001[Music] Okay, I'm going to start mic check. This is microphone number one. Check. One, two, three. This is mic one. Microphone number two. Check. One, two. Microphone number two. Microphone three. Super mic. Mic number three. Super mic. President mic number four. President mic number four. Microphone number five. Mic number five. Microphone six. Microphone number six. And lastly, the podium mic, which we need a podium. Microphone number. Podium actually. Podium mic. One, two, three. Re-checking the podium mic. One, two. One, two. One, two. Check. Okay, we're unmuted. We're live. You ready? My shot. [Music] Things happen. It does. Hi, Mark. Hello there. So there's a $10. Thank you. [Music] a momenter. We're live. Just so you know, unmuted. I'm going to leave my live and unmuted. [Music] I assume it would be like 11. I know.
002We found so How much you want? I'm sure All right, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order at 7:37. We can see the flag right here. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisibley and justice for all. Just a few things before we begin. If you have a cell phone, you can just silence it for the meeting. And in case of an emergency, you have two emergency exits. There's one located right behind me. And of course, through the [Music] wal. I'll start with Dre, our president. She is this evening. We have Ryan Broker on my far left, trustee. Jay Grover, trustee. Sherry Stein, trustee. Um, Jay Co, district clerk. Dr. Brian Graham, superintendent of schools. And Marston, uh, board trustee.
003Um, Joy Lamar, trustee. Uh, Danielle Bruno, trustee. John Kisspatrick, assistant superintendent of curriculum, staff development, and human resource. Cheryl Cardone, assistant superintendent of people's personnel services and um Robert Merkel, our assistant superintendent for school business and finance. Okay. So, if I can get an approval for our agenda this evening. I need a motion. Make a motion and a second. I'll approve. Opposed? Motion carried 6. And if I can get an approval for um the minutes for our May 6th meeting, please. Motion and a second. Second. All in favor? Opposed. Motion carried 6. And to our student ambassadors in the middle school. Oh, we'll go right on to our high school. I am thrilled to introduce to you a senior here at Grand Island High School, Cora Pinko. Kora is going to be going to Fredonia
004State next year to study psychology. She's an active member of Donate Life and one of the very few students at our PTSA. She gets uh her acts of service, I think, from her mom quite a bit. She is a wonderful, wonderful young lady and I'm so excited to have her present tonight. Good evening. My name is honored to have been selected as tonight's board ambassador for Gary School this month. I'd like to highlight some of the great things that have been learned out of their school lately. Starting off the past month, we have had EP students working incredibly hard to excel on their annual advanced placement exam assessments. Personally, I completed three of these exams in May and with the help of our group experienced teachers, we are looking forward to a great to a
005great school year. This past weekend, seniors enjoyed their prom at the foundry, followed by a fantastic and fundamental night at postp prom held at the high school. There was karaoke, bounce houses, amazing prizes like iPads and TVs, and even hypnotist. It was truly such an exciting and tiring night, but thanks to parents and staff that helped them play this event together. It could not have been a better outcome. Continuing with the seniors, our class is coming up on June 9th. We will be enjoying the breakfast provided by the juniors, followed by our annual senior presentation, and after that, we'll be doing a parade of graduates held at our respective schools. It will be a perfect endap to our years at Island. Speaking of the end of the school year, which is coming up fast, being
006that the last day of classes for our high school is Friday, June 13th, Regent's exams will be held in June. Our students have been working incredibly hard throughout the year, and our teachers hard work has not gone unnoticed. And the art department is very proud to announce that Jojo has won first place in the National VFW creative and strategy art competition. Georgia will attend BFW award salons at the local, state, and national levels where she will receive college scholarships totaling over $15,000 for her patriotic artwork. And with that, I hope that everyone has a great end of this weather and an even greater summer. Thank you so much. [Applause] Yeah, we have uh some wonderful things to celebrate today. I'm wondering if we have Chase Mando and here today. If you guys could come up
007to the podium, Mr. Coun, will you uh help us out with a little introduction of these fine young men? This is really exciting. And Mr. Khon, and I do have the video there, when you're ready, we can show that as well. Sure. Um, so Colin and Chase both uh competed at Tech Wars at ECC um a few weeks ago. Um, and we took about 20 students with us. uh to compete against several other schools and uh we do this with our after school uh club um that Mr. Sweet holds every Tuesday. Um and some of the students work in class on projects as well as outside of uh the class as well uh in that club. So Chase prepared a video to highlight uh the tech program in the high school. Um so yeah, Chase,
008can you just uh set us up on the amount of work uh that you had to apply? I know that your teachers in the tech department are absolutely thrilled that you did this. Uh and I know that you take some tech courses here, but you also go to Boseis. So, just give us a little color to this uh project. Um yeah, so uh I go to Boseis for video production and recording arts. And then uh the teachers here, Mr. Cahoun and Mr. Sweet, they knew that and they asked me if I could put together a promotional video for them, which I did. And it was uh a lot of work just to research like the all the little things about the stuff about the different classes and stuff and then put it in um to
009the video which I did like a little uh cool like effect where I I wrote each thing in real life and then I scanned it onto the computer to make it look like a paper effect kind of like I don't know just to make it look cool. Um, but I I will outplay this. Jace, uh, what uh technological tool did you use at Bose to to edit this? Do you remember the name of the program? The program? Yeah. Uh, I use Premiere Pro to edit edit this. Very good. All right. Here we go. Life could be above the only [Music] over. [Music] Take [Music] off. I'm only [Music] jingle good. [Music] dream [Music] That's life. That's what all the people say. [Music] April [Music] at Grand Island High School. Technology education is more than just
010a class. It's a pathway to your future. Are you ready to build, design, and discover? [Music] down world. All right. Nice [Applause] job. I'm a junior. Excellent. Excellent. So, we have you for another year. I know the tech department is through. will be able to use this to market to our middle school kids as they consider coming up for the different pathways. So, that's great. Eric, any any other final comments on uh that work? Um, it's a short little video, but it took um obviously hours to come up with the plan for what he wanted to capture um to capture the video itself and obviously to edit and speed up. Um, one thing to mention, although Chase didn't place at ECC wars, um, he has placed third and second at NCAR All [Applause] right, for
011Chase, Ken, and Jojo, when we're done with this portion, we'll ask you to pick him up and get a group picture with the board of education. Congratulations, Chase. Mr. Cohen, if you could introduce. Yeah. So, um, uh, Colin is up there on the, uh, screen. So, he placed in the CAD drop off. Um, so work that he had done in his CAD class with Mr. Cotman. and he will show you it. So, I bought this project to ECC Tech Wars. Um, I'll show real quick. Um, I had to design a game that I was given at Tech Wars. Um, I had a time I had to design it, make drawings of it, and print it out. course, drop it off, wait for it to be rated. Um, I placed third overall. Um, we did this
012over like I'd say two or three weeks. Took a lot of work, like 40 minutes a day. Hard work. Um, three pages. Each one lots of detail. I had to do like each page. I had so many like errors within my drawings. I had to problem solve, had to think of alternate solutions of what to do. Uh yeah, so kind of like show different you want. Show the crowd your drones. Wow. So then within it um each piece had to be separately drawn and dimensioned um in it. So the final the final product on the cover um looks like just a picture but everything had to be drawn in the computer the exact sizes measuring dow calipers rulers precision problem solving making sure it fit and it was a true replica of the actual game
013itself that model off of it looks easy but lots and lots of hours Mr. in the kitchen. Just bring that to the table, pass it around so everybody gets a chance to look. Hal, what grade are you in? I'm a sophomore. Sophomore. Will you stay in this path and take some more courses? Yeah, I plan to take about as much tech courses as I can. By next year, I'm going try to get in robotics and manufacturing systems. Excellent. That's great. Uh, Mr. Kun, could you just add a little color to tech wars? I came I was so impressed, but maybe just sh with the in the community approximately how many participants from all different schools are in Western right um so there's two different tech wars there's uh tech wars in Niagara County um at
014sunni Niagara and then there's tech wars in Erie County atCC or Erie um both of them are attended by several high schools around our area um the SUI Niagara one is in January uh like 20 plus school districts um go to it each school district brings um as many students um that sign up to the different events. Um there's probably 20 plus events at each competition, both middle school and high school. Um and again, we do it in our after school club. Um the students that are interested in it. Um and as you heard from these guys here that um they are involved in it, they love it. Um you know, Chase does it on the side, Colin's into it. Um they try to take all the classes um as many as they can with
015our department. Um the kids have fun as you can see from some pictures that were posted. Um so it truly is a great event to highlight um the work that students do within tech programs not only in our own district but in other districts around the area. We participated participated in uh tuck wars in the past break and now we're getting back into competing in tuck wars again. Yeah, that's great. We I'll show the board some other pictures of some of your other students. Uh but to understand uh the amount of participation across Western ARS was remarkable. It was a good refresher for me going into Sunni and seeing hundreds upon hundreds of kids there with their robots and boxes and uh very um organized chaos within each event. Um there's other people that surround
016the events are other uh tech teachers themselves that volunteer trying to not only bring their own students but also then judge um the events and organize it and put it together and make sure that all the students are participating and participating in a way that truly brings out their best skills as well as behavior and things like that. sportsmanship between the teams helping out especially in robot competitions where wheel falls off tools helps. It's really great. Colin, any last words about your process and your journey? Anybody from the board? Any questions? Let's give these guys a round of applause. I think [Applause] I'd like to invite Jojo and come on up. Jojo and Cindy, this is great. Cindy, can you uh do a little intro for us? Hi, I'm Cindy W. I'm one of the
017art teachers in the high school here. And I'd like to introduce Jojo Mandu. She's an awesome kid. And um every year I give uh an assignment to my students to take part in the I'm going to get it wrong because it's a really long title. The um Young American Creative Patriotic Art Competition or the word switched around in some manner. Um it's a great competition because it forces the kids to think about what it means to feel patriotic and it is required in my APR class. Um, and they have to somehow incorporate it into their AP art portfolio, which is themed. And the reason why I like that is because a lot of kids don't stop and think about what patriotism means personally to them. And this kind of forces that, you know, that issue.
018And Jojo really took it to heart. And her entry was very different from um, a lot of what the other kids did. Um, we had a couple winners at the local level, which On June 8th, we'll be going to the BFW post here, uh the Charles Clopper Post on Grand Island, and they'll be getting um their awards and a little prize money. And um then Jojo has been invited to go to Albany where she also won first place um competing with other BFW post entries from across the state. Um and then and this is the first time this is happening for us at Grand Island High School. Um Jojo won national, which means she competed with um students from all over the country. And you could see her um scratch art. She did that by
019literally removing the black to reveal the white. Um and I'm very proud of her. And um I'm gonna let her talk more. Hi, my name is Jojo. I just wanted to say thank you to Mrs. Win because without her I wouldn't have never known about this competition. Um, being introduced to it, I never looked or thought about anything about how I can add patriotism to my portfolio. My portfolio is based off of animals and how they tie into relationships with um, family members or important people in life. And so when we we were introduced to this project, I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do because I've never like thought this direction. And so I was talking with other classmates and one of them were like, you know, like your service dogs who
020like help veterans. I was like, that's such a good idea. And so I like did research and I got to learn a lot about what they do for a lot of veterans who like struggle from PTSD and disabilities. And so I got to learn a lot about that which was really cool. And then the whole process of actually doing it, I got to play around with background because I at the time I was like new to Scratch art again. And so I um I was able to learn how to fit a background which really made the piece and I was so shocked that it did so well placement wise. I would have never thought that I would win first nationally and I'm really grateful. Truly remarkable. Congratulations. I've known you for many years. I was
021blown away by your work. Uh, congratulations to all of your art teachers, Cindy Win, and everybody that's influenced you. Where does this talent come from? Is this something that's embedded in your family? Is there any other artists that you're uh that you share uh some artwork with at home? No, I just growing up I just kind of loved art. I would always be in my basement. I'd be painting. I started scratch art for the very first time in eighth grade with Mrs. Gekk and I ended up doing this box and I was like, "Wow, like this is really cool." But I never actually touched scratchboard since 8th grade until this year. And last year when I was talking to Mrs. W about AP art, I was like, I don't know what I would do because
022I like drawing. I like painting. But then I did this like several years ago and I was really good at it. So what if I tried this for my portfolio? and I started doing it and it ended up really well. So, I'm really happy with my choice here. You have so many talents. I know that you're moving on from us and some of those talents might uh you know be exhibited in your next steps after high school. Can you just share what's happening with you? Yes. So, I committed to play division one soccer at Kent State University. And yeah, so I'm going to be a student athlete and I'm really excited. I committed my sophomore year early in the fall and since then I've been working on I also tore my ACL though which 5
023days after my commitment which wasn't ideal wasn't ideal at all but it's still great you're just down the road your parents don't love traveling uh what do you want to study I want to study nursing and I know a lot of people are like wow like why don't you go for art yeah Oh, you never know. This is going to be a part of your life forever. You know, it's a wonderful skill. And maybe we'll see some artwork in the future. And who knows, maybe in many ways, right? Cindy does an amazing job in our community. So, when you're home in the summer, maybe you guys can connect and you can inspire and influence some of your peers. That' be great. Any questions from the board? Let's give her another round of applause. take a
024quick picture of our students, their principles, and our board. So, please come on up. All right, here we go. I'll take a couple and then Alice will face up. Get ready. Three, two, one. [Applause] Very very good. public comment session. Nobody signed up. So, we'll move on to curriculum and instruction. Yes. Uh just um briefly uh the board of education, we have our curriculum, instruction, and professional development review for the month of May. I just want to highlight the middle school held their annual emerging leaders conference uh for the eighth grade class on Friday, May 16th. Uh it was a very successful event. I want to thank Leanne Win Stanley. I want to thank uh Mary Gant, Sarah Coburn for all the work that they put into that conference. The kids look wonderful uh professionally
025dressed and we were um very thankful that Lisa Flity uh who is a um a parent in our school district but also a content distribu distribution manager or executive for Disney and ESPN. She gave the keynote for us that morning. So we thank them for all their hard work and thank Mrs. Flity for participating in that event and of course our career ambassadors who made that always seems to line up with the PTSA awards, right? So, um, unfortunately, I've always attended that in the past four years, but, um, that will all change next year. So, I'm really looking forward to being able to attend that one. It's always wonderful. So, great job with that. All right. Um, anybody have any questions or comments? On to personal instruction. If I can get a motion to um
026approve PNI 1 through PNI 6, please and a second. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carried. 6. Oh, okay. All right. um for non-instructional. Can I get a motion, please, to approve PNI 1 through PNI 3, please? And a second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries 6. All right, Mr. Spanelli, could you stand for a moment? We're really excited uh to welcome you on board as an as an assistant principal in our middle school tonight. The board has accepted that recommendation. We're thrilled to have you. I see you've brought your family with you. But for uh people in the audience and people watching today, Mrs. Penelone has 16 years as a special education teacher with the Faulk School organization. I can tell you that I was a special education teacher for 16 years before moving
027on to administration. Uh it is fantastic work. Uh is your wife also a special education teacher? It's amazing, right? Uh wonderful spirits coming together. Uh it's hard work and I'm sure you've learned a tremendous amount in helping some of the most uh challenging individuals in our community. Beyond that, he's coming to us from Pioneer Middle School and we are absolutely thrilled to welcome you to our team. Uh Richard, if you could just maybe introduce us to your family. I see a few of my Senica shirts in the audience. Uh my wife Andrea and my son Jordan and daughter Scarlet. They're both come from soccer, baseball, kind of doing a run today, but luckily they made it here. Happy to have you here with [Applause] Congratulations Travel and that emblem is still strong. That's awesome. And
028you were playing Were you playing baseball at the time then? Yeah. That's amazing. For what uh team? I know West, but uh not modified. Oh, it's modified. Still going. Great. How'd it go? I liked We were up by a lot. All right. Congratulations. Thank you for our administrators. Do we have any additional introductions? Good evening, members of the board of education. I have Samantha Bertran. Please stand. It is my pleasure to introduce an outstanding new addition to our team of school psychologists. Samantha Bertran is a recent graduate of Niagara University where she earned a master of science and a certificate of advanced study in school psychology. With five years of experience supporting students with disabilities, Miss Bertran brings a strong background in designing individualized supports that address each students unique strengths and challenges. In addition
029to her educational background, Miss Bertran has gained valuable experience working in a variety of local agencies and public school settings. She holds specialized training in crisis prevention, giving her a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs of students, families, and the greater community. During her year-long internship at Kmart Town of Tanowanda School District, Miss Bertrand provided counseling services to students in grades K through four, supported the imple implementation of PBIS and the MTSS frameworks, collaborated closely with school-based teams, and conducted a wide range of student assessments. We are very excited to welcome Miss Bertrram to the Grand Island Central School District. We look forward to working with her and the positive impact she will have on our students and school community as she continues to grow in her professional journey. [Applause] Congratulations. Anybody with you tonight?
030I did. Can you just join? Yeah. Thank you, Nick, for being here. Thank you so much. Any other introductions I guess? Thank you. Good evening board of education members, Dr. Graham and district administrators. Allison Balalta, could you please stand so we can recognize you tonight? I would like to introduce you to Miss Allison Bala who will be joining us at the high school in September as our new music teacher. Miss Vala has a bachelor of arts in music education from Sunni Potcamp Crane School of Music and a master's degree in music education from Michigan State University. Mrs. Mrs. Vala was most recently employed as a music teacher in the Williamsville Central School District, teaching middle school chorus and general music. During the interview process, Mrs. Vala's passion for teaching vocal music was clearly evident, as
031was her desire to inspire students to develop a love for music and strengthen their vocal abilities. One of her colleagues shared with us, "Allison is an exceptional teacher whose energy and enthusiasm for music are truly contagious. Her classroom is a vibrant environment where students feel inspired and engaged. We are excited to welcome Miss Vala to G to to GHS and we're looking forward to having having her join our music department in September. Welcome, Alison. Congratulations. Did you bring anything? No. My husband has fallen into the lawn care all right. Good evening, Dr. Graham, board of education and district administrators. I'd like to introduce you to Megan McMurray. Um, Megan was just approved to be our newest third grade teacher at Kegabine. She will be replacing Lynn Aendorf, who we just recognized earlier tonight for her
032retirement. Um, as you may recognize Miss McMurray as she was hired as a teaching assistant just this past fall um, at Hugh Road and has been serving as a long-term substitute teacher over at Sidway. Um, I had the honor of meeting Megan McMurray over the summer as she has been a summer school classroom teacher aid for the past several years. Her experiences within the district and her professionalism throughout the interview process show that she will be an amazing asset to Peekabot. So, we're very excited to have her. So, congratulations. Oh, I didn't know it was a family affair. Thank you for being here. And we have a lot of new faces that are going to be joining Pegaby next year. So, Miss Anna O'Reillo, stand on up. So Anna is currently a fifth grade teacher
033at Tanowanda. Um but she has clear ties to Grand Island. Missingro is a Grand Island graduate and has served as various roles within our district from student teacher, teacher aid, teaching assistant, and long-term substitute. Mr. Garrow has a background in special education and literacy, which will benefit her as a classroom teacher. We are very excited to have Miss Garrow join her mother at Kegabine um as a fifth grade teacher next year. So congratulations and welcome to the Kegabine [Applause] family. Introduce them. I have my mother and my father. So could you guys stand for a moment? Both of you. Can you do a little bit more intro for your mother in particular? Just won an amazing award. My Yes. My mother is an aid at Peg and she has inspired me and hi. She's just
034amazing and I'm very grateful. And Mary just won the Western New York Education Service Council Award for Excellence, which is a regional award. So, congratulations. All right, just scanning any other intros tonight, whether it's for non-instructional, instructional. Thank you so much. Okay, just before we move on, I just really um just had our uh retirement tenure reception and I just wanted to congratulate all of our retirees and also congratulate Hillary who is here tonight on her 10ear appointment, I guess, and um everybody else who received theirs who did not care to join us at this thrilling meeting tonight. Hillary, congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. Uh so I'm looking for approval of items A through E. Um item uh A is an obsolete bus. Item B is a donation from the Black Bod giving fund. Item C
035is budget transfers over 15,000. Item D is a capital outlay project for next year. who will be doing some work on the middle school floors. And then the final item is uh UPK contracts for next year. Um I work with uh Mr. Fitzpatrick on that and uh Deb Gordon um has made all the phone calls and um proud to report that uh we had 129 slots. All 129 slots are filled at this time and we got all the way through the lottery. So everybody that was in the lottery did get a slot. So proud to report that. So looking for approval on items A through E and F and G are information. Okay. Can we get a motion for A through G? I'm sorry. A through E. A through E, please. A motion and a
036second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carried 6. Any questions? And now that the room is cleared, I would like to um congratulate senior winger and now I see him. Thank you very much. I know my son has enjoyed being in the classroom for the last two years. And as I have stated many times, we've had many conversations about your your classes at our dinner table and have enjoyed them for the last two years. So congratulations and good luck and enjoy your retirement. It's been wonderful. Thank you. All right, moving on to special education. Sorry. Short and sweet. We are on the very last CPSC and CSC meetings as we speak. So, if I could have um those program um recommendations, if I can have action on them, I appreciate it. Thank you. I can get
037a motion. [Music] B, please motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion to carry to 6 policies. I'd like to ask Jen Fitzpatrick. We have a first read for one policy and we're looking for action with a different policy. Yes. Uh we'll start with the workplace violence prevention policy. It's just a revision from last year. I had to remove um Mike Gloria's name uh and add my name uh to the policy specifically on page three if you're just action motion and a second. All in favor? opposed. Motion carried 6. Okay, thank you. Uh, next we have a first read on the personal electronic device policy which goes into effect August 1st. Uh, this aligns with New York State Education Law 2803 to establish a district-wide policy limiting student use of personal internet enabled
038devices during the instructional day to support learning and reduce distractions. This um law was uh passed by the legislature on May 9th, 2025. Um, I'm just going to summarize the policy. If you have any questions, please uh, you know, feel free to ask them. Um the what's prohibited is the use of internet enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, um anything that is able to be connected to the internet during the school day only on school grounds except under specific approved exceptions. And these exceptions include uh educational purposes. So if it's deemed necessary by any staff member, that would certainly be allowed. Any healthare needs for a student would certainly be allowed in emergency situations that are deemed an emergency by uh administration. If you uh an exception would also uh be for translating um
039support, caregiving responsibilities, and as required by a student's IEP or 504 plan. Those would all be exceptions. On May 22nd, uh we met as a group of administrators, staff, students, parent representatives. We had representatives representatives of every bargaining unit um to take a look at the draft policy to offer input uh suggestions um and uh thoughts on the policy itself. And um so we we took that all into account and uh you know, edited our draft uh a little bit. The draft itself is actually uh modeled after the New York State New York State School Boards Association draft policy which was put out uh just a couple days ago. The storage requirements uh in the policy specifically is uh for the elementary buildings uh devices are discouraged um and if they're brought to school, they
040must be silenced and stored in a student's cubby or locker. And in the middle school and high school are obviously to be silenced and stored in lockers for the entire school day. And if I can just stop for a moment, the school day, what that means is the beginning of the instructional day to the end of the instructional day. That's very important for people to understand. So yes, they can have their phones after the school day ends. And if I'm a middle school principal, that's 7:34 to 2:15. Okay? That's that's when the policy that's when the devices are prohibited. Uh parental communication is if you're going to have your child communicate uh if you need to contact your child, you have to call the main office in all of the buildings and they will make
041sure that your child gets in touch with you. Um and we have a requirement by law to do some equity um accounting um to determine um how the policy is being enforced and that's going to be done in uh sheriff's office, the office of people services. So what does that look like exactly then as far as the enforcement? Not sure yet. Yeah. So it's um that's it's always a work in progress, right? So the enforcement of the policy is really determined by the code of conduct. Okay. Um you know if a student is violating the code of conduct, this this is have is going to have to be meshed with the code of conduct. Um but this is the law and then the determination on how the policy is enforced. I was hoping to see
042something a little bit more restrictive um especially at the high school level. Um you know what what's going to stop our students from peeking at it right during between classes grabbing it to take to lunch still putting it between her legs. I mean I I just don't think it's restrictive enough. I I've kind of been vocal um myself over many many years. I no need for students to have cell phones in in the classroom. I've told my son for four years if if if it comes up, I'm for it. Um I just really think that we need to come up with a better way to um to store them, right? And you know, I understand that they could turn in a dummy phone, but then it's easy, right? If they turn in a dummy phone
043in the morning, then it's simple. it's it's easier for us to control and to also um not punish what's what's the word to to address, right? Like I just I just feel like we're opening ourselves up and really not addressing what what New York New York State is saying is for mental health. It's not really for control or or whatever. I just I'm kind of disappointed that we can go in a different direction. Well, yeah, I agree um wholeheartedly because I don't think we realize what an addiction phones are um at this point. You know, apps, all those things. I mean, my kids are different people when I take their phones away. Um like within 24 hours, it's like they're normal again. So, it definitely affects their rates when we implement these, you know, and
044say, "Hey, we're taking your phones away." So many are going to be addicted to going to that locker going to wherever that phone is stored. So, I know that other school districts are using coaches. I don't know if that's the right word. Um, you know, they have that really successful New York City for the conference. Um, when they were speaking about it, they said that they had a lot of success. Question. Did we consider alternative measures for further um restrictive use? And we um you know explore why those further would be um best for the district. I think uh if we talk about pouches there is a cost to pouches and so to say that we we really looked into that I would say no at this you know the cost the governor I think
045is giving us giving the state 13 million for 700 school districts which comes out to be I think roughly $18,000 something along those lines so I think the pouches would be much more cost prohibitive but that doesn't mean that as a board you can't decide that direction however at the same time this is a policy that is a first draft the first reading and it has to be in place like now. So in order to make that happen, we can always revisit a policy. Yeah. I just think that I think it just I I understand the time crunch. Um but um a committee was was was put together and decision the final there wasn't a final decision maker on either. We could have had board members. Um we knew it was coming down the pike.
046Maybe we could have been more proactive. I I just really feel like we're still putting it on our teachers, our hall monitors to enforce it. And and to be honest, I think I think we would have the support of our our teachers. They don't want to spend the time saying, "Put your phones away. You're not allowed to have it in the hallway." And then it becomes, as he said, she said, and then we still have the fight with our parents, right? we have an opening to make a great decision and really remove the phones from our schools and and I think we should capitalize on that and and that's that's just my opinion and I will let go ahead if I could add you know in terms of pouches aside from the cost associated there
047is a logistical part of that too to evaluate too um in terms of are all the students hibernating at the same at the same time to all collect at and and rushing to get because they're excited to get their phones too and the manpower associated have heard about students coming in and you know different areas and things like that. Um but I would just because I I appreciate the first read and just um if more is more options and everything is explored presented that would be helpful I think to all of us since we have so many outstanding questions. I know I know how logistically, you know, in the morning trying to get 900 students like in the high school 900 students to put them away and then more importantly at the end of the
048day the window for busing and and leaving is so narrow, right? Trying to get all of those students their devices and get them back on the bus and out the door, right? I know that we're doing lockers in each home room, right? So each staff member or each home room would be responsible for those 20, you know, and the student would report to their home room at the end of the day and get that. Um, I haven't heard great things about the pouches and I'm glad we're not doing that now. Um, there were two things on this though that I had a question with. one was with the exception um with the authorization by a teacher whatever would that be like we're going to use it in our room today so go get it from
049your locker that's true yeah because then I can see like you're going to all you're going to get is oh well Mr. Mr. Weer told me to bring it to class today. Sorry, Brian. But, you know, and it's just going to become this constant like chasing down of staff saying, "Well, and I got to go check with Brian to make sure that he actually did that." You know, like what a like I was shocked when I saw that exemption in there um for using it in class still because every student has a internet enabled device already. I really don't know what they could do. There's very few things additionally you could do on your phone that you wouldn't be able to do in this. But I just think that one exception would open up a
050title wave of excuses and a lot of chasing down, you know, dead ends. And again, you know, the policy that's a draft is just pretty much word for word what the state gave us, right? So that's is one of the exemptions. Um, Mr. Roso the administrators, teachers with students and parents. When we came together, one student did say, "My teacher often asks us to use our own personal device to access say a YouTube video, right?" Absolutely. And because YouTube is pretty restrictive here in the district. So, uh there are legitimate, like you're saying, legitimate uses, but it could cause additional the teacher and then the teacher may have to turn around and provide that YouTube instead of asking them to and calculators. I agree. It's it's it's just going to have to go back to
051a a different way of of thinking, right? And teachers might have to take a step back and provide different things. I um I I just think that, you know, we talk about logistically maybe maybe kids will stop bringing them, right? Maybe they'll leave them in their cars the seniors that drive. I just I I would really like to see some different options whether it be the homeland teachers not all one location. I I really think we have a chance to make an impact. Well, the middle school has a very policy. Yeah. So, I mean I know the kids are so diffum learn how to look at my son know he just knows you know I think that it'll take a lot to get to that point we can always add to it and be more
052restrictive and then obviously as kids accommodate and learn and say okay this is how it is And as you consistent, you know, you might not need to be instructing them into the hallways that now become a home. He said, "I didn't look at it. I didn't know." How much are we in? I mean, we know because I mean, how nice is it not going to have to be to police video recordings throughout the day and pictures in the bathroom and and all those things that you spend a lot of time kind of chasing down. I mean, that's that's that's another big benefit. I I would say that when you're tying this to the code of conduct and you're coming up with some sort of matrix of like how to enforce it, you know, that's where
053we might see a little more creativity as far as bringing the people at home involved more and getting the parents involved more. Um, and the last thing I would say is I know doing this myself and working with other districts, one of the is working with the people at the school to get the buy in for modeling the um the behaviors like I've already been talking to my staff about you know you need to prepare yourself for not saying you can't have your phone but don't be on your phone in front of the kids when they can't have their device with them right so it's really also working with all all the adults in the buildings to kind of mentally prepare to be modeling that behavior that we're going to be asking the kids to
054to follow along, you know, and the sooner we get ahead of that and start having those conversations, the easier it's going to be to transition to that situation. Have we um just, you know, maybe made any courtesy calls or just courtesy questions to other districts? I know for years whenever we're trying to sort out rolling out a new procedure tools, we always kind of just reached out even if it's just forever just to kind of see where they're at. It's always good instead of trying to reinvent the wheel just to get ideas from other districts. So I didn't know if any share and then I'll I'll share after you. So, I know Hillary has a nice lister of high school principles that all communicate about topics like this. Yeah, we've all been communicating as Western
055New York principles across the entire region. All of us home principles speak regularly and we've been in a large email group and survey group surrounding what is everybody doing. The vast majority have chosen to go in the same direction that we are going. There are very few that have chosen pouches because in speaking with the principles, right, I know there's some different discussion among different groups related to some of these buildings. have chosen to do your houses. By and large, the administrators say there's a lot of challenges with kids breaking them, with them being destroyed, with them being incredibly expensive to replace and not really impacting the outcome of not using their phones. So, that has been the feedback that I've received as a principle so far surrounding that that it isn't really helping policies
056about having them in their lockers follow through with that and the modeling of it seems to be what most people are choosing as I I I would just piggy back on to that and say what is what what are they doing to as far as the code of conduct and and and what's the follow through? Like it's easy to say, "Oh, we'll lock them in our lockers. We all know children, right?" And and they're used to having them and and and where's the responsibility? How how are we going to follow through with that? And then I I mean, we can all envision the nightmare. I mean, I I can see it. Yeah. I I don't know how this will go, right? I I think I think that's the point we're missing. You're saying let's lock
057them up. Well, what I will say is not just you in general. I think all of I think all the districts are missing that point. We need to address that issue because it's going to happen. It's going to happen and we're going to see them in our lunchrooms and we're going to see them snuck into the classrooms and then then we're not going to eliminate the problem. So, we need to understand that that's going to happen and and we need to see that side. We're not saying that you're d And to say that we have to hurry up and get this done doesn't work for me because we have to we have to see the whole picture. So to show us a policy without what we're going to do to enforce it and to eliminate
058the issues for our hall monitors now and our our cafeteria monitors and and our teachers who have been dealing with it for the existence of cell phones. We need to see the other side because we are creating uh another another issue right and we have we have a chance to do the right things and maybe it's not vouchers but I think we need to see the point of contact piggy back with us so that we can understand where the followrough is right but not just us right it's so that the administration see the teachers can see so everybody understands everybody's comfortable with it I don't think this can be turn into a nightmare, right? Yeah. I just think we need to see it in people who can say yes to a policy. So, for instance,
059what happens if you get take it away from them? Do they get a write up? Do they get a warning? Do they get detention? What happens? So, the discipline cannot be written into the policy. Well, that's what I'm saying. We have to see the code of conduct. That's that's where that's where it's interpreted uh in the code of conduct. So, And in the law, it actually says you cannot suspend a student for this policy, but you have to follow code of conduct if the teacher does or monitor says to do something. You know, there's consequences if you don't do those things. Well, it would be it would be insubordination, right? And we already have insubordination in our effect. And that's for everything any type of insubordination. So that's how consequences would flow. It could be
060a verbal warning. It could be a meeting with the principal. It could be a written, you know, so on and so forth. Detention and eventually suspension. But as Jen says, it cannot we cannot suspend a child. so that you can start tougher. Well, again, you know, as a child is challenged in any form in our code of conduct. We we're progressive. So, we don't start with 5 days of detention for one infraction, right? It's giving giving kids Yeah. No matter what the direction is from an adult, we want the child to follow that. So, uh, if they continue to be in subordinate, then progression of the discipline continues. Can I talk about my own experience at Grand Island High School with my cell phone? So, Dr. Dempsey would have those we would have they would
061be confiscated and turned into the office and I think her parents called and then our parents I think had to pick them up. Um but they would be turned into the office and um he would get detention uh after certain points of them being you know you know so many warnings I I don't recall having a detention the first time it was you know um right away it was always taken away um and I think that there was some discretion maybe in certain classroom if I if I remember correctly, but I I do remember my phone being taken a lot. Um, so that's and I was getting in trouble at home because my mom called each time. So I will say that that was, you know, something that this district has been forced, you know,
062in the past combing the distraction and it could be it was different times. Not everybody had a cell phone. Um, not as many abilities on the cell back then. So just texting. I do want to ask Lori if you don't mind. Um and the board knows this, right? You you have children in our schools right now. And actually we have this this policy without it being a law. We've been enacting discipline and consequences for kids well before this law was created. So Hillary, maybe just enlighten all of us. Yeah, please. Yeah, if you don't mind, come up to the podium. Obviously before the law was written, children have their cell phones out in classrooms and would report it. I'm sure there are things that you do. Yeah, we already have expectations that they're not allowed
063to have them out in the classroom at all. So, they are required to store them in their backpack. If a teacher sees it out, they are confiscated. They are brought to the office. The parent is called, the parent must pick it up. If the student violates again, we have a progressive discipline approach that follows from there. Like Brian said, while this particular law does not allow for suspension just directly related to possession of your cell phone, generally speaking, if you have violated this expectation multiple times in our code of conduct, it becomes, like Brian said, insubordination, which is a violation that can result in suspension. So there is an approach that we are already using with kids. we have been largely successful but as you've shared before and I think as Roger shared it is
064expected that teachers are enforcing those expectations right and I think as Roger had shared modeling those expectations I've addressed that with my faculty as well and started those conversations because I think it's a behavioral change for everybody right teachers are used to having the baby out on their desk and kids seeing that but now it's everybody getting focused so not to go completely sideways here but we do already have practices and policies in place where students are not allowed to have them out. I think frankly the biggest change for us in our building will be not having them in the hallways because that has been something we've historically allowed and we have historically allowed the kids to use them during the lunch period. So one method that we're investigating and looking at the the finance
065end is putting some televisions in our cafeteria. I already had done that knowing that this was coming in that direction for the senior cap so we can play some of our Viking vision and announcements and things to distract the kids because this is going to be a new experience. Myself and our assistant principles are also exploring different opportunities that we may have during lunch periods for kids to have some physical activity. We haven't really figured that out entirely yet, but it's something that we're working on over the course of the summer because I realize lunch very specifically is going to feel very different for our kids. Well, which is amazing. Although there is we used to sit and talk, right? Like I I think they'll figure it out. I just I would also say Hillary
066um with no disrespect to anything. I I think although we've had that all in place, there there is phone usage in our classrooms and and and I think we would be to say that it isn't. It's a lot on our teachers and um to sit here and say that doesn't happen. Yeah. I don't think anybody's saying it. But I'm but I'm just saying, Brian, we have we have we have a chance to do it right. And I don't know that. And um and to to continue with the the onus on our teachers who are instead of saying, "Put your phone away, Billy. Come on, Susie. Put your phone away. I don't want to use your phone." Right? Like, you know, it's whatever be a dead horse. having a kid in the middle school and having
067a kid in high school. I would just assume to see a different option. There's a lot more my high school guarantee it and she's great to lot. Yeah, it's just it's a different mentality. I think I guess my comment to that would be we will still be facing those challenges likely as our students adjust and teachers will ultimately have to enforce our code of conduct as they're expected to now. So if students choose to violate that, my best advice and my advice to my faculty is that everybody rose in the same direction with the consistent method message. And when that happens, generally our kids, they are rained in pretty quickly. We have fantastic kids here. I do know that kids are really addicted to their cell phones. But I think the key is going to
068be no matter what that outcome is for what we decide and how they're stored, teachers are still going to have to be consistent in enforcing the expectations. So we as administrators can address the progressive discipline approach when needed. But my So me looking at this comparative to what we're saying now is backpack versus locker. They haven't done it yet. They have not listened yet except that they're allowed to have in the lunchroom and in the hallways. They're not listening now. They're not going to listen to the locker. Right. So, what are you gonna do the first day? You're gonna hit them all. You have You're gonna have 200 parents here picking up phones. I I I just think we're setting ourselves up to and and I could be wrong and I would love to sit
069here in September and say I'm wrong and I'll be the first one to admit it. But I just before I am okay with with this, I want to see a different option and and I don't think this is enough. It's just my opinion. Well, we this is why it's a first read, right? So, all the board members had a chance to get some ideas. Oh, I I didn't even get a chance. You know, Hillary, she said they already did. And they're doing I was at a superintendent meeting on Thursday. The only district that has a pouch for every child is in Lacawana. And it's only because that's exactly what the direction was of the board a year ago before the law. Yeah. Okay. So, they have uh they've been great, right, Mike? They have come
070uh Lacawana principles come to disconnected uh conferences and workshops to talk about their journey. Uh but they are as far my understanding maybe is Lakeshore uh Mike do you know is it one other district is the only one I'm aware of Lacana maybe Dunkart for every kid. Okay. So uh my understanding uh we can certainly go more restrictive. My recommendation is it's not pouches. Uh it is a disaster. Not to mention the value of the phones in those pouches. These devices are $1,000 each, right? You know, they can choose. I mean, we will certainly brainstorm and come back together as an administrative group uh and honor what the board has said tonight. I'm just saying we're not buying options unless the board dries to. Okay. not doing. So, but we will investigate other options and
071we'll get a little committee together and continue the conversation. We're not trying to rush the board into a decision. The law says it has to be approved by August 1st. So, this is the first read. My expectation is in July we come back together. We look at a second read. It would be amazing if we can approve a policy and follow the law so that it's published on August 1st. If not, we should then another July, you know, board meeting. Okay. But I I think we'll be fine. The policy has to be by by August any kind of discipline matrix or anything like that outlining like how you're going to enforce it, right? So absolutely true. code of conduct approves a code of conduct first read sorry John anything else perfect thank you to the
072board for that feedback appreciate that excellent So, we already saw some slides where, you know, we saw the video from Chase and this amazing scratch artwork. It really is just amazing. So, congratulations to our art teachers and Jojo for uh getting that $15,000 scholarship and it is at a national level is truly remarkable. Uh Tech Wars is amazing. Uh maybe in the future we'll try to invite board members to see this type of competition. Hundreds upon hundreds of students competing. Uh, by the way, Jojo's uh, brother Luke is also part of this and he was helping with the robotics um, competition as well. Uh, it was really great to celebrate our distinguished school related professionals. We had an amazing dinner and awards program. Want to thank J for all her help in organizing that. We
073had incredible sponsors and a lot of people were recognized. 14 SRPs and 14 different categories. really a great event and uh the seal of bi literacy and civic readiness. What a great thing that Hillary and her team have put together for our students to get additional recognition and to focus on the importance of civic readiness and uh being by you know to being strong in your languages. Uh it was really another great event for our students. Today we recognize Jennifer Minis for all her good work and um her uh concert choir won uh level uh six gold with distinction. So congratulations to her and what a wonderful winner. Yeah, really great way. Uh uh lots of other great things happening in classrooms. I wanted to highlight this for the board. Uh these are things that
074happen all the time, right? And it's great during this report that sometimes we get a glimpse of that. But you know, fourth graders at Hugh uh having children, you know, learn about the importance of the biography book report, being able to stand up in front of their peers and other adults uh parents and so forth in the classroom are just great great skills recognizing the teachers on the screen here and uh the incredible work of our students. I just want to kind of dovetail this uh picture along with some of these other biography reports to say that really we're going to see this more and more at the high school in the future uh based on the blue ribbon commission and uh the tendency of the state to say children can take uh regions type
075classes in the future to show their learning. The state is also saying that that will be optional in the future and we might see more capstone projects not unlike what's happening all the time uh throughout our school system. So uh it's just really great that our teacher spends extra time doing it. You can see a nurse and Elus is here and I think that is the animal guy from is it Austral. Yeah. Awesome. Of course uh all the board members who came and voted and uh we you saw the remarkable work at our districtwide art show. Uh these students were recognized uh for some of their amazing whole oil paintings. Uh so much congratulations to those in the arts. Uh Mrs. Gallagher's students participated at the University of Buffalo in an AP statistics competition. And
076again, this is an example of learning being presented in a different way than just a summitative exam. Uh our students uh who competed actually got third place at the University of Buffalo for their AP stats work. So congratulations to them. Truly hard work and putting them in situations to present at the university level. Uh more recognition for our band and orchestra. They had a chance not only to enjoy uh Darian Lake uh the uh amusement park but also to compete there. So you can see that uh there's been some winners. Sixth grade band won first in the division and eighth grade uh band and orchestra both won first uh in their respective division. So, congratulations to our music department. And if you had a chance uh to be at the Memorial Day recognition, it truly
077was remarkable. Uh so, we're grateful to John Reed for continuing with the baton when Marty Allen did it and maybe people before Marty Allen did it. This park is truly remarkable. Not only is it a celebration of veterans, but it's also a celebration of the community coming together, not only in music, but our tech department has done incredible work uh through with their students and the teachers creating amazing displays that are there preserved forever. Uh really, really remarkable. Uh so we thank them for that and um yeah, just great pictures of a great event. So we thank everybody for that. Today we talked about uh the work about the statewide internet enabled device band. And as John had shared, we had a committee of students and parents and educators uh coming together to talk about
078all of the nuances about this new law. Uh post prom and prom. Uh just remarkable event. We've got to thank our teachers and our administration and our parent volunteers who really helped put together an amazing, safe, and wonderful celebratory night uh this past uh weekend. Um if you're not familiar with PostProm, it is truly a remarkable uh event. Uh it starts shortly after 10 p.m. and concludes uh shortly around 3:00 a.m. Uh so uh our teachers, our parents, uh educators, different staff members and our administration all there to support our students. Uh this is a little hypnosis going on over here with Anthony. uh and just really uh we're really just proud of the culture that is uh present again throughout our high school. Natalie Cuff uh 200 strikeouts in her career. So a wonderful
079student athlete, great kid, and great celebrator celebration for achieving 200 strikeouts. You've seen some of those items before. Sue, is there anything you want to add about this one? It's coming up quick. The um car show is coming up quick. We have lots of cars. We're actually ahead of where we were last year. We have a lot of great prizes um coming in. So, you can come out on January 18th. What do I say? Yeah, we're we're gonna actually do that in June. That would be much better. Um that would be wonderful. And of course um um she was a wonderful golf course is July her outing is on July 25th at Beaver this year. I'm sure she's looking for golfers and I'm really sorry. Oh, thank you very much. Moving on to the board
080of education report. Okay. So all right we are going to honor Sher here. I'm just read it right off there if you don't mind. All right. So, Sherry has um is being presented the board of excellent award um from the New York State Board Boards Association. Um I'm just going to read it. Um to Sher Stefan's Grand Island Central School District through NYSSDA's board of excellence recognition program conferred more than 150 points for your ongoing association association's professional development andor accepting additional leadership roles. So congratulations. This is excellent. too many of these here on just also um as many of you know or don't know Sherry is not running for a uh or did not run for her term. So we just want to take a moment to thank her for her service these past
081three years and all she's done to support the education and the our students here at Grand Island and we wish her the best and all she is going to do from from here. So Sherry, thank you very much. We appreciate everything and her [Applause] at the end. Well, you can do it. Okay. Oh, the wellness wellness week report. It's here. I know Sher was asking for it. I don't There's a report in Bordox for you. Did you get a chance to I know it's I put it in late, but anyway. Okay. I can send a PDF to the board, too, but it just outlines all the different activities that occurred throughout uh the school district. Um so, a couple pages, but it's just nice to see your work and the committee is involved into the
082work throughout our district. Yeah, the teachers did a great job, put a lot of effort into it, thankful for all they did for students and caring about their social physical health comment session general items. Nobody signed up. So we'll go on to the If we have any students, we have any students who need their agendas signed by the board. Sorry. Thank you. I didn't see I didn't see hide there. Sorry. Okay. So much fun. So, we'll continue with the committee items now. Well, I just wanted to say congratulations to all of our retirees. Again, thank you so much for all your years of service and also congratulations to all those who received tenure this year. Congratulations on on that. Um, thank you Sherry for your your time and your work that you've done here on
083the board. And um, welcome back. Yep. Exactly what we're missing here, but So, I do want to just say thank you for these last few years. I um have learned so much coming from not being involved in the schools, really just dropping my kids off and running to working for the schools and seeing how much gets done behind the scenes that I had no idea of. Um and then obviously getting on the board and seeing even more behind the scenes of what gets done. Um so I'm just thankful for everybody on the board that's helped me. I wish was here. She was a great mentor. Julie has been really wonderful with, "Hey, what time do we meet? What do I what do I bring?" Um, you know, Dr. Gr always answer my questions respectfully and
084you're always very kind in the answer. And that's very helpful. Um, you know, and it's it's it's just really nice to be able to say, "Hey, what about this? What about that?" And you never make me feel stupid, which is huge. You know, you are an educator, so you do a good job with that. um you know and I would say Fitz you were probably one of my biggest inspirations um working at the middle school and working during co um you very inspiring but you were also very very kind um and always made me feel like I had to say it was important which is one of the reasons um I think I ran for the board um so you know just how much educators can educate you even in your 40s is kind of
085amazing so I'm thankful for all of that um I'm thankful to New York State schoolboard association for this award Um, and I'm also thankful for Erie County School Board Association. I got a word through each um this month and I got a dinner next week for the Laura M. Burns Advocacy for Children Award, which is an incredible way to end my three years here um on Grand Island School Board. So, to receive two awards and to be able to be honored at a dinner um is a perfect way, I think, to end it. So, I just thank you for meeting, you know, everybody that's been here. Everybody's been very kind and encouraging during difficult times. So, you know, I thought when I got on, you know, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do
086that. You come kind of guns blame, but you you learn a lot that goes on and and you respect a lot that goes on. So, thank you guys. [Applause] Congrats to all the retirees and tenure and cherry we missed great work for the last three years and good luck to you. to what gonna repeat itself. I'll say congratulations to the tenure and retirees and uh Sherry, thank you for your time. Again, uh Sher, thank you so much. Um really appreciate your service uh both as a school nurse uh and now on the board of education um especially at BCMS. Um, congratulations to our tenure recipients and our retirees. Uh, congratulations to all of our new hires. I know they're probably listening now. And I really want to say thank you though to our administrative team
087uh, and the teachers who served on the interview committees. There's more to come. Uh, it's a lot of work. It's a hard job, but it's the most important job we can do uh, in the school district. It's hiring the right people. Congratulations again to our retirees. Senior wingers. Congratulations to tenure. Um, also congratulations for all of their new hires tonight. Um, we have lots more hiring to do. Mr. Patrick, correct? Um, and welcome to our newest board member. Uh, besides Sherry, congratulations again. Um, Mike Nothing's a best forward meeting as well. So Sherry and Mike together and have a great night everybody. [Music] Couple quick items. Uh we had a successful budget on May 20th. So thank you very much the administrators, the board, and Dr. Graham for your input on that budget. You know,
088that's a monthsl long project. Um but you know, important work and and thank you everybody for your input on that. Um, and thank you for to the community for your support of the budget again this year. Um, we are looking to do another capital project update on July 7th at that meeting if that's okay with the board. Um, I had a meeting with the gentleman who's helping us with the stop arm bus cameras the other day on Thursday. Uh, we had a lot of violations at the beginning, but they've kind of tapered down. So, uh, his recommendation on Thursday was for us to not move forward with a full scale system. Um, so we'll be talking to him a little bit more on on what that looks like and I'll have a recommendation at a
089later date on exactly where we go with that. U, but that's good news. You know, obviously we're we're worried about student safety first. Um, so so that was uh some good news to get. Um, congrats to all the teners and tenure recipients and and retirees. Thank you, Sherry. Good luck to Mike. Um, and thank you. Great. All right. Thank you so much, Sherry. Congratulations. That's bittersweet, but I know that there's many good there's a journey ahead of you that's going to be fulfilling and lovely and we could use substitutes. So, it's just it's all good. I I love that Mike Anthony said that to some of the retiring teachers today. So, thank you for your service. and Doth congratulations and welcome. Thanks for your dedication and interest in being on the board today. You got
090a chance to see the board in action, right? Not only through the budget process and all all the things that the board does, right? So these are the most important things. Policy obviously is the most important. So you get a chance to see the board and give us feedback and then we'll go back as administrators and do that revision. So thank you for your interest in that. Uh it kind of feels like we're sprinting a marathons and I want to thank our administrators, everybody who's here this late uh who were here this late this weekend, like late late. Uh so thank you for that. We have a STEM night coming up on June 4th. We have class day for our seniors on June 9th. We have Vik night coming up. I believe that is next
091week, June 11th. We already shared. Okay. Yeah. Moving update. all these days have to go to lots of moving up day celebrations of course uh kidbiz too. We have a really robust uh many children participating all throughout Grand Island and kidbiz on June 21st followed by graduation on June 22nd and the last teacher day Michael the last teacher day on the 26th. Yeah and you'll probably talk about the board meeting in July. You have that. All right. Perfect. So, thank you everybody. Um, ditto to what every everybody has said. Um, I just was going to mention June 9th. Remember class day is corn hockeying day. It is a Monday, not a Friday this year. So, we get to start our week off with lack of sleep instead of ending our week with with lack of
092sleep. Um, I I just wanted to mention um postp prom. It's it's an amazing event. My son obviously was part of that this year. I was here Friday night setting up. But I just really want to want to thank the school district a for holding the event and supporting that event. It's really a great safe place for our seniors to be and it really the support from you know our parents and and such is amazing. But really it's it's amazing thing that you all do for our seniors. So thank you for that. They really had a great time. I I hosted the postp prom postp prom. So um thank you for that. That's really a wonderful thing and I hope that tradition carries on for um years to come. Um he mentioned graduation on June
093June 22nd, bike night which is June 11th where we honor our um athletes um from this year um before and we will be having our senior signings for those um seniors that are going on to college and have signed after our signing event in the fall. So that's exciting. Um yeah and then June 7th we will have our reorganization meeting. We're about so January July 7th where we'll have our reorganization meeting right now. So um with that I'm just going to wrap it up because I don't even know what month is. So a motion to return our meeting at 9:05. Thank you and second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries 6.