001Running. >> What are you doing? Running. Running. >> Three miles. Yeah. Three miles a day. >> Oh, the snow and the snow. >> Your mom does that? >> Yeah. Every day. Snow. >> Yeah. I have yak. They're called yak straps. >> I have those. Yeah. The cleats. They're like cleat that you wrap on. >> You strap on your shoes. >> I got them from the mountain store for people, you know, climb and go on ice. >> Delaware. my lunch. >> The other ones I did the travel day with soup >> with what soup? Oh, nice. >> There's like 15 kids out there working. >> Okay. >> How's your little guy doing? >> Happy. >> Wow. I've always known she >> um she's home. >> Yeah. Well, she she had a heart attack like two years
002ago and we've been trying to fix it. So she had revolution >> that was unsuccessful. >> Have fun with >> Saturday roll. >> What are we going to do with you? All right. Do an exciting problem? >> I think we are. >> We're good. We're good. >> We're live. >> All right. Uh, thank you for your patience. Um, just quickly, we called our meeting to order. At 6:05 this evening, we we um did the pledge of allegiance, the roll call, and at 6:07, we adjourned into executive session um for a matter relating to a student matter covered by Furpa and for negotiations update. Um we adjourned from executive session at 6:55 and we are here now. Um, so that leads us to the approval of the agenda. May I have a motion and a second
003to approve the agenda? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Um, minutes of the previous mi uh meeting. Any questions on the minutes from our previous meeting? Seeing none, may I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. um communications. I did share last week um that uh I received a letter from Nancy Potter at Boseies Erie Wooseies um opening up um for their two board member candidates u Michelle Polar um and Mr. Sherman who is the current president. Um they have both in the last week sent me letters. I don't I'm sure I'm sure they sent them to you too, Fallon. Um they are both seeking reelection. How many years for them? >>
004I I think they're a three-year term. >> I don't know how long they've been on the board at Boseies, but it's for a three-year term. Um, so if we've I think we have until March 17th, I believe, is their deadline. Um, so if any other candidates come in for that, I'll I will let you know and then we will have to um vote on it in our March meeting um to send to Boseies. Um, any other communications that anybody has? Okay. Um, seeing none, uh, unfinished business. We have none, which leads us to our superintendent report, Dr. Janessi. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Balante. Um, a couple, uh, topics to update the board on tonight. Um, first and foremost, uh, we want to say congratulations to Mr. Alan Bullet, um, science teacher extraordininaire at
005our middle school. Um he has been named the outstanding educator of the year um by the uh science teachers association of New York State. He's also a New York State master teacher which is the highest honor a teacher can receive um throughout New York. Um there's a ginormous um application process and vetting and coursework that goes with it. But then um New York State master teachers are also expected to mentor other teachers um as well. And uh there couldn't be a better mentor um in in science at the middle school level um than Mr. Bakawitz. Um you know, speaking as superintendent, we were very lucky to have him. Speaking as a parent, I'm very lucky my my kids have uh has one has him. One has him now and the other one had him before.
006Um and he really fosters a love of science with all of his students. Um because he is so dedicated and passionate about the curriculum and the field in general. So, um it is it is a great honor uh for Mr. Bakawitz, but it's great for Sweet Home as well. Um and and we're truly lucky uh to have him on the faculty here and just wanted to present this certificate to you and I know the board um wanted to uh invite you here tonight um for this and just say thank you for all you do um for Sweet Home, but most importantly for our students because um you you really do foster like I said before, foster that love of science here. Oh, so congratulations. We're gonna get that picture and I'll >> go. >> Thank
007you everybody. >> All right. >> Turn around. >> Where do you Where do you want to do this Christine? Do you want to Is this >> Yeah. I mean, if you guys could you guys just come right around here. >> We can get the whole You want to get the whole >> Yes. >> That's right. selfie. >> Come on, you're part of us. Come on. >> Come on. You're part of us. >> A good reason. Great reason. Congratulations. >> Thank you for >> tell me about experiential >> or seventh grade. Sorry, he's in seventh grade, but he is one. So Oliver priority. >> Yeah, but then there was co so >> Oh, yeah. >> Oh, you don't have to stay. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Enjoying. >> It's completely up to you. >> Enjoy the 40°ree
008weather. >> Have a good night. >> Thanks for coming. Thank you. >> And just a quick a couple of updates. Um, we want to congratulate our National Honor Society inductees. Um, I think we had 47 the other night, which is a very, very good number. Want to, uh, also thank Mrs. Basart, Eva Basart. This is her first year um, organizing not only the applicants, but organizing the committee to review applications and essays. Um, Mr. Lucenti gave some remarks to the uh to the audience and uh the inductees. Um and it was just an overall great night. I want to thank Mrs. Bart for all of her work um to put this together. I thought she did a great job for uh especially knowing that it was her first year. So um congratulations to our National
009Honor Society inductees at the high school. Um and thank you Mrs. Bart for your work. Uh we also had the honor of hosting um first time since I've been a superintendent um Dr. Capawana offered a district up to um host an Erie 1 Boseis superintendence meeting and I raised my hand quickly and said uh because usually our meetings in are in West Senica at Erie one Boseis um on Harlem Road and I said if I can avoid driving past the blue water water tower one time I am all in and Sweet Home would be happy to host. Um so he accepted that invitation. We hosted the 19 component district superintendent here for our half-day meeting. Um, and Dr. Capawana offered part of the agenda to highlight a um a thing at at Sweet Home that
010we're super proud of. And um, knowing that, you know, I'm not an official board member, but I try to get to every meeting I can for chef and the great work that they're doing. Um, I asked Lisa Leak and um and board members if they would present to the superintendent group on all the meeting, all the things that chef does from the food closet to prom um giveaway, uh, athlete, snacks, etc., etc. And so Lisa gave a history of the program um the over how many volunteers? 200 volunteers, 300 volunteers that are involved. Yeah, over 300 >> um in chef and all the fundraising that they do and and really the room was blown away uh by the fact that we have um a foundation here that really evens the playing field for a lot
011of our kids. Um and so um she presented for about a half an hour. There were a lot of questions from the superintendents in the group and just really a proud moment uh for Sweet Home, a proud moment for for me watching um Don Kelly Bogaz, um Darcy Spangler and Lisa Labra get up there and present um to the group and and um um they were pretty impressed. A lot of them came up to me after the meeting wanted to learn more about about this um knowing that they have kids in need as well. Um and so it's really the spirit of volunteership and service that uh that Lisa was really eloquently able to talk to the superintendent about. So um point of definitely point of pride of Sweet Home makes Sweet Home unique um
012and something that we can all be thankful for for the work of that board. Sure. Um, we also had a uh VIP in town last Friday. U Melinda Pson, who is the um president of NISTIT, the New York State uh United Teachers Union, um stopped by. Lisa invited her and she accepted the invitation to talk about the media classes. It was media literacy week um throughout the state and um the president of NICET was doing a a tour around the state and decided to come to Sweetome to learn more about our media classes. Um she talked to six or seven students from the media program that her and Brian Kosiel are a part of or run at the at the um at the high school and it was a phenomenal visit. Um, NISTIT uh is
013really interested in promoting more lead media literacy throughout the state, having teachers um teach this kind of curriculum to give students the right tools and methods um to be safe and secure online, but also to recognize what's a valid resource and what is not a valid resource, which more and more today um we are struggling with uh to to know what's real and what's uh not so real. So, um, she spent a lot of the morning here on on Friday. Um, it was a great visit and and very personable. Um, and so there were a lot of media that followed her around and, um, we appreciate her time here at Sweet Home. We also had the middle school uh, high uh, present Disney's High School Musical Junior on Friday and Saturday. Uh, both shows were
014a sellout. Um, and I think we always had the Friday show sellout, but I'm not sure we had the Saturday show sellout all the time, but both shows were a sellout. Um, and just phenomenal reaction from the audience. Over 100 students participated in the musical. Um, from stage hands to the leads um, in there. Uh it was really a uh celebration of of some of the things that are going on at our middle school and how many students really participate um in this to put on a great show for our community. Um really proud of the fact that they sold out both shows and um um they did a great job. So uh hopefully that talent continues to go up here at to the high school and that we're going to I think in a
015couple weeks see Spongebob Squarepants here. So, I'll give the information um to the board and the community when that when those tickets go on sale. >> Who's that kid front and center up there? >> Yeah, that's uh Yeah, >> looks familiar. >> Is it because the mouth is the way it is or >> he did a great job. >> We were very proud of him and so I snuck that picture. Well, Fallon helped me sneak that picture in there. So, um appreciate that. And uh I will say I got to talk to some of the other students that were in the experience they have. I want to I want to thank Jackie Zlooski and Sarah Pulis uh for for their efforts um because there is a lot of time that goes into it and a
016lot of practice that goes into it, including two um all day Saturday sessions that they did prior to to the big shows. Um the time and effort they put in is just phenomenal. And the kids were packed. Um they went to an after c after party at Red Robin and they um had a table. There were about 20 of them, 20 of the students around the table. They started to sing one of the songs from the musical and the entire restaurant uh joined in and gave him a standing ovation. >> So cool. >> It was neat. Very neat. Um and then finally just uh we did our first budget session on Saturday uh and we will be continuing budget development um as the spring rolls on and just wanted to put this out for our
017public. These are our dates um just reminder dates about where we are with the budget and how the process will work. Uh we had our study session one on February 7th that was Saturday. The next one will be March 10th. We have another one on April 14th. The budget hearing and budget adoption um by the board vote will be April 21st and then voting day for our community is May 19th. So um we hope to see our community here at one of our future budget sessions and that's what I have tonight. Any questions? All right, any questions? All right, so let's look at some of our upcoming events. Uh we have a dollars for scholars and a Glendel PTA meeting tomorrow. Um Heritage Heights has a skating party. The high school PTSA meeting on Thursday.
018Um ENL parent teacher conferences um are this week. Next week is mid-inter recess. So no classes next Monday through Friday. Um and then when we come back, um a couple other events, DEI committee meetings, some science nights, uh at Willow Ridge, bingo night at Glendale, and that leads us into March. Um so moving on to our first open session. Um per board policy 1510, this open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda only. Is there anyone interested in speaking? Seeing none, we will move on. Um, so we have new business. Um, may I have a motion and a second for agenda items A through E, which would include the special education and preschool class placements, um, our monthly financial reports, internal audit and re report and collective action plan, which is on asset inventory
019listings, um, our revised policy second reading, which we've been talking about. Um, and then our revised policy first reading. So, may I have a motion and a second for agenda or any comments? >> Sorry. >> Okay. May I have a motion and a second for agenda? >> Oh, sorry. I did have a question on on the uh the findings in the audit report. >> Was that an internal audit type of thing? >> Yep. >> Okay. It is an internal audit and uh the firm that does it comes out and visits us uh in June the audit committee and then we identify areas of um focus for the next year uh for the next uh internal audit and we have a we have a regular cycle that we work through. >> Who's who's uh who who
020are the members of the audit committee these days? >> Mr. Johnson, Mr. reliable uh chaired by uh Bill Stoy. >> Bill Stoy is still there. >> Yep. And Mary Alen Apprentice along with Al Yeah. along with myself and our district treasurer Nicole Cus. >> Okay. Justformational thing. >> Yep. Yep. >> Anything else? Any other questions or comments? All right. May I have a motion in a second on agenda items A through E? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Moving on to I believe it's informational items is next. Um soformational items. Mr. Coleman, would you like to start this evening? >> I would. Okay. Great. Um to start um with it being February and Black History Month, student government put together a few things honoring Black History. Our
021vice president, Summer Mack, and I set up the wall titled Celebrate Black History Every Day in front of the senior lounge recognizing a new individual each day of the month, which has received a lot of positive feedback. Some members of the academic, student life, and DEI committee put together videos and posters to be displayed on the morning show. The chair of that committee, Cha, put together a video on Oprah Roomfrey and I created one on Amanda Gorman. We plan to do the same thing in March for Women's History Month. Um, it is as well the week of spirit week and we have our spirit week calendar up and for our students to participate and show off their school spirit. We did plan to have a pep rally this Friday, but there were conflicting issues with
022the organization and the wrestling tournament. So, we do plan to have one later in March with it potentially being outside if the winter is nice enough or weather. Um, student government is also putting together a sweetheart station tomorrow for students to stop by and order a rose and lollipop free of charge to be delivered to someone anonymously. Members of student government will gather Thursday and Friday, first period, to go to the allotted classrooms and hand them out. Um, next, um, senior tiles were originally scheduled to be painted after school each day this week, but due to timing, we will move them to next week where seniors can come in and paint, which drastically extends the amount of time we would have. And I'd like to give a shout out to Mr. Lenti for making this
023happen. And then lastly, uh, Summer Mac and I are still regularly meeting with Dr. Luchi to discuss plans for the for mental health awareness. We will begin putting together pamphlets andformational posters that students will be able to take and read. We also reached out to Mr. Murphy and plan to work with him sometime this week on trying to get the weight room back open during the day for students to utilize. And we've also contacted Dr. Bailey on trying to bring back vending machines to the senior lounge. Thank you. If if you do get a chance to see the display in the high school main hallway outside the senior lounge on Black History Month, I highly recommend that you do that. You did a phenomenal job up there. I was um reading it today and just
024lots of great information and um just do a great job. >> Um okay, Maryanne, >> um just a couple things. We we had a PTA um meeting and I wasn't there for it long, but um they had a great turnout for their Mc Donald McDonald's night and they raised $1,040, which is pretty good. That was the same night as our board meeting, so couldn't make that. And then from the meeting, I went off to the National Honor Society. I got to tell you, just watching the pride of those parents put on the their pinning, it's just I love seeing their faces. Um the budget, we all sat in for the budget meeting and um again, the High School Musical was just fun to watch and we all got on our ARM board this last month.
025Um there was an article on little things can make a difference for superintendants and one of the things it says is to acknowledge the invisible work. and we know how much work you put in behind the scenes. So, I think it's appropriate to say thank you for all you do behind the scenes that make this district successful. And I think we'd all agree that there's a lot you do. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Jason. >> And that's it. >> Um, Scott, >> a handful of things. I had a chef meeting at the beginning of the month, our audit committee, which we just got out the report on tonight. It was a actually relatively short meeting because the audit went so well. Um, I did manage to make it to the breakfast
026of champions at the middle school for the seventh and sixth grade and they said it is specifically in that order rather than vice versa. Um, just on on purpose and it was it was wellreceived. I missed the one for the eighth grade because my car and flat tire wouldn't cooperate. Um, I also attended the NISBA conference, the virtual one last Friday. Um, I did quite a bit on it that I can write it up and get it out to everybody. I think I brought up the majority of the main points at our budget meeting on Saturday. Anyways, and finally today I was at a leadership event for with the Western New York Educational Service Council. They were doing a handful of things that's primarily aimed at people who are looking to be superintendent candidates and
027to help them along in the process of what to expect. I was asked to come in and speak as part of a panel with so that they could talk, you know, to get a board member's perspective and it was with our former superintendent Tony Day um Dr. Capuana and Scott Bailey who's the uh the district superintendent for Kataragus AlaGany um Boseis. So we sat down with a small group of people and and talked about it for it was just a general conversation. Tony had a whole bunch of questions prepared about where we would go with it but then help those people out when the time comes that they were interviewing. They also had a few sessions before that. I came in on one where they had um four superintendents and of different levels of service
028and asking them a variety of questions and letting the audience talk to them. And I know there was also one about budget building, another room. I didn't go into that one. It was very interesting process. Not a huge group, but I you know people are looking have a role like yours at some point. You know what do they need to know when they get there? What what type of things should they expect? That's it. >> Amy, >> nothing new for me. >> Um Durk, sure. Just a couple items. One was my little adventure to DC. you know, thank the district for sponsoring me. It's not an inexpensive trip and uh fortunately at times feels like a lot to do about nothing. But I had uh on Hill Day is the day we prepped for I
029met with um Hakee Jeff as chief of staff um the two senators Jill Brand and Schumer and I couldn't get to Langworthy although I stopped and dropped the card off but the final was Tim Kennedy and the theme across Most of those conversation was not unfortunately not about how do we help you although they say they want to help us in terms of the IDA and the title one and some of these other issues we had there but they complained constantly about the administration and they complained about uh ICE and they complained about lots of things and even rose above professionalism and swore a couple times. I was really disappointed in it. So, as a as a representative of Western New York and my role as I as I thought I had to play there,
030what I did was make a suggestion to help get some bipartisan support on where we want to go was if the school districts could prepare something that shows the use of the funds, how we're using them, and the results we're getting from them, would that help again get fully funded and whatever else we were trying to do and most of them responded yes and and again every meeting I sat in I I delivered that message and I also at the end delivered uh the sweet home's response to the issues which primarily my focus was on the um the amount of money we receive for is it title one where we're getting a million dollars or is it IDA and and we're spending 11 out of a million or hundred million budget. So really, I think
031it drove home what we're trying to do and why we were there. So otherwise, I enjoyed being there. I really like the whole kind of knock on the door and say, "Guys, this is what's going on out there. How can you help us?" So, but that's me. Um, and I got home reasonably late Tuesday night, so I couldn't make the uh school board meeting. I'll just make a comment on uh uh Saturday. I I do hope that we move towards a something under the cap and even below that if we can. I know there's some additional things we want to purchase uh that make sense to purchase now. But again, in the end, uh I do think as Maryanne has says, seniors are out there. They're not easy in today's world and economy to make
032ends meet. you got higher utility costs and you got taxes that seem to never go down. So, and and just one other thing I want to clarify this because I said something to Dr. Janestri on Saturday about the amount of effort and time and money we spent on getting people to show up to vote on the capital project. It it really is shocking to me that we would spend that time, money, and effort to deliver 600 votes. And I always thought that maybe there should be some c percentage of people that need to show up in order for it to be a valid vote, but I know that doesn't exist. And shame on those that really didn't want to have their taxes raised or not showing up. But anyways, I didn't mean anything personal. I
033just I'm disappointed in the uh amount of people that show up to vote. So, thank you. That's all I had. Okay, Danny, >> that is a tough act to follow. >> Oh, it is. Go ahead. >> Uh, not too much for me. Um, uh, there was a Glendale PTA meeting last month. It was Jamie Mancine, the president's last meeting. So, everybody sobbed pretty much the whole time. Um, she has moved uh to Syracuse. So, we are I don't believe there's a new person in that seat yet. There is a meeting tomorrow. So, I hope to find out what is happening with Glendale then. Um, not much else. I did a couple of school drop offs just coming to a school and dropping some things off. Uh Ready Academy has a couple senior projects where they
034are beautifying the space and creating a student lounge. So I had some extra paint and things that I bought for the house that they had requested um donations for and I stopped at Maple Mirror and dropped some stuff off and that's pretty much it. >> Thank you, Brian. >> Yeah, a couple of things. Um, >> Heritage Heights. I forgot to mention that. >> I um Go ahead, Dirk. You want to >> Oh, no. No. I'm just >> add something in to tears. Oh, >> I forgot. I didn't make the Heritage Heights PTA meeting. I hope I didn't miss anything. So, >> if you're not going to make a meeting, let me know cuz I'm doing the >> I fill in for >> Are you the fill in? Okay, I will let you know. Thank you.
035I thought Scott was doing that. >> We switched. I asked him to take over the high school for me. >> Oh, that's it's nice. Nice. The um uh just lost my train of thought for >> Sorry, Brian. >> No, you went to the play. >> Uh well, I was going to say the audit committee. I was on we we had the audit committee meeting uh last week and you know, we as as uh Scott mentioned, we had the results um tonight. So, um you know, I think uh the the the the job that um uh Mr. Felman and his team does, you know, is is is they do a great job and really um you know, there's these audits are always going to come up with something, but um you know, I think it was
036relatively minor. Um uh the middle school musical, I attended that and you know, I really enjoyed that. the I I think the theme this year and the the you know with being a high school musical it just seemed to really resonate well with all the students and and and in in the parents there um and uh my daughter is uh does the the microphone so you know I you know every you know all the students that were actually uh you know the actors and actress actresses and whatnot do a great job but I also know there are a lot of lot of students and teachers behind the scenes. I know for the high school uh my nephew's an art teacher here and he was out at Michael's um after school today. Um you know getting
037supplies for the getting getting ready for the costumes for the high school musical. So there's a lot of work that goes on for these not just during you know um the time that the teachers are here but they do a lot of extra after you know after hours and coming in on Saturdays and whatnot. Um the um the other thing I wanted to mention is uh I attended the Willidge Sweetheart dance on um uh uh last week, not last week, Friday, the week before. And again, you know, the the job that we're doing, sometimes we're um you know, many feet away from uh the ground floor at times. And uh you know despite all the challenges and issues we have it's nice going to those things cuz you know there are just hundreds of kids
038having fun um you know dancing doing Valentine's Day cards and whatnot. I wasn't allowed on the dance floor by both my I was told that I was consider myself an Uber driver primarily for for the event. But um but it was a lot of fun just to see all the young kids there um enjoying themselves having a lot of fun. Um so it's uh again just kind of important to keep perspective um and everything you know we're doing. Um ultimately it's about the kids. That's it. Thank you. Um I do not have anything. Um I have a Willow Ridge PTO meeting first week of March and then we have our athletic council's meeting with our young and right uh and other groups on um March 10th. Um and we will also be having um we
039scheduled an open house with our first bargaining unit for March 10th prior to our board meeting. Um so we will get out the information on that. Um that leads us to open session number two. Um would anyone like to address the board? You will have three minutes. Please state your name, address, and relationship to Sweet Home. Nope. All right. That leads us to personnel. Um we have teaching and administrative. We have a couple of appointments, tenurs, um substitutes, mentors, um a leave of abs, a couple leave of absences, um and our inter Scholastic um sports coaches for the spring season. Um and then service. We have um a retirement, some regular appointments, um permanent civil service appointments, a leave of absence, and a reinstatement from leave. Um any questions on personnel? Okay. May I have
040a motion and a second on the personal items? One, teaching and administrative, and two, service. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> All right. I believe that ends our meeting. So, may I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. All in favor? >> I I >> All right. to take it.