001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, liberty, justice for all. Thank you. Roll call. Maryanne here. Scott, I'm here. Brian here. Dirk here. Danny here. And I am here. Mr. Mr. Balante is excused for the meeting. Uh may I have a motion to accept role? So move. Second. All in favor? I. Great. Uh minutes from the previous meeting. Do we have any comments? Um we will be voting on it next week. No. Righty. Uh communications. Does anyone have any communications to share? Nope. Okay. I don't know how where where would I had a a random meeting in Wegman's. It's probably appropriate for uh executive session with a retiring teacher. So, I'll leave that for later. Just
002don't want to surprise anybody with that. Okay. Other than that, no other communication is enough. Okay. Um, in communications, we do have the results of the district vote held on May 20th. The budget of 100 million far away, right? Mhm. 5762. We uh passed that budget 790 to 223 for a total of 11,3 votes cast. Two board members were elected to their 5-year terms. Uh, Brian and Durk both elected. Congratulations gentlemen. Thank you. Dr. Janestri, can I just ask you how does that compare to previous? Are we right on track or in terms of the success rate or Well, no, in terms of vote cast a little lower than um normal. We're usually between 11 and,200. So, yep. Yep. Consistent, but yeah, Brian was wondering why he didn't get that extra couple points that the
003budget got. Disappointed. We have a full on analysis going right now. Okay. Okay. Unfinished business. We have none. Dr. Chinastri, you're up. Thank you, Mrs. Betaglia. Um, just a few updates for the board tonight. Oh, I hit the wrong button. This might take a minute. Sorry. There we go. Big presentation. Okay. Um, before we uh get into the superintendent report, I'd like to call up Dr. Wilson to talk about our code of conduct and where we are with that. Good evening everyone. Tonight I'm going to be discussing with you our code of conduct and some of the work we've been doing with our DEI committee. There are the names of the committee members. Um as you can see um the members cut across all of our key stakeholder groups. This year we pushed hard to
004add a an increased number of students and our students were very active on this committee um coming and participating um throughout many of the sessions and really giving us good student voice into the work that we um accomplished this year. This year the committee worked on the district code of conduct and if you look at that committee you can see there are about 40 members there. Um, and the work spanned from uh developing questions that we sent back to schools to push their thinking around their school improvement plans to um the graduation um cap and gown that the students are now wearing and were as they went to um visit the elementary schools uh last last week. Um I thought they look very good um with the with the gold stripe around the sleeve. Um
005the DEI committee was involved in supporting that but also involved in um reviewing our district code of conduct. The thinking behind this committee um taking on that work because it had set with the safety committee is that um the work we wanted to make sure it was aligned to our strategic plan and as you look at our strategic plan the strategic plan was written by a subcommittee of DEI which all those members now are on the DEI committee and so just making sure that we are consistent and aligned across all three goal areas and the big main philosophy points of our strategic plan. Next slide. What we've decided to do on the committee is we we're deep into the work. Um we're about twothirds of the way through um reviewing the co the code of
006conduct. We are looking at it line by line and really having deep discussion about every point um and really honing in on how it goes back to and aligns to our strategic plan. So what we've decided to do is we don't want to rush it. We want to make sure it's done right. Um, we want to make sure that it's written at the level that we would we want it to be written at and we want to make sure that we provide the right professional development for everyone across the district because there's some elements in there that we want to make sure everybody is um anchored in on. So, we're submitting our current plan with minor changes and in a minute I'm going to go over those changes for the upcoming school year. We plan
007to um that will go up like it normally does for the 30 days uh to review. Um the new draft we will continue to work on into next school year. Um and with plans to finish that up about mid year, mid semester, fall semester, but then that intense focus around professional throughout to establish the foundational understanding across the entire district around multi-tered systems and supports because that is anchored in on the strategic plan. Um, so that SEAL focus, that social emotional learning, um, restorative practices, uh, PBIS, positive behaviors and interventions, what does that mean? What does it look like in our schools? We have been significantly involved in all that training for the last year, but we are hearing from across the district, we we need to push harder. We need to we it's not
008enough. We want to make sure that the foundation is clearly there. folks are saying they still need to anchor in on those and have a really good understanding so that as we roll out that um that code of conduct, it we roll it out and it's done very well. So, we really want to spend an intense amount of time on the professional learning that goes along with it. So, we plan to submit a brand new draft for at the end of 2526 to go into effect for 2627. that will give us the time we need to really do a good job and do it very well in reviewing the entire strategic plan or excuse me I keep saying strategic plan the code of conduct um and also lay that foundation around professional development so that
009is our timeline that we're looking at while in the meantime we have a current code of conduct we we are required to have one right and we want to you go to the next slide talk about some of the some of the um components Now, we took this to the DEI committee. You saw that about 40 members. There were about 30 members in the room that day. Um, and it was a unanimous vote to do what I just laid out for you. We discussed it as a group. Um, and the group chimed in and said, "Yes, that that makes the most sense for us." And then we went through our current code of conduct and we looked at what are the highlights we need to make sure we add to this code of conduct to
010make sure we're good going into the next school year. So you what you have here is just a highlight of what's on the the shortened version. Um and it's linked in there. There's two versions. Um there's the plain language version. That's the shorter one. And then you have the longer code of conduct that has a lot of explanations and and more more specifics um going deeper than the plain language one. The plain language one is the one that most people see because it really it it's it's easier to follow. So what I've spelled out for you in the plain language, anything that is changed is highlighted in yellow. So you as you go through the document, you'll see and I've called out each page where you see the changes. So on page two, we updated
011our DASA coordinators, our dignity for all students act coordinators for each of our sites. Uh we are we have a spot set aside for our distraction-free school plan which we'll be discussing with you next week. I'm very excited about the committee and the work that um that committee has done on the the distraction-free um school plan. Um so that will be linked in on page five. We've added a reference to our new AI policy because as you know we adopted a policy um 5840. So, it's referenced there. That was an addition. And then it's referenced again about the cell phone policy, the distraction-free schools policy. And then at the end, I just needed to update a name, my name. Um, and those are all the changes all highlighted there. Here's a timeline that we have
012that is typical for the code of conduct. We typically bring it this time of year. Um, it goes up for public comment. And so you see the span through July. Um when we get to our August board meeting, it would come up for a vote. Um and then going from there, we would go into the school year um with that plan. I'm sorry. Where do you put it out for public comment? Is it on the uh web page? The Yes, it goes right on the website. Um right now we have the safety plan that is up for public comment. it'll be there along with the safety plan um because their time is going to overlap, their 30 days are going to overlap. We also will have the cell phone or school the distraction-free school policy
013um after we present it next week. Uh we'll also have it there along with the town hall. Okay. Thank you. Questions about any questions? May ask if we're all good. I'm going to ask Dr. Wilson was going to stay up there to talk uh recap our challenge of change event. Oh yes. Just have let me ask just a couple questions. Um when you receive the public comments, is that something you'll share with us at the next meeting? Is that or the you know where you Absolutely. Um we'll follow the same process and we'll share any comments. And when you're looking at writing or you know making adjustments for next year, do you look at other districts to see what they're going through and or do you have a template you like how do you how
014do you do this? That's a big that Yeah, it is a it's a big undertaking. So that's exactly what we did. Um we had a a file of several different codes of conducts from across the area. We pulled three um that we thought were kind of different to give everybody this is this is what it looks like in different places. These are some components you might like or might not like. Um and so the team so with each section um the committee looked at the different code of conducts. They called out these are the things we thought work well in Sweet Home and these are the things we think don't work well in Sweet Home. We don't want that in there. Right? that feedback was then taken to a smaller committee that tried to pull
015that together and then bring it back to that larger committee. Um so that committee of about 40 people um anchors in and and there's a couple people in the room that are on that committee. Um we we anchored in on each section like four times. We kept going back to it because we first looked at um the three different codes of conducts. Um I believe it was North Tanowanda, one from Monroe County. um Greece central and sweet home and we made a comparison there and then we also said if there's something here that we think we want to see more of in other places we have yeah I had a whole folder because I did a audit of code of conducts um and then we we pulled all that information together brought it back to
016the committee the committee goes through it line by line and makes adjustments and says you know take this part out leave this part in add this, add that. Um, and then we go back, we make those edits, we bring it back. Okay, now we're we're closer to it. So, we did that like four times um for each section. Okay. For those of us not used to know the process, this is interesting to hear. Yeah, it sounds like a lot of work. Thank you. And and it is a hefty document. So, um that's what we really want to make sure it's done right. And the folks on the committee do take their time. They they we look at every single word. That word doesn't work right there. um we we should change it to this and
017so we take all the feedback. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Wilson. And uh just um love for you to offer a recap of uh what a what a great day last Friday was um for our challenge to change and want to thank Dr. Wilson for her leadership on on um putting this event together with her team and uh just an an awesome day of learning. So it yeah, a lot of fun. Lots of fun. Um so the students took the lead in in everything um from the selection of the move the of the music and the DJ components of of the event to um running the different activities. Um MCing the event and um laying out everything. Um the student artwork was on display. We had we held a a t-shirt contest um from across
018the district to um pick the design for our t-shirt. Um the the winner of the design of the t-shirt design was um was in the house. Um and but then we displayed all of the students who participated, all their artwork was displayed throughout the venue. Um and we we really honed in on this whole idea of unleashing your superpowers around kindness and belonging. because if you can just take a moment to be kind for a minute, you never know what that might mean to someone for that day. And so the students honed in on a session around um design identifying that superpower and and really highlighting it and and taking it back to their schools and and thinking about how they would use that superpower from from I'm creative so I can help in a
019way back at my classroom around my um level of creativity. Um, I know how to um I'm trying to think of some of the students uh superpowers. They they were all they they were there was a whole range there of some of the superpowers that the students were honing in on and from every angle you can think of. Um they hid it and they talked about ways that they would take it back to their schools and their homes and their and their communities to help with that. But then they also participated in healing circles and so smaller circles in which they honed in again on the kindness in communities. Um and who couldn't benefit from that in this world today, right? Just focusing in on how just a simple smile can help the person sit
020next to you and start a conversation. And so our our kids really stepped up to that. Um there were a couple leadership challenges. The paper challenge was very popular was a tower. They had to um put all of the kindness thoughts that they had from the day onto different pieces of paper and then they use those papers to build up um to make towers. And the and the goal was you had to do that with the team and not talk to them and not use anything but paper. No no scissors, no no tape. And it was the kids had a had a blast with it. Um so if you go on to the next, you see the feedback from the different sessions. um feedback from the participants. Uh the the uh pie chart over here
021on the on on my right um breaks down the different things that were available. Um there was a photo booth. You're going to see some of that and you'll see some of your faces in there. Um but you're going to see some of that in the next slide. Oh yeah, go back. Oh, sorry. Um but you see um the the biggest piece of the pie to the right on the on that's in red, Dari Singleary. He's a Sweet Home alum, graduated class 2012 and he runs an organization now in um Buffalo and throughout schools and the kids just loved that session. It was um the um healing circles and candles is in the sun is the name of the organization. So, he is back here and and really wanting to stay connected to Sweet Home.
022Um, and then you also see um the feedback on who wants to be a change agent. And you see um the big the pie in the middle. That's that's those are the students who said, "Yeah, I'm interested." You got some who are kind of who are in this place of um no, not yet. I I need to warm up to it. It's okay. We'll we'll keep working on them. Um and then you'll see the breakdown of the kids there. We had um um students in the building from uh fourth grade on so all the way up. Um and everyone had a good time and you'll see that in the next slide. So we had this fabulous photo booth as you see was one of the first times we could um show off our new panther.
023Um so uh the kids had fun with it and you'll see some of your faces in there too. Um, so, um, I think it showed that everybody had a good time and connected and, um, they enjoyed the the chicken fingers again. There you go. That was good. Yes. So, it was a good session and, um, we're looking forward to designing next year. The kids designed the whole thing. They designed the whole day. They are the ones who picked the the theme and um, helped design what we were going to do for the day. Now, we'd be remiss if we didn't ask you what was your superpower. My superpower is helping to highlight other leaders. Good one. I like that. So, leaders and stu like for example, we ha we have our little sixth grader Muhammad
024from the middle school who was working the floor when they were doing the paper tower. Um we have little Rose from from um from Heritage Heights who I keep telling her, you are the student body class president for sure. when you get there, that's you all day when you get to the high school. Um, so they're they're coming up and you see it in them already. So that I think that's my superpower, calling it out and making sure I tell people I see that in them. Right. Right. All right. Thank you, Dr. Wilson. Awesome day. Just a um embodied whatome is all about uh that day. And so I really appreciate the efforts of DEI committee ACT committee um and and thank you to the board for for supporting an event. It was a um
025awesome day. 200 250 250 students there in the room. Um just a few updates. I want to thank our sweet home community uh for their votes. um a couple weeks ago uh regarding our budget, we had a 78% approval rating of the budget um which is just a great indication of uh the support of our community has for our school district um and its its mission and vision. Um we had an awesome day of events and um and food uh and um halfway decent weather I think for our candidates that stood outside all day long. and just want to say on behalf of all of us at district office, congratulations to Brian and Durk on being reelected and receiving uh five-year terms to the board. Um and of course um also want to there was
026another thing that we voted on that day. Uh and um we officially unveiled our new Panther logo uh uh the Wednesday after the vote. Uh we went over to Maple to congratulate fourth grader Rya Rana. Um, and we brought her parents over with us. Uh, it was an awesome event. Um, we we um gave her the poster board of the new logo and um I asked her, "Do you know why we're here?" And she said, "Yes." And uh so it was it was great uh to get some some pictures with her. And um she's a very very quiet student. Um but boy oh boy was her was her concept and um drawing uh powerful. and um we just congratulate her. But just again to reiterate, we had 300 entries um 10 finalists uh a trip
027to 26 shirts. We couldn't have done this without our partnership with 26 shirts. Um, we've met with Miss Legel who already did an audit with the athletic department um before we even met um that week to start talking about transitioning uh where we have to transition um the new logo too. Um everything from letterhead to the wall in the gym um needs needs a a fresh look. Um and so um there's a lot of Panthers around the district and slowly but surely you're going to see this one um be be representative. So I want to thank Rafa. It's 26 shirts. Christine really led the effort to work with the art teachers who were absolutely allin and fantastic during this process. Um real success story and um to have the community be able to vote on
028it and anybody who wanted to have a voice in it could have a voice in it. Um and I think I have not heard one bad thing. Um some of the even the rhetoric on social media from um local outlets said that's the best Panther they've ever seen. So Um really really how old did you have that number? Um same I don't know what the number was. We could you know you had kids and all that. Yeah. Yeah. It was way more than close to Yeah, it was over a thousand. I off the top of my head I don't know but I do have the count in my Yeah, we'll get that for you. Sherry said 1100 Okay. So it was a stream of high school students coming here multiple times. Yes. Yep. So um
029uh last well when was that? That was last week. We honored our retirees. Um there's a lot going on and um just wanted to congratulate all of them. We had a really nice evening with our retirees. Um the best part of that night was hearing their stories um from their supervisors or principles. Um and just 585 years of service to Sweet Home um just irreplaceable. Uh we hope that those that we we are hiring during hiring season uh could even come close to the dedication and heart that our retirees have had um here during their time at Sweet Home. It was a great night. Lot of memories, a lot of reminiscing uh and um just want to once again thank our retirees for all of their service and hard work and dedication uh to our
030students. Um you know, it's it's working in education. It's um not easy at times, but um the people on this list and and so many of our employees here just give their heart every single day to our kids and um this is a is a big loss to the district, but their legacy will also always live on and just want to say thank you to for their service. And here's just some of the um pictures from the night's uh events um and and the smiles on on people's faces. So, I want to thank Marissa for letting us host it at the middle school as well. Um, it's a that cafeteria is a great great spot for events like this. So, and we are nearing graduation. Um, June 26th, 2025 at 6 p.m. Um, we will
031have the uh graduation ceremony at the UB Center for the Arts. Um, super excited uh for that night, a culmination of a great year. Um, and just want to congratulate several board members who have seniors. So, um, Mrs. Betaglia, Mrs. Zanthon, uh, Mr. Balante. Oh, not yet. He's a junior, Peter. Oh, he's a junior. Oh my gosh. I am so sorry. Infiltrated senior. Senior prom. Oh my gosh, you're right. Oh my gosh. Don't rush me. But prom was great. But prom was great. So, I had to get his picture up there. So, prom was awesome. But um on that note, I I did run into a parent that asked me, "Why don't we have a junior prom? I am open to that." Yeah. Mine was always combined. It was always junior junior senior prom. Yep.
032And I was like, "Well, I don't know. I will make sure I mention it." So, as we junior Yeah. about that, too. Yeah. I am absolutely open to that conversation. So, I don't know why we don't have one. I don't know why, but yeah, if they we want one, we we can have one next year. Your person will My apologies. I do I as a parent, I would never want to rush them. It's okay. Don't rush. But I saw you stay with me forever. She said stay together. Oh. Um they were just trying to raise money for it this year, but they didn't get enough to like make it happen. So Oh, okay. Um and that's what I have for tonight. There's any questions? Okay. Okay. Anybody have any questions? All right. Upcoming events. We
033have uh the wrap-up of PTA meetings, several flag days at our elementaryaries. Uh tenure reception is next week. Senior awards night is next week. Um we're in the exams start next week. tomorrow, I think. High school. That's what I kind of thought it was. Tomorrow's the first one, right? Geometry is tomorrow. Tomorrow's the first one. Geometry. Yep. Okay. Um and then obviously graduation is coming. Yes. Um we're not going to talk about it though. Um okay, that brings us to open session board policy 1510. This open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda. Is anyone interested in speaking? Nope. Okay. New business. We will building. We will be voting on new business items A through I next week. Uh special ed class placements and preschool placements. It's 276 pages. I've gotten through about half.
034So I will have them done by next week. All righty. Our monthly financials. We have the milk and juice bid coming next week. You know, normally when we've done the milk and juice, don't we get treats? We used to. What's happened? That was ice cream. That's the ice cream. Ice cream. I mean, I would take chocolate milk and stuff. Okay, put that on. Um, the science supplies bid. I don't need any samples of that. Uh, school bus parts bid. Any have anybody have any questions on anything? Just stop me. Um, disposal of obsolete property. Forgot to even look see what it was. Technology piece of lots of Oh, that's right. Lots of old IT equipment. Yes, it right. Done. Pages and pages of it. Uh then we have our funding of our reserves, the proclamation
035for our retirees, district safety plan, an overnight field trip for the boys hockey team in January 2026. They would like to go to Thousand Islands for a tournament. Wow. And the contract for cooperative ed services. I was actually going to ask Don a question here, but they're both of the uh the bids that I saw in there both had short periods before they expired. I'm assuming they're holding the prices for us, so you'll know both of them. Okay. Yes. I say because they're both going to expire before we vote on it. Yes. Okay. Yeah, they I think they usually do. I think so. It just caught my attention this time. Any questions or comments on any of the business we'll be voting on next week? Mr. Johnson, uh, Don is actually here in the meeting,
036so I don't know. Don, do you have Yes. Uh, can you guys hear me? Yep. It's like Yeah. Yeah. It's better than putting my ugly mug up on the screen. Uh, Mr. Johnson, uh, Boseies is aware of our voting um timeline. uh and they are holding the pricing for those um those bids uh those uh those bids for student uh iPads as well as teacher laptops. So they will be held uh we will vote you guys will vote on it next week and then the Boseies board will vote on it uh on or around July 9th I believe it is uh and then the order will be placed. Okay, awesome. Thanks Mr. Feldman. Sure. Thanks for joining us. Uh, my pleasure. And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Um, okay. That brings
037us to our second open session. Would anyone like to address the board? Please state your name, address, and relationship to Sweet Home. Good evening. My name is Jamie Mancine. I live at 276 Glenn Haven Drive and I am here tonight as the I'm honored to be the PTA president for Glendale Elementary. Um, thank you so much for the recognition tonight um for all the work that we do. I think in these community meetings a lot of the time and and you see this in my emails that I send, you hear a lot of the things that we are against and that we have big feelings on, but I try as much as I can to share the amazing things that are happening in our schools. And so I think I would be remiss if I
038didn't share some of the amazing things we were able to accomplish this year at Glendale as a PTA. I'm going to be stealing Danny's thunder because I'm sure at some point because she's very involved with us, she was going to share these things. Um, but we were able to accomplish a lot this year and we're really, really proud of it. So, we raised over $18,000 this year for Glendale. We were able to hold nine appreciation events for the staff and uh, teachers. We were able to donate over 50 classroom games to enhance the idea of playing the Panther Way for all of our elementary students. We held 15 events. We recognize two to three teachers or staff members every month for the work that they're doing in our building because we could not do what
039we do without them and our kiddos would not be as successful as they are without them. Uh we sponsored recorders for the music program, pompoms for the cheer club. We supported seven field trips. We gave a book to every student for their birthday. We gave t-shirts to every student for their field trips, their leadership assemblies. Uh we continued to support the leader in me program. We also uh supported our student lighthouse team. Um and next week we'll be honoring someone with a scholarship, one of our seniors, which is really exciting for us. Um and really I think I just want to say overall it's been such a joy to be in that building. like we just get to spend so much time with the kids and the teachers and the staff and it's just such
040a blessing to me and I I just think we not just the work we do but the school as a whole we couldn't do it without each other and we work really closely together and I think that should be celebrated. So that's all I wanted to share tonight. Uh thank you so much for your time. Thank you. And oh sorry this is out of the ordinary. We don't normally have back and forth communications. I just I'm going to ask you are you staying as president next year? I wasn't. Okay, good. I'm glad you're here at um I was just gonna say your trunk or treat was awesome there, too. I mean, it was phenomenal. And just the people that attended Good. That's a point of information. I ran into your I think they used to
041be called assistant principles. She's now culture and climate. Sha, she is now a new board member in uh Alden School Districts. Very nice lady. Yeah, I saw her. What's a yes? Very nice lady. So anyways, um and I would just like to say and I don't know, maybe you could take this back to the other PTAs. I did see on social media the um what we did this year post I guess with the flyer. That was really amazing. And I think that, you know, some of our other PTAs could could take a a beat and look at that and and maybe share their own um because I think it's really important. You know, as a former PTA person and president, I I it's a thankless job sometimes. So, we appreciate you and uh all of
042our PTAs for sure, but it's really nice to see those kind of things come up on on social media and be able to see the great things that are being done. So, thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Uh personnel will be voting on this next week, both teaching and service. Any comments or questions? Okay. Ajournment. Can I have a motion in a second to adjourn to executive session for matters related to the employment history of several individuals? We will not be returning.