001keep going Mr Feldman we good I'm ready all right I'll call a meeting to order stamping pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberties thank you let's do roll call Miss Jason here Mr Johnson I'm here Miss McDonald here Mr Feldman come here Mr libel here sorry Mr Milani here no I'm laughing at Marion and I am here uh motion to accept role second all in favor bye all right on to the approval of the agenda any questions no I have a motion to approve so moot second all in favor aye aye minutes to the previous meeting do we have any questions or comments nope I have a motion to approve the previous minute so moved second all
002in favor aye Communications we have one Paris speech alert anything else anybody hear anything else all right we have no unfinished business so that brings us to superintendent's report thank you Mrs Battaglia um we have two presentations for the board tonight two short presentations from Dr Wilson uh our first let me call it up here Mike if you go to Virgil's Zoom room um foreign our progress towards graduation report and our professional development plans Dr Wilson good evening everyone tonight we're going to be digging into progress towards graduation and we're going to be looking at a high level of how we did last year with the graduating class from 2022. so this graph highlights for us five years worth of four-year graduation rates so you as you can see we're going back to 2018 our
003district goal is to reach the 95 graduation rate and then a 65 of our students reaching the advanced designation level and so as you can see that that line going across shows you how we did across the board for five years last year we had a jump in graduation um from 91 to 94 which it's a three percent increase which once you get into the 90s it's very difficult to see an increase like that so it really does say a lot to see an improvement in graduation rate at 94 percent um you should know that you know with the pandemic going back to 2019-20 you know that was a year where you started to see exams were canceled and we were using the exemptions so the exemption started there so it's counting out four years
004that takes us through this class being the last big group of students who earned those exemptions due to the cancellation of Regents exams and so most of the students here in this category um or in this last graduating class had those exemptions early on but then were able to engage in regions Again by 2122 so you see the combination of the exemptions passing classes as well as Regency exams as we dig deeper into the events designation we really want to look closely at how we're doing you see we had an increase of five percent again a challenge that was faced head-on and we had that Improvement if you pick apart those last two years like if we focus just on 21 22 22 23 and we go deeper into that advanced designation so we've talked
005about Advanced designation before um many times it is believed that that is what you need when you go after college the argument is that you really need that to transition off into the world it is the foundation that will support students who are going off into CTE technical reading and writing courses anything that will help them with the next level so we want to push as many kids as possible to get that advanced designation if we picked apart those two areas for the last two years and really dug into our biggest subgroup economically disadvantaged we'll see that majority of the students that fall into that category are not economically disadvantaged and we really want to push to have that number be closer to the percentage of students who are in our district right now at
00649 economically disadvantaged next slide [Music] so here's a snapshot of um progress towards graduation from credit point of view to graduate from high school you have to earn um in two categories credits and Regis exams and you have to accumulate those 22 credits that you always hear about and of course we want you to go above and beyond and this shows you our if we look at the bottom on the right 10th grade those were our ninth graders last year so this is what they look like at the start of 10th grade so we're looking at anybody who was in high school last year and how they're looking with credits we really want to always be in that middle column or higher so for example if you're looking at that 10th grade group 151 students
007fall into that category of they've earned five to seven credits going into 10th grade that's 57.6 percent of that class but you see another 87 of them earned eight credits or more they are on track firmly on track to getting that advanced designation that's 32.6 you pull them together that class is 90.1 percent on track for graduation right now um when we go to the next class 11th grade same thing you want to be in that middle column or higher so 70 students fall into that middle column of 12 to 14 credits 70 students is 27.7 percent but you see a nice big group in that 15 plus category that's 54.6 percent firmly on track to getting the advanced designation so a total of 82.3 we need to dig deeper into those 45 that is
00817.8 percent of the class and that's when we really dig deep into those those graduation reviews those core reviews that we do at the high school where we dig deep into each student for example of the 45 10 of them could be only a credit away from the next category how do we help them get over that that Hill and our seniors so you again you want to be in the middle and you or higher um 43.2 percent are that make up that 115 in the middle 131 of the class 49.2 on track right now without even finishing the courses that they have for advanced designation because they are at least 22 credits or more right now as they start their senior year that 20 make up the 7.5 and again the cohort reviews help
009to support that work what's the next slide so we're digging into math we do have results across the board and this is a high level and math was selected because we began that discussion last last year about math at K-8 and looking at new curriculum programs and then how does that play out in high school because remember we talked about those 22 credits and the Regents exams and when you're talking about the advanced designation math courses become the one of those points that we can really push hard on and really get students to that level with the advanced designation so you have algebra one geometry and algebra two and the things that I want to point out here so you see um the taller buyers and then the shorter buyers right so there there's four
010years there spelled out and when you look at this the first set of buyers show you proficiency proficiency equivalence to equivalence is equivalent to a three or four as we talk about for like for the three through eight it's the same kind of conversions for high school so those students are proficient when we look at Mastery those are the students who have reached the highest level and as you can see 74 last year and 20 excuse me 12 in the Mastery category for last year that 74 includes the 12 but we broke that out so you can see how many students reached at higher level the noticings that happen here is you see that the algebra 2 results are much higher across the board but the thing I need to point out is that algebra
011one is a graduation requirement and every student sits in that course every student does not sit in the algebra 2 course it's a much smaller group it's our students many times that have received acceleration at eighth grade and we want to make sure that we continue to grow that group so in comparison you would see if we pull out the students who pulled at who took algebra at eighth grade you would see about 175-ish students from year to year in the algebra 1 course versus the algebra 2 which would be 48 to 65. so we also have been looking at data Always by looking at our subgroups and um we always want to make sure that we are looking at what was our overall uh performance so this is algebra proficiency Algebra 1 proficiency remember
012it was 74 overall and where you see higher or lower in the categories here by subgroup around ethnicity is where you see where we have either excelled or we have some gaps so this is all ethnicity I pulled in off to the side you don't normally see this but I pulled in the economically disadvantage category so that you could get a sense for um how that that group our largest subgroup is doing compared to all the other subgroups around ethnicity if we are to make a huge impact on our economically disadvantage which cuts across all subgroups and is our largest subgroup we make a huge dent in reaching that 65 percent um Advanced designation or higher we we can most certainly go higher messed up and our last slide advanced placement um and so here
013we have a lot of celebrations also um and I have some Nu results that I can also share but advanced placement over overall AP courses students enrolled we had 189 students take on the challenge of advanced placement um and within of those 189 students took on 273 exams so students were taking multiple exams and of those 273 exams 186 of them were three or higher which we know those are the scores that the colleges want to see and so some some good results for students we also in our Nu courses we offer 12 a piece which is a nice number for the size of our high school as well as nine Nu courses and in the in in the in new courses we had a 98 pass rate so that is graduation a high level
014in a nutshell any questions I actually have a I appreciate the large font thank you the large font I appreciate it always so this 94 for the graduation I mean I've been on the board 17 years and we've looked at that number I'm kind of always though how many kids does that represent so the the total cohort um would be included in no I mean the kids that aren't graduating oh that aren't graduating aren't graduating right so um of the six percent so one thing you need to know is that we have um students who are alternatively assessed our nicest students um they stay with us until the age of 21 but in New York state When You Reach year four um the students who are in that nicer program are counted as continuing which
015counts as it very similar to by New York State rules as as a Dropout they don't come they don't complete um so we have that category plus we had 15 students um who did not graduate in August eight of them are continuing on to fifth year which we do have accountability rates around five and six years and we had 17 excuse me seven total dropouts what I'm always looking for is the small group with students is there any creative way to reach them because they're still our kids I mean I've heard that sometimes they're in jail sometimes that it's the problem with coming to school I just feel like there's got to be some creative way to reach these kids because they're they're Panthers they're our kids so we that's our cohort review so we
016we spend quite a bit of time going student by student looking at what do we know specifically about what's going on in their families what's going on in their home life in particular neighborhoods did they move recently like we've had students move across state lines how do we continue to engage them and then make unique plans to try to support them sometimes there's a family that may move and the documentation is not completely clear and they fall into this category for that reason but we do our due diligence to try to track down as many students as possible it did okay you can hear me is there a major reason that you're seeing I mean is there's one thing you can point to is that kids don't come to school or they're no it's really
017individualized by the student um different scenarios a home life a major change in what's going on with their parents at home um and and how they're being supported there's multiple reasons and anywhere in this is there any special or special needs kids where where are they in this is there are they included in this I guess is my question they are included um the only students that do that continue on um in the alternative assessment program are counted separately but every everyone else is included in these numbers thank you and um in terms of the credit accumulation and you know I look at these numbers and these are kind of the end result but I think in in that in in other years we have heard that it's economically disadvantaged students generally fall in a
018lower um uh level of of credits but going beyond that I I think what would be helpful um and I I don't expect you to necessarily know this now but I'd be interested in knowing is like what are are there other relationships like that is it the eighth graders who are receiving Advanced um math are they you know 95 percent more likely to get you know I would imagine there's some kind of Link all along the way and so you know as a board and as a board member I look at it saying all right it's important to know the end results but actually what's actually more helpful for us is you know what can we do in advance to try to you know move those numbers um you know what programming or how you
019know even if it's just um you know what do we need to do to encourage those students at an early stage so that they're it's teed up for them going into High School right so that's a that's a great question I actually do have some numbers on on that like in particular for math that was one of the areas that we were have we had that high level discussion on so students who are entering um the algebra course in eighth grade are very likely to reach that Algebra 2 honors course and have the enough time to get to the AP math courses that are out there but one thing that is very positive that we have in our high school that's set up in a schedule is something called black math and it is a
020course designed to help catch up students who may not have experienced The Accelerated coursework in eighth grade but have the ability to be able to get through the accelerated coursework to make it to those AP classes and they can get caught up so they essentially pick up two years of math in one year and this class is um was put in place at the high school it's the success the research out there says that that is definitely the way to go as you know that was one of that was my topic that I put a lot of research time into last year so for example in black math when you look at the enrollment of students just from last year 2023. um that that class the the two sections that were running in the high
021school had um 48 of the students in those classes were economically disadvantaged which mirrors our district average so when you want to look at are we disproportionate in an area or not we want to look the same across the entire District when you look at one small group that tells you we're not disproportionate there we actually are getting more students who could be accelerated to make it to that AP course that is a huge success when you look at outside of that black math if we're if we're not engaging students there when you get to the algebra 2 there were two sections and it was disproportionately students who were not of color and and in that course also well my pages got mixed up here in that course also only 20 percent of the students
022were economically disadvantaged that tells you we're disproportionate there so the black math is a success we started it last year we really want to look at how we expanded more um the other thing that we're looking at uh go back a couple slides to the algebra geometry this one so geometry as you can see we take a dip there although we had an increase last year by a couple percentage points we take a dip there we're looking at the sequencing does it make sense to offer algebra one geometry algebra two I see some Smiles because that's been thinking the same thing yes because the thinking around geometry pull students away from that algebraic thinking that then it's heavy in Algebra 2 and that's the course that's we struggle with if we are really thinking about
023the sequencing is that the best sequence New York state does not care how we sequence them it's really up to us so we're working with the high school around that kind of work that does not happen overnight those kinds of things happen over over time but those are some of the things that we are looking at to support our all group all students but again that would impact our largest subgroup economically disadvantaged I hope that answered your question okay so you've got all this data next step is fill in the blank so I'm working with the high school to pick apart this data even further um they are hungry for this so just meeting with the administrators to talk about how they play out how this plays out with them this is a high level
024we have all of the data points for all of the subjects um and using those that to drive the cohort reviews and decide what is needed to support all students with credit recovery um region success good and that was the plan last year as we looked at and um what we needed to do to continue to improve and we saw um go back to that very first slide which is my favorite that uh right there that 94 graduation rate any other questions so I I like your question what's next steps you know there's always this so what to data you got to figure that out right so is there a possibility that we can come back once that because the users the way I understand the users of this data are the cohort reviews correct
025I mean that's really where this is being focused yes so I ideally you know kind of gets root cause analysis and you start to identify some efficiencies or whatever it might be sequencing of classes so I guess what I'm saying is um you know is there kind of a feedback loop or where you come back and tell us how the data was used absolutely absolutely we can do that yes okay I'd like that thank you thank you Dr Wilson all right you're still on all right professional learning plan so you should have received a copy of the plan and we're going to jump right in so this is just a high level the plan itself is nearly 60 Pages 57 pages to be exact so it highlights all of our work and then opportunities to
026grow in professional learning so the whole purpose of the professional learning plan is to improve the quality of teaching and learning to ensure that Educators participate in a substantial professional development in order to remain current and that we hopefully that this is what is needed to help support um growth among our students and supporting their needs so the teaching and learning committee developed the Sweet Home strategic plan last year and within that plan you see several elements pointing to professional learning opportunities but there were already some learning opportunities that were already underway and so you'll see that this this overall professional learning plan is a combination of all of those components coming through so thank you to you all for voting um and to approve the Strategic plan back in July and since then we've
027looked at um how that board approved plan then is aligned to our professional learning opportunities as well as District priorities foreign so just a high level here um we are cross-referencing throughout the plan I hope you will notice and you have noticed um the cross reference between our our professional learning components as well as elements from the Strategic plan and then the New York State culturally responsive framework and so you see the tech the first diagram there talks about our components technology integration safe respectful and supportive learning environments diversity equity and inclusion culturally responsive teaching connected to that curriculum and assessment alignment program design delivery professional learning communities and responsive teaching all of that flowing into our overall strategic plan with those three goal areas that we highlighted and have been working to unpack since
028it was approved back in July goal one teaching and learning are focused there and objective there is to provide students with an intense focus on literacies and support student agency and as a result students will experience a stronger sense of belonging goal two our objective there under under that goal area provides students with choices within a series of experience tailored to meet their needs and address clearly defined outcomes and then goal three the whole child sweet home will be the vehicle to support students in navigating and navigating the social emotional environment and ultimately create a safe sense of community and emotional emotional and become emotionally strong individuals and healthy with healthy habits and so cross-referencing that through our lens of Dei cultivating a community where all members experience a sense of belonging through the New
029York State culturally responsive framework we feel this plan will support that work you should see elements in that in the plan that allow us to grow because as in the in the professional learning plan you should see elements that allow us to grow because in the Strategic team you'll see there are many times that we are exploring what is the next best step for us as a district it is not decided in one office it will always be decided collaboratively we will continue that Focus to make sure that we include as many voices as possible in this work any questions where can people find the Strategic plan or anything regarding the professional learning plan so the Strategic plan is that if you go to the district website um at the top Banner there are different
030elements you can click on Dei is there there's a strategic plan cooking element and that will take you to the Strategic plan page that will give you an overview of our programming this one page document that you see in the middle is just a diagram that um but we used it with all staff you should see that hanging around the district we pass them out opening day every school did some anchoring in on this on this document and their opening day and we have plans to engage more on superintendent's conference Day on in that page on the website you will be able to find the full plan this document and then some other supporting documents the professional learning plan will also be up on the web site wonderful I'm glad to see it's right on
031our webpage any questions wondering if I want to say a strategic plan for dummies but you know we've had a lot of activities already this year and I'd love to see a one page for our parents so they can buy into this and be at the open houses and be at the picnics and just have a table set up or something so that people can inquire because I think our base of parents need to understand this buy into it and we're going to get a lot of support from them if we do that yes is there a way we can start putting it out for people so that actually so they are using it in the in the middle school today and they're opening at open house so we put together a standard presentation package
032for them to for each school to use and they can use that at their Leisure but then they were able to go in and um make it there make it their school at their school pictures to it but the language was all the same so that everybody got the same message so everyone has the same document these are also being passed out as well as the use of that power of that that PowerPoint package that we put out um Christine Slagle has been instrumental in helping us develop packages like that so that we are consistent in our messaging this is you know it's a five-year plan that we're gonna keep looking at but this should roll off tongues like like um you know we do with the seven habits it should kind of be ingrained
033in the culture of our community and and I think we got to start with our parents and I guess yes that is the plan so by so year one is that whole making sure everyone knows it exists so the whole year we're focused on do you know it exists right and then what are some of the high level components but then as we dig into year two and that's for the Greater Community of course we at working know all of the parts um and as we get to year two uh there's a deeper understanding by year three the deepest and I will say I have noticed this that the fire fire poster I've started to see that around more you know and in various buildings so uh you know it's a uh could be a
034a one page for dummies I mean I don't think I don't think I'm not saying they're dummies but just so our parents understand it yes it was designed to get out there the message these are three goal areas and here's what they mean anybody else thank you thank you thank you I just have a quick two quick updates from um last week uh very happy to announce we announced on Friday um the event for our parent Forum on school safety we'll take play that should say October 11th uh 2023 in the High School auditorium at seven um we're working hard with Amherst police Tana Tonawanda police a few other uh local agencies and partners to um invite our parents in to the district to have a few presentations um a few uh forums and a
035sit-down q a uh for parents to talk about what we're seeing um in school in our neighborhoods uh that might be beneficial to inform them about of what we're um what we're witnessing in our schools uh another piece to this is going to be the impact social media is having in our students and their behavior um all from a security standpoint but also from a mental health uh standpoint as well so uh really excited to have that on October 11th in the High School auditorium get to show off the auditorium as well and um it should be it should be a great night I don't know Mrs Bayless if you have any other comments but she's been instrumental in helping us plan uh this and um we're excited to host it we always appreciate our
036partnership with Amherst police department and they're very um they've been very um interested and excited about supporting this event and um being a part of our community and interacting with our parents um so we're really hoping to get a good turnout yeah so we'll continue to send out flyers on that and then uh just wanted to update the board our first building use committee meeting is going to be on October uh 25th where we will um talk to the committee about our plans for moving forward and and putting a plan together for our next major Capital project uh with the Hefty emphasis on our elementary buildings and updating them so they are in relation to our strategic plan and a future focused School in 21st Century Learning uh so October October 25th we'll have the
037first meeting of the building use committee uh we'll talk about how we want to go about Gathering Community input into um into our next building project and go about talking how we can use stakeholder groups as well to help us plan um what our what our wish list would be in moving forward uh and so we're excited about that and working with our partners with our Architects and our Campus Community and campus construction companies to help us plan that next project so um just wanted to inform the board that those are on the books that's what I have for tonight any questions okay upcoming events we have some open houses glendale's having a chicken dinner on their open house night this week our board retreat is next week so everybody remembers that um a bunch
038of different things going on that brings us to the first open session as per board policy 1512 we hold two open sessions at each meeting the first session is limited to comments on agenda items for tonight's meeting the board welcomes participation in attendance by District residents persons having business within the boundaries of the school district and persons who do do business with the Board of Education speakers must be at least 16 years of age and will be limited to three minutes please preface your comments with name address group affiliation if appropriate non-district residents must include the name of their business or how they do business with the Board of Education all speakers in this Open Session must state which agenda item they are speaking on anybody need to speak tonight nope all right brings us
039to new business uh class placements preschool monthly financials anybody I read all hundred Pages Sherry the only thing I would ask is that at the very bottom I normally have a a total of how many events happened and how many kids were you know placed and and all that and I didn't have that this time did you notice that Scott the so if you could include that in my data that would be great somehow that got left out this time all right thank you I have a motion to approve the new business letters sorry does anybody have anything to say about it seeing none hang on Dan I saw the stuff for the athletic storage barn and I know you had a couple extra items that were there that they might have been able to
040and they bit them if they chose do you know why they chose not to do those particular items so uh we uh in um initially uh we set aside some money from the budget for last from last year uh to cover the scope of it and based upon our initial work uh with Architects and things along those lines we set I gave them a budgetary perspective of uh just about where we were with the base bid so we opted at this point in time not to do of the extra pieces of it just because we didn't have the funding to do so okay thanks anybody else all in favor aye that brings us to informational items Miss Jason um the big thing I did I attended the PTA meeting over at maplemere and just some
041highlights from that um Mr Ryan was saying that the first three days of school he held Town meetings Town Hall meetings with every single grade which I thought was a great idea just to set expectations um there's September on September 29th the outdoor recess is going to start with the PTA out there it's for kids who aren't in the cafeteria they'll alternate so it's not going to be every day but they're going to alternate tomorrow is kind of their Harvest Fest um tomorrow night and financially they're in good shape um just a few I also attended a Glendale PGA meeting they're open up for the year they're doing a chicken dinner this Thursday to raise some money um they also brought up the superintendent's PTA PTO president's Council they were happy to be involved with
042that they're looking to expand their Facebook presence and I think that was about it for my notes there um I also the same or last week I the Same Day actually I went over and spent some time with uh the principal uh Miss dellaplante and got a chance to tour some of the building and see some of the new stuff they were talking about doing um it was just interesting to see the changes and get a chance to walk through the building because I put that with covet I haven't had a lot a whole lot of time to be in there recently um they did redo the one at one side of the gym locker room so if they've used in that for constant space they've redone the cafeterias of different ways to create some
043more spaces in there for storage and then be able to use the rooms behind them for some different things they worked well there um the cafeteria at this point they're rotating grades in and out they're they're just three three grades for two weeks and the other three grades for the next two weeks to give them a chance so that's working out well farming that's pretty much my major note on that and we had our Dei committee meeting yesterday the first one for the year I think it was a good kickoff start we sort of reviewed last year and then put a focus on where we're going to be called for this year and that was it wonderful is McDonald so Mr Johnson lied he also attended the Family Support Center anniversary Friday morning because you
044don't do enough stuff um but that was really lovely it was their 30th Anniversary I learned a lot about about the history and there were some faces that I haven't seen since I was like five or six years old so that was kind of nice um but it really kind of showcased the really important work that our family support center does and that it is a legacy that is felt not just at sweet home but really all across New York state so um and I was also at the Dei committee meeting on Monday no Mr Feldman hi attended uh sweet homes or sweet home yeah I went to Sweden uh High School's open house um it's first time I was away last year so I didn't go to it last year I wasn't I'll admit
045I wasn't wild about the format what was the format so an outdoor setting uh so you'd end up it tends to lean towards like many conferences uh rather than have an understanding of curriculum or syllabi um you generally talk about and you're only but two weeks into the school year so it's difficult for the teachers to to have any meaningful conversation about the student and so I mean that's my personal perspective I wasn't wild about it um I don't I mean as a family we didn't get much out of it um I did so I attended that as parent I attended uh Willow ridge's open house I did that on my half a chef it was a pretty cool event it was long I didn't realize how long that is it was like three hours
046but it was good it was good they had like they had the inside part and then they had a big fair and Festival kids were out in 60 degree weather getting sprayed by a fire hose so it was pretty cool they're having a good time having a good time that's all I have most reliable uh well I also attended the uh Willow Ridge open house and uh welcome back picnic um and uh yeah like as Mr Feldman mentioned it was a nice event uh about a three-hour event they do have the open house where you can visit um you know the classrooms uh for your um uh your children uh which is always nice um and then they have a book fair and the gym um which uh you know in the books are I
047think really expected as we would expect appropriate and and the kids are all interested and you know every parent comes out of their spending between 28 and 100 it seems like in in books and then um and then the outdoor event which is you know the bounce house and the playgrounds and the fire hose and whatnot so yeah it was a nice event the only the only thing um you know just um they are early in the year so there's a lot going on I think with a lot of parents for the start of the year with the open houses and I know you know from my perspective and my wife's uh you know if if those were later in September or early October I think that would work just as well and made perhaps
048better on a timing but you know there's never a perfect time it's just um uh early September a lot going on with with kids but it was a really nice event and my son's birthday that day so he you know um got a nice um what he thought was a birthday party so anyways that was it thank you Mr bologna okay um so along with you miss pataglia we attended the high school PTA meeting um they approved their bylaws with no changes to them for three more years um talked about some upcoming events specifically the craft show and basket raffle on October 21st um they're going to redo they're going to do the wreath and poinsettia sale again they're just confirming dates on that and then we talked to Mr Baker about updating some of
049the events that they sponsor such as the Stars breakfast and the in at the end of the year um I also attended the High School open house um this was my third year attending it so I kind of knew what the format was it is a good chance to meet teachers but I do agree you don't get the curriculum sense of what's going on and that um let's see uh Erie County Associated Association of school board D.A meeting was last week mainly talked about our upcoming events and the um event next month on the nice New York State event next month um fortunately I couldn't make the Middle School open house today um and then just I did attend the girls volleyball tournament last on Saturday they lost in the finals to Frontier and then
050some upcoming events we got the Powder Puff game on Thursday homecoming dance on Saturday boys volleyball has their tournament on Saturday and the baseball team baseball program is having a meat raffle on October 7th all right um I did the High School open house I it is also my third year doing it I have to agree that it's more of a social engagement as opposed to a um knowledge of program kind of event uh High School PTSA you covered all of that Mr belante and then there's just some sporting events and things that I've been to I like I do like to see that that our kids our Panther pit is nice and full most most events so that's what I've got Amy I just want to ask you to the proposals for our resolutions
051when do you want those in the Boating and what I couldn't remember which meeting we're going to discuss it for convention I've got to discuss it I've got to do it next yeah so study session in October okay so we should have our things to you yeah perfect maybe we could reminder to get them next week at the board retreat until stop then we can discuss them at the study session all right that brings us to the second Open Session this one is uh used to address the board on topics appropriate for Open Session anybody want to speak my name is Ocasio I live at 128 Dexter Terrace good evening many of you already know me for those of you who don't I'm a parent of two sweet home alumni and a former board member
052at one time during my tenure on the board I was accused of being a teacher lover and that I talked too much both of which are the reason I'm here this evening I am a teacher and I stand here before you tonight with such disappointment a few years ago I sat in those chairs as we all applauded the teachers in this District calling them Heroes even for being the glue that kept students attached to their schools during the difficult time of the pandemic we watched as teachers innovatively found ways to engage students through a screen we watched as our elementary teachers bravely helped keep a majority of our young students in school full-time instead of hybrid or not at all like some districts did today the public who has written The District in support of
053the teachers are getting responses letting them know that the district has limited resources and therefore must do what's in the best interest of students I asked you how is fairly paying our teachers not in the best interest of our students I challenge you to tell me how our teachers should not be treated as an extremely important resource in this district and I will even give you reasons why our teachers were the one when we came back from covid who were asked to take care of our children after such a traumatic time and while most had no too little training in trauma-informed care they found a way our teachers were the one the ones when our students watched and continued to watch people of color be senselessly beaten and brutalized who were called upon to have
054the conversation surrounding diversity equity and inclusion while our students continue to watch tragic senseless deaths occur in our schools and college campuses our teachers find a way to make our children feel safe while in their care when our students are hungry our teachers feed them when they are abused teachers find them help and after all of that somehow our teachers find a way to Advocate to educate our leaders of tomorrow and tonight you heard a presentation commending the district on the increase in graduation rates without the work of teachers none of that would be possible a precursory look at the sweet home website shows close to a 48 increase in directors administrators and Clerks in two years the Sweet Home superintendent has increased his pay by almost 11 percent the district also approved a four
055percent pay increase for administrators we are currently looking at a long-term inflation rate of over 3 percent with a two percent tax cap I understand the need for balance however it doesn't seem that sweet home worried about balance with either of the first two groups I mentioned why would you now tell the public that you need to distribute your resources wisely yet your actions say otherwise why would you not be offering your teachers a fair pay increase just like you did the superintendent and the administrators Mrs Ocasio your time is up that is not three minutes we had a timer going okay well I'm gonna finish instead you walk away from the negotiation table negotiation table an entire month before the contract expires and while the public is getting being told that the district continues
056to try and negotiate by getting a mediator that's not a negotiation negotiation that's giving up yes I'm saying the district gave up on its teachers in addition I've seen the written responses to these questions but I'm not looking for a response response I'm asking you to look within yourselves you all know the truth the former superintendent would never have let there be an impasse like this he was too smart for that although he and I had many different opinions we agreed on this there cannot be learning going on without teachers our teachers are a valuable part of our district a key component to learning a valuable resource for our students so there it is I'll say it again a valuable resource for our students I want to leave you with these thoughts how did we
057get here how did our teachers the ones who were Heroes become the villains our teachers are in contact with our students each and every day they take time to understand what motivates students what makes a certain student learn best and to know what is going on in our students lives so students continue to feel connected to our schools aside from the Core Curriculum areas our teachers provide opportunities for our students to pursue or even find their passions like music art Athletics writing performing on stage broadcasting and production the list can go on and on and on our special education teachers work magic to find ways for all students to succeed we have teachers who have learned to connect with students who Society might have otherwise written off Mr Claus Amy I know you have let
058people speak longer I have not please don't say we have teachers who have learned to connect with students who Society might have right now those teachers knew the students deserved another class know a better chance a teacher's day does not end when they walk out the door but you're in the meeting there is so much more work to be done in order to be ready to open their hearts and the students Minds the very next day all in favor so I urge you settle this give our teachers what they deserve deserve be fair look in your hearts you all have known or sat in this boardroom and heard from students who have had teachers who touched their lives it's up to you now I urge you to do the right thing [Applause] foreign