001Is that your holding here? Yeah, I count 15 degrees cooler in your office. Your gift card yet, Scott? I started to. We spent the first 80 or $90. It's the only place I could sort of hear someone. [Laughter] Am I wrong? No, you are not wrong. I haven't made it to one of those in It was so fun. It was so fun. I always make sure I kick some of the raffles just in just in case. It was fun. I had a good time. I might do the one in December. Oh, thank you. December 5th, Mrs. Selling tickets. Yeah, there were five of us. We got a while to go before we get there. I should try that. It was It was a lot. I had too much popcorn before I share. Will you share?
002Sure. Hello here. We got a lot going on. That's that means craziness, right? Here's my little right now cake. It was so It was like eating pure sugar. So good. So good. Four different color paint on my front door. Oh, that's that's even better. It's even more than a door. You're ready. What? artist. Yep. Thank you for your patience. We went into exe executive session at approximately 5:34 and we are now back. I will turn it over to Mr. Feldman for our budget hearing and meet the candidate night. Thank you. Do you want me to one second? We were in executive session for matters No, go ahead. We were in executive session for matters related to the employment history of particular individuals. Now you can go. Excellent. Thank you. Uh welcome everybody to uh our
003um 202526 budget hearing and meet the candidates night. We'll provide a quick snapshot on the budget that the board approved uh last month, April 22nd uh for uh the public to consider uh in two weeks from tonight. uh on Tuesday, May 20th. So, Dr. Nest, if you'd hit um the next slide, the proposed budget for the 2526 school year uh that the again that the board of education approved on April 22nd is $ 105,576,12. It maintains programming at all current levels uh across all the districts. So, all of our programs uh instructional programs remain the same. It is under the state imposed property tax cap of 04%. Uh the proposed levy increase is right at that at point4%. Uh which means that uh our budget vote that happens on Tuesday, May 20th. Uh the budget
004only needs to pass by a simple majority because it is in compliance with the uh state imposed tax cap. It does maintain our annual bus purchase. We have um six buses in the 2526 budget including four electric uh with uses of uh state and federal funding to help mitigate some of those costs. So again uh the proposed budget is $ 105,576,012 uh as a uh compared to our current budget of $100,410,422. It is an increase of 5.165 million or a percentage increase of 5.14%. We are required um at this budget hearing to present uh the budget in three parts. Those three parts are administrative program program and capital. The administrative portion of the budget really is the overall management uh and support of the district. It includes salaries uh related to the superintendent's office, curriculum
005and staff development, uh the board of education, printing and publishing, and supervision and support in all of our six schools. It includes legal services, liability and property insurance, and salaries and benefits for our administrative staff. program portion of our budget, which is the largest, is the instructional component, uh, which accounts for all the instruction and educational support across the district's 3,800 students. Salaries for teachers, guidance counselors, psychologists, social workers, coaches, therapists, teacher aids, computer technicians, and clerical support staff are included along with all of their fringe benefits. Uh, summer school and summer school transportation are also included in this. And the last portion is the capital bud portion of the budget. Includes all of our buildings and grounds, all of our maintenance equipment, vehicles, uh, and any repairs done to the district. Sorry. So, as
006a snapshot of the total budget of $105 million, our administrative component is uh for the 2526 school year is 8,95,727, which translates to about a 7.7% makeup of our overall budget. Our program budget increases from the 2425 school year uh to 80,293,511 which for us is about a 76% um makeup of our total budget. Uh and then the capital portion of our budget is 17,186,774 which is a uh makeup of about 16% of our annual budget from that standpoint. This just gives you kind of another snapshot at the budget uh from year to year. Uh the darker uh bar graphs are the proposed budget for the 2526 school year. You'll see that uh our administrative component did increase by uh.1%. Our programmatic budget actually decrease by6% and our capital budget uh increased by.5% from year
007to year. So on the revenue side of the budget of a $105 million budget, uh this is basically the makeup of um how we receive our money. Real property taxes, which is the tax levy, uh, accounts for 51.6% of our budget. State aid is 36.4%. The use of our reserves and fund balance is 2.6%. Our debt service reserve is.3%. Sales tax 5.2% and other items including uh payments in lie of taxes, tuitions and interest is 3.9%. On the right there, we do highlight some of our our revenue impacts. Uh for the 2526 school year, we did see a $3.75 million increase in foundation and expense driven aids. Uh in the executive run of the uh New York State budget, as of today, uh the New York State budget still is not passed. Uh they had
008a deadline of uh of April 1st to do so. Uh it is May 6th. Uh so they're almost uh 36 37 days uh beyond their deadline. So we did see an increase of 33.75 million uh in aid. Um for what it's worth, uh that's where we're at in terms of the um the executive run. We have oop oop sorry that's okay. We have a $350,000 increase in sales tax projections from the current year. We are maintaining our use of about $345,000 in reserves to help offset uh the overall lack of state aid. And uh we are using $300,000 in our debt service reserve. Um that will exhaust uh the debt service reserve. If you remember uh from the last two controllers reports that, you know, we've been dinged on that. um that was created probably
009about 10 plus years ago uh to kind of mitigate an offset in aid building aid back on three building projects ago. Uh so uh we've been using we've established the debt service reserve to help offset some of those costs to our community that exhausts our debt service reserve which is what we needed to do. A quick question. So, it's been a month plus that we don't have a new budget. Is any of that revenue in jeopardy? You think she's going to come back with something crazy or from everything you don't laugh. From everything you've seen, are are we pretty good? Uh, that's a good question. You know, everything that I've read, um, uh, the the aid looks to stay the same. Um, so I I don't anticipate anything from that too drastic of a change.
010Uh, there may be some things surrounding uh, you know, cell phones and school buses, electric school buses and things along those lines, but from an aid standpoint, I wouldn't expect to see too much of a change. Uh we did in earlier presentations make note of our total aidable foundation pupil unit number uh that really drives state aid and that ours remain the same from year to year. So we would expect our aid uh to remain fairly close. I know that the superintendent had conversations with uh assembly person McMahon and she indicated the same and that we may even see a slight uptick in our aid. um just as as a person that creates a $105 million budget with our staff and with you, you know how frustrating it is to create a budget without um
011all of the information is what I'll say. Thank you. Sure. The proposed tax levy, the tax levy increase is again 4% uh which uh translates to an increase in the overall levy from year to year of $218,590. Our proposed tax levy attached to the 2526 budget is 54,486,662. It again is right at that uh tax cap limit for Sweet Home uh for the 2526 school year at point4%. Uh so again, it only needs a simple majority to pass uh when the public when the public votes on it on Tuesday, May 20th. This is a snapshot of kind of where we anticipate tax rates to be in relation to our budget. Uh this is based upon a home that is assessed at $250,000 in the district, which is pretty close to an average home. Uh I
012will caution you that this is using assessed value data um at the current school year. We don't receive assessment levels uh from each of the townships until well into the summertime. Uh but we do use this to kind of give a our best guess, our best estimate uh at where we think taxes will be. We utilize the same equalization rates from the current year. Uh our Ammerst equalization rate is um has moved from 62 to 100% this past year. So they are at full valuation. The Tanowanda equalization rate dropped from 24 to 23%. Uh and this is again based upon uh us going to the full uh t allowable tax cap limit of 54,486,662. So on a home average home assessed at $250,000 in the town of Ammerst, we would expect that a tax bill
013would uh be around $2,425, which is a year-to-year year-to-year increase of $7. And then on the Tanowanda side of the district, we would expect that on an average home, again at assessed at $250,000, that that bill uh would translate to uh tax bill would translate to $2,437, which is an increase from year to year of $9. So when folks come to the polls the uh the the to vote on the budget on Tuesday December uh Tuesday December boy oh boy Tuesday May 20th um here in district office in Virgil Center uh they will be voting on two things they will be voting on the first propos proposition which is the approval of the 10576,122526 budget. Uh again that's an increase of 5.1% tax levy increase of4% over the current year and they will also be
014voting on the election of two school board members. The terms of Mr. Liyel and Mr. Rabinol do expire on June 30th. Uh and the top two vote getters receive a 5-year term that'll expire on June 30th, 2030. Uh we do have four candidates that you'll meet here shortly that are running for the board. Uh and then the voting details again uh two weeks from today. The polls will be open from 7 am to 900 pm right here in Virgil Center. You must be 18 years of age to vote and a resident of the district for at least 30 days prior to voting. So with that, I'll ask if the board has any questions. We could also entertain questions from the audience if there are any. I don't know if the board has got any questions
015relative to the budget. Mr. Felman, will there be chicken dinner that night? Yeah, will there be chicken dinner? There is a chicken dinner that night. Shameless plug. Dollars for scholars will be hosting a chicken barbecue from 3 to uh by beggar pardon from 4 to 7 o'clock uh out in the Virgil's lobby. So, pre-order. Say again. Can you pre-order? You can. We're going to send uh flyers home probably next week. Thank you. I'll add on top of it. I know chef will be selling sweets in the foyer, too. They will be. Will be. They will be. You'll also have an opportunity. We'll do a uh a district-wide art show uh here in Virgil's in the hallways and out in the the foyer. Uh and then you will also uh folks of all ages will have
016the opportunity to vote on uh these Panthers behind me for the next uh official logo of Sweet Home, but I know we're going to address that uh here shortly. So, any any other questions, Miss Jason? Go ahead. Oh, I just want to We also have a elementary track meet that day. There's a music concert that day there and folks uh our our entire community will be getting a postcard with a list of all the events that are happening on May 20th. So, thank you. It's going to be a great day for Sweden. Yes, it is. It's going to be 75 and sunny, too. I'm just manifesting, which means it'll be 45 and snowy. So, but anyway, yes. Um it it's more kind of thinking ahead. If we could um I'm thinking like with the Boulevard
017Mall, with our Costco, things might be affected next year. Could we have the town supervisor come and give us an update at the end of the year because I think that'd be valuable for not only us but for community members. Yes. I want to know what's happening with Costco. Okay. Costco. It's going up pretty quick. It is. And then there's a Dix there too, right? That's going to be there. Yes, I think so. Thank you. Any other questions from the board on the budget? Mr. Ravenold. I'll ask one, Don, if you don't mind, Mr. Felman. In the case of the state coming in with less money, we we have enough in reserves to cover the shortfall. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay, that's correct. Do you have any estimate if in fact it does come
018in short? So, we I I can't estimate on what where it'll come in. Um but we do have a reserve usage built into the budget at $345,000. We have reserves in in other reserves balances of about $9 million in overall reserves. We're in good shape. We are in okay shape. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You know, I maybe the public doesn't know. We've been doing as a board, we've been looking at this since January, but I know your office starts probably after this gets passed. So, would you just thank your off everybody that you're working with? Well, yeah, I agreed. It's a it's a collective effort. We did start with you all in February, but we've met with building principles and supervisors and administrators uh is just after the Christmas holiday. Uh so it's it's a
019it's a process for sure, but um you know, the goal has always been and it's been a goal of the board to provide a budget that is both both fiscally responsible and u maintains programming. And this looks like this looks great just getting this in the mail and and so kudos to Slaggel back there back there. So that's good. Uh I if there are no other questions from the board, I guess I would ask if anybody in the audience has any questions at this point in time. Okay. So next slide, please. That moves us to our annual meet the candidates night. So I would ask uh that the board minus Mr. Liel and Mr. Abnold, please kind of come and have a seat in the audience. Uh, and then we will invite uh Mr. Pla
020and Mr. Mley to take seats up front uh with Mr. Rabinald and Mr. Liel uh for our meet the candidates night. Sure. Say battery. Uh you can sure stay in place or sure ahead. I was going to ask So before we begin, we did uh again uh these are the four gentlemen that are running for uh seats on our board of education. Uh the two top vote getters will receive a five-year term that will begin in July uh at the reorganization meeting. Uh and then uh the term will expire on June 30th, 2030. Um so the top two vote getters will receive uh the two seats that are up. Um so the format for us is that generally we'll give each of the candidates an opportunity to read a statement. Uh we did ask if
021folks that couldn't be in attendance if they wanted to ask questions, they could submit questions uh online via email. We do have one of those questions and then if there is anybody from the audience that would like to ask questions, uh we'll certainly do that. So I I'll just we'll start I'll I'll go Mr. Liiel if you would like to read your statement. Um we'll start with you and kind of work our way down the line. All right. Well, thank you. Uh thanks everybody for being here. I know it's a nice night out and I appreciate the opportunity to um tell you a little bit about myself. Um for those of you who don't know me, my name is Brian Liel. I'm uh 48 years old, lifelong resident of Western New York. Uh my wife
022uh Jen and I are raising four kids in the district. Grace is 11, Jack is 10, Jane is uh eight, and Anna's four. Uh, Grace is in middle school, Jack's at Willow Ridge, Jane's at Willow Ridge, and Anna will be starting kindergarten next year. Um, as a young family, we have a personal stake in the success of our schools, and that's why I'm committed to working hard for our students, our teachers, and our staff. Uh, we've got a lot riding on this personally, as I know many of you do. Um, I'm asking to be reelected with no hidden agenda or political ide ideology to push. My only goal is to serve the public and to do what's in the best interest of our kids and their parents, our teachers, our staff and the broader community.
023U I was educated in public schools and I believe deeply that with hard work and persever perseverance um you can achieve your dreams and anything is possible. Um, given my diverse background that I grew up with, um, I have a strong appreciation for students and family, including those with special needs and from diverse economic, racial, and religious backgrounds over the past 5 years as a school board member. Um, and I we have faced challenges together, but I think we've made some good progress. And this includes we've been able to offer both in-person and remote learning during the pandemic. We continued student athletics um during COVID. We've kept taxes below the cap rate and below inflation. And as you can see in tonight's presentation, it's point4 on the um property taxes. So again, much lower than
024the rate of inflation to help our families who we know have a lot of financial pressures. Uh, we launched universal prek for all students. We opened a brand new high school auditorium. We approved a new contract for all our teachers and staff. So, I think we've made a lot of good progress. Um, of course, there's more to do. And I know the solutions aren't always perfect, but one thing I believe in and I've said before is that we can't let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. On a professional level, I bring 30 years of business experience. I hold a degree from Kenishious University, my MBA from the University of Notre Dame. I'm the founding partner of an investment company locally that's uh been in business now for over 12 years. My
025career actually began with a public school internship at the age of 16. And now I own a firm and we manage over $700 million of local funds. I'm also proud to say that my firm supports its employees. Um, which includes just as an example, we pay 100% of the health care for our employees. I I mention this because I'm a big believer in that it's more than just one person. It's the entire team and you need to take care of the entire team um around you. Um, and I think I know what it takes to build a successful organization uh and uh to support the team around you. I'm also connected to Sweet Home staff. My father just recently recently retired 17 years as a school bus aid. My sister Sharon is a lunch aid
026in the district. Um I'm also proud to have the endorsement of the Sweet Home Education Foundation which represents our dedicated teachers. And as a parent and I speak um and in speaking to other parents, I hear the same thing. And I've mentioned this in board meetings before and this my belief is this. When you get down to it at heart, if you ask a parent, what do you really want more than anything for your kids, the heart of it is they want their kids to have good teachers. Yes, we want all the other peripheral things and they're important, but more than anything, our kids spend a lot of time with our teachers. And when I say teachers, I also mean the coaches and the counselors. And so I think that's more than anything what um
027a big focus of mine has always been is making sure that we have the resources that our teachers and our staff can excel that our students can achieve success. Um and I also want to just mention that I come from a family of service. My dad's a Marine and a veteran. My wife served in the Iraq War and the Army. And I've um not that I'm comparing my school board service anything to military service um but um 5 years of service on the school board and on many community local boards. So again, I'm running not for personal gain uh or one specific agenda item to promote, but I'm here to serve to fight for our families, our students, our teachers. We're all in this together. One stu every student, one community ready for the future.
028and I'm asking for your support and your vote. And just so you know, I'm first on the ballot. Thank you. Very nice. Thank you, Mr. Liiel. Uh Mr. Rabinold, your statement, please. Just so you know, the age difference. My print here is twice as big as this young fella here. So, uh Durk Ravenald, I'm seeking another term here at Sweet Home. It's uh with deep gratitude that I thank you, the community, for allowing me to represent your interests this past year. I'm asking again for your consideration and hopefully your vote. I'm number two on the ballot. Being a school board member is not for the faint of heart. It's not glamorous and it's certainly not for the pay. Most of us get involved because we care deeply about our children and their education and how
029they're prepared for the future. My prior years of experience on the board gives me an advantage, I believe, as a board member. I've seen and heard many things over the years. I've learned to listen and be transparent before making a decision, working cooperatively with families, students, and teachers, and building consensus around common goals is most important to me. Um, I strongly believe in open discussions and transparency about problems and operations that affect the community and staff. I've always been open to a phone call or a meeting. Communication is the key. I look forward to having an open line of communication and dialogue with the community to further best the interests of our students. I believe we all want students to succeed. We all do better when we work as a team. In the past year,
030we've faced some challenges, but I've stood for up up for our kids, especially on the proposal to have our students walk. I told my story about when I was a child and I had to walk two miles to Kenmore East. It's not easy across Brighton in the Brighton golf course with wind blowing and zero degrees. So, we're fortunate to have a ride occasionally. So, that's where I stood on that and I was happy to do that. along with the outcry from the community, I stood with them and uh in the end our students will will not have to walk. We'll provide transportation. Uh this year we held the line on your school taxes. Again, it's about a point4% increase on the tax levy. I'm very proud of that. I know that the district worked hard
031to keep uh the taxpayer in mind when they set their budgets. A challenge ahead will be the impact of artificial intelligence on education. It will present challenges and we must be prepared to well we must be prepared to see how that will impact the education of our school and how it will impact our students. I' I've lived in this community 40 years. My wife Robin and I are proud parents of three children who were educated at Sweet Home. I won't bore you with how they're doing, but they're all doing very well. Um, we now have six beautiful grandchildren, which is the focus of our life and uh the focus of their future is our our concern. I'm a certified financial planner, professional, who owns and operates a financial services company here in Amherst. Have a
032business management degree from Kenishious University. I consider myself an advocate for senior citizens, of which I'm one. It's difficult for many seniors on a fixed income to make ends meet. Higher taxes impe impact seniors abilities to stay in their homes. It's becoming harder for our young families to purchase their first home and begin raising their families. Higher taxes will have an impact. We must recognize that for both of our young and old alike. I promise to work diligently on on the community's behalf and focus my efforts on ensuring our children receive the best education possible. After all, it's about families and students first. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ravenol. Uh Mr. Pla, good evening everyone. Uh my name is Alan Pla. I'm a father, a husband, a coach, and a small business owner. I'm not
033special. I'm just your normal parent who wants to see Sweet Home succeed like the rest of you. I've been a resident of the Sweet Home District for over 20 years where my wife Kristen and I have been raising our two sons, Braden now in 10th grade, and Carson who's in seventh grade. Both boys have been in Sweet Home since UPK, which has given me firsthand insight into our district at every level. Over the years, I've served on the Glendale Principal Hiring Committee and the Sweet Home Workforce Diversity Subcommittee. I've been the vice president of the Parkview Community Board for over a decade. You might have seen me coordinating neighborhood events or working on the Sweet Home Futures baseball game, which I helped launch and coordinate for the last two years. I want to be transparent
034about why I decided to run again this year. I believe there should be a healthy majority of parents who are board me members who bring value and diversity of thought and I check those boxes. My candidacy is about bringing additional parent perspectives to our board. My goal is to enhance the the whole student experience from student safety to academic performing ants performing arts performing arts and athletic success. Our kids need us to create conditions where they can discover their passions and deliver develop the skills to pursue them. Having children who are active in athletics and music has shown me the importance of supporting the full range of opportunities our district offers. Each child has different interests and talents and our district needs to nurture all of them. As a parent in the district, I bring
035valuable insight to the board. I live with the decisions of the board every day through the experiences of my children. I understand the impact of policies, not just in theory, but in practice, seeing how they affect homework at our dining room table, activities after school, and the overall development of our children. I will ensure that decisions are made with real families in mind. I'm well aware that we're facing a challenging time in education. There's uncertainty about how our education system may evolve in the coming years. Having attended numerous board meetings over the past year and engage with parents and teachers throughout our community, I'm prepared to navigate these potential changes with a level head in a collaborative approach. I believe by working together, board members, administrators, teachers, parents, and students, we can adapt to whatever
036changes come our way while maintaining the high quality of education our children deserve. I believe in bringing common sense to difficult decisions. I'm not afraid to ask hard questions or challenge the status quo when necessary. At the same time, I understand the importance of collaboration and listening to all stakeholders. I'm not a yes man, but I'm also not someone who opposes for the sake of opposition. I'll focus on finding solutions that work for our district. I strongly support our district's commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, which I see as one of our greatest strengths. The exposure our students have to diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives prepare prepare them for success in an increasingly connected world. As someone who values this diversity, I'll work to ensure that all our students feel welcome and supported in our schools.
037I believe our teachers and staff are the heart and soul of our district. They need our full support to succeed and to give our students the best chance for success. We must ensure they have the resources, the recognition, and the respect that they res they deserve. My approach to board service centers on two principles. First, a student- centered focus. Every decision should be evaluated based on how it impacts student success and well-being. This is why we're all here, to give our students the best possible foundation for the future. Second, transparency and open communication. I want to foster genuine two-way dialogue between the board, parents, students, and teachers. If elected, I'll be accessible to our community. I'll listen with an open mind to concerns, seek to understand different viewpoints, and work towards solution that benefits all
038our students. I'll be a voice for all parties from teachers and students to parents and administrators. Professionally, I've managed teams of more than 100 people and multi-million dollar budgets for major organizations. Currently, I run a successful resume writing business where I've been a strategic partner to executives globally for the last 17 years. This experience has taught me the importance of clear communication, strategic planning, and being responsive to people's needs. Skills that transfer directly to effective board service. I'm running because I believe in the potential of Sweet Home, and I want to help our district evolve to meet the changing needs of our students. Together, we can make Sweet Home a district we can all be proud of. Very nice. Thank you, Mr. Platt. Mr. Mley, your statement, please. Greetings everyone. My name is uh Jonathan
039Mekley. Uh it is an honor to be able to run for the Swedom School Board. Uh I am uh running because I believe uh strongly that all students should be able to have access to a good quality education that uh meets their needs and uh supports their growth towards success. Uh I believe in uh the value of public service of uh collaborative leadership and the importance of uh listening to members of the community. Uh I've lived in this uh district for the past eight years and uh in that time I've seen uh many great things from the people in this community. uh and I wish to contribute to the future success of our students. I've uh regularly attended uh schoolboard meetings over the past four years. Sometimes even being the only person uh from the
040community in the room. Uh from this I have a familiarity with how the board operates uh and the type of work it uh does in addressing the issues for our community. uh at uh times I've uh spoken during the open sessions uh of the schoolboard meetings to talk about issues facing the district such as uh in last month when I spoke in favor of uh of retaining the uh school psychologist position and the budget which uh hope fortunately they were able to find a means to do that as well as at times helping to voice uh concerns from other members of the community that I've talked with who weren't able to make it to board meetings such as uh some comments uh recently collecting concerns about aspects of the school busing plan. Uh, additionally, I
041uh currently serve as a uh committee member on our district's uh DEI committee where I've uh worked with teachers, staff, parents, and other committee members to work towards the goals of uh promoting a sense of belonging among uh students within the Sweet Home community of uh working to better support the needs of students and uh working to uh help expand educational opportunities for them. Uh, additionally for that, I'm uh also serving on a subcommittee within the DEI committee that's uh currently working to help draft out uh plans for the an updated version of the school's code of conduct, which involves working to bring together the perspectives of the different uh people within the committee to help transmit that into written word that expresses those ideas and can express a consensus among different parts of the
042community about what they uh want to have going forward. Professionally, I'm a historian with a focus on uh the history of American reform movements. Uh I have a master's degree in history and a master's degree in library and information sciences from the University of Buffalo. uh in my uh professional work I've uh been involved with several different historical and aademic organizations throughout the state. Uh and from that I have a experience through that serving on committees serving on organizational boards uh of uh working to craft policies to set goals and plan the methods for their for their with accomplishment and with a planning organizational budgets. I believe that my skills and as an academic and community member could be useful for providing a perspective on the board as we work to pursue the goals of
043advancing a good quality programming and support for students. If elected, my goal would be to uh work with the other board members, staff, parents, teachers, and uh other community members to navigate the challenges that we face to work to improve the quality of education provided to support our teachers in their work and to uh make sure that the children of this district can uh develop the knowledge and skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. I am interested in helping to foster the promotion of information literacy and critical thinking skills for students which are in a this modern world of information as are important skills to be able to navigate and uh take action in the world. I want to help ensure a strong teaching of core subjects as well as ensure that there are
044opportunities for students to be able to learn and pursue their interests academically or extracurricularly. uh wish to help uh prove the support and inclusion for all students within our district including improving support for uh neurody divergent and stabled students and uh I'm interested in working to uh foster greater communication and expand avenues for which uh through which families, teachers and other members of the community can give their input on the important issues that facing the district so that the our combined perspectives and knowledge can uh help uh put together uh greater plans and policies moving forward. I hope to use my skills and perspectives to help uh tackle the challenges that are schools are facing and uh that we will be facing in the coming years whatever those may be. Yeah. And I hope as
045uh that everyone will be uh as you hear what I and the others have say that you'll give consideration to me uh when you u decide who you'll uh vote for in two weeks. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayley. As I did mention earlier, we did take uh or ask for input uh from our community uh for questions for the candidates uh via email for those that could not be in attendance. So before we entertain any questions perhaps from the audience, I will ask this one question and give all of our candidates the opportunity to answer. Uh the question comes in from uh Mrs. Kim Pirini. Uh, and the question is, how can the district improve on being more inclusive for all students such as students that do not fit into the sweet home model?
046Um, so Mr. Liiel, if you want to tackle that one first, that would be good. Well, I think um the what's important is that we, you know, and me being on the school board, um, we can always do better. And so, first of all, we have to have the mindset that, as I said, we don't let perfect get in the way of progress, right? We're making progress. We're we're moving forward, but it's important for us to listen um and to be open to um the needs of all of these of all of our students and to understand, I think, their perspective, you know, and and many times that's communicated by the student, many times it's communicated by the parent. Um, you know, I can say growing up I'm one of five and even though we
047were raised all by the same uh parents and we have at heart the same values, we all very different and we learn differently and we see things differently and you know I know with the in the last 10 years with the politics it's the first time ever we've gotten in arguments at the dinner table over politics. So I we even see politics differently. But um uh so my point of that is that until you really begin to try to empathize and really understand where somebody's coming from, it's um uh it's hard to then if you and until you do that, you're only seeing it from your perspective. So that's the first thing and I know as a board we we can continue to improve and get better on that. The other thing I would say
048is with communication, we have a lot of programs. We have a lot of things that we've done. A big portion of our budget goes towards special needs, almost a third. Um, but I think we can do a better job of communicating um with the community as to what um we have available. You know, some of the communication comes out in in emails, some of the communication comes out in writing, but I I think we can use even more forms of communication. And again, we're getting better at that with social media and with, um, you know, text messages and other things because the world's changed now. So, um, communicating the resources we have available, I think, is also important. But, um, you know, I'll be the first to say that I think we we're we're doing
049some really good things, but we have progress to be made. Thank you, Mr. Rabinold. Same question. Certainly. Um I think there's a mantra somewhere in some of our writing strategic plans DEI whatever is all voices need to be heard. So I I think we have a focus on that but I agree with Mr. Label they uh we can always do better. Um you know in the past we had only one way to communicate either phone call or sitting in the audience which is difficult to do and I really try to encourage the community to do that or phone call or email today or either e even social media today but yeah very important to run a a school district is uh hearing from all the voices in the district and what their needs may be
050and including them in uh as Betty thinks as we can. I know the district again pays a lot of attention to that and again agree that we could probably do more. Thank you, Mr. Pla. Do you mind repeating the question? I will happily do that. How can the district improve on being more inclusive for all students such as students that do not fit into the sweet home model? So I think the first step would be to meet that student where they're at and have that conversation and figure out where their challenges are. They're come they're obviously coming from a different perspective than what what I may have. So gathering that information would be the first step. Um and then from there figuring out a plan to make them have that sense of belonging with with
051within the district. Um, I think it comes down to listening. I think it comes down to finding the right solution that's going to meet that person and give get back to that that sense of inclusion with within the within the Swedom district. Thank you, Mr. Mley. Yeah, for that uh matter working to uh advance inclusion is important and ongoing work. Uh currently uh some of that work is being done with through uh things such as the DEI committee that I'm part of as well as work that's being done with the advancing planning for district goals. Uh but of course there's still more work to be done, more advances to be made for that. It's a important that as we work to craft school and districtwide policies that we try to gather as much information and
052input as we can to uh consider the different uh views of students that exist so that we may work to uh set supports for their needs. I myself growing up I grew up as a disabled student in a small town district and uh I've known both you know the struggles that came from lack of support as well as the positives that could come from uh having a good support as well as the type of hard work that parents have to do just to try to get the support their student that their kids need and that uh shouldn't have to be that way. parents shouldn't have to struggle to get the things that the student needs and students need. And I I personally care about that. I want to be able to help do what we
053can to meet the needs of students. uh that for that it's important to incorporate those considerations the planning to look into what uh scholarship and uh work has been done by other schools to be able to incorporate good practices that can help support include students as well as to on the internal side of things to work to foster these uh lines the dialogues to be able to hear from parents and families about the what the needs of their students are and to have a prompt and effective actions to help uh work to have supports in place and to work to foster a sense of a empathy and understanding among members of the community so that uh that be greater connection and a sense of belonging. Thank you, Mr. Mley. Uh, at this point in time,
054I would open it up to anybody in the audience that might have questions. If you'd have a question, if you'd like to come up and ask the board members a question, you're certainly welcome to do that. Good evening and good luck to all the candidates. Uh, my name is James Ryan. I'm the proud principal of Maple Elementary. I also have the luck of representing our administrators and our supervisors and our professional association. Since the uh closure, emergency closure of March in 2020, uh our enrollment at kindergarten through fifth grade has increased by 15%. Approximately 234 students. We also have transitioned from a half-day prek program to a full day prek program which has increased in enrollment by 60%. Unfortunately, considering those factors, uh there's been a growing discourse about absorbing uh positions andor making reductions
055in staff as a potential board member. uh what is your philosophy on this growing enrollment but yet being kind of needing to be fiscally responsible to the community and then also what should be the process for making those decisions in terms of reductions or absorbing positions excuse me and uh how could they be communicated so this question is for um all the candidates thank you I'm going to change it up a little bit Mr. Mr. Rabel, we'll start with you and work our way down. Can you give me a more difficult one, please? I mean, that's um It really comes down to we depend quite a bit on our superintendent and staff to try to balance the need of what the teachers and staff need to educate our children and what the community can afford.
056uh my position's always been uh we need to to do exactly that. We have to understand both. We have to make sure on the classroom level the teachers have the tools in the toolbox to meet the needs of those to educate those children. And again on the other side it's at the end of the day it's always about money. I think we've had a very generous community um that's paid taxes for many years uh which we've done and and and I think have delivered a good quality education but uh my my center again is provide as best education as we can uh but balance it between what the community needs financially and what the district needs financially but provide that quality education. I think we we do at this point. Thank you, Mr. Pla. I
057feel like I that's loud. Um I feel like I would lean more towards keeping as many programs available to our students as possible. like I finding a way creatively through the budget um identifying other areas where you can you can make potential cuts in order to keep the programs available for the students, the staff that's available available for the students. Um the I'm always going to be student first when it comes to that and I think teachers and the staff are the lifeblood for their successes. In order to I think we'd have to look at some metrics and figure out what the success rate of having a potential staff stay to maintain the appropriate programming. um and figure out what makes the fis what's what's the fiscal responsibility um what's the action that we need
058to take to be fiscally responsible in that situation but I would lean towards trying to find a way to maintain staffing levels if at all possible thank you Mr. Mley, same question. Yes, for uh that I would say that uh for me the first consideration of those matters would be to uh look as to what uh students for our district need uh in terms of those uh programs in terms of what would be uh how much staffing would be needed in order to be able to provide uh for that and once we've established that uh baseline to look into uh ways in which the those uh staffing needs can be uh met in a financially efficient way that uh doesn't put too much of a financial burden on the taxpayers of the community. Yeah, that
059uh ideally try to make sure that there's a enough uh support being provided to have enough staff for the programming that we're looking to do. and uh in fiscally challenged times, try to minimize what a potential uh limitations or cuts may end up having to be made uh towards staff and programming and to look for ways that uh be uh done effectively. Thank you, Mr. Mley. Mr. reliable. Yeah, I would say um I think we need to do everything we can to prevent the reduction in staff. Um if you look at uh the the the number of staff that we have, I believe we were doing a good job with that. Um I know through retirements we may have um uh the opportunity for staff to be reduced, but I don't see that happening with
060the growing enrollment as you've mentioned. So I think um you know my view is again as a parent I want to have um my kids have the you know the best teacher to um uh student ratio as we can. Um so again I think we should do everything in within reason financially to keep our staffing levels where they're at on a per student basis. But I also think we need to compare what are how do we compare to our peers? you know, um, are we 17 to1 and and our peers are 22 to1? You know, we do have some metrics out there we need to look at that just so we know where we're standing in terms of our efficiencies. But in general, my view is um, you know, we got to keep staffing um,
061as at at um high quality levels as as we can and and I generally am not supportive of reducing the staff. Thank you, Mr. Liel. Any other questions from the audience at this point in time? Okay. Uh we wish the four candidates the best of luck. Uh as I mentioned uh next uh two Tuesdays from tonight uh the budget as well as the board of education election will be up for vote uh in this room uh from 7:00 in the morning till 900 p.m. in the evening. The top two vote getters of these four gentlemen uh will be elected to uh five-year terms expiring in 2030. We wish you the best of luck and thank you for your uh your interest in Sweet Home and running for the board. So, at this point in time,
062I would ask the current board to turn return to their seats uh so that we can get to the remainder of our meeting and honor some kids. You did good, Al. That's very nice. for you think this is silly. Technically, we're going to keep moving. Dr. If you want to share again, you're welcome to do that. Oops. Okay. Uh, approval of the agenda. We'll be voting on the agenda next week. Do we have any comments or questions from the board? Nope. Okay. Minutes of the previous meeting. Comments or questions? Okay. Communications. Does anyone have any communications to share? We do have the letter from the Amherst IDA. Two letters. One letter. Another one came in today. Two letters. One came in today. So I think there's two. Yep. 29th second. Yes. Two. Questions or comments?
063Any further communications? Okay. Unfinished business. We have none. Dr. Janestri, your turn. Thank you, Mr. Betaglia. I know we have um some uh students that we need to recognize here tonight. They've been patiently waiting, but while everyone is in the room, I I do want to recognize um that it is teacher appreciation week. Um uh these are just a few snippets of some of the great work uh that our teachers do every single day um uh throughout the year in our classrooms. Uh we couldn't be more proud of their work and and um the way their hearts are towards our students. And so, um, I just want to say from district office perspective, um, on behalf of all of us, um, thank you teachers. Uh, thank you for all you do for us, um, as
064the superintendent here, um, I'm very proud of the work that they do. And you'll notice a lot of these pictures are not in the classroom, um, to just kind of give you an idea and a sense of, uh, going above and beyond every single day, um, for our students. Um, as a parent in this district, I am very very proud uh to send my kids here uh to Sweet Home. they are thriving uh here and uh it's because of the great work um of our teachers and uh uh and I think another great sign uh of from our community is our continued increasing enrollment and and people wanting their to move into our district wanting to be a part of this because of our teachers um faculty and staff administration board on down. So, um,
065just want to say, uh, this week, um, you deserve every kudo that you get, every honor that you get, and want to say thank you to our teachers for all the great, uh, work that they're doing. Um, and, uh, join me in celebrating teacher appreciation week. M. Dr. Janestri, if I might add, it's also nurse appreciation week. Yes. this week. So, I would also like to thank and recognize all our nurses. We could not have gotten through CO without them. They are such a valuable asset to our community and the nurses are just phenomenal in our district. So, thank you for all the hard work for them, too. All right. So, now we we've been patiently waiting. We have some recognition and awards we are very excited to hand out. And I'll ask Dr. Wilson
066to come to the podium because um she worked hard in conjunction with our partners at Northwest Ammeris Community Center and um to uh do our um art show, art last contest. All the hard work goes to Heidi Lefave. She's here tonight and she's going to come up here um to help us give out awards. She called a while back and said, "I really like to come on up. Um, she really would like to I really would like to focus in on kindness and offer an opportunity for our students across the district to engage in this I this whole feeling of kindness is a new is the new cool. And so she introduced the art and essay contest that we um introduced at our elementary schools, middle and high school. Um we had entries and we
067have our winners here to tonight along with um our sponsor. So I'm going to turn it right over to Mrs. Thanks. Yeah, it is a delight to be here. Uh I'm with the town of Amherst and I'm the project coordinator for Northwest Amherst Community Center. If you haven't been out to see us, please do. There's a lot of wonderful things happening. What's so special about the community center is that we partner with Sweet Home Schools. The partnership has been very valuable. It takes a village to support students and the work that we do with Sweet Home allows us to support students and families. So we hope this is just one of another uh terrific initiative and we hope to continue. Uh the idea behind this project uh kind is the new pool came about because
068we really want to encourage the students who are in our building the seniors who are also in our building to share and set examples to students about how kindness can change someone's day. It can change someone's life. uh the idea that we need to care about our community members, look after our neighbors, uh do good things in the world to make people feel better, feel lifted up. So, we decided the kind is the new cool would be our mantra and if you get a chance to come out, you'll see our wall of good deeds. We have this beautiful garden of good deeds and students were encouraged to do something positive or explain kindness, write it on a flower or a bumblebee and we've created a beautiful mural on our wall uh which shows that kindness
069grows and kindness beautifies our world. We wanted to include sweet home in this. So uh we uh made this opportunity available with an art and essay contest and again it was asking students how can you show kindness to the community? Well, I'm very pleased to tell you first of all I want to thank the judges that participated in reviewing the beautiful work submitted. It was really difficult to just pick six winners. The work was outstanding and thoughtful. I was really proud of that. Uh, first of all, thank you to our judges. Dr. Toya Wilson, Christine Slaggo, the PR coordinator of Sweet Home, Lana Lusa, English teacher from Sweet Home, and Sue Mahoney, who's the program leader at Northwest Danhurst Community Center. She's been with us 35 years as the director of the afterchool program. And
070we are delighted to say that we have an event sponsor, a group that wanted to be involved in this, and they have some fun things to share with you. Uh the event sponsor is immediate care and I will introduce you to Rachel Libra who is the um communications rel communication relations coordinator and then Jim Gilella who is the site manager. Please come on up. They have some lovely prizes that they are gifting and we have some lovely certificates as well. But they've got some fun things to tell you. Um, thank you for having us this evening and um, congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all the participants in the art and essay contest. um Western New York. We have four um locations here across Western New York and um a few years
071ago at our Dew location um we partnered with this uh school district there um it's what Pleasant View Hillview or Hillview I'm sorry Hillview Elementary and um what we've done is we've displayed some of the students artwork throughout our center so that when um their friends and family members come in they can see the students art and the um exam exam rooms and in the in the waiting room and it just has been a tremendous success. Um people really like it, the students really enjoy it. Um and it's something that we like to do to engage um the members of our community. So Rachel um worked on getting us involved in this program and um we're going to do the same thing at our Amherst location and hopefully um you know we've got some nice
072things like she said for the students and um yeah we look forward to having it on display there and having people come in to um have discussions about it and appreciate the the artwork that was um that was done. I'm blocking the artwork. I'm going to stand over there. Please notice the beautiful things that are here and come up and take a look afterward. They're really well done. Going to announce the winners now. Um I'm going to apologize in advance if I don't pronounce your name right, but if you just want to walk up, we have a certificate for you and then a little goodie bag. And like the um contest flyer said, you will have a $10 Target gift card in here. and it is just kind of floating around so don't miss it
073when you're looking through it. Um, the first winner is Maris. Um, and then Kelsey Maris Maris, can you come back up, please? Guess they want to do a photo come on over here then maybe just go just go all around and shake everybody's hand congratulations. Go this way and shake everybody's Jenniferulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Um, Elen, Lindsay, congratulations. And Olivia, Congratulations. Great job. Great job. We love a group photo. Congratulations, Christine. Congratulations. Congratulations. And then if all the winners could come back up for a photo, please. Turn around. Mom's congratulations. Should be turn real quick. Got them. I think so. Did you get one? So, all of our winners are on display over here. Their artwork and their writing pieces, but we have all of the work that will be displayed at Media Care. Let's Christine,
074hold on one second. We're gonna have the folks from immediate care get into the photo. Heidi I'm gonna keep one shameless plug. We have a job fair that is sponsored by the Department of Labor that is going to be happening at the Northwest Amherst Community Center. Our high school students and our ready students have been invited to this, but it's open to the community. So, I just want to make sure we say that. Yeah. And I want to say thank you for to our folks from Immediate Care for sponsoring. Uh we really appreciate that. That was very nice. And while she's here, I got to say thank you to Heidi. um our partnership with the Northwest Ammeris Community Center is like this and whenever we call or talk to each other, you know, she's always
075saying yes to to our needs. Um and it's so awesome. We spend a couple days over there doing even interviews and just to see how many people are are coming through the center on a daily basis. Um and the work you're doing over there, it just it makes our community so much stronger. Uh and it's it's all your efforts, Heidi. So, thank you so much for everything you're doing for us. Sweet and sweet home pleasure to work with. Glendale has a family night coming up and they're going to have fun and we hope all the elementary school. So, if you haven't heard about it, mention it to your principal. We'd love to have you. There's a lot of fun stuff going on. So, thank you. Awesome. Thanks. All right. And tonight, well, you probably all
076got your Sweet Home Source in the mail by now, but tonight really was the official night where we get to unveil our top 10 logos um that were all created by our students. And um when we came up with this kind of contest or project, we wanted to make sure that everyone who wanted to participate had a voice in either creating a logo or uh voting for a logo. And I think we're going to accomplish that goal. and it all comes to a head on May 20th um for our vote. So what you see on the screen are the concepts that were developed by our students. Um and then what you've seen in the sweet home source or um up on the um uh screen over there are the final 10 um logos that the
077community will get to vote on on May 20th. And they were all created by our students. Uh we have three entries from the high school, three entries from the middle school, and one entry from each one of our elementary schools. So every school in Sweet Home is represented up on that screen. And you'll notice that each logo has a number next to it, 1 through 10. Um and so when our students, faculty, staff, community members come into this room on May 20th, they will get to pick one. And everybody will get to vote. Um, but you'll get to pick one. Um, and you'll pick the number that's associated with the logo and whoever gets the most votes, that will be our official Sweet Home Panther moving forward from now until eternity hopefully. So, um, uh,
078so, uh, we've once the official logo's selected, we've got some work to do on our end to make sure that that is the logo that you will see in the gym, on our on our uniforms, in our stationery, on you name it, uh, you will see it everywhere on our on our Well, that is a uh, academic symbol. I think that would uh, here need But but yes, anything that you see around here, we have to change out. So, whoever wins the contest, they'll their work will live on forever. But we are so appreciative of the 10 finalists. We had 300 entries. We're so appreciative of the 10 finalists that the schools got to vote on which one they liked best. And um we invited them here tonight um to be recognized, to receive a
079certificate to let them know that only one will win, but their nine are going to live on an eternity as well because um through working with Mr. Johnson on a great idea. We're working on it now. We're going to get your concepts framed and we're going to make sure that um you get a copy and that we hang a copy up here in our Virgil's community center so they know that this was all student driven um and that your work even though you might not be the ultimate winner will still live on um forever. So, without further ado, I'm going to ask Miss Slaggel to come up because she's been working with our students and our finalists. And she's been working with 26 Shirts um a lot to um help develop the final um logos.
080And she's going to she's been coordinating a field trip for our students to go to 26 Shirts to see how the all the whole process worked um to develop the final uh concepts. So, I'm going to let her uh talk a little bit and introduce our our top 10 finalists. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you all for being here. It's been such a fun process. Um, as Dr. Janestri spoke about, you know, just making sure that this was all student driven. This is about our students. Our students have fantastic creativity and we were so excited to get, as he said, over 300 entries. So, to be in the final 10 is extremely exciting. And I've had a fun time um meeting with each of our students and showing them the final concepts. So we
081took those uh those concepts that our students created and we wanted to render those into professional logos um so that there was a level playing field. So as Dr. Janestri said, we had representation from every building so we could absolutely easily have an elementary students design chosen as the final panther. Um so we were very excited to to go through this process and to get to the point that we're at today. So, we want to recognize our students and and uh we hope that you'll all come out to vote because this is truly um student driven from the very beginning. So, ready to uh it's going to be a hard hard decision. Yes, it definitely is going to be hard. Um I've I've pulled, you know, everyone around me holding up the poster like, "Okay,
082who would you vote for?" You know, uh and and it is a hard choice and I think that that uh really speaks to the creativity of our students, you know. Uh that's the best problem to have is to have 10 great logos to choose from. So thank you all for being here and I'm going to uh when I call your name come up and we'll recognize you. Okay. Maxwell Patterson. Come on Tyler Lee. Pantheros. And I think we have Savannah Richtor here. Do we have any of our other Panther finalists in the room that I did not see? Okay. So, we'll be giving these out to the rest of them, but thank you guys so much for being here tonight. We're very, very excited and I hope you all come out on the 20th. Christine,
083can you just name the rest of them? Yes, of course. Of course. You recognize them? Gia Patel, hers is number nine. We have Anna Maxwell who is number two. supposed to say. Well, we have Grace Lys who is number six. Grace Liyel who's number one. Who's number one? Love your daddy. Paresa Worhale who is number seven and Raa Rana who is number 10. Well, I'd also have to announce that who is whoever is gets the most votes on May 20th will also through the generous donation of dollars for scholars at Sweet Home be receiving a $500 scholarship that will be available to them uh their senior year after they graduate. So, um, looks like I want to say thank you to Dollar Scholars and please come out and vote um, on May 20th for the
084logo and oh, the budget as well. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Christine. Okay, now I know we have uh some other business, but if you would if Good night, everybody. Yeah, you've been uh so good. So good. Um, you're more than welcome to stay if you wish, but um, if not, thank you for your patience and uh, congratulations again. Thank you're welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes, my king. Oh, I love it. Thanks. All right. You want to get it? Oh, yeah. That's what it's all got to do it. Oh, you're good. You're good. No worries. As much as you've waited for us. Congratulations. Thanks, girls. All right. Congrats. Have a great night. Um la at our last meeting um Miss Mrs. Jason asked for an update on summer school and so
085we have Dr. Wilson here to uh provide that update. Good evening again. Hi. Um and so I'm going to dig into our summer school programming um across all of our sites um and then open up for questions. So we are looking at an elementary program, a district-based um extended year program, our ESY program. That would be middle school um at excuse me that would be at Glendale and then the middle school will house the high school and the middle school um as far as the ESY program goes. And then we have our middle school programming that will happen at our middle school which is focused around enrichment. The high school will be credit recovery and regent res exam recovery focused. And so what you have there are all the locations, Maple, Mary, Glendale, Middle School,
086High School. Um, and the dates that these will run. Um, we're looking that Monday right after Fourth of July um, celebration. Um, kicks off our first day of summer school. Um, and we run all the way up until Regent's exams in the middle of the summer. Um, and so you see those exams are posted there. Also, uh, the week of August 19th. Um as our as we did last year, we are also hosting the um community meals um that will happen at Glendale, Maple Mir, and Sweet Home Middle. Um all of our students who are participating in our programs will participate in breakfast and lunch and that all students will have access to that. the programming here as we look at um our target our focus for each program and then our targeted students um
087at elementary's intervention targeted um and we have an ENL program um and so that's K5 again that will be housed um at Maple Mir um and you see here it's based on our reading and math um intervention benchmark assessments and um our students and how they're performing during the year. we make the recommendations. We're in the middle of that process now and wrapping that up so that um schools are in communication with families to um get our students registered. Then oh, I'm sorry. And we have our district-based um ESY, that's extended year students who have IEPs that um that require them to have year-long school. Um there's about 50 students who participate in this. Um and you see that that is at the elementary level and then at the secondary level sitting at the middle
088school. The middle school is focused around enrichment. Um it's it's a projectbased summer program focused around human humanities and and STEM. Um, and so our students get the combination and that connection between English language arts and social studies and then STEM with math and science. And then we have an an extension of STEM um that we um kicked off last year that we're looking to expand that our students just loved it and um it really helped us um keep them engaged in the summer. Um world language will also be offered for those students who are looking to get their check their first checkpoint checkpoint A. um at the high school it is regions recovery and credit recovery. So this is based around students who um were not successful in the course or a region's exam.
089Um and these are required for graduation. And so you see we have a combination going on at the high school in which it's the full summer um centered around the course and the regent exam prep. And then for those students who just need help with the regions exam, there's the a couple of weeks just before the exam where we do exam prep and those students only need to come for for that portion. And so we make that available to try to be flexible. We extended the high school program so that we offer more opportunities for students to recover more credits a couple years back. And so we we are continuing that focus. Questions? I just have a couple. Um how are the kids determined to go into that? Is that our triangle? Our response to
090intervention, those kids that are at the highest top. So, so through our um benchmark assessments throughout the year, we have Ames Webb that we've been focusing on this year. We use that as an assessment um feedback from the classrooms. There's multiple assessments at the or multiple opportunities at the elementary school and they're in the process of finalizing that. Now, ESY is IEP driven. Um students must have that designated under IEP. at the middle school. If they are not successful in one of the core, we offer them all so that they have the opportunity to engage in the projects and um strengthen all core um and and then high school is centered around the graduation requirements. As far as the meal programs, anything for the weekend, do they get the hungry on the weekends? It's not
091been um approved at the federal or state level. So it the kids uh that's offered to the kids that are in session. Uh the community can come into the buildings and eat, but they must consume the meals in the buildings. Can't take them with them. And there'll be things that go out to families so that they're aware. Yep. We definitely want as many students need or not need to be in our cafeteria. And not know kids get hungry on the weekends, too. I mean, it's just a sad commentary that we can't get our kids fed even during the summer. It's kind of sad, but thank you. Yes. And you should have received your beautiful t-shirt design. I have a mockup here of um the uh we had another contest. We we love we love a
092contest. Um and so we asked our students across all of our sites to help us design the challenge to change shirt this year. Um and so what you received prior to coming out to the board floor is your shirt. This was designed by a seventh grader um over at the middle school um Ramsha Man Rana. Um and unanimous this was a this was a big vote. The kids really like this one. Um and so they like the fact that they were spelling out a lot of the key elements of the things we've been focused on this year, which is kindness, caring, um helpfulness, uh being someone who is really focused on the community. And so you'll see those words on the pause and then the shirt um in the front, the change agent. Um and
093the K the students who are on our challenge to change planning team which is our act our students um our for cultural um alliance for cultural transformation um they they will have the tie-dye version of that shirt. So you'll be able to recognize them. They'll stand out. They wanted something like that. Um and so they've had a lot of voice in planning that in the components that we will have at um the challenge to change which is our third challenge to change. um at Banchettis uh May 30th. We are asking for RSVPs now of folks across our community. Um our students are folks across the community are receiving their shirts now. Our students will get them just before the event so we make sure they have them the day of the event. Um but this
094year's focus, the whole theme is centered around um again that kindness and using that to drive belonging but through leadership. So, the League of Everyday Legends, unleashing the superpowers of kindness and belonging is the main focus. Um, and what we did is we took the words that that the students all came up with in our last session, our last um ACT session, and we plugged them into an engine and said, "Help us with the theme." And this this is where we landed. Um, but it was all the words that they had been working on all year long. So they're going to do if students who participate and adults who participate, you will discover your superhero powers from within by leading with compassion to lift others. So our mission again is to build a world where
095everybody belongs and our students will have a big voice in that. We will have a sweet home alum joining us as part of one of our keynotes. um as well as you saw a highlight from one of our keynotes at the regional challenge to change that some of our high school students participated in. So, we're really excited about it. Um it's coming up quick. So, we hope as many of you as possible can can join us. But if not, just wear your shirt in solidarity on that day. That would be great. Thank you, Dr. Wilson. also uh noted you know um that this is an important part um an activity in in accordance with our goal three of our strategic plan of for the whole child. So thank you. Um we are at that time
096of year where we announce our top 10 and you probably saw it go out on social media. Um but um here is a list of our students from top 10 for graduating for um the class of 2025. Um, congratulations to Matthew Spence, our validictorian, and Joe Joy uh Bato, our uh saludiatoran. Um, and we are uh counting down to graduation. Um, and really proud of the accomplishments of, um, the class of 2025 and especially our top 10. So, uh, more to come on that as we approach graduation, but just wanted to, uh, put it out there, um, that it's on our socials, but uh, congratulations to them and their parents on a job very, very well done. raised him. I did nothing. Your wife raised him. I'll give you that one. Um it is now
097official that we will uh have a change in our uh calendar um around the Memorial Day holiday weekend. We announced it on May 1st. um that uh due to the fact that we still have three emergency days remaining in our current calendar that Friday, May 23rd, uh the district will be closed as well as May um 26. Um so that makes it a 4-day weekend um uh for our families uh over Memorial Day. Um and so uh that's been announced and we'll make sure uh we announce it once we get closer. Once again, I have a question. Yes. Random question. Um, for our students that are attending the new visions programs and the Boseies programs where they're not necessarily at the high school during the day, are they Boseies is closed that day? Boseies is
098closed that day. Um, so some of but some of our private um institutions are still open and we are providing transportation. Okay. Yes. Thank you. And finally, um, I would like to congratulate our middle school principal, Marissa Doria. She's just racking up the honors. um and all completely welld deserved. Last night, uh a large group of us were at uh Creekide Banquet Center um to um watch Marissa receive her well-deserved um uh uh super um I'm sorry, the uh SE middle school principal of the year award um for district 12. Uh Marissa won um and um just just of course she's knocking it out of the park um at our middle school and just so welld deserved and well earned of all the work that she's doing. Um just a valuable valuable member of our
099team. Um her work as an athletic director continues to be uh when when she was in that role continues to be valued here um which I'll talk about in a second, but um it's translated into just a great leadership at the middle school. Um and so um please join me in congratulating Marissa on her middle school principal of the year award. Uh as well as she will be named the section 6 Judith Ann Knight positive change award winner. Um I often say without her we would not have flag football um in New York State. um she really led the effort to get it not only here at Sweet Home um but throughout the state of New York um and really was a leader and continues to be a leader um in the area of flag
100football but all athletics for all athletes um um here in New York. So just two well-deserved honors for Marissa and um just wanted to recognize her tonight and I'm sure we'll get her at a board meeting soon too. Um but um she works hard and deserve the night off tonight. That's all I have. Okay. Any questions from the board? Thank you. Moving on. Uh upcoming events. We are entering the end of the year music season and wrapping up PTA seasons. Uh we've spoken about the district vote, but if you missed it, it's May 20th. Um, I did want to mention that also as we move through the end of the year things, uh, we did get the information regarding STAR's breakfast. Um, and the senior walkthrough is June 2nd as far as I'm aware. Yes.
101Okay. That brings us to our first open session per board policy 1512. This open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda. Is anyone interested in speaking? Okay, new business. We'll be voting on new business next week. Um, A is our class placements. Getting through 256 pages of class placements. I'll have them done by next week. Okay. Um, our monthly financials. Can you would you mind, Maryanne, telling what exactly you're reading and what you do with that? All of the IEP meetings. um anything whether a child's IEP has changed or whether's an addition to it all the end ofear assessments and when any child has to be assessed to see if they qualify for the needs is all written the minutes are written up and then I read all of those so end of year
102is usually a lot because we have a lot of endofear assessments for kids but um the most valuable thing I take away from that is how hard our staff works how you know in in coordination with special said are our different modalities of you know um occupational therapy, physical therapy, these you know just the parent advocates that come with these parents. So um impressed every time I read it but yes um and a year is usually a lot but I don't mind doing it. I just learn a lot and we for years have depended on you to read that and and you would notify us if you saw something. Absolutely. It's nothing we can talk about. We're voting on that. Correct. And yeah, we vote for those changes. Correct. Correct. And if there is something
103that I have a question about, I'll usually privately ask Dr. Janester. Yeah, that that's fine. I had a parent ask me that question. So that's why I had to do that. Thank you for that. Okay. Thank you for your reading. All right. And just for the record, more than one board member gets that report and does go through it. What's that? I'm sorry. There's more than one board member that makes the report. Oh, okay. She's the one who always gets served the bill. We let her speak for us. Very good. Thank you. I didn't didn't realize that. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So, monthly financials are next. Those will be if they're not already posted, they'll be posted soon. Uh C is the bids for health and medical supplies, athletic and physical education supplies. Any questions
104or comments? D is the disposal of obsolete property. There was a variety of things in there. E is the mun municipal cooperation agreement. I ask specifically what is this for? Utilities or is it this is uh we in July the board passed uh a bank um as a depository an official depository called NYAF. It's a high yield interest uh money market uh that we invest some of our money in. NILAF is being purchased by NY class. Uh so we have to add NLClass to our official depositories. Oh, okay. That's easy. If I could dwell on that for just a second. So NLAS is actually been around for a while. Have we used them in the past? We have not. uh N for high yield um savings options for school districts it's generally been NIClass or
105NILAF we've been with NILAF okay for the last number of years uh or the last year rather uh and NIAF is being purchased by NLASS okay there there are some strict guidelines for schools and their deposits with banks and how much interest or options for earning interest on their funds that's correct that's correct Correct. And uh NIClass we won't see uh an interruption in our service. Uh the parameters of our our our um account remains the same. So it's just a matter of adding NY class as an official depository. Would that put pressure? Would it create some kind of competitive pressure on the bank deposits the interest we're getting there? Well, we've had conversations. That's a good question, Mr. Rabold. We've had conversations with uh our our regular bank deposits uh to see if there
106are ways to increase our interest rates. So, we generally review those annually. Okay. Very good. Thank you. And then the next one is an additional municipal cooperation agreement for Rick one risk operation center. Would you like me to address that? I'm going to let you go with it. Uh so that's a that's a a co-op that has been established uh and supported by Erie One Boseies that basically works as um kind of a uh a repository of ED law 2D agreements for software programs across New York State uh and several other states as well. What it allows us to do is if we are interested in purchasing software to run that software through uh this repository to see if there is already an established EDLAW 2D agreement and if there is it allows us to
107piggyback on that agreement with another district um from that standpoint. So EDL law 2D is a is an education law that's in place that protects um personal identifiable information um so that if there were ever in order for us to engage into a software um agreement with a vendor we have to have this agreement in place otherwise we cannot enter into we don't enter into agreements uh with folks that won't sign a privacy agreement and this is going to be extremely important as we move into the AI world I would agree. I would agree. Uh it is it's difficult just I appreciate this in in my new role as the tech person um in that it allows us to more quickly get agreements in place. It's often difficult to find a contact person at software
108company X to pinpoint to get these agreements in place and with agreements that are already established and allowed to be piggybacked upon uh is um efficient for us. I'll say three more questions on that. Okay, that brings us to open session policy 1512. Would anyone like to address the board? You have three minutes. Please state your name, address, and relationship to Sweet Hall once. Okay. Personnel will be voting on personnel next week. Uh, teaching and administrative and service. Does anybody have any questions or comments that they can speak on? No. Okay. May I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Second. All in favor? I have a great night.