services and then they go into the summer without those services. And so I think this uh keeps kids um connected to their counselors, their social workers, practicing those skills, reinforcing those skills so there

060isn't regression. So that's another layer here. So thank you for that. >> Okay. So I'm up. I want to first thank the board of education for providing that support uh to help us provide uh probably one of the best academic programs uh overall uh in our our area. I also want to thank our our teachers, our our outstanding teachers um who do a really good job of going the extra mile um you know making sure the programs are are uh topnotch uh and working as hard as they can. I want to thank our principles uh for all the work they do to uh plan for and prepare for um all these different programs that um we can highlight and see uh on a daily and weekly basis and a yearly basis and you know the

061the students I that we're standing up here top 10 I want to thank our kids u because ultimately they're the ones who are working very hard um the SSI of the world uh and all the other people in that eronica graduate um you all the work that they did so uh to put us on the map. So tonight, um I'm going to give you a brief overview of our performance, highlight key successes, um identify priority areas, and really share the actions we're taking to strengthen uh the outcomes for all students. Here's um if you take a look at this page, the executive summary, um we're strong overall uh particularly at the high school and elementary mathematics levels. Uh the data also highlights key priorities uh including earth science, middle school, ELA and achievement gaps for

062students with disabilities or students who have an IEP. So most most regions exams uh exceed 85% proficiency uh especially ELA, algebra 2, living environment, social studies and earth science stands out as a the primary area that is needing improvement. And I do want to point out that as we're talking about earth science, they're transitioning right now to the new earth and space science uh earth and space science regions. Uh so there's that'll be an area that will be receiving a lot of uh professional development. I do want to point out uh ELA regions at the high school 95% proficiency which is just outstanding. It's 20 points above the state average. 61% of our students scored at a level five. Uh and they demonstrated an advanced performance. And if you take a look at that subgroup,

063students with disabilities, 71% of our students uh who have an IEP were proficient uh on ELA. That means they either scored a three or a four. So that that's really an outstanding achievement uh for our ELA staff. the four-year uh total coho cohort for four-year outcomes. These uh are your freshman class of fall 2021 and now they're graduating this year. This is how they performed on the regions exams. Uh overall, they tested out extremely high between 96 and 99% profic proficiency rates across region subjects range from 89 to 95% but it is showing strong outcomes overall. So really a great job. Okay, this is where we do need to do some inter intervening uh with our earth science and again I said they are working on a new exam 57% proficiency uh with significant subgroup

064gaps. Um that includes our students who have special needs. Uh the high school as an action plan they are conducting a curriculum review. Uh this has been ongoing. uh they're doing uh in-depth regions item analysis and they're working with Boseies um in u consortium groups to strengthen uh the vertical alignment especially through grade 6 through 12. So it's if if you were talking to our science department it's like an all-in game right now to bolster our regents our science scores. Okay. And really it's the student performance uh overall. >> All right. >> Yes. Do you see that action plan or >> I can get you more information on the action plan? Uh it's it's not a formal document. It's just we we participate in a lot of we're doing a lot of um uh we're

065taking a lot of actions. If you want me to put it in a document, I can actually do that. But uh >> yeah, it doesn't need to be anything formal. It's just maybe kind of what's being discussed, what you guys are looking at. Um, and certainly that's something we we're everybody's going to look to increase. It'd be nice to see what the plan is and then see how those numbers change as the years go on. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Nothing nothing formal. Just kind of what the plan is. What would be great to see >> how do we line up with um >> other school districts or >> I can get that information for you. I think like earth science for ninth graders. I don't know. >> Yes. Challenging. >> Yeah. I I sat in

066an earth science class uh about two weeks ago and I was watching the teacher. It's it's a completely new it's a difficult course as it is, right? It's a it's a very intuitive intellectual not intellectually but it's a higher level thinking skill course to begin with. forgive forgive this really mediocre and you know it's trying sometimes to have kids be uh less concrete thinking and more abstract. So making 2 + 2 equal 5 and figuring out how that got to five. I sat in the earth science class uh two weeks ago to watch the teaching and it's even more synthesizing even more analytical than it's ever been. uh the students had to work through three different charts where before if you remember going to the earth science reference tables to get your answer. Now you

067have to go from say the reference tables that's going to give you one piece of information then to another table or chart and then to a third chart to finally get your information. So, it's it's not only the synthesizing that is required, but it's also the stamina. Stick with it. You know, you're going to get to the finish line sooner. >> I always wondered why it was a science class for ninth graders. You know, it seems like it was challenging and like biology, but you know, it is. I'm glad that we're adopting this. >> That was also administered online, right? So, this was on a computer or was it a paper? >> No, it was a paper. Yes. >> We do. >> It is. It is. Uh the eighth graders right now are 100% proficient.

068>> How are we in terms >> I can look that information up. >> Be interesting to see you know are we down the Absolutely. Any other questions? >> Thank you. Okay. Um, we're always paying attention to our students with disabilities uh and where they are in terms of graduation. Um, and I can say, uh, Mrs. Harvey and the high school team has a very uh comprehensive child study team uh to make sure that gaps are closed. So you're going to see here in this chart that uh between earth science all the way down to ELA, there are still gaps between how these students compare to a general education uh student. But um right now we are uh at the lower levels we're participating in a targeted skills group to review all gaps and interventions. Uh

069that's the states doing this with us. Um but the information that we're obtaining through this targeted skills groups will apply to uh grade levels above. Uh we're of course always reviewing uh the co-eing models and you know every kid is on their own journey. Uh so it's going to look different for any kid. Uh you know what they need to close the gap. Um we are committed to trying to make sure uh that gaps are closed. And I caution putting up a a number like this chart because it bumps everyone in the same category when really if we're looking at a child with an IEP, each kid is different and might have different needs. And uh that's why I mentioned uh this is Cres Harvey's uh team. You know, with their comprehensive child study team,

070they're always looking to make sure kids are the gaps are closed wherever they can. So, okay. So, uh good news here with math. Um we have exceeded um our district outperforms the state at every grade level. uh in and these are the three through eight math assessments. Um our overall proficiency is 73% compared with 57% statewide. And I want to point out so I think it was about 10 years ago uh when the board of education charged the school district with increasing our math scores. It was there was a very big concern with our math scores about 10 years ago somewhere around that time. So if you take a look at it, here's a result of 10 years in the system of kids at that time around about you know so now we are our

071math is up very pleased >> and it was off that and it was also making sure that the same one thing I noticed this is just as a whole but it would be interesting because We did see the math scores at the masses at you guys that would be nice to see especially for some of us at the time that >> yeah how it's changed. >> Yeah. Uh yeah I can do that for you. Um it's important you're talking about alignment. Um and we're definitely going to talk about alignment when it comes to CDL. So I just want to make sure that I don't forget that I don't think uh okay so if we move on to ELA so ELA um elementary performance is very strong especially in grade five grade six and seven are

072slightly below the state averages and our target focus area for us uh at this point. Um and and it has to do with we are aligning uh in grades 3 through five, but we need to align more and we're going to talk about some of those things uh especially in our elementary grades and what we're going to do to take some action in the middle school those performance results before I um I'll get to the getting ahead of myself. Okay, thank you. All right. So, these are the I Ready benchmark. Uh you'll see a chart for math. You'll see a chart for ELA. Um if you look at the first column on the left, that's the national norm that they take in the wintertime. 14 million kids take uh the I Ready uh assessment. Okay.

073And the reason all scores are compared to two years prior or a year and a half prior is because it takes a lot of time for them to establish where the median rates are with 14 million kids across the nation. Uh so that's why that is set at uh winter 2223. The national year to date uh for 2526 of all the kids who have reported scoring so far is the second column in uh and the New York year to date of all the uh schools that take the I Ready assessment uh is the third column and you're looking at the fourth column that is the district column. Um and we do quite well in math and what you always want to see um is more green than the other three columns ahead of that. Okay.

074But you have to keep an eye on where you are in the green. Um, so we have more green and less red, which is which is really good compared to the national average and also compared to our state average. Okay. Thank you. So the uh the performance uh in ELA for the I Ready benchmark is um it's it's it's slightly less. So, uh, meaning that we're hovering around our if you look at the district level, we are hovering around close to the national average, close to the state average. Um, it's it's something to watch that we need to address. Now, I'm not going to raise an alarm, but I'm going to say we need to be focusing on this as a little bit. So, that's where we stand right now. Any questions on the Ready

075assessment? Um I do I do want to credit you can stay on this page. Um yeah so one thing the middle school did and we'll talk about the middle school in a minute. Um we're going to focus on the middle school for a second but one thing that was our principles have been doing is we found that our students scores get uh improve when they give more when they get more opportunities to take the assessment. Uh in years past we were giving them one opportunity to take the assessment and it was more a snapshot in time and if the kid came in really sleepy that day or just wasn't up for sitting in the hourlong assessment um then your scores might be different. So our principles have been really working to make sure every kid

076gets a chance to do it the best that they at the best time they possibly can. So that leads us to the middle school. So the middle school is going to be a focus uh for us. Um I want to highlight uh honestly um other than doing curriculum review and individualized learning supports and strengthening AIS identification uh we still have a pattern of high test refusal rates in the middle school. Um and that that is a that is a problem. Uh you know it's test refusal. It's not opting out. you don't have the option to not take a state assessment, to not do the I Ready assessments and and I encourage uh with the graduation measures changing and portrait of the graduate um it's always important to have our students sit and have questions that

077are asked that they'll be exposed to at a later later date in high school. So, um you know to participate in those assessments I think are very important. It's good practice for the SAT and the PSAT and just all the tests that they're going to have they'll have in college and if they're not sitting for them now >> and they if they plan on moving on to a program that's you know academic in nature it's going to be a real struggle when they have to sit for a PSAT or an SAT and then in college when they have to sit for exams it's >> just becomes very difficult because they're not used to that kind of a test, >> right? >> So, what happens when a child refuses to take the test? Are they removed

078from classroom? Do they just sit there? >> I think uh I don't you have to talk to the principal. I don't have how that's changed. is the parent that's refusing. >> We we rarely have a student who sits in their seat and has the test in front of them, close the exam and say, "I refused." We have we have a lot of parents who either phone call, email, or send in letters saying, and I I just this is part of my, you know, um I want to make sure the community knows that this is they're refusing. It's there's no option. And uh you know, that that word came out a long time ago. You have the option to take an exam. You really don't have the option. So, >> it's a little contagious, too, when

079there's a group of middle school kids uh talking on the bus saying, "Hey, my mother's letting me refuse the test today." Then the next day, the number grows and our poor administrators are shuffling kids, I think, in the cafeteria where they can read quietly. But it's uh it becomes uh contagious and it doesn't and I can say our refusal numbers at the elementary are low but as soon as the kids have a little bit more autonomy uh coming to school in middle school it changes. >> I agree. I mean they definitely they are talking because my daughter's in sixth grade and she'll come home and say can I not take the test next week because you know they're talking on the bus or they're talking in the hall. >> This person's mom said that she

080doesn't have to take it and I have to I'm so and so and so and so and I'm like well that's that's >> and it just helps our teachers understand like sometimes what they may not be doing well or what they're really strong in maybe spend less time >> yeah this could just mention this is not unique to us in Grand Island right it's everywhere so but it's getting better is the elementary schools yeah >> the elementary huge improvement >> will the refusal rate of the middle school increases tackling more like you know just the contagious aspect of it I that's just what I would add years ago like first came on they had the option to opt out if I'm remembering correctly so there was a it was a movement but there because and

081I remember it was when I first got on board 10 years they could opt out not >> no it was it was never I don't mean to interrupt you it was never the option but what was happening is the movement became so large that the we had to send out a letter prior to so that we can manage the numbers on the testing window day but you could only give the test on one day and you spent the first hour and a half of the morning trying to shuffle 200 kids. >> I remember and I think back then they were cafeteria >> there was there was good reason historically Dr. John King was in charge and he made significant and detrimental changes which changed proficiency rates from say 75% for some schools to 33%. So

082there was uh there was a movement by Dr. King Kun now is running. He's the chancellor of the Sunni system. Uh but at that time he made some significant changes and people uh rightly pushed back and said this is ridiculous. Right? There was the introduction of the common core race to the top and Dr. King's um changing of what was measured as proficient which made all kids in the state go from 70 80% proficiency to 30 to 40%. And so rightly so, people push back, but we still have uh the residue of that. We're still dealing with that uh in 2026. So yeah, just as a parent, you know, if you want your teachers and the administrators to know what kind of help your child needs in different areas in math and ELA, you know,

083science, social, whatever it is, have them take the test because that's that's the surefire way to know where they're struggling and what areas they need support in. And if they're not taking the test and your child's struggling, it's it's very difficult. Then it'll be more difficult. It makes it more challenging to diagnose the areas of need and where the deficits are. Where are those gaps? Taking the test in a very specific situation where it's a time test or where it's, you know, a very serious test like this helps teachers and administrators be able to do that. So, it's really important that parents understand, you know, refusing to take the test is not helping your child at all. Period. Full stop. It's not helpful. >> Thank you. >> We're good with the side. >> Okay. So

084um moving forward uh we are trying to create a space uh that fosters positive engagement for everyone uh empowerment for everyone and a sense of belonging for everyone every day. And that's just not for our students, that's for adults, that's for any staff member, any community member. Uh that is our goal. Um and and we talked a little bit about alignment um earlier. Um we have experienced uh success partnering with curriculum associates uh and we have purchased the magnetic reading program for grades 3 through 5. Uh that was two years ago. Um we're entering our third year uh with the next year will be our third year with the magnetic reading program and and we said we have seen success and that success is being evidenced on our high assessments. uh it's being evidenced in

085the classroom how kids are approaching reading uh reading comprehension. Um so we are looking that the board uh would support us in a now extending that program K to two uh for kindergarten uh grades one and grades two for $150,000. And here's really the reason why we need to do this. We have not had since and I was trying to look back. So my number is either 2002 or 2006. That was the last time Grand Island had a common literacy program grades K to five at least. So it's been a long time. And we talk about alignment between and I I know Joy you had mentioned with MAC alignment between you and Peg. And so we need to align. you know, we're not broken, but we need to we need to speak a common language

086when it when it comes to K1, 2, and then 3, four, five. And we because we're the I Ready assessment is a curriculum associates product. Uh we've experienced success now with the magnetic reading program, which is curriculum associates as well, and that's in grades three, uh, four, and five. we want to bring that down to a K12 level um and purchase this product uh for $150,000. So that's our ask from the curriculum department and it's going to align us. Uh it's not without uh we're going to have to you know dig in and work very hard just like we had to do uh with any program. But um we want to be consistent. We want to be clear clear uh and have that common language now one two and then three four five. So um

087you know I'm really excited about this. If we can make that happen that would be fantastic for us as a district. >> Any question? >> Yes. >> Just real quick. So um what literacy program are we using right now K through two and when would we have implemented that into the district? We have been using uh I would say it's a portfolio of different programs from will you fly has been the common program for phonics uh but we have ready reading in grades two um uh I'm drawing the blank on the other two programs that we have working right now but it's we're we're piecing things together that sometimes the language doesn't always talk to each other >> I want to know the programs that we're currently using at Sidway Okay. And one and two

088and when they were brought into the um district and what the cost of those were. >> Sure. No problem. >> That's what I'm looking for. >> You got it. >> I I understand and I appreciate what you're trying to do and I like that, but I just want I just want to know the timing of when we when we brought in the other systems that we're currently using. >> Okay. >> I can have that for you. I'll just add Sue that um in this district we were a readers and writers workshop district with the Lucy Caukins program and most recently uh there's been push back by New York State to adopt science of reading uh approach uh at the younger grade levels. So that's uh as John gets that information for you that for our

089board and our community to understand that we are pivoting away from readers and writers workshop and then adding a science of reading uh component to literacy early literacy and literacy growth and the uh primary school grades which we are getting good feedback with uh you fly and some of those other elements but uh it's it's definitely a shift. Yeah, we're going to keep you fly as a foundation uh program for phonics. Um partly because we're experiencing a lot of success with it and it is free. Um so we've been using that for at least >> I don't know I would say like >> I think Mr. Mr. and joined us. He he brought that in. Yeah. >> Um so that that covers the phonics piece, but we're we definitely need something for second grade in

090terms of phonics right now. >> And you are using the same liters program now >> for grades three through five. Yes. >> Okay. And that would be the same one that we're looking to put in K through two. >> Yes. It's just their extension of that. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Yep. >> Are you done with your >> Yes. Okay. This is a a good transition as we start to talk about the budget. Uh we have some students who may need to leave just because they're drivers. So, if we could take a break and our students can get their agenda signed for their participation in government class, then they can excuse them for the rest of the evening. >> So, students can bring their agendas out to the board. Any board member can sign

091them for you so that you have a record of uh your attendance today. It just went far. >> Yes. Nice seeing you, honey. Have a good night. Have a good night. >> You too. Okay. Can >> I get in the car? >> No. >> I don't know. I don't think I did. >> So, as we're we had a couple board members uh use the facility. So, we'll just continue with that break. It's good to see you kind of I heard it again. That's too long. collage. Sam doesn't work. Obviously, Let's do it. >> Yes, I do. >> Yes. I painted one of those insurance. Oh, I think I >> I'm really glad that's what I that's what I heard. I thought I heard something else actually. So, too much. >> All right. We want to

092thank everybody for the endurance of a longer meeting. We appreciate that. Uh just as we start to transition to the budget um program and it's okay right with our board to move forward to continue. All right. Thank you. So we're starting off with this slide and it's uh slide 36 of 87 way. So we do have a lot of slides tonight. Um but to that end uh this is important information for the board to see that uh we uh we have worked with our GITA. There are 12 GITA retirements listed here on the far left of this slide. You can see those positions in the center. You'll see that we intend to replace seven of those positions and transition one position to the SRP team. So uh along with those replacements, we are asking in

093this budget development for the board to approve an increase a point4 FTE increase in art. And those numbers are supported by course requests by our high school students and some exciting new courses that they've developed. But you'll see that we're intending uh even though we have two social studies teachers retired, we intend to replace one of them. We intend to replace English science our psychologist. We intend to replace grade six, English 7th. Uh the Sidway classroom aid was previously a teaching assistant, but we can use a teacher aid in the UPK class to fulfill that need. And then you'll see under Keabine replacing the elementary music position. uh as it goes without saying that we love our teachers and staff that we're uh replacing some but also subtracting through attrition uh as a result of

094either retirements or uh people who have left uh midyear. So you'll see in the far right uh the total reduced and proposed abolish positions. So we're reducing a social studies and math a business position uh that person left midyear uh foreign language position uh which is being abolished due to course enrollments. Then at Kegabine reducing two elementary positions at Sidway that teaching assistant is going to become a teacher aid you know that position will become that. So you can see that we're replacing and we're subtracting through attrition and that's really why uh the board and the GITA built a retirement incentive which helps us control uh costs. Does anybody have any questions about that plan? You would be interested to see um the abolished positions how much in revenue that's going to come back to

095the district since you know we are eliminating only 12 retirements you're hiring seven. So we have some extra revenue back to the district. It would be nice to kind of see that dollar. >> Yeah. >> Just uh because it'll be reinvested elsewhere. >> Yeah. Sure. Doug, will you be able to help us with that? >> Oh, sure. Excellent. No problem. >> Very good. And as we continue, um, you know, you've seen these slides before really isn't, uh, super important to, you know, to reiterate all of the bullets, but, uh, Doug and his team have put this together based on the the, uh, draft budget by the governor. And you can see that it in this slide there are increases in different areas of the governor's intended budget. And of course, we will wait with baited

096breath to see if there's any changes uh by April 1st or a little bit beyond that date. >> Go ahead. >> If if you can just help I I can't see which I can't there's not a lot of color in these slides, so I can't tell which page you're at. >> You got it. Yep. We're at uh page 39 >> if that helps. >> And that is true. Uh and Doug, I know you know we have a lot. Sorry. >> Oh, I know we have a lot of slides. Do you have any questions for the board before we continue? >> No. What I'd like to do, um, you gave us a directive to go through this budget with a final as much as we could and reduce it and come up with a budget. So,

097you gave us a directive to take a look at this budget, go through it with a fine tooth comb as much as we could for the second draft, and come back with a with a budget that's reduced. And we've done that. And there are four important slides, maybe five. The other information you've already seen before. There may be one or two like on reserves or other things that I'd be glad to go over with you, but for us to focus on what you're looking for in this budget. I'd like to go over four important slides and have that as the backdrop for a discussion. And then if there's other information that you've looked at in these 40 slides, uh some of which you've most of which you've seen before, there are a couple of new

098ones in there that were in this presentation that were not in the other presentation just by design. But if you look at page 72, >> thank you. In terms of positions that are left in this budget from all of the requests, the box at the bottom, there is a point4 FTE public relations uh position added. We've already mentioned the point4 art. You asked last time that the two breakfast monitors remain in the budget. We talked about the literacy program. It is actually K2. I have K2 and three. So that's my mistake there. And we've left the portable air conditioners. When you look at the the uh sheets that have the X's on them, most of what was on the left column has been moved to the right column. So most has been taken out of

099this budget and these are the only things that are left in. Now the important sheets that I wanted to go over. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> Sure. So on the portable AC units, um it is that something we could use as a capital outlay um and did the capital outlay and let me just my thought. Did that go from 100,000 to 250,000? And I'm asking the question because I see the ask is just for the high school and if it was something we could do for the capital outlay project. Um, we could maybe add some of our elementary and primary buildings and and get more get more AC units if that was something that was could be used as a capital outlet. >> Well, number one, the capital outlay, as far as

100I know, is still at $100,000. It's been proposed to go up to 250, but that's not been enacted. We may see it in the legislative budget which is not adopted yet. So that's number one. >> Number two, I will check this, but you need to do renovations to the building. >> Yeah, I was just curious. I was thinking if it was 250, maybe we get them all, >> right? The these are these probably could be incorporated in. I would have to check that. They're they're like they're portable units. So, can you put that in a capital outlay project? I would have to check that. I think they can be part of it, but I think the majority of a capital outlay has to be in capital expense to renovating your building. >> But I I'll

101get an answer for you >> if we could go to page 40. Page 40 includes the revenues in this budget. Now, just as an overview, our last budget was an increase of 5.5%. This proposed budget is an increase of 3.1. So, we've reduced 1.8 8 million out of the budget, it still may be too high. This is what we're looking for in terms of direction. The revenue side of the budget, when you look at page 40, you can see that the tax impact is 2.7. So that's the levy uh that's being raised with this budget. The actual total budget is 81,835605. It was 83660. So it's been reduced by 1.8 million. >> What our allowable is it >> 3 3.32 >> and Doug >> is the max. at at our first budget presentation that was

102the number we had in >> right 3.32 >> and now we're showing the board 2.7 >> 2.7 >> Thank you Brian's going >> so if if for example you wanted a levy a tax increase of 2.5 it's only $84,000 reducing the impact. So you would go from um this 42,976 to 42,892. And if you wanted to go to 2.3, it's just double that, 167,000. So you would go to 42808 to give you perspective. When you look at page 42 are the expenses that fit this revenue budget. So you have your revenue and expenses. They both balance at 81,835605. The projected budget numbers of course have changed since the last budget first draft because there's a reduction of 1.8 million. This budget, see there's two things we're talking about. The levy is how much taxes you're

103going to raise. So that's 2.7. But if someone were to ask you what's the increase in the budget budget to budget, that's 3.1. It's two different questions. So last time the budget was an increase of 5.5. Now it's an increase of 3.1. Last time we had a levy of only 2%. But then we had a health insurance meeting and find found out that that was rising. There's a few other costs that are rising. Uh, we just filled up our diesel fuel tanks today at $4.13 a gallon. Last time we filled up, it was $32 a gallon. So, that's up 38%. So, there's there's things in your budget that we need to, you know, you want to protect the fund balance. I've got to be careful about some of these increases. So when we take a

104look at how much taxes to raise and how much this budget should increase, those are factors we have to consider. >> So does this page 42 include that this just went over on page 72 or whatever it was? >> The stuff on page the things on page 72 are in this budget. >> It is. >> Yes. the monitors >> on page 42. Okay. >> Okay. Say your question again. Is in 40 42 >> that list we just looked at prior to this slide on page 42 and are those asked for included on this page? >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So you have your monitors, you have your 2.4 for FTE positions. You have the um air conditioners. >> Thank you. >> Page 81 is your budget recap. So page 81 shows the

105budget at 81,835605. Your top set of numbers are revenue numbers. Then when you go 39 million, 21 million, 20 million, that's your expenditure numbers. That's your 81 million. To support the 81 million, you have 38 million on the top of revenue. You have your tax levy, which is near the bottom, 42,976. And you're using some of your own money, which is your appropriation, 5.5. So the three revenue numbers equal the expense numbers and the levy that 42 million 976 is your 2.7% from year to year levy to levy. the number on the bottom which says maximum uh levy maximum. That's your 3.32. That's as high as you can go on the levy. But that summarizes this budget. It's 2.7% increase in taxes. It's 3.1% budgettobudget increase. Now page 85, this is the tax estimated tax

106sheet. The percent change, it's going from $11.94 to $126. That's 32 cents a,000 or 2.68 68, right close to 2.7. If your value of your house is estimated at $397,000, your tax bill would be $4,867. If you have STAR, you reduce it. You reduce your assessment by $33,140. your tax bill is 4461. Now let's say we we don't like 2.68 in in tax levy. We want 2.5 increase in tax levy. Then your tax rate wouldn't be 1226. It would be 1224. If you wanted 2.3% increase in taxes, your tax levy would be 1221. >> So there's there's slight changes. >> Why is that? >> Well, see, >> I just I don't understand the last couple things you just said. >> Okay. >> You're raising taxes on the budget. How much do we want to raise

107taxes? And right now we're raising 2.7%. >> And when you do that, you're that comes your tax rate is $126 per thousand. So the 2.7 your tax rate right now is $11.94 per thousand. If you raise that by 2.7% your tax rate would be $1226 per thousand. Let's say as a board you say to the administration we don't want to raise taxes 2.7%. We want to raise taxes 2.5%. Then what would >> the financial 2.5 and 2.7 maybe maybe she needs to understand what that dollar amount is being split between all of the residents. Go back. You told us what the the difference in the revenue would be between 2.7 and 2.5. Didn't you say it was like 84,000 or something? What was that number? >> Just a second. So if you go back to

108page 40, which are the revenues, the top line of that page, your estimated budget levy for 2627 is 42 million 976370. That is a 2.7% increase in the tax levy. If you said that's too high, we want to go to 2.5. It would be 42,892. It's not up there. I just have it here. 8.92677. So it's 83 almost $84,000 difference. That's why you see such a small um change in the per thousand. Is that Danielle answer asking the question? >> You're diving up $84,000 amongst all of the residents. >> That's that's a good way. Thank you for refra >> Sorry, I just wanted to dump it down a little bit. Just go back to that number. That's why it's so small. It's only two cents per thousand, >> right? So that small difference would be

109an $84,000 difference to the school budget. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Raising intent, right? >> And then you also gave the example of 2.33, right? >> 2.3. >> What would be the difference to the school on 2.36 >> be $167,386? It's twice the 83 or twice the 84. >> Thank you. Um, >> so I'm trying to get you to where you want to be. And at this point, these critical pages actually define your budget. How much do you want to raise in taxes? I heard 2.7%. So that's how this is prepared. But if you say 2.7 is too much, you want to try something different, we can do that. Our my goal as your business official is to try to have this budget together by your next meeting because that's the target date

110that we can approve it. We don't have to approve it then. we can go, you know, to the next meeting, but last year you approved it at the next meeting. So, >> I do have another question. It's on page 77 under operations. Um, there's two items listed under operations. One is that uh Versa Trans versus Trans Versa. >> Yes. >> And the bus. So that has got the X's that it's going to happen this year and hit our regular budget. >> Yes. >> One item. So that's not represented in your addition that we looked on on was it page 72? I can't remember. >> You're right. >> Um so I don't know if that's in included in page 42. That's going to change our numbers. Um and I and I would say after looking at

111that sheet you provided us, I I don't know. Um, I don't know if it's a $26,000 value to change at this time. That's just my opinion after reading it. Um, but those numbers are not reflected. So, if that's the case, you know, we're looking at 50 525. That's, you know, that's going to be a percent. You know, that's going to be, you know, we need to take a look at that. >> All right. It's not included. >> Yeah, you are correct. You are correct. Both of those items are >> right. So, we're not at our side >> because those were missed. >> Well, were they missed or they were just missed in the list? >> Uh, >> yeah, that we need to determine that. >> Are the numbers in there? >> I think they're still

112in the budget. Yeah, I mean it's >> we need to know that and I but I would say after reading that I'm not 100% sold that we need an upgrade to the software at this time. Um I know it's a segue to being able to have information in the cloud but I don't know. >> Yeah, there's two things. >> The recap wasn't very convincing for me anyways. >> Okay. Yeah, we were we were trying to get uh a little bit different cameras and then we were trying to put >> the cameras is a separate aisle. >> Okay, I understand that. >> That's just my opinion. I mean, there's, you know, I'm one of seven, but I don't I don't think it's a need. I think it's a want at this point. M >> um it

113doesn't give us the the live um being able to to see instantaneous the the video which was what everybody was excited about. >> Right. Yeah. I misspoke on that. >> Yeah. That you know I I don't mean you know I didn't mean it that way but I just I don't know. It's $26,000 and I I don't know. Do we wait till it's exactly what we want? I don't know. It sounds sounds like a patch. Sounds like a lot, not I don't know spread through it in depth, but >> that's just my opinion. >> Okay. >> Is the >> but we do definitely need to know if that's in that number because it's going to change. >> The two go hand in hand with the updates to the cameras as well or >> Well, there's two

114numbers, the cameras and that uh software package. And I believe they're still in the budget, >> but they're not I didn't put them on that list. is the increase in curriculum funding for math, science, and social studies. Um, your presentation, Mr. Patrick, the 150,000. >> That's for K12. >> Okay. So, that line to be determined can be, you know, an anticipated 150,000 increase. >> That's in the budget. >> Okay. And we have the art classes. We we know we're going to have the enrollment for the art. >> Yes. Yes, Sue. Good question. And absolutely. Excuse me for my voice. I haven't spoken in a couple minutes. Thank you, Doug. But um Hillary has assured us that the course requests and um are very uh there's enough enrollment to support the ask. >> How many students

115will be enrolled in these classes? How many students? >> Yep, we can get you that. >> Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, we don't we don't want seven kids in a class. Hillary Hillary will Yeah, Hillary will get us that information >> and I I will get you the information on the what's called the breakage between the people that are retiring and the replacement cost. So these are the places where if you're going to go down, you know, 2.7 is too high, 2.5 is too high. Doug, you've got to get this down. These are this is the money I'll be taking out. >> Yeah, I mean we're going into negotiations too. We're going to have contract negotiations and everything, right? And it's it's all part of it. So >> yeah, I just want you

116to be very careful because you know the CPI is probably almost 2.8 2.7 2.8. There's things in this budget that are rising higher than that. Um, you have to you have to judge what your community is telling you about your budget because we certainly want the budget to pass. We want the community to believe we've done all we can to get it at the right level. So, >> they tell us it's too much. >> Okay. So, >> I I just I just want to make sure that our asks are needs and not wants. I mean, that's that's the biggest thing we can control, right? Um, so that's what I'm looking at. For me, it's our list of wants. Um, and that's what I'm weighing on for this budget is the continual addition and and and

117whether it's in we definitely need it at this time. >> I mean, medical insurance went up $1.5 million. No, I mean that she's looking at I mean insuranceances and utilities. I mean obviously those that's a given are going to go up. You know I see what Sue was saying you know the bus driving program it currently works. >> Yes it currently works every day. um the internal bus camera recording software at this time because the color is so conscious on what we're spending and they come out and they're not happy. I understand what Steve was saying because these may if they're already functioning in these systems and these programs that we already have the main question you're going to be asking why did you upgrade it's already working you know I'm on the app every

118day and these are questions that legitimate you know people are going to ask legitimate questions people are going to ask us so I see why you know student asking this because unless these programs this bus routing system stops working for internal bus camera system that we currently have is no longer functional at this point in time because the public is pretty outspoken right now. We have to take these wants >> okay >> and move them. >> That's excellent conversation. I know Doug you'll confirm with Teresa Lisa to better understand you know the elements of this uh for the next budget presentation. This is a question for our board. Right now we're presenting at 2.7 tax levy. Would you like to see an iteration at the next budget presentation at 2.5 or 2.4? We're just looking

119for some guidance. >> Um for me, no. For me, I think it's more important to make sure we're not putting anything in there that is not a need. Right. Um, for me, I understand what 2.7 looks like, 2.5 looks at looks like. I mean, we need to be looking at these costs that we're looking to add the request inclusions is what we need to be looking at. >> Yeah. >> I mean, really, that's all we can I don't want to say control, but that's really what we need to be looking at, right? and how we can make sure we're we're adding only what is absolutely essential at this time. >> Yeah, I would agree. I think that we've basically kept any additions to an absolute minimum. We don't have any control over diesel fuel, healthcare,

120things of that nature. If Teresa can confirm that the software and this upgraded cameras is not absolutely necessary at this time, I think probably that could be something great to look at. 62,500 that could be, >> you know, 10th or so percent we're looking for, right? That could get us to 2.6 right there. just by that >> I agree. It's easy to justify that the public the rising cost of health insurance and utilities because everybody you know >> is experiencing that. It's hard to justify to the public programs that we have in place to upgrade and other items. So to show the money that we're saving with not um hiring and anything that we can show them that we're doing the best we can to scale this down >> is really what we're going to

121have to get out is a message to the public that you're yes your budget it is going up and it's going up by this percentage but it's because of health insurance it's because of utilities it's because ofever you know various salaries whatever ever. It's inevitable that this is wrong, but it's not because we're adding XYZ, which maybe we can do. >> I wish I mean, we are reducing our most important asset, right? That's our people. So I think that's a great idea, Joy, to share that number with the public to show them that look at this is >> so with the instructional total or if these elementary and um the two be determined here those are already exacted amounts to come to the 1 million9. Those are those are out. So those are moved over.

122The 1.9 is in the right the 1.8 million should be in the one right hand column. >> Oh, okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Is I guess it if so there should only be x's for 20 26 27 Seven. >> There should only be a few X's there. >> Oh, we are. And for the next presentation, I was just going to remove those numbers, the 1.8 million, because if you don't want to add anything in, which we are not going to, right? They're not um just the ones where the aes are. >> Okay. I think it just confused me because we we heard a presentation where um one of these items was accounted for and then you know so I I Joyy's helping me but um I guess the only thing I would add I agree

123with what my fellow board members have said so far but the only thing I would add is if there was a reduction to the increase say to 2.6 6 2.5 or 2.3 what that actually would look like? What what could you tell us? What would be the cuts from those acts? You know, um and >> well, they're going to start with those two transportation cases that are here. They'll probably um take a look at the reductions of the people that are retiring versus the people we're hiring. There's money there. >> So they can see that we have cut this down. So yeah, I mean because then they can see oh this was this was initially in the first presentation but the district got us down to here and I think if the public can see

124that that we are working >> to get that number lower and how we how we started you know four or whatever and now we're down to the I think that will help >> and when we roll out this to the public to say this is what it started at but this is what we ended And that may help with any type of regards to >> like what Danielle was saying there there might not necessarily be cuts. We will just be taking more money out of our fund balance. >> Right? Necessarily will cut that. >> That's what that's what you got to be careful to protect. Correct. >> Because in the future, if that gets too low, you will be increasing taxes >> just to make up that gap, >> right? >> And you know, a

125couple years ago, you were at the $7 million number, which to me is way too high. This year, you're at 6.6. I have it at I think 5.3 or something like that. I'm trying to reduce that. Um, so >> right, >> you just have to be careful because may not necessarily mean a cut. It may just mean a little bit more money out of our reserves, right? So, >> well, it's actually the money that's left over at the end of the year. Remember, you could keep 4% of it. We had 600,000 more than the 4%. >> Right? But if you don't uh and you don't have to keep 4%, you know, 4% is the maximum. So if you only ended with 2%, you know, that's all you'd have. But you got to be very careful

126because you have to control your expenses so that they don't outpace your revenue, >> right? request. >> Doug Joy had an important question. This is slide 81. She was she was asking about the difference between 3.32 and 2.7. And I think you have it here at least in one area, right? If we were to have the maximum tax levy be 3.32, we would be collecting that 43 million235, but at 2.7 it's 42,976. >> Yes. >> Right. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And then I think what you show the public is that the 3.32 your taxes would go up x amount of dollars versus 22 whatever your taxes are going to go up there. So the average person is going to look at that and understand that, but they're going to know when they look at

127their tax bill, their school tax bill, hey, my tax bill went up $11 versus 15, >> you know. So, that I think if you could just break it down dollar, they can see that versus when they're looking. >> Can I ask a clarification? speaking to someone who hasn't used their voice on this. Um, >> this is minor, but on page 72 where we're talking about the current year request updates and you have the portable AC units for the high school, it's 692, but then in the >> I know it's different. >> Yeah, I mean it's significantly different. Is it Is there a reason for that? >> It's a mistake. >> Oh, okay. >> Cuz it's 255 on the like it's it's um 692, but then there's another page. >> It says 255. >> It's on,

128I'm sorry, page 75 listed at 255. >> They're actually $850 each. Beth, I think you just saved us some money. >> Well done. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> How did we permit the dollar or the uh the amount? >> What? >> 30 portable condition. Yeah. Yeah, just >> I'm guessing it's the number of classrooms on the second floor, Hillary. >> Um there's a combination of factors. I did order some this year to help offset that total number. Um and then we still have some units. So that would be getting us closer to being able to have one in every classroom. Doug, I I think you masterfully had us just look at some key slides. Is there anything >> those are the important ones and that's where the decisions are going to be made? >> Yeah.

129Is there anything else you wanted to highlight tonight or any other questions that the board has? >> Joy, good. That's right. Sue, do you have any additional questions or would you like to see us talk about any more slides? >> No, I actually Doug, I really appreciate the way you broke it down and the way you presented it to us. Um, I think you hit exactly what we were looking for and what we uh are finding most important in this budget. The the only thing I really want to make sure is that we have that number of our budget requests correct, right? Um, for the next one. So we know exactly what per increasing. >> That's it. But otherwise I >> J anything good. >> Everybody good. >> Ashley Danielle, you're good. >> Oh, I'm

130good. And I just add I I thank you for the way tonight and the transparency and even, you know, admitting, you know, a mistake. I appreciate that so much. Yeah, it it >> It's a lot. It's a lot. And it's not the final. It's the working. >> Right. >> And Doug, just as we wen this down, uh this slide, uh the proposition two is staying the same. No changes. >> No changes. >> Can I? >> Yeah, please. >> Um are we going to talk? We're talking about proposition two. >> Yes. >> So, proposition two, the only question I have is the two four 4x4s. Um I know that they get feed up pretty good. >> Yeah. So is it again trying to conserve some money, >> right? >> Um is it absolutely necessary that we

131need two this year or can we get one and then get one next year and save a little bit of money >> work with Phil to see if this can be reduced. >> When I talked to him initially, it was his the replacement um policy that he's been that the district has been using. So, but yeah, you can you can do >> because we're scaling that if we would be nice to show the district that you know to represent. >> Okay. So in the event that I would like to know I would like I would like to know um what is going to be on proposition two for next year. So if we we do take one off this year are we looking at three for next year? Are we looking at two? Like I

132don't like I want to make sure we're not lumping this proposition to look bigger next year. >> Does that make sense? >> Oh, for sure. And uh a nice segue to that is that tomorrow the area Niagara School Superintendent Association is uh sponsoring a electric grid uh seminar for superintendents across uh the western New York region for superintendents to better understand electric grid capacity in the event that we that districts are required to add uh zero emission buses. So um so this is a very important question because by 2027 districts the the first purchase of a bus is supposed to be zero emission which triples the cost of a school bus. Um, and Doug and Teresa have been working to get uh secure a waiver, >> two years, >> a two-year waiver that would put

133kick the can a little bit down the road so that the assembly and senate can really, you know, make an informed decision about this mandate. So, we're we're and we and I did speak to Jeremy Zelner about this as well as my colleagues as a new senator. So, but it's a very good question about proposition two >> and that study that was done by Wendle that we paid for Wendle Engineering, >> I believe it says we have to do $7 million worth of infrastructure, >> right, >> to support the electric buses before we buy the buses. >> Yeah. So, we're using that as evidence that they should allow us to have a waiver. So, as far as these slides, Jay or the board, is there anything else you would like us to highlight today? >>

134All right, Doug, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay, looks like we're on to you, Cheryl, for special education DPS. Motion. >> So, I have CSD and CPSC program recommendations, please, for action. And we have a second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. 6. >> Thank you. On to the superintend. >> Yeah, thank you. Only 34 slides everybody. But no, we won't spend a lot of time on this, but there is always things to celebrate. The community can look at the slides. I know the board has already reviewed the slides. Um, Sienna did a great job in highlighting our DECA students and their competition. I just want to uh let the board know that on Sunday I uh Brad Banker and I attended the uh Niagara Police Athletic League um awards

135assembly and uh not only uh were our female athlete of the year recognized Rebecca Dolan and John Neville as male athlete but our unified athlete of the year and I got a chance to sit with him and his family and they were absolutely thrilled to be part of that. So, we thank everybody. Uh, you know, the great success that our boys varsity uh basketball team, I want to thank Alli Leinsk for these beautiful pictures, some black and white and some color. She does an amazing job and we're just so excited that we're A1 and A2 champions, not since 1992. So, it's a really big deal and we encourage uh everybody to join us at Buffalo State University at 6 p.m. uh this Wednesday to cheer on the Vikings. Sienna did talk to us already about

136the senior clash of the Vikings winning. Uh, good job seniors. Nicely done. And I do want to make mention uh, and shine a spotlight on Teresa Leis a day and Ally Leinszik. Ally, as you know, is our community relations specialist. She worked very closely with Teresa Lisa Day. We now have a website, ladies and gentlemen, for individuals who are interested in becoming bus drivers. when they go to see Teresa and her team, they're given the permanent book for the CDL uh licensing and uh it's a dense book. I would say it's not super engaging. And what we've done on this website is uh if anybody in the community wanted to be a bus driver, they would not only get the booklet, but they would get a password to the site. This is password protected. And

137what we've done is we've broken down uh the book and we are now providing uh the community who's interested in getting this uh certification. Uh we're giving them study materials for each section. They include audio and video slideshows that are narrated. They also include study guides. So at some point we may take some time at a future meeting to show the board this just uh maybe a five-minute presentation in the future. But I think you'll be very impressed with what our team have accomplished. Uh Rebecca Dolan, besides getting recognized by the Police Athletic League, uh she was featured in an article in the Niagara Gazette about how she manages her diabetes as an athlete and she truly is a role model for everybody in the community. Here, Danielle, uh you must be very excited about

138her M trial team. They got pretty far this year. >> Truly, they did. It was the best trial tournament I think I think I've seen um throughout the history. And I don't agree with the loss. I I think >> I love it. >> The ruling was, you know, it wasn't fair, but that's also a good lesson. That's what I said to them, especially the judges. You know, there is an arbitrary component to it, >> and it's a good test of what life is like. as a lawyer and you know but they did such a wonderful job. I'm so proud of them. >> Like I was in awe. They were that good. >> That is really great testament to our team and Mark Wales and your support of them. So thank you for that. Uh Sienna

139did talk about uh our spirit day. So I'll slide past some of these pictures. They're really great. And of course again our basketball team has done tremendously well. Uh so wonderful job there. uh Heath Road students and their select choir performed at the University of Buffalo. So, we're very very proud of them singing the national anthem in front of uh you know thousands of people in the arena. John Fitzpatrick uh >> John needs a little dental and health care, but uh we're very proud of his performance in the Olympics. And uh as you know, we're doing book talks in our podcast. They're just adorable and we thank our teachers for that. Uh the board I'm sure is very interested. We have collected 141 paper surveys from the community returned. I want to thank Jude. I

140want to thank Ally. Uh going to the town, going to our schools, going to the library to collect these paper surveys and uh 205 digital surveys. at the next board meeting, we can dig in deep and look at the analysis of that and have a conversation about the future. Uh, and additionally, I think it's important for the community to understand in the board that um the law has changed uh for um all school districts in uh in the state to enact chapter 77 of the laws uh for 2026 and mandatory. It's a mandatory 100% service connected disability veterans exemption. So, I just think that's very important. It's not a choice by the school board. It is something we all have to do and it's a great way to honor our veterans who are 100% disabled.

141Uh any questions about from the board about this uh this law and that that we need to enact it? All right. It won't go into effect this year and the the veterans need to apply for it. Uh but it would it would impact us in the next school year 20 26 27 28 I think right 27 28. >> Yeah. Very good. So I just wanted to make sure we were aware of that. Any any other questions about that? Uh, we just were informed that the Knights of Columbus has given us a bump. They bumped us out of their facility for this event. I stopped by Occasions by Hysteria today. They can service us. They're going to send us some information. So, we may be just changing the location and not the date, but we were

142a little disappointed to get that phone call today. And that's about it. You know, we continue to support and ask uh people to apply to be bus drivers. And of course, we always talk about the Viking tip. So that's all that's got for you today, unless you have any questions. Everybody good? >> Great. Thanks, Dr. Graham. Um, on the board board of education report, Sue, looks like you have a Gizba report. Anything to say about it? >> No, I don't have anything. Thank you. >> Okay. And Beth, looks like you're a few in there. Do you have anything you want to mention about those? >> A couple brief updates for the um middle school PTA meeting. Um, just wanted to note that throughout some various fundraisers this year, the PTA is now able to purchase

143several items for use in the courtyard during lunch with students. Um, and the students were able to vote on those items and they requested cornhole and like a Velcro toss and catch game and some suction cup darts. Um, so it's kind of cool to see how that money is being put to use. Um, they're also currently in the midst of a popcorn fundraiser which is where you can order online and it ships directly to you. So there's information about that on Facebook. Um, Kavine PTA has a rainbow roller ring fundraiser coming up on March 25th from 5:00 till 7:30. And with funding from the PTA, Kavine will be able to purchase a book vending machine similar to what Sidway has. So when I told my second grader that her first question was, "How do I

144get coins?" So she was excited already. And then lastly, um, with the ECASB meeting, um, I have one agenda attached and the other is just the budget that was, um, adopted that was part of that meeting. We also reviewed the draft calendar for 2627. Um, and just a note that, um, BCASB continues to seek sponsorships for next year. That's a large part of how they keep their dues kept low and steady from year to year. So, um, more information about that could come from Dave Flowry. If you know of someone, they are always looking for warm introductions to contacts to reach out. Yes. >> All right. Thank you very much. Okay, that leads us to public comments comment section general items not included this agenda. We did have two people sign up. I just need

145to read this uh little statement before we call you guys up. At this time, public comments are invited from those individuals who desire to address the board of education on any topic which 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 not more than three minutes to appoint a spokes a spokesperson if a concern is a group concern and if necessary or desired to supplement verbal presentations with written reports. Personal comments toward a board member of the community toward a member of the community staff or a board of education will not be considered appropriate. Okay. So at this

146time we have Wayne M. West regarding traffic safety. >> Good evening. I really want to applaud you guys for everything that you've said and done tonight. You actually made my talk a little bit easier. One of the reasons for failure is not asking the right questions. You guys kind of beat that so I don't have to go into that. So yes, we have um in front of Kegabine one of the most dangerous pieces of road on Grand Island outside of Uber. You know about um student death. You may know about uh uh an officer in pursuit of his duties causing additional accidents. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about this. Uh, I just realized this marks my 50th year since I started doing traffic safety. So, I know what I'm talking about probably

147a little bit more than some of the people at the state. In the military, we have something that we call unity of command, which means that you only have one boss. That street is not owned by the school system. You guys don't have direct input, but but you are one of the primary customers for the state park system who I believe owns the road. We have a couple of issues there and one of the things I proposed a solution about a year ago that we put How many people here like those roundabouts? That's what I thought. Okay. How many people hate them? Right. Well, I'm gonna tell you with a fire hose kind of a quick thing about why there needs to be a roundabout at Love and a roundabout at Broadway. So, I'm going

148to give you the Reader Digest version from the internet and I'm going to tell you what it really means. The internet says roundabouts are safer, more efficient intersections that reduce fatal injury crashes by up to 90 and 80% respectively by calming traffic speeds, eliminating left turns against oncoming traffic, and reducing conflict points. They improve flow, reduce delays by 30 to 50% and lower fuel consumptions and therefore emissions while providing lower long-term maintenance costs. So, if I ask you, how many different ways do you think you could get into an accident and a standard intersection? >> Anybody want to take a guess? >> Wait, hold on. Wait. I just got to Can you just stop that for a second? I love your presentation. You're very articulate, but you're just addressing the board tonight. >> I understand.

149>> Okay. It seemed like you were trying to address the audience. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. If you Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. I just want to make sure that that's the protocol. Thank you so much. And then we can start the timer again. Thank you. >> Okay. So, if I were to ask you how many different ways you can get an accident in a standard four-way intersection, what do you think that number would be? >> That number is 32. You've got an eight lane highway going past Kine. Four of those. Say again. >> 30 seconds, sir. >> You're three. You have three minutes. >> And I'm not 30 seconds. >> Yes. >> 30 seconds left. >> Left. Okay. >> Yes, sir. >> It reduces 32 points down to eight. we the numbers

150of things that we're talking about in terms of the cost and everything else. Um, it reduces the cost. It reduces the types of accidents that you can get into like head-ons for the T-bone. Um, I'm going to be sending you guys something to consider later so that you can dig into this. But really what I'm looking for at some point is going to be the board's support to go back to the state and say, "Hey, this is what we need to do, why we need to do it." And basically, it's by saving more lives and yet still saving cost. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. We have a Bonnie Rogers. Is Bonnie here still? I think she signed >> or did she maybe sign? Yes, because there is no topic. So, okay. So,

151we are good on that. Um, okay. So, that's committee of the whole items for the round table. Dr. Dreer, >> I'm thank you. >> Just a thank you to Dr. Balen and Cheryl and John for your presentations tonight. continue to do that. This is my first time sitting here. A lot of information and I appreciate your hard work. >> Jude, >> I just want to say that I was one of the judges for the check out Sam and Dr. Graham and um what a great experience. It was awesome. 3,100 kids all over New York State and I felt like I was in Shark Tank. It it was great. Speaking of time, they had time the kids in 10 minutes and then the day. But it's a great experience and I'm hoping to be invited back

152again next year. It's awesome. >> Enjoy. >> I'm Daniel. >> I'm too going to the game on Wednesday to the basketball game. >> Boys get basketball. >> You can't go. All right. But just send good thoughts. Manifest good thoughts. >> Watch it. >> That's all. I'm almost done. Thank you. >> You're done. I'm almost done. Okay. So, there we did it. Look at that. Just short of uh is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All right, we will adjourn at 10:07. >> Thank you very much. >> All in favor?