001all right no any Rolling Stones yeah I know it's nice be twice a month so you can I mean it was nice to come in you know we pared the music saying probably not still figing this out stick see up hereone silence yes awful quiet technology okay musical inter yeah Me Make It On full just if you go like this enough times nothing I see Virgil's popping up on me do I need to on there on what my LA on the Wi-Fi you can be on the regular Wi-Fi you can probably just share to okay step directions for you new laptop I am in okay all right we I think are good love it no it's okay I got it I might have just not been not connect automatically either so orin's Apple TV okay
002we like to call a meeting to order can I have everybody stand for the pledge fa I pledge ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice thank you so much Miss Jason I am here uh Mr Johnson I'm here Mr liel here Mr ravenall Raven here Mr Raven hle Raven no h in Raymond old okay the old man DK DK is better Danielle Peter here and I am here may I have a motion in a second to approve the role so moved second all in favor approval of the agenda we have a motion in a second to approve the agenda so moved second all in favor I minutes of the previous meeting do we have any questions
003or comments before we approve that all right may I have a motion in a second to approve the minutes so moved second all in favor I Communications we have the Amherst Ida resolution and a couple of heris speech alerts anything else I just had a question um on the communications that we got from the Ida about the Dodge Road housing um they're going to be constructing a I guess 24 two to four story mixed building use why did we get this it's uh on our it's in the Sweet Home District Dodge Road yep Dodge and Sweet Home Road yes you you probably seen them clearing it out back there yeah yeah but I didn't know that was part of our and how will this affect our we expect a possible increase but it's going to
004be um uh student housing uh senior housing and mainly and um uh supervisor call it uh low income low income housing yep so kidwise is what I'm always right yep um very few single family maybe two bedrooms but very very few yeah less than 10 less than 10 oh okay thank you anything else I had one parent call and ask about the backpack issue I spoke with uh Mr janest about it earlier just again for the record I understand that okay y thank you that's good anybody else okay um on unfinished business we have none so Dr janest you're up um thank you Mrs baglia we have um quite a bit on the superintendent report tonight but we really wanted to start and uh say how excited we are to have our uh group of
005Heritage Heights teachers here tonight um to recap and present to us um on their trip to Ghana as you know we talked a lot about it um in the spring and uh we really supported their efforts over there uh and what they did and just um you know they I think uh offered as much as they got out of it from what I'm what I've been told uh from the feedback that I've been getting and we thought it was really important that they share their experience and all the great work that they did over there uh and uh so want to bring them up I got your presentation so if you just tell me when to H forward and um but come on up and and thank you for being here tonight yeah yeah how
006how thank you well thank you very much for having us tonight this trip has been an experience for all of us it was so far beyond exceeded our expectations um when Dr janri asked us to come and do a a 10-minute presentation we were ecstatic I think collectively we've shared about 2,000 hours worth of photos and videos to our family we will keep it to 10 minutes we will try but it was just an extraordinary trip um we went down there because we have a great interest in um Global education um and got to know one of the families at Heritage Heights from Ghana whose family member owned an international school down there so that's kind of how this all transpired so we left the um day after the last day of school and came
007back July 11th slide so this will show you our team um and obviously we're all here tonight um with the exception of Miss noo she was not able to make it um she's not feeling well but she's the one that is the U the parent from Heritage um and I will tell you it was an absolute pleasure being with all of these people we were together probably a minimum of 18 hours a day um sometimes close to 20 hours a day um we got to see each other at our rawest moments um experiencing so much emotion um and I'm telling you I would travel with these people any day again anywhere in this world including Mr r a [Laughter] meeting all right so before we left for the trip kind of outlined some goals that
008we had for our team and kind of what we wanted to accomplish going on the trip so our goal was to in June of 2024 we were going to travel to Ghana which we did um we also had a plan to collaborate with the ghanian teachers share cultural experiences to cultivate an appreciation for diversity we were hoping to teach students and collaborate with teachers at the Merin international school and some local government schools in Acro and we also wanted to extend support by personally Distributing um all the donated essential supplies and toiletries to the children that we encountered and we ended up accomplishing all of these goals on our trip so that was amazing so the donations that were collected we collected them from family members from all over on the Heritage area in our
009own communities we put out notes and things and things would just show up on our doorstep um with that in mind things that did come in we had a section in the front of Heritage Heights I know many of you were there and we had bins that were there and then what would happen in the morning I would call as we got closer I would call the fifth grade students down they would bring all the bins down and in the morning first thing there their duties and responsibilities were with the kindergarten children that I had we unwrapped everything so that meant that anything that was in uh like toothpaste we took everything out of the boxes so that we didn't have all the extra boxes and everything everything was put in clear Ziplock bags so
010each child had a whole set of things that they were going to be handed to which made it easier for Customs to go through because they could see right through all the bags and everything so from there it got shipped off to New Jersey so when we were there we took part in a lot of nature experiences cultural experiences but we spent the bulk of our time working at different school so we started off our week at the meron International School from there we spent time in one school and a couple of government schools and wrapped up our week in um the Maron International School campus again as a part of their award ceremony and the mer international schools they extended their school year so ordinarily they wouldn't grow for the summer but they extended
011it to have different experience with us whereas the Catholic school and the government schools go to school year round so here is the mert international school and it's campus is spread across two different locations so they have what they refer to as their Nursery um location which is all their primary Learners and a separate location that has their Elementary age students as well as what would be the equivalent of their middle school and high school population students so this is the school that we formed our initial partnership with and we had probably the closest collaboration and Partnerships with the teachers there as well so when we were welcomed there one of the first things I took a picture of was their mission statement because I thought it really aligned nicely to our mission and going
012there it's this idea of um finding connections across the world and using that to better ourselves and to kind of have this transformative educational experience he also learned that they received an award for the best Cambridge a-level School in Ghana 2023 so that kind of prompted me to want to look into what is a Cambridge School and what does that Encompass and I found out a lot of information kind of indicated within this infographic here that kind of show cases what um each kind of level of the containing bom of Education what that encompasses so really you can tell just by looking at this the earliest of Learners it's really the Hands-On learning um a lot of different content connections different um extraoral activities and we observed a lot of that we made a lot
013of those connections in our observations and really they're robust education that they offered their students and what we got to observe another picture that I made a point to take a picture of on the wall are these sustainable developmental World goals so this was something that DG my memory of work that we did actually inherited professional development using our literacy units to make those cross curricular connections between studies and we were using the same document so it was just really neat to see that across the world they're working towards the same types of things with their children types of um goals professionally and it's not just in develop schools and areas but and those that are underdeveloped as well you can play the video so oh there is that was the CEO going to listen
014to here I hope that's okay we worked closely with the CEO of meron um Dr Elizabeth Batey and she is actually evets ant so Mrs noak's Aunt um and she facilitated all of the educational and cultural experiences that we had while we were in Ghana she's the the principal of the school and she has the connections to the government schools we went to as well as the Catholic schools on our first day at mertin we were warmly wel welcomed with a beautiful celebration we received flowers enjoyed dancers and performances and we also got to visit some classrooms um and we met a lot of wonderful students um we also had the opportunity to meet the teachers and learn about the school's philosophy these are some of the teachers that we actually worked with it was
015really incredible because we got a chance to watch them teach and we went into some different class rooms and saw them and watched what they did with the children the children were very attentive with them and then we got an opportunity to go in and teach in those other classrooms so um Jess and I went down to the primary which was um and Brook we were down in the primary area which was another um venue and it was like um three to five six and there's some sevens in there because they have the nursery school that's there which is Monas based and they have the young children children and they have a kindergarten it's like a pre kindergarten they have a kindergarten one and a kindergarten 2 once they graduate from kindergarten 2 then they
016go to the other building were the students as engaged or did they talk about the students being as engaged given that their school year was extended for your visit they were very excited because they had um prepared plays and they had prepared songs and things for us too so they were really excited to see us I mean if we told our students yeah were extending for visitors they like they were so they were so excited to be able to do this for us it was just amazing they really were and the overall demeanor of every single student we encountered the entire trip was they were extremely respectful extremely well- behaved even the government schools that we went to where the students didn't know we were coming we walked into the classrooms and they were just
017so on task ready to learn the entire time you'll see some pictures of that class sizes of 50 students kindergarteners who were like it was it was amazing it was really incredible to see something to live up to huh yeah yeah very much so okay so as it says in the days that followed we had the opportunity to teach lessons to the students at Merchant international school and work alongside their teachers so on Monday Joseph Holm he was the music teacher I went into his classroom and it was fascinating and fun to see him he was doing doing a lesson on uh The Brass family and I thought we do that here and U and I just was enjoyed seeing his approach and what he was doing with the students and um then at the
018end he had asked if I had something to add so I taught them a poem that I had written about the Brass family the next day the kids ran up to me and had remembered that poem about the Brass family instruments now the next day it was my turn to teach in his class so I started off doing um it's a hand clapping game and and it's a mixer with a song where you're going around with a different partner and you keep trading partners and then from there I went on and taught how we teach Rhythm and um like I use T TI and watermelon for my rhythm syllables and the the children were just so enchanted and after the first class had left and another class was coming in um Joseph Holmes said to
019them he says he's he said to the kids he says you really got to listen because this teacher is going to teach you like no other teacher I was really really touching so anyway but here are are some of the this was my rhythm lesson uh with the uh T Titi and watermelon Rhythm and um up there as well um as well as you could just see in in the pictures this the smiles and how enchanting and F what a fantastic experience was I need to go back wonderful so then we went to the montor school also known as a primary school the nursery school those terms were interchangeable but um yeah we were just blown away how much they Incorporated music and dance and movement into their day we started the day in like
020the courtyard playground area and we spent probably an hour just dancing with the students and that was like a normal routine that they do every day with their three to six year old students and Mary and I were saying we're going to bring that back to our Kinder learners but um we learned so many fun games and educational dances and things that they do and then the three of us were able to go and um teach lessons to their their Primary students so it was just yeah a wonderful experience enough add to that because not only was music and movement and drama uh an important part at the primary level but they took it all the way up to their what fives and sixes um their great level like a great level fifth and sixth
021grade because in their presentation to us they were doing um for each academic unit that they that they showed us um they did a a drama presentation they did a song they did a dance it was everything was just uh interwoven together and it was on all these levels I think that's because music is so important to their culture as a country so we were able to see how that just is a part of their normal school day as well much like um Deb drummed you in that's how that's how that's how we were accepted and we entered their school like that they had drummers and dancers to to have us coming in it was just it was amazing we were missing the dancers that's where you guys come in I didn't get the memo
022um one morning we were able to have an impromtu visit to Christ the King as we walked around um we noticed that just about every other room had a was on until he asked the kids um the green desks has 49 students in it 49 kids independent independent work practice and then when she's done teaching there she switches back to the other room the plops back and forth so she has 98 students yes at one time and one group is alone just yeah doing independ tuition and they paid tuition what age level um it was basically K it was 12 yeah we had there were some case there were there was a kindergarten class yeah and in the classroom that there was no teacher there was almost like I guess you would say like a
023prefect like a particular child that was in charge of that class and if something needed more or less of something that child would go over to the board and write something down so that they knew to continue on with whatever they were doing and they were like as focused as you could see until we walked by until got a little excited until we walked by and there it is and they're like they're here they're here and they all came to see us and touch and and see us so yeah um from there on the next slide we were able to visit Three government schools so we shipped five boxes over but we were able to bring a suitcase because our donations hadn't arrived yet so we were able to distribute a suitcase full of things
024shirt that was like a little they do ceremony what is a government school what is that what's the definition that's a can anybody attend they all take exams for every single school that they go to including the international the the government schools and the Catholic schools there are examinations for them to take to be able to get in the schools the government schools are free but the children or families do have to pay if they take a test for any they wear um so they're technically although they're free they need to have one in off wasie not able to go to the government school not enough room she needed to be in six they only had an opening in second so they were going to inste teacher to yeah we also saw just even on
025our drives you could see it was so evident how important education was to these people in the country as a whole we saw you'll see in some of the pictures little children carrying their chairs because there wasn't enough chairs at their school and they wanted to go that badly you could see them walking miles just to get to school every day um they were carrying their books and then in one of the schools we saw it's actually the one where these students are there I believe there's some pictures of the walls if not it's in Debbie's video but um really next to nothing as far as things on the walls as far as curriculum but every child goes every single day because the families view it as you know their way to obviously become educated
026but to get to a better life so and in that particular school when we went in there um one of the little you know boys was there and I said can I see your work and he says oh yes yes yes and he and he took me over and he said here's our book and he said do you want to see mine and he paged through and Page through and Page through every 14 days I get to write in that book Spyro bound book what about special needs kids are they allowed to go to school like I I guess I'm pretty ignorant and allowed mergin Services the special education students yeah you could speak to that a little bit more um there's a lot of cultural and religious differences regarding special education in Ghana um
027so they do have some special schools I know there was a school for only students with autism um we were trying to get there so hopefully next time we can go um and I'm really hoping that we can bring some more awareness and some advocacy next time we go and do they have like a I don't know what else to call it but a governing board similar to this is there something similar yeah government schools it's like governmental like yeah so it's not like a local elected okay I was talking to one of the the I I can't remember exactly what his role was but he was I believe a staff member at Merton but partnered with one of the local government schools and he was telling me just the systemic you know lack of
028support from the governing board and how really the government doesn't care about much of these government schools and that's why there's such a lack of funding and resources even basic necessities running water food electricity yeah and so and that also you know like goes hand inand with the different services that students would receive so I think at at the government level there really is no special education services no services for students who have differing needs either they just go and are a part of the class or if they can't handle the classroom setting like the rest they don't go to school are they at school all day is it an all day thing so do they have lunches like we do is iTunes at yeah so they walk home walk home yeah they walk but
029some of them are in Split sessions there are some um schools that are too big so they might have 150 kids in the morning and then those children go home and then in the afternoon the other 150 come in and they're then they have their time in the school so they're like in Split sessions in some cases and are teachers respected there I mean because like yes because they are probably just wow right on on the top because of all the great things like like here I mean there's wow okay so relative to the rest of the population in in Ghana like are most kids attending a school or is this because you know they view it as it it appears like it's almost like they they just love being there and it's a privilege
030or you know other you know than something like you know kids around here is like they have to do you know um I think we found or I heard mostly that up until around like 13 or 14 they attend school but after that they start to care for their family and to work out in like a job setting on a farm yeah so I wouldn't say there's like a high school for most of the government schol to about e8th grade in government School most of the kids do attend like in the community it's not like it's not like 50 only about half you know it's not like a only a small portion ATT 10 School majority but majority I believe yes so the second school that we had second government school that we had the
031privilege of visiting we also had the pleasure of witnessing the unveiling of a new an updated Library filled with various books for students kindergarten through grade 12 um but here on the right hand side you can see that is their only um source of books their library for primary so kindgarten through so still lacking and resources materials for sure um this was donated by the international school so there is that partnership there that just kind of showcases how charitable they are within their friend may I add though at this point they're not allowed to take the books out have to read the books there and there's a sign on the wall that says the rules are and the last is is there technology in any of these schools at the international school they had a
032computer lab but it seems um not one to one student device type of ratio Compu like floppy disc almost and the government schools not at all some don't even have electricity they had no electricity this is not typical is so the country is a poor country I'm just trying to get a grasp on it anym they developing up from a third world there is a lot of poverty but there's also a lot of in some yeah in the middle okay okay so not only did we go and visit the schools but we had some really fantastic cultural experiences for instance with the African bee making and jewelry there was a woman from Hungary fell in love with the ghanan man and they got married and the ghanan man had passed away and she still lives
033in Ghana because she loves it there and she knows the history she has researched the history of African beads and she had this post poer on the wall and it went into a like a a a life cycle from birth to um childhood to adolescence as you went around to to adulthood and marriage and and then into into the your um older age and and just with uh the history of beads so we were able to tour her um uh beading facility and Emporium that she had next we also went to a museum of African artifacts this gentleman had collected very very rare in one of a kind now didn't he say they're from everywhere in Africa but not GH G oh yes um so his his collection ranged from uh musical instruments to to
034Medical tools to artwork to everything um and so that was a a fascinating place to visit as well um in the lower leand corner uh we see the kids from the Merton school one thing that they did in their presentation they did a m dance which was fascinating to see how they danced in different I mean right now you just see this is just a little um what is it a gift but as the dance progressed they uh wo patterns of twos and threes this way and that way to weave around the the tall tall pole and of course we have the the African drumming um which I had a a lesson in African Rhythm and drumming and I immediately of course uh transcribed all of this so that I can put it into um
035Go rhythm stems from language so if you could put every rhythmic um uh notation uh and create a word or a phrase to go with it that's how um that's how you learn Rhythm so I'm going to do that with all the different African rhythms that I've heard expect nothing less um okay so here's the dancing um the first drum that I found was actually in um one of the sites that we we visited that uh Jill is going to talk about a little bit later but so I found I found they had a bunch of drums and some of them were um uh more of a rope drum this was a small GBE um but it's not like the one that I had here I think this was more of a souvenir type that
036was in their souvenir shop but I was excited in um as always when we went to uh when we found by accident the last government school um which is the one in the middle um the children were playing a game with uh uh there there was chanting and clapping and it was just fun and fascinating to watch these children in in the front here they were at this point left unattended because way back there was the teacher part of the class teaching while these children either had recess uh or were I mean I'm not rec they called it yeah Play Time play time yeah play with them yeah now these dancers are professional dancers and they were some of the dancers who greeted us when we first arrived on Monday to the Merin international school
037and they also had a professional um uh drumming Ensemble that was uh drumming as they as they danced really ni these are just some of the sites of Ghana that we saw as we traveled around the country one of the things that fascinated us the most was the amount of things that the women carried on their heads honestly it was insane we saw someone carrying a sewing machine just like solo peanuts yeah on their head peanuts on their head and they would typically do this on in the middle of the road selling Whatever item was on their head to anyone that was driving by walking by yeah in the beginning of the week I remember seeing it and we were just like oh my God by the end oh there's another yeah they they' even
038have glass cases with pastries or or inside on top of their head M or giant trees of sliced watermelon um like Debbie said we got a lot of other cultural experiences this is um just made the trip really well-rounded for us we were able to visit hakum National Park and we did a canopy walk was scary for some but ex made it we all survived though did you stay with a host family or where where were you so we stayed in an Airbnb in a neighborhood that was a almost walking distance to Merchant International so yeah so we really do feel like we it was not like a tourist experience at all we really felt like we were we went to the grocery stores local restaurants so IET that was in the first Evette that
039was in the first slide her aunt is the um principal at meron and her kids go to Heritage so she's how we got connected to the trip and she went with us on the trip and she has been to Ghana so many times before a bunch of her family lives there so that's really how we were we said we could have never done this just showed up at airport and said okay I'm going like it would have never worked she had Americans are not allowed to drive no you can't even rent a car getri so we had a driver driving us in a big van and yeah she had facilitated all these experiences for us because it's so hard to navigate around the country without a local really honestly bum think most of their were
040sadly probably from um garage dumps all across the world the cars were taped together bungee cord yeah no lights no cut in front of everybody and we did have a security detail and a driver they had some serious CL you weren't security he had security with us 247 pretty much there were two arm they dear but not Mr R he wasn't the he was there too oh yeah so then we also went to B Falls which was um a really amazing waterfall we were able to boat underneath and just visit and Hike um and so yeah on the last night we all went to the market and we bought handmade African clothing and we wore them to a celebratory dinner that meron put on for us just to celebrate our time there it was a
041really amazing dinner um and so this was kind of speaking to some of the friendships we made so our security that IET had for us as well as our driver and some of iet's family and friends became like family to us we spent every single day with them they rode in the car with us they went to all the schools everything we did so this is some of them we were playing games at night we gave them some bills gear to end the trip um we facetimed with Joseph today actually and he was telling us he's going to send us a picture of him in his shirt but yeah we had just Honestly made the best long lasting relationship ship with them as well as some of the teachers that we met to that we
042plan to continue to further the relationships with so and this is um I'm to talk for a moment about and I won't be able to do it justice with just a moment but um I don't know if you're familiar with Alina Castle it is where slave trade took um from the mid-1400s until the um and a lot of these slaves went up to Britain and eventually made their way over to the United States um this tour was probably the most impactful experience I had life um we were LED through and saw things that I happened um there were a lot of Tears on this tour not to get teary right now talking about it um it's something that I wish that every person everyone um one of the most incredible things we were talking about
043today was our tour guide looked at every single one of us and just said it is our hope that no has to endure there um it's something that we talked a little bit about that we don't see I honestly didn't know much about Alina Castle until before I went on this tripping um but it's very very I don't know where in the curriculum but um I would love to come in speak to any class about what we saw there tell me tell me the history why why were you so emotional was where bad things happen the children or something where so this is the first place that people were taken um just for an example um when they first got there they were put in one room for fre month dungeons really cellers we went
044in them they would close the doors so we got an experience felt lights for 30 seconds and first of all it is very warm um so they're in these dungeons probably a third of the size with holes about this big where they oxygen um in many cases they would go out after their three months and open their eyes and give in um some of the stories that we heard well because the C's right on the coast so this is where the ships the castle was right on the edge of the water so many of the ships would Harbor there and then eventually the slaves were put onto the slave ships guy they spoke English but sometimes follow figed out two asked said how do he does this times a day literally this almost makes wor
045but what really happened here is unbelievably incredible locked in in a room dark for three months Ys 100 feet away watching to die and and women you asked and I asked him or somebody asked him how do you do this he does this tour twice a day says at the end of this tour you're just full happens he says I get through it is his story so who who ran who ran that who ran the castle who was the perpetrator D the Portuguese Portuguese and the Dutch started it were they the government were they government who they sold it yes now it's run by the government it's like the tourist attra he was speaking over many times that was that was start it was it was definitely a very big pretty s so once the
046slave was ready to be sold entered this last room the door so the sea used to be a lot closer so they door put on a boat as we were in there hopefully the yeah the audio is on the video oh sorry yeah wrote Amazing Grace apparently at the end of the song where I once was lost but now I'm found I see um he explained to us that this person was I don't know if he owned slav but I don't think it um and once he saw what was happening right there so he had us we all Gra all that being said we obviously had clear goals when we our trip and now that we've had all the experience that we have we kind of have find two different visions and things that we
047could foresee ourselves doing um to kind of continue this collaboration and our partnership our hope is to return sometime within the next three years we're not sure exactly when but hoping to start um hoping to continue file different resources and donations books to to all of the schools because National School Express that they could benefit from more um books within their Library ongoing collaboration with our partner teachers especially within the meron international school we worked closely with at least one teacher where um we observed them teach they observed us so we established a bit of a relationship with at least one so having that ongoing collaboration is the boulevards and um the idea of involving sweed home students working with the students in well student Partnerships relationships um and spending time carving out specific goals
048with the teacher what do they want from us but ultimately what can we continue is there any thought that maybe they could come out so yeah so that that's a really um difficult thing when I talk to the teacher that I work with she would love to come here um the problem is is that they have to get a Visa to come here it can take them between a year and a year and a half to get a visa and their government is worried that if they get here they will seek Asylum with us and they will not go back do enough research at least I didn't I went had money exchange and back with 22,000 I didn't know what was going on he he and W were at the exchange thing he came back
049to me and I was watching all the bags and he handed me this envelope he goes I have no idea what I just did he goes take it between 2000 does that go a long way there um girl selling the stuff on the head sell you a bag of popcorn for they live on that they'll sell you lint rollers I'm not sure why they will sell you literally anything in the chi but that's what they make so our drivers were making 12 hours with us probably tce but to get them to answer that question to the US it would take them save enough money to get [Music] here however when we talk to Dr Dr baty the principal of meron she really was interested in having she has a Visa she's she's been able to
050come here and she was actually just in Brooklyn recently but she was interested in having her teachers come here and she does really want to further that partnership but again it's the regulations and things that would make it difficult we would love to do that there's nothing you mentioned you had to have security is that because being there um you know because people don't have much like I have been in Africa in certain areas and I you were um at risk of being robbed because you know need like could need a jacket to survive that's what it was I I never felt unsafe right our security was fabulous and got set it all they're family friends of hers actually the security that we had with us was a good family friend of iets and iet's
051father used to work for the government so they had a partnership already with that certain security so I don't know if we were to go with other people if we necessarily would have needed it or would have had it but it was just an extra measure of but they work Kar safety for Us's a lot of corrupt there's so much corruption what kind of economy do they have what what is their economy they that make money I know but what what do they you've seen some the pictures they're literally they are they agricultural Bas are they are they do they have oil do they have what they it depends on the location by by the coast a lot of it was fishing fishing yeah fishing communities um and then when it got when we got
052more Inland it there were a lot of farming communities that we passed through they were coffee coffee a lot of fruit a lot of local fresh fruit stand fruit stands everywhere that they sell a lot of the markets there was a lot of fruit and vegetables that they were selling so do the kids go on to University or what what happens next so some of them do some of them the international students I believe that it's part of thatd progam opens the doors and gives them OPP with partnering un access to those was meeting one girl yeah I got to um speak with one little girl she was about to graduate and she told me her biggest dream was to come to America to come to University and to be an off Foreign business W
053and she told me she's going to do everything she can in her power to um make sure that she you know impressed me and makes that goal um but she told me I said I said it would be great if we can hook you up with some type of program where you can come to America and get funding for colleges and I spoke with I think it was a vat and she told us that those programs unfortunately don't exist right now um so hearing that was a little disheartening so hopefully we can bring more awareness to that as well right because a lot of the government schools in those communities I think we mentioned that a lot of them don't go to high school they end up working for their family or there's just different
054you know things that are happening in their families that don't allow them to so many of them don't technically have a degree and so they're just left to work in the on the farms or in do things for their fam what what was the primary language there it sounds like you're able to reasonably easily communicate yeah they speak English but there's primary languages twe but it's okay they were settled by I okay and the one gentleman Joseph that was with us he was he was wonderful he's another friend of evets as well and he spoke seven seven languages so whenever there was something that we needed or we needed to do like he was all over it he was he was right there with us by our side getting getting everything done for us primarily
055a lot of different like African dialect yes yeah you mentioned you could like go to the grocery store like when you got to the grocery store what did you see like were there's a milk there or was there scarcity but we we only saw two stores the whole time there so that like the fam is if they jobor Sorry Pizza Hut Kentucky Fried Chicken Kentucky Fried Chicken in Ghana we were in a Acra we were in Acra which is a city but it doesn't look like a city here it's like dirt roads and a lot of lowincome businesses but again not really any stores um and then on the outskirts of of Acra was where we would find like more of the government schools in the rural communities and it just gets more rural as
056you go farther out but goats and chickens roed around everywhere and cows cows and yeah the soil was really really red um so as as we were driving in this Mish Masha of traffic and when the traffic was slow um children elderly adults came out from uh the sides of the roads or the medians of of of what would be a median with Goods on their heads knocking on your window uh uh selling trying to sell what's on their heads um and the the more you would drive into the outskirts as well imagine um shed after shed after shed after shed but there's no front of the shed it's just a a a metal structure with a roof and walls and there's and each one is and it's a size of a shed very small
057and there's each one's selling goods and I I I I I've only wondered at night time where do all these people go their little bus um uh while we were there there was a song that uh what they was what's the title which one the the the the Jerusalem yeah jerusalema yeah jerusalema okay so I I took that song um and I changed I I rewrote I did a piggyback song instead of an original song so I took that that Melody and rewrote the song to um try to and just yeah to to highlight our the whole the whole trip and um I also um gathered up a whole bunch of pictures and made a uh a video presentation with this song now I do have to say um you know the um the break
058dancer ray gun I am the singer I'm the ray gun singer so my forte is drumming and percussion I'm not a singer but I I did my best um uh but if you listen to the words and then you could the the pictures will show you what life is like as we were driving to different places is I would kept snapping pictures out the window so you could see clearly how how do these people how do they live I will I will send that yeah please pleas well you'll have to share the slides with us will you don't know if the sound will work it probably won't I apologize I don't think so okay so then if I want to send this the video to everybody is there like just send it to me and
059I'll get it to everybody yeah my 10 minute video was 4 yeah thank you guys so much for thank you this video the song itself was only for for our heritage yeah but thank you for being such great representatives for sweet home I mean you are great ambassadors this just wow this just thank you all so much for your support as well and the communication and it's been wonderful and let us know next steps as you progress yeah yeah we're very excited and like we said before this is probably out of any place I've ever traveled I would say collectively one of the most welcoming of all kindest smiling yeah I never felt so welcome going anywhere ever by the and traveling together we had blast a non teer I Bally to support the girls
060I can vow that they represented us home school over the top thanes done the box thank you so much thank you thank you for um being here tonight and uh boy just makes you feel grateful for the things we have and um um what an awesome presentation thank you for your time tonight doing that I learned a ton and um we got to keep those lessons with us so thank you before you go before you go I just want to say when when Dr janri um brought this to us initially and said that you guys were planning a trip my initial thought was of course it's our Heritage teacher of course they're going wow um that being said in a million years I could not have anticipated what you have experienced what you have shared
061and what I hope you bring back to the community and share with our students and hopefully across the district you know hopefully you'll have the opportunity to to share some of the lessons that you've taken from these incredible people in Ghana and and be able to share that across District so um thank you and I don't know Mrs Z you're very talented so Voice or not thank you yeah you and now tax stuff yeah now you're more than welcome to stay for tax rates if you want to learn sorry Mr little what a let down that's our inside to thank thank you all right bye bye thanks so thank you for um that boy impressive wow um totally moved so um all right so uh we'll just say getting to the business of the distri
062of the fun stuff of the evening yeah uh so this is our uh tough active follow obviously um but this is our annual uh time frame when we uh when you as a board uh we make a recommendation to you as a board uh about our tax rates and our Reserve usage um and it's something that uh we work with both towns the town of amoris and the town of tananda on um and we're ready to make a recommendation to you in terms of uh tax rates so it's important I thought it was to kind of take a look at the difference between tax levy and tax rate uh the tax levy is the total amount of property taxes uh that are collected by the district it's developed during our budgetary process remember it's one
063of the revenues that we look at uh each and every year as we start to build the budget really in January the tax levy uh is um applied um when it when it is applied it's it's measured against the property tax cap law uh you know that's the tax cap that New York State sets for the amount of money that we are allowed to raise uh via the tax levy so the tax levy state aid other local Revenue uh fund balance reserves uh they all Finance The District budget excuse me and allow us to uh operate the district uh for us in Sweet Home the tax levy for the 2425 school year that was approved as part of the budgetary process back in May by the voters is 54 $268,700 it is in an increase
064of $946,000 24 school year it's a percentage increase of 1.8% which Falls well below the 3.9% allowable New York state tax cap for sweet home uh for the current year I'll also remind you that last year this budgetary year that just finished the 2324 budget buet AR year we did go out as a tax neutral budget uh and our tax lby remain the same uh from 22 to 23 2223 school year uh to the 2324 school year you hit the next slide Dr kest so for the tax rate uh the tax rate is the TA is the rate per thousand of assessed value that is needed to attain the total tax levy and there are a number of things that affect our overall tax rates we talked about the tax levy which is set by
065us in the school district uh and voted on by um the residents of the school district at the May budget vote the total assessed value of real property uh which is set by each of the assessors the town of Amer uh as well as the town of tananda and then the equalization rate which is basically how uh the taxes and the tax levy is distributed among each of our two townships uh which those Equalization rates are set by the state so as you know uh the town of Amherst in 2425 uh moved up to 100% uh so they are at 100% Equalization rate which was a fairly significant jump uh from the 62% that they were set at excuse me in the 2324 School Year tatana Wanda went down from uh 24% and 23 24
066uh to 23% in uh this current school year 2425 next slide please so Equalization rates uh the equalization rates you know just for sake of discussion uh the equalization rate is New York State's measure of a municipality's level of assessment so in order to figure out your Equalization rate you take the total assess value of the entire municipality divide it by what is the total market value of the municipality and you get your Equalization rate and the the equalization rate is um shared uh via percentage so an equalization rate at 100% which is what amest is this year means that the town is assessing at 100% of the perceived market value so which also means that most likely a reassessment was conducted in recent years and for the town of amest it happened to be
067this year so for for an equalization rate of 100% theoretically your properties assessment as a homeowner in the district should be roughly its market value or the price that you sell for a home an equalization rate of less than 100% uh which is the town of tananda uh means that uh the property in the town is assessed at far less at 23% than the market value so the lower the equalization rate the longer it's probably been since the town has done a reassessment uh I honestly I can't remember the last time that the tananana did a reassessment uh uh if if you remember we went through the process when we were trying to U estimate tax bills for you as part of the budgetary process uh I did reach out to the town of tananda
068about their Equalization rate uh given that the Amherst side was moving to 100% And Tanana Wanda uh said that they were staying relatively close to the same been in my house 36 years hasn't happened yet oh there you go yeah um next slide so back in 202 uh back in May of 202 4 uh we did our best to provide you a tax rate projection uh in that little call out box uh on the right hand side you'll see that um you'll see that the numbers that we use to to uh work with um um our estimate in red there were those that were provided to us by the town accessories office as their best estimate back in May so what we did here when we did the May projection we uh increased the amorist
069equalization rate from 62 to 100% we kept the tananda equalization rate because it hadn't been set yet at 24 and we used at 24% and we used uh our tax levy of 54,2 68,70 um and we came up with tax rates for the town of ammer uh at $96 cents per thousand for a homestead and for the town of tananda $39.20 next slide please so uh in August now uh we receive as part of the process we receive the tax rules from Erie County and then we receive certification letters on assessments from the towns of both Amherst and tananda so uh in August uh you'll see uh for the Homestead side in the little red call out box again in August uh the town finally of amers finally settled on a total taxable assessment value
070for the for homes in the town uh the total value of 2 Bill 32 m657 632 uh which is uh about $18 million less uh than what they projected for us back in May uh and then on the non-homestead side uh the total assessed taxable value uh for non-homestead uh settled at 1 Bill 833 m372 591 uh which is roughly 157 million um uh less than what was estimated for us back in May so what we've done is we've increased our Equalization rate in tananda to from 62 to 100% we've uh decreased our Equalization rate on the Tanana side from 24 to 23 uh perc and we figured out a tax rate uh to help us raise the 54 mil 26872 uh and what we ended up with was a tax rate per thousand on
071the town of Amherst side at $967 per thousand uh and on the tan of Wanda a tax rate of $42 and22 per thousand so when we were back in May and in years previous we'll have to I said this to you back in May we'll have to look at it a little differently we look at uh we've used kind of an average home uh on both sides uh of $150,000 so the house that you're looking at there in terms of an example is a house that's been assessed at $150,000 so that's what your bill would be based off of so for a h a home that was assessed at this year $150,000 on the ammer side your tax bill would be $1,451 which would be an increase um from your tax bill last year of
072$12 on the tananda side uh a home similar home assessed at roughly 150 thou well not assessed at but tell taxable value of $150,000 uh your tax bill would be $1,457 which would be an increase of $13 from the year previous next slide please so this just kind of gives you a snapshot of the equalization rates kind of over the years uh for the first time in a long time uh the the Top Line the ammer side uh is at 100% the red uh up from 62% the last time we we were at 100% uh was the 2018 2019 school year uh we went two years in a row 2017 and 2018 uh in 2018 2019 where we were at 100% uh and we've significantly kind of downturned until this year when the reassessment came
073back and we're at 100% uh the tananda side has not been it's pretty steady um slight decline uh again down from 24% in 23 24 uh to 23% in 2425 the want such drastic I mean you look at ton wand and they're kind of flown around nice and we've kind of got this well we don't set the equalization rates uh the state sets the equalization rates you know ideally in a perfect world both Equalization rates would be at 100% so um that's the whole idea and I think Amherst right wrong are indifferent um they're getting back to that model I believe um the Tanana side can't speak to it no one has we all look at you Peter too Danielle too yeah you know they don't have the political inclination to do it I would
074just point out though for the say of the public if you go back to that slide where the numbers were the $967 is roughly 23% of the $42 22 because they're 23 % you know so you you know what I mean when you actually look through the maap the rate is basically the same that's correct the equalization rate is set to do that so that the burden of the tax levy is shared equally among the two townships quite frankly so if you uh next slide uh so this is the Amis taxable assessed value uh I just put it uh kind of in black and white or red and green uh there for you uh in 2425 uh from the homestead St standpoint uh they saw an 866 mil 45755 increase in total taxable assess value
075so 2425 the homestead total taxable assess value went up $866 million on the Amer side and the non-homestead from in 2425 at 1 bon8 33 372 591 that was an increase of 675 m15542 uh from the year previous next slide please and is that after all the challenges to the assessments so the challenges that's a great question Mr rabol the challenges are still ongoing um this was uh truth be told we received our certification letter from the town of tananda in July July right around just after the 4th of July uh we received our certification letter from the town of Amherst uh about August 9th or 10th uh so they waited as long as they could uh we went back the the certif the tax rolls from the from Erie County and the certification letter
076from the town of amers didn't match uh so we had to go back and forth based upon some of the challenges so they settled on it uh we got I've got a stack of uh tax um assessment challenges both um on the retail side the business side and the um uh residential side we've got about probably anywhere from 40 to 50 of them that are still outstanding uh we do have a tax attorney for the retail side uh that works with the town assessor's office in the town uh to kind of look at uh and you know State the case of the district uh what we try and do with that is you know if there's an assessment challenge our attorney works such that the district does not have to offer refund uh on on
077taxes because the tax the Lev's already been set once you guys if you guys approve this tonight the bills will be out um but then that's when the challenges really begin okay so just point of clarification the levy has been voted on they're going to collect that amount of money from the residential or and the non-residential properties right that's correct as a homeowner if you can argue that your house isn't worth $400,000 only worth $300,000 that means they'll take less of that money from you uh that's correct that's correct and again as as you kind of go through that you know that's done not with the school district just that's done with the assessor's office uh and then if those things come in and the challenges are um are supported at the um at the
078assessor's office and if there are refunds that need to be done we do have uh funds that are set aside to be able to help kind of offset that stuff uh with the whole idea that knowing that we went to the 100% on the on the amher side that these challenges would be coming we actually pay that challenge if they went if there's if they've paid their tax bill yes at their old assessment value and after the fact after they get through the process with the town assessor's office if they've paid the tax bill and then there's a difference in their tax bill in the current year we would pay the difference we would refund them so it doesn't get redistributed no correct it's after the fact correct I got correct okay thank you um
079Mike if you just go back to that last slide real quick sorry so on the tananda side just um the total taxable cess value on the tananda side is pretty much a dead straight line um uh the homestead uh saw an increase of total taxable assess value of $272,800 million next slide please so in the end this kind of gives you a snapshot of how the tax levy is divided and broken down um you look at in the left-hand column that 23 24 school year is the school year that we just finished where we did have that total tax levy of 53 million 321 588 that's how the tax levy is distributed amongst Homestead and non-homestead sides on both the town of Wanda and ammer side uh that number the total tax levy from 2324
080to 2425 uh has increased again as I mentioned a little over $960,000 to 54 m268 072 uh and that gives you the breakdown as to how it is shared amongst uh both residential homes uh and non-homestead uh type outfits in both the Tanana and Hammer side uh then this just gives you kind of a snapshot shot of the district tax rate um uh tax rates for both Amherst and tananda you see on on the ammer on the town Wana side the green line on the top uh we went from like we lost the the presentation there just I'll keep talking um but we we went from uh $411 per thousand to $42 and 22 cents per thousand uh this year uh and then on the Amherst side we went down from $15.47 per thousand down
081to $967 you'll see that there was kind of a Down tick too on the in the amher side in the 1718 and 1819 school years which coincides with going to 100% Equalization back then as well so this just kind of gives you a linear look at where our tax rates have been over the course of the last 10 11 years next slide please Mike so again this is just the summary um in terms of uh tax rates uh the tax rate proposed tax rate before you tonight for the town of hammer for the homestead side is $966 per thousand uh the non-homestead is $1495 the tananda homestead $422 and tananda non-homestead $429 this is a good time to pause for any questions questions in regards to tax rates keep it going awesome okay all right
082that was good thanks uh so now we're going to take a look at uh how our year ended the 2324 year ended uh in terms of our fund balance uh and what we're going to do with Reserve funds uh going forward so uh the unassigned fund balance uh which is kind of for lack of a better term our rainy day fund uh it's based upon the overall budget as to what we're allowed to keep into the unassigned fund balance so in 2324 which is the school year we just finished our overall approved budget was $96 million 96 milon 886 588 so the maximum allowed is 4% in the unassigned fund balance and at this time last year uh we approved you all approved as a board that we would fund that on assigned fund balance
083to its maximum level uh which meant that we carried forth an unassigned fund balance to this school year um of 38 $3.8 million which is again 4% which is the maximum legal allowable unassigned fund balance limit so for this school year um the unassigned fund balance the the um approved budget is 100 million for $10,400 so 4% of this year's budget is $416,500 by the way we are making a recommendation to carry forth an unassigned fund balance for the 2425 school year of $ million so that percentage is excuse me 2.95% uh which is under the 4.4% maximum legal limit and the difference from the 4% to the 2.95% is 1, 54,0 $310 so why the recommendation so the the the last year's budget the 2324 budget uh was a very uh challenging budget and
084we'll get to it for a number of very varying reasons the first reason uh for the budget uh there were a number of items that quite frankly just were not budgeted for uh the first would be as you know we settled the teacher contract uh in the middle of the 2324 school year uh and it included a retirement incentive for our teachers um uh those that are are were eligible to be first eligible to retire uh as well as any that have reached a retirement age uh so we uh as part of that agreement the total uh retirement incentive payout was about $ 1.8 million uh for our teachers we also saw a $700,000 increase in our McKinny vento contracted Transportation when we started the school year last year we had 22 kids that were
085classified as McKinny vento mckin vento kids remember our kids that are classified as homeless when we ended the school year we had 49 uh so we went up at about 26 27 kids uh we are obviously required to transport those kids um and those kids really Qui quite honestly lived all over Western New York uh and when we uh we first offer the opportunity for parents to do we can put parents on contracts to allow them to to bring their students back and forth to school uh if there is no um viable transportation in the home uh our next step is contracted Transportation which saw us about a $700,000 increase in contracted Transportation directly related to mini mckin vento kids um just to to bear bones it for you mckin vento run uh for one
086student for one bus is anywhere between three and $500 a day a day so that's the number that uh translates to that just short about $700,000 and then as you know uh we bonded uh our Capital project our $ 39.9 million Capital Improvement project we bonded it April or May uh sometime in that time frame uh we bonded it interest rates are not as good as they were when we started the project uh so we bonded it at a bit of a higher interest rate which uh um resulted in about $300,000 in interest cost that we didn't know we coming so those three bullet points alone were a total of $2.8 million in expenses that were not budgeted for in a $96 million budget so the good news is is that the budget the 2324
087budget was able to cover all but the $1 million of it which is why we're making the recommendation uh to go to 2.95% uh in the unassigned fund balance next slide please so because of that and the budget kind of where we are this is a snapshot of our uh seven different Reserve accounts that we have so you'll see um they're all labeled at the top you'll see in the third row down that we did use reserves some of our reserves this year to help offset some of the cost of the budget if you remember uh we decided to use a number of our our rather than go to the tax cap we opted to use our Reserve fund activity to lower uh the burden on our our public so we used $75,000 in workers
088comp reserves we used a little over a million dollars in our uh Employee Retirement System and teacher retirement system reserve uh and then we did use uh as part of our spend down plan a little over a million dollars in our debt service Reserve so uh that takes our total Reserve balance uh at the start of the 2324 school year was 10, 256,000 we earned about $46,000 in interest we spent uh $2.2 million and it takes our ending balance of reserves down to 8,385 59 because of the expenses that were incurred in the budget in 23 24 um we there we will not be making any recommendation to make any additions to these reserves uh but we are making the recommendation to carry forward uh the $2.9 62 million uh in unassigned fund balance so
089I think that was my last slide any questions just a quick question yep so you're comfortable that you won't have similar expenses for this coming year and that's that's a that's a that's a sorry go ahead I'll let you finish I'm sorry no I'm sorry I cut you off go ahead finish so that's why you're okay with lower levels in the unassigned and in the other Reserve accounts that's correct I believe that Mr Ral that we'll have um from from that standpoint we've budgeted for uh and it's just important note to remember when we did the retirement incentive for the teachers this year it was for anybody that was at at of age of retirement going forward in the teacher contract it is only only for teachers that are first eligible okay uh so we've
090budgeted for um about 12 to 13 retirements uh this year in our budget uh based upon uh what we know of as to who might be first eligible and who might be retiring so from that standpoint uh that uh I think will be covered uh we have hired since the start of last year we've hired we're probably net plus eight or nine bus drivers uh from where we were this time last year um so I'm happy to report that we are taking back eight different uh contracted Transportation runs and bringing those inhouse uh so that will significantly decrease probably by about 20% our overall contracted Transportation costs so to your point I think that um in that standpoint um I feel do feel confident that this was kind of a a one-off type situation uh
091where we will be at the end of next year um in good we're in good Financial standing now I think we'll be in a position where we can add to our reserves next year I think the one other thing too to note with 24 retirements um we had 24 or 25 uh return but obviously the salaries will be much different um which will also help um put us in a better financial position by the end of the year that's correct so um just so I I want to summarize my understanding here is that that Reserve balance went down roughly a million because we needed to account for those extra expenses the the unassigned fund balance that's correct so that unassigned fund balance is essentially our rainy day fund and we dipped into it to cover
092those expenses and we carry that forward every year at a at a percentage that you guys decide to do and if if instead like we went to 1.8 of the tax levy on 54 million if we went to the cap at 3.9 roughly 2% more that would have that would have raised about another million dollars of Revenue in taxes correct and that and in that scenario we wouldn't have had to dip into this that's correct okay because I just think from of the it's important the public to understand that as a board we aren't just going to the cap we are trying to think through and in this case we have you know we're just not growing these reserves I mean I know we're limited to what we can do but you know and and
093and we're being thoughtful and trying to balance the financial needs of the district with um you know the the burden to the public it uh should we be having a drop off on the number of mckenny vento students at least beginning of the year this year they're supposed to go if I understand it right once they finish this school year they have they're supposed to go move into the district that they're physically living in yeah that's a good question correct after unless they're in what's called a terminal year uh so if they're in uh fifth eth or 12th grade uh they can stay uh in our district um and that's part of the mckin vento legislation um Miss Nook uh and Noak in our Central registration office we actually met about it yesterday um so
094she's going to get kind of a a list because we have to work through some things with Transportation but I would expect that our list would be probably in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 kids start the year at least okay so how was that determined for those mckenny vento students how is it that if they're living all over Western New York like you had mentioned that sweet home is their home District so they were when they were first classified as homeless they were they either found temporary residence in our district or uh in instances they were placed by the county perhaps in a hotel on AAR Falls Boulevard or one of those things so once they their first landing spot after being classified as homeless that becomes the home District they they have a
095choice as well um they can register in the district where they're living or they can stay sweet home correct correct and 99% stay experience yeah yeah yeah I mean we've we've done um a lot of work to try and get we've curbed Believe It or Not we've curbed a lot of the contracted Transportation um by doing parent contracts um because we can get Aid back on that as well um and and again those costs that we do spend with the mckin vento kids in terms of contract transportation we do see Transportation Aid back um the following year uh but we've done our our our very best to try and curb some of those costs and if parents can can um transport that's what we look to do first as the year starts any surprises with
096special ed as far as Transportation any new kids on board um not that I'm aware of I I don't I Dr Wilson I don't know if you have anything to chime in on but not out of the norm okay are you okay thank you Mr Feldon you're very welcome I just before I leave I I I would like to just make mention of it of um my staff and particularly Nicole Kus who's our district Treasurer with all this and you guys saw it towards the end of the year with all the movement of the money to try and make this work um couldn't have done it without them uh and we just got finished with our external audit uh with lum McCormack uh and generally they spend four or five days with us they're here
097two days uh we were ready to go so I just I would want to commend them uh for their work uh it was a tough budgetary year but I'm confident uh that we'll bounce back and being even better shape when I come back to talk to you next year God willing of course all right thanks Don thanks for all the work you put into this too sure um as reported out uh we wanted to update the board on where we are with our bus and Senate program particularly around the charging stations um we did receive 165 as you know we did receive $165,000 in Grants um to install three charging stations uh in our uh Transportation Center uh as we prepare for three electric buses to come um to us uh this year um and
098Don I don't know if you want to Sure pick it up from there uh yeah that's fine um so from a our electric bus standpoint uh as you may recall we partnered with Wendell Architects uh to help us uh first with our electrification plan they've been here a couple of times presenting to the board um and then they are putting together a package for us uh to send to State education department to get approval of our three temporary charging stations we are in the final throws of that approval process with s um so they've presented to us an option uh to be able to purchase things a little differently uh for those that have been around we did this very type thing with our Capital Improvement project the 39 million Capital Improvement project where we
099purchased on uh a Cooperative purchasing agreement uh the one that they are recommending is called tips it's the interlocal purchasing system uh they have vendors uh Wendell for those that don't know Wendell specializes in electrification of uh buses and vehicles across the country uh mostly um in Metro areas but they've now started to Branch into the school districts so they have um a lack of a better term a stable of contractors that they've worked with uh that have gone through this uh tips process um so it'll allow us to kind of expedite the bidding process um you know for the project that we have uh coming up uh to get these three electric buses in place so in this instance uh we're asking on the agenda tonight there's two things uh there's a proposal uh
100for you to allow us to spend the $165,000 that we received from nerta for the school bus incentive program for the Chargers and then there's a um another propos another resolution rather to to allow us to purchase on this Cooperative bid uh called tips so essentially what will happen is um um Wendell presented to us to Mike and to Steve Rosler and I uh kind of a proposal that based upon of the work that needs to be done Chargers infrastructure work electrical planel updates that the pro project cost would not exceed $280,000 so with the $165,000 that we have from nerta the net cost of the district is $115,000 uh we are busy at work we're in the hopper for uh funding also from National Grid uh and there's another funding opportunity through nerta that
101that cost might even go down a little further um but that's what we're looking to do uh if you approve this tonight uh we'll let s know that we've gone through this process uh they'll approve our project project uh and then generally it's about 3 to four months in terms of start to finish uh which would time out well uh with Matthews buses because we expect to receive U the three electric buses either at the end of the calendar year or the early part of January so the timing is working out pretty well uh and we'll kind of see what happens from there so uh we're excited about it um I think it's a neat opportunity for us uh to kind of look at a different way to kind of protect not only fund it
102uh but also to um make sure that we're getting the best bang for our buck and that 115,000 is aable as well correct correct so it'll be L that yes DK I I don't I I will vote for the items on agenda for the buses tonight because I think that's appropriate my my concern and I heard a little bit of this in Albany when I was there for the uh leadership conference back in July is what happens down the road when either they postpone the Mandate or some of this grant money or these Cooperative uh groups supporting those buses what happens do we on the hook for that I guess that's might are we on the hook for this if things change in Albany Andor nerta and National Grid support of that's the million dollar
103question pun intended um you know it uh there is funding that's available now uh we are we've been awarded additional funding uh through um I can't remember the buyback program the um uh EPA the EPA sorry uh we had additional funding through the EPA to the tune of about $1.6 million um to spend over the next two to three budgetary Cycles uh but that look at I'm nervous about that too like the Mandate is what the mandate is by 2027 we've got to start to buy um vehicles that are not diesel powered our entire fleet as the Mandate is right now has got to be turned over by 2035 uh what happens to the funding is anybody's guess if that mandate stays the same that we the district would be on the hook to continue
104to kind of Forge ahead and to transition our Fleet which means that the majority of those costs would be passed on to a taxpayer in some way shape or other okay and in the we are working sorry we are working very hard to get as you've seen any um funding opportunity that we can to negate some of those costs thank you that's what I was going to say we're going to continue to push forward to grab every penny we can while they're available um and and by the by the time next year or two years rolls around we'll we'll have uh what did we say 10% of the fleet flipped um using many of these gr dollars and not really a penny more than what it would have cost to buy a diesel bus anyway
105so so the three electric buses that we have with all the funding that we have in place the net cost to the district and ultimately to the taxpayers is less than what we would have paid for a diesel bus okay and with that mandate we didn't have it we really don't have a choice it's there we can't put our heads in the ground a mandate is a mandate a mandate and wanted to jump on this so we could make use of the money because I see those pots drying up eventually as more schools get on board agreed thanks Don yep thanks Don um and Dr Wilson uh would like to present a just a couple slides on uh the Seal of Civic Readiness which we were approved for last week exciting news from curriculum and
106instruction so we had a small group of folks from the middle school and the high school who worked all year last year collaboratively to learn about the Seal of Civic Readiness and how it could play out here in Sweet Home and we submitted our our plan to the state at the end of July and August 14th we were approved and just a little bit about the seale of Civic Readiness um I took this little snippet from what New York St New York state says it's the intent and I tried to Bow of things that jump out at me but you might find other other parts of it there's so many facets to um this opportunity for students um and through the work of the Strategic plan I feel like our students will definitely Embrace this
107work and be excited about this work I know I'm excited about it um so just the things that jump out at you or as I went through it encouraging the the study of civics um really focusing in on experiential learning Civic Readiness building Civic knowledge my personal favorite empowering students is Agents of positive change so when students have the choice on what they like to connect with in the community and they are pushed to think about how they do that work and how they get back through Service Learning so much of this kind of work is already happening here in Sweet Home so it felt like a natural connection and as you dig into the second part of the slide there we dig into a component that we worked with several individuals across the state
108as we developed our plan that we submitted to the state um and the feedback from folks who have worked with several school districts is this is one of the mo the best well-written goals they've seen and the reason why I feel like it is done so well is because it was written collaboratively over the course of a year through the Strategic plan so there were several Minds that came together across our district to write goal to or the entire strategic plan and the seale of Civic Readiness aligns completely and very well with that goal but you'll see Connections in other places Dei for example you know that whole connecting to something that you personally feel like you have an impact on so as you look at our goal here in Sweet Home um you we're
109digging into the coursework that provides real world experiences engaging students across a series of pathways so we really want them to connect in things that they really want to do and again make that impact on our community so where people feel like we really had a home run with our vision for this this pathway is the rationale students must be given the opportunity to explore their personal talents these talents must be presented in ways that do not inhibit unseen aptitudes we don't want to lock their thinking when they pick things that they are connected to um they the it's it's that's where the goal is right that's where the big win is and so really unlocking those gifts in our students and so we really feel like this work um is going to amp be
110Amplified we are approaching it to prong um we are building it up from the Middle School um and we are starting it with our Juniors and seniors so we actually have seniors who could earn the Seal of certific Readiness this year um and the reason why I want to take that approach is because so much of what our students are doing in our community you can think of many opportunities around Ser Service Learning um that you've seen our students engaging in we want to capitalize on the students who are already in que so much of this work is tied to their their natural coursework but then them going this the second step to do a project or present or make a connection to something out in the community so we're it's about making those connections
111and taking down those barriers so students start to see that what they're learning in school does can really apply to how they impact the community so students can learn through they can earn it's up to six points and you'll learn a whole lot more as we dig into getting our students engaged um six points and the points come in a combination of how they earn um regions credits or Advanced um studies credits if they earn Proficiency in their social studies courses the courses they have to take already they already have some of these points so we have students who are already queued up to um to earn the Seal of Civic Readiness there was excitement in the room um we were meeting last week um in one of our team meetings and we we learned
112in that meeting that we were approved so um the team was very excited about that work um both both principles were there and ready to jump right in on the seale of Civic Readiness any questions about the SE I have a just a couple questions I don't know what it means when it says to redress historical and contemporary oppression and strengthen our diverse democracy especially the part about redress historical and contemporary oppression what what exactly does that mean so um to really take the connection of what they're learning in social studies and connect to what's going on today in our community so for example some of the eth graders at the middle school engaged in some of this work over the summer um and they started to do work on infographics so they have to
113do the research behind the work and I was buiting on a day that they were presenting their infographics and um students had picked topics like um food deserts and how to help families with with that type of a situation they had picked um things like um uh I'm trying to think of the ones that I saw to answer your question food deserts um uh clothes issues that families face what exactly I don't understand what they what that redress historical what does that mean in concrete terms like so the food deserts how does that redress contemporary oppression what so as they think about the things that have happened in history and make those links back to different things that have happened in our history that they can make a connection to something connecting back to the
114Great Depression for example and how does that apply today are people still suffering in those those kinds of ways that's example that could answer that question okay I guess I was looking at redress as change and it's not really change right no they definitely want to come up with a way to change um to impact their history is going forward how we learn from our history so like from our presentation earlier today um we had um individuals talking about how that history is still important to bring forward so that we re we change things in the future if we don't stay close to that history how do we make that impact the history right and I don't think we're changing the history we need to learn the history to change the waying so it doesn't
115happen again exactly okay now I understand okay we learn from it yeah and if I was to walk into a social studies class will we see changes in because it seems like and you mentioned it in here that there's really emphasis on a social studies of course would I see changes if I walked into a CL it is heavily tied to social studies so what we are working on developing is capitalizing on the courses that we already have our regular US History um courses and so on and building a course eventually that we will be able to offer at the high school but in the meantime looking at the things that we have the flexibility to change right now that are that have not been developed like for example some of our summer work and
116different opportunities that way um students will they already do the projects they already do um the research papers and so it's just helping them to think about how they connected so the social studies teachers are all on Board and they'll be brought more on board because you said there was summer work that was involved yes there were some of work there were social stud teachers who were involved in that work um and they're on the team uh a lot of the work continues with our social studies departments the entire department um at the high school and the middle school is this extracurricular I think I'm I'm not understanding it it's it's an so it can be it's a pathway which means that it can count in as a four plus one um as towards graduation
117so students have to earn the Five Regents um exams um to graduate from high school two of those are in the social studies area the four plus one allows a student to swap out and um focus in on different subjects or different Pathways this will count as a pathway there are Pathways and like we have have in World Language and and so on um it can also be seen as an enhancement here in Sweet Home we are more focused on the enhancement piece of it so we want our students to take all of the regions exams and go beyond to the advanced regions but we also want them to expand so it's it's it's to support um their resumés their college transcripts and so on does that answer your question yes absolutely thank you can
118you tell tell me what uh scr stands for seal of Civic Readiness say it again seal of Civic Readiness okay and SP goal too what's SP stand for uh the Strategic plan part of your strategic plan yes this also looks like it ties into our Dei type things very much so and and I guess some of the issues I have there and trust me I don't have a lot of issues I have some issues with it is that creating change agents and students to go out and do what make an impact on their community so make the connections to the coursework that they have day in and day out to how they can impact our our community so students pick projects that they are drawn to that are right here in sweet home so we
119have like for example we have students who help out with Chef in the food pantry that's one example we had our athletes last year work very closely with one of our elementary schools to help them build um a positive environment through sportsmanship that's another example of how you can help your community so helping kids see that they don't necessarily have to have money to help a community they can give back in other ways they could volunteer okay yeah okay but so as long as the lens is not there is a problem in society today and that we need to uh assume that we have this problem and go out and try to change it you're trying to you're out looking in the community with this Civic Readiness and finding spots where they can have a
120positive change on it yes I guess it goes back to my thoughts I'm not a well I'll just say it institutional racism I don't really think that applies today I know a lot of the folks in the Dei groups believe that I just don't think that's necessarily the way things are today we're not 1966 or something so I get a little concerned that we're trying to solve a problem that really may not be there as much as it's being projected as I don't know if that helps or whatever here so I like the idea of sending the students out and and experiencing things in the community and if they see some things where they can positively change things and make it better for all right not just for one group or another I think that's
121wonderful stuff thank you you don't limit their thinking you they come up with things that you could never imagine that are wonderful things that help the community thank you I you know I would just add that there's an online there's like a 100 page booklet and it gives a lot of detail of this program and you know I was impressed by that um and there's a lot of in my view pieces of it that are not just I would say social studies oriented like there's a financial element of how to be a responsible citizen from a financial perspective um and to me I I think it's it's important that we address you know the needs of all of our students but um and so on and and this really I think offers kind of an
122additional like for students who want an additional challenge right or something more to you know enhance their um Regular um cours workor so that's something that I like about it because it's it's not just um uh you know like when I was in high school I went through a magnet school program and I know you could pick different kind of U areas that you you had an interest in and you would like to focus and I know this isn't exactly the same but you know you took extra courses this has Capstone projects it seems to me that it repairs would have a lot of value um to students undering college and and that as well because there's a lot of projects and whatnot so yeah I think if you're looking to you know um you
123can probably send that out because there's a lot of detail in there and I was very impressed with it yeah that what you'll find is that a lot of projects end up being tied to environmental impacts so they get TI they're tied heavily to science um so start off you start off in social studies um but you start to have kids see the connection that they have to impacting you know the environmental impacts that we have going on in our community today how do they help out with that um so that was one of the examples I was trying to think of earlier that I couldn't quite think of um just that whole how do they give back to a community now that we are more conscious of how we impact our environment what can
124you do as a student what are some of the things you are drawn to um that can help our community and I find that science is more heavily science is one of those things that become a big part of the C of Civic Readiness because of how our students are focused someone will be monitoring like these projects right because I don't know if you remember years ago when we had the kids do a Capstone project by the end of the year we got to the point where kids were the accepted thing was well we got no time left kids can stay after school and sharpened pencil I mean it was kind of ridiculous I don't know if you remember that so that was stopped we want real life authentic that are going to help these
125kids grow so somebody's going to be watching that it's not just busy work I yes so part of our plan is we had to submit this is just one portion it's the goal portion um but then we had to submit a step by step how will we accomplish this over time we submitted a very detailed plan we can share that with you all um and uh our plan highlights a step by step year after year how we're going from 80 to almost 100 students being able to accomplish it possibly this year to a whole cohort every year so that's 250 to 280 students every student having access because we're going to build it up from the middle school so when we started the Middle School the success has been seen when students are able to
126pick up points at the middle school um and start that work right at right into ninth grade and they continue to pick up their points and they haven't they have more than enough points to earn the seal C Readiness and then they get a a um a medal that they get to walk across the stage across their over their cap and gown that they get to wear um similar to the Seal of bi literacy I like that every kid is going to have the opportunity and not just those higher level kids but every single kid in our community that is the goal of our team because we really feel like it does lend itself to work that every student can can accomplish um and so that was our particular Focus every district is different um
127and they approach it different ways we would like to make sure that we every student has the opportunity um as we um get to full implementation of our plan teachers have a lot on their plate right now is this going to add a whole lot of work to what they're doing so it it's aligned to the work they already have to do as far as coursework so that's why we feel like so many students will be able to be successful right out right out of the gate um and then we also have um worked with a a an organization that has a tracking system for us so almost like students can earn badges if you remember the teacher badges like through the teacher Center our students will be able to see their progress and how
128they're tipping away at earning the seal um throughout the pro throughout the whole time there's a heavy parent component also there's communication out to parents at the beginning of the year to bring them into the conversation so that if there's a way that that parents could be engaged also to pull their parents into the act the projects that the students are interested in in um and completing sometimes part of their projects is they want to come and present to a board sometimes it's they want to present to politicians sometimes it is that they want to write letters to um different individuals about what they've learned and how they can make a change so you'll see evidence of that um there's several layers so it's not something that you can just say we're going to do
129this and then like you said at the end there's no time it has to be something that's in progress um anti to their coursework so to piggy back off of what Marian's asking about putting this on our teachers um because it goes over the course of their education especially you know essentially their High School career Middle School and High School careers this will we've got our counselor Buy in and and they're going to be tracking where our students are am my am I following that correct we have a system to back that up already so um that was part of the thinking process for how we would even design our program and so this badge system is going to support that work so we have administrators and teachers as well as counselors will be brought
130into the conversation but it does not drive the whole conversation they will be connected because they do they are a part of the transcript building and course selection process but um this this tracking system that we have help us with that um immensely um I guess my thought process is um you know when you go to your counselor and you say I want to take x y and z are they maintain are they checking to make sure that you know you're on track for this we're going to keep you going on this track you know are they looking at that because that is I think going to be important so that's that's part of our own professional development that we have to continue to grow so out of the gate that's the work that we
131are facing with our first year here and as we get up to full implementation the point is to have everyone there so from the Middle School through the high school so it's a work in progress as is everything yes seems like this would fit in nice with um leader and me because the kids are going to take ownership of this so yes this this is the reason why I love this so much is because it really does connect to so many things for our students and I think that we there's there's a lot of times that kids don't see the how things are connected they everything is kind of siloed this I think will help them take down that Silo you ever hear kids say why am I doing this am I ever going to
132use it and this will help them begin to make those connections to all the things that we've done through the elementary schools coming up through the secondary schools how does the social studies work connect to the science right it because there are connections there do they ever see that and then how are we connecting the leadership skills that you built and leader and me the Dei piece which is you feel personally connected I can see myself in this work is something that's important to me and my family and my community like there's so many connections so that's why I was telling Dr janest um when we got approved that like this I'm like this might be like the best one of the year so um it's um it it's it's exciting work and it's good
133work it's a work in progress we're going to start with we didn't want the kid the students who are in que to earn this SE this year who are they have four of the six points just because of the courses they've taken um graduate without an opportunity to try to get those other two points so we're going to make sure we are engaging those students while we're building from the bottom up from the Middle School awesome all right thank you thank you and you wantan to and tying right to Dei and flowing into that work there was a lot of amazing work done um to to establish the mission and vision of our district Dei that sense of belonging piece I have to say that my very when I was first hired to come here
134to Sweet Home I started coming to board meetings and the very first board meeting that I came to the the committee was presenting this and I just sat on the edge of my seat in awe and just was really impressed by um the amount of collaboration that had happened and the number of voices that stepped into the work it's foundational work that we want to make sure we continue and take it on to the next level that whole dedicated to lifelong learning it fits in you know we have like for example the Seal of Readiness built in now to to help us with this so we want to we wanted to really think about how we revisit the structure um of the subcommittees and make sure that we continue to break down the barriers and
135build connections just like you did with the Seal of Civic readiness so our cabinet this summer um worked on our big rocks our Dei lens I don't know if you notice our pyramid back there that's our Dei um that's the leader and me connection back to Dei and the the Dei lens and the leader of me District um focus on the um the uh strategic plan and that being our road map to all of this work that connection of leader and me um that that connection to the Dei lens and some of the things that they talked about was how they continue to break down the um the silos that are out there we have a lot of committees at school right and how do they bring their school committees together to be focused it's
136not to to produce another committee but to really shift everybody into this idea of how we develop these school teams to always have a Dei lens so do we always slow down and think about have we approach this through a Dei lens so we want to reconvene the Dei Committee in October that's when all of our committees kick back in and get feedback to finalize the direction of the subcommittees um the feedback from the team was to make sure we made that connection um there's a communication ready to go out September depending on some of the feedback here and then main our main focus this team is taking a a a rision and a redesign on our district code of conduct through a Dei lens so really taking a step back and looking at our
137district code of conduct and is it written through a Dei lens and what's out there as some good examples that we can use to think about that and do do do we need to um really engage in how we develop that further and we want to grow out this idea of school level teams through a district level Focus what does that mean that means the de District level team would provide questions and goals that schools would take their committees that they already have in place but they would use those questions and goals from the Dei committee that we would have to develop right the committee collaboratively and drive their work as a school so that's the thinking behind it that came out of the summer any questions on that and we're excited to start having
138our work kind of um I don't want to trickle down as I could probably come up with a better term but uh the buildings having a more impact without adding more committees um which is important to us as well because we know we're committee Rich um District but uh that's the way you know that's the good way things get done around here with a lot of stakeholder inputs so yeah our cabinet felt very strongly that it it didn't need to be another team that we really needed to make sure that each team had that could use what they had in place to make this to really focus in on what is it that we need at each school to bring us to the next level so it would be unique to their school but still
139District Focus because the team would be driving here are the questions that we want you to consider um through your school committees here are the goals we want you to fold into your work work that you are completing at your school so that could be a BLT that could be um a a lighthouse team um it could be a number of different teams that already exist in our school so um I know we've we've got a long meeting here but I just wondering um are we still thinking about doing a Dei audit that was something that was just a possibility I think we have to discuss that in October with the committee and see where they so that's still a possibility right y and I would just say in general for Dei you know my
140I would like to see after you know we've had a few years of this is like we the the the student like so much of what we're hearing is always I feel like a little bit up up here like what are we doing at the you know and you know it's like staff education and and these committees and these structures but like you know I think we're getting to point and maybe this is what's trying to you know get down to that it's like it needs to seep in it's really about you don't want to see the recipe on the screen you want to see the meat and potatoes yeah what you're trying to get the kids are feeling it and living it and and it's like on a regular day to day or where
141they're saying hey it was this is how things used to be and now this is how it's different or Le this is maybe a positive thing we're seeing it's always like a lot of adult feedback but it' be nice to get you know maybe just something to think about well I I would say that's one of the goals that we talked about this summer but just things like that have changed um since we've started like the course handbook for example opening access to for to courses for more students um you know they might not know that we did that but the impact that it's having on them um in order to uh take the take the courses um and have a more Equitable look at that um is having a huge impact on them so
142and that was and the code of conduct is Something That We're addressing as well that was a shift for the high school there were students on that committee and that was a shift for the high school um so I I think that whole Focus around how does this mission and vision what does it look like in the classroom like that's where you want to get to like we want to get to how does this play out in the classroom because we have this and we are doing things what does it mean for the student sitting in the classroom and that's the main focus of trying to shift it to the to a building to the building level to really have them Embrace what is it they need as a school Community how do they as
143a building for example celebrate um all the different celebrations that happens throughout the year around ethnicity or differences right so each school will come up with how they would like to accomplish that and they are the ones who actually do it right so they will be the ones to organize it and it makes sense that they would be engaged in that level to really have questions or goals that direct them in that way way thank you Dr all right thank you um wanted to update the board quickly on where we at are at with our Capital Construction planning uh for our next major Capital project um Don and I met along with young and Wright and um uh campus with the New York State Department of Education facilities planning on July 22nd um through that
144meeting we needed Direction on where to go because as you know we've talked about uh the role Dexter Terrace plays are we going to open it as a program School are we going to open it as a uh a full-fledged Elementary School um are we going to try and make what we have now work um what all with the point of trying to maximize our state aid um and making sure that we were partnering with the State education department to see what they would green light for us um in moving forward we were at a point where we really needed their guidance in order to uh move forward with our planning phase So after talking to them uh and we weren't sure the role Dexter Terrace played in expansion if if we had uh if
145we proposed an expansion at Maple Mir and Glendale in particular uh where we know we have space issues uh would that be allowed by state Ed um even though Dexter Terrace is um is a campus that we have um and that we could utilize that space and preliminarily um they said yes that we could um apply for um and we have the notes um for Maple Mir and Glendale uh to seek expansion even though Dexter Terrace um is a facility one of the reasons being um is that to get Dexter Terrace on board as you know um it would be highly expensive uh in in the price tag um to renovate Dexter Terrace to make it code compliant um is is something that really scared us I would say moving forward so um in talking
146with State ad they did say that expansion is a possibility that it would most likely went in our preliminary re review be approved for Aid um there um and that it would um to us it would really reduce the cost of the overall project to get more things that we need through Renovations at all of our um elementary schools um so after State ad uh did that and gave us um kind of that that would they would approve that um Don and I talked and we talked with campus and young and Wright again um to say that we are um at a point where um board input and board um you know greenlighting that plan to really get our preliminary plan drafted um is important in moving forward so we've been um I don't want
147to say stalled to this meeting because we are planning another meeting in uh late September with young and wri and campus um once we you know I'm not you know looking for an answer tonight but we really think that this is the way to go um in in looking at expansion instead of renovation at Dexter Terrace uh we're also meeting with the supervisor's office down of Amherst on uh Friday or next Friday uh to get an update on the Boulevard Mall uh but we believe we're at a point now where it looks like um this this project and the Boulevard Mall project um it our next Capital project after this one has probably got to address that at the way the Boulevard Mall um uh expansion is going so um so we're we're want to
148move forward um with this uh we asked um a couple members of this board of education who sit on the building use committee to kind of start sitting with us um at these meetings with campus and young and Wright um to help plan forward uh to gain input um so I know I asked Mr Johnson um Mrs baglia and Andor Mr balante because of their role on building use um and athletic Council too uh to um um kind of join us if that's okay uh with the meetings moving forward to uh really get get the plan on paper and get the preliminary plan over to State Ed um but you know in moving forward this seems like the most cost-effective way to address the needs of space and renovation at our elementary schools So when
149you say you talk to somebody at State ad like they're reliable they're not going to back oh this this is the head of facilities with State ad who would approve uh projects and would approve our Aid of a turn from what we heard at the beginning it is it is honestly we we met with them via Zoom it was a zoom call meeting uh on the morning of July 22nd it was about 8:30 because it was coincided with our administrative Retreat Mike and I met it was about a I don't know 40-minute meeting or so uh and Sarah Madison who is the building um office of facility planning Chief she goes wow this is something different because of our enrollment uh she goes we don't often hear every day about enrollment going up so this
150is a unique situation so they took in all of our information and in 40 minutes after our meeting they came back and said we would support you making additions I was gonna say put it in in writing have Emil that's why I met in my not in writing in writing uh that they would support us um renovating uh our buildings there's a bunch of things that we need to get them including um which is why we're meeting with the supervisor kind of projections about what the impact of the Boulevard Mall might mean um but to Dr Jan's point the cost to renovate and get Dexter ready um was just a daunting daunting so um there's no objections we're we're going to start planning that next meeting and and then obviously have board members sit at
151the table with that and and then bring the reports back to the whole the entire board uh to get this moving forward even quicker to stay on track for a late 2025 vote so the decision making will still be here they're just going to sit on the board to oh yeah to get the information I didn't want if there were objections to looking at expansion at those two buildings then we were going to rep pivot and and um and start over again um but if there were no I know this is kind of new information but if there are no objections for us moving forward then we were going to get that next meeting and start putting together the scope the numbers um what the expansion would look like the impact on special ed because
152we do believe we would get more Aid and and there is a need for special ed classrooms at at both of those buildings or exceptional classrooms so um lot of work to do lot of decisions to be made um this is just the next step um but having um I think a couple board members at the table with their experience and building use would would be helpful if no one objects to that then we'll move forward and I think it just makes sense I mean we're look at a 60-year old building y it's it's had maintenance done but it hasn't had any major changes I can't imagine I know you guys have probably heard it I don't want to hear it I'm sure the numbers got to be scary what it would take to put
153that fully into play but to not be able to do the other stuff yes yes we were seeing one number came back 34 million for Dexter terrorists the other one was 28 so after we asked him to scale it Donald so um so that's any objections um I know I reported out but uh we also are monitoring um kind of an exciting project that bosis has taken on um there was a definite need for uh special education um programming uh throughout Western New York and Bose's oh sorry sorry and bosies was uh hearing a lot of feedback from the uh superintendent uh that there were students on waiting list for placements for um really uh High need special services um and so bosis came back with the idea through through a task force with superintendent
154sitting on it um to develop a centralized state-of-the-art facility uh founded on Research based design where students with special needs can Thrive uh in a community like atmosphere um this would be on um dick Road uh it would consolidate three buildings into one one of those buildings is the Northtown acmy which is housed at Dexter Terrace um and they are looking at a range of anywhere from 60 to 67 million to complete this project it was an old uh HSBC facility um this would provide it opportunity for integration across all grade levels it would basically double the capacity of what um um bosis can do now in terms of exceptional students and exceptional needs uh and um they're really looking not again for a vote uh yet uh but there will be um some opportunities
155for board members to kind of get presentations by bosis Dr capana also would uh come this would be you know there would be a cost to the district obviously we're still kind of working out numbers uh for this um facility but um there's a lot of information that yet yet has yet to be uh determined um but we're working with bis to uh to get actual renderings and scope and and what the actual programming would be like but it was exciting um there was a lot of excitement in the room when they presented this to us and this really could be a GameChanger for many of our students um and you know um and and and their development so um we're we're kind of excited to hear more about it and I will update and
156probably ask Dr caana to come to a board meeting soon um to present on this and uh as soon as more numbers and finances come out I'll I'll share them with the board as well that' be like the last project they did it spread out over what was it three years I think this would be a 20 years this would be a 20 year spread yep um now it each district at $67 million that would include the rent over the 20 years um our arada and that's all being calculated now uh but we wouldn't have to you know we're paying rent on on the Northtown we're paying rent on um Edge and I forgot the third facility so uh while there's a it will be an additional cost or an increase um for us we
157do get Aid on it and um there is some um cost that would be coming off as well so and those costs would also give us an exception to the tax cap yes which is thank you for mentioning that um I I almost hesitate to um put these numbers in front of you because um this week has been uh very frantic in the registration office and and central registry here at sweet home um but we are seeing we are experiencing some increases as of now um as I think I gave you these numbers on Friday so these might be updated as part of Thursday uh they will change I'll have an updated enrollment summary for you at the September meeting once school starts uh but we're seeing some um a lot of people coming in
158uh this week um that is coupled with uh withdrawals as well or students moving out of the district but we are seeing some increases at our elementary level already um but again the next two week this week and next week are the the busiest times for central registry um and I'll have these updated for you as we move on and I know Mrs bagle asked about class sizes we are monitoring them very closely uh here and um we're trying to stay within our goal we're we're definitely pushing the edge in some uh areas uh but um are not you know asking for for new faculty at this time uh but we're monitoring them in the next two weeks is going to tell us a lot about where we are um with our students per section
159um and moving forward in each section uh we're fair you know happy with these class sizes um we're monitoring a couple areas one at Heritage one at Willow Ridge for sure um to see where they go but um again we we're we believe we're in a good spot um and and would like to keep it that way can you maybe elaborate a little bit on um the differences and and why um particularly kindergarten at Maple that has 40 students has 4 sections Y and you know Willer has yep 69 and has three sections kindergarten has a it's a very difficult um predictor because um we don't know who's coming in from prek or not so we left four sections because we have seen um well we know the numbers at Maple Mir and what they've
160been historically uh so we did not think think in the spring that we needed to eliminate any positions uh at Maple mirre because we thought that that would be normal I've talked to Mr Ryan Dr Wilson's looked at it that Maple Mir section of kindergarten is an absolute anomaly um and and we know that we already have more students registered May more students registered in upk this year than we than we did all of last year um and so we expect it to be back to four sections next year but that's one where we're monitoring where we might need to make a shift um I don't want to I I don't want to touch it yet only because it's been frantic at at central registry over the next over the next two weeks a question
161about that 59 over at Maple mirre so we're over the 500 part we didn't have room for kids I mean yeah it was squished now we're up over F when my kids were in school I don't remember it hit 500 now we're up to 550 where are we putting these kids well last year at 486 we were right talking about how we couldn't house them and now we're at 55 where are we putting I mean the class sizes are increasing that's that's just what we're doing but I mean we're not but if you look at the do we have like in the cafeteria are we gonna be able to accommodate yes yes we've we've done a we've you know we've reported out but over the past three years we've um gotten our numbers back to
162pre-co levels um it's allowed us to um open up cafeterias we've made Renovations in those buildings to find more space for special programming uh like the locker rooms for example which is really helped um what's our match set for and our Max was 500 but I guess no I think it's like a Max Capacity for the building I think it's at 600 really yeah for like occupancy yeah I think we're but it's it's tight see if I can find them yeah I'm not sure exactly no yeah I think I think you're right yeah um and you can see if you go back to that other one you can see the trend at mapel mirre no the 80 the 85 that was last year kindergarten was at 80 and so right this year is a interesting
163year yeah I just want to make sure you know we're we just had you know we talked about how many kids we had last year and now we've added so much more um I know they're coming in our neighborhood houses are sold and like this and I see the families coming in it's not going to end because I just saw a family come in so we're we're very fortunate there's a lot of Aid support in the buildings um between teacher aids and program AIDS there's a good number of Subs on our lists as well uh so we're very fortunate to have Aid help in the buildings especially you know we did add the math interventionist at Maple Mir this year which I think was a big uh win for for that building um due to
164the number of students that are there so um yeah we're we're we're growing so in a month could you give us a more stable yep's happening AB so that we've got those numbers and yeah okay thank you uh and then August graduation is Thursday night or Thursday afternoon 4 p.m. in the high school library I think we have four four there were two students who needed courses that were successful and two who we were waiting on their exams today was the last day so so how many kids um have we did not graduate um we'll have that number in September based on when the region exams come okay got it when you give us those numbers could you give us generally reasons why I mean I know in the past we've heard you know maybe
165they're in jail maybe they're I mean there's just a slew of reasons but I'd like to know so maybe we can delve in and somehow yep get the kids absolutely and then finally school starts on September 3rd Tuesday September 3rd we did put a um out just a a reminder to parents um on Friday um but uh you know September 3rd is the date uh it is not traditional we usually start on a Wednesday um but we know that the calendar is getting more and more condensed every year and we have to meet State ad regulations for contact time um and minutes so um very happy to work out agreements with uh the teachers and with our service employees so we can open on Tuesday September 3rd and uh um while it's not real real
166tight this year next year is looking to be um one year that we're going to have to find some days so I receiv several messages from parents is this right yes I'm sorry to say it is right we starting tracking system and the whole thing will be up and ready uh we had a great great meeting with Scott Kennedy um the other day uh after our leader and me training um he they are ready um I actually was in the transportation center Saturday um Dave and Dale over there gave me a good tutorial about where where they are this year compared to last year um so we're in much better shape they're feeling confident with the software uh because it was all brand new to them last year um I think we're in a much
167better position and with eight new drivers um that's help as well and our prek numbers have stayed stable we're going to have the same amount this year as we had last year um have to say no to anyone nope no we have one opening I think in the district y okay that's it that's not enough I is there any question nobody no okay as mentioned we have August graduation this week opening day for staff is on the 29th and for students is on the um that brings us to open session our first open session uh as per board policy 1510 this Open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda is anyone interested in speaking we got another one at the end that doesn't have to we have another one shortly all right please state
168your name and address and uh business relating to the district I got it just let me get organized okay I mean it's definitely related to uh what I saw tonight and I'm like wow because uh I mean let's first ask did I miss that you approved the May 14th meeting minutes or not I think you said something about in the beginning but I couldn't hear were those meeting minutes ever approved um the May 14th meeting minut yeah that was the last meeting I attended and there was a lot of email correspondence back and forth between myself and the board those were approved in June okay but you never made any of the changes that I requested right I I looked at the draft minutes and online and I didn't see that you made any changes
169so I'm assuming that you didn't I can absolutely look into it while you're all right well regardless um I'd like to go back and talk about what we didn't even discuss can you st at the last meeting and that the superintendent didn't answer you your name please I'm sorry oh yeah my name is Peter hoi I live in a ton Town Wanda in Milwood um last meeting I was here and I asked a bunch of questions and it was it was agreed between the board and myself that the superintendent was going to answer me in writing and he never did and all of you board members saw the email I forward it to you all so you all know this is true and I mean it shows on a superintendent's part a lack of transparency
170or refusal to respond adequately to the residents of this school district and it led to uh uh I guess meeting minutes that were released with errors and omissions why is this guy still the superintendent get rid of him you're the board you can get rid of him right you can you can fire him and hire somebody else can't you in theory okay but that does that mean you're not going to I I just I just don't get it I mean at the last election that you guys had for board members I walked up through the front of the building and there were five candidates there and I asked them all if they were woke and I told him if you're woke I ain't voting for you and one guy said he was uh the other
171three of them couldn't tell me what woke was and I threw some suggestions out to what I thought it was but I'm not woke so I really don't know and I never really got an answer out of those three and one guy he's got guts he said he wasn't woke I'm just I just a lot of the things that I asked about in my email that the superintendent wouldn't answer man did I get my eyes open about what what's going on today I mean you guys are teaching CRT you got you got you got boys and girls bathrooms you got this is is that really what you want your name on as a school district how woke this place is all right you're G not g to answer me I know I I looked up
172um there's a manual online from like the Teachers Association that says when residents come up here if you don't want to answer them it's okay but I learned from the last meeting that you only answer me when you think I'm don't know what I'm talking about and last time when that happened I rebutted what you said so basically everything I say that you don't respond to I'm right and you're probably wrong and that's why you're not answering me no response all right um well can I same question uh to all the board members raise your hand if you're woke oh I'm not woke nobody's raising their hand this superintendent you got to be raising your hand right now I read read your responses and I read your your policy manuals n can answer all right
173well you know what three minutes is up sir what's that your three minutes is up all right thank you anybody else like to speak tonight thank you for your comment sir uh can I have a motion in a second for consent agenda items a through J so move second second can you uh can you read the uh topics just so that us new guys uh can follow along a little better a is special education class placements and preschool class placements there were 36 clients that mostly evaluations that I went through nothing out of the ordinary first time in a while I got through them all 36 I was like so surprised wow it is summer it is summer I'm waiting for the big ones be month Financial reports C is the unassigned fund balance D
174is the tax rates e is the grant for the um bus incentive program f is dis disposal of obsolete property I had a question on that it said a bluebird bus is that like one of our yellow buses or what's a bluebird bus it's just the manufacturer of the bus so it's one of our yellow buses okay thanks GS is the overnight field trip to Watkins Glenn for our swim tournament uh H is the committee acquain tees I is the school lunch and breakfast pricing and Jay is the purchasing Cooperative can I ask on that purchasing Cooperative is that something new is that part of the presentation tonight yeah relatively it's it's part of the presentation tonight but we did something similar in the last Capital Improvement project uh it just it provides us a
175little bit more control uh over who we can kind of look at in terms of of um vendors and contractors and things like that uh but all state approved it's all on uh State contract New York State supported so uh we are following purchasing procedures and policies I would assume you were it's so uh this via bosis or is that one and the same nope it's not via bosis it's it's a it's a standalone purchasing Cooper operative that New York State and the Office of the State Controller recognizes we can use either or if Bosie has some product or service correct yes we can do either or but this would be uh direct to um the contractor so it's creates competition I kind of like it thank you yes that's all of them does anybody
176have any questions or comments okay um in favor post great informational items Miss Jason um I nothing major I just had a couple questions under items of information when they talked about the administ of regulations my apologies I didn't know was start again it said lunch service will begin Tuesday September 3rd and I guess I'm asking what about breakfast we're still doing breakfast correct yes okay okay and I really like to see under our Sweet Home music department that February 2nd we'll be having our district Music Festival excited about that thank you great Mr Johnson but a handful of things um I'll send you some stuff later on I just haven't had time to pay something together but I um attended a little while back at nisba foundational Aid Foundation Aid seminar where they brought
177in Robert Magna who's heading it up for the uh Institute that's doing the work um was a public hearing held here in Buffalo was one of five around the state related to that Foundation Aid study where they took testimony it was a majority of the day long event I stayed for the first half where they had select speakers that were allowed to come in and then after that in the evening it was anybody that had signed up to come in and speak um just in a general thing I the select speakers because they were supposed to be looking for ideas about the foundation a it sounded more like people saying we need more money than what they could do with the foundation I was a little disappointed in the way the speakers went on it
178because it really didn't push to what they need to do um I Ted the Western New York law conference that was great as always um my last week uh two days of the leader of me with Carrie mcy back in I was real real happy with how that went um not just following up on the leader of me and learning some new stuff out of it but also getting to know some of my colleagues a little bit better the people we work with here in the building that I don't necessarily see on a regular the basis and finally um for the alumni committee a couple weeks back I did a tour of the high school for the class of 2014's reunion and they were pretty pretty impressed with some of the changes um we had
179started off it was going to be about an hour turned into two and a half hours they enjoyed that kind of themselves so that's it thank you so much there out long one um actually me sorry yeah made to go no I I just wanted to um add that uh you know I have the as most you know four kids in the in the in the district and few weeks ago my son but also my other my three daughters were U able to watch um and and enjoy the facilities as well as they opened up the um uh the football field to cross um quinic uh for uh you know grade school kids and they had the high school kids that are currently playing lacrosse um you know participate in um sessions and you know
180coaching and and whatnot as well as the coaches so it was a lot of fun boys and girls again wide range of Ages and I just think it's nice that you know again they that we able to kind of open those facilities up expose the kids to you know some other sports that they may not be able to otherwise participate in you know maybe not many opportunities um and uh and then again families were you know brought maybe the other their other children like we did and they could sit on the bleachers or run around the track or other things so it was nice um so I appreciate that those type of opportunities and I know I sent some pictures around and you saw that a lot of the kids were having a lot of
181fun that's it for me great Mr renal well I tended a uh leadership conference in Albany back in July I mentioned one part of it earlier about the buses they also presented on artificial intelligence which I thought was interesting from that I uh went and downloaded on Audible the book by solom KH uh Brave new words which is a very good read if you get some time or listen to it like I did on a drive back and forth to all the so um also they they talked about this diploma changes which to me scares me quite a bit I uh took the initiative to send everybody a link to uh uh a person that wrote on why is uh not necessarily the best thing for schools so if you get some time just take
182a look at it again I'm trying to be objective about what they're trying to do with that again it's all these well in things that sometimes in practice creates other issues which again is is problem I'm having with that um I did also attend the leader in me and you know I I uh it's all about Effective People seven habits and I'm sitting there I could only spend a couple hours each day in it and I think maybe I should just rearrange things in my life change my rocks around right is that for you yeah anyways there's always something valuable lot of those meetings and it's good to interact with staff and other folks in the district thank you that's all I have thank you Danielle um so I've really just spent the summer trying
183to learn as much as humanly possible there's a lot there's a lot of information so I've been reading um I have been assaulting all of you that will hold still for five minutes with my questions and thank you so much for being patient about that and willing to take my calls and my emails and my text messages and everything else um so other than that it's just been a very calm summer I didn't get to make it to leader in me um I am absolutely underwater at my day job so I had to to get that sored away um but I'm hoping that I can uh you know catch up and attend other trainings in the future great Peter um so I stopped by the job fair um on Saturday Saturday the 10th uh I
184was only there for a little while so I did see people coming in and out um glad that we got eight new bus drivers I don't know but who came from that but um I was glad to it was a good day to stop by um this past Sunday there was a baseball Futures game for sixth and seventh graders um under the lights on the turf um just got in in enough time before the rain started um as they were uh you know shaking hands and everything um it was a good day for the sixth and seventh graders um the the varsity baseball team coached so it was fun for the for the boys to coach that game and I did want to give a little shout out to um Grace liac who is an
185incoming freshman this year um through Spotlight kids I don't know much about the organization but she was able to actually she's in Williamsport PA and she sang the national anthem today at the Little leag World Series saw that so I wanted to give a little shout out to Grace um and congratulations to her so great thank you so much if you don't mind I just um I I did forget to mention this at the job fair we had 74 attendees uh we um they heard about it through the mailing 51% heard of great mailing by the way yeah post it was great good job the lawn sign the word of mouth and online um were the main ways they heard it but 51% of respondents said they got the mailer which great fantastic um as
186for me it's been a very busy summer um traveling and and such with my children so I did not I was not able to participate in a lot of things this summer um work has been whatever anyway that's all for me um that brings us to the second Open Session would anyone like to address the board you have three minutes please state your name address and relationship to Sweet Home go for it my name is Peter hoik I live in to L on Milwood uh just to change the subject and then I'll get back to where I left off I just wanted to to say if you're trying to attract more residents to your meetings am I the only one here I'm not sure I'm looking around I guess I am don't have three-hour meetings
187and if you're going to do that at least warn people to eat dinner before they come it's already almost 9:30 all right in my email discussions with uh well it wasn't much of a discussion with the superintendent because he didn't answer me we discussed illegal immigrants even though and I know they're here because I was at the last meeting and people said they were here and he said that everyone here is here legally but I just wanted to tell you what I've been doing for the last 5 days is um my mom Liv in ch the in our family home and they've been there since 1963 never had a rat now she's got rats living under her back patio deck because there's she she's being surrounded by illegal immigrants who are never going to assimilate
188into this country and hear imigrant Blame for rat population I've reported to people around my mom as part of a public health problem because they leave their garbage out they leave they have giant piles of brush on their on their properties um they're feeding Birds on the ground and I guess because no one wants to hurt their feelings no one will do anything about it if I did that on my property what do you think would happen to me anyway my point is here taking a long turn around here no one would answer earlier when I asked to raise your hand if you're woke I don't get that I don't know why you don't want to admit that publicly I mean there's a camera over there maybe that's why but just like rats have infested
189where my mom lives there's a lot of woke nobody will admit it but there's a lot of woke on his board and I don't think it's a good thing I think you're intentionally messing with the minds of the Youth of this school district in a negative way and I tried to get out of gestri some answers to my questions about all this woke stuff and he won't answer me so tonight was a real real eye opener I can't believe the stuff that you guys are teaching kids I mean this this thing that we talked about what was the name of it seal of Civic Readiness it sounds to me like you're training protesters and that's exactly what they said happened at Columbia University when all those American college kids were running around saying I hate
190America any comments about that that's what you're doing you're training protesters that hate America don't you have any shame that would be your three minutes sir thank you sure thank you for your comments on to Personnel can I have a motion in a second for consent agenda on items one and two I do have a question on Personnel just a very general question sorry geted the motion first so move second go ahead what is the difference between an enl teacher and a World Language teacher World Language is um um Spanish German right enl are students who are learning English as a single second langage thank any other questions all right all in favor opposed hearing n thank you I have a motion to enter an executive session of the board to consider appeals by the
191parents of two students pursuant to board policy 7313 appealing to the disciplinary penalty rendered by the superintendent schools on June 24th 20124 and discuss legal matters and the employment employment history of a particular individual so moved second all in favor I I we will be returning we will we're not returning we're not returning return