001you were good I was not gonna come and play that game again all right MH I do out a second okay like [Music] this sure I can take I looked at it because this doesn't handle message just you have to do it now no I'm gonna just send myself a message so I don't forget we're going to mik yeah I'm all right thank you for your patience as we uh come back from executive session here um can I have a motion to approve the agenda so moved second all in favor I I minutes from the previous meeting are there any questions or comments motion to approve the minutes so moved second all in favor I I brings us to Communications we have one hair speech legal alert anything anybody here anything else no but I
002just had a question on the legal alert so it's increasing the amount of minutes for those kids that are not receiving in classroom yes so we're going from two to three hours okay and are we already doing that yes started first day of school and that's minimum we could do more but it's that's that's the stand yeah so we're already there anything else all right moves on to unfinished business we have none and that brings us to the superintendent's report Dr chest hey thank you Mrs baglia call this up here um so uh for tonight's meeting uh just a a couple of updates for the board uh we'll start with some some sad news uh a a distinguished um alumni Wall of Fame member and um just a great Community member uh Class of 1989
003from Sweet Home Dr E brook learner uh has passed away um she passed away on October 4th uh she was inducted into our wall of fame uh this year and uh had a just an amazing speech uh for all of those that were in attendance uh about her time in Sweet Home but how uh it influenced her work uh to be a Pioneer in emergency medicine uh and uh and be really at the Forefront um as a um like I said Pioneer in the field she's a a three-time graduate at the University of Buffalo and she returned back in 2019 as a ten professor and vice chair of research in the department of emergency medicine Jacobs school um after a prolific research career at the University of Rochester and the Medical College of Wisconsin um
004she uh continued to work during her illness and was recently awarded four more years of funding as a principal investigator to lead research on improving prehosp care for children through federally funded pediatric Emergency Care applied research Network NW work uh for which she was a past chair um she led the development of the current national guideline for mass casualty triage uh and her research which uh prospectively enrolled over 12,000 adults and 12,000 children treated by EMS uh and um was in the National Field of triage um and she wrote guidelines for triage and Trauma uh care uh so just wanted to recognize um Dr E brook learner um and um and and thank her for her contributions and know um that she's in the thoughts and prayers of our of our district um and like
005I said class of 89 and just a an incredible speech uh via video um that she gave during her um when she gave that speech a few of us were there she knew she was kind of towards the end of her journey yes and she it was just uplifting to see a person just give such words of encouragement and all that she's accomplished so she really will be missed but what a mark She's left in this world absolutely absolutely and we also um wanted to take some time to recognize that October 16th through the 20th is School Board recognition week uh we wanted to thank the members of our of our board um who president Amy baglia vice president Peter balante Josh Feldman Maryann Jason Scott Johnson Brian liel and Kaylee McDonald uh for your
006volunteership uh most importantly but your leadership uh in in guiding us and leading our district uh the countless number of hours and that you put in all for the betterment of student causes is uh is very much noted um and uh we can't uh say thank you enough for your time and efforts um we also uh provided the board with the book The Happiness factor and I know many of us in our district have done exercises on the happiness Factor um we encourage you to watch the Ted Talk on the happiness Factor but uh first and foremost just say thank you for your for your service to Sweet Home are we're all going to Disney we're all going to Disney sure absolutely um on uh October 11th we had our parent Forum on school safety
007it was well publicized and um we had our partner networks from the United States Secret Service the ammer police department tanatan Wanda and Horizon Health um Services all present and I just wanted to uh take a moment uh to thank uh publicly our partners uh from the am Police Department Captain Charles persons detective David David Schneider uh who did a a great talk on some of the risks uh and and things that are out in our communities now uh our SRO uh officer G officer Arnold uh was in attendance as was officer Trey Johnson who is the community um um support person for the amoris police department uh they worked hand inand with our town to town of Wanda um representative uh detective Lieutenant Amanda Taber she was also in attendance uh talking about school
008safety uh special agent Ryan Flynn the the the dangers of online uh social media uh and what's out there for kids really uh and informative uh we made a great connection with him and he has actually a school age curriculum that he was uh that he's always willing to share uh with us on um some of the dangers and some of the things that kids can avoid uh online and then um from the mental health side Shakira Henry from Horizon Health Services was there to talk about the impact social media can have on students mental health so all in all a great two and a half hour I would say program um lots of information and really demonstrating uh that sweet home works with fantastic Partners in in safety to keep our um to keep
009our uh school and Community safe thank you to Mrs B who yes set up kind of coordinated all the efforts so thank you yeah I don't know if you wanted to add anything but uh it's a great night appreciate everyone you know support and attendance and you know a continued it's a continued conversation it's not a one andone yeah we're already talking about next year how we want to um bring it back together uh and what some of the other topics might be so um yeah so we will continue that that conversation our last parent University is Thursday October 9th at the middle school from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. uh parents will see demonstrations in desmo math and open science Ed science um there is a registration form on our website that parents can also
010fill in if they would like to attend and I don't know Dr Wilson if you wanted to comment on the first one how it went and yes so the first one was uh so the first one was last week uh focus on the elementary Imagine Learning which is aligned to the middle school math that we have um that we're implementing this year lots of fun we actually went through lessons like we would in class and the teachers took um their time unpacking the new language shifts what's different from when you took math in school to today and what can you expect where could you go to look for things to support your child when they come home and they and you say what did you do and they say nothing to go that's our goal
011also um with the with the Middle School um just lots of fun um and so we all were there as students and engaging in the math and and the shifts that students have to um engage in around their thinking and not necessarily learning um tricks to to solve math problems but how do you think about mathematics so looking forward to tomorrow or Thursday so um and anyone who wants to stop by please do right thank you um we're going to continue to promote the thought exchange um regarding our next Capital project we've already had over 400 uh participants uh in in the thought exchange um and the simple question is the district starts the plan for the next Capital Improvement project what enhancements to our facilities need to happen to prepare our students to be
012ready for the future um so we're going to continue to send the link out to parents uh and to our school Community to make sure and encourage everybody to um provide their thoughts and input uh and then after that close in November we will hold focus groups on um the information that's provided then like I said last week we do have our first building use committee on the 25th um where we'll talk about thought Exchange and where we are with that um and start planning out um how we want to attack the uh next Capital project and just a plug for our Dollars for Scholars uh craft show October 21st and from 9:00 am to 3M in the high schol school gym uh there will be over 110 Crafters on display we have sold out
013once again all the proceeds um go to Dollars for Scholars uh and um we passed out about $110,000 worth of scholarships last year to nearly a hundred students I believe you told me 105 students except 105 students 105 students um so um anybody out there please attend uh the money it's a it's a great time there's a ton of items to buy and all the money goes to a great great cause so I don't know Mr Feldman if you had any more comments on everybody's favorite day of the year um you know as Mike said we have 110 Crafters the high school PTSA will be there they do uh a basket raffle um that they have I think over 50 some baskets that's their primary fundraiser for their scholarships uh for the course of the
014year um so it is one of our major fundraisers for Dollars for Scholars uh I would be remiss if I didn't thank uh John campolo on the high school baseball team um uh the girls of varsity lacrosse team uh and Coach is name is escaping me Jane thank you Jane uh and then um The High School uh junior class Council and Lisa face who are working the door for us without the student volunteer help uh I'm not we're not setting up 110 Tables by ourselves so they do a great job so it is a good day um and hopefully we'll get a good crowd awesome great and that's what I have for tonight if there's any questions gu yeah all right um before we conclude the superintendent's report we're gonna have our conversation around our
015um self- evaluation we'll go through I hope everybody had a chance to review what we did um standard one we were effective on all things except one C we were developing um and that is something that we've discussed in our board goals about regular regularly monitoring our progress um for goals and such so we'll work on that for this year standard two again all of effective with highly effective being uh that we publicly support the decision of the majority and speak as a unified voice we are seven but we speak as one three is effective with highly effective being board development and collaboration relationship with superintendent being respectful um stop me if there's anything anybody wants to add or go over standard four again all effective with highly effective being in ensuring the audit committee
016functions in accordance with the regulations um kudos to Dr Feldman for all of all that he does for that Dr Felman I'm promoting you today um standard five effective and highly effective on all of those as well um highly effective being board actively promotes the belief in students success in all students in the district other than that I feel that we were all pretty much on the same page I feel like our comments were all very very similar um the things that we know we need to work on we've discussed and have rolled it into our goals and our wi are um there was one question I had about um the actual um Act of renewing our code of conduct is that part of our reorg organization meeting is that when does that actually happen
017well I mentioned a board specifically code of conduct and I know we had talked is that we have a district General code of conduct that we're talking about because I don't think I've ever seen a board code of conduct just following the same code of conduct we ask everybody else to follow okay um there was a question in the comments about reaffirming those I mean I know we adopt them every year but do we have to reaffirm them as well a thing I believe that's that's kind of where I was at but I know that conversation was happening in some of the notes well I added I I think I commented on that I would just say in public nonprofit organizations it's it's more rather than a given you have to make a um you
018know an assertion there's you typically a document that's signed by board members and I so I think you know when I comment it it's that I understand we may you know we all agree and and and understand the code of ethics within the the overarching policy but I think it's something we can look at for given that the vast majority of nonprofit and um institutions out there um are following that and that seems to be best practices you know typically that's just a document that Senter around and the board memb sign it then okay I would just like to make a comment on the tool now that we've done it twice I'm I'm kind of thinking it's it's good I I definitely like it better it's a lot easier to use um I'm liking the
019second time better than the first time oh 100% better you guys know how I am 100% better so it was yeah much better awesome now she doesn't have to control the back end either you did submit your comments three times a couple I wanted to emphasize my comments that's why anybody have anything else about the evaluation that we conclud this forance report thank you all right items of Interest we've got some PTA meetings some Trunk or Treat festivities at a couple of our elementaries fall activity night coming up and obviously the Dollars for Scholars scrap show um at this time we'll go to our first open session as per policy 1510 the board welcomes participation by District residents persons having business with in the district boundaries and persons who do business with the Board of
020Education all participants must be 16 years or older speakers must be recognized by the presiding officer and announce their name address and group affiliation if appropriate speakers are limited to 3 minutes each and may not transfer their time to any other participant the board by resolution may vote to extend the time of any speaker participants May register in advance with the district clerk those registering in advance will speak in the order of their sign up those not signed up will speak afterward the total amount of the time for 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
021both available on the district's website and posted around the board president has the right to maintain de Quorum by interrupting or terminating a visitor's comments requesting an individual to leave or finish up do we have any takers tonight all right seeing none we'll move on can I have a consent agenda for new business special ed class placements preschool placements District audit monthly financials Transportation girls wrestling overnight field trip requests disposal of obsolete property athletic team mergers no move I'll second the motion do we have any comments or questions seeing none all in favor I opposed that brings us to our second Open Session informational oh informational items I'm sorry I totally missed that um informational items first Miss Jason um just nothing we haven't mentioned before just the quality presentation at the safety and I
022would love to see that brought into the kids now that you know parents have been somewhat educated but this is a a um something that it's fluid as we speak of things and it shouldn't be the last one so that's it okay Mr Johnson um got a handful of things um I attended a webinar last week it was name they named meeting today's Communications challenges um it was actually very good um I really enjoyed the whole thing and I just got an email today that gave me the handouts and actually recording I'm going to ship it over but so that you can see what it was that I that I went through um I did delegate orientation and training for the business meeting I also attended the District Parent safety form I found it to
023be very informative um I last Thursday I went to hear Dr Rick Tims which I'm sure at least some of you have done um over the past he um you know he's always telling us where we're at MoneyWise with the state budget he talked a little bit about the up the coming fiscal cliff because we've reached the point where we've with the Govern governor and the budget has actually now given us what the topest fiscal excuse me that we've been asking for over the years for foundation Aid so the question is what are they going to do next are they going to increase it they're going to keep it the same um he talked a lot about possibly how changing the formula which we all know is severely out of date he put some of
024the dates on it too as to what it was um he gave a comparison of because it's based on your students um did the number of students in each district over the last dozen years or so and all but a couple of them went down down uh we were one of the couple that didn't we were up 23 in the last 12 years so that's that was a down a ways and then back up again and that number um some of them were down significantly like over a thousand um so that some of the bigger districts his guess what's GNA happen up um he was pretty negative about no um he was pretty negative he didn't think that we'd see much if anything in the way of increases um just because of the the the
025stuff that's going on now the control has reports coming out citing future deficits of very large numbers um he also talked quite a bit about the electric buses excuse me the zero Mission buses that we're that are on the way um he threw a lot of numbers at them as to what he thought and some of them were pretty outrageous I think I think he probably pushed him a little too far and I know those of you have seen him before have heard that too I mean he tends to go a little far um having just a couple nights before having had our presentation from wend will come in I explained to them what they did that they calculated for us for 57 buses that it was going to take $1 million to build the
026charging station set up and just he quickly responded well is that you know just 11 million cash or is that finance and I said they didn't say he well count I be at least double I no it's not gonna be at Le doubled Finance I don't believe that but anyway um but I mean it's a lot of what he did say made a lot of good points too um Dr janri and I spent uh a portion of the day yesterday with the mass media class is up in Agri University um was kind of fascinating to see what they did they took them around and they broke it up into three groups um I want to thank uh Mrs lebre and Mr coil for inviting us we uh we we took one group they took other
027groups of kids we if the they started off with our group got a chance to listen and learn a little bit more about niagar University and their programs talk to them about the new Step classes that they're already taking and the availability of scholarships which was quite a bit I'm surprised including just for kids who were in The new step program um a $122,000 scholarship $3,000 each over four years in addition to a bunch of other ones there were some pretty significant money um so and overall and the kids then they went to TV studio that they got set up and they got a chance to actually do a a a news Broadcast News weather Etc the kids were they were loving that and then they went into their radio station see the setup there
028and finally um you guys saw my text last night was the business business meeting after that time um it is the only one and only business meeting for nisbar every year I'm not going to go through it all because this is all the stuff I took notes on if you didn't look this afternoon I sent over to Sherry a written report of of of how the whole process went through so it is on the website right now you can see um I do want at least a little bit of it we uh at the start the Quorum is it's it's a virtual meeting set up using a zoom technology but they actually um have us all in a a listen only attendee mode when we start and if you're going to speak they have to
029promote you and it actually takes 20 to 30 seconds each time they promote somebody so that drags it down to some extent um the meeting is required to have 200 um delegates to create create a quum we started off with 302 um they elected the officers officers that they had put up for proposal they started off like we do asking for a consent agenda for the first 14 items and 1 two three four five six seven of them ended up being removed um the other seven were approved right away by a voted 304 to2 is that all the Sund Downing ones um yeah I think most of them were um as we just as we go through there was a couple that we um the Amendments and it was just about I'm just like I
030think there was one or two of the ones that were recommended by the nisb team were defeated the other ones all were pretty much passed wi by wide margins once you get to the ones that were not recommended every one of them has to receive a motion in a second to be brought to the floor every one of them did so we got all the way to the end of the pile um some of them had a number of speakers several of them had amendments to go along with them there was a few you guys had asked I'm sorry I'm trying to go through the my notes quickly here there was a few where you had asked me to speak and put forward um I know that one of them was about the um teachers
031retirement system we did vote Yes as requested even though that was not recommended um I was able to second the motion but I was not able to speak um they this was getting later in the meeting and people were starting to call the question quickly to try and get out of there um meeting started at four o'clock and finished at 10 minutes to 12 last night um the rest of it I mean there's you know bits and pieces I know there's there was several in a row there was I think six or seven in a row towards the end that we had seen in previous years there was a group of six school districts from out on Long Island that all have a pretty conservative philosophy in the way they do things and they had
032to bring each one of those up and out of all their resolutions every one of them was voted no except the last one sorry I don't have which one it was in front of me but anyway that's pretty much I don't know if you've have any particular questions about any resolutions in particular that we discussed last week because I know obviously it took us a lot longer last week to discuss how to vote rather than we did the vote bring up my suggestion for lunches during the summer I think that's where they actually want to go with it yeah they just straight through that one went that was a quick one I know that that yeah it got voted that was another one of those like 290 to 10 or something like that so that
033was pretty straightforward anyone else okay that was everything for me all right I'm to double back to Hunter because I'm so sorry I forgot you that's fine um last night I attended the district's Dei committee meeting where myself and another student Lily Fischer presented on the activities and experiences from our students act Retreat earlier this year um we also discussed the development of an equity audit and what that would look like for the district and our schools and then earlier today our Student Government Association held a meeting which we shared updates on activities we currently have going on at the high school such as a duck hunt we're doing with the main office staff we HD around 220 small resin ducts around the school um students can turn them into the main office for prizes
034such as candies snacks or temporary tattoos um we also voted and confirmed our committee chairs today this allows us to fully dive into all of our projects that we have planned for the year um we had a cabinet meeting planned for this Thursday which all of our Executives and chairs will meet to come up with goals for each committee um for example our student Safety Committee is going to continue their focus on social and emotional well-being in addition to the physical safety of our students um our diversity and inclusion committee is going to look into creating more awareness in celebrating the variety of cultural holidays within our calendar excuse me and our academics and Student Life committee is going to continue the work to make students to feel welcomed and involved in our school community
035Through Spirit weeks which we're planning one uh for Halloween now currently um more contests such as the duck hunt uh in addition to our winter pep rallies and dance major events later in the year um the executives have come up with a very ambitious goal of putting on a talent show later this year around March um that we're starting to get the ball v rolling on early we've already met with Mr Baker in the high school and he's on board with the idea so we're establishing a special committee to look into getting this uh how the process for auditions and all of that going to work I just ask a quick question I know your predecessor had talked about having meetings with um the head of lunches and cafeteria and that is that going to
036continue um do that yes that is a goal for environmental action and food safety committees is to continue uh the chair of environmental action Haley star uh uh previously with Farm to school grants She's Been instrumental with that and our chair for food and nutrition Matt Spence uh both of them have worked closely over the last few years on everything involving District kitchen and theol food which they'll look to continue this year as well thank you great Miss McDonald first of all just kudos to our our student leaders and our Student Government team you guys every time you give a report you guys blow me away for like all the years I've been on the board really well done um really look forward to seeing what you guys do this year um I was also
037at the Dei meeting yesterday um apologies to Heritage Heights PTA I was not able to attend their meeting last night but I sent over some notes about um the thought exchange about the safety forum and about our meeting tonight um and I will pass along anything um that gets sent my way um and then I also attended the the safety Forum which was like I I don't have kids for our our community who doesn't know this about me I don't have kids so I am watching myself lose touch with technology as I get older and that was it was really eye openening for me um and it is a little scary but I'm glad we're having discussions about it and I hope that we continue to kind of make sure that we're having open conversations
038about how to keep each other and our in our students safe so it was um really well done for him I think that's all for me Mr liel yeah I uh just one thing I attended the safety Forum as well I did not attend it in person though I attended it virtually um because of um some things going on at home but um I thought it was well done and you know Echo uh the sentiments that were already expressed here that it that's it all right Mr Feldman greetings from Chicago thanks for allowing me to join remotely um I just want to comment one thing I I brought it up last week with with the uh merger of the athletic team that's on the agenda tonight with the hockey team I'm glad to see the
039administration just I have a vested interest in that program and in fact kind of the dip in uh in enrollment in the district hockey program is while I was coaching it so you can blame that one on me but uh I'm glad to see that pressing forward um but uh that's all I have I appreciate it though wonderful thank you Mr Auntie um I just attended a couple of um special volleyball games this past week so the boys team played at Williamsville South um in a breast cancer awareness night so they had basket Raffles and um the boys all wor I think the coach brought pink shoelaces for all the boys to wear from Williamsville South so that was a good night there and then um we had senior night last night for the boys
040team and Coach ciso as always honors parents and and players uh very nice for that game tough game though but I thank you for for doing that for our boys and their parents that's it for me all right um I just would like to apologize on the record for having to step out last week unexpectedly um all is well so that's all I have now that brings us to the second Open Session uh do we have anybody that would like to speak tonight good evening my name is Lori Roth I am a teacher here at sweet home since 2001 and I live on Grand Island I stand here before you embarrassed and angry embarrassed that my district repeatedly refuses to meet with our teachers union angry my district walked away from the table even before
041the contract expired the sweet home way embodies working together all parties in our sweet home Community if you believe that what are you waiting for we the teachers are part of this sweet home community and ready to negotiate hear my call to action negotiate now for a fair and equitable contract never in my time at Sweet Home have teachers been working without a contract we teach our students to be problems solvers and find Solutions we teach our students that they can do hard things I believe what I teach my students sadly this is not what I see from Administration this past 146 days here at Sweet Home 109 days of teachers working without a contract 146 days of non-negotiation never in my memory has this District given up on teachers before never has this District
042walked away from negotiations even before the contract expired Sweet Home has always been a lighthouse even before we were formally deemed a lighthouse school we were the ones other districts look to as role models for action plans as I see it now administration's current plan is no plan simply wasting time and money time when we are not working together money waiting to pay an outside mediator this is not the sweet home way sweet home teachers are working without a contract teachers will continue to pour our hearts and souls into students I am asking Administration to do something stop hiding behind a declaration of impass walking away from negotiations and waiting to pay an outside mediator is not the sweet home way I am here speaking tonight because I am not giving up I am here
043tonight to appeal to you please be a problem solver and come to the table to negotiate think win-win work together to find Common Ground negotiate now for a fair and Equitable contract thank you for my three minutes tonight [Applause] anybody else seeing none we'll continue I'd like to I have a motion for personnel one teaching and administrative and to service so moved second any conversation all in favor I I I opposed none all right that takes us to motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor hi hi hi hi have a nice night