001Okay, here we go. Getting ready for mic check. I just had to turn the lights on in the overflow room. Microphone number one. Check. One, two, three. Mic number one. One, two, three. One, two, three. Check. Check. Microphone one. Microphone number two. One, two, three. Microphone number two. Check. Check. One, two, three. Microphone two. Super mic. Mic number three. One, two, three. Microphone number three. ABC. Mic number three. Mic number four. President Mike 1 2 3 4. Mic number four. President Mike 1 2 3 4. One, two, three. One, two, three. This is mic number five. One, two, three. Number five. Number five. And microphone number six. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Microphone number six. Lastly, the podium mic. One, two, three. Podium mic. The best sounding of all of them in my opinion.
002Podium mic. One, two, three. One, two, three. If any of them didn't sound as good, uh, let me know. I'm going to test them again since I made all that racket with the mic cables. This is six. [Music] Okay, a clear sign we need more white cables, newer ones. This is uh number one. This is This is number two. I'm going to fiddle with two. I can barely even hear two now. One, two, three. I'm going to fiddle fiddle with two. Fiddle with two. Here we go. Hey. Number three. Number three. Okay, that seems okay. Number four. Number four seems okay. Five seems all right. 1 2 3. It's a little low, but I'll turn it up. One, two, three, four, five. Five is better. Number six. Microphone. Microphone. Number six. 1 2 3 4
0035 6. Going back to two. All right. Two sounds better. One, two, three, four, five, six. This is mic number two. I think we're as good as we're going to get at this point. Thank you. And just one more time, testing the podium. That sounds good. Okay. All right. Um, I guess you could uh post on the website. I'm going to be muting here in a second. Okay. Muting in three, two, one. How you doing? I am [Music] Oh, yes, that's right. So Sean's gonna give [Music] you so I said, "I picked the bucket." She died. She said, [Music] Yeah. What's that? [Music] present. I know. Thank you. Not [Music] that I'd like to call the meeting to order. Begin with the pledge of allegiance, please. I aliance to the flag of the United States
004of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay, with us this evening we have Roger Broker, trustee, Jay Grover, trustee, Sherry Stuffins, trustee, Jude our district clerk. Dr. Brian Graham, superintendent, Ashley Dreer, president. Sue Marston, vice president. Joy Lamarco, trustee. Danielle Bruno, trustee is excused this evening. We have John Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent of curriculum staff development and human resources. Cheryl Cardone, assistant superintendent of pupil personnel services and Dr. Robert Merkel, assistant superintendent for school business and finance. Couple announcements. If you could silence your cell phones, please. And just note there's an emergency exit directly behind me and directly in front of me in case we need to leave unexpectedly. Um, and if I can have a motion to approve the agenda for this
005evening, please. And a second. Second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any extensions? Motion carried 6. And if I could have a motion to approve the minutes for March 10th, please. And a second. Second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any extensions? Motion carried. 6. We have some student ambassadors this evening. If we could have an introduction for our ambassadors from the middle school, please. Hi everyone. I have the pleasure of introducing Colin Green who is our student council publicity supervisor and Oliver Stewarti who is our student council secretary. Both Colin and Oliver are eighth graders at BCMS. They are both members of JB DECA. They each play three sports and are members of the band as well. Hello, my name is Oliver Stewarti and I'm Colin Green. Recently, student council held our March Madness
006minute to win event. Students were able to come and play a variety of minute to win games and compete against their friends. We also had four inflatable games including hungry hippos, jousting, wrecking ball, and a sports target for students to compete on. Everyone had a lot of fun and we are looking forward to having this annual event. Last week, the middle school PTA held a penny war and students were able to donate change in order to become the winning grade level. The sixth grade ended up winning and got to slime Mrs. Heights and Miss Moart at the glow party that took place after school last Friday. Students were able to buy glow swag and dance to a DJ in the gym. It was a great time for everyone. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Graham. District
007administrators and board of education members. I am beyond thrilled to introduce to you Brooke Christensen. Not only is she a senior here at Grand Island High School. She is going to be going to the University of Akran next year to play division one track and field and she is such a humble wonderful young lady. She is now as of this past weekend an all-American unshot coach. So Chris, you have made our school and our community so proud and as a mom of girls, you are such a role model to female athletes. So, congratulations. Good evening everyone. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Brooke Christensen and I am a senior this year at the high school. I am the class of 2025 president and the student council vice president and I'm
008on the track team. I wanted to take a moment to share a little bit about what has been going on recently in our school. Two weeks ago was our Clash of the Vikings week. Overall, this was a huge success with the seniors winning, but we also did something new this year. Each class carried around a water jug that was their class color and collected spare change from their classmates and school staff. Although this was a clash competition trying to see which class could raise the most money, it was for an amazing cause. Dari Jackson Jr., a senior at Tapestry High School in Buffalo, was recently diagnosed with acute B cellucmia. We were able to collect $3,000 in spare change to donate it to the Jackson family. Finally, winter sports have wrapped up. The boys basketball
009team had a very successful season, winning their first NFL title and took a trip to Buffalo State to play in their first sectional championship game since 1992. Grand Island also had the NFL player of the year, Jace Wilkkey. Wrestler Cole Randall took a trip to Albany to compete in the state tournament. Bowler John Cororm went to Syracuse for the state tournament. And I won my third sectional title in the weight throw, earning me a trip to Staten Island to compete at the indoor track championships where I placed third. The past weekend, I went to Virginia Beach for the Adidas Track Nationals, where I became an All-American. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope to see you soon. [Applause] You want to talk about how enthusiastic you were when the seniors left. [Music]
010So congratulations. Thank you. I am very proud of you. Thank you. I've known you for now nine years and I think I I was just telling you as I walked in that I would see you so determined working either with a private coach or your brother on uh the football field in the summer just practicing your technique. And that has been true for you every year. Uh is there anybody, you know, is there anybody else you'd like to shine a spotlight on that's helped you get to where you are today? Um my brother definitely taught me. Oh, everything. That's great. That's really great. And your parents? Yeah. Very good. And your coaches who they are so proud of you. They they do a great job in and shining that spotlight. These are just some recent
011pictures, right? So, tell us about this all American event. So, I went to Virginia Beach for the Adidas Track Nationals. Um, and then they took the top nine to finals. So, you get three throws and then nine people that are the top nine get three more. Um, I went into finals eighth. Um, and then I was going to finish sixth until my last throw, which I had to reset twice cuz my it was not looking good. So, I reset twice and then had my best throw of the day putting me in fifth. Yeah. Congratulations. It's a really great honor and everything. Right. So, when you uh leave us and do do you have a sense of what you might want to study? Um, I'm going to study education. Excellent. Very good. We're very proud of
012you. Uh, and um, I guess, uh, with all of these accolades, uh, thinking about competing at the collegiate level and the D1 program, you know, what are what are some things that you're thinking about? Will you just focus on the weight throw or will you do disc? Um, hopefully I don't have to throw the discus. Okay. Um, but probably just do what I'm told. Very good. I think you brought some of your pals. I did. So, would you bring them? And then let the I'm going to take a group picture too. Start with Joy and then she can pass them down to the board. And so what you're could you just go back to the mic and just describe what the board is looking at? Um, there's a glass thing that I got that I
013was the MVP of the field in section six. Um, very nice. Then there's a NISVA medal. That's just the public schools um in New York State. And then the one that has like red on it, that's Federation, that's with the private schools. Um, and then that one that says track nationals on it, that's from this weekend. I'm assuming that's it for high school now except going into the regular track, right? Yeah. And do you have um do you have a goal for for outdoor track this year? Um ideally make it to states again, but we'll see. And did you go last year? Yeah. And how far did you get? Uh I finished third in the shot put. I had two foot PR and then I made it to the second day for the Federation meet.
014What's your target um distance? Um what would you like to hit as a goal this spring? 42 42t. Yes. Okay, great. Would you take that picture with the board? All right. Put your favorite one on for the picture. Put them all on. [Music] No, put them all on. Put them all on. Put them all on. You deserve it. Don't be embarrassed. Get ready. Eyes open. Big smile. Two. Very nice. One more for Thank you. Thank you. That brings us to public comment session agenda items only. [Music] Okay. And then curriculum and instruction with uh Mr. Fitzpatrick. Hi. The only item we have in curriculum and instruction is we're asking uh the board to approve the Grand Island varsity basketball team to participate in the 2526 KSA Universal Basketball Tournament being held in Orlando, Florida. And
015what do you know about this tournament? All costs will be fundraised uh by the team themselves. Okay. Um I know we had a couple questions. Does that include any expenses to the chaperones? So like the chaperon flights, things like that. And then um as far as the chaperon, will there be any um it will fund as well the um costs for shaping while they're on the trip obviously and things like that. Yes. There won't be a cost to the district for anything relating to the chaperones. We want to be sure everything has to be fundraised by the kids and um the team themselves. Okay. And it's not during school, right? It's not on a vacation or something. So we won't zero any sub zero sub pay. Yeah. Dates are 1228 25 to 11 26. So
016that's right through our break. Okay. Okay. Great. Um, if I could have a Does anyone else have any questions? That if I can have a motion to approve curriculum and instruction, please motion and a second. I'll second. All in favor? I Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried 6. That brings us to personnel instructional. If I could have a motion to approve instructional personnel PI1 through PI5, please. A motion and a second. Second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried 6. I think we do have an introduction. Mike, good evening everybody. I'd like to introduce Miss Nana Furo. Stand up. As you guys saw at the last board meeting, uh Patrick Lester did accept an administration job somewhere else. Um which is fantastic for him and also a great opportunity for us at
017Sidway. So not often we get to do a March hire for a probationary teacher, but we are excited uh that Mariana has been with us since last year. She started as a student teacher in Mrs. McNalty's room. Did a fantastic job. Subed for us almost every day from the end of student teaching throughout the end of the year. finished up her tests, became a TA the start of this year, and has been a long-term sub in a special education classroom since about October 14th, um up until tomorrow, where she's going to step into a kindergarten classroom as a probationary teacher. So, we are super excited for her to join us. Um she's amazing at connecting with kids. She did a great job in special ed room, has tons of relations with the staff, and we
018are super excited that she is now a Sidway teacher. So, congratulations. Thank you, [Applause] Just checking any other intros. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to personnel non-instructional. If I can have a motion to approve PNI 1 through PNI 3, please and a second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any abstensions? Motion carried 6. That brings us to finance with Dr. Marco. Uh, thank you. I've got three action items tonight. Uh, first item is some obsolete equipment from um buildings and grounds. The second one is uh sorry from it. The second item B is from uh same for buildings and grounds. And then item C is our internal audit report and the associated correct associated corrective action plan for that. I have a motion for A through C, please. Send a second.
019All in favor? I. Any objections? Any extensions? Motion carried 6. That brings us to the budget presentation. Thank you very much. So, I want to thank the board as always for the hard work that goes into uh building the budget and approving it later uh this year. Uh obviously there's a lot of work that goes on with our administrators, our supervisors, uh principles, working with Bob and the team here uh to put together as thoughtful of a budget as we can that protects uh the fund balance and uh retains all the community mandated programs and continues to develop a long-term sustainable budget to provide the best diversified program. So, we're grateful to the board for their work in this process. Uh, as the board knows, uh, much of the budget is built around the strategic
020plan goals and those are, uh, we're very proud of that and we thank the board for approving those strategic plan goals this past December. And tonight, Bob, I see we're going to give the board some updates on retirements and some other elements that are built into this budget. Is there anything you wanted to highlight on the agenda? No. Uh, you know, it's only been a couple weeks since the last time we met, so not a a huge change in things, but, uh, we do have some more information on on what the, uh, Senate and the Assembly are looking at compared to, uh, what the executive put out. Um, so we'll talk about that a little bit. And then, um, you know, one of the big projects that I've been working on the last couple weeks
021with the principles is to take a look at their equipment. So, we do have some information on that as well. Great. Perfect. And uh just for the board uh the last time you saw this slide it listed seven GITA members but today there are eight here and we talked about that at the last meeting that there would be one more addition. So uh these are the positions where we have teachers getting ready to retire. I can tell you that we're going to miss every single one of them. They are excellent teachers and their wisdom and expertise will be missed by our district for certain. uh there is uh the plan to replace seven of the eight positions that you see on the slide. There is one position that we will subtract through attrition which is
022the secondary teaching assistant position. Any questions about that? So go ahead. So uh not a huge change in our um expenditures to date. Uh the on the bottom there is the gap with new requests. So, the new requests uh that we've been working on whittling down is uh currently at $598,255. That does not include any money for uh equipment at this time. Um so, uh moving on to page number eight. That's the uh information from the executive budget uh message that she gave back in January. And this slide hasn't changed yet. Correct. It is. But Bob definitely has some slides ahead of this that'll inform the board and the community of some possible changes that we might see in the enacted budget by her. Correct. Yep. So we'll we're going to see so you know
023the the process is uh the executive comes out with their proposal usually in January and then in March we'll see a onehouse proposal typically. So if you take a look at this slide here uh 2526 is all the way to the right. So, uh, you see in the the green there, that's the executive proposal. Uh, the assembly proposal is in orange there. It's quite a bit higher than than the executive's proposal. The Senate proposal again is a bit higher than hers. And, uh, the the actual where we're going to land is yet to be determined. So, on the ensuing slides here, I've kind of um highlighted some information that uh was contained in those one house proposals. some of it aligns with the executive proposal. One thing to keep in mind that that we're going
024to be keeping an eye on is um you know some things are included in in the budget legislation, but things can continuously change. Like I think the heat bill I think uh changed in like June of last year. So even even if this stuff is or is not included in the April budget, it could still change in May or June or uh you know throughout the legislative session. Um, so if you take a look at some of the one house versus executive uh information here, you'll see an asterisk uh the things that agree with the executive budget uh proposal here. So you'll see on this first slide, slide number 10, this has is in regards to foundation aid. So, um the executive budget and both the assembly and senate budgets all agree to update some
025of the um some of the poverty measures and adjust the SSR allocations in the foundation aid formula. So, they're all in agreeance on that. The assembly budget calls for a 2.9% minimum increase to the foundation aid and uh the Senate budget calls for a 3% I think the executive's proposal was around 2.3%. So, they're they're both looking a little bit higher than she is. Um, and there's a couple things that were included in in their separate proposals that were not in the executive's proposal there. Moving on to number 11. That's uh in regards to expense-based aids. So, the executive proposal and both the House assembly and and Senate proposals uh agree to fully fund expense-based aids at the current legislative level. uh the executive proposal did not include this but both of the other ones
026did was to increase the aidable Boseie salary from 30,000 to 60,000 over 3 years. So this is something that I keep trying to highlight is uh you know our Bosey's aid isn't a true 70% on things. there's deducts that come into play. And so this $30,000 salary cap, if they're uh let's say that that the Boseies employees making $90,000, there's a $60,000 deduct until our before our aid is considered. So something we're always watching and being cautious of is, you know, to be aware of those kind of things. Uh the assembly also includes uh per student increase in the library materials aid. I believe it's right around 6 something right now. Uh so that would almost double it. And then uh the Senate um has an increase for capital outlays. Uh that's the one-year projects
027that we can get aid back in the following year. No, that would be that would be phenomenal for last year. I know. Yeah. I mean, with inflation and material costs, the $100,000 spend is nothing. It's almost nothing. And by the time you pay your architects, you know, your your architects getting 20% of that or so, you know, so so that would would uh you know, give us give us a lot more there. Um and then uh you know, the Senate had some stuff about electrification plans uh being eligible for transportation aid as well. So, um, you know, you can see some of the things that the assembly and the senate ask for are quite a bit above what the executive asks for. And typically where it lands is, you know, somewhere, I wouldn't say in
028the middle. It's usually closer to the lower end where the executive is, but, you know, usually it lands somewhere in between. Um, on page 12, that's in regards to universal prek, the uh executive. So, the the amount per student allocation for UPK has been $5,400 for several years now. Um, it's harder and harder uh to get our community- based organizations to work with us when that number doesn't grow because their costs grow as our costs grow as well. So, not only is it harder for them to operate, it's harder for us to operate because we have to put more local funding into that. Um, this is something that Brian and I met with um, Senator Ryan about and and discussed with his office about is uh, trying to get an increase in this funding. And
029uh, so so the assembly proposed a $10,000 uh, aotment max per student. The Senate was at 6,700 per student. So, um, you know, and not only the aotment per student, but we're seeing the needs of these students, you know, they they don't they have the same needs as our other students and they're not funded the same way as our K through 12 students. So, you know, we're really fighting to try to get an even playing field because we know, you know, the research shows that the earlier we intervene with them, the better off their outcomes are. Um, so we're really fighting hard to to try to make sure that these students are funded appropriately as all of our other students are. And Bob, you just said that so well and I appreciate everything you just
030said for our board and for our community to understand exactly what you're saying. Uh, when the state offers a program like this, we are treating all the students as if they're ours. And I do want to highlight important work that John and Cheryl and Mike Anteneelli did to take care of a kiddo who was in a community provided um UPK who was definitely struggling and the the incredible work by Mike and John and Cheryl and Lauren and others at Sidway really came to the rescue and helped to move a child from a community provided setting to Sidway and I happened to be there uh and I got a chance to meet the child and what a difference in this young man's life. So just a kudos to Mike and his team and John and Cheryl
031and Bob, right, for all working together to support a a child and clearly that is going above and beyond uh when a community provider was really struggling. So this this uh you know the to fight for these extra dollars is so important for our four-year-olds. So thank you for that. Absolutely. Um on page 13 here um prior prior year adjustments. So this is kind of an an interesting one, right? Uh so both the assembly and the senate call for a restoration of annual funding to historic levels. So there's uh I was in a meeting earlier and uh I believe they said that there's about $300 million in this queue. So what this is is uh your pri prior year state aid is um so this would be a queue for any unpaid prior year claims.
032And it's kind of interesting. So they just redid some of this. If you owe them money then they take it right off of your next AR. So within a month or two, but if they owe you money, you go into this queue and you might never ever see this money. So as of right now, uh there's about $300 million that they owe districts in this queue based on the funding formulas. Uh currently in the executive proposal, I think there was a couple million dollars in there. They're proposing to bring it to $18 million, but you know, that's that's not going to put them into the $300 million queue anytime soon. if they do that. So, it's a little disheartening when, you know, they're they're not doing what they say they're they're going to do and
033and when it comes to our end of things, we've got to pay them back immediately and and we don't get the same thing in return. So, it's a little frustrating uh to deal with those those challenges. Um the next one uh down on there is to freeze aid at November runs. So essentially whatever was put out in the November runs regardless of how anything changed with expenses or anything the executive wants to freeze it um at that and both the assembly and the senate rejected that uh reject that proposal to free that freeze that at the November runs. Uh in regards to distraction-free schools, the cell phone ban uh the assembly rejected the executive's proposal for a complete cell phone ban and the senate uh proposed some modifications to the executive proposal. Um the next
034item is retirey salary cap. Uh neither the executive or the assembly did a proposal on this. Uh but the senate senate did do a proposal to extend the waiver for an additional two years. Um there was also some talks about increasing the salary that you could make annually if you were uh a retiree. This uh on slide 15, this is obviously something that we're keeping a very close eye on. Uh universal meals, a lot of uncertainty with what's happening at the federal level right now. This is is one of the uh high priority items that that they're talking about. So, keeping a very close eye on this and um you know hoping that this uh all three the the executive, the assembly and the senate all you know uh put some support in there for
035this. But you know obviously if if the federal anything changes at the federal level with this that could uh greatly hamper their ability to include this in the final budget. Page 16, zero mission school buses. Uh, personally was hoping to see a lot more here. Um, the executive didn't have any changes. The assembly didn't propose any changes. The Senate did propose some changes about giving us uh some flexibility and and possibly some waiverss and things like that. So, we'll see. You know, um, it's still a lot going on with this. This is another thing that that we're not sure if the federal funding is going to continue to support. You've got federal legislation that uh cuts it off, competing with state legislation that that has it continuing. So, uh we'll keep keep a close eye
036on that as things progress over the next few months. In regards to that, interestingly, I would say my hunch is the majority of taxpayers in New York State are against this proposal, including the New York State school boards, including area county school boards, including, you know, Superintendent Niscus and so forth. So, it should be interesting to see how this plays out and we'll keep an eye on it for sure. Uh the next few slides 17, 18, 19 um haven't updated those uh too much or actually at all. Um those are are things that we're still waiting for numbers to come in on. Um so, but I know I know the difference in foundation aid is going to go up to 360 based on the the governor's budget at 2.3. So, if it gets to 2.9
037or or three, that would be great. But is your hunch that it could be between 2.3 and 2.9 or 2.3 and three? Do you think it could fall in the middle or do you think Yeah, I doubt the middle. My hunch would be that it comes up to maybe 2.4. I'd be really shocked if it went over 2.5. Okay. So, the amount change won't be a significant change. Correct. Okay. I don't anticipate that. Looks like Oh, for sure. Always. Um, all right. So, going to uh 20, you know, that's all kind of stayed the same. We'll go to 24 uh where we've uh looked at some of the impact it or some of the some of the uh requests that we've updated. So, uh, we did make some updates on on slides 24 and 25
038based on, uh, reviewing the requests and and, uh, going back and and having more conversations with the principles. Um, so the total of of those, uh, currently are at [Music] $598,255. For the next presentation, I'll have that all everything that remains that uh, we decide we're going to move forward with included in our final budget number. And uh starting on 26 is where we start seeing uh the equipment needs that I worked with the principles on. So I uh worked with them to create a spreadsheet and uh we kind of put things in three categories. Uh there was immediate needs, short-term needs, and long-term needs. Um so I've put that information together um on slides 26, 27, and 28. Um, again, I have not included any money in the budget at this time for these
039additional needs. Um, so hoping to have some discussion tonight to to look for some direction on that and how we might want to include some of the stuff in the budget. Um, there's there's a few of the smaller items on here that uh we're we're hoping that we can do uh this year and take care of those some of those immediate needs, some of the smaller items on here. Um but uh looking for for some input on you know how we might support some of these needs next year and into the future for the board. Um if if we could just look start at slide 26 the immediate needs and just if the board could give guidance uh to Bob and so that we can come back at the next presentation with some things solidified
040that would be great. And I guess my first question is this slide helpful to the board the way it's outlined and structured. Well, just from our tours, I'll say the desks and the cafeteria chairs and that. So, I'm just wondering, do we run that in a similar program like we did like uh the weight room or what we did for the um can we can we somehow do like a three-year proposal or a fiveyear proposal and come up with an plan? I mean, I understand this is an immediate need or um I don't know that that's just my thought like um twoyear I you know I I don't know take a look at what we have and what stuff originally well right and that's done we did we did we looked at financing that and
041and the increased cost of equipment and it just made more sense for us to to take care of that all in one shot and didn't we find that changing fitness or someone could help us with that right? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They they held some prices for us for for quite some time. Um, you know, they if we would have gone back out and and we did get other quotes and everything, but if we would have gone back out, the the prices would have been significantly higher and uh the financing would have cost us a significant amount by the time we did the advertising for that and all the legal costs and everything because we're in year three of five for our um tech equipment going into next year, right? So, I would think too
042like the the most important would be you know anything that had to do with education. So kind of like the touch screen TVs I would think those would be at the top because it would help the teachers teach right. Yeah. So I did talk to uh Robin our IT director on those. Uh she's got a plan um through I think it was the smart schools act. Uh the smart schools act that is one time funing. We don't expect that to to get more of that, but she had a plan, I believe, to replace 74 of those throughout the district. Uh we're going to order 15 of those at a time because it, you know, it takes time to mount them and and do that. So, we don't want to have 75 of these things sitting
043there. Uh but we're going to do 15 at a time. So, uh those touch screen TVs will likely be taken care of as part of that. So, you know, like I said, there's going to be a few of these things in here that we're going to be able to take care of for the schools this year. Yeah. I think like student desks are important obviously for students to learn. Um, you know, I would think that we want to hit anything that has to be forming first. Um, you know, cafeteria tables, you know, those are important, but well, I I would tend to say whatever is in worst condition, right? Like I I agree where learning is most important, but I mean the cafeteria table or we don't have enough of them, right? And and the
044desks are in editor shape. Um I could work on coming up with a three to five year plan and and uh do it based on the enrollment at the school and then that the principles, you know, would have a certain amount per year that they could then prioritize based on on the condition of their their furniture. Yeah. I mean, I would tend to think furniture too, whether it be a classroom or cafeteria would also help. Not that there are behavioral issues, but Right. Right. Right. Right. Academic sense. I mean, their lunches, they're down a little bit, right? And if they're going into, you know, maybe desks that are old, kids are bigger nowadays, right? Some of this stuff is in really bad shape, too. Just being honest. I mean, as long as the cafeterias have
045enough and the classrooms have enough I I mean I would I would lean more to replace what's in the worst shape, right? But if we're if we're concerned that the child's not going to have a place to sit in a classroom or a child's not going to have a place to sit in a cafeteria, then obviously those in my opinion would be the the bigger need. But if we could kind of maybe look at what the dollar amount of what um link on her name can take care of with that smart school and kind of see see what the finances look like. I mean obviously you know we'd like to replace them as quickly as we could, right? I mean we don't want children sitting in broken desks in chairs either. I know you started
046to say when we went on the tour and The last few years we've heard the same thing for sure. Especially at the high school chairs and things might right. So I think I sat though. Yeah. So I mean it's time for sure. Definitely is. I like the idea two threeear plan. Yeah. I mean once you can take out what can be taken up to smart school and we get a better idea. Maybe maybe it can be a twoear plan forever. you can take a look at what you think we can do as well, right? And then get things ordered because we can do this here and then and I guess what are we taking out to put this in? So that's my question because we have like immediate equipment are $133,288. Where would we remove
047from to be able to put that in? we don't necessarily have to remove at this point. You know, we we could add on to, you know, like I said earlier, um we I haven't included any of this money in the budget yet. Um and our numbers are going to change quite a bit. So, you know, I did my original estimate that I gave on February 3rd. I've got I'm going to go back through every single number. A lot of those numbers have changed significantly since then. Money somewhere. Possibly. Possibly. I mean I'm just the foundation. Is any of this going to be in the capital improvement project? So none of this would really be aidable in the capital improvement project. So it wouldn't make a ton of sense. Usually FFN fixtures, furniture, and equipment is
048not aidable in the capital improvement project. You can do it, but it's 100%able expense. Same as if we did it. So some of this isable. for foundation. None of this is so we have to find we have to find money in our budget for this. So I guess we can fine tune those numbers and then when we have the fine tune then let us see what a two three year program look like and then maybe it'll take care of itself. in order to put some of this stuff. I guess one more question too about if you could add it in there like what this 133 immediate need like what the total is that include the immediate need the 619 or is that so the 619 is the shortterm? Yeah. So that would be an addition
049to so if you add all all of the all three of them up and and not it not not all of the principles included items for every phase. Um so but it based on what we have here today I think it's right around a million dollars. So you know that's how long do you want to kick the can down the road is really what it comes down to. you know, we didn't do much last year and you know, the further we kick it down the road and the more expensive it becomes. So, you know, kind of the my thought is we start picking away at it and you know, just start getting some things replaced. So, were you looking to get this immediate possibly into this year's budget, this 133? Uh, I could I could
050some of uh You mean in the 2425 budget? No. Okay. So, some of these immediate needs I think we can cover in the 2425 this year's budget. Um, not a ton of them, but you know, some of the smaller ones I think we can take care of. Uh, so I I could look at just doing the immediate needs for next year. Um, that's one option for sure. I'm just trying to understand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so what are we going to come out of our current budget then? We'd have to on what you're talking about 24.5. That's where we're sitting at right now. So, you know, the budget changes all throughout the year. So, right now, I'm in the process of of, you know, closing our budget out. So, once I get a better
051idea of where everything's going to fall, then we'll be able to make decisions on, okay, you know, we've got a little bit of room, we can we can do this. So, you know, the budget is ever changing. You know, every literally every single day it's it's changing. Um, so, you know, we're at closing things out. Uh so we shut most of the purchasing down in in March so that we can start closing things out and and getting a good idea of where we're going to end the year at and if we're in a reasonable position then we'll try to try to get some of these things done this year. So if we have extra money instead of moving it to reserves correct like last year we were in a very favorable position so we did
052waver last year. It was a combination of, you know, looking at the all the extra costs that it would have cost us and we were in a favorable position to do that. So those are some of the end of the year decisions that we make. Did we move any money into service? Yes, does really not have any short term. We have cafeteria tables. That's my um you're on the first and last but nothing in the middle. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a missing. I don't want to leave you out. I'll give it back. We worked on this, you know, in a very short short. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything missing. I don't want to leave Max out. I appreciate that. Um Well, I mean, it would it would
053be I mean, it would be great to know what um the IG part of it can think that she is. I mean, is it just these two touch? So, to 6,000. Is that what we're looking at? Correct. I think most of the other text touchc screens weren't included on here. So, I don't know that smart schools is going to take a big chunk off of here. But, you know, we can mostly, you know, we're we're looking at everything. No, I know. I'm just And you're talking about this year's budget and the numbers, right? Like, would you have more of that information? I mean because I mean if we could pick up some of that I mean 30 40 of it by the by the next session I I will have a lot more because it
054would be great to say that we could dump this on next year right but I I mean and these were obviously decided with administrators they kind based on what they want correct I mean if we could pick up a portion of it already this year it would be easier to say yes let's just put it all next year, right? So, um I agree. I mean, that's what I would love to say, but if not, I mean, when you're looking at this number, to me, it's almost a two year, but maybe with more information this year. By the next session, I'll have a lot more information on it before I think we're going to close out this year next year's budget. Yeah. I mean, it'd be great to have it all done by and then and
055then we could take a look at the short term and maybe figure that to five or if that's what you think short term is. I I don't know. Yeah, we didn't really define, you know, shortterm or long term like what that actual term was. Maybe we could do that maybe once we figure out I don't know this year or next year if we could have if we could have the immediate needs done by the end of next year, we could maybe define shortterm long term this year. Well, this year I this year this school year finished out by 26. If we can define the term that would be great how many years we're considering short term be great to have the immediate app. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, I just I just wanted to share this with
056the board. Um, the Grand Island Teachers Association sent a letter to the board asking for some support with respect to building based subs. It was well thoughtout letter, a lot of information. Uh in response to that letter, I'm asking the board to consider uh raising the daily rate of our substitutes. So you'll see that there's a chart here that says 2024 2025. Shows the daily rate of a retired GITA, a building based sub, a perdm certified teacher sub, and an uncertified teacher sub. So you can see what those daily rates are this year. And then you can see the proposed changes which would be significant. In this proposed changes uh we would be asking the the board of education to create some positions called districtbased floating subs. That would be a certified substitute teacher that
057could work elementary, middle or high school. And that rate would be $25 a day. building base sub rates. Uh that's traditionally just for a singular building. That would be $200 a day. Uh retired GITA would move from 160 to 195. And it's a little lower than the building based subs because this could be a retired GITA teacher who may only be interested in working a couple days a week or one day a week or three days a week. So that rate would be at 195. However, a retired GITA could become a building based sub as well, but they're committing to four days a week. Uh, additionally, the daily certified teacher sub rate would move from 145 to 170. And then the uncertified teacher sub rate would change from 125 to 140. So, we tried to
058break this down by the hour. So, you can see the rate, the daily rate, the hourly rate. The last column is is a little exaggerated because um it just kind of gives you an idea if somebody were to work 184 days at these rates what what could be made but it would be very difficult I think to do that. So uh for example you know a daily certified teacher sub at 170 probably wouldn't work 184 days. So, it it does give it extend it out that way. Just to kind of give you a sense and uh as Bob shared with the board earlier, uh the Senate assembly and the governor are still debating whether or not they're going to there's going to be a waiver for how much a retired person can make in public
059education. Uh right now, the waiver does allow uh to be a a lot more than the traditional $35,000 cap. So if there ever was a cap um this this would be very attractive I think for district based floating subs building based subs or retired GITA and to be clear like the sub would choose to be a float and then the district would decide where that float would go. Correct. So that if there was a need you know in the secondary or they would make that choice and then the district would have that flexibility to say you're going to go to Yeah, exactly. So that we have and that's really because right now I'm just looking at our elementary principles. I don't think we have a building base up in our elementaryaries, but we do in
060our secondary. So this would give that incentive to be available for both elementary and secondary. But because they don't, that person, if we had a applicant, they more than likely would go to elementary because of the vacancies that we have. So we a single building. That's correct. I I have one starting on April 1st. All right, that's good. So, but we have allowed it for three per building and so that would be our first but at the high school I think we have three. Oh, just because you promote it. You promote it. But you started the year with three. Yeah. And two. So, we have five. We started the year with five at the secondary. We recently promoted a building base up to a long-term substitute position. So So these rates grow is pretty competitive,
061right? I mean, I think we this would be a significant change and probably we would be leading most schools with these rates. Yeah. All right. That will help with the bridge. Yeah, the bridge. I just have the same thing. The toll to the computer to the computer toll is not that much. I was going to say if they come up four days a week, they might be eligible for the uh computer. The computer rate is good, too. At the last meeting, I thought that Bob did a great job in including this. This isn't necessarily part of the budget, but it does allow the board uh to see the needs uh based on the building condition survey and the work that Joy and Ashley and Roger are doing on the district facilities committee. So now all
062the board can see some of the priorities uh that were established in the building condition survey as we start uh finalizing uh perhaps what the board would approve a future capital project with a vote in December. So, these slides are are, you know, for your information. Um, Roger and Joy and Ashley are scheduled to meet on March 26, which is this Wednesday, down at Young and Wright headquarters to continue the conversation of the capital project scope. So, I thank the board for having this information and revealing it and being prepared uh for a future presentation. So, uh 32 does not have any changes on it. Get added. Oh, uh not on that particular one, but it is on there. We will be discussing that um in a in a new sign made. No promises. We
063got to determine the scope. Uh so uh slide 33 is is the draft budget recap and then our fund balance at this time. Um as I've stated before, we're looking at using that uh the capital reserve and the debt service reserve uh for our upcoming capital projects. Um so you know, we do anticipate that money will be used over the next couple years for those projects. Um, so hoping to protect this fund balance as much as possible. And 34, the tax cap calculator has not changed. So 35 has not changed. Um, slide 36 is proposition number two. Still doing a lot of work with Teresa on on figuring out a a game plan for next year. Um, so right now I have not changed this slide. It's got a a budget amount of 805,000 in
064in there. Um, we will be most likely decreasing this by one or two buses, uh, which will bring us down, you know, somewhere in the in the 250,000 range. Unfortunately, that will probably go towards contracted busing and then some. Um, you know, we lost another driver the other day. We've got a few retirements and as of right now, I believe we only have one in in the wings. So, um, we are trying to increase our our, uh, advertising and stuff, but, you know, when I talk to folks around the region, everybody's struggling in this area. You know, people are struggling to get drivers even with, you know, all sorts of incentives and everything else. And it's just we aren't seeing people replacing those those leaving this area. Even even the contracted companies are really struggling
065to find people these days. So, There was a school dis there was a there was a school district that just um there was a little bit of no a little bit of an uproar. They were had to have a quarter of a mile having to walk. Um was it I think you guys are talking about the same thing. Probably sweet home. Sweet home. Yeah. No, I did not. Is that what you were saying? It was sweet home. Quarter mile. Busy streets. Lots of concerns. But I think I think it was able to save them six buses. Yeah. So I it was just on the news. I I don't know if you caught that. It was in the Sherry, did you see it? I think it was just in the last couple weeks. I was like,
066so I mean just another sign that everybody is struggling. They made a lot of big changes. Um you know, so so obviously they changed their walking radius. They also went to uh three tier I believe. They they changed the schedules. They added the walking. I think it was It's only a quart of an island which I think it ended up only adding like 50 kids or something which is why they did but it took six boxes away. So it was wasn't a lot of kids but it was still obviously upsetting the parents. What did you hear? No I was I heard a few districts offering referral incentives. So if I were to refer interest I would get 500 and they were hired to train after whatever month $500. I I believe that sweet sweet home
067as well, Jay. And I I uh saw Don Feldman the other day. I asked him to share that stuff with me. So, you know, always always open to new ideas and um you know, there was a referral bonus both both for the new driver and for the refer. Um so, you know, most certainly open to to looking at whatever we can do to get some drivers here. Um, so continuously looking at that, but I will have this slide updated for next time for sure with a plan going forward. And just to be clear for our community, this may change, but what is not on here are zero emission buses, gas or diesel. Correct. Right. The normal the normal proposition. Correct. Thank you. Um, so I did I did uh include a a possible proposition third
068on the uh Proposition three for electric bus on the February 3rd presentation. Is is there any appetite to do that? Uh do we want to entertain that or do we want to wait off and hold off? I I I'm willing to say I think we should hold off. I mean especially with you know with executive federal orders saying no and the fight between our state and the federal government and with all the unknown. I I think I don't know. I agree. I think it would be hard to explain to the public that we're gonna vote in ask. Perfect. So that's just I don't know what everybody else agree. Okay, perfect. Just my opinion. We are still collecting information on it. We're still, you know, getting prices and things like that. I think Phil just sent
069me an email earlier today with a a quote to install one charger in uh at the bus garage. So, we're still gathering information and and doing every you know doing our due diligence, but um you know, just want to make sure that we discuss that. So, um April 22nd is our next scheduled meeting. we have the option to add uh Monday, April 14th if you folks would uh like to do an extra um special meeting for to look at the budget again on that date. Um and then we will do the budget public hearing on May 6th and then the vote is on May 20th. I'm just being very good here, but go ahead. I I I would just say for that April 14th meeting um I mean a lot could happen between now and
070April 14th if you see any alarming changes and you think you need to bring us together because we're making cuts changes right but you know if we don't see anything I I think that meeting is at your direction I would say or the district's direction if there's something we need to amend and discuss because um the money has changed or we see funding changes that are drastically going to change what we're going to do. I think that and it was late last year. April 20th. So this last year, and I would also say if something happens after that April 14th um meeting and you think we need to meet before that April 22nd because you think we could always post something together. Understood. Um, you know, as long as we post it in that that
071amount of time and we can get a majority of all of us and do the best we can. I mean, if it's going to be drastic, it's it's important for us to get together and discuss it. Absolutely. We're we're out there constantly trying to get a policy and how things are going to happen. So if something you know hits our raises our alarms then we'll definitely let you get in touch with us and we can put as many of us together in a room. We can put them on screen or whatever that 14th day. Perfect. Sounds great. I had a quick question. It looks like um the toa that we talked about as being my hand. No, you're still Yes. Okay. I didn't see an accident in that side. The uh probably my fault. Okay.
072Um, so I had a question about all three. Sorry. All three of those things under district are still are consideration. Okay. I just missed putting X's there. Okay. But those are correct. Um, so I had a question about that position that I was just speaking about. Um, I know that they would teach the teachers, right, and educate them on um strategy. Yeah. Is there a part of that that could any type of education for parents? Would that be anything that they could add in? Because I know that parents struggle a lot um you know with behaviors and understanding how to help them at home with those strategies. And I'm just wondering if this position could maybe break out into a couple sessions for parents and educate them how the school is doing it and then
073they can do it at home so that becomes more I can say I can say this for sure. I mean that's definely you know that I'm hearing you say that I can say this for sure part of that position would be actually working with the teachers and then a lot of times those meetings there's IST meetings instructional team meetings or child study team meetings or just individual meetings I would say that that person during the school day during those parent meetings for sure would be talking to the parents about those strategies that they could transition from in school to home I think you're talking more about like a general overall session Yeah, you know how you do you've done those sessions obviously throughout the year about like mental health or you know um I can't
074remember what they're called but um you add those ones. I mean if we have this person and you or she's that knowledgeable in these areas can we have these type of breakout sessions as well and added to kind of throughout the year to say hey and you can focus on those. Yeah. So great suggestion. Uh, I can see exactly where you're going with it and through Jessica Hutchings, there may be opportunities to bring in some guest speakers, not necessarily these teachers on special assignment that would do a program similar to what you're saying. There's an excellent psychologist that we had brought in for our team, Dr. Mike Genbal, right, who could be somebody we would invite or pay to do a session with parents. Also, we might pay a teacher to do the same, but
075um just we don't want to commit and say in the duties a teacher has to be after school unless it follows the contract if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm just so I like the parent idea though. I like the parent program. I think there are some experts in um and I know Cheryl is also working with a particular parent in the district that wants to do more with parents of children who have special needs which would also open up a gateway to what you're saying. Yes. I know I met with Jessica Hings today too about the contin series and one of the things that we're looking into our next presentations how they deal with that in school. So that is actually our next session. It kind of leads right into what you're saying.
076Yeah. Because you're seeing more and more of these behaviors, right? And I think that parents are pulling out their hair at home. Correct. And I know I struggle with even helping with math or whatever. And my kids don't have IEPs. So helping those parents that have even more um you know, needs and I think being able to do these sessions for them. If you have somebody who's paying for can we can we bleed this over? Thanks. Okay. Any other questions for uh Dr. Mark or regarding the budget? Okay. Thank you. That will move us on to special education with Cheryl. Right. I have two action items tonight. Um the normal CPSC and CSSE program recommendations. Um so if I could have action on those please. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any extensions? Motion carried
0776. Thank you. And then um the yearly guidance plan has been included into your um packets. Um we do go over that as a PPS group. Um just some of the highlighted changes just so that you know um we did have the health week from the district health and wellness committee. We added that to it. We also uh put in the Viking cares initiative K to 12 in the plan. Um we did a lot a lot of changing of faculty and staff from um high school administration um our counseling staff uh middle school staff changing um Hugh and Kegabine um and also Sidway we also added a value to beans because if you remember evaluative beans has been solely in middle school um for a long time we did add it to fifth grade at
078youth and pe this year so we added that as well so that's just an update um I wanted to present it to the board before it goes up on the website um which will then go up this week. Thank you. Thank you. That brings us to the superintendence report with Dr. Graham. Yeah, thank you very much. Again, thank the board for all that you do for our community and our students. Uh today we had an opportunity to celebrate Brooke. That was fantastic to hold her medals and to see the great work that she's done. It's truly a testament to her and her family and all of our coaches and teachers. So, thank you uh to the board to give her that special recognition. Uh here's John uh part of the Viking uh not the Viking,
079the section six all-star team. Uh and I understand that they finished seventh overall and we're very proud of John. I talked to him today and he's excited about his next steps in the future. Uh he's thinking about accounting, but he's still not even a senior yet. So, a really great kid. Uh, and how about Carllin Hartman? What? It's so quiet. Carlin. You guys know Carlin, right? Some people know. So, Carlin is our uh he just was inducted into the Grand Island Hall of Fame. He leads all Grand Island athletes and the number of points that he has scored as a basketball player during his tenure with us. And he's an associate coach with the Florida Gator. and they just won again uh this weekend to advance the sweet 16. And Sue, would you like to
080mention the next honor he's going to get here? Oh, he is going to receive our distinguished alumni alumni. And I have the Gators going all the way on those free pools that you're in. You like that? Well done. Uh it's through work, of course. It is a true word. I have one too, but it's free. Doesn't cost a thing. But this is exciting and you know if you like March Madness, this was a close game. In fact, Florida was losing most of the game. So to see them come back and win was very exciting and we're just very proud of Carolyn. They did a great job. Yeah. And he gave us a shout out uh on social media today uh thanking Grand Island too and the Vikings. You know, he does quite a bit if
081you follow him. He does he does touch on his roots of Grand Island quite a bit. So yeah, and we're pulling for him. He's an associate coach, but CBS uh commentators been talking about him as a head coach in the future. So, he could be doing bigger and better things. So, uh we're also excited to announce Marian Garrow and Chris Simpson will be inducted or provided the Western New York Education Service Council Award for Outstanding Educators. It does conflict with our celebration of inspiration, but I know John is going to be here for celebration of inspiration and I'll attend this event. Uh, Cheryl, I know you you've known Mary for a long time. I don't know if there's any, you know, uh, you want to share with the board, anything that I have in my
082calendar. 5:15 is the, um, uh, pre-dinner networking. Networking. And then 6 PM is the start of the dinner. Yeah, exactly. And I know Mary's done some great work with us for many years. She is. But I think Felicia can say too because Felicia did work for, you know, Mary's been a teacher in the district. Oh my gosh, I'm going to go with at least 15 years now. Um, second to none, always helpful. She is the go-to person. Um, has been in every single classroom, Felicia. Correct. You know, um, just a really role model of a student advocate. So, she really is deserving of this award. And Chris, as everybody knows, has been teaching here for a long time. Obviously, he's an excellent coach, an excellent teacher. Uh but beyond that, uh he's very passionate about
083giving back to the community. Over the course of his time here, he has actually given Makea-Wish tens of thousands, tens of thousands of dollars to support local children through Make a Wish. So, he he's quite the asset to our school district. So, we're excited to share those honors with them on uh this important April 30th event. And uh this is exciting. Uh we're we're so proud of Kira Murray who is the daughter of the Murray and particularly our teacher Kevin Murray. Uh so she was just recently uh given the National Exchange Club award which is an award and a scholarship and she may advance and I'm just looking at Hillary. There may be some advancement after this I think but right now uh this was a big deal for our uh for our school and
084for Kira and she's I think you all met her recently in our top 10 so quite quite an outstanding student so we're very proud of her and of course uh we're promoting our cruise night was a big event we're actually quite pleased with the event last year want to thank the high school Hillary and Jamie and everybody who helped it was a great event and we're looking forward to the same thing uh right now June 18th uh 5 to 8:00 p.m. and it could be a rain day for June 19th when we meet that. So we're excited about that. I didn't get a chance to put um our meat raffle pictures in the slideshow. It was an excellent event. Raised over $4,000. Uh I want to thank Sue and Ashley for coming. Um and Jude
085of course was amazing in all of her organization and support. And of course the Grand Island Rotary uh remember that was to support growing readers which is a really great event uh or initiative and we're partnering with Dolly Parton Imagination Library too through the United Way to to support uh infants and toddlers and young preschoolers with a free book. So very exciting event. So thank you to everybody involved with that. And of course uh the golf outings coming up soon. probably tweak that advertisement, but we're excited about switching that over to Beaver Island Golf Course. So, anybody interested in this, please let Jude know so that we can get you a force for this special event. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay. And board of education report Sue, we have a couple reports. Yeah. So,
086Brian touched on I just uh just want to mention a couple things from the Sidway meeting. I so from the council meeting there was some questions on the staff directory on the website. So I did I did ask the question at the state meeting and there were quite a few um parents there that were looking for the stats directory at um on their website. So hopefully we'll get that up and um running soon because our parents are missing the staff directory. So, it's just a convenient tool for us parents to be able to click and email teachers or find staff. And I've already talked to Dr. Graham about it. So, they are working on that for all of you parents out there that are missing it. Um, another thing that has come up, it came
087up at this meeting. It has come up in the past is um Sidway does not have from the parking lot to their playground a walkway. So, I don't know if that is something you all talk about it at the next facilities meeting. It's not a long distance, but they leave the parking lot and then it's to the grass, right? Preschoolers use it, our students use it, our So, I don't know if that's I mean, they talk about funding it through their PTA, and it's I don't know if that's something we could do at a district level, put it in a capital project or it's it's on it's in our consideration. Okay. Okay. So, I just told them I would mention it. Um, and then the other thing, you know, Jay, I don't know if you
088have mentioned it. I think you have, um, one of your neighbors brought up having an open game. Yes. So, did you bring that up at the round table or No, but yes, there's been I've I've received questions regarding the availability of the gyms for the community and whether and how they go about signing out or getting gym time at night for just uh informal pick up basketball games and things of that nature. So, so Mike, if you want to speech what Mike answered it very basically said the best way to go about it would be through the ad program. They were looking for more like just to use the spaces and I kind of explained that that's not really possible because once I go home then there's nobody there to watch the gym. But if
089we have community or people that have the time signed out or things like that interest that would be a way to use it. He also said that he also said that it's very limited like especially this time of year athletics he explained that like even some of the sports teams use the gym at Sidway like there's a lot of a lot of misconception that the gyms sit empty right and they were you know I had you know they had talked about um the open swim maybe coordinating an open gym and you know I said you know that's just on Sundays during the week it would be difficult they you know they're talking all those young kids in the winter dark at 4:30 right there somewhere for them to run off their energy. So Mike did
090a great job answering I I but I did say we bring it up. Um I forgot I forget who I I'm no longer the community edison on I think you are. I mean maybe it's something you could bring up ordinate whatever I winter spring I just something where they can burn a Sure. I mean I know in the summer I believe there's a sports camp. Oh, yeah. For sure. Very good. Jude Jud is a particular person who loves running the sports camp, Jessica Brown. But, uh, to everybody's point, you know, my own son Sean Graham this weekend because he's on spring break, like, "Dad, can I use the gym?" No, dude. Stop it. Um, but because, right, there's so many other layers. the supervision piece plus the insurance piece too. So that came up as
091well. Yeah. So it's a significant ask. So going through an organization like community or temp is the best approach that that was that was mentioned as well. So and going back to your other comment about the playground, could you just help me visualize what the ask is? Okay. So Mike can run even better. When the kids leave school, it's the doors at the top of our building and they have to walk through the parking lot to get to the walkway. So they're ask between here and here. Correct. They just want to be able to get from the building to the playground without any correct. That's all. Just just a few things that came up that I thought I would bring my stick around because I do remember um donating bricks and there's like a brick
092with my Olivia's name on there and there was fundraising that went on. So the bricks that are along the walkway from the playground to the parking lot. There are but I can't I know because I have one there with my daughter. So I guess the I have is you guys got to help refresh my memory because it's been a while but the bricks were for the playground the walkway was a fundraising attempt through yeah for sure or a playground committee. So if we're unable to get or find funding for it is there a way that maybe we can explore that option. Oh yeah papers what they did back in 2020 I'm just saying if you know it's definitely a great idea because you don't kiddos obviously watching, but I'm saying if for some reason we
093can't get it in here, maybe a plan B would be something very similar to what we did in 2020 where we fundraised and we bought and we had the kiddos names down there and it went out to the community and everyone put it in. And I got to tell you, Olivia loves it. Like we go over there, she's like, you know, still she's going into sixth grade. I would hope that it being a safety concern that we can somehow get it into a capital project and get it sooner because I think when they originally were selling bricks it was going to be out by the sign out. So the bricks are by the sign for the playground. I think the bricks were sold to raise the money for the playground. No, I was just thinking
094if we can't do it for some reason, maybe a plan so we could at least get it is to explore that just as Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I had um graduation caps and decorating for seniors. Um I don't know if the board has any comments on graduating caps. Um, I don't know if you're decorating um for seniors being able to uh decorate their caps or if we know um Dr. Graham of other schools, high schools in the area that do this or we could look into whether other high schools do this in the area. Yeah, sure. I I know Hillary has reached out a little bit, done some research. It is it isn't a common practice is what I'm hearing. Even Loop doesn't allow it, you know, from from what we're gathering. We're
095just starting to gather some information and it becomes a little bit of administrative managerial concern as well. Yeah. And it's not just our administrators, it would be the teachers to try to police some of that. I think Falls does it, right? Pretty sure they allow it. I think I've seen it in teachers. Um, you know, that's a pretty big district. I know that I graduated from nursing school when I was in my 30s and I was excited to decorate my cab. So, I'm sure the kids that are graduating high school would love to, too. I just think it becomes hard to police, right? And if if if a student who comes with something that's inappropriate, um I've I've seen it I've seen it go ary and I've seen I've seen um it wasn't in this
096state or in this district and a child was unable to cross the stage and it was ugly. They the district did it one year and they haven't done it since and they will never do it again. Um the child broke the rules and there was no way you know and it said right in there if your cap was not done correctly you will not be able to cross the stage. When his cap was not done correctly he did not cross the stage. It was a huge fit and it almost ruined graduation day. I think it's a lot of pressure to put on the administration. We've all been in that room as board members. There's 200 kids excited. Everybody's busy. We have the staff trying to line them up, trying to get everything organized. Now they're
097monitoring caps, right? Like I love the idea. I decorated mine in college myself. Um I just think at at high school level. Um I I think I think it would be amazing, but I think it would be hard to police, for lack of a better word, and I think it would be putting a lot of added stress to to a day that I think is already very stressful for those who put it on and do a great job first. Yeah, I know it's a common practice at the collegiate level. I just wasn't sure if any other local districts were doing that and what they had in place to she has a list. So, we'll do a little Falls. I'm pretty sure I seen that last year. One of the things I was thinking was that
098you would definitely need something similar to the parking lots with a contract and a parent signature and to see what the design of the cap would be. So, I mean, obviously that parking lot has the parking lot spots had a little bit of policing and a contract that I remember signing as a parent as well. So, I know that it would be additional work um along the way, but and you know, obviously something to police as well. So, I don't know if there's if it's a common practice or if it's something that's not typically done, but I I definitely wanted to see are other districts doing it and then if they are doing it, how are they ensuring that it doesn't go ary and that it is um coming off without a hitch? Because obviously,
099we wouldn't want to have anything like that on our hands that did not go off without a hitch. I I like the idea though. I like the idea. I just, you know, obviously wouldn't want to have it um be a disaster either with the student not being able to log the stage. Yeah. Okay. So, moving on to public comment session. General items not included in the agenda. We do not have anyone sign up for that. So, that brings us to committee the whole items information for the round table beginning with Roger. Uh no. So, uh, proud of our student athletes and everything they accomplished. And that's, uh, huge shout out to the wellness committee. Um, I think we're doing a district-wide wellness week. Um, I know for the middle school, I really really loved um,
100I think it's like walk Thursday or something where the kids, they want to really um, have them go outside and do some walking. Um, but I think each school has their own theme. high school as well. So, it's not just one school, it's districtwide, which I love. Um that the district's all working together in it and they're kind of building it up throughout the week. Um and it's just really wonderful for the kids and different. What are some things that you guys are doing just so I can Well, I can I can get a report. I can reach out and then we'll share it. I know what the middle school is doing because my son goes there, but I know everybody's doing something. So, that'd be really great to follow up on. So, thank you
101guys for doing that and putting that work in. So, um, I just really want to say, uh, congratulations to those who put on the meet repon. Saturday was a lot of fun. It was well attended and hope you guys raised a lot of money for a great cause. Joy, I'm all set. All set. Okay. Um, a couple dates. We have our joint meeting with the town March 31st. So, next Monday at 7 p.m. here um in the PD room, spring recess, 14th to the 21st of April. Um another board of education meeting Tuesday, April 22nd. And um that's all. So with that, if I can have a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting at 9:02 p.m., please and a second. All in favor? I. Any objections? Any extensions? There are. Thank you. Good night,
102everyone.