Tuesday, June 9, 2026 Board of Education Study Session

001Yeah. >> Well, he's pretty pasty, >> so >> it is. It is. >> So, what happens is I realiz I haven't dyed my hair since I started work. >> It sure does. All right. Okay. >> We could do three weeks for >> although sometimes just our supply chair. >> Listen, I got yelled at because it was too warm. >> So, it's a little warm in here. >> That's true. Yeah, >> sick. >> What are you doing? >> Yeah. >> Because I would wonder if it could be raining or not. >> Yeah. No, it's not the sky. >> Is it supposed to rain tonight? >> Supposed to. Yeah. Thank you. thunderstorms, but I'm not sure if they're actually coming or not. >> I got a little scene. >> It was kind of a hit. Is it

002>> actually It's crazy. It sound I could use a little water out. >> I want to come visit people and >> never thought I'd say that, but it's been pretty dry. Everyone was like you I would be so sad. >> Are you and >> Yeah, they did that first. >> We want to go with Chris to get him out. >> Cuz we were all going to different schools. >> I don't even know where it's going to be. I know it's >> to go to gallerize that bond resolution. >> Get him out. He's just so bored. We're gonna go >> best Thursday. >> Virgil's Apple TV. >> I don't even know what tried to explain all to me, >> but it's going through Leworth Park on Thursday. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Supposed to be an

003absolute zoo. >> I already said they were close. >> I'm just I just want to see page not found. What do you mean? >> I don't have a whole lot of interest in trains. Just >> don't either. They're just like we don't have >> a pen. >> I kind of lost them. But >> I got a pen. >> Got like six of them. >> You ready? >> My free days I got this week. >> Did >> Okay, good. She was over there, too. She's on her way home. >> Okay. I'd like to um call our meeting to order. Um, can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with

004liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Um, let's take roll call. Maryanne, >> here. >> Uh, Scott, I'm here. >> Amy, >> here. >> Dirk, >> here. >> Danny, >> here. Um, Brian is excused tonight. Um, and I am here. May I have a motion and second to approve the role? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Um, against abstensions. >> Hey. Um, approval of agenda. Are there any comments? We will be voting on this agenda next week. Um, no comments on the agenda. Um, minutes from the previous meetings. Any comments on that? We'll be voting on the minutes next week. Okay. Communications. Um, does anyone have any communications to share? Okay. Unfinished business. We have none. So, that leads us to superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. Belanti. Um,

005we have a a a couple of u updates for the board tonight, including um the work of our DEI committee and the strategic plan. So, I I would like to start by calling up Dr. Wilson um and her and her group uh to come on up and present >> on up committee. So, I have a number of our committee members here with us tonight. Um you can move on to the slide. There we go. >> It's the whole audience literally. Oh yes. And and this is a a portion of the team. They're a mighty portion of the team, but there were a number of people who um gave up a a lot of time over this year to work with us on our strategic plan. And we met once a month, sometimes more than that,

006virtually when we needed to to do some check-ins. And so, um we want to dig into the work of this committee right now. So, if you go into the next slide, you'll see the full picture. Here's the full committee. These are all the folks who um you know they make up all different stakeholder groups. Um they and they all participated along the way. Um this group started with if you remember um some months ago um I presented on the thought exchange feedback from the community and so um they were deeply involved in anchoring in on the feedback from the community what you saw um a while back and using that to uh further develop our strategic plan. So um it's the second phase of our strategic plan 2026 through 2029. They were very thoughtful. Um

007you can see this is this is a session in which um we really were honing in all the papers on the on the table. A lot of that was either data points that they were looking at or that feedback from the community. Um and so using that we really think that we have a solid plan going into the next three years. Now, as I'm going to turn it over to some of them to present and when they come to the mic, I'm going to ask them to tell you their name and their and their role here in Sweet Home and then share their portion of the presentation. Up first, go on to the next slide. And I believe >> Good evening. My name is Steve Shepard. I'm high school assistant principal uh currently uh a

008part of Ready Academy. Um, so the portrait of a panther really comes from a statewide vision uh called the portrait of a graduate uh which is a really refreshing way to look at what students should be able to uh what students should be able to know and do by the time they graduate. Uh I think this is going to be in full implementation by 2029. Uh some of the key parts in here that are important to me um are is the fact that this goes beyond uh academic preparation which involves the standards what the skills and knowledge that a student should have. Uh something that uh all high school students have um kind of functioned under uh since I've been involved with high school students. passing the regions has been the the true measure of

009getting through a course and through high school. Um, but if you look at this myriad of categories here, um, you find things that are super interesting like a critical innovator, uh, or a a creative innovator, um, where you're using imagination, um, curiosity, you're flexibly thinking about problems and getting through them. uh being a critical thinker, being able to evaluate and criticize something, looking for patterns across different uh different subject areas and contents. Uh becoming an effective communicator, uh which is super important. Uh being able to confidently and clearly articulate a point of view, I think is super important for any high school student who's going to move into the world. Um then we have things like a global citizen. So being able to think beyond just the local the nation uh what it's like in

010the world beyond uh out there and being able to communicate with different people um you know being able to sustain things regionally um I think that's a really great category and then last but not least is just being a reflective learner uh which anybody who is taught knows no true learning really happens without that reflection reflective piece and then being able to set goals and reflect reflect on oneself and and become a better uh learner, thinker, and a a human being um through those goals. So, this is a a fabulous way to look at what our students are going to be able to do uh once they get out of high school beyond just passing the regents. These are key critical attributes that are um they're they're worthy of imparting to our young people. Thank

011you. Good evening. I'm Jayvon Coleman. I'm a student. Um, here we have the three overarching goals that we established in 2023. Uh, they are broad and very much designed to take SU home into the future, ready for the world. At the DEI meetings we've had once a month since October I believe um members have been looking at the goals reviewing the language used throughout them and defining each part. First we have goal one which is teaching and learning which shows how sweet provides learning experiences focused on supporting students and developing strong academic skills while amplifying student voice. Second, we have future focused, which shows how sweet home coursework provides real world experiences that engage students while teaching and nurturing critical life skills. Lastly, goal three, which is whole child. This shows how Sweehham students grow

012and learn in an environment that's engaging, welcoming, accepting, and safe. Where students believe their voices are heard and where they have opportunities to engage with each other through relationships in the real world. These three goals will remain at the center of our focus as a district. Our committee did adjust the rationals and objectives to reflect an increase of positivity. For example, the rationale for goal to future focus was tweaked to a shift to emphasize of the talents and gifts students and a gifts of students in a more positive light. This has been a long process overall and members of the DEI committee have put in a lot of work finalizing these goals and we're proud to be able to put them out today. Thank you. I'm Katie Baril, Larry, director of special programs. Um, this

013slide here, uh, just gives an overview of, um, our proposal to include, um, how we want how we want to measure our outcomes, uh, which is the MRA. And the MRA or the measurable results assessment is already embedded into the leader and me work uh, that our district engages in. So each year students starting in the upper elementary grades um staff members and families have an opportunity to take part in this survey and provide input um around school climate and mindsets. Um at present our district's current scores are considered satisfactory. So we have a nice healthy foundation from which to grow from. Um at the elementary level, our goal will be to increase scores in the areas such as uh goal achievement, empowering teachers and empowering learners. And at the middle and high school levels,

014we would like to look to increase participation in the MRA in year one and then develop goals uh based on the input in years two and three. Thank you. >> Katie, can I just can I just ask you a quick question? when you say empower learners, how what does that look like? >> So, um when we're talking about I'm just going to switch my note page here. Um for empowering learners, um this is an opportunity for kids um to work on they call them wigs sometimes wildly. >> So, it is measurable. >> Yes. Yes. >> My main Okay, good. >> Do you want me to keep going on or >> No, that's okay. I just want to make sure it was something measurable that we can kind of quantify and say yes, we're making progress

015because I I think it's great that we're satisfactory, but I think all of us want to get higher and higher and reach for the stars. Agreed. >> Katie, is there a plan to get um increased participation or was this only sent to a small group in the first year? It it it says only 31 students and five staff engaged. So I'm kind of curious as to was it not sent to everybody or was everybody just So you're talking about the high school level? Yeah. So this is um still uh work that's very much in the foundational stages and so it is um it was initially you know given and uh there was an opportunity for people to participate. Um, I believe our plan is to increase those efforts to have more participation in subsequent years.

016>> I just want to make sure it wasn't just a small per group of people that it was sent to. It was sent to everybody, right? >> I personally did not send it. So, I'm just going to turn around and ask for uh additional I don't want to say the wrong thing here. >> That's okay. That's why I'm asking. So, um, as you recall, we were in a reboot at the secondary school. So, the middle school and the high school. And our re our reboot involved making sure we got our lighthouse teams up and running. You saw leadership day start to happen at the middle school. The high school was in a different place. We're trying to meet each school where they are to push them to the next level. And so they did only

017um pull a small number of students that year. So our goal is to really push to get it to be schoolwide as you're asking to get it out to all parents, all students. >> Thank you. That that was my question was if that was the reason why we kept it small or did we send it to everybody and they just didn't do it. >> Thank you. >> Hello, I'm Antonio Perry, principal at Heritage Heights Elementary and um speaking on the teaching and learning goal number one, uh we're going to continue uh to audit for ELA and numeracy at the elementary level. uh tier two and tier three intervention. Uh the focus has been on uh tier one at the elementary level and continuing um with the audit uh curriculum audit cycle uh with an intense

018focus on portrait of a graduate. Uh the key factors um are artificial intelligence and nextgen standards and again portrait of a graduate. >> Hello, my name is Natasha Pavish. I'm the assistant principal at Sweet Home Middle School. With goal two, which is future focused, we are going to focus on leader in me expanding that program that has been really beneficial. We've seen a lot of growth um in the students in the elementary level. We want to continue to really strongly um implement the at the secondary level leader me programs. So that's the expansion we will be focusing on. Um we would like to put emphasis on developing um capstone projects specifically in elementary school. Um again with the first slide I was explaining the pan the portrait of the panther we would love to um

019put the portrait of the graduate um that vision into action steps. So the key factors will be leader in me um career exploration and development. Hello, my name is Jonathan Mikley. I'm a community member. I'll be speaking on goal three uh old child. Uh this goal, the major aspects of the work would include uh continuing the work of uh implementing restorative practices for the elementary and secondary schools. would involve continuing uh with the MTSSI with a focus on identifying gaps and uh making plans to address those gaps at the elementary and secondary level. And uh key factors would include uh social emotional screeners and uh supports for all tiers. So what you received is just a really highlevel view of the the plan that we're proposing to you for our strategic plan 2026 2029. You

020have the full document. We gave you high high level. So as you look at it, you'll see there's much more there. Um the team spent a lot of time really going back to what was the feedback from our community, what what are the points that we can bring to the table that we know just from our experience in Sweet Home and um how do we apply that to our data, our district-wide data? And so what you have with you to review as our proposed plan um the three goals and the action steps for um the next three years. Keep in mind that the portrait of the graduate or portrait of a panther is um it's a work in progress because as we get more and more information from the state, we have more to develop.

021So, we're right on pace to be um on track with what the state needs us to do in the next few years. By 2029, um we will we will be fully into that that new pathway or that new those new opportunities for students to graduate. And we'll open up for any questions. You ever look like where you were and where you are now and say, "Wow, we've come a long way." >> It's a it they this this I think we need to give them a round of applause, right? First because it's >> a lot of work. >> A lot of fun. >> It is a lot of work. And sometimes, right, as I'm look around the the group, we gave you a bunch of data reports. You're like, "Oh my goodness." Right. Right. It was

022a lot of trying to pull that together. um a lot of really looking at what we have there and how do we continue to tweak it and so I think this team has has done a tre a tremendous job but then once it's developed and it's out there in the community our departments have to take hold of it and make sure they have action plans. So we have the office of curriculum instruction that's a huge part of that but then every department has a piece um you know every department has a has a part in this plan. So um and then it it's up to us as a community to put it into action and make it a living plan. when some of us went to what school was that we saw the strategic >>

023um years ago we went there was >> Syracuse East >> East Manoa >> I saw where they were it scared me a little because I said how do you ever get to this point they were living it and we're getting to that point >> uh the MTSSI that's multi-ter systems of support for through intervention um that is that is full running full steam ahead. It's a big component of goal three. It's woven all throughout of the other two goals because it's the plan to support every need that every student has. And that I mean Kate, Miss Bareri has led that now for we've been up and running with a full team for the last what three years? Two. Yeah, three years. um and they meet weekly and they we've done a they've done a tremendous

024amount of work um to get what what we have in place through screeners um on the social emotional side and on the academic side um looking at how we continue to grow to be um consistent across the board and literacy and numeracy. So >> is there good buyin from staff? I mean goodbye. >> We Well, the the key is that we and people chime in. If I somebody wants to >> Oh, I'm sorry. M >> You want to say something? Go ahead. >> I I just want to say like she's being modest. She's very humble as a leader. What she's been able to do over these years facilitating this has been nothing short of amazing and she has this district to do great things. So, I just want to give Oh, thank you. >> credit

025that's credit that's due for Thank you for that. It's the key is making sure that everybody feels like they have a role and a place in it. And so having this team feel like their voices were heard in the plan, but then having staff members who are participating on committees have a voice in developing the action steps that follow up. You know, all those pieces come together. >> So people aren't just looking at and say, "Gosh, they're giving me more work to do." It's a living it's a living plan. Do you wanna anybody want to chime in? >> I think that there there multiple pieces to this plan and I think if you focus on each piece and we don't go this is the document you're going back to this document but if you just

026have the goals like leader in me for example growing in secondary and that's part of what we do on a daily basis. So it becomes it's really the action steps that we focus on versus okay now we're going to go back and this is the document we everything's already tied we mention it but we work the work we put now the action steps into into action. >> So to to that point um we worked really hard to take out jargon right like to include it when we needed it but to make it usable. Uh that was a really important uh focus of a lot of our work was like okay what does this mean? Is it just you know are these pie in the sky words on a page and to the point about the

027MRA. So um what I can say is I have a child in elementary and a child in middle school and I work in a middle school and we do have sort of a blueprint to follow to to kind of get more involvement. I can tell you um at Willow Ridge we are spammed with the MRA code um at every at every opportunity actually um and so you know maybe the numbers aren't necessarily where we'd like them to be especially at the middle and high school levels um but that is getting more people involved with this as like a living document as something that um is only strong if it's used and if there's maximum input. Um, so those are those are things we're working towards actively. >> Thanks. So, oh, do you want anybody else?

028>> You hear the MRA and you think it sounds like a survey, but it's so much more than a a survey. It you get um information back on your school community, slice and dice in every which way from stakeholders, uh, the parents, from the staff, and from the students. And then you get, um, a metric in each of the areas. And so the principles actually helped us pick those those um areas to make sure they were the most appropriate for where what we for what we need here in Sweet Home. Did you have a question, Miss Anthon? Did I cut you off? I'm sorry. >> When you're done, >> I'm done. >> Good. Okay. Um so it's specifically around goal one for the teaching and learning section where it says the key factors are AI

029nextG standards and the portrait of a graduate specifically the AI component of it. Um, so I'm in school now myself and at this point when I learn something about AI 3 weeks from now, it is not true anymore. Um, or the information has shifted or changed or it's stale. And so I guess I'm just wondering how are we going to keep pace with that? And when we talk about AI is the expectation for AI usage for staff, for students, for everyone, how are we going to keep it safe? How are we going to make sure that we're using it appropriately as things continue to shift by the minute? Lots of questions wrapped up in there, right? Um, you're also going to be hearing tonight about our district technology plan and so to understand that the

030strategic plan is one big plan, but then it pulls in components that will be with supporting plans. So, our technology plan is a huge component of that. Um, in the past year, we made some steps in making sure we have board policy about um, AI. We've updated our language. You'll see that coming with the code of conduct. Um, we did a little bit of updating last year. There'll be some more updates um, coming with our code of conduct, but it's all about how we continue to support the professional learning for for staff and and helping our students um, have good experiences with technology, AI included. And so, it's all it's all woven through. And I'm not sure I fully answered your question, but I think by the time you finish tonight, you'll hear more about

031the technology plan and more elements of that. Yep. I guess I should ask a question. Here you go. I'll stay on the subject of this MRA. What exactly are you measuring? Are you measuring success of achievement in in the academic side? Are you measuring success in uh some of the other components you want a student to attain as a portrait of whatever? >> It's a holistic. >> How do you Oh, I'm sorry. and you use it as a loop to go back and maybe apply some of the support systems >> and what's the history of that? How is that performing today? >> So the MRA is a holistic um measure and anybody who would like to chime in I'll I'll give it a go and then people can chime in. It's a holistic measure. So

032when people hear leader and me they think oh it's a leadership program and it's so much more than that. is not first we try to not refer to it as a program. It's more of a way of being. So there's a huge um academic component to um that way of being to push a student to think about where they are assessing themselves and being able to go on to the next level. So um you heard um Miss Bar Larry talk about wigs wildly important goals but then you also um have studentled conferences that the student is doing that assessing where they are being able to express that and know what their goal is to go on to the next level and what they need to do to to get there. That is in education that's

033the highest level you can get to. Um, when you look at educational research, there's some hardcore research out there about that being the biggest component to move student learning in a classroom. So, the MRA has a huge component there in the academic piece. But then there's the social emotional piece um helping students really cope with everything and anything that they they need and and be a good citizen in their school community. Um, and then just school culture overall. Those are some big overarching components of the MRA. It is a it's a large survey. Some of some of you have taken it. Um you know that it covers there's number of questions. It covers a lot of information. We gave you um in our strategic plan there's one metric for each one of those areas, but

034we actually get back several metrics. Um as a team we looked at that data um as we u made the decision to write it into the strategic plan. Okay, >> that answer your question. >> I just want you I want to hear that yes, we can see a student progress. >> Yes, you will be able to see a student progress. Yes. >> And have we seen progress since this this system has been in place? Go ahead. Um so at the middle school for MRA results for example we we as a team we sit down and look exactly at the percentage increases in each of those areas. There's culture, there's academic, there's leadership. So we look and it really does measure for each area and then it dissects it in these overarching goals that um Dr.

035Wilson has talked about. So it does give us really green and red and percentages are we growing in these areas and specifically which ones and then what work do we need to do we decide as a team. So it is specific. Now these percentages do um have a tendency of growing a little bit slower. Um that's what we're finding out with this algorithm. But there definitely is they're valuable because we can sit down and see okay where exactly do we need to continue to put more emphasis on and strengthen. Um we for example at the middle school we noticed that we want to make sure that our students really feel they belong and there's that the cultural piece and leadership piece. Um so one of our goals for next year based on these MRA results

036is that every student has a feels like they have a role or a leadership job within the building whether that's in being in the classroom somebody who opens the doors answers the phone to something bigger than um being you speaker at the um leadership day at assembly. So it really goes um wherever a student feels comfortable with but it really pinpoints to that um specifically or large. It goes it's a spectrum. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So I can give an example of some of the questions that I answered um both as staff and parent. So um at the elementary level I know uh do you feel like your school is receptive of your feedback as a parent? So rate this from I don't remember if it was 1 to five or 0 to 10

037or something like that. Do you feel like your teachers are responsive to you? 0 to 5, 1 to 10. And so one of the things that this committee did um is take some of those responses and it's hard because it's their feelings, right? Or their senses of your place in the community. And so how do you put a a number to those? But if we're asking a large group of people, okay, like try to put on a scale of one to 10, um, I think of it kind of like, oh, the pain index, right? When the doctor says like, give me give me your pain on a scale of 1 to 10, right? Okay. So, in the middle school and at the high school level, I know one of the things we looked at was,

038do you feel like you belong, right? Like uh Natasha said. And we noticed that that number was a lot lower than we'd really like, right? So, okay, what what can we do to make that better? And as Natasha was saying, like we're focusing on getting more kids involved. Okay, what do you want? What do you want to hear? What do you want to see? I know a survey just went out to my middle school daughter. What do you want the activity nights to look like? Right? And it's other things, too. It's not just what do you want? Right? But it's how can we address the perception walking into a building? Because if you have a bunch of people who don't feel like they have children or parents or community members who don't feel like they

039have a stake in what's happening inside the building, well immediately your teaching and learning outcomes are going to go down, right? Because they're not invested. So I hear you that you're say that what I hear and please correct me if I'm wrong that that some of these are kind of nebulous things, right? And how do you measure them? How do you grow them? And also it's trying to put a pulse on how people understand what we're doing, how the community understands what we're doing. And if we un we think we're doing a really great job in one way, but then the community understand doesn't feel like that's we are doing a good job. Is that where's the breakdown? Right? Is that a communications breakdown? Is that an actual what we're doing? Is it meeting the

040need of the community? So it actually does get very very tangible in things like do you feel like that your school uh sends out adequate communication and things like that. So yes, we're trying to put a a tangible number on sort of a an intangible thing, but our hope is that if you and the the ser the MRA says if you ask enough people these kinds of questions, you know, going back to that pain index thing, like everyone sort of understands in the medical community, if you say your pain's at a nine, like well, okay, we got we got to like intervene here somewhere, right? So it's not it is subjective but we're trying to get measurable results as much as possible. >> But so you measurable results of things that are if those are

041good good measures will they produce better academic and results you know so you're kind of taking a survey. How do you feel about the school? Well, I feel this way. But if we can improve how they feel about the school, you think that that'll make them a better student, learning more things and becoming a better >> 100%. Like when you're unhappy at work, what does your work product look like? >> Oh, Mr. Rabbit, one of the things I want to throw in is something we've talked about on the board. I'm going to use the term we've used in the past, fuzzy goals. This is a way of actually putting hard numbers on our fuzzy goals that we've talked about in the past and to see if we're moving in the right direction with those things.

042And our belief is that moving in the right direction with those things is also going to help us move in the right direction on the hard numbers and the math scores and the ELA etc. etc. >> So the history of this is this a short history? Are we moving in the right direction with these fuzzy goals? >> That one I have to leave to you. >> So so um we've had growth over the years. Um and we have several reports that we anchor in on. Um we are in some places we look like we are continuing to grow. In some places we're looking one school might look like they're performing a little bit better than another. What how can we learn from that? Like how can we cut across the schools to say okay you

043had a growth you had growth in that area. What what's happening in your school that we can learn from? >> Um and so that was those were big components. We really wanted to to think about how we put a metric that made sense for us here in Sweet Home. leader and me and Franklin the work of Franklin CVY is a huge rock for us and when you really peel it apart you were asking um if the question you were asking basically is does positive culture correlate with um academic success and there's a ton of research out there about that that the the whole feeling like you belong you matter your voice makes a difference um it's important that you're here helps to produce helps to improve Again, that's kind of where I'm going with this.

044So, where are we with this positive culture, our own sweet home positive culture, and how has it impact the measurable things we're looking for academics and whatever else? >> So, you the metrics that we have laid out for in that what I believe it's in our goal section um tell you where we are in this moment and we're right now we're at the satisfactory mark. Now, the Franklin CVY measure takes us up to 80 and then you go into the next level. Um, in some places we're right there at 79. Um, in some places we're at 73. So, you'll see those numbers there. And so, it depends on the metric that you're looking at. Um, and you, as you can see, we pulled out three different measures. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Yep.

045The questions. Anything the committee wants to say? Anybody from the community? >> Just want to say thank you and count the countless hours of of time and volunteerism and effort and energy put into this. Um, you know, it's it's crazy that the three the three years have passed by and um and now we're in year four. We're moving into year four. um and to to put all that work and time in over the year to give us a three-year extension and a framework for moving forward with our numbers. Um I think it puts us on the right path and uh you know I'm excited uh to work to reach these goals and I know the team is excited too and your work is not done uh but uh but we we really truly appreciate all

046the time and energy and effort you put in um to make this happen and to make Sweden a better place. So thank you. >> Thank you J. in general. So the one last thing I would like to leave everyone with is that if the document doesn't if you want to see something in the document to make it better to make it more measurable to help us lead it to um acade measurable academic success, right? So translating fuzzy goals into academic success. This only this document only works as much as there's buyin, right? So any feedback on it, any feedback on, hey, I noticed this doesn't match up with this. How are we going to do that? There's lots of data supporting all this as Dr. Wilson said. So I would just encourage everyone to engage

047with the document as much as possible so that we can >> actually make it work for us. >> Well, that that's kind of the question, too. How much buyin do you have? >> I think it depends on the school and Dr. Wilson's numbers to those effects, but we can continue this conversation all day long. Um, I just it I just wanted to say that I think those are the right questions to be asking. >> Okay. >> And we'll go from there. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thanks, Katie. >> All right. Next up, we have Dr. Kazakowski and Mrs. Harrington to uh present the instructional technology plan to the board. >> Hi everyone. I'm Beth Kazakowski, director of curriculum and instruction. So, just to kind of >> Mr. Back there, Mr. Simara as well. Sorry guys.

048Sorry. Our tech coaches are here. >> Bodyguards >> as well. >> They don't stand up right away. >> This technology plan establishes a clear vision for using technology to create innovative learning environments, improve our district operations, and prepare students for success in a digital world. So, I'd like to acknowledge our district tech committee, many of which are here tonight. So, Elena Blank, Brent Peterson, Lindseay Harrington, Natasha Papovich, Paula Simandera, Leans Loch, Mr. Dr. Feldman, Dr. Janestri, Dr. Wilson, who are all um big contributors to this work. So, it kind of works out perfectly that this strategic plan presented first because this is all tied in together. And so, what we're we're trying to be really thoughtful about is making sure that the work is all connected. People don't feel like it's one more thing or

049a separate initiative that they all really support each other. So to just kind of explain the timeline and how we got to the place that we are, we spent some time um reviewing the previous goals from the plan that was uh current through this school year. So in March of 2024, the district technology committee and members of the tech department started to review the progress of the action plan for goals one through three. So this really helped to inform the areas of focus and growth and also helped shape the goals for the plan that we're presenting tonight for 26 through 2029. So December through January of this school year, which is also when Mrs. Harrington joined us and and jumped in um hit the ground running, we spent time reviewing the feedback from the committee

050in previous years and crafting goals that we felt would be relevant for future work. So part of the process was completing a perception survey to outline the extent to which we have achieved at the local level the goals that we put forth. So um we had our district tech committee complete that survey members of the tech department to kind of gauge where we felt we were at. The updated goals were submitted first towosis for initial approval and so those were submitted on January 15th and later approved on March 4th. The next step after that initial approval was then it was passed on to state ed for their review which resulted in their approval on March 6th. So this year um the state did not require extensive action plans to be submitted for their review. However,

051the committee decided to move forward with some u more detailed action plans to create a comprehensive plan which you have a copy of. So I'm now going to turn it over to Mr. Peterson, one of our tech coaches to review goal one. Hi. Uh, for those of you who don't know me or we haven't met, uh, Brent Peterson, instructional tech coach. Uh, I work primarily at the middle school, Maple Mirror, and Elementary. And I promise I'm not old eyes. No, no Candy Crush. Um, just keep myself on track. Um, so, uh, goal one is all about student learning and creativity, as you can see. And I'd like to start by just saying I think we're very very fortunate to have like the tools um platforms and applications that we have available for our staff and

052our kids here. Um there there are a lot of opportunity for our kids to learn uh and show their learning with those. So thank you for that. Um our students have a lot of choice and our students have a lot of options to choose what they're going to create with and I think that's a big benefit to our kids. Um, if it's all about learning and creativity, uh, our kids have the ability to make things that are as straightforward as a document that they can share for collaborative purposes and feedback loops to, um, make a bigger audience when they publish something within the school, outside of the school walls, whatever it uh, the goal is in the end. Um, it can also lean into things like multimedia projects that like have all kinds of different

053skill sets that our kids are developing with having to film themselves and speak and practice and hear themselves and evaluate and edit that to um, you know, audio recordings and podcasts and trying to put stuff like that together and make it work and sound professional to um, you know, all those things in between that. Uh so all of the options we have available to us allows them to be really creative in showing and showcasing their learning in addition to just um you know I can type an essay and I can share that to my teacher and submit it to our platform schooly for evaluation. So um those are some of the the learning and creativity goals that we want to kind of keep leaning into with this plan as we have been for a number

054of years. Um, so we all want we also want to encourage our kids to learn more than just like how to use a tool. There's like the when to use it. There's the why to use it. There's to making decisions about like which tool does the best thing at what time um based on what your goal is and what you're being tasked with trying to accomplish. So those skills are like hard to navigate and learn as a kid, right? And as adults, I think we have a hard time picking things that are going to really do the best job for the thing we needed to do all the time. And we're asking our kids to do that. So that's a work in progress. And that's something that we're going to continue to um you know,

055try and build on. Uh as you know, the world of edtech and technology in general like is light years fast and what they use today or learn today in two years might not work, might not be available, might be cost prohibitive, all these things. So, learning how to do a thing um isn't going to serve them well, but learning all those other skills that I mentioned about the when and the why and the how um to accomplish goals using technology are going to best serve them rest of their school years here, whether they're moving on to middle school or high school, college courses they'll be taking, career um you name it, any of those types of things. So, those are really important for us to focus on. Um, so we want our students to be

056really intentional with their use of technology and just as we're going to ask our students, um, we want our staffs to be intentional about their technology integration, right? That's a a big conversation out there in the in the world today, um, around technology. So having an intentional um usage of the tools the wise you're using in your classroom whether it's to deliver or support curriculum whether it is um to use uh digital assessments to get really quick feedback on what kids have gaps in or what they're mastering so you know how to proceed in class. whether it's to differentiate um in in a much easier way than you would have been able to 10-15 years ago, which was like really a challenge in a classroom, right? Especially with the the the gaps of of levels

057we see. Um or it's using tools like accessibility tools that kids can leverage to succeed in the classroom um that are built into the the the things we have like I mentioned when I first started with iPads um in their hands. So, um, that's a basic gloss over of goal one of learning and creativity. I appreciate your time. Um, I'm gonna hand it over to Lindsay Harrington for goal two. >> Um, again, I'm Lindsay Harrington. I'm the director of instructional technology and data. Um, goal tool goal tool two. Wow. Of equitable access and instructional um, integration. We really want to focus first to make sure that our students have the technology they need to be successful, the buildings, the teachers, um everything that so it's kind of ensuring that our students and staff have the

058technology and resources required to successfully access those tools needed. Um it's done a couple of ways when it's just as basic as when new students register at Sweet Home. right on the registration packet there's a spot to indicate whether or not they have reliable internet at home because if we're sending kids home to do online assignments but they have no way to access set assignments that can be a problem. So even from right when you register at Sweet Home they check the box if we work it through um to figure out how to give hotspots or how to make sure that the students have internet at home to do that school work that is required. Um, every year all school districts in New York are required to send out a digital equity survey, which is

059then is another layer which we can do a check because from when a student may have registered three years ago to when we send out the survey, a a circumstance could have changed. They could have not have internet. So really kind of every year making sure our students do have what they need at home to be successful and access that information we are giving them um and assignments that are working. Another piece is you're going to hear the word intentional kind of in put in here. It's the intentional use of tools. It's the intentional integration of technology in the classroom um to how is this going to personalize the learning better for the students? How is this going to help meet the needs of some students that may learn a different way, may need a

060different tool? Um you know, it's not the back when I was in school and they're like, "All right, everyone's doing a group presentation. go stand up there and talk. Now, there's different how Mr. Peterson talked about you can do videos, you can do all sorts of different pieces. It's teaching those those different skills, how to express what you've learned because not all students can do that in the same way. Um, it's also kind of that interactive piece where the kids are part of the learning. So, we're making sure that instead of just standing up there writing on the board, the kids are interacting. There's something for them to um also participate in. But with those instructional tools comes with different layers. Are they ed to do ed law 2D applicable um and making sure that

061we are following all of those rules? We do audits of the um technology that we are using. What are we using it to its full potential? Are there pieces that we aren't using it could use a little bit um more robust in the classroom to get other data more data to help drive our instruction? So, we do kind of do those audits of pulling data, who's using them, um, who needs a little bit more training or wants to sign up with the tech coaches to get a little bit more how do we use this in the classroom a little bit more successfully and for our students to get something out of it. Um, but it's, you know, through these plans, we do want to continue to refine our technology supports and make sure that everyone

062does have what they need, students, classrooms. Um during our technology committee, we always have discussed anything that has popped up, whether it's, you know, it seems like something's running slow here. Can we do this? So, we always want to keep a pulse on those pieces, but really using this technology to um leverage what we can get out of it to improve that student engagement and academic outcomes. I'll now turn it over. >> Can I just ask you a quick question? >> Sure. >> Um very protective of our of my of my like special needs kids and we have some exceptional classrooms. So, is this all tweaked to them, they're inclusal like um you know what do those because it may be only one student may need a certain app. It may be only a couple

063students. It may be those students who use it as a communication piece like we talked about um at one of our tech meetings collecting iPads over the summer. But we need to make sure some of those students need them. That's their communication device. So, we need to make sure they have the apps that they need. Everything is working for those students over the summer. So, it's I'm a former special education teacher, so I understand. >> I knew the answer. >> Um, but yes, it's really cuz you know, we just had two kids in one of our um smaller classes needed a specific app because that was going to work for their needs, what they are working for. So we man we got made sure it was made all the check boxes and made sure that

064those two students had that app so they were able to learn where they're at and expand on >> we've come so far. I remember I think it was the first year on my board I took um took a tour over at Maple and one of the kids had a Toby which they thought was just like futuristic and probably now it's not really but back then it really was amazing and I even tried it to watch you know a non-verbal kid use it. So we've come a long way >> and it is it's keeping that pulse because even the built-in Microsoft tools or Google Suite they all have accessibility tools built in them now. you just need to be aware of them as a teacher and how to kind of set those whether it's it'll read

065to you whether it even the keyboard where it slows down maybe your student who you know presses a little bit too hard when they're typing you can put the sticky keys feature on. So all of those kind of pieces is going from that very low tech to higher up tech. So >> thank you. No problem. On that note, one one little question on that because we have >> uh many languages here. >> Do we use some kind of translation software to help those students? >> Yeah, there are the translation pieces. I don't know if you could speak to the what specific ones we use. >> So, we do take a look to see what's our um concern is always what's the most accurate. And so just the other day actually we were playing around with

066Canva because we use that a lot to make sure um for accuracy in Google Slides. So our ENL teachers or our co-teers might utilize that. But we're constantly looking at the tools and then measuring the accuracy. So yes, that is something that we're we're always taking a look at and reviewing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Well, I am going to turn it over to uh Mr. Simandera to talk about our goal. >> Great. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thanks for having us tonight. Um I think even with the previous goal it's important to note that um with the integration instructionally and with our students access that this has been a long road technology and Sweet Home has always been in front of it and going back to sitting in this room when

067Jeff Hicks and Jim Sharp were here handing out iPad excuse me laptops for the first time to our teaching staff and we finally didn't have to share one department computer right was was an amazing thing that took place because our our administration, our school board, but certainly uh more specifically our community, you know, supported those budgets to have those things become sustained lines. It wasn't that long after when Tony Day was our superintendent and we got iPads one to one before COVID ever was a thing where we were beginning to and and Brent, we were the the pilot group uh in sixth and nth grade. But it was it was the support of our community that I think needs to be acknowledged. The the long road that we've been on that that has absolutely helped

068support all of us uh teachers and students alike. >> Can I can I say something about that? Certainly. Because there was a school boards in the past used to travel quite a bit to conferences and there was a conference where I believe it was a district out of Kentucky that talked about their use of this onetoone digital revolution whatever it was. I think I gave the book may have given the book to Dr. Janestri but and then shortly after that we did have the iPad so Tony Day was sharp enough to see that that coming and and implementing it but that's not the best part of that. The best part is they took a poor district and they moved it to one of the highest performing districts in the state. So it is very meaningful

069and yes it's been a long road. So please continue. Thank you. Well, I don't have a three-minute timer on tonight, do I? So, uh, >> thank you. Um, but but no, we acknowledge that and I think it's just important that that people who were not employees here recognizes the long support that our community and our board has had in concert with one another to make sure that that not only the teachers, but now the students all have the tools necessary. Um, because it wasn't that long ago when you would say, "Yeah, just go make a free account, kid, and we could go ahead and build and create." Well, we can't do that now, right? but we used to and it was like amazing to see but that also sort of created the world of halves

070and have nots where some kids could make a free account and some kids didn't have it at home. Um but along the way this this road has been uh traveled by us along the lines with responsible use of digital tools. U I'm not going to read that to you. It's it's a lot of it's a word salad there about all the things that Edlaw 2 3 2D Thank you. Thank you Lindsay. Um it really outlines um and it's uh intentional where we can't just go and say to kids make a free account, right? Like there's data protections that we have to make sure that we're securing even if they don't realize it, even if the staff doesn't realize that on how significant these things are. So, um, you know, we navigate through that and actually

071in 2020 before the pandemic really hit. Um, it was in December of 2020, so shortly after, but it had been in the works for a long time at New York State where the computer science and digital fluency standards that are not doled out to any grade level, not to any specific uh course discipline. Kind of like good manners in school. We all have to teach it. We all have to teach digital citizenship. We are all burdened with that responsibility of making sure the kids understand um what it means to behave responsibly with these digital tools and it's a huge task and there is no assessment to point to to go find statistics and sure kids might feel a certain way and teachers might certainly share that feeling but we don't really have anything from New

072York State as far as guidance goes. Uh but this plan here helps us uh like a playbook in any athletic game try to have a plan moving forward. And like any athletic game, halftime comes and we're going to have to make some adjustments. That's all we've been doing is making adjustments. Um our first plan was created and even those digital standards that New York State did put forward were created before AI and chat GPT was a real thing. We've all had AI in our lives um in some fashion as it's been progressing along. Um, but it wasn't until um the fall of uh 22 when Chat GPT was launched and everyone seemed to be able to to do all this stuff with it. Um the seniors right now in college started college without chat GPT.

073So think about those four years and how much has happened and how that's forced us to evolve and adapt and move and do everything. Um, you know, Maryanne, when you asked the question about buyin about about our plans and our policies and committees and all the work that we do, all of this is kind of voluntary. There is no time that we're given to talk about these specific standards. So right now Brent and I while uh you know assigned to different buildings throughout the district, it really is on a voluntary basis that they enter into a technology cycle oftent times with grade level teammates and colleagues where they could then begin to learn and take a deeper dive and get into this. But our job in this next plan is to absolutely try to make

074sure that people understand the responsible use, the creativity components or the accessible components that we've talked about. So they are broadbased goals intentionally because we have to do this through all of our grade levels even in some ways our preks because they go home and they've got tools. It's not just what they have here or what we expect them to do on an assessment if at all um at those little grades but when they go home they've got them in their hands. Um they're used as babysitters in restaurants. So, we've got to be able to try to help as as as quickly as we can take those opportunities to teach about uh the ethical and thoughtfulness around these tools that are that are out there. So, um I can go on and on. We all

075can. Um but um but that's kind of the outline for um the work that we've done with this um strategic p plan technology plan. >> Technology plan. >> Thank you. I don't know if there was I I have an assistant principal cafeteria voice so I don't even need a a microphone some days. I don't know if there was any other >> Yes. >> any one of the five of you. What do you think you're not withstanding the changes in technology which I know are literally every day. What do you think your greatest challenges are to meeting these goals? I I think part of it is you have to do the two things at one time. You have to keep track of how things are um increasing and changing and developing while you're also trying to

076teach staff, students kind of how to use these products. Um and when I say products, I mean whether it's your iPad tools, all of that. I think it's really it's showing all of those intentional kind of pieces. How do we ingrain this? It's not a replacement. we're using it as part of a tool and I really think sometimes that is a challenge for even teachers who are like I'm like well it's not you're not replacing you it's a it's kind of an added added tool and how we get everyone to see that this is all of these pieces AI these instructional tools these are different tools you use to enhance um your your teaching the students learning and I think it's really kind of weaving that together and helping I'm just going to say like

077maybe teachers understand how that that can be woven together and understand. But then it's also like you do work and show somebody how to use a certain thing and then like 3 months later like they're like oh an upgrade happened and you're like all right and we have you know kind of more pieces and that kind of even happens with all of our tools when we talk to AI every time um either you know one of us is talking to a company they're like oh we added a new thing to talk about AI and to talk about um responsible use and that so it's kind of keeping a breast too of all of those different changes and then pushing forward. But I don't know, >> Scott, I think I think that's the last point, the

078responsible use, the ethical use. You know, we have kids at our high school and um could they just go ahead and use AI to do it, right? So, I think it's really just teaching our staff how to develop tasks, assessments, where even with artificial intelligence tools, how did they do it? The pro like the product is not nearly as important as the process. So, if we can help kids learn and better understand how they're going to research and explore and think and maybe they get some tools because that may give a kid that equal playing field. Maybe they weren't as creative as the another kid about how quickly they can come up with an idea, but maybe once they map some things out with the use of say chat GPT or something to that nature

079um where or Gemini is what what our kids at school have it it turns into a different opportunity. The staff has to learn how to take that opportunity with baby steps and help a kid progress along the way. It's really easy. You ask any one of our ELA teachers, high school, middle school, I don't care who they are. Ask anyone, any teacher, but specifically ELA, because they know exactly how that kid is writing and where they're at with their own writing process. It's so obvious when something is turned in that even it's just copied forget from a friend. Forget about AI. I just you could tell when they copy it from a friend because it's just not theirs. And that's when we intimately know our students academic abilities that we're able to address gaps and

080then push for higher achievement. But it's through that process that we too as a staff have to be able to learn how to leverage those things to maybe even incorporate it right into our assignments and then share back with the teacher. So what did you learn? How was AI maybe a peer coach to you, a thought partner for you where we could then, you know, have basically more teachers in the room with with uh different um bits of information helping kids where they're at. So I but I think that third piece is absolutely the hardest thing because of the ethics and responsibilities that surround it. It's really easy to just pretend. I think even to follow up on that, do you see a point where we would probably need to start explaining to our students

081how to develop their prompt that they're going to throw into an AI? Because I and the reason I say that is I last year sometime I sat down with one of the local law firms for a half day seminar and part of what they did they work with claude but they're all no they're all basically the same concept and they changed the prompt one word at a time and the answer dramatically changed every time they changed one word and that's I think that's to me that's a scary thought. It is. And yours wouldn't be the same as mine if we both input the same thing into our individual instances. What you have fed your model looks different what I've fed mine. So, our answers are not even going to be the same. >> That's that's

082one of the things that concerns me. But yeah, >> yeah, a lot of the companies do have um free training courses that people could start to take like Anthropic put one out there about using Clawude and being thoughtful on prompting and maybe a process to go through to get better abs outputs. Um I I think everything we're talking about here to me, yes, goal three, goal, like all these goals are important. The time to me is a is a crunch because like this is three years. We're going to be back up here in feels like tomorrow talking about the next plan and we're going to be like how did we like accomplish anything because three years goes by in a blink and we're asking teachers who have curriculum and you name it and and students

083and their well-being and all the other stuff that is compiled on top of like I'm a teacher to now say hey make sure you're up to date on these things and make sure you want to spend time with Paul and I to learn about the next thing or this like refine your usage of this tool or think about why you're using these tools and then our students to do things like you're just talking about with how do you prompt, how do you do that like there's only so much time in that day and I think that's like a big struggle to find it to do things like we try to at staff development day and other things like that. So I think that's another challenge that we face that you know just happens to be

084layered on top of the others. I'm going to tag in one more thing because I think it's important that we know last year we developed a um an AI policy that you approved >> that that we appreciated having as a faculty member that we could use it right with our discretion with our own professionalism etc. And it also included that students could use it when teachers provide that discretion and opportunity at whatever task they may be doing. Um, I think it's important to note that we did that last year in our spring superintendent conference day. Uh, our entire staff had been made aware of the policy. We did some activities and trainings and like how um how one prop Danielle to another could turn out two different products and we both typed it in simultaneously

085and yet somehow chatgpt um you know turned out two very different things even though we turned in the same prompt. Uh to that end, another branch um of our um instructional professional development is our teacher center. So a lot of you may know that I'm also the director of the teacher center. We've done four, we will be doing our fourth uh book study coming up this summer uh specific to AI. We've had over 500 teachers or 500 books have been passed out to our teachers over the last two and a half years or so, three years almost, um where they've participated voluntarily to study up specifically on AI and technology in the classroom. And um the books are going in sequence. It's going as quickly as things are are changing. Uh but the staff is

086really um jumping in because they know that it's here, right? it's here. Like we there there is no denying what's going on with with the technology. We've got the devices now. You know, the sky's is the limit or it's boundless, right? So, we've got to be uh we've got to be ready to take on that challenge. Um but we're super proud of our faculty doing tons and tons of uh professional uh development along the way to uh to keep up with it. when you have new staff coming in, >> do you I'd like I just want someone to address that so we're sure there because you got to get >> on board kind of quick. >> Timing here is perfect because I I this year I started as the mentor coordinator and I took that

087role on. So um I was at all the new teacher trainings alongside uh you know Toyo was a new teacher, Beth was a new teacher. Um, we we actually did a full session on like AI as a thought partner and and the the options you have and the the ability you have to utilize that as a teacher and just getting people kind of up to speed in the know. Uh, when we meet with new teachers, we we definitely, you know, try and expose them to, hey, here's the PD that's available to you. So, you could start to wrap your head around all the things, right? Um, it's there's enough as a new teacher, >> layer on all the other stuff and it gets challenging. So yeah, >> but you've addressed it already. >> We we've

088had conversations about it. We've done some activities as like warm-ups prior to the meeting where we jump in and do some um you know image creation using AI prompts. Hey, it's fun. It's engaging, but it's also like hey guys like this is what's going on. So the awareness and all that type of stuff. So we've done a lot of those types of things. Um and we'll continue as you know time goes on with that. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> I'd just like to add Mr. Peterson has been amazing at embedding you the use of technology our new teacher. Well, I mean that was part of the bonus of him stepping into that role. So, it's been embedded all the way the entire year opportunities because it's not so much about using the tool. It's about

089how do you get to the best quality instruction, right? And the tools that support that. So, you don't want the tools to take over that. You still want to get to that high level instruction. So, he's been instrumental in that. They're uh >> heard your voice. >> Things I hear in my uh my business are kind of scary with AI for four years. It'll be self-aware. It's almost like the movie The Terminator. It's it can teach itself how to advance. I mean, it's really accelerating at a pace that I don't know how you keep up with it. But I always the for me the comfort in school and I guess in any profession you can use it as like your own personal tutor or as an adjunct to the teacher in the classroom. You know

090that maybe they fall back on some tool that says well how to explain this to me so I understand it better. So you know I I I give you a lot of credit for what you got and what you're going to have to do in in the coming days and years. It's it's pretty scary actually. I hate to use that word, but >> uh my big brother Niset um is um putting out legislation or or lobbying for legislation around AI chat bots to not be used at various grade levels. Okay. um making sure that it is being age appropriate um and that school districts are able to comply with that because there are tech platforms every day contacting to try to tell you about the latest and greatest. Yeah. >> And how you know it

091could do all these promises. Um, but you know, we're we're actually grateful to think about pumping the brakes a little bit and letting kids be kids and do things that are age appropriate for for the particular course or subject they might be learning about. >> Am I right or or do I understand? Scott may know there's there's a legislation in in Congress right now about AI. Is there not talk about that? >> I haven't seen >> Yeah, Ted Cruz came out. What was it called? Um I can't remember the acronym um but Ted Cruz has had some things he's brought up COS against social media or some something whatever that acron acronym is um and you know social media is the the thing right that's the big uh you know elephant in the room all

092the time around technology. So some of that's coming out but I haven't seen anything specific educationally related other than age limits and things like that which school state school boards do that's why I'm curious. >> We'll see. Well there's there's a big difference if I may. There's a big difference between social media stuff. >> Yeah. >> And digital classrooms. The digital classroom that we have embedded in the full document where you can see how we're helping um to to expose teachers to these different strategies and pedagogical decisions and various things of that line on why and how we might do something and why it would make sense. Um make no mistake, screen time and digital classrooms are two very very different things. And um you know I often make the uh the analogy uh from

093the Peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown where that there was that kid who played the piano all day and he just was dialed into that piano. Like we don't want kids using their iPad in that way where it's just them and that screen where they have no awareness of the world around them. So that that is not what we're trying to help our teachers um develop as far as their classroom environment goes. And >> so I I have a question on are we seeing an I guess an over reliance on AI now and I mean just to go to Paul's point whereas you know the teacher you could just pipe put in a prompt and it'll shoot out a paper but as a teacher you know how that kid writes but also filling in on the two

094people doing the same prompt and filing getting two different answers and what Dr. Kazakowski said about looking for accuracy. Are we seeing that, you know, because that is a trend of kids just, oh, here's my question. I'm putting it in the prompt and I'm shooting it off to the teacher and I'm not even looking at it. I'm not learning. I'm not, you know, things like that. Are we seeing that? I >> I have I have a 14 and 16 year old at home. >> Well, that I do, too. Like that's my little incubator of I'm going to test on you guys and see what happens. Um >> do they want to? Sure. I'm having constant conversations about the the wens and the wise and the hows and the right. Um as a former ELA teacher.

095Um Paul mentioned it earlier. There's not a thing in this that we're going to buy that we're going to implement that we're going to layer in our system that is that is better than me knowing my kids and being able to identify that. Um, you know, you're always hearing about kids trying to cheat and slipping past, you know, you know, the teacher. Um, I I haven't been inundated with people like the sky is falling in in Sweet Home. This is not something that I'm dealing with on a daily. I don't think you hear about it on the daily. There are instances, of course. Um, and I I think when teachers hold kids accountable, when when they do things like this and they're they're forced to do the work, it's not going to be a repetitive

096thing every day when you're going to constantly, you know, hit that wall of my teacher kind of knows me too well and I can't just get away with it. >> So, you know, to that point, I've been doing a lot of department meetings at the middle school and that's been a common theme. They pick it out right away. that the teachers are very confident in their in their ability to pick it out right away, which I appreciate and but they they're also know that it's a tool and and it it really enhancing instruction I think is the important piece. I mean, we learn through COVID, right? Like you can't you can't be on a screen 12 hours a day and really have authentic learning. The teacher has got to play the central role in all

097of this moving forward for it to to work and be successful. and their kids to grow in this. And I appreciated when I was when I've been doing these meetings hearing their takes on AI and technology in the classroom and and and the tools that we are providing, making sure and I know we're going to do a lot of work on that this summer, making sure that they are instructional tools and not >> addictive tools for screen time. And I think what I appreciate about your group especially is the nimleness if that's even a word uh to be able to pivot quickly um when this technology is changing and evolving by this by the second. I mean you mentioned it we were a chat chap GPT is 2022 and look at how it's evolved in

098in a short four-year period and where we are with the other AI tools that are out there. So I also think as as I'm make you know I was at a conference this weekend or last week um there are some really cool tools coming out that that will enhance that will help teachers um in in the AI realm and I think not only enhance their instruction and use it as tools but um real-time assessing uh differentiating instruction like we've never been able to do before at the click of a button which is pretty exciting knowing that what you're teaching and you're hitting the core standards um and taking a little bit of that guesswork out of teaching in the old traditional ways. I think there's a lot of cool things that are that are coming

099that um I think enhance teacher work life balance even um at this point. So it's exciting times I think um when we I I hope we treat it like exciting and not fear the words AI um because I I I >> this train is rolling and we we've got to keep up with it. The book study in the summer is AI optimism. That's the title. So perfect way. I appreciate it. >> Book number four. >> Yes. >> All right. I hope we get a copy on my desk tomorrow. So thank you. >> I've got one question for you, too. >> You mentioned earlier on that you're hearing from companies from time to time. We've added this new feature. We've done this and they're dropping them on you as we go along. My concern with that

100is is there are is >> when they're adding those things, are they still guaranteeing that we're at 2D compliance? Is that a big deal? >> Yep. So I Is that true? >> Yeah, it's a it's a couple fold. I get probably um and you probably do as well. um about three phone calls in seven emails a day from different companies that we don't purchase that are just they're just sales sales people just trying to pitch whatever AI this that and the third and it's a big thing is like oh yeah no we know about New York and something but um when it comes to what we've already purchased it's always before it is you know type released it's they have to make sure that they still have that EdLA 2D in there so like Seesaw

101is something we use they're like hey we added um a couple things about, you know, AI and responsible use if you that are geared towards, you know, pay one, but they don't release it until I either get a release notice to make me aware, but um they always have to maintain that agreement or especially the ones that we purchase and purchase um through Boseies and all of those pieces because they would just lose their contract. >> Okay. And that's just it could come from you or Dr. >> Who who does the certification? Is it Boseies or an SED? >> Which for Edawd? >> It's a myriad. So, um, anything that we purchase through Boseies is automatically at law 2d. They won't release it unless it's at law 2d compliant. Uh, things that we purchase on

102our own. Uh, generally it's it it's my office that that does that. Like I hear about new products that are coming in before we release it. We go out and we get analog 2D uh compliance. uh they irran boseis and the rick have um launched a a clearing house uh for ed2d uh compliance such that I don't know and I'll just use an example we want to uh launch math 1234 as an app if we don't if it's the first time that we're launching it we didn't purchase it through boseis we're going to go out in this clearing house if there's an edlaw 2D agreement out there somewhere it allows us as a district to piggyback on that to become Edelaw 2D compliant almost instantaneously uh from that end of things. So uh that was

103been that's been a tremendous help that's been in place for about a little over a year a little over a year. >> Thank you. Ju to just continue with that though like we don't work in isolation, right? So Brent and I attend technology forums at Boseies uh in the southern tier and and over here at Harlem Road um where where we get together with technology coaches from all over the region and we start talking about software and who can do what and is it bed ed. Uh we've made a bunch of presentations over over our time um at the the technology forums where um we've become the envy actually of other districts because of our instructional coaching. not just technology, literacy, math, and technology coaching u um organization on how we're able to help support

104teachers that that districts are just light years away from. And it does it wouldn't surprise me that they're behind or that we're ahead because um we're able to get with teachers the way we are and that. So, if you don't know about that, that's maybe a conversation. It's a huge part of what we do and it's maybe the only way we get to do the work that we're doing to move forward. I'm done. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Great job. Thank you. >> You sure? >> Yeah. >> We keep going. >> Yeah, I tried the most pertinent ones. >> Just a just a couple other quick updates uh for the board. We had our challenge to change event um last week. Uh it was another hugely success successful 270 students Dr. Wilson

105um attended along with 40 or 50 adults uh that that were there um as well speakers um uh were were fantastic. Uh what I'm most proud about um and I appreciate Dr. Wilson um kind of leading the group but but this was really all student driven. Uh I think Mr. Coleman could talk about that too. That every uh activity, every speaker, every piece of music, the decorations, the um the logistics, all planned by um our students and the ACT team um that have been planning this for months and months and months. And um from circles to the cup activity that you see here um online just uh all student driven meant to unite, bring us together um and really put um Sweet Home um on that pedestal as another shining light of how many different

106cultures, many different languages, many different backgrounds can work together um on a on a on one mission here um as a district. And I and I think this district is a shining example and our students are a shining example of how 3,900 kids can really work together in harmony every single day in our district. Um and if the world could see what we're doing inside our walls, it'd be a better place um as well. So I want to thank Dr. Wilson for kind of I'll say facilitating because I know this and I think she would agree with that. the students really took charge and and led this. Um and so another great day, another great event and um yeah, it was awesome and I I we had board members attend too. Um I should recognize

107that. And >> yeah, I was impressed how um even getting down to fourth and fifth graders who were leading. >> Yeah. >> How like in like with no nerves. I'm like I teach every day and I still have like you know a room full of 250 of my peers. I don't want to get up there. But I I like these fifth graders and all the way up to high school like the how much I was impressed by that I think was the biggest thing. Um was the leaders that were actually facilitating and with no nerves. They were just like, "Yeah, this is like what I do every day kind of thing." And I was impressed with that. We have some phen we have phenomenal student leaders. And I say in our in our group in

108particular, but across the entire district, there's a there's a a a future Javvon in each one of them. Like you're going to you you probably saw in that room the next 12 uh student body presidents um gearing up to to step into those leadership roles here um in Sweet Home. So I'm I >> I love having that opportunity. Thank you, Dr. history for allowing me to work with them. But the kids are they they are amazing. They did all the work. >> Great day. >> Um we have some recognitions. Our Heritage Heights PTA is a recipient of the Aina J. Ferguson Inclusion Award in recognition of the commitment of to inclusion uh their dedication to empowering others and the unwavering service to children and families in our community. Um so we wanted to recognize I

109know we had some members of the Heritage Heights PTA there and I know Mr. Raymanold is our board liaison over there. So, we wanted to make sure we got it in the record and congratulate the Heritage Heights PTA for their their work. That PTA has seemed to grown um over the over the years uh with more and more members every year and they're just doing uh great things. Um every event that they sponsor is packed um in there. You can't find a parking spot. That's great. Also, our Glendale uh PTA was recognized for exceeding their membership goal by 202% and becoming the top membership achiever in the Western region. Uh we always put the pitch out for more membership and uh Glendale is really um it's just been awesome what they've been doing. They received

110the Western Region PTA Excellence in Communication Award as well and became a candidate for designation as a national PTA school of excellence. So, congratulations to uh Glendale and the work that they're doing there. Um, and in front of the board tonight, we got our focus group together um and uh we're working with the architects to develop what the uh new addition at at Maple Mirror will look like from the outside. Um the architects took a lot of input from the focus group. Um M Mr. Johnson's a member. I know uh Mrs. Jason um attended some meetings as well, but took a lot of recommendations from the focus group to make it a showpiece number one um but to also really uh capture the brand and the essence of not only Sweet Home, but Maple Mir

111um as well. And I think the our our architects at Young and Wright um did a phenomenal job presenting three or four different concepts uh to the focus group. Um but when this one popped up uh it was kind of like unanimous around the room of how much we liked it. And so what you will see is a a breakaway from your uh 19 early 80s60s maybe brown uh brick uh and dark windows to something that uh screams sweet home uh with blue and gold throughout the building. Um and really making it a showpiece. Um what what we really like kind of to me what stood out was the Maple Mirror Elementary sign, the blue uh metal paneling um that's in the front, but that back piece where you see the the SH the logo

112um that's a concept right now um that could be developed, but Mr. Ryan was in on this focus group and talked about students making those designs. You see a cityscape there and a couple of other items in that group, but getting the students involved in making what could be a cool mural back there with this um featuring the Sweet Home logo um in that piece. Um so this was the unanimous um um concept of the board or of the focus group, my apologies, of what we wanted to present to you tonight as as the idea for moving forward for the outer look of the building. Um if the board kind of gives a green light on this tonight or even next week, um we'll give that information back to the architects and they'll get going

113on finalizing the design which we are on track to submit to state ed for approval um sometime I believe in the spring. So we are definitely on track. We're moving very quickly um through the design phase in the in so this was this was a smaller focus group but the interior is be being designed by a group of teachers and Mr. Ryan and some board members um and some staff members at Maple Mir but this was uh this is the outer look of of Maple Mir and we're really um kind of excited of how it's going to look and move forward and blend into the neighborhood. >> Is there any reason why state ed would say no when you submit a design? >> Not to the outer look. No, but but it it the inner

114it's it's basically the insides the design. They they from every light switch to every piece of wire gets approved by state. >> And Miss Anthem, there's a component now that we need to have renewal renewable energy uh as part of our design. Uh so there will likely or not will likely there will be solar panels on top of the building uh to um meet that requirement. Yep. So they they will look over every single inch um moving forward. Now they'll give us you know we can design it how we wish but um yes they'll they'll they'll look at the windows design make sure there's egress and escape and safety that sort of thing. I I know Maple Mirror happened to be first and I don't want to take the individuality away from Heritage and Glendale

115when they put their additions on, but will the this outer look kind of push in the direction that they're kind of universal in a in a sense? >> Yeah, I I that's a good question. We're we're going to do the same process, I think. Um, not I think we're going to do the same process that we did at Maple Mir and it was very inclusive of a lot of voices over there. Um, and uh, it could I think this sets the table for for what could come, but we do we've enjoyed giving them a voice in in >> you. Well, I just I wanted to make sure that we weren't taking that away that but >> Oh, no. I I mean to say that um this could be the I I >> I don't know

116starting point or blueprint to keep like okay >> you know we have this the blue metal facade and you know the mural >> you're going to do your own mural but you know are we going to kind of all of our buildings you know the 1960s brick they >> they look a lot alike from the outside so I didn't know if we wanted to >> if we were moving in that direction to keep >> the universal aspect of our buildings kind looking alike. >> Part of the consideration too when we were talking about it was making sure it fit the neighborhood too. And the Maple May is obviously closer to the to the neighborhood than the other school other two schools are. They're a little bit further away as far as the houses there. The

117people at Young and Wright actually, if I remember right, they basically had their entire staff come up with sketches, right? Yes. Okay. >> So, and then and then we went from there. They narrowed them down among their own staff and then we looked over them and narrow them down from there. There was a couple of them that I think we all agreed would have looked great in the middle of the city. They would not look great in the middle of making That's okay. I love it personally, but there's no way I would put it there. Yes. And I think that's the feeling and and we got that out of the whole group, too. I mean, it wasn't just just us. It was the whole group felt the same way on that. So, yeah. But I

118think and that and the second part, I know we're not talking more about it here, but on the interior on the furniture, I sat there and we just sat there and quiet. I I think I asked one question the rest of the time, which is listening to the staff talking about how this would fit into what they need and how it works for them. And, you know, this is good. No, this, I don't need that. can we make a modification on this? And and there was there was a lot of great input there. >> It's been a fun process. I'm going to say right from the start, this this design phase has been everything and more that it's cracked up to be. And I I've enjoyed listening I'm going to piggy back off what you

119said, Mr. Johnson, enjoyed listening to the faculty, the staff, the the principal talk about their building in this way and how passionate they are about this project. It's it's so much fun to listen to. I would agree. It's it's just um you know the last project that we did there wasn't anything short of the auditorium. There wasn't anything really, you know, of merit to design. Um but I just I appreciate u the feedback and the consideration that everybody's giving to the project, you know, and I think it's strongly important to give people a voice uh as far as that goes and um because they're going to live in it every day. >> Uh and then just Mr. Valante to your question just you know for the good of the group I know everybody knows this

120but be mindful that Maple is our largest addition. Yes. >> Um so as in terms of a design for a two classroom edition it's going to be interesting for me to see how that would blend into the existing facades of both Glendale and Heritage Heights uh and how that might look uh because they are two very different looking buildings. Glendale and Maple Mir are are fairly similar, but Heritage Heights is its own. >> There it's going to be different. And I I would say some of this would be a starting point for the concept, but it wouldn't necessarily be the follow. What you don't see in here, because we looked up a whole bunch of other ones, is how even though it's different in the colors and you recess windows and stuff, the lines on

121the side that's that's furthest to the left on here will actually line up with the lines beyond the windows off in the distance, too. So there was those little details that come together that help actually make it all fit into place really well. >> I just like to say on a couple of the meetings that I did attend, the listening that they did as well as um taking all being able to imagine that and taking all the comments and putting them together to come up with something. I just think they did an amazing job listening and just delve into the minutia of detail, especially inside. I mean, I would never think of putting a whiteboard along, but they listened to teachers and they took that feedback. It's just I'm I'm very happy with them. I

122think they're doing a great job for us. >> I We're very pleased. Very, very pleased. And not only that, Mrs. Jason, they have been on time with everything and that's been important because we're pretty aggressive with our timeline and so we're we're in good shape. Really, really good shape. athletic council feels the same way about >> when they come back with their renderings and stuff like that very good with that. >> What do you see what the high school the back athletic complex is going to look like? That'll be next and um that's pretty exciting too. >> Um and we just wanted to uh say as we get closer to graduation our field of biiteracy um these are students that took extra coursework in in the in the world languages. um and we'll have a

123special designation on their diploma um come June 25th when we're at graduation. And we wanted to recognize this group of students and congratulate them um for taking the extra coursework and achieving this uh seal. Um and I think you know as as we evolve and hear more about portrait of a graduate, these seals are going to become more and more important um in in in the in a diploma u determination. So, um, congratulations to these students. We're getting more and more students taking these, um, courses every year and, um, obviously foreign language is is critically important to to Sweet Home. >> Love to see the number of different languages beyond just these. I >> think that's great. >> What's our number one language right now as far as um, the population of our kids? Arabic.

124>> Arabic. >> Yep. >> Followed by >> Spanish. Spanish was in the >> was right behind. I mean there's a there's a lot of dialects in Arabic um that are that are here. Um so I said Middle Eastern languages are >> at the hospital. We see a lot of Bengali seems to be up and rising. >> Yes. >> Um last night we had our retirement reception uh here in Virgil's. Um uh we had an awesome reception um just to kind of hear stories and um it it was incredible to hear uh 689 years of service um to Sweet Home. Um and and uh some tears in the audience, a lot of laughs in the audience. Uh family members were present. Um, I I want to thank our principles and and for being present and our

125directors for being present to to tell these stories um and to share what it's meant for them to work at Sweet Home. Um, the our retirees were able to give us their favorite titles of books and the board of education purchased those books for donation back to their libraries of choice. Um, and so I need to thank Mrs. Darian for organizing um last night's event uh and and all the work that that went into to making it a huge success and giving our our service employees and our faculty members and our administrators um the due uh to uh tell the stories and and to thank them for all their service to Sweet Home. It was a great >> and that's what I have tonight. Okay, any other questions? All right, moving on to the calendar.

126Um, before today's study session, we did have our volunteer reception along with uh, Chef. Um, so we thank them for that. We have a couple PTA meetings. Thursday is the senior prom. Um, Friday is our flag day or field day celebrations at our elementary schools. And then next week, uh, Monday is a senior awards night. Um, and then it there is a typo on here. Um the 16th is on Tuesday the 16th is both the tenure reception and our voting meeting. The voting meeting is not June 17th. Um and then we start regions exam end of the year and um graduation on the 25th. Yep. Thursday the 25th at uh UB Center for the Arts. Peter, I just want to say I really appreciate the fact that and I don't know who organized it, but

127the um mercy flight and all that that came out just to remind kids of, you know, not drinking and driving. I think that's really an important statement to get to our our seniors and juniors and thank you for whoever organized that. >> Is that the first time we've had that in a while? >> We used to do it way back. >> I think we did it two years in a row. We had it last year. We did >> still bring our kids to the Air Force base >> for the car drop. >> No. >> I think Mville may have done that last year or this year >> many years ago. >> Yeah. We used to bring them out bring all the schools to the Air Force, the seniors, and you know, you pull up a

128car so far and it shows you what just a 30 mph crash is. Yeah. >> They bought the fire department and do an extraction from a car. They >> They did that at our at Mville last week. >> The draws of life. When we did ours at in my million years ago in my high school, um our friends were the victims. So classmates of ours played the victims when they did the Jaws of Life and you know >> they held a memorial for you know >> we've done >> Susie Smith but Susie Smith sat next to me in math like >> you know it was very powerful very powerful >> but appreciated very much appreciated it's matter how you do it it's a great point that needs to be made yes >> absolutely >> all

129right so that leads us to open session number one. Um, board policy 1510. Um, this open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda. Um, I do have a four people on the list to speak, but I believe only two of them are remaining. Um, so um, you will have three minutes to speak. Um, please state your name, address, and what you're going to speak about. And I have Mr. is it Zorich? is a >> so you want to wait till the second session >> or do we want to wave that to >> Can we second session's only about four minutes or all right >> yeah so >> someone gonna be timing me I got you all right uh my name is Eric Zorich I live at 47 Grass Point drive. I have 10 years

130here with uh three kids in uh the school district. I really love uh Sweet Home School District. So, I think you guys are doing a great job. The reason why I'm here today is to talk about how the eighth grade students were selected into the 9th grade honors program uh in the high school. I have here in front of me a commitment letter that we received in the mail for my son EMTT Zorich. And on here it states that the prere prerequisite a minimum of a 90 or overall average um through Q1 through Q3. All right. He signed that, we signed that and he lived up to that commitment. He's had a 97 overall in social studies and a 97 in English. uh when received received a subsequent letter in the mail, he was not

131selected for honors and in that letter it was said that multiple testing measures and data points were utilized. My wife and I did not know what those were. We were never told about them. Uh we scheduled a meeting. I scheduled a meeting with the high school principal in which he told me that he himself used um New York State testing and Ames web testing to decide who gets into the honors program. Um my concern is as parents we did not have knowledge of those tests to be used against our children in placement and uh future placement in the high school. I was not able to coach my son on the importance of these tests and how they could be used for his placement. Um I'm not very familiar with these tests, but I knew know

132that some parents can opt out of these tests and it would be unfair for kids who had their parents opt them out not to be selected in uh the honors program. Um I've heard from other sources that kids with 100 averages are not in um honors program in high school and my son is not. Um, what I'm asking of the board is, you know, to reconsider. I'm looking for one extra chair to be put in global honors and uh global um I'm sorry, global honors global and honors English for my son EMTT because he lived up to this commitment that he signed and and that we signed for him. and I didn't agree with how I understand the the the situation at the high school with so many students being recommended uh for honors. However,

133I don't see how um EMTT and other students should not be selected in there. I see that this is a good problem to have for our school district that Miss Duria has brought the level of education up from the middle school where more kids are ready to go into honors programs and I would like to see my son EMTT in this program. Uh because it's a power of proximity being in this room with you guys. I feel more intelligent because of your intelligence, right? And I want that for my son. Uh I want him to be around kids that are engaged in school asking good questions. And you know what? He earned it. He did earn it. So that's what I'm asking of the board today. Uh reconsideration of that. Um that's all I have.

134>> Thank you. >> Yeah, I will I'll follow up with you. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Um, Katie, you are up again. >> Stop. >> Hi again. I'm Katie Smiser. I have two children in the district. Uh, one is in sixth grade, one is in third grade, and um I also work at the middle school. Okay. So, I I signed up to speak just briefly to um remind the board as we're going forward with strategic planning and in light of um just past budgets and and what have you that um there are still line items that are very important that we do not have room in the budget for. And not to lose sight of them, most important being the um not the most important, sorry. Um the middle school

135track is what I'm what I'm here to talk about. Um because again we're in the place where we uh go outside for gym class and we take um our special ed kids out for gym class. Um and you know there's lots of things happening. Um one of them is that we we have quite a uh we have a number of friends who who are alopers. Um and and just seeing the proximity again to the parking lot which is now vacant with um Value City Furniture, but there's now trucks in that parking lot. Um they're doing some sort of construction in there. And just keeping in mind that I know that, you know, resurfacing the middle school track um is a costly endeavor. I I thank you for the ability to uh for your willingness to

136even put it out for bid. Um, and I know it did come back at an expensive number. Um, but just to um, keep that as a puzzle piece in our in our brains um, going forward. And then the other thing I wanted to do was to recognize two amazing things done on AI at the middle school level. So, we've had this conversation this week. There is a sixth grade class being taught currently by a long-term sub, Lisa Schmidt, who she is in for Kevin Schliker. My daughter is in that class. It is a technology class. She however does not have the tech shop piece. The class has become the most amazing thing that my daughter is taking all year because they are experimenting with pushing the limits of and questioning AI in every assignment that

137they do. They're learning the difference about prompts. They're learning ethical versus non-ethical use. They're also talking about things like water usage. Is this a thing we should be doing? Um my the Valentine's Day card that I received this year from my daughter was AI designed. It was very cute. She was very proud of it. But they designed board games. They are um writing reflections on AI. And I don't know again with the budget and those are all way above my pay grade. Um, but I just wanted to say that we have the foundation for some of these questions and it's happening with a long-term sub in the middle school and I think we would be very um remiss not to a hold on to that with both hands. Um, but b to to reinvent the

138wheel kind of, you know, get her in involved in some of this because it's it's absolutely fantastic. And the other thing the other people who I think we really need to bring on for AI um are the ELA teachers. So in seventh grade they do a dystopian unit. Um, and I will tell you that these questions about AI and robots and whatever, they're in many of the books that are options for the students to read. And they're discussions that are being had. Um, and they're extremely necessary discussions because I'm in the weeds of the weeds as an aid and gened classrooms in the middle school. The weeds of the weeds. Um, meaning that I'm right up there with a lot of the kids. They talk about AI way more than we do. Um, they use

139AI in ways that we haven't even fathomemed yet. And I think it's a good thing, but we're remiss if we don't really embrace this discussion with both both um, arms wide open. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kate. >> Thank you, >> Mr. President. >> Yes. >> I just direct a thank you to this speaker. I think I was a little rough in the questions when she presented earlier. >> You may go Well, right ahead, Dirk. >> I give you all the credit in the world for standing in front of this crazy board, including me, and presenting anything. So, thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, >> the book club. >> Book club. I actually know about the book club. I'm gonna be real honest with you because I'm so I'm

140service employees not not faculty so I don't actually hear about all those >> but I'm gonna follow up >> I I was a service employee many moons before serving so I understand that >> there are two other speakers on the list Kristen Kelly I believe is here and I believe is VOTE >> I don't they are on the DEI committee. >> Yeah, I that's okay. Uh oh, they might have signed up because they were here before that. Right. >> Gotcha. >> All right. Is there anybody else who would like to speak? >> Okay. Moving on to new business. Um we'll be voting on on the new business A through L next week. Um we have our monthly special a our monthly special ed class placements, preschool placements. Um are we doing on those, Marian? >>

141Good. Uh there's 376 pages of them, so I'm I'm about halfway through. >> Um B, monthly financial reports. Uh C, bids for milk and juice, science supplies, and school bus parts. Uh D, dispose of obsolete property, which I believe are air purifiers or one air purifier. >> Air purifier. Um E is the funding of our reserve funds for workman's compensation, unemployment insurance, employee benefit incurred liability, retirement contributions, tax certiary claims, and capital reserve funds. Any questions on those so far? >> Just a general statement for anybody who might be watching. This is just a for us to have the ability to do it. That doesn't necessarily mean we have money to put into them at this point. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thanks, D. That's a excellent point. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Um, all right.

142F is uh our retirement proclamation 689 years of which we had our celebration last night. Um G is our district technology plan which we heard our presentation earlier. Um H is continuation of combining our um school athletic programs for the 2627 school year. That would be girls gymnastics with Willil East, boys ice hockey with Dew and North Tanowanda, girls ice hockey with Amherst and Clarence, and girls wrestling with Amherst. >> Are those all the same? Is this your >> They are the same. No differences, but uh the board does have to approve them every year. >> Um I is a revised policy first read on 7316 use of internet enabled um devices during the school day. Um J is a proposition a bond resolution on proposition one that we passed as the um from our

143capital outlay project. This is the core improvement project part of it. The additions the middle school roof those etc. >> Uh Mante it's not the capital outlay project. It is the capital improvement >> capital improvement. My >> that's okay. >> Okay. Capital improvement project. Sorry, but it is prop one for those things. Okay, thank you. >> Yes. Yes. >> And I have improvement written down here and I said outlay. >> Um >> if that were a capital outlay project, that'd be a pretty big >> Yeah. Um J is pretty extensive here, but it does cover that is what it covers. Um K is capital improvement project uh bond resolution for proposition two which is our elementary rehab for the gyms mostly and then the athletic facilities enhancements out in the back here. Um so that

144is K. Um again pretty extensive. Um and then L is our strategic plan which we just had um our presentation on. Anyone have any questions on A through L? >> I just want to say that um when you talked about the device using devices during the school day um Dr. Janestri I heard your interview about it was very very good. Um >> I think you they I think you put out there what a great job that we're seeing some improvements. >> Oh yes. >> As far as um kids not using their phone during the day. though. >> Yes. >> They always seem to come to you for things like that. >> Yeah. Me and me and uh >> he has a face that radio >> radio. I'm just happy that >> They reached out and

145um I know I take these interviews because I know there's at least one listener of WBEN that is still in Western New York. Mrs. Jason, >> but nice job. >> Yeah, they they uh they call a lot and they're always uh great to work with. Um Susan and Brian over at WBN um have become um I would say friends, but but we're we're getting closer. So, they're they do a great job. >> Another way if any of our other public is listening to put things out there, I think that's another venue we can >> Yes. >> Brian is a sweet home alone. >> Oh, yeah. There you go. That's right. That That's right. He reminds me of that when I talk to him and he's very proud. Sweet home alone. Very very proud. >> Not

146to go off subject, but Costco, I guess it's not until September, October now. >> Saw there was a little bit delay, but um >> Marian, I'll get you the VIP pass. >> Uh well, we do have a uh coming up on Friday, another meeting with the Ammerst IDA about the Boulevard Mall project. Um, and so, um, I know I reported back to the board a couple weeks ago about our first meeting with them. They're ready to meet with us again and start talking, um, proposals, um, that sort of thing. So, that project is moving forward. And if you have driven down Sweet Home Road and gotten stuck in traffic, please know that that is part of the infrastructure work for the Boulevard Malls. Uh, that $30 million here. >> Yes. >> Are they do we

147they're doing in front of the school? >> They're going to be doing in front of the school. They're It might be closer to this summer. They're getting down. >> Yeah, that's Yeah, we've cuz they have to cut across the driveways, so we've asked for them to delay past end of school year. Uh, so they've been they've been super they've been very accommodating. They've let us know where they're going to be each and every day so that we know for busing and things like that. >> They going to open cut the driveways or try to jack under them? >> Uh, depends. Depends. They're going to take a look and see. Uh, I think it's just going to be um an open cut. uh through and then across the driveway and then patch and be done uh

148in a day in a day in a day time frame. Yeah. >> Uh and it maybe even overnight. Um it was just we wanted to make sure that you know that work was done at a time when we didn't have 68 buses going over it every day. >> How far down Sweden are they going >> to the 990? Yeah. Interchange. Yeah. >> I'm not going to lose any in my front lawn. All I needed to know. >> All right. That leads us to open session number two. Do we have any takers on >> another? Okay. >> All right. All right. >> Listen, listen. No, I just want to tell you about this project because it started on Wrench Road and I live on Wrench Road. So, the they're putting an underground uh sewer station at

149the very end of Ranch Road and these trucks have been on my street since like February. Um, and it it's a whole thing. Um, and you were right to delay it because I've been stuck behind these trucks trying to get to work on several occasions, but they're very nice and they're very kind and they they help. But it is a long project and someone told my son it's a three-year situation. I don't really know what that's all about. Um, but that's that's the scuttlebutt on the school buses is that this whole project is part of a three-year infrastructure thing. Uh, but I just want to tell you that because I live on that road and have been been part of it from minute one. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any other takers? No

150problem. Um, okay. So, that leads us to uh personnel. We'll be voting on personnel next week. that is teaching and administrative and service. Um you'll notice on there just the one thing that I want to point out is that there is a section 2A for tenure and we'll be having our tenure reception uh next Monday or Tuesday before the Tuesday before our voting session board meeting. Um any questions on that? Okay. So that leads us to our best part of the evening. Um, can I have a motion and a second for adjourning the meeting? >> So moved. >> Second.