001[Music] all right thank you for your patience looking for a motion to approve the agenda so move second all in favor I I can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting so moved second all in favor I brings us to Communications anybody have anything nope all right unfinished business we have none to the superintendent report Dr janest thank you Mrs baglia just two CS okay um tonight we're going to start with uh Dr Wilson to give us an update on where we are with our three through eight Ela and math assessments good evening thank you for the opportunity to come before you tonight to share with you our results from New York State 3 through eight math and Ela again we are continuing to always focus in on the portrait
002of the sweet home grad and all of these dispositions feeding into everything that we do every step of the way to help our students be ready for that future next slide so always want to Anchor in on our three goals that come from our strategic plan teaching and learning future Focus whole child all with that overarching mission of every student one Community ready for the future we always want anchor in here to make sure we keep that at our Forefront next slide now to jump into our results so last week we had a little bit of a preview and you remember Dr janest mentioned that last week there was another release of data and this is what happens pretty regularly there's a release that happens and then there's more um that comes out and more
003and we get more and more information the original data that we had um gave us individual student data this one gave us more specific by district and as you can see our numbers change a little slightly and we believe that's due to rounding of numbers so we were looking at a 50% um Proficiency in ela 3 through eight across the entire district and we're really at the 49% but you see how we compare to districts around Buffalo um there are 10 districts there I think the one that you want to really hone in on is the one that is most like us when you look at their demographics North Wanda most like us when you look at their demographics and you can see how we compare so this is Ela go on to the next
004here's math so with the rounding our score went from 50 to 51 and you'll see some of those percentage points in a later slide and you see where we fall in math 3 through eight across the entire District again the same 10 districts little mixed up right based on the order here but you can see comparing to our neighbor that is most like us we're we're running neck and neck in maass now this was all over the news this morning right we saw the state averages were released at Ela being a 48% and math being at 52% across the entire State we're hovering right about there next slide so to revisit our slide from last week with that adjustment in there you can see proficiency so here we have the breakdown level one two three
005and four um really what you want to H hone in on is um some key things proficiency is would be levels three and four um added together the state developed something called an index score and how that is developed is we add the twos the threes and the fours together then the threes and fours get added in a second time what did not get added back in the ones and so the ones become an area where we really want to have a big Focus because they don't get counted into that comparison score and then that means if they're a larger number they impact your overall score but as you can see we had some big gains anything approaching 5% is considered a huge gain and so in ela we had the we're up the 5.1%
006and in math double digits 14.9% next slide so let's look at Ela across the entire District so here's a six-year look at how we've been performing now remember there was not um a an assessment in 2020 so that that buyer is missing due to the pandemic and 2021 was an interesting year because it wasn't a full um assessment it was a partial assessment so it's hard to compare that one what you really want to hone in on is the two 20 uh 2019 data and compare that to now right so if you're looking at um the elementary proficiency again these are our threes and fours we had an increase of seven percentage points coming pre pandemic to current if you're looking at the middle school we hovered about the same in comparison 2019 to today
007down a point but statistically similar next slide here we have our m results and here that's where you see our our bigger increases but when you're comparing those numbers from across from 2019 to 2023 you still see some significant gains remember we said anything approaching five is considered a a decent jump and if you compare our math Elementary scores from 2019 to 2023 it is up five percent percentage points based on pre-pandemic results out and up four percentage points at the middle school so since we have um we have here our three through three through five averages you know at the middle school we just saw the breakdown here we're looking at across all four schools grades three four and five remember we want to hone in on our proficiency which is that last set
008of bar there on each graph and then you also have that first set of buyers at level one that would be something we want to pay close attention to so as we're looking at Ela 3 through five you can see that we had some some big gains at 55% um proficiency overall at fourth grade right I'm calling out the highlights but the areas of concern we want to pay close attention to would be at level one at third grade where we have a 30% um number of students at level one we really want to look at how we shift those students and support them in a way so that they they have the growth they need in math go back here we go in math um we have the same comparison um three through five
009and the thing that stands out there is 61% at fourth grade and you see that that is our proficiency and then the areas that we want to pay close attention to would be uh grade five um with 27% at level one and that that grade three um at 32% at level two how do we continue to shift those students that's going to be our Focus so the successes and the areas of concern that we need to be addressing now we're ready for sixth grade for six through eight so here we have the Middle School results and you can see comparing across Ela and math um eighth grade stands out um at 58% proficiency at for ELA and at at level one we want to hone in on the the sixth grade and the seventh grade
010that transition year and then supporting kids as they continue through Middle School at in math I want to call out that our proficiency numbers do include our students who took the algebra assessment so eth grade and algebra because those numbers do get converted into the one two three four for us and they contribute to that 51% proficiency that you saw earlier so that's why you see 8th grade with that L2 next to it because that includes those scores but the thing that jumps out at us um is that we are at the 48% um proficiency at seventh grade and the areas we want to pay close attention to would be first would be level one in eighth grade and level two at sixth grade now we the elementary schools given the fact that we have
011four right there's a comprehensive report that gives you a breakdown by grade level um across each of those schools but I want to give you some of the highlight some of the big gains um I I pulled one really big data point for for each school that I think you really need to hear so at willage Ela 4 they they're at 58.82 which was a 21.8% increase 21 okay Maple Mir math 4 they were at 71.6 proficiency what I say the state average was what the state average was I mean we're above the state average all of these right 71.6 of proficiency with a that was a 17.62 increase okay Glendale math for 62.5 proficiency again way above the state average a 30.5% increase [Applause] and then Heritage Heights with at Ela 4 a 49.2
012proficiency 21 proficiency and that is a plus 20.21% [Applause] increase and those are just some of the highlights right so the the people talk about the learning loss from the pandemic I believe we're making great Headway in supporting our families as we continue to push past that we are tackling areas of improvement to intensify interventions um through the Strategic plan we have multi-tier a multi-tiered systems and support Focus U through an intervention team that's really honing in on our screening tools and there will be a recommendation coming to you all in the spring about that new screening tool and there's a committee of teachers and um and Educators across the district who have been engag nwork so we hear directly from them um this is all led by Katie barer and Dr Kinowski from Buff
013State one of the experts leading experts in the area so with that I will take any questions go ahead just a couple questions um first what was our opt out for kids uh I can send that to you it we look about the same um we there wasn't too much of a difference um from the previous year but I can send you the full the full report okay and the second question is um did you break this further down into our subgroup so we can see what's happening with our with our struggling kids yes we have a full report where everything is broken down by sliced and diced in every subgroup that full report we always pull and we always look at to make sure that we're identifying gaps a synapsis of it the whole
014like uh get you the report yeah it's big too much okay okay did we make any gains there I mean well yes I mean with our with our subgroups is what I'm talking to have as many as as many percentage Point gains as we did across the board um and the fact that we have such large subgroups um you know it speaks to the increase across the board so for example our students surviving poverty that's a big subgroup for us and if we're talking about about half of our students just think about the impact on those numbers that I just shared with you so that gives you some idea and our special needs kids yes they're all in the breakdown okay thank you I um just wanted to mention a couple things and ask a
015couple questions Buffalo News published an article I believe it was yesterday and they actually looked at the scores across all of Erie County um so I think you know just wanted to share um uh for what it's worth out of 55,000 students in Erie County only 40% were proficient in English I think we're at 49 so you know we're and I again I understand it's not necessarily Apple apples in terms of demographics um and then um uh 46 in math so um you know we were um in in in both of those groups we were outperforming in terms of um you know the total in the county one of the things the article did mention I'm just curious about is that they they mentioned that the standards have changed from last year so that some
016of the Improvement has to do with the the changing of the way they're measuring the standard yes so I just want I not trying to be you know the Grinch that stole Christmas I just want to make sure I understand like it looks like we made some great progress but um do you have a sense of maybe how much of that's just because of the the changing of the the way they're scoring the test versus how we're actually doing it's a great question and they they talked about that on the news this morning too that it's hard to compare the scores because it is a different test but I will say this our we have shifted into the world where our students are not just taught how to just do the the steps they have
017to really explain their thinking they have to be able to Think Through critically um what they're facing in a question on a test and explain it so they can't just show their work they have to that actually go through and many times explain that so the critical thinking element um is is much bigger with this so that that to me is more challenging um but there has been a shift and that is that makes it difficult from year to year to compare um but I think as you look at the comparisons across the area where where there other places that had big jumps like that that's what we were waiting for we really wanted to see is that is that something that's standing out and I I I think our scores do stand out and
018like I said what's nice is or what's great is out of 50,000 55,000 students we still you know our scores were still meaningful meaningfully higher yes than you know the rest of the county and in those State averages that's the entire State you know down state everything you talked about you know on the bell curve you talked about the real positive and some of the huge gains we've had but that just means there's a there's a tail on that bell curve so it's the results are fresh but that means we've lost in places to to offset so I mean is there a plan I know it's like I said the results just came out but is there a plan for a plan to kind of root cause where some of those losses might have been
019and maybe conversely figure out where the best practices are and translate those to some of the losses that is the key work of that team that mtss team uh multi-tiered systems and supports so it's really looking at from every angle the academic the social emotional um the behavioral and really looking at how they all intersect to support this success across the board and so those that team that we have it's it's uh pretty focused they meet once a week for a full day on Thursday and they've done some significant work around reviewing what's our best Next Step around intervention and how we even screen to make sure we're getting to the right students and then making a recommendation on our next steps for um our future and we're doing mtss in all the buildings right
020High School included it's a districtwide plan yes I I'm just uh so what I'm looking at here is like we to touch on Brian and Josh that you know there's new standards there's new ways to test computer testing is coming out um I I'm just I'm looking at the areas Improvement that you pointed out and I kind of don't want to take too much stock in the 2022 test right now because it is a different test I'm look really looking forward to the 2024 test where we can make a comparison for like if you look at the ELA three third grade was 30% or 30 at one 30% at at level one where those kids are in fourth grade yes I mean I guess that's what we're shooting for with our new math curriculum and
021and the you know all this stuff so I'm I'm interested to look to see where our kids go from here um can we make another big fivepoint 10-point jump would be great and um this year we're taking on computer based testing across the district so that's another element that but our students are so good with technology just floa around classrooms and seeing them interact with their iPads and the the things that they're able to do so um I think they're ready for the challenge not to be like all rainbows and sunshine after we had like team Doom and Gloom over there um but I I I I agree with everything everyone said and it's important to to keep that in mind when we're when we're you know celebrating these because I think they're really worth
022celebrating um and to that end can we put something out to our staff that this is something that we're really proud of and you know whether it's different standards or not I think it's it's still really momentous and like absolutely always wanting to [Music] celebrate all right I just one more quick question do you look at um the strides in each individual schools and say what are they doing that maybe we can use in another I mean just so that we're getting best practices from from all of these people yes that's a part of the the breakdown when you look at the Elementry for example we had the four different schools and different grade levels if there was a big jump in one place what was going on specific to that grade level yeah okay
023awesome thanks Dr W yeah well done thank you yeah thank you um super exciting to see uh the positive growth and it really is a a whole districtwide effort um faculty staff administration of course it always comes from the board so uh we're going to continue to move forward um with our um with our with our plans um with our MTS plan mtss plans with our strategic plan and uh continue on this upward uh pathway so very exciting to see and uh just a big kudos to our entire District um as we continue to grow uh together so it's it's um we'll continue uh down the [Music] path um this week also marked a milestone um since I've been in the district we've been working on a major uh Capital project I entered of phase
024one um and then we quickly transitioned to phase two um and this week um with with the help of Mr Feldman we have uh M put mounds and mounds of paperwork on on the desk to sign our substantial completion um reports that that go to the state um in order for us to uh gain State uh state aid uh on our project so um it has been um transformative in many areas of the district uh for from our Transportation Center to our locker room to our Auditorium to our cafeterias Roofing uh hbac uh security upgrades you name it um this District this plan uh this Capital project had it it touched all of our buildings uh of course uh and then built a brand new one when it came to the transportation center um and
025it's um it's going to be weird not working on a capital project really um being in the middle of it starting January when we come back but U just wanted to make note today um and thank the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that have worked um to transform many of our spaces in the district and special kudos to Mr Feldman for uh leading the project um from Moment One Inception uh during the during the the planning phase the vote um and uh throughout completion so um we are we are at that place where we are signing the final paperwork this week um to turn into the state and very excited about what the capital project produced want to thank our community of course for supporting it um from the capital from the vote
026um on forward uh and it's just been um a phenomenal experience so don I don't know if you wanted to comment at all but uh happy to sign those papers this week uh yeah it's pretty exciting um to get to a point where we are at this this juncture uh we started this project it was voted on in October 2019 uh and we're finishing it now uh I would be remiss if I didn't just publicly thank a couple of people uh Steve Rosler our director of facilities here at the district uh Steve has been our eyes and ears on the ground uh for the project uh and uh the team at campus construction management uh they've been housed down the hallway for the better part of three years uh they've kept the project on time
027uh and and on budget uh which is something that uh we're all pretty proud of so uh they are packing up their office and kind of starting to transition to another project but uh rest assured uh Mr janri Dr janri has a couple more slides here uh that we're starting to talk about the next one already but uh no really uh super proud of how the project turned out and uh I just would Echo what Dr janri said about the input from our faculty and staff uh as well as the continued support of our community thank you and as Mr Felman said I as one ends one begins and uh this week uh the board traveled to the offices of young and Wright our district architect uh to start uh putting together um some ideas
028and scope for our next Capital project as our community knows we've had a thought exchange out for the past couple months asking for input about our facilities and uh where the district would like to go with those with our facilities um that work will result in focus groups starting in January um to really gain input and insight about what our community expects um there's been a lot of thought in exchange in the thought exchange about our elementary buildings um and of course we know it's well documented there are spacing issues um especially at Maple Mir and Glendale uh but all across the district um and um really our our community is is uh talking a lot about upgrading our elementary facilities um in the next Capital project um so the board traveled to Young and
029Wright to start um start though that phase of getting input um putting ideas together so we could build the scope hopefully by the end of this school year um and then be able to truly plan it and um communicate out to our community uh during the next school year so I I thought it was a very productive trip and I don't know if any board members would like to comment but uh learned a lot last Wednesday Mike when was the Dr janest when was the last time our buildings were really touched at the elementary level uh as far as renovations to the Interiors of the facilities I'm not sure they really I think I was still in elementary school when they were having honestly to your point Miss McDonald uh the outside the perimeters of
030the buildings with Windows and things like that I don't mean the sexy stuff the insides uh it's been a long time I've been here for 21 two years somewhere in that neighborhood and uh they've not with the exception of Dexter Terrace Dexter Terrace was being done just as I came on board so it's been a long time it's been a long time so we're we're ready we're ready you know they gave us a lot you know they started with some different options and it's just in its preliminary phase but I'm excited to see things move forward as we address our growing Community because I don't see us going anywhere but up as far as our enrollment yeah the the big challenge for us is our enrollment it continues to increase we're projecting increases over the
031next 10 years um of course it's been well publicized over the past month what's happening um with the Boulevard Mall and the housing units that might be put um over at at that um as it develops um and I know uh our supervisor from the town of Amherst will be here I think in January to discuss what's going on at the Boulevard Mall site for more details um and so we're we're excited that we have a strong partnership with the town of Amherst and they've been very forthcoming um about that project and of course they were uh the town Engineers were here a couple months ago to discuss the um the sewer line that's going to run down Sweet Home Road that's part of the infrastructure work that's going to happen at the Boulevard Mall
032so we have our challenges we we projected increases without the Boulevard Mall project um and and we know we have spacing issues that that need to be addressed um at our elementary buildings if that project comes to fruition I mean we're talking an extra three how many thousand uh right now the the latest projection was 1500 units some may be 1500 residential units on the site some would be College housing some would also be senior housing but there would be General residenc y so much so that Dr hokel gave him the check yesterday right the check was given yesterday moving forward in some capacity but we'll get more information next month at our yep what's the deliverable coming from Young and rights meeting are they are they providing any sort of contractual deliverable scoping statement
033or anything like that not yet I think they need more input from our community and from and from the board um where where we want to go next um I know that they will be contacting campus um and starting to put the one deliverable that the board asked for during that meeting were were prices and costs um and they're going to start putting together we I actually spoke with campus today um they're going to reach out to Young and right and start putting together what some of these ideas May cost and then it's going to have to um be narrowed obviously um and and with the board's input and guidance there so that's the one uh thing that we really took away from it was the board ask for what what could some of these
034things cost and to go along with that Mr Felman we just in conversations with our financial advisor obviously we're trying to time the next project when a a previous project falls off The Debt Service or that service level uh so we have a a pretty good idea from that standpoint as to kind of a a range of costs uh for the next project uh to to make it kind of a you know no impact no tax impact kind of project uh so we have a sensus to where that number is and the next piece of it is based upon our conversations last Wednesday uh and internally here in the district uh campus is going to start to put some numbers to that uh to be able to help us kind of build our scope so
035I guess and I don't mean to steal Thunder because it looks like it might be coming up in slides I'm just trying to understand how the work at Young and Wright um is presented to the community and how it nests and how we feather in uh the thought exchange and and how that kind of comes together to develop scope yep yeah so uh the we'll get the focus groups together and then there'll be a report issued um to the board um obviously there's going to be a lot of decision making that needs to be done um by the board based on that information from Young and right um I think once we get in a better spot with where the community wants we could certainly have them um come in and present um after we
036narrow it with Community input and the input from the board um we can have young and Wright come in and present it um sometime in the spring uh about some of the options or some of the decisions the board's going to have to make we'll have better ideas obviously some of those decisions are going to be financial and we'll have better ideas of where we are um financially to to make those decisions I also just want to say um for the benefit of the community that while we're still in the ideas um wish dreaming kind of stage of things all of the ideas that we saw on Wednesday touched all four of our elementary schools yes so Y and there there will be impact on I believe all of our buildings based on our building
037condition survey um every building project should address issues um at every building um but you know clearly there's we're sensing more and more of a need at the elementary level that would include Dexter tariffs y it's really good y okay um and then again I just wanted to say thank you to the community for participating in the thought exchange um we'll have updates probably at every meeting um regarding planning and moving forward um also got to visit um Miss lipka's class yesterday at the Middle School uh as the board knows they accepted a donation um from King Arthur uh to provide supplies uh to miss lipka's class for bread making which is going to be donated to um food pantries in in the area um and got to visit the class yesterday she was doing
038a just a phenomenal job of guiding her students through making bread from scratch uh and um um they did a they did a great job they had a ton of adult Volunteers in the room um as well um but the kids followed it step by step um many tedious steps in the process um and even kept the room clean with all the flower flying around U but Friday should be the day where um our students maybe get to sample some of their work and um you know just a a phenomenal learning experience for for our students our eighth graders at the middle school and it was a a great visit over there where are we baking all this uh in her room she's got a couple enough to yeah is this something that can be
039a yearly EV or yeah I I I'll ask her I'm not sure about that but that's yeah do we know how this this King Arthur Grant came around did someone apply for it or was it just miss lipco did yeah Mrs lipco did yeah she was she found it U sent us an email asked us if the if the board would be interested in accepting the donation and just it was all her yeah um and then just a couple updates tomorrow night uh to finish off our Winter concert season uh the Heritage Heights Winter concert will take place place at 6:30 at Heritage Heights and then the Glendale chorus concert will be here in the High School auditorium at 7 um so inviting all of our community out to watch uh the talent um and
040and uh work of our of our students and and their teachers that's what I have for tonight any questions all right that brings us to the first open session as per board policy 1510 we hold two open sessions at each meeting the first session is limited comments on the agenda for tonight's meeting the board welcomes attendance and participation by District residents persons having business within the boundaries of the school district and persons who do business with the Board of Education speakers must be at least 16 years of age and will be limited to three minutes each speaker may not transfer their time to another participant the board by resolution may vote to extend the time of the speaker participants May register in advance with the district clerk those registering in advance will speak in order
041of their sign up those not signed up will speak afterwards the total amount of time in each public participation period is 30 minutes statements should be made to the board president not individual board members participants may not discuss specific individuals or issues that fall under executive session participants must abide by the Board of Education policy and the district's code of conduct both available at the on the district's website the board president has the right to to maintain deorum by interrupting or terminating a visitor's comments requesting an individual to leave or calling for recess or adjournment of the meeting do we have any speakers tonight seeing none we'll move on I have a motion or consent agenda new business a through I so mov second all in favor discussion oh sorry discussion really gota get some
042rest um special ed there were I think 75 Pages relatively short this year but um or this month but um it again always amazes me at our staff that goes above and beyond for for our special needs kids and we still have kids coming into the district every month so thank you to them yep absolutely always anything else I got a question the high school course planning gu we're making a couple minor revisions is that it for the planning it or there is there any more coming or no it's two phases so this was just to address um the um the social studies in English class that were scheduled together or uh described together um so the the handbook will be completely reviewed they're actually in the process of doing it they're um meeting um
043as throughout the week and into the next year and then we'll be bringing any more recommendations from the Departments of the high school and the commit will um convene again just before um we come back um to our next board meeting thanks Dr Wilson and again the goal of this was to make it more available to more kids open up access um to make sure that we were offering as many opportunities to students as possible and that students could hone in on things they felt were their strengths um and those two courses were tied together which was limiting some students so um the push was to get that language in so that we could support current families who have made requests to make a change uh based on those that thinking and then the um
044full handbook will be going forward for the next year anything else okay all in favor hi hi hi that brings us to informational items Mr TR um uh Student Government met last week to analyze the survey results from what we had sent out um about a talent show from that our special committee who is assigned to this talent show idea uh has set up a meeting this Thursday with Mrs Bruce Mrs Harrison and Mr Marone uh to go over timeline Logistics and a selection process and any other necessary information to get us ready for a talent show to take place hopefully in March or April um sometime after the musical season the hope is to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of all of our students students and contribute to maintaining a unified student body where
045everyone is celebrated uh Mr Ryan the principle at Maple recently reached out to me and Mrs Bruce uh he asked us to once again facilitate their school's leadership Celebration Day in February of course we said yes um our group looks forward to this event every year all of our members love seeing the younger students that they've formed relationships and connections with over the last few years uh we this will be our third year doing it um so after the holiday break we're planning to move full steam ahead with this project making it the best possible experience for all students involved um and our executive team Mrs Boo and Mr sasbo from our tech department met with our student Tech committee yesterday uh to talk through and hear some feedback and suggestions on how to go
046about resolving some tech issues we're having at the high school um it focused mainly on our gy grade level mailers um who can send and receive those emails looking into possibly maybe creating an app audit survey for students to fill out so our tech department can know what apps are actually needed or used by students and then also addressing problems with the amount of storage on our iPads um and then tomorrow our food and nutrition committee and our environmental action committee uh is meeting to prepare for an upcoming meeting after the break with Central Kitchen and Mrs sjck um they're hoping to discuss more options for those with dietary restrictions and continuing our conversation on the farm to table grants um and also possibly setting up a feedback system so Central Kitchen knows which offerings
047are favored most by students um and I think that is everything great thank you Miss Jason um just I was able to attend a couple concerts but um limited because I just got back from vacation so the concerts were great thank you Miss McDonald um just once again every every meeting I'll say kudos to Mr trof and his team I think I think you guys are the most efficient system of government that we have um but other than that I do not have anything to report thank you Mr Feldman uh I've been traveling pretty extensively for work so I saw a couple of the holiday concerts which was which were awesome they're always fun um that's all I have thank you Mr liel yeah I just um I attended the will um PTA meeting uh
048PTO meeting the um uh last week um you know that's kind of status quo with um with that group I think you know it looks like we've got some teachers here and some staff I I just want to mention and I have in other meetings uh recognized the principles and said you know sometimes um how hard they work on our behalf and and I know this is a little bit of the for for the trees but I think it's important that sometimes we get caught up in the trees and you know having four young kids three to 10 and I can tell you as a parent I'm saying this more than as a board member that the most important thing from my perspective and um as a parent is that your kids have great teachers
049and I'm just appreciative and I think I can speak for all the board members here how much we appreciate looks like my my mic went but how much uh so they all went they all went but anyways that how much we appreciate you know the hard work and the dedication of the of the teachers you know everything else is important it does matter but nothing can replace the importance of the teachers and um so you know just want to mention you know my kids come home and they talk about what they did at school and in the classroom more than anything else and with their teachers um you know so I I you know when you think about Great Schools at the heart of it as great teachers so I just want to you know
050wish you all a great holiday and appreciate everything that all of you are doing for us thank you Mr Johnson couple things um I appreciate that time that young and Wright spent with us putting together that presentation and learning a lot um the learning that uh State education is requiring us to used extra terce as part of the process before we can go anywhere else was kind of a shock and it's I'm I'm glad to see they were able to help put build that into the mix and give us some good things to think about on that um last week uh myself and um Jane Sullivan from the ecas program Services met with a couple of members of Senator Kennedy's staff we talked with them a little bit about the foundation Aid formula and what
051the type of things we'd like like to say on a bit um we also spent quite a bit of time on the Zero emission es and the issues and how we'd like to see that being pushed back because it's been pretty clear from our talks with legislators that it's not going to go away and a couple other issues and then one of them was just maintaining the relationship because right now the initial things look like Senator Kenny maybe Kennedy maybe our next representative after Mr Hain retires so maintain that relationship as good and that would be it for me what they say about the zero emissions did he have any insight it was the staff that was there but um it was uh when we went the previous week with with uh Senator Ryan um
052he specifically said that right now it's not really a big talking point in in Albany but he said about two years from now he said he expects it'll become a big thing and that then they'll be talking about pushing the dates back probably because that's when people actually have to start doing something and they'll step backwards on it thank you Mr balani um just this past Saturday morning uh my family and a few other swe home families volunteered um at the teacher desk uh helping um Teacher Shop um teacher desk is a non for-profit where they get a lot of donations for student materials so teachers um at districts I believe it's 70% um free and reduced lunch is the cut off are allowed to go um shop for free materials for their students um
053anything from hygiene to books and stuff like that K uh prek to 8 um so we spent some time there um loading cars and helping teachers shop um I know we had some high school kids there that were getting service hours and stuff like that so that over the weekend great anything else no um I attended a few sporting events and I did not make it to any of the concerts it's just been is the season um I would like to Echo and speak for the board when I do say that we do you we do know that you work very very hard and we are very aware of how hard you work I work in teacher prep at a CO local college and you know preparing teachers is not an easy gig um being
054a teacher is not an easy gig these days so we appreciate you we hope that you know that and we hope that you have a great and restful break that being said that brings us to the next Open Session do I have to read this again some okay as per board policy 1510 we hold two open sessions the second session may be used to address the board on topics appropriate for Open session all the rest is the same so by all means please take the mic three minutes my name is Karen Meltzer I'm a spe p ologist M Elementary School I reside in Williamsville I am a proud member of the Buffalo Jewish Community I am disappointed at our District's lack of response following the recent incidents of anti-Semitism the events occurred at the middle
055school and at the high school at the high school the Israeli flag was torn down and later burned offsite a video circulated of that event most recently an Israeli flag was pulled down at the middle school school I am not here to share my stance on Israel or the current crisis in the Middle East I am not a radical Jew or religious zealot rather I'm a person with a strong cultural Jewish identity I try my best to honor our customs and traditions with my family and friends according to the Anti-Defamation League there has been a 3 37% rise in anti-semitic incidents in the United States since October 7 while these incidents are all over the media I never expected to read about events occurring in our district in the Buffalo News following the news article
056I expected a district response I expected an email to the Sweet Home Community denouncing what happened I expected the district to say that anti-Semitism would not be tolerated but that never happened and things were swept under the rug until the most recent incident at the middle school again I waited for that take aand email which also never happened we boast that we are a district of diversity equity and inclusion but the lack of response to these events has shown otherwise the district's Silence has been deafening a missed opportunity a missed opportunity to take a stand a missed opportunity to say that anti-Semitism will not be tolerated a missed opportunity to educate a missed opportunity to let families and staff be part of the solution a Miss opportunity to let the Jewish members of your school
057Community feel like they matter can you look Us in the eye your sweet home community and tell us that you did the right thing because you didn't did did you want to take the mic oh okay thank [Music] you is there any other speakers tonight good evening Paul sandera um as a representative of the SED home Education Association I'd like to say that after hearing from Miss Meltzer I'm compelled to speak on behalf of the Sweet Home teachers that we too do not agree with the district's non-responsiveness Shay wants to Proclaim publicly that we do not tolerate hate speech and behavior in our community and that we value inclusivity if you are a district that values diversity equity and inclusion how could you not make a public statement since there have been multiple situations at
058multiple schools over the past six weeks of hatred we implore you to do the right thing take a stand communicate to our faculty and staff our students our parents and our community members that there is never a time when hateful words and actions will be tolerated and accountability will be Swift for those who choose hate thank you any other speakers seeing none we'll move on do not resp dis honly we don't tolerate hate against any other people it's funny I feel a lot of hate coming at me right now we do not respond to these attacks so if you have more to say you can can I can I we it is board policy we do not respond thank you for speaking tonight and that is we're done let's move on can I have a
059motion you can let everyone know about all these Witnesses it's on YouTube good good so they all know your actually if you knew me at all you would not say that but I appreciate your opinion am Amy to the next pleas I need a motion for consent agenda for personnel and service so moved second all in favor I I and I have a motion to dismiss adjourn meeting's adjourned