001well have the diagram but we 1996 yeah that must have been principal in 2002 you guys still didn't have it no no principal 2006 good sure see the okay thank you for your patience um I would like to apologize I forgot on the roll call to announce that Mrs bagia is also excused from today's meeting um so I did miss that um agenda approval of agenda um any comments we'll be voting on this next week any questions um minutes of the previous meeting any comments comments I have uh I'd like to add a comment there if I could has to do with the uh vote on the board goals I would like to note in there that we did agree to have a kind of midyear review of where we are with those goals if
002we can add that somehow and uh again I also like to say I was disappointed that we didn't have a public conversation a discussion about those goals that's all I have for that okay thank you Dirk okay um any other questions on the minutes from the previous meetings that were in I think there were both November meetings were up 12th and N yes 12 and 19 um Communications does anyone have any Communications to share I have one go ahead D all right thank you I uh in my uh life outside of school boards and my office I spent a lot of time with uh a political party and I get emails quite a few emails about prop one and Dei so my question really is well the question I got is is the board of
003regions going to vote on Prop one is that this week and it if they do what does that mean to girls Sports at sweet home it's a question more than anything we one was approved during the November election right it was a Statewide vote right so it it's passed it's a it's they amended the state contition yes but the board of regions is supposed to take it up and make it a regulation rule for school districts Public Schools so if in fact they do I I would just tell you that I will do everything I can to oppose having biological Boys in our girl sports that's my position on that and uh Title Nine by the way says we have a responsibility show respect for the girls who want to compete in sports on an
004equal gender basis and that's what I think our responsibility is there so didn't they take that off the table though so that the of regions took it off the table but then it was depending on how you read prop one it seemed like the legislative branch put it back into the they brought it back in yeah a little scary it depends on how you interpret prop one right but we don't know yet not yet it has not come up um at my I have a superintendent meeting next week it hasn't come up no discussion on Prop one has come up um at my level and um if it does I I'll keep you posted but I appreciate it again I if anything I will push back very hard on that if it does come to
005that JK so you know I'm just looking at their agenda their meeting was yesterday and today I don't see it on their agenda yeah okay I don't know how detailed the agenda is but it goes for two pages okay oh I hope they uh I hope they don't force the issue that that's my my hope so okay thank you any other Communications okay unfinished business we have none so superintendence report Dr destri thank you Mr balante I would like to invite Dr Wilson up and uh and the team um to talk about our 3 through eight Ela math and assessments yeah you can come onor laa assessment we stand together we're a squad good evening I'm pleased today to be standing before you to um discuss our 3 through eight Ela results um and if
006you go on the next slide you'll see we always have a connection back to our strategic plan goals one two and three teaching and learning future Focus whole child you see I have joining me tonight I have our director um Dr kakowski um she works very closely with the elementary schools but then she does a number of things across the district and you'll hear about one in very in particular that ties to this work we also have a supervisor of data Michael coll back there um joining us um this is your first time meeting him so uh he helped with all of the compiling of all the data and we have our phenomenal principles um that represent our elementary schools and our middle school and you're going to hear about their celebrations as we um
007get into each one of their schools so I'd like to start off with this slide um there's two there's two graphs there the smaller graph is the graph from last year just so that you can get a comparison of what things look like from last year to this year we always look at our scores this is our Ela scores these are proficiency rates so that is that would be the number of students who scored a three or a four in ela um because you know the scores are one two three four three is proficient four is Mastery and so when you look at this it is a cross-section of all the districts um that are um surrounding Buffalo um that are our neighbors right that we we connect with and work with all throughout our
008time here in Erie County the one thing I'd like to point out that's different about this slide is you see the numbers at the end of the bar what is that number right question well that number is um the economically disadvantaged number so if you look at our number 70% that looks different from what you've been seeing right so we we really have had an intense focus on data and really picking the part and trying to get to the root cause of of a number of things that are happening so that we can really get to the the what is needed for our students um and as you know last year we had a really deep dive into our elementary schools and in particular Glendale and as we were looking at Glendale one thing we
009noticed is that their economically disadvantage number looked different from the rest of the district we were at about 50% last year and they were looking like they were in the mid-30s that was odd so it made us take a step back peel back the layers came back in pile wild with um Mr Feldman Dr janest and we really looked at what was going on with our free and reduc launch applications and as you know we did something different with them this year and um part of that goes back to the language that um Mr Felman put into um the work the pitch that we had with our principles to push our families to complete them is not about just getting the free lunch everybody we we offer that to everybody um we really want to
010get a good handle on our numbers and the results were from 50% to 70% now oh I just wanted to add to that um that that campaign that we did this summer with the help of everybody in this room proved to be hugely beneficial from us for us not only did we get a much better rate of return on our free and reduced lunch forms but the data was more accurate picture of where we are with our poverty levels in the district um we knew that we you know the past three or four years we were showing um a decrease in poverty and we did not believe that statistic and that is why we put the campaign together um and um you know a 70% number while we have work to do and we'd love
011to see that number reduced there is an upside to that for the district in terms of um where our Aid is going to be Aid ratios building expense Aid Transportation expense Aid um Foundation Aid so um to paint a a more accurate picture of our of poverty in the district is very important for us um when it comes to proper state aid that we would get back and I don't know yeah no I just would add just for clarification standpoint it's it because we are part of the community eligibility program it's not a free and reduced lunch form that folks filled out it's an income verification form uh So Christine uh put together a great campaign we sent him out uh posted return uh and got a a good return on that um for us
012I will will also say you know to the tunee of we were probably when we were at free and reduced lunch to Dr Wilson point we were probably around a 54 55% poverty rate and this puts us up you know in that 70 range what I will say just as a point of discussion because I don't want to get too far off the rails here but the Rockefeller report is looking at that number because many of the schools are C eligible rather than using free and reduced launch rates as a formula piece for a foundation Aid they're looking at using economic students classified as economically disadvantaged which those kids are uh so those are you know to go from 55 56% to 70% is a huge huge jump for us um and it just it
013further cements that you know before this past last year we didn't do a good job in getting those forms and framing the message right because everybody thought well we're already eating for free they didn't realize and understand the importance of filling out those forms so going forward you can see the impact that it has uh and the ne necessity for us to continue that campaign and keep those forms uh being filled out annually sorry so so that root cause analysis really helping us dig deep and look looking at what was going on in one place really had a huge impact on the rest of the district in order to be considered title one you have to hit 40% economically disadvantaged and as you can see there are some districts on the slide that are not
014title one and you see a number of us that are um but I want to take a moment to talk about what that 70% means we are not by any measure saying that students who are surviving poverty can't learn there are many of us standing in this room who like myself um who grew up in poverty and learned just fine right um but it's the challenges that come along with um surviving poverty and one story that I think our principles could each give you 10 stories um from just the last week one story um from this past week uh the day that we had the snow and it was it was pretty snowy outside the the buses were were you know dealing with the snow everybody's moving slower young man walks into one of our
015schools wearing a t-shirt just a t-shirt of course the staff recognized that he walked in wearing a t-shirt and not a winter coat because it's definitely winter outside talked with him more and found that he does have a coat but his grandmother did not and he chose to sacrifice himself give his grandmother his coat so he came to school without so what did they do in that school they wrapped around this young man made sure he had a coat before he was leaving made sure he had food in his belly before going to first period he went the first period but remember he just came from the frig outside in a t-shirt so he's got to warm up so he's moving a little slow but by the time you get into first period into second
016period he's moving just fine he had people wrap around him he had people stop and notice what was really important for him in the moment and that's what our leaders do on a daily basis that's one one story they could probably each give you 10 the impact and the challenges that poverty brings is the thing that I want us to remember as we go through every slide all right here are math results proficiency 3 through eight um same thing we have the um results from last year you see the comparisons um across the board um we think it's always important for us to see you know what does it look like across the entire landscape um and so this is Erie County in math and we're going to look at a comparison across the board
017of proficiency from year to year you take us to the next slide okay so here we go so you heard me say levels one two three and four three is proficient four is Mastery two is approaching um and one we want to make sure we're looking to continue to grow our students across the board from level one to level two two to three three 3 to four and as you can see in ela um in we had a seveno um decline um last year from uh last year to this year or the previous year to last year um in math it was two points but the things I want to call out here is that there are some there's some things that went into play um in these scores first we implemented computer-based testing across
018the board in 3 through eight the state was requiring us to do it in some grade levels we chose to not go through that um transition over a whole number of years we chose to have the entire District go in our uh our teams rolled up their sleeves at their at at their schools and made sure that our teachers were ready we had professional development for the whole year Dr kakowski came with the experience of um implementing the computer-based testing setting and so she was very important to our work last year and and let that work and we had a successful testing period with the challenge of three through eight everyone going into computer-based testing we also implemented new math as you remember from the previous year we looked at our math hadn't been review
019reviewed for 12 years um we wanted to look at the new standards that we were faced with we needed to increase rigor um and so we implemented new math and the the testing grades that were that um had the new math that are showing up here would be grade four six seven and eight now that was a phased approach so this year everyone is into the new math what that means is this year we'll have kids who have had the new math curriculum for two years and students who have had it for one but then we also have teachers who now have been with it for two years next slide this is a view of ela broken down 3-5 6-8 it's a six year view um the things I want to point out um there's
020no assessment in 202020 due to the pandemic um and in 2021 you see that is um a high performance year the thing that is different about that assessment is that it was much shorter it had repeating questions it does not compare to the other years it is a data point though so we always have it in our six-year view um and you see um the breakdown here um from 23 to 24 um so we had a decrease of eight percentage points in at um three through five and then um the seven at 6 through eight in math you see the same setup pandemic year 2022 being that year that is different and the thing that I want to really call out here um as you as you look across um you see the Middle School
021really stands out here right I as an educator now this is year 29 right I can tell you and I and I see Educators sitting in at at their board chairs the Middle School testing is the most challenging that's where districts face the most trouble right and I I like to point out the success that we had um with new math right all three grade levels and computer-based testing they went all in as principal Daria calls it that that is their motto at the middle school all in now we're usually looking for a three-point raise you know over over time increasing over time but that's six with the challenges of a new math curriculum and the implementing all of the professional development that goes with that as well as all of the computer-based testing and
022math computer-based testing which adds another layer so it's something to call out now this slide we have English and math and we're looking at at proficiency levels this is this would be grades three four and five um and the thing that we want to call out and the thing that we are deeply focused on and you'll hear that when we talk about the celebrations at the end that the schools um have and then the things that they are working deeply on based on the data that they have from our students performance uh over the years from this assessment and for from our current um assessments is our level ones and twos right um if you look at at grade five in particular you will see that that is the highest place where we have U
023our levels ones and twos we the goal is really continue to shift those ones to twos and the twos to threes next slide you mean reversed oh I'm sorry never mind my mistake you're right one to two and two to three I was the other way around I'm sorry no we don't want to go the other way around all right here in math again we want to make sure that we are looking um at the um the ones and twos and shifting so this work we've been engaged in this work you know from the summer going into our our testing assessments as soon as we received the the assessment um data from this assessment as well as our own assessments and um just recently in this week had another session where we were going over
024okay shifting our high ones okay these students are high ones what does their intervention look like and how are we looking to shift them to two and and then the twos to threes so again we want to make sure that we um call that out but the eighth grade is is the anomaly here in math because that is a combined um those are com combined results so that is the algebra included um so we have eighth grade math and algebra you do have the state does do a combined score with your algebra scores for students who are accelerated and so even though they had the highest ones and twos they also had the highest proficiency right you see that so interesting what's going on there with math eight next slide there's always a question the
025opt outs um you know um I think our opt out rate I know our opt out rate is improving last year we were at 20% opt out on this slide you want to be closer to the bottom that's the better place to be right um and we are we went down to 177% we did have a couple places where they had zero opt outs across uh two two exams over at Heritage Heights uh shout out to Mr Perry um so we continue that work it it's all about commun continuous communication so it's not just just be you know as we get right up on the exam it's continuously talking with parents about how we use the results how important it is for us to have this data snapshot for their child so that we can
026continue to grow um and support them Dr Wilson can I ask a quick question for the out outs um for the not tested does that include special education students whose parents opt them out or is that calculated separately if they are to sit for the assessment yes they are included for the regular assessment or for the alternate assessment alternative assessment is separate separate okay got it thank you this is all just New York State 3 through 8 okay thank you yeah now I'm going to invite Dr kakowski Who's going to share some continuous growth efforts so just a part of our normal practice is to always look for opportunities for growth so as you've heard a lot about our multi-tiered systems of Support Review and improving that process last year um we looked at screeners
027we landed on the am web plus which we implemented this year for the first time and so our Focus this year is looking at what type of information are we getting from that screener what areas of need are there and then do we have the appropriate interventions to Target those areas of need so that's something that we're um looking to continue to review this year and make some decisions going into next school year an ongoing review of all the data that we have so that could be from behavior um quarterly attendance reports and the overall academic needs so part of that is using the tools that we have um all of our buildings have regular data data team meetings and so um many of them have data dashboards where they're looking at several data points
028um making goals for students and tracking that growth and progress monitoring so those are things that we continue to do increased efforts to embed technology again just making that second nature for students we're fortunate enough to have technology coaches we have instructional coaches to support our library media Specialists are very Innovative and always looking for growth opport opportunities and so you would be really impressed to see that our students even at the primary level are using their devices one to one and it's it's just a part of their everyday practice so when it comes to testing that doesn't look like something that's foreign to them increased opportunities to share strategies and supports and our focus of leader me districtwide so as you know we have um Lighthouse status at many of our elementary schools and
029a really big push at the secondary level and so it goes along with the idea that Dr Wilson referenced earlier with really supporting the whole child and meeting all of the needs so whether that is in a social emotional sense or material needs um but also empowering them as leaders and then the importance of just being really transparent with our families opportunities for engagement which ultimately helps um our refusal rates because when parents are aware of the resources that their children have the curriculum materials that they're using it helps them to have a better understanding of what we're doing with these tools and then how we're using the data that we get from them now for some celebrations so for each school we like to highlight um a success and then an area that the
030principal has been working with their team on um for continu continuous growth principal Daria step forward yeah you got to go first so the thing to be celebr CBR at at the middle school is the Allin focus on math proficiency going from 45% to 51% a 6% in increase across all grade levels with new curriculum and CBT um happening all at the same time and at the toughest level the growth area that principal Daria has identified for um in connection and working with her school um is a focus on refining interventions across tiers two and three so we operating instructionally one tiers one two and three tier one is core instruction that's everyday instruction every everyone has access if you if you have a need and have challenges or struggle you may be identified to
031have supports at level two and then if those challenges are even greater you go on to level three so really digging deep into what our students need um around instruction at all tiers is the focus at the middle school can we give her a round of applause thank you all right uh Principal Perry step forward all right Principal Perry Principal Perry has a stem integration program that has really supported his work the thing that we want we're going to focus on is his he has a a a 0% refusal rate across two assessments now usually what happens with those assessments right is the kids come in and they take Ela and then they go home and say to parent I don't want to do the math and they're by math time they're like no way
032so the refusals go up by math time right he had a whole grade level at zero right grade four Ela and math across the board right um and in third grade his students grew 15 percentage points from 38% to 53% in Proficiency in Mastery so whoos to Mr Perry Round of Applause all right can we have Mr Pino step forward Mr Pino over at Willer Ridge that his students at third grade moved up from as they move from third grade to fourth grade so this is comparing the students from in their own progress a lot of times when you're looking at results you're looking at third grade to third grade well those are two different groups of kids right but if you follow the students from third grade to fourth grade at at Willer Ridge
033they grew 10 percentage points from 45 to 55% in ela the thing thing that Mr Pino is working on with his team that he has identified is an increased growth in opportunities for students to engage in con consistent and across the board Tech integration um at K2 really honing in on what his students need and a lot of that came from the work that they did all last year how the students performed during the test and the item analysis that they are completing so round of applause for Mr that plan it's plan step forward over at Glendale um Glendale had some success at math in math at grade five remember M grade five was our challenging year right at grade five students increase we had students go to level four from 3% at level four
034to 20% at level four that's Mastery level and remember that was the most challenging grade that we had across the board so 177% increase um the thing that Miss Del plant has identified that they are working on is really honing in on vertical alignment across Ela and continuing to focus in on integration of CBT or um Tech integration across all great levels thank you and Mr Ryan last but not least Mr Ryan over at Maple Mir Mr M Mr Ryan can Bo about his third grade because he you know he has these intense Focus years that he has and you talk to him he he he has every year there's an intense focus on a grade level so he can boast about his third grade they had a 133% increase from 60% Proficiency in Mastery
035to 73% at third grade amazing right the growth at mael Mir um the thing that he will continue on and that he works on with his team is they continue to audit and update the core that's that tier one that I spoke about earlier um in literacy and intensify the focus across fourth grade so that's that that's that great level Focus that you always hear him talking about Round of Applause for Mr Ryan so we are available for questions at this moment um I think the work um stands for itself the the work that our principles do day in and day out um to support our kids to wrap around like I like I said if you ever get a time to sit down with them and hear some of those stories you would know
036um that they really do um work magic with our families through how they support them so we'll take any questions I go ahead Brian um on the on the uh the poverty rate that and you said um there was a campaign uh for the uh free and reduced launches that that number the 70% I'm just is that based on all the that comeback so I I think what I'm wondering is is if there's a campaign are people who are more likely to um uh qualify for that apply you know send it back and as as a result push that number higher or is there some other something else going on in that like that we would know it's not just well um you know those families that didn't qualify or had a sense they wouldn't
037qualify wouldn't send it back so our percentage is based on our entire District right so the applications get receiving them back at a higher rate helps us have a more accurate picture of what our number is uh Michael do you w to add to I think I can besides I mean there's there's a couple of different ways you can qualify the state gives us a list of students that have automatically qualified and then the rest um is up to the district to col these forms and I mean I think I've heard maybe almost the opposite where there's a stigma for families to return these or something like that I'll just further Mr Kumo's point that Christy zjack our food service director has the ability to direct certify people uh and families that might be receiving
038SNAP benefits and things along those lines so we can increase numbers that way um but I think you know do in large part to the way that we kind of frame the messaging this year about the importance uh I mean with everybody eating for free about the importance and the impact that it can have on many of the things that Dr janest said I think that that was was a game Cher for us I really do um another question I had is um looking at uh there's not a page number on here but the the the bar charts where they we were where we show um you know 19 through 24 I don't know if we can just go back no keep um sorry it's lagging here oh that's okay so I'm kind of wondering
039in here I noticed that um the the um the pattern seem generally the same even though there were 3 through five and 6 through 8 like it was decline decline decline no was decline decline decline then it then it bumped up a little bit um and but these are different different I I guess I'm wondering is there something else going on that like are these are the tests every year maybe this is a tougher year and that's an easier year because you and the other and Part B of the question is do we ever you kind of mentioned this do ever follow just a group the same class all the way through because then you would know this is a group of kids that generally score higher they're going to maybe that bar would kind
040of go with them yes we actually have our data spelled out that way and it's the work that we that we do um more closely as we are digging into Data we're following the cohorts but one thing I want to point out about uh 23 so you've heard about uh NextGen standards um being rolled out and so in different subjects they are a different places of implementation you'll start to see those questions there so the tests do change um and it it in my experience it's been every so many years maybe six to 10 years you start to see a shift over there's an announcement of some changes that will happen with the standards and then the tests follow so right now we are in the middle of all of the changes that are happening
041in particular in science um so the elementary science has already been um converted over middle school has changed over High School all of the science courses are in the middle of a of a um of a change in standards so yes that does happen over time period thank you I have two questions the first one was about the computer-based testing is the computer-based testing a standardized testing or is it a progressive test like the star reading like the more questions you answer the hard hard it gets no it's a standard it's just so every every kid gets the same question yes okay the other question is actually from Mr Pino um I haven't seen any photos or videos of you being silly stringed and I want to know where those are I saw they got
042them there the people at home can hear you they're not they're not they're out there I'm sure uh you know to dig too far but we'll maybe you'll we we'll share those and I'm sure after some of the staff watching this maybe they'll they'll start okay will start to circul more thank you appreciate that anytime any other questions no questions just a comment you're all amazing and we're so grateful for you so thank you for everything you do thank you I'm got to frame a question for you it has something to do with the longevity of this and it seems like the State State education department has this Knack of or this cycle of changing things and the testing and the curriculums and I don't know how you really deal with that other than guess
043at where they're going with it uh I don't know how you deal with the testing changes uh so my real my question really has to do with um and this came out of the rocket Beller Institute study too we we in New York spend a lot on education per P so my question to you as the folks that do that for sweet home do you have enough staff is there enough money in the system to cover the support for computer testing for uh special needs and all that stuff I would think that the answer is yes but please comment on that I I believe we're very fortunate in in Sweet Home um we we do have what we need to um get through the instruction when we dig into for example when we looked at
044curriculum for math our driving force was what's the best curriculum for our students okay what do what do our students need and that's going to stay at the center of our review um and that didn't we didn't Veer away from that um it really was what do our students need the dollars of course come into play eventually right but they're not the number one driving force it is really what's best for our students principles yeah I think the one thing that I feel fortunate that our district was definitely kind of ahead of the curve in terms of tech integration um so while a lot of schools became or districts became responsive to you know onetoone devices for kids um because of the pandemic because kids were learning from home that's something that we had practiced
045a decade before so in terms of what was happening instruction within classrooms kids ability to navigate devices and learning through those um I felt like we were kind of ahead of the curve and so now kind of transitioning into um computer-based testing which seems like that's where the College Board is going um our kids are are definitely getting more acclimated and prepared and that whole next generation of kids coming through our uh Elementary system will be prepared um especially once they get to that secondary level pry good yeah if you ever need some help pushing back to stay that I'm more than happy to do that oh I really think they oversteep their bounds in a lot of different areas do I I'm curious do you your teachers do they I mean if I were
046a teacher these tests would kind of give me some anxiety about getting the kids ready and then are your you know and I and I from my kids I I get a sense that you know they know they're aware that it's coming right and so I would imagine that's kind of throughout the schools that um there's an element there that you know because you can't collect everything that's going on in a classroom in a test right and but a lot of weight is put on these so it's it's kind of probably not a complete or Fair assessment well we we do um spend a lot of time continuing to chip away at that anxiety that comes along with it right um the shift to computer-based testing for everyone that was a a point and it
047continues to be a point that we continue to work on with our teachers and our students so there's there are many different layers and there's many different things that get added into um this work that could add to that but we're constantly looking at how do we chip away at it how do we um help uh folks deal with it and get down to the root of what do we need for our students to be successful I know Mr iable some of the I've seen in the past some of the teachers are going out of their way to help try and find ways to take away of the anxiety from the kids and I know in in Maple Mar in particular I've seen videos of the teachers and if I remember right I think Mr
048Bryan was even in a few of them where they trying to help the kids up take the anxiety out that's not that's not a Glendale that sounds like a Glendale thing no it was I'm better dance off dance off okay for sure and on the other side of that question or that concern is again out of state at are they really looking to lesson lessening the reading standards so that students can move forward is that some possib these are things I hear I don't know if there's any accuracy thought I'm not I'm not no I would say no um I don't think there's any I think the emphasis on literacy is only getting stronger um there's a lot of research around the science of of reading right now um and there's a big Push by
049the Commissioner's Office uh for schools over the next 3 to five years to implement more science of reading I believe we're ahead of the curve we've had excellent professional development um UB is leading the charge across the state and we've had the two experts um um who is a one of them is a sweet home resident Dr blle Anderson uh who's working with us she's actually on our Dei committee as well um she's the leading expert on literacy and the science of reading in the state and she's presented to our our group um and is working with us um hand in hand so I think the emphasis um Mr rabenold on literacy is only going to get stronger it's what are we going to do with our new um literacy programs what pathways are they
050going to take because literacy is going to play a role in every pathway um that our students can go down but it's not that cycle of whole language whatever language now you have science of reading right right it it's it's a it's got some history and proof that it works it's a it's a it's really a balance there's not one yeah there's not one that we feel fits I hear them in the back they're saying the same thing it's a balance we look at the combination of the two to really support our students because one does not help all students It's a combination really it's important we continue and I think what we do with data here is the best I've seen when it helps us differentiate to meet the individual needs of of every
051student so um we're tracking all of our students now through data uh we are talking about data with we were at Maple Mir today um and um we we had a a discussion with a literacy teacher there about data and how um she's seen more and more come into the buildings um and it's helping Drive instruction across um across the entire building so uh I think we're only going to continue our our emphasis on data and making sure that we understand root cause that we understand what the data is saying and then we have the proper um interventions in place to address individual needs okay I I just want to also say like I think these things we have to look at them also and think about it's generationally like I mean when I was
052a kid what my kids are getting now compared to yeah two or three generations ago it's it's you know seems so much better and more so you know in many regards I think we've raised the standards you know it's just we're comparing to higher like you know we're um I mean my kids they're reading every night I mean that's a part of their homework is is certain number of pages and and and things like that and it's integrated in a lot of their projects um much more so than when I was younger um you know was almost like reading was part of English and that was it and then the other subjects were the other subjects so you know um even with the technology I know in this they have videos they can look at
053and teachers Pro provide for them and so it seems to me that those those resources you know when you're comparing one group to another and they're one year apart it might not seem like a big difference but if we compared these kids to 20 years ago right oh I think you know what they're learning is is you know they're taking out a lot more information and knowledge in in in a lot of different ways and the thing that you'll see now is that intense focus on the whole child so social emotional um the needs of our students you see that embedded in every you can move around the schools and you see that all throughout each one of the schools that we have here in Sweet Home um I was just at Willer Ridge uh
054yesterday uh popped in on a class and they were learn sitting in a circle learning how to deal with stress and how how do they deal with stress um in second grade so um definitely it it's all those components coming together that makes it different for our students today so so in the end you feel we're on a path where kids are learning kids are moving and they're better off today than they were last year the year before yes really the question so the answer is yes yes we are moving forward okay all right thank you so much and next uh stress Circle please invite me over to that we'll be there so I can use it Wednesday at 10 o'cl I'm just saying I I have a lot to contribute to that uh to
055that Circle so uh thank you everybody uh really appreciate your time and your efforts especially so um very proud of the work that we're doing and uh it it all begins right there so thank you everyone thank you great job thank you them your families long off uh okay I have a few updates uh for the board um I just wanted to give you an update on on where we are with regionalization uh we've heard we've talked about it uh for a few meetings now uh that the there was a mandate by the state uh to look at regionalization and what districts were doing uh in comparison to other districts to make sure our students were receiving a free and fair education across New York state so um we were required to participate in a
056strength and needs assessment survey which was very lengthy and very uh time consuming um and then when right when we got it pretty much 99% done uh the state last week pulled back on regionalization mandates and said that it is now an option of the district um with that said we did submit the survey because it was complete and we wanted to get you know credit for our work that was done led by uh Dr Wilson and Mr Feldman um and their teams um putting a lot of time and energy into getting this done and we are going to participate we didn't feel there was harm in participating to see us in comparison to what other districts around Western New York and irone bosies are doing so we're going to participate it's Dr Wilson myself
057Mr Feldman I think Dr shy is going as well uh on January 16th at bosis um to discuss next steps in the regionalization process and the nice thing is you know we if if it go down goes down a path as I report back to you that we don't want to go down or you don't want to go down we certainly will report that back and get feedback um there but um we're curious now that the work is done to see what everybody else has and in comparison to US to make sure we're offering the very best that we can offer our students uh in compar Aron to other districts in y1 and throughout the state so U we did submit the survey we'll attend the meeting and we'll report back to you and see
058where it goes from there as you know I won't go through all of these These are kind of the highlights that the state um last week U the Rockefeller report on Foundation Aid was released um we talked a little bit about some of the Highlights today uh improvements in the successful School model are recommended uh they they used to look at 3 through R scoring they want a more robust um metric here now in comparison to what other um assessments are taking place in schools uh The Five-Year annual inflation rate uh more aid for communities with higher poverty levels discontinue free and reduced lunch U metrics in there and but have a more accurate poverty level um in the formula additional aid for districts with elll populations those are something that I I put these
059in that could impact sweet home uh phase out the 50% save harmless uh districts with more than 10% year end balances will apply to the save harmless Provisions um address funding for special special needs and students with disabilities uh retain 10% of the unassigned fund balance uh instead of the current 4% so that would be a 6% increase in unassigned fund balance ceiling uh provide Aid to improve Mental Health Services and fund the electric bus initiative um I'll be at a meeting at bosis I I'm going to try and participate in a webinar tomorrow um with the New York State Council of school superintendant and then we have a meeting at bosis next week to dive into this more I know the board has gotten copies of it and um have been presented with summaries
060as well um no real timeline yet on on what might happen and of course a lot of this is going to come down to what the governor um wants to keep wants to amend or wants to just eliminate from this so um it's the first step in in kind of looking at Foundation a and and possibly making changes to it um but it's all always going to come down to what the executive and um wants to to accomplish with this um I did can I just make another comment here so I think Danielle here had uh did the AI version of it the very first piece of it was the amount of money we spend per kid in the state it's really twice as much as the rest of the country you're close to it
061you know so where are they going with this and I asked Dr Tims about this where are you going with this we're gonna fight over the money that goes to one school or another or is there more money to be had in the state and that's what we're going after it seems to be always a money grab in my my view you know it's it's the formula is probably terrible what I remember is it going to be better under this it's going to be winners and losers unless there's additional funding that comes from somewhere and where is that funding coming from I mean that's just my concern about this whole thing I don't mean to take it away from your thunder here it's a good thing that it's been reviewed and you're making suggestions and
062at the end legislature the governor going to say y or nay to spending more money I think I kind of view it in a in a in like this there will be a pot of money it's going to get distributed right I think the the executive will set what that pot of money is going to be how it gets distributed though is what I take a from Hope a little Hope from this that schools like ours that have higher poverty levels and Ells um and an increasing rate in students with disabilities will get more of a fair share of that pot than what we are getting now so I'm I'm hopeful and and advocating for that piece of it and so some of the things and the provisions I see in here give me hope
063but as we know in New York politics always plays a role um downstate needs to get their fair share and and we we are uh left with a pot and how that gets distributed I just we got to fight for our own I guess correct what it comes down to okay all right thank you um I want to thank again student government for getting involved and helping us um kind of get some answers around graduation gowns um we heard from the board last time um about some concerns and some U matters but wanted to report back that it seems uh we had a great response 406 responded to our survey of teachers and students um in the in the High School uh and overwhelmingly uh 53% uh wanted to look at an option of blue
064with a gold stripe on the arm to represent sweet home um to keep blue and gold um as our colors uh and go to a one gown option so um we're recommending that's what we do um I don't know if the board has input or um or want to discuss it anymore and I know Misha if you want to discuss this anymore in the efforts you took with student government um to get these responses in but we're kind of feeling in a in a good spot to to move forward with this recommendation um and um and have blue and gold gowns next year I'd be most interested in what Maisha has to say what really have much to say um I think that that's what everybody would be most happiest with so I'm happy that
065we got it out there and everybody feels included a little bit more okay people to do anything is hard sorry there was no option of remaining with the two colored gowns it was going with one gown right that was I don't think there was an option okay yeah just wanted to sure but you thought the survey or the uh however you got responses was done fairly and um okay um there was an option where you can go back and like redo the survey which I think could have like added to it so it might not be completely accurate like oh one person gets one say so I think that'd be the only downside but other than that I think it was accurate so is this something that we're looking to do just for this coming
066year or are we keeping this until someone else want to say it like that but you know what I mean uh I I I hope we keep it forever I think it's going to look awesome and I think it's going to be very sweet home yeah I the idea yes I do too all right so as everybody's good we can move forward on that um also proud to announce that our art department is incredible K through 12 they met last week um to discuss um how they want to roll out our Panther contest uh we really want to find a a panther logo for sweet home one that's unique to us um so we'll be making the formal announcement of the contest next week uh through Christine's with Christine's help um and we to the
067gracious uh and generous um thoughts of the Sweet Home Dollars for Scholars Program the winner or whose winning concept will go to like final edit with a graphic artist will get a $500 scholarship uh for the in their senior year so every building's going to be represented we'll have one every everybody will vote um Concepts will be submitted per B building uh the senior high will vote on uh three final Concepts the middle school will vote on three final Concepts and each Elementary building will have one final concept for a total of 10 Concepts um those Concepts will be submitted work with a graphic artist to make them uh into um High design logo ready uh P or logo ready Panther uh that will be used everywhere from uh on our could be on letterhead
068it could be used in our athletic department um one of the questions is the sh going away the sh will never go away under under my watch I love the sh it looks amazing it's it's so well done um but so this this the panther is to um you know there's a lot of panthers floating around the district we want one um so it's as recognizable as the sh and when you see that pan Panther you think of sweet home um we're going to um like I said a graphic artist is going to work with us to make sure that they are logo ready uh and then we're going to present on on boards and through the internet and and out to the public those uh final 10 Concepts and our community will vote on
069May 20th during the budget vote on their favorite Panther um and so whoever's concept wins like I said will get a $500 scholarship their senior year uh and we be forever Mor uh memoral memory memory will be memorialized thank you uh as the creator of the panther so we're excited it's a CommunityWide effort and everybody in our community from kids to parents to voters will have a voice in what our new Panther will be so and big kudos to the art Department I want to thank Christine and Dr Wilson for meeting with them last week um to get this rolling their excitement is is fantastic each building is going to have its own flare to what they want to do I can't wait to see what the final 10 concepts are going to be um
070and then we're we'll get it rolling so is this something that is going to go through the art um like art classes like the grade schools yes yep we we we're opening it to everybody but some the art teachers are going to facilitate it in the building how they see fit to make sure everyone has a has a chance to submit it I'm also proud to announce and I I put it in my Friday memo last week that the Music Fest is back Sunday February 2nd at the University of Buffalo Center for the Arts we're really excited to host it there um to give our students the best possible audio uh and um uh lighting and and and most importantly in the amount of seats that we need to accommodate large crowds so um a
071lot easier to get the instruments in there than it is a gym yes yes uh we're excited it's going to go from 12:30 to 4:15 on that day um and and we can't wait to showcase the musical talents of our students and um have a an amazing Music Fest so we're excited I want to thank the music department for their efforts in getting this done uh led by Dr Wilson and um Dr kakowski helping out and and it's going to be a great day at UB and no football game that day so uh it's a perfect day to do it any questions all right thank you everybody okay so uh moving on for upcoming events um we have some concerts coming up over the next two weeks um on Thursday we have the High School
072parent teacher conferences um on Friday there is no Elementary School is that correct for parent teacher conferences so just a reminder upk to grade five there is no school on Friday um and then we go into our winter recess our last day of school is Friday the 20th and then we're back on January 2nd um any questions on upcoming events okay open session do we have any takers for Open Session number one no okay so new business remember we will be voting on um this new business next week um so let's go through a special education any questions or discussions on that okay B monthly Financial reports policy 2140 any questions on that okay C the capital outlay project um construction bid I believe this is for uh Middle School sign and updates on doors
073exterior doors exterior doors yep any questions or comments on that okay D is rised policy um policy 1410 first reading I believe Mr Johnson Mr liable you're on the policy committee right yeah who recommended these we we discussed some of these it's several of them it's most's recommended to delete them the stuff is covered in other policies so that's we agreed with those those and um there's a couple of them that did have some updates mostly required updates so okay we're good with that um and then letter e is the charter agreement with the um two the the Scout Pack 444 and the Boy Scout Troop 444 okay moving on um open session number two do we have any takers on speaking Open Session number two all right Personnel remember we will be voting on
074these again next week um teaching and administrative uh we have regular and substitutes any questions on teaching and administrative personnel and then service Reg regular and um uh service regular appointments any questions on the service Personnel okay um can I have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting we will not be returning so moved second all in favor I I