001oops replace that ceing TI oops good mhm all right we call a meeting to order can everybody stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and if you could remain standing for a moment of silence to honor the memory of the lives stolen as a result of the tap shooting two years ago today I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice all thank you okay roll call Hunter here uh Maran here Josh I'm here Brian here Scott I'm here Peter here and I am here may have a motion to approve roll so Mo second all in favor I um oh we're doing the public hearing next for safety plan and code of conduct so I will
002turn it over to Miss B says I don't have a code stop it's time huh yeah and virgils I love technology might have to do it from my screen okay I'll share it with you share the presentation I'm okay give me just a second feel like there should be some music playing anticipation for do you feel the the pressure when yeah like millions of people are watching I'm still trying to get this thing open there we go take 10 minutes oh come on who did that appropriate I'm glad some worst come up on the commercial though down I dark I'm sorry getting warmer some might just not us we go on and come back to it or do we have to do it oh the whole thing is tied to this true okay it's up
003there we got it y hold on I'm getting trying to get that oh it's not letting me share the whole thing it's not working when you hit slideshow no I know but it I I it uh try and turn it on and off again [Laughter] here to hope uh this is kind of how we're gonna have to roll here all right we're gonna roll this way sorry I don't know what's going on okay yeah thanks Mr bis yes well good evening everyone my name is Joanne bis I'm the assistant superintendent and chief safety officer for sweet home schools Welcome to our annual Public Safety hearing this is our annual opportunity to for our public to learn about our district safety plan and any changes that we might be looking at for the next school year
004and also related to our code of conduct it's an opportunity on an annual basis for our public to provide input and feedback on our districtwide safety plan and code of conduct um so before we begin into the details I just wanted if you um go to the next slide please I just wanted to um thank our district Safety Committee um a district Safety Committee is made up of over 30 individuals throughout the district from all stakeholder groups who support the good work of our um safety District safety um in particular would note uh Miss Jason and Mr Johnson's role on the district Safety Committee for many years um we appreciate your service and under the leadership of Dr janest and our ever Vigilant Focus here as a board at in in total on our the
005focus on student and staff safety I would note this year we added um our new school resource officer officer G to our Safety Committee um and we also um added our student voice so our own Hunter Troff joined our committee as well as um Katherine alow and Erica Chan so we appreciate it having their voices on our Safety Committee this year as well uh next slide we just uh some quick highlights from the work of our district Safety Committee uh we did hold a a parent Forum in October as many will recall we're very proud of that forum and the opportunity to bring our parents together um and celebrate our partnership and uh collaboration with amher PD and town of tananda PD we uh were uh fully implemented our m ification system this year it's
006a point of Pride it's a system that's been in the work for a number of years and it's been fully implemented in all of our buildings um uh we worked on uniform signage throughout the district with our emergency responses our own the door Campaign which is to enhance our lockdown practice to um ensure that all of our staff and students understand the importance of getting behind a locked door in the event of an emergency uh we worked on the workplace violence prevention plan that Dr janest will speak to a little bit later this evening and then of course the the um the charge of the committee on an annual basis is to review the code of conduct in the district safety plan some of our additional highlights may be presented in a future board meeting
007but we want to um limit our Focus tonight on the review of the code of conduct and the safety plan so um the code of conduct and the public hearing requirements stem from New York State education law 2801 um which requires districts to adopt a code of conduct um for to maintain order on school property it's something that the code of the district Safety Committee does update on an annual basis we do get input from our building administrators from our uh stakeholder groups as well as the committee to review the code of conduct um this is adopted on an annual basis by our Board of Education um and there's two versions of it a full version of the code of conduct and a plain language version for students and the both versions are disseminated on
008an annual basis um to our our students and families also copied on our posted on our website and disseminated in various um uh Publications throughout the year to keep our families informed of our expectations with regard to the code of conduct so this year in terms of the sections that we reviewed if you wouldn't mind vot um the next slide please while there are um 15 sections of the code of conduct we did focus our attention this year on prohibited conduct and on the next slide we also took a look at sorry that's okay the next slide we also took a look at visitors to the school and public conduct on school property so in the next slide in particular with regard to prohibited student conduct and there some minor changes one there was some
009redundant language that was in um section c of of 4 C that we eliminated but in section s we in terms of um academic misconduct we did fles out a little more um with regard to academic misconduct adding the language with regard to AI or artificial intelligence to the extent that it produces work that's not the original students work for grading purposes um the next area that the committee looked at um uh was it's a simple change um changing the may not to the permissive may be required um this permissive language does allow the district to make a decision at a future opportunity to utilize the Raptor um visitor management system for uh public events which we currently do not we do not do um and then the last change to the uh uh the
010code of conduct was that regard to penalties for um public conduct on school property um there was some language in here about um persons who do violate our code of conduct while they're on premises and we did add um the language that does um memorialize our existing practice which is when when there are violations of uh to our uh code of conduct by visitors that we do in in some cases um based on a review of the matter issue what's called a no trespass letter to that said visitor um in indicating that they're not welcome on school property for the violation of our code of conduct so those were the minor um changes and recommendations that were made by the committee for to the Board of Education in terms of updating our code of conduct
011uh moving on to the districtwide safety plan um as you know the the regulations the commissioner regulations 15517 and New York State education law 2801 also require districts to have districtwide safety plans um these plans are a public document they are put up um on our website and um it it is something that our public can comment on which is of course the point of today's hearing the district safety plan does embody a number of elements that provide for um all facets of school safety the next slide speaks to the building level emergency response plan the The Bu building level emergency response plans are not public documents they are confidential as they are detailed information on how our school personnel and students respond under different types of emergency these building level emergency response plans are
012shared with law enforcement agencies and emergency responders and we do annually submit our plans to the New York State education department on an annual basis so that they are um fully informed of of the our commitment to safety and our compliance with all um State education department regulations with regard to safety plans this year if you would thank you Mr Feldman the ne this year there's um five major sections to the districtwide safety plan um in a on an annual basis we will update demographic information name changes phone number changes location changes Etc so demographics are changed on an annual basis um but this year we focused on Section 5,000 which was the prevention and intervention strategy piece um there there was a number of um pages that were changed um in that section that
013are um I think you have that in your um in your board documents the language itself is not new the language um essentially memorialized our existing practices um and just and flush them out actually there's a slide in the future that that I can speak to a little more in more detail but the next slide if um the oh sorry I didn't realize my apologies okay um at the end of each district safety plan there are a number of appendices um this year we are adding um number seven which is a an Emergency remote learning plan this is also required by the education department you'll note that in the last three consecutive years we've added various plans to the um as an appendix to the district safety plan two years ago we enacted the public
014employer Health Emergency plan last year was the cyber security plan this year is the remote learning plan um on the next slide it gives a little more detail about what the emergency remote learning planning remote learning plan entails and this is in response to amendments to section 175e and 15517 of the commissioner regulations and this speaks to essentially creating a base plan for all districts to have ready to go in the event of a in a public health emergency similar to the one that we would have experienced during covid and it provides for ensuring that all of our students have internet and digital device access that there's a daily schedule that we understand which instructional platforms would be used the expectations for digital etiquette uh communication protocols for students and parents plans for students with
015um special services uh non instructional services and the instructional hours that um would be used to claim for stay dead purposes so this again is a remote uh this emergency remote learning plan is a base plan it is now an appendix at the end of our um District safety plan for your review um and then finally the the changes I was speaking to with regard to section 5000 again these aren't new changes or new updates essentially our section 5000 was more limited in terms of um memorializing our existing practice so we spent some time fleshing out each of those areas in terms of what we actually do here at Sweet Home it tended to be more generic um and so that the updated changes to the districtwide safety plan with regard to section 5000 prevention
016and intervention um spoke to the current practices of the district and flushed them out in Greater detail um and that and some uh speaks to the changes that were made um and proposed by the district Safety Committee to the board of education for adoption and this begins then the 30-day the last slide if you will Begins the um 30-day public comment period where the um Community can review the changes that were made proposed and provide input to the district um comments can be submitted to myself or my partner Steve Rosler who couldn't be here tonight he's our supervisor of facilities buildings and grounds um so anyone if you have comment you're welcome to share them with with us or send it directly to the district um but that in a nutshell um is our presentation
017on the annual public uh safety hearing I don't know if there's any questions you can breathe now I feel like you did that all in one breath try to do it as quickly as possible thank you for all the work that you've done on that I mean that's a huge committee to lead and and you've done a great job leading so thank you for all the work of course thank you my pleasure I had a question not necessarily directed to you but just a more general question and a comment regarding um then the code of conduct I noticed the the plain uh language code of conduct it said indicated that the use of of uh certain devices prohibited during classroom um uh instructional time and so I'm wondering is that is that actually taking place
018in in terms of like the cell phones because I think that you know when we look at all the studies that are now coming out and I've mentioned this before this is opinion of mine and I know districts are starting to implement policies where cell phones are much more restricted in the classroom you know to the point where they sell actually these pouches now that you can put there's an article actually in the New York State School Board Association saying that uh was something like 70% of districts across the country are now instituting some form of ban on you know various media devices um I know that there's a lot of parents and people out there that would not favor that but I think there that I think the the the other side of that
019is at least for consideration is that um you know we're we're there's a lot of studies and there's a the Surgeon General just put out something about you know the challenges of social media the levels of anxiety and depression and all these things so if and you know there's a lawsuit that is going on class action lawsuit against social media companies and you know my feeling is generally if we're in we we acknowledge all of that but yet still allow this you know are we really you know saying what we doing what we we're saying we believe you know and so in these pouches for instance that are being used now in some school districts essentially your cell phone goes in there it locks through a magnet and then when they leave they can swipe
020it to unlock their cell phone so it really restricts the use of the phone um my kids don't have cell phones they're too young so maybe I would feel differently as they get older because I know a lot of parents like to have that communication on an ongoing basis with their kids throughout the day but I just wondering if anybody had any thoughts on that or feedback from I mean I I can start on that um I would say it's a very divided um issue um I appreciate our teachers and our administrators who have um granted some uh leeway and Grace inside the classroom uh and and uh we we allow our teachers to put together policies um on how they want devices to be used inside of the classroom um I think a lot
021of our time that we um where we're seeing the um the the the use of the phone for not not great purposes is outside of the classroom whether it's in the hallways or maybe in the cafeterias especially at home at night um if we if we uh look at our our discipline or mental health issues it's usually related to some kind of social media between uh two students um that are not or or groups of students that are not happening inside of the classroom um but I I would agree like we we hear both sides of it all the time um and I'm I'm not sure you know this is an assumption but if we surveyed the district um it would probably be pretty split down the middle so what we have we have done
022um is is give teachers and administrators a lot of leeway um inside the building when it comes to uh cell phones like at the elementary level I know they're not uh you know allowed at the middle school um they're supposed to be put in the lockers uh as well um we know that that's a very difficult thing to patrol during the day um and at the high school there's a lot more leeway but it does um a lot of it is um teacher driven I yeah I I would say that um there's been a lot of focus on if the cell phones are involved in anything how to use them productively and in a positive way because let's face it no matter what we do they're going to find a way to use it even
023the pouches my niece attends the school where they had the pouches and they found a way to unlock them so they would lock them and think that they're all locked for the day the kids go into the bathroom unlock they have their cell phones so they find a way no matter what so if we don't focus on how to on teaching students to be productive and positive with the devices um then that's going to always be the struggle we're always going to be policing it so it's more about how do we help them be positive I I will say um during my superintendent student Advisory board meetings it's funny the difference between the Middle School and the high school the middle school is AB they absolutely want them all day long they want more access
024to them um how am I going to get in touch with my my parents if I need to get in touch with them was the common thing around the table but at the high school level uh I think there's some um they're getting sick of cell phones at the high school and I I don't want to speak for Hunter but that was the sentiment around the table that it's just it's so uh overwhelmingly part of the day um that um I think high school students are starting to pull back and that's what I got at the table anyway and you're more than welcome um again it's very divided I would say especially amongst the student body depending on who you ask um at the high school we do have such free use and access to
025them that yeah it's not as big of a deal for us to have them or not have them um we are kind of permitted to use them as much or as little as we want um specific teachers have their own policies regarding phone use in class um and the disciplinary repercussions that come with that um some teachers encourage you using it for your assignments it really is kind of a classroom by classroom situation I will say um like Dr jry said most of the problems that occur with them do seem to happen outside of that classroom setting um but it absolutely can carry over which is the problem we are seeing um I don't mean to speak for the high school administration at all but is my understanding that next year their policy on devices
026is going to change somewhat um believe it's going to be a little more restrictive with student devices again I don't want to speak for Mr Baker or the administration but um that's my general understanding anything else no allow to oh yes yep the whole district has an SRO and there're also um security officers uh in in the building um as well on a full-time basis just that no than no the the SRO covers all of our buildings but the high school has added actually the high school and the middle school have added security as well and we do have an agreement with tananda police for GL or yeah for glendel school and the ready Academy and ready thank you great question thank you anybody else thank you Miss B thank you all right the approval
027of the agenda may I have a motion to approve the agenda so moved second all in favor I minutes of the previous meeting I have a motion so moved say those words all in favor any Communications we have one from Harris Beach and I did see one come from one of the elementary schools about a leadership day Heritage Heights just doing a leadership day next week um anybody have anything else um were you gonna check on one of our legal beat me to the punch thank you um so there was a a communication from the amorist IDE last week that Mr Johnson brought up on the floor of the board uh and I had not seen it uh but I did read it and I did communicate back to Mr Johnson about what it was
028about um essentially the amest Ida is setting parameters uh for new builds in the town thresholds that uh those new builds must meet for apartment complexes and things like that uh for Workforce Development housing lowincome housing so they set parameters as as far as that goes in terms of that um and then basically uh in order to uh if there's a pilot that is asked for of the Ida on those properties that pilot um however long it extends the affordable housing in that unit must extend either three to five years beyond the expiration of the pilot so um that's basically what it is there's new builds or correct going forward standing I know there's some yep and and what I'll say is Dr janri and I were at an Ida meeting I don't know like
029a month or so ago ago uh if you've noticed up on uh sweet home uh and Dodge uh going towards North Forest uh they're clearing out some things in there for um some development uh and they were talking about pilots and how much of a percentage of those um new builds are what they called Workforce Development housing uh so they have to meet a a certain threshold of a percentage of the overall build uh to come and request a pilot thank you thanks joh sure thank you I um Christie I got a another parent stop me at Wegman said wonderful they really are this is like such good PR for us it's it's going great and I did get a question from a parent and I talked to Mr nry about it regarding after school
030clubs and we'll see a future presentation about that yeah I I got the list I pulled up the list there's 117 clubs that were approved uh this year throughout the district Pre K through 12 so um I can do some updates for the board let's see where how many we've got this year and where we intend maybe when you get more information from staff where where we're going to go with that because as we get more buses and I'd like to see those clubs start coming back to their original oh I think they're back and we're we're well you'll tell us about busing and all that okay thank you anything else right um moving on to unfinished business we have none Dr janest your turn thank you Mrs vaglia um we have a presentation for
031the uh board tonight uh Dr kakowski and the team um I'll let her introduce them but uh they are here to give the board an update on how um our trans transtion from paper based to computer based testing went this year um I want to thank the team first and foremost and I'll thank him again at the end uh we uh it was a lot of work it was a super heavy lift to to get us from a place where um a year ago everybody was paper based to this year um everybody was using their iPads to complete the tests um through a lot of discussion and and talk uh we decided to go uh we were required to do two grade levels this year but we decided to go all in um and uh
032while it was uh scary I think Dr kakowski and the team really did a lot to ease the fears of of everybody involved and uh wanted to invite her here tonight uh to talk to uh the board about the about how computer-based testing went so everybody's uh get up there so you'll see in a future side that this was a a huge lift for a lot of people but we have um Katy berer who's representing special ed and we have Karen delant and Jim Ryan who are um representing our Elementary Administration but there was a a large group which I will um point out so um if we go to our first side just to give you an idea of really how we made this decision and just our implementation plan so back in August
033we had a meeting with our administrative team and we talked about that minimally we were required to commit to um Fifth and eth grade that would complete computer-based testing but we talked about the different options if we felt did we want to complete those two grade levels across the board just Elementary Middle School or some kind of combination at that point we did decide to make the commitment to vendor scoring so we are using um a third-party um scoring system to cut down on the time that teachers would be out of the classrooms for training and um scoring itself so in October um at that point we had completed the tech Readiness checklist so our Tech Team came together and discussed the minimal requirements for us to complete computer-based testing so things like um our
034bandwidth access the types of devices that we're using so that was completed and once we were able to bring that information back to our administrative team after some conversation we decided that we would administer computer-based testing for all 3 through eight so we talked about um what that schedule could look like to make sure that we had the proper support in place and we participated in a regional professional development opportunity that was held at irie1 bosis so our Tech coaches and our administrative team were invited to that to kind of talk about um implementation and what has worked well across the region so November we decided to have a commitment that we would have a professional development day for all 3 through eight staff members that had that Focus just to get everybody feeling more
035comfortable prior to that the administrators spoke with their um staff members to kind of let them know what the decision was and that professional development would be happening we also made the decision to purchase stylus pens across the district so all three through eight had a class set that way um we got them in the hands of our teachers so they could start using them regularly with the students so they were starting to feel more comfortable um there was also a communication that was sent to families regarding the January simulation so we were only required to choose one content area and really one grade level and we could have the pilot be as as small as we wanted it to be we decided to make it as authentic as possible for the January simulation so
036we chose um math the content area because the digital tools tend to be a little bit more challenging but we had it across all three through eight so this time we rostered staff and students we input accommodations everything as we would following the J January simulation a survey was sent out to all staff members and at the meetings such as the tech team meeting the building principal meetings we really reviewed all of the survey feedback we um let the instructional coaches know any teacher ERS who were had some questions or might be feeling uncomfortable we let everybody know um where they needed to direct their efforts so they had ongoing support with the tech coaches and instructional coaches then um for February and April really just ongoing made sure that our iPads had the updated
037iOS updates that the generations that we were using were the most compatible with the next era and Questar rostering of students were complete the input of accommodations which was a huge lift from our school sites and our um special education department and then just staff meetings and um additional administrative training so we brought the teams together quite a bit so everybody was feeling really comfortable so this is just a high level of really the steps that it took to get to the point of full implementation on the next slide you'll see the support structure that we have in place so um you'll see the district level Tech Team our data team um Tom Roberts and Fallon kenhurst were huge huge in helping making sure that everything was rostered appropriately and that our status codes were
038complete um district office played a big part in this with Communications and just coordination with the teams at the building level our administrators um and then as I mentioned we had a team that completed the 504 IEP and um our L accommodation so you'll see all of those members Li listed there if we go to the next slide so one thing that we took a look at was elementary participation so at this point so the window is open for May 17th so when you complete the computer-based testing it's a pretty large window so as of now for as far as our opt outs and refusals we did a comparison of last year versus this year so overall looking at elementary um we did um decrease the number of opt outs and refusals that we had
039and if we move on to the next slide you'll see the Middle School participation who also decreased their numbers of refusals and opt outs and again this is just for ELA and then if you move to the next slide this is just the overall 3 through eight Ela comparisons at this point but again overall we took a decrease and so we will make sure that once we officially we've completed um math but makeups are still going on and then science will be wrapping up this week we will update these numbers so that is the the high level so we'll open it up for any questions that you may have why do you think um we went down in refusals is it just parents are starting to not have an issue with the testing anymore or
040I know for a while there we we heard a lot from parents sure and I'm going to open it up to principles if you have more more input but I know that our communication starting with the January simulation I know Dr janri communicated out I know their principles did and I know that there was a lot of um just you know conversations with parents kind of letting them know what this experience would be the students had the opportunity to kind of try that out in January and I think um and informally kind of talking with a lot of our students throughout this process um I think many of our students were feeling a little bit of relief that they weren't doing of the writing and kind of enjoyed using the devices but I will let
041you chime in you might have different thoughts yeah I think um anytime we put an assessment in front of a student uh formative or summative it's really important to understand the purpose uh so we've really tried to work hard at communicating that purpose with families uh while there's still challenges of when we get that information back uh the results back from the state um it's really important for us to communicate you know the information that we use from those assessments how it helps us drive instruction that it's not necessarily just about a score proficiency it's also a lot about growth um so I think we've done a much better job over the last couple years really communicating that purpose and function to families while we certainly understand there's still those politically that don't agree with
042the test or don't feel like it's a reflection of where kids are academically um we respect parents you know choice of whether their students participate or not uh but we still pride ourselves on community communicating that information uh and letting parents know why uh we use that information and how it drives whether that's intervention services whether that's you know curriculum Gap analysis for some of the standards that uh we really want to grow in as a district and for the um special ed kids were there any additional challenges that you came across that maybe you didn't anticipate with this testing and I mean other than parents had a lot of questions um and we talked about it you know informally with them um on the actual testing day I I don't know that the buildings
043had any specific challenges and what about for our um English is second language kids any so one thing that we decided to do um and really this was kind of a regional decision was that all of our L's would take the paper based version if they required a translated Edition so that way they had the English version um and then their transl version in front of them so I would say that that helped um but other than that we haven't experienced any extra challenges with that we were able to accommodate all the languages and dialects and yeah so we had a few that required oral translation but um our enl team worked really hard with the office of special programs to kind of coordinate all of that I will say it did help um we
044were really thoughtful in our scheduling to make sure that all the buildings kind of had their designated time so that they were able to accommodate elementary and middle school as well I have a question just wondering is there any discussion on the way the teachers communicate this to the kids in terms of the testing and the reason I ask is I gotten some feedback that um from pretty good students this is at the elementary level um the parents are considering taking them out because their kids had some level of anxiety re related to the way this is being presented to them and I understand every teacher may be a little bit different but I'm wondering is there an overall approach because like I'll give you some examples I even heard comments of like once we
045get through testing we'll do X or once we you know or um um make sure you get a good night's rest all this week because we have testing you know so there's this pressure I I I've gotten some feedback on that the kids are Maybe perceiving because teachers want them you know obviously to perform as well as they can so is there any discussion like hey this is how we want to we want to make sure this is a communicated in a way that's um as um unthreatening or un least amount of anxiety to the to the students um from the teachers because they probably all I I do get some feedback that parents are like I'm just done with this because my kids are getting anxious about a test that I don't know how
046much they're wondering how much impact is it on them their child personally but I understand it's important for the district and for you know the but just wondering if there's any thoughts on that or or so one thing I can speak to as far as just the experience itself is that we really um worked hard to make sure that the students were having an opportunity um there is a quest our sampler so it's really they had the January simulation but we had asked teachers to kind of you know find ways to embed that in their instruction with the support of the literacy and math coaches as well as the technology coaches to help relieve some of that anxiety so they were using it as just you know good practice um same thing with the tools
047they were given as far as the stylus pens and just the use of the iPad so I know we tried to make it you know a kind of seamless transition so that students were feeling really comfortable with it um but I don't know if you guys wanted to jump in as far as is I I would also just say just our natural way of how we integrate technology in our everyday um instruction um it K through 12 really um that's been a huge Focus especially this year so our kids are really comfortable with the technology piece um and I think that was one of our biggest um um most important pieces of our PD that we had back in the fall um to make sure that you know p through five p through eight teachers
048are really um implementing technology ology in the right ways that is just very authentic so that when the testing comes it's not um anything that might be of surprise to them yeah I will say from one of my children told me it was how exhausted and tired Their Eyes Were and everything else after the test yet they can spend twice as much time on a Saturday if we gave it to them watching YouTube like how is this possible you watch YouTube for eight hours if you wanted yeah and one thing I will say is what's really nice about the next year assist is that you can log in and see the students progress in real time so um if today for example I was at Maple Mir for the science Testing I can watch the
049progress of what's going on at Maple Mir but I was also able to see what was happening at Heritage and Willow Ridge and one thing I'm really pleased with is there students are really trying hard and taking their time um oftentimes the biggest concern is that everyone's going to get a little click happppy because it is pretty easy to navigate we really haven't seen that I I want to say our students are working really hard in taking their time and we're noticing similar patterns across all of the building so that has definitely um been a great sign for us with this being the first year Dr kasowski you mentioned that you you brought you hired a vendor to do some of this score and to take some of that pressure off the teachers are we
050far enough along in that process yet that you can say whether it was success or whether there's some room for change in there or is that still to be determined so one thing that's nice is I mentioned that it's not going to take the teachers out of the classroom um what we're going to see is we're going to be able to go in back into the system and kind of review so once we get the test results we will be able to see the student work and um access that so I think that'll be different I think we're going to want to build in Opportunities I know um we've talked with our instructional coaches to make sure that they still have that feedback and so as Mr Ryan spoke of the Gap analysis that's one
051piece that we're going to want to make sure that we build in but I think as far as the overall implementation and the loss of the instru time of taking the teachers out of the room I think that's that's definitely going to be a huge gain for us thank you you know to pigb off of what Brian had said we're trying to keep teach these skill life skills to these kids so I don't have a problem with a teacher saying you know get a good night's sleep because when these kids are older and they have to give a presentation at work that's what we want them to do so I think the teaching of some of these skills is is very useful too and I also like to add to that too I I appreciate
052the principle work here because I think the message um when I've talked to parents has been pretty clear these um well they're high State testing for the district because we've really want to see where we are as a district for the kids it has nothing to do with advancement um this is this is this is about and I've told this to 100 parents this is about us Gathering data so we can provide uh so we have information to provide the best education or interventions possible so we can improve ourselves in our in our instructional practices um and I think that that message has been well received throughout the district I also think it lends to the fact that we've seen a a decrease in opt outs um because parents get that what we're what we're
053trying to accomplish and they're seeing the data come home they're seeing um the data in online tools with with schooly and everything like that too um so I think that message is really and and I credit the principals for getting that message out there that you know this is this is for us to improve our instructional practices and um I I appreciate the parents that I've talked to who've who've also gotten that message and just the other thing to add mention the life skill so the the responsibility we also made the decision the of the students to charge the iPads their responsibility to bring them in charge and I will say the principles worked really really hard communicating that expectation and you'd be very surprised that only with 25 loners per ele school that we
054bring and 50 at the middle school we never exhausted those and and there were maybe a handful of students that you know needed to to do a little charge or to swap their iPads out but they did a really good job taking on that responsibility and managing it so that was also a win for us I got I got so many messages from the Middle School that the only anxiety about going around testing was on me was from me because I was like I wouldn't get in trouble if this this thing isn't charged at night do we have a time table for results I mean I know that I mean everybody probably I know October yeah if we're going to do this and do it right we need to have answers so that teachers can
055prepare starting you know in the summertime so they can start getting ready for September um this is supposed to speed up things is what we heard I think you know we'll start to see things shift hopefully when everyone has to go all in with the computer-based testing but I think with the split still being paper based and computer based it may take a while may take little while you put that nicely do you foresee at the high school level Regents going to computer based I would hope so we we talk about that we're doing all this preparation for the the younger students and and my hope would be that the goal is then when these students are moving up to those grade levels that they are going to be so fluent in their digital tools
056that that would be a really seamless transition for them I would hope it goes all the way to the higher ed level because the paper and Pen at a higher higher level is ridiculous yes thank you I took the words right out of my mouth um I know the College Board is planning next year to administer nine of their AP exams fully digitally we offer three of those I believe are we equipped with the same systems to handle those digital based testing we we actually started um a number of those assessments during it all shifted during the pandemic and so that shift had started then and is just continuing so College Board is continuing that path so um we are prepared to do online testing with college board the U PSAT sat there's some components
057of those that are that shifted to digital and I did have a conversation with Mr balante on Friday about some of our students having trouble with our iPads uh at the SAT um so Mr Felman and I talked about that today and we're going to talk to Mr Baker and kind of put a plan together to make sure that we know what the computer uh Tu the the the the needs are um before the student goes to offsite so we can fully prepare the iPad um yeah because it was the students that were taking the SATs at non sweet home schools they were having trouble getting into their whatever yeah we found helpful uh as we were talking about this and and Dr kakowski mentioned there was a checklist from on the app basically that
058we had to go through to make sure that everything worked I don't know for an sat or PSAT if those things are in place so we'll investigate it the next one is got get ready we have the PS because we give it and so maybe that checklist will be help us with the the next two weekend those are offsite usually are not yeah is it the 25th and the 1 yeah next saw an email today about the one in June first weekend in June thank you anybody else thank you everybody it really was a great job and uh um our goal really was and and I think we reached it was to make sure that teachers and students could focus on the tests and not the technology and uh this team did a wonderful job
059making sure that goal was met so um so moving on our our budget vote just a reminder is next Tuesday night uh May 21st uh 7 a.m. to 900 p.m. in virgils this room right here we encourage all community members all members of the swed home Community to come out and vote um on there I did include a couple slides on the vote but I know the board have has seen these slides uh many times uh but in case there are any questions um I'm not going to go through them tonight um unless there's anything any clar points of clarification needed but I think we are more than ready to um offer this budget up to the public um next Tuesday night um there's also uh there's three propositions one for the budget one for
060uh two board seats and um one a five-year term one a to fill out a one-year term and then of course the um proposition two to extend the maple Mir temporary classroom lease through October 31st uh that to that number 52920 is over two uh budget years not one budget year uh to maintain those temporary classrooms at at Maple May uh we got some news this week and I'll uh turn it over to Mr Feldman on our electric bus uh for one piece of good news we get one piece of uh pump the brakes no pun intended but uh but we're we're still moving forward and we think uh we are on track so uh uh so if you remember correctly when we were going through the budget process uh back in February uh there
061is um um money in the budget presently if the budget were to pass to purchase um buses three of which uh are electric buses that were awarded to us through the truck voucher incentive program through Nera uh and that basically knocked $200,000 off the price it was an incentive uh to the electric buses and then if you remember we came back and said that we were eligible to piggyback off of that funding and go into the New York state or new nerta New York State School Bus incentive program uh and they allowed us to further knock down that price uh we got $61,500 for the three buses uh so we were notified this week uh that we were officially approved we knew it was coming but we did get um word from Wendell and Nera
062and Matthews bus is our bus vendor uh that we've been approved for that program so we are full go there so let's that's good news celebrate that yeah celebrate that uh we have also submitted uh our uh the work over at the service center that needs to be done uh to get the the the bus yard ready uh for charging stations for the new buses now remember again Wendell presented to us three phases we've submitted a project that includes the three temporary chargers for these three new buses uh as well as charging for the first round of buses for us so we've submitted that uh to S uh we've got a project number I've spoken to Sarah Madison at the office of facilities planning and politely reminded her that she promised that she would expedite
063it uh and she's holding true to her word so she's going to try and expedite it as quickly as as we possibly can so more good news there now the charging stations uh so in addition to the school bus incentive program that nerta has got they've also got a charging Voucher Program uh that would allow up to uh um I think it's $60,000 per charger U I don't remember exactly but anyway um so we've submitted um an application for our first three Chargers and I am not an electrician I don't supposed to be one uh but there are two manufacturers of electric bus Chargers in the United States one is um uh X charge and the other one is is I'm not going to remember but the the the one it's Li I think it's
064not lime lime wire was the music I can't remember the the name of the the other charger I I can't remember what I had for breakfast but anyways um it was that SEC that other charging company and it'll come to me probably about 9:15 tonight I go oh man I forgot uh but that other charging company was the charger that we wanted to go with um neither of the two manufacturers of these Chargers uh that would fit the buses that we are looking to use have what's called a UL rating from some agency in the United States if you flip over your toaster at home there's a UL certifi uh certification on the bottom of your toaster neither one of these two charging companies are UL certified so we had a meeting with Wendell we
065had a meeting with um ner and I basically said to our RIT nier I go you guys have got to get moving here you got to shake some trees try and get one of these two charging manufacturers UL certified so they forged ahead and agreed they would certify a pending UL certification for and I cannot remember the name of our charging company I'll get it for you but for our charging company okay so they said we can go forward uh with with uh their their UL certification is in the hopper uh we can go forward with it and then we can get the money back for our charging stations on that the morning I had a conversation there I got an email from a different rep at nerta that said that this company is closing
066up shop and closing its uh operations in America did they not know this they they did not know and I got to find I'll find the name of it um but anyway so we're kind of in a holding pattern right now we don't know how what where uh they're going to we're going to charge these buses uh so we're working with Matthews our bus company right now to provide more temporary temporary solutions to charge these buses so nerta is kind of left hold in the bag here they need to make some decisions they need to get things kind of certified so that they can give away the hundreds of millions of dollars that they said that they were going to give away well this doesn't just affect us this is an entire state that has
067to meet mandates that's not going to have the infrastructure correct correct and um I I know Mr Johnson and I sat at the legislative breakfast but I think it was someone in Conrad who basically talked about the commission that the governor is putting together to study whether or not this mandate you know the effects of that this mandate is having on every school district so so that's not yes so it's it's not lime wire it's free wire I got it I knew I did it um uh but it's freewire so um that was the conversation that was had uh with us Wendell and nerta like if we continue to hit for every two steps forward we seem to take three steps backwards and there's got to be some discussions at the state level about the
068timeline that is being imposed so we're putting in money into these temporary ones correct how long will they last us I don't I I can't speak to that the temporary charging stations that we had or we had earmarked um that freeway made were something that we could move to other locations to make permanent later down the road the ones that we're talking with Matthews about are really something that you could kind of just kind of roll out to the bus and plug in it takes a longer period of time to charge the buses uh from that standpoint um but I don't know what other Alternatives I have battery life it won't affect the battery life it'll just it'll take longer to charge the batteries once it gets cold it'll hold the it'll hold charge it
069just will take longer to charge so for every three steps forward we take we seem to take two steps backwards um but anyway so I have a question you might not like um with the assumption that our budget gets passed what is the timetable that Matthews has on us getting the electric buses good question Mr balante so uh sometime we've been told end of September early October so next June no no be like I think so what we have in place right now we have a provisional purchase order that's in place that says if our budget passes in May we're good to go so I think things are being manufactured I think that they can hit that timeline it's now about how we charge them and if we can't figure out how we can we
070can't we can charge them they can hold them for us until we can figure out what I don't want to have happen is it's three brand new buses sitting in the middle of our parking lot with bu charge thank you so what do you know about I know they had that article on board or one of ours about Lake Shore and I mean is there anybody that's using anything else but the temporary depends upon the bus manufacturer so we've uh we have reached out to Lake Shore so we're talking we're getting information I I I was hopeful to get it to a situation where we'd be more permanent but based upon the charging non certification of this U this UL certification that might be difficult um but I think that we can do something on
071a temp temporary basis more temporary than I would have hoped say that all right thanks Mr Felman um again just want to reiterate our Our Heritage teachers in their uh Ghana trip this summer um I found out this week that uh the teachers are going with another group from I think Massachusetts I was told and they will be having dinner with the president of Ghana as part of their uh trip so um they are still accepting donations we're helping them uh with shipping to Ghana of all the boxes that are in the hallway at at at Heritage Heights right now um but again just really proud of their efforts to uh do this educational mission trip um and we'll be supporting them along the way uh and then May 22nd the day after the budget
072vote uh we are very pleased to have our our uh second annual well this will be our third total but their second annual uh challenge change event um it will be once again at bedes the board is welcome to attend on May 22nd um starting at a 9ish I think it is uh yeah the program will actually start at 9:30 9:30 um uh so we have over uh 200 students that will be uh in attendance we have speakers we have uh work that the students will be doing on um uh on their identities and on acceptance and belonging uh and so really excited to uh to do this event again it was a huge success last year and looking forward to it well Mrs bis if you have any comments on it but uh we're
073looking forward to the event I appreciate we can't do it without the support ofr of our team or cabinet and teachers who and um people PPS staff Who come out to support the event to facilitate all the groups um it takes about 25 um adults to help facilitate so we're always very appreciative of the time that people have made I know Ryan steal barer will be there up their time to help facilitate groups um students act team has taken a lead this year they're going to MC the event and um be co-leaders of all of the groups um and we' we're um welcoming back Maris 10,000 Burton as you recall our distinguished uh Sweet Home allall of fame um recipient from two years ago a year ago so he'll be doing a freestyle a PO
074for us as he did last year so the kids have worked on some program enhancements they've tweaked it up a little bit they're excited um should be a should be a great afternoon or great day see you there right um last reminder to um please vote again Tuesday night um and I know Mrs bis mentioned the workforce uh workplace violence um policy you all have that uh for review this month um and uh just want to thank Mrs bis for leading the effort um to get that policy um customized for sweet home um there were a lot of moving pieces in that um including site visits to all of our schools to assess uh do safety assessments um there was a large team that were involved in a dayong effort to go to each building
075um uh as well as a lot of enhancements to the policy to make sure that it is uh Sweet Home appropriate so um please you uh we'll bring it up next month and we will make sure that the questions are asked by the board but it really puts in a structure to uh report workplace violence um and to investigate um and come up with recommendations um and finally I just want to mention uh we are uh she's in the audience tonight but we're very happy to present uh Shandra Jello to you did I do that right jelo um to the board ton tonight uh for a vote uh for our administrator for climate and culture uh Shandra did a outstanding job each uh point in the interview process um there were 62 applicants uh for
076this position um even though it was uniquely written uh for Glendale we were very pleased with the amount of applicants uh but shander did a great job every step of what of the way was the leading candidate uh we were fortunate because she's already done some work uh in the building um and um now we're going to get her fulltime which is huge I think for the climate and culture uh over at Glendale uh we can't wait for her to start uh we're we're super excited uh about her credentials uh but also her enthusiasm for this work it was clear from moment one that this is her wheelhouse this is what she wants to do uh in her career um help kids that uh are at the most at most need and uh I think
077we cannot wait for to get going um on a full-time basis probably not as much as Mrs DPL but uh you know uh can't wait to get get going on that and um very excited to present uh her to you tonight for approval or for vote I have one question yes what if you're what if you're coming to vote and you're really hungry oh I apologize I'm glad you asked that question uh there will be an outstanding BW chicken barbecue here from 4: to 7: 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. um you uh if you come at that time certainly you will smell it um and um there will be chicken couple side dishes uh rolls there will also be desserts that are presented by Chef good um so come hungry they are outstanding chicken barbecues
078and um like I said you don't have to reserve one but I want four all money goes to Dollars for Scholars and the money goes to dollar for scholar so while supplies last while supplies yes I'll be in line at four 4 330 okay um anybody have anything else for Dr gestri okay upcoming events it is concert season so we've got all of that leadership days at several of our buildings as said before District boat chicken barbecue all of those things um and we're coming up on the end of the year Memorial Day is just next week that brings us to open session our first open session as per board policy 1510 this Open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda is anyone interested in speaking please come to the mic and give us
079your name and address and then you have three minutes you want to read the policy it's on yes need to be on i' have to like my name is Peter ho Peter hoik I live in town of tananda on mwood drive I'm just curious you I think it was you when did you get yours because I just got mine and I rushed over here after I uh familiarized myself a little bit I just got it today mine came today as well no mine came last week actually well the reason I asked is because it mentions a meeting that I missed about the budget on May 7th and then obviously I rushed over here all right I mean this is really the only way way I get Communications about what goes on in this s home
080school district and if it's late doesn't do me any good all right um the first page of this message from the superintendent it says that the budget for the school district is now $100 million until the town of tananda went crazy recently that was the budget of the entire town of tananda I'm I'm not asking to justify this with a a long lecture I'm just just maybe briefly that's a lot of money um we can't really respond but we will have somebody reach out to tomorrow if you want to leave your name with us we'll we'll definitely reach out with who you can leave it with you can leave all right uh leave it with Sherry um the our secretary I see her uh next question is the next page actually says to vote you
081need to be a citizen of the United States but there's nothing on this whole page that talks about what documentation you're going to ask for and I know that we had a presentation up here and I'm assuming that there is illegal aliens in the school district because they were talking about speaking different languages so how are you going to verify that only US citizens vote next week again we can't respond but I do believe in order to to vote you do need to produce your legal documentation um a license I there's no citizenship on on the New York State Drivers relations there's nothing I I looked at it before I came over here but you have to prove it when you get your license in fact this is a problem that's going on in the
082whole country right now and it's a bigger problem in New York state because I don't understand why an illegal would be allowed to have a New York state driver's license but all there is on the Forum when they apply for that is a check box that says you also want to register to vote and I I think I don't know maybe they didn't when they put that box on there didn't consider that noncitizens would vote because they get a US state driver's license and you just said that's what you're expecting people to bring but that's the situation that they've created in New York state there's a lot of states that don't allow that in the United States all right so no I'll you'll answer me later okay um there are 10 seconds remaining in your
0833 minutes sir message from the Board of Education says our diversity equity and inclusion initiatives remain strong I'm just curious give me a dollar number what is what is the budget uh cost for that just the approximate number million 10 million I don't know you don't know all right well give and we can address those questions to yeah okay this is not I you could leave your a set of questions with our our uh type him an email to you I just scribbled in this thing when I found it in my bail box when I came home um am I run out of time you have all right I'm going to skip to this question why are we buying electric buses when uh the conventional thought now has gone away shifting away from at least
084Vehicles gasoline powered vehicles causing an increase in CO2 in the atmosphere electric vehicle sales are plummeting in this country and the manufacturers of automobiles are stopping production of EVS because they don't work in in the cold particularly here they have problems with batteries you guys are buying buses with batteries that if they explode in a collision that's like the worst battery explosion you know these things cause fires these EVS right I I I don't especially now that that New York state has infrastructure problems which you talked about today for charging electric buses why are we even buying electric buses more information on that time there is follow up with the that tomorrow all right um am I out of time yes sure you are I I questions I'll y send them please do perfect thank
085you anybody else that brings us to new business may I have a motion in a second second for consent agenda on items B through H we will be voting on a separately so moved second all in favor I I can I have a motion in a second on new business item a special education so moved second all in favor I um opposed abstained I thank you information items let's start with Hunter all right um Student Government held our meeting today um we discussed interiew activities came up with an idea for final farewells um where students can write out or send advice or a thank you card um along with a small gift most likely candy or some sort of goodie bag uh to other students or staff members as their kind of final farewell before
086the summer um especially for our seniors who are almost a month away from graduation only have about two weeks left in their academic instruction um and then next week Friday May 24th um our organization was invited by Mr vayan uh to attend Maple Elementary's annual leadership day we'll be helping out with their activities that they have planned along with celebrating um our young student leaders and continuing the connection between our Elementary and high school students that is all I have great thank you Miss Jason um as we voted on the class placements and and all of that um I'd be remiss if I didn't say first of all I did read the 4177 Pages this month for special ed and again pass on to your team Happy Nurses Week now thanks Josh but pass on
087to your team every time I read those every month it just you know they go above and beyond for every single one of our kids so that there's a lot of work involved in every single IEP that is sitting there so tell them again thank you for all the work and the only other thing I did was our PTA meeting at Maple um really our financially they're in a great shape a recess for PTA is starting up again um The Fun Run updated um they're talking about officers for next year and I think we have our Full Slate of officers so yay um Mr Ryan brought up some activities um nothing that we haven't heard you know Field Day leadership day um and his mission for one of his goals is new student transition work
088he'll be working on that during the summer as looking at how we welcome new students and that's his goal so more to come about that believe he will also be getting attacked with silly string on Friday if I read that correctly that did they okay okay and Christy you'll be there to capture that right now thank you thank you thank you and that's it okay Mr Feldman I don't have anything new this week great Mr liel uh no activities to talk about the only thing I want to mention that I'm appreciative of is the uh high school athletes I've noticed and I've heard through my own kids and other parents that they have visited in many cases the grade schools and um I think that's been a very positive experience for the um uh the
089students and and you know I I've had some parents say they they wanted autographs they wanted pictures these young students really look up to the high school athletes and um you know I think not only is it positive in that the high school athletes are giving back and and um showing the value of being you know having a greater role as an athlete not just performing on the field but also you know what that may come with in terms of people looking up to you and Leadership and then for the uh young the younger students just you know it get some more excited and enthused about you know the opportun unities and um in a Athletics down the road so uh appreciate that and um I think that's been a big success right thank you
090Mr Johnson just one thing as Dr Janet me mentioned we were at the legislative breakfast this past Saturday um we had it set up in such a way that we had uh Senator Gallivan come in to speak um he's in the Republican party and a suban comrade who happens to be one of our reps as a Democrat so we get both houses in both sides of the ptic um these two gentlemen work very well together you can tell just listen them to them that they spent a lot of time together when they're talking um each had some good stuff to say about they we had just mostly asked them to talk about the Finish session and the things that they see upcoming I've got a handful of notes on it but um I know one
091of the things that um uh Senator Gallivan mentioned is that the uh when the governor put her budget out to begin with they were very surprised that they had removed the same save harmless stuff obviously that didn't affect us but it affects half the schools in the state so that was one of the big things that they fought for going back in um he did that they got the waiver and earning Li retire earnings again for this year um he uh and I think a lot of us share the same thing that the they' asked for the money for foundation Aid s had specifically asked for to study the foundation aid for me and asked for a million dollars and the governor put in $2 million but isn't letting s do the study they're sending
092it out to a commission whose name is G the momenteller Rockefeller commission and um they were all everybody there was very concerned about where that might go I've said it before and I'll say it again I think the have already been determined and the commission is just writing message for the governor that's my personal opinion um and some m c talked after that and he was looking at a couple different things and being able to work across the aisle with our colleagues in other areas of the state too the Western New York delation is doing pretty good but he said the um they had when they were working on the budget when they tried to reach out to the governor to talk about some very specific issues she just fled out refused to listen to
093them and it was just it wasn't just him it was the whole delegation from Western New York which is kind of frustrating especially since she's from Western New York um he's pushing a bill to fully fund free lunches across state instead of the hjge Pod we have now and we talked about another one about a bill for a Seal Seal of financial literacy which I think is a good thing that's pretty much it for my notes on that okay thank you so much Mr volunte um yeah this Saturday the Varsity softball team um did a fundraiser for the summit and participated in the summit autism walk uh they raised over $900 for for the summit autism um the baseball team baseball program is holding a fundraiser and basket raffle this Sunday at Papa Grandes um
094from 1: to 3 um I know our playoff teams our our spring sports are starting playoffs this week so good luck to all of them and I have um was unable to attend the E Erie County Association of school board's uh da Mee meeting on Thursday and as soon as um Dave sends out the information from that meeting I will pass it along to everybody right anything else nope just a busy week all right um couple things for me I um attended the high school PTSA last week and they are in really good shape they are ready to um do the awards do the award night for scholarships um lots of things coming up that they are supporting including prom exams graduation all of those things brick sales are doing well we have 122 members
095um I have it on very good authority you can take this back to the student body that um stars breakfast will not be the breakfast that you normally receive good wonderful it will be um in their words better um look forward to seeing it uh yes the Heritage I missed their PTA meeting I believe they had one last night and they were doing a forward election vote kind of situation tonight so obviously I'm not there for that um and I did have one conversation with a parent who really in is loving the new magazine um they said it's so much better than the old ones timing we need to work on but also hope they're they expressed hopes that the C will look very similar and I said I haven't even talked about the calendar
096I don't know um but it they they are hopeful that it is just as beautiful um and with that I don't have anything else that brings us to the second Open Session would anyone like to address the board you have three minutes please state your name all right moving on can I have a motion in a second for consent and Jenna on items one teaching administrative two service so moved second all in favor yay yay it's official official official um love the and welcome to swee love the bag great you're a panther now officially officially a panther um may I have a motion in a second to adjourn to Executive session for matters relating to employment history of a particular individual in contract negotiations we will not be returning