May 2, 2023 Board of Education Budget Hearing & Study Session

001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice it's nice to see everyone here today we'll start off with roll call here welcome back thanks nice to have you back Brian libel here um Amy's going to be a few minutes late I think I hear her shoes now Kaylee McDonald's okay Scott Johnson I'm here Peter belante sure welcome back to you too Mary and Jason I'm here motion to accept roll it's all moved do I have a second second all in favor thank you next is our public hearing regarding tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers Mr Falton sure just give me just a second Mr genestri Dr Janessa will you share your

002will screen I uh it conked out on me so I will going right now kind of steps around Apple TV virtual app TV you have to be on the Virgil's Wi-Fi network I always remember by June we'll get it right foreign okay uh good evening everybody uh we're gonna take a few minutes to talk about um the volunteer fire firefighter EMT property tax exemption uh which is established in real property tax law 466 a uh members of local fire departments were here last month uh talking about the legislation uh we'll um I'll give you a brief kind of synopsis of the legislation uh and then open it up to any questions that is the board or the audience has so the legislation highlights are quite simple and three bullet points it provides up to a

003ten percent property tax exemption of assessed value for volunteer firefighters and or ambulance workers tax exemptions are available to all taxing jurisdictions including school districts obviously which Sweet Home is uh and it was signed into a law uh at the New York state level as a recruitment and retention tool for the first responder community eligibility requirements for um folks that might be uh take part in the property tax exemption uh the prop primary residence and must be owned by the volunteer firefighter and or ambulance worker must be located within the jurisdiction served by the fire company fire department or ambulance entity volunteers must have at least two years of volunteer service to qualify and the fire district or the ambulance company must certify eligible volunteers of that organization that service requirements are met and then

004the individual must fill out an exemption application with the town uh both towns the town of Tonawanda and the town of Amherst would have those available at the Assessor's Office so additional benefits of the legislation property tax exemptions uh become permanent for a volunteer firefighter and ambulance worker for 20 years of service so long as the residence Remains the volunteers primary residence the property tax exemption is extended for the lifetime of a surviving unmarried spouse of a deceased volunteer if the deceased volunteers served at least 20 years and it also holds a line of death Duty in the event of a firefighter ambulance worker EMT worker if they were killed in the line of duty a line of duty the tax exemption would remain in place for an unremarried spouse or partner what does it

005have in terms of a fiscal impact to Sweet Home Central School District first of all uh sweet home there are many other school districts in the area that are considering the exemption Amherst I believe it's on their agenda for this month the Williamsville Central School District did adopt this exemption back in March there's no real direct physical fiscal impact to The District in other words it doesn't negatively impact what the district is um allowed or our ability to Levy taxes or collect property taxes to fund our operational needs and or requirements from a property taxpayer standpoint of the exemption for a firefighter or a police or ambulance or EMT worker decreases the overall taxable assessed value within the Sweet Home Central School jurisdiction the district's tax levy would be distributed then amongst the remaining taxable

006assessed value resulting in a slightly increased tax rate for our taxpayers and as in essence because of the number of firefighters and those that are available for the exemption it doesn't have a significant impact on our taxpayers whatsoever from that standpoint [Music] so what we're asking the Board of Education to do we're bringing forward this resolution uh it's on your in your board packet tonight that would allow for Sweet Home Central School District to opt into the property tax exemption for firefighters and ambulance slash EMT workers the tax exemption percentage would be 10 so long as the years of volunteer service requirement to be eligible for the exemption are met on behalf of the individual and that the certif and that the um either the firehouse or the uh ambulance or EMT company certifies the

007individual for the exemption uh as well as the local assessor does as well uh and if that were the case then they would be allowed to receive uh the exemption on their school property taxes uh for tax bills in the 23-24 school year this would suffice as a public hearing so I guess at this point if the board has any questions of me or the audience has any questions regarding the exemption we'd be happy to entertain those no again who handles all the paperwork for work for this so who handles all the paperwork the individual would have to file uh paperwork at the Town assessor's office depending on where they live either in the town of Talawanda or the town of Amherst the assessor would process it and if they would then get certified at

008the um either the firehouse in which they are a volunteer fire the fire or at um the ambulance or EMT company and once that's processed then they let the county know who processes our tax bills and they would be given that exemption anyone else have any questions you asked mine I know they mentioned it last time but I it just didn't stick in my mind can we open it up to our community any questions [Music] so the state um it says piece of legislation that came down from the state of the town of Amherst has adopted it they've adopted it at the Town level and then it's up to the individual jurisdiction as to whether they'd like to adopt it a 20-year service going forward what to become permanent that's correct anyone else have any

009questions I can't think of a more deserving group I agree to receive this so again uh it's on your agenda for consideration to to discuss tonight um and then you would vote on it um at your next meeting which would be Tuesday May the 9th and hereby closes our budget hearing or our uh our uh not our budget hearing our firefighter EMT here in let's go on to the budget hearing I'm moving right along okay so uh this is a part of our annual budget study process uh our budget uh was approved by the Board of Education uh at their April studies or at their April voting meeting uh on April the 18th uh this is an annual public hearing where we present the budget that will be voted on uh here in this room

010uh on Tuesday May the 16th from uh 7 00 a.m to 9 00 P.M the budget the proposed budget 2324 budget is 96 million 886 588 uh so just some key points to that budget that maintains all current programming at all levels in all School configurations uh in fact it adds to Staffing to address additional instructional needs across the district we've added Elementary special education teacher a district-wide wide Behavior specialist a part-time enl teacher a part-time High School Tech Teacher one full-time and one part-time social worker and a full-time public relations professional it also maintains our annual bus purchases we are doing four large and two small bus purchases uh this time around uh and we're happy to report that the budget is tax neutral which means that uh the tax levy that is we

011currently have have collected for this this budgetary year 53 million three 121 588 would be what we collect next year so I'll caution everybody as we get started uh it is tax neutral uh obviously assessment levels have not been um released by either Town nor have Equalization rates uh so I would expect that your tax bills would be similar to what they are presently um they may swing a couple dollars here or there depending upon assessments uh and and Equalization rates those typically come out in the summertime before we set our tax rates uh in August the budget does include the use of 1.1 million dollar in reserve funds to make the budget tax neutral uh again we saw an increase of about uh over five and a half million dollars in state aid both

012Foundation Aid and um expense driven Aid and after discussion with the board we felt as though that it was if there ever was ever a time to to do this uh and to be able to utilize some of our Reserve bonds this was the year to do it so uh 2324 proposed budget again is 96 million eight eighty six five eighty eight uh the current budget the 2223 budget is 89 million 351 588 the budget to budget increase is seven million 535 000 which represents an 8.4 percentage increase so uh part of our requirement is that we must present the budget in three parts uh the first part is the administrative budget the administrative budget uh covers uh everything from the Board of Education the superintendent's office uh curriculum and staff development uh and supervision

013uh administrative supervision and and support in each of our schools program is the largest chunk of our budget uh it's the instructional component of our budget that includes all teachers salaries guidance counselors psychologists and related staff as far as that goes it also includes all of our transportation costs both in-house Transportation costs and contracted Transportation costs uh and then lastly the capital uh portion that includes buildings and ground salaries equipment vehicles and the like but also includes debt service so if you hit the next slide Dr genestri um you'll see a kind of a comparison a year-to-year comparison uh from the administrative side uh we're up from 7.1 million to 7.486 million uh which is uh fairly consistent with where we've been in years past our program budget uh has increased from 68 million 646

014616 to 73 million 860 212. uh and that really is threefold number one we settled a new contract with all of our service employees uh we are anticipating a contract settlement with our teachers for next year and third we've seen about a two million dollar increase in our contracted Transportation costs uh so that is the reason really for that significant jump uh in that program area and then in the Capital Area we've gone from 13 million 575. uh 13 million 575 000 to 15 million five hundred and thirty nine thousand uh this year and that's due in part because we've seen about a 1.8 million dollar increase in our debt service which means that our current project is starting to hit the books next slide uh this just looks uh at a kind of a

015bar graph in terms of where we are um and percentages uh from an administrative program uh and capital standpoint so we've remained relatively consistent across the board there so on the revenue side uh this kind of gives you in chart format basically where we make uh our Revenue budget from uh real property taxes which is the tax levy represents 55 percent of our budget state aid is 33.2 percent use of reserve and fund balance is 3.8 percent debt Reserve uh debt Reserve is 0.8 percent uh sales tax is 4.6 percent and the rest of other things including pilots and tuitions and interests make up the remaining 2.6 percent so on the revenue side of the budget uh as I mentioned to you before we had about a 5.4 million dollar increase in Foundation Aid and

016expense driven AIDS uh this is the first year uh that's based upon the um the basic Foundation Aid formula that New York State sets out that sweet home Central School District is fully funded we've now been fully funded uh in years past and that gets us to a fully funded dollar figure based upon um uh their formula when we started back in February actually January really looking at the budget when we first presented to you in February at our initial budget projections we we kind of laid out that we thought our sales tax would kind of project at about 3.9 million dollars over the course of the year we've had our third quarter number come in and it's significantly higher than even we expected so we are increasing our sales tax Productions uh by about

017600 000 to 4.5 million dollars and then as I mentioned before we are using 1.1 million dollars in our Reserve use reserves uh to close the gap and make the 2324 budget tax neutral takes a look at where we are with Debt Service funding uh in in regards to our Capital project you've seen that we've kind of hit an uptick in Debt Service uh this present year to uh we've gone from in 2021 22 6 million dollars uh to 22 23 6.1 million dollars this year uh next year we will be closer to about 7.3 million dollars uh in debt service funding uh and we've utilized our debt service Reserve to kind of help offset uh some of the the costs uh that we pass on to the taxpayer so the proposed tax levy again

018uh it is a tax neutral budget which means our tax levy stays the same uh at 53 million 321 588 it's a zero dollar tax Inc tax level increase it's a zero percent tax levy percentage increase uh obviously uh it probably goes without saying but the proposed tax levy that we are putting forth Falls within the New York state tax cap which means the proposed budget only needs a simple majority to pass on May 16th Tuesday two weeks from tonight uh just for the for the good of the cause uh based upon our our calculation which we presented as part of the budgetary process uh we do have an allowable tax cap of 7.12 which is about 3.6 million dollars that would we could have increased our overall tax levy uh obviously after discussions and

019deliberations based upon the state money coming in uh as well as where we were financially we felt as though that this was the year uh to go tax neutral uh and keep our tax levy the same foreign so this is kind of a snapshot of tax bills again uh as I cautioned everybody kind of where we were uh early on in the process uh We've not uh gotten information on Equalization rates from either of the towns uh nor have we gotten information on the assessment rates but if the if the tax levy were to remain the same and everything were to remain the same on an average home uh right now for the 22-23 school year uh there is an estimate there is a tax rate established in August of 15.68 per thousand uh which

020translates to an estimated tax bill of of um 200 or 2 two thousand three hundred and fifty two dollars uh and then on the Tonawanda side uh the tax rate again is 40.25 which translates to a tax bill of 2 234 dollars uh those tax bills are before uh basic Star Savings uh basic Star Savings on the Amer side is 397 uh and on the Tonawanda side 391 dollars foreign again polls are here at district office uh in the Virgil Center in the room that we are presently uh from 7 A.M to 9 00 p.m on uh Tuesday May the 16th there'll be two propositions uh District residents will be asked to approve uh to vote on rather uh the uh the proposition of the budget for 23.24 96 million 886 588 uh as I

021did mention before it is a budget to budget increase of 8.4 percent however it is a tax neutral budget meaning that our tax levy Remains the Same from the current year and then uh folks will also be asked to vote uh for one Board of Education member uh to a five-year term that would expire on June 30th of 2028 and the term of Mr Scott Johnson expires here in June so at this point in time uh I would ask if the board or anybody in the community has any questions about the budget foreign yes or just you can stand right up and just state your name and ask the question of course the electrical bus so we haven't uh we haven't purchased an electric bus yet the buses that we are proposing to purchase are

022diesel buses so in the state um uh budget the governor has outlined a timeline where all of our vehicles that we purchase for transportation need to be zero emission those start in 2027 and all of our Fleet needs to be done by 2035. as part of the process we need to have um what's called an electrification plan uh that has put in place where we work in conjunction with our utility provider National Grid to put that together so we're in that process now um and then we would probably look to we're in a couple of um cues for funding to purchase electric buses not this summer but next summer 2024. not yet not yet you're welcome sure any other questions at all go ahead sure please sure uh so um first of all on the

023revenue side of of the budget we've seen again an increase in state aid from year to year of about 5.4 million dollars so that is 5.4 million dollars in basic Foundation Aid as well as expense driven Aid okay uh and then um we're also increasing uh from year to year we are increasing our sales tax projections uh over by over six hundred thousand dollars um and then lastly uh we are using 1.1 million dollars uh in reserve usage to close that budgetary Gap sure rest in peace thank you yes yep yep uh well why don't you finish asking your question and I'll and then I'll try and address it correct and what happens we have to attack but it says that maybe so okay so let me I'll give you kind of three parts here

024go ahead no go ahead sure sure foreign sure so uh to answer your question first and foremost um in regards to uh you're not wrong uh we had a number of federal funds that came in cares Act One Cares act two uh and the American Rescue plan act much of some of that money we did use to uh add staff to address um class sizes and the like uh in respect to covid and kind of decreasing class classroom sizes the cares act the original cares Act is closed so we're buttoned up there cares Act 2 closes on September 30th of uh this this year excuse me of this year uh 2023 and the American Rescue plan closes on September 30th of 2024. uh so some of uh salaries are included in that act but uh

025one of the stipulations of each of those acts are if you add staff when that money goes away which is going to go away in September for the orig for the second cares act and in September of 24 for the American Rescue plan act um that anybody that you hire needs to be absorbed by the general fund and we've worked very hard with the board and and we're at a point now where that is the case uh so everybody that is in a budget right now is in the general fund budget now uh this current year we brought forth uh about one point almost six million dollars in additional fund balance um uh in in the uh unallocated fund balance because at this time last year we had not settled the service employees contract we

026didn't know what that was going to look like uh nor did we know what our contracted Transportation numbers would look like because we lost so many bus drivers so we we um settled with the the service employees contract uh we also as I mentioned earlier saw about a two million dollar increase in our contracted Transportation uh that wasn't budgeted for so we brought forward that money uh so in the end I feel we're pretty good uh as to where we are to be able to maintain uh our programs uh as we go forward I will also say um that we have we expect a number of teacher retirements in the near future to kind of help offset um potentially shortfalls in um State eight okay yes sir that's a great question um I don't want

027to uh our our overall Reserve balances we have a number of different reserves I can certainly get you more specific information as to where we are now but our overall Reserve balances are in the neighborhood of about seven and a half million dollars what I will also say is that the budget this present Year's budget is performing well that the money that we brought forward uh from last year's budget the 1.6 million dollars that I told Mr rabinold about I would expect that a significant portion of that money will also be put into reserves for next year so we believe that the net impact of using that money uh will be zero to our Reserve balances the floor is yours yep so here's what I'll say to that question um there's a uh uh the

028unallocated fund balance that was referenced in the state comptroller's audit uh there's two pieces to it uh the 1.6 million dollars that I told you about um that uh again that will more than likely it's decided in August obviously when we do our tax uh rate uh and we with the board would vote on um uh the reserve kind of allocations but I would I would imagine that money is going to go into reserves so that'll be taken away uh from the unallocated fund balance the other piece of the unallocated fund balance that uh put us over the four percent statutory limit uh deals directly with 105 H money 105 H money which is um kind of a health uh fund for our employees uh it used to be housed in a trust an agency

029account uh and the the state government said that we can't do that any longer we solicited opinions from our own auditing firm uh and they indicated that the best way to kind of handle that money was to put it into the unallocated fund balance we presented that to the board the board was in agreement and the board voted on it in August based upon the findings of the uh I certainly we've not talked about it at the board level but um based upon the findings of the state comptroller's audit we're working with our auditing team to find another way to do that go ahead go ahead go ahead yeah we do have a kiss this isn't that nice question is uh no I I I'll address it I um you know I uh I can

030only speak for the portion that I've been in this seat uh and what I'll say is uh and if you've read the report um two and a half almost three years of this snapshot in time was a global wide pandemic when you know we were planning for quote-unquote normal years and when normal years didn't happen you know of course we were overestimated uh I will say that you know we've addressed it we've looked at it a little bit more closely from the revenue side um this year you'll see that we've increased our sales tax projections um I feel pretty good about where we are on the expense side in terms of those types of things to obviously time will tell I can't tell you where we are but we took the the report very seriously

031from my seat uh and we're working towards being better means a lot thank you I appreciate that I appreciate that I got you yes ma'am well uh The Forum would be here uh to be able to do something like that uh they could certain then by voting yep by voting certainly is another way so the budget is historically uh We've not uh we've had this excellent support from our community uh the last time a School District budget was voted down would have been in 1977. I'm sorry I think it's important to note your point is you love it the point was valid about under projection over projection on on uh on expense and revenue but I think it's important what I was going to make for dirk is that we're talking one to two percent

032in the middle of a global pandemic fair I mean that's right one to two percent that's correct and 100 million dollar budget that's pretty darn close [Music] and it was also projected that we would lose 20 of our funding in that first few months of covid and that's what we were preparing for so correct I mean if you could get your crystal ball out well maybe we could be it 100 every time no I I margin for air we are um very fortunate to be supported by our community um as I mentioned uh it's been since 1977. um I again would put our tax rates up against anybody in Western New York um you know and to be able to maintain the program that we do um I think it should be something that we're

033all very proud of absolutely and you know I think that's just another go back go ahead and I just wanted to say well you hid your question out there in your comment we started the budget process back in January every single budget meeting is open to the public right so so yeah come um it'd be great to have people absolutely because normally there's zero people it's us sitting at the table so it'd be great to have community members coming off of their opinions oh yeah I was just gonna add that um you know it's important for people to also understand that there's a lot of moving pieces right like we're working with numbers that um to some degree are being estimated from the state um the state just they haven't passed their budget yet you

034know so and yet they're requiring us to do certain things using assumptions so you know where I think that's um you know important to note that um some of these requirements by the state we do have to make a um you know estimates and then the following year we're adjusting but this uh tax neutral piece it's also important for everybody to understand that it's not just a one-time benefit that you the following year in increases are based on the prior year so this four percent roughly right that's around a hundred dollars of of reduction of or tax assessment that wouldn't be there on a two thousand five hundred dollar um tax bill well that's a that's a hundred dollars year in and year out you know so the next year there's a hundred dollars you

035know instead of twenty five hundred dollars or twenty six hundred dollars it's gonna be twenty five hundred dollars that we're starting with as the average taxpayer upon which you can increase um the levy so um you know ten years out that's about twelve hundred dollars when you account for the compounding effect of of interest and whatnot so it's not immaterial you know it can add up no yeah and again to your point uh when we come to this point in the road next year we'll use that number that 53 million three twenty one five eighty eight to base next year's tax cap off it's not an arbitrary number it's based on the pre the current year um going forward just to Brian's Point as an example we were anticipating how many drivers bus drivers at

036one point 100 we had a a in four years ago we had a hundred and three three bus drivers we're down to 57 now a little bit free and we never got that so now we're down to 52 so there's going to be a a difference right we had a lot of drivers post pandemic simply just walk out the door so anyone else have any comments thank you and your whole office oh no that's I'm I look at it's a lot of work and you guys are in the middle of it all so I appreciate the support and the help and uh come out and vote on the 16th which brings us to [Laughter] uh we go out yeah so what I'd like to be able to do is uh if uh the folks on

037the board could kind of come out uh Mr Johnson you can stay where you are uh Brandon if you want to take a seat somewhere up front uh don if you want to take a seat as well uh we'll kind of facilitate things this way um and kind of start um the next piece of it to meet the candidates so while everybody gets settled in uh we are um as I mentioned to you all uh private uh previously rather uh the uh in addition to the budget vote uh on Tuesday May 16th uh we will be voting for one Board of Education member uh we have three candidates that are vying for the one open seat uh Brandon beckinghausen Scott Johnson and Dawn L Scott Iverson um again three candidates running for one open seat

038uh the top vote getter will be elected to a five-year term uh expiring on June 30th of 2028 uh so traditionally what we've done as part of this process uh will allow each of the potential candidates uh or each of the candidates rather potential board members to uh give about a three to five minute uh statement about themselves about why they're running for the board uh so we'll start and do that and then when uh the final candidate is done uh we'll kind of open it up to potential questions from the audience uh if audience members do have questions from uh of one of the board members uh we will ask you to come up to the podium and then we'll provide an opportunity for all three of the candidates uh to answer your questions

039okay so um I guess with that we'll start uh so uh I'm just looking here we'll start with Mr Johnson your statement please and then we'll just kind of go down the line okay good evening how's your down do you know me my name is Scott Johnson I've been representing you and our community on the board of education for 17 years tonight I'm here before you speaking another five-year term during my time on the board we have faced many challenges during the 2009-2010 school year New York State implemented the Gap elimination adjustment as part of their deficit reduction Act basically they eliminated the State deficit by creating mid-year gaps in all School District budgets while every school district had to make some significant Cuts sweet home was one of the first districts to get back

040to normal I'm sure everyone remembers the years of covert 19. since we had already moved to a one-to-one Computing we were able to fairly quickly move to remote learning more importantly using federal aid we were able to hire several Elementary teachers these moves allowed us to decrease class sizes and provide the proper space that is required by New York State as a result our elementary students were among the first to return to the classroom in Western New York another big piece of this role working on the board of education is working with State education department and the state legislature to adjust policy and regulations along with requesting appropriate funding in the state budget to that end I've been a member of the Erie County Association of school board's legislative team for most of my time

041on the board and I have co-chaired the team for the last 10 years the team spends a lot of time meeting with our elected officials both at their home offices and in Albany to discuss issues before I joined the board a group called The Campaign for fiscal Equity was formed and filed lawsuits against New York state to get the proper funding for a free and appropriate public education even though New York State lost the lawsuits more than a decade ago there always seemed to be a reason not to fully fund schools school board members across the state including numbers from Western New York have been fighting for years to get fully funded and this year it finally happened State education department has long head regulations and how many years students could participate in athletics the

042schools began participating in Unified sports we found those regulations affected our athletes who are special education students they were going to be forced out of their sport even though they had a few years left in school again this issue was tackled by many board members they started an online petition to the commissioner of education and several legislators we ask that students be allowed to continue to play and until they completed High School which is typically at age 21. in addition I wrote letters to those same people and encouraged others to do the same that change was granted and our athletes continued to play We're actually down the hall playing now meeting with elected representatives is a year-round job it must be done in a bipartisan way to make sure we get support from everyone we

043have a meeting up coming up this Thursday with Senator Gallivan to discuss a few current issues well he doesn't represent sweet home we work to get the entire Western Europe delegation together as much as possible finally the most important part of this job is the students we are serving before covert I made it a point to spend a full day in every school almost every year this allowed me to talk directly with teachers aides administrators and the students visiting our students is the most rewarding part of this role I made a few of the visits this year and plan to start back with regular visits again in the fall everything we do requires a close and good working relationship with my fellow board members and District administrators good Communications are also key inclusive closing the

044speech only touches on the many things that effective school board members must do we must take mandatory training plus we frequently take additional training when offered next week I'll be attending a three-week three-hour session on legal legal issues within special education I love this work and want to continue making a difference for our sweet home Community I humbly request your vote on Election Day thank you thank you Mr Johnson Mr beckinghausen if you'd like to do your statement please good afternoon everyone it is my pleasure to speak with all of you tonight about this such an important topic our children my name is Brandon beckenhausen and I'm running to be your next School Board representative I am a long-term resident of the town of Amherst and I'm proud to call Sweden my home District from

045a young age I learned the importance of community service through Pro the process of becoming an eagle scout I have since continued that Community Focus with fundraisers and services to other organizations such as Western near carrolls I would like to continue to grow my community involvement by serving on this Sweet Home school board as for my career I have spent my entire adult life working in the financial services industry and I currently work at a local credit union I believe my background in financial services will help serve the community and the school board well as one of your board members I will work to address the following first I will focus on increasing transparency between parents teachers and school leadership I have heard from parents about some problems with transparency and will work to listen

046to everyone involved in school issues I will I will make sure everything is available to the public I want to make this clear this is not attack on our teachers in fact I admire our teachers I have multiple family members who teach in other districts I've been told by a few parents that we have some of the best teachers in the Sweet Home school district sometimes being a teacher can be a thankless job we need to continue to empower our teachers with new ways to in more effective ways to communicate with parents and their students additionally our primary focus needs to be mental health of our students too often we turn on news only to hear of a horrific event that happens oftentimes we learn that in the aftermath there were multiple warning signs that

047were either ignored or proper resources were unavailable my focus will be ensure that the appropriate resources are available to all our teachers Administration family and administration lastly I want to focus on the I want to focus to make sure student activities such as sports music art and other extracurricular activity activities take a priority over non-essential spending the purpose of the school is to develop our children into healthy and productive citizens for this community and Country our children should not suffer from the lack of funding and lack of facilities because of some agenda this board or School administration believe we should focus on I look forward to working with this current board and all the amazing parents and teachers throughout the district thank you thank you Mr beckenhausen Mrs Scott Iverson if you would thank you

048welcome so I am not going to um go into a lot of detail as my um two candidates next to me did um but I want to speak a little bit about myself and my love affair with sweet home high school and sweet home District so first of all my name is Don Scott Iverson and I I know most of the people in the room um I have been in the district for over 50 years I went to Sweet Home myself I graduated in 1987. my beautiful mother is sitting across from me she graduated in 1961 the second graduating class from sweet home and our house we used to be the Tim Horton across the street um so I talk about that quite often um so I know the district I've been in the district

049for a long time I have roots that are embedded here I married my husband Stevie Iverson in about 25 years ago and we purchased a home in the Willow Ridge School District and um we have our children that have also attended Michael and Steven they both graduated from Sweet Home along with my grandchildren that are there now fourth generation I have a middle schooler Kennedy and um my second oldest grandchild will be attending Willow Ridge in the fall so we have Roots here um I'm a parent I'm a grandparent I know how the district is supposed to be I fell in love with sweet home when I was at Sweet Home I had a whole conversation yesterday with someone that actually went here with me um and we just talked about how the district was

050when we went here we talked about how we felt when we got to school on Monday morning we talked about how we have lifelong friends now in the district all of that needs to come back um so that's part of you know the the reason that I am trying to get onto the board and I want to be part of the board I am an accomplished insurance agent I am I have knowledge of 25 years in the insurance industry um recently I decided that I wanted to get into the education realm and I kind of dipped my toe in and came into sweet home and I was a substitute teacher here at Sweet Home High School it was a wonderful experience it gave me the opportunity to get to know the kids um get to

051know the teachers and get to know the parents um I am a parent so of course I was familiar with what some of the parents were feeling and I got to know what really what the temperature was within the school and it has changed there have been a lot of things that have changed many for good um and then some things I would like to see go back to what it was when I was here so that we can have that love affair again I want the children to have that same feeling that I had when I went to school here at Sweet Home um so as we talked earlier well as you've been talking earlier about the buses I wanted to talk about the buses because I think it's important to bring back the

052after-school buses for the four o'clock and the six o'clock I think it's very important because the students in our district cannot get to the after-school programs they can't get into sports so in turn they don't know each other they don't really know each other they come in on Monday morning and when you're in the corridor it's quiet when I came into sweet home on Monday morning it was craziness because everybody was so excited to get back in and to talk to each other and to you know we were on teams with everyone we were in clubs with everyone we got to know everyone we had a love affair with sweet home we need to bring that back and I do believe that that will help us um another is that we are second to none

053in education we're a destination uh school district and uh we want those people that are coming to our school district because of our English Second Language um because that's Second To None we want them to build their roofs right here too we want them to plant their Roots we want them to buy homes we want them to build homes and that's going to help with the tax base and it's going to help with the budget um so those are some of the things that I'm interested in helping when I'm on the board I want to be that sounding board for the parents I want to be the sounding board for the students I want to be the sounding board for the community I'm here I've been here I know what it's like I know what

054it feels like I know there were some questions today and people are you know kind of a little bit up in arms about the budget and they don't know what to think I understand that I've been here I know that I trust Sweet Home I trust everything that we've seen today um so just I want to leave you really quickly I wanted to say very quickly that I wanted you to think about a pond in a very calm body of water and think about a rock being thrown into that um water well that's changed because it creates ripples correct I'm the rock that's going to be thrown into the water and create change it's going to be good change thank you very good thank you Mrs Iverson and uh just a nice round of applause

055for everybody at this point in time what we would do is we would uh open it up to questions uh from our audience again if you have questions if you would just come up to uh the podium uh introduce yourselves to the candidates and then uh we'll uh we'll go from there are there any questions if you could come up to the podium some of these questions might be the same of what you I just want to hear it again okay um do I just address if you just ask the question then we'll have them answer them we'll answer this question okay why did you choose the to run for the open board position this year and is there a specific issue or issues that motivates you to serve or continue to serve on the

056school board so Mrs Scott Iverson if you would start with that okay so the reason that I chose is again because I was a substitute teacher and I got to see more of what the temperature is within the school district I got to hear the teachers I got to talk with the students I got to be out in the hallways I was in the special education classes I really got to see what goes on within the school district and I think that there is change that's needed so I wanted to come onto the board same question Mr beckenhausen um I'm running for a simple fact that I I want to give back to the community um again like I said earlier I've watched the news there's a lot of stuff going on in our schools

057uh and I want to make sure that I help our children become productive adults in uh in life um I don't have children myself yet but someday I do want to have kids of my own and I want to make sure when I do have that that opportunity that I'm able to bring my children to a school that is successful and um and strong as swedum has always been Mr Johnson same question okay obviously I'm slightly different having been here 17 years already but going back when I first came to the board I was on what was called the uh the cdap team working for the school district here as a volunteer because I was just as a parent representative and back at that time my teachers the administrators encouraging me to run for the

058board because I thought I could make a difference the reason I'm still here is when I went through school long ago and far away I didn't have a good school experience so I I came out and I said I want to be part of a team that can make my school experience better for me and for our students than the one that I had way back when and I think my kids they graduated 2012 and 2015. I think they had a better school experience I think we're making a difference and I think we can continue to make a difference people okay um otherwise I'm gonna make it a question well let's make it let's make it a question so everybody can answer okay okay um my second question is how important is public transparencies you

059and if elected or re-elected what are ways you can improve on this within the school Sweet Home school district Mr banking housing let's start with you this time um I think uh transparency is is Paramount it's uh not only um very important but it's it's legally mandatory um I've I think the transparency needs to be a primary focus of the school board and uh any public official um I have read through some of the the audit reports and I see the word transparency uh come up a couple times in there and uh that to me is a little bit of alarm a little bit of an alarm um as a person that's worked in the financial industry I feel like I can help bring um some experience to the board uh to help with that

060I've gone through the Audits and exams um working for a credit union so um I hope to be able to help add to transparency to this board Mr Johnson I also believe that transparency is very important for us and I think the school district already does a good job of it but needs to be seen I mean and now the same honors reports you mentioned they mentioned that if you look around to any other school district in Western Art that had to complete it they wrote it on all of them um they didn't actually look into it in my opinion it's my opinion to see what they're doing like our budget they said our budget process is not transparency we've had several meetings public meetings here just like was asked by the lady in the

061back where that budget was explained opportunity was given for questions it was also out on the website just like this is tonight and we don't get people show up at these events we also have both an internal and an external auditor that come to us and we're into audits for us each year again they come and make presentations at the board meetings there's very seldom if ever anybody here to ask questions about it those things are all published in our in our website on our website for the board meeting so everybody can see all that information that's in there um lastly when we added Dr janastri as our superintendent um almost two years ago now one of the reasons we brought him in was first communication skills to help us increase what we're already doing

062Mrs Scott Iverson I like to be in the know so yes I want to know what's going on in his appearance I want transparency I want to know exactly what's going on I don't think there should be any secrets and it comes back to morals ethics okay so um I'm just making this question up because I needed to make a question instead of a comment so I just want to say thank you all for mentioning special education and that um I'll just open the for you for you to talk if you want if you want I want to explain how you want to improve it or because it's really Second To None I have a couple of kids that do Research Services that's why I said thank you I said it's second to not well

063that's even go with that okay okay thank you very good any other questions hi uh my name is musaba Brar so I have one question for each of you it's not really like three questions for the whole thing is that right in the interest of fairness okay all right so um so oh you guys all have like varying levels of uh experience in the field of being a board member and uh being on committees um are there I I know you guys mentioned it in your uh statements but are there any new pressing matters that haven't been addressed that you're specifically working on or are there any more continuing issues so John's gonna let you go first on that one um in my mind I think just about everything that we've got is a continuing

064issue um and you heard it as part of the budget presentation here and Mr Scott Iverson also addressed it bussing to be able to get kids internet after school programs we have been fighting like crazy to hire bus drivers and did you say 57 we're heading out because yeah I see we're voting on three more retire and that's what concerns me um for less than a half we can't get bus drivers one of the other things we're voted on tonight is a as a outside contract to take one student to a to a different school that they're the charter school that they're attending and that that class alone will cost us forty six thousand dollars a year to send one kid to a charter school or required by law to do it we still have

065to pay for it if we had our own bus drivers there'd be more than one kid on a bus going to more than one place so that's one of our biggest challenges right now it's not our only challenge by any stretch and Imagination though and I as far as new ones I don't have any new one on the horizon I just think there's plenty of things we need to keep working on this is Scott Iverson yes um so I think what comes to mind for me first of all would be there I know that there is always something going on um and there's always something you know that is pressing that we need to talk about and I know that there were some issues just today in the high school at the end of the

066day that you know there was fighting we have to we have to address that we have to you know figure out a way to get everyone to be on one page and get everyone to be United and not divided um so that is something that I would like hope that we would talk about and put at the top of our agenda I agree with both candidates um I think it's an ongoing uh battle essentially that there's always things coming up it probably feels like uh you've finished one one task and the next thing comes up uh but one thing that I I see um that there might be a lack of on uh the school board is there isn't anyone with a like a definitive Financial background someone who would understand everything that goes into

067making a budget and and running a uh an organization as large as the Sweden School District thank you um and just one more question so as a student myself I understand how important mental health is in um both the students life and their education that they receive from from the school district so if elected board official if elected as a board official what are some of the first steps uh you guys would take towards like improving Mental Health Resources and um how would you use the resources that you would have as an official to um further that process this is Scott Iverson okay so um I think about Dr Lucci first of all um she's fantastic and I think that that is definitely the main resource that you have here at the school right now

068I do think the teachers should receive additional training on Mental Health um that's not just something that you can pull out of your pocket it is something that you need to train on and understand deeply Mr beckenhausen so I I think I agree um what Don said um I think the teachers uh staff anyone who works for the school district needs additional training um I think uh that might also include additional staff that uh that can help focus on um and students mental health and possibly after school programs um resources to the community and the parents that they can reach out to the school and get assistance if they're struggling and they don't have anyone to reach out to I think the school needs to be a resource for uh the community uh in this

069regard Mr Johnson I agree with both of my colleagues on the need for more training for our for our staff all of them I think it's just a matter of more understanding what you are and be able to maybe head off some issues as you go along um also looking back off our budgets the last couple years we have been hiring more mental health workers in various positions social workers Psychology was actually an announcement for psychologists today that went out I know that um so we've been adding more to the staff and I think there's still room to add more people into that group there's a couple other things we are our family support center does some wonderful work you know right over here but I don't think it's as well advertised is so that

070everybody knows that it's available to themselves and the most important one from my perspective at this point is for the last handful of years we've been working with the town of Amherst and some community members on the northwest Amherst Community Center which will be opening up in September and it's up here in the North End of the district and that's going to provide a lot of services to us it's going to be open to all of our members the members of the community um and it's not in addition to the services it's going to have some of the after school programs we're looking at it's gonna be some babysitting it's not even just could be for school students it'll also be for any of the citizens of Amherst too so I think that's going to

071provide some great services and it's something we need to make sure that we're helping as much as possible perfect thank you thank you thank you any other questions at this point come on hello my name is Tracy rosinski I am a resident of Sweet Home yeah I've been since 1971. I'm off also a employee here I'm a substitute teacher I have substitute in all three levels of Education this year so far um I have heard a lot today about uh Administration about financials about programs but what I have not heard is about the socialization of the Sweet Home school a sweet home student how as a board member would you affect that to start with the teachers and and the parents again oh I'm sorry no no that's okay I didn't mean to jump ahead

072but I think the teachers and the parents and collectively we have to you know come together to be able to work on that for the socialization of the students Brandon sorry um socialization uh is a very important part of growing up um maturing as an uh as a young adult um it's come to my attention recently that um one of the elementary schools actually has a problem with allowing the children to even eat in the cafeteria um in my opinion it is um especially at an elementary age a very precious moment for our children to be learning social skills and development and development developmental skills in the cafeteria with their friends other students of their age um I think that's something that needs to be focused on in in improving and allowing our students to

073be able to socialize and use our facilities as was intended uh by uh when when the building was built Mr Johnson I think there's a lot of methods to attack this unfortunately and it's and I agree that there is some more need for it um part of it comes right back to home life before they get here we have way too many people that spend way too much time doing this I don't I don't have the answer I wish I did you know that's what that's that's part of our issue um the schools have a number of great events going on and we need to be able to encourage more people to get to the I mentioned earlier with their unified basketball game going down down the hall right now when I left there there

074was 60 or 70 people there to me that's the type of thing we should have a couple hundred people out watching those games and Syrian honors students that are involved with that support there are all kinds of things like that we just need to be able to get more people to encourage people to get out and attend these events and and I don't know I'm sure I know there's other things we need to do but I think just encouraging people to come to our events at Golan in this school would make a good head start on that thank you thank you Tracy Mr rabinal looks like you have a question uh welcome thanks uh I have two questions if I could um is probably uh piggybacks of socialization that you had talked about just just

075a little bit ago what is your personal opinion about elementary building students eating their lunch in the classroom versus the cafeteria Don if you want to start Don thank you um my personal opinion well okay I went to Willow Ridge as a student and when I went to Willow Ridge the population was quite high in this in the district so I wasn't even even able to go to kindergarten in the building they had um like um oh my gosh I can't like trailers on the side of the building and and we went to school in those trailers until you got into first grade um and I believe that made all the room for us to be able to eat in the lunchroom so I think that they should be able to eat together I think

076socialization is important I think that they need that time to wind down while they've been in class all day um and I do think that there's going to be an easy fix we just have to sit down and put our minds to it and figure out how to get those kids back in the cafeteria okay so I already kind of addressed that um so like she said I think that is the most important time or one of the most important times for our young children to to start building on their social socialization um after covid um or during covid we lost a lot of that time um and I don't think we can afford to lose any more of it um these kids need to be in in a lunch setting together um and I

077I think that we need to focus on um making sure the budget accounts for that uh accordingly if we have uh spending or extra money for other other programs other um other other costs uh we should be able to use that money uh to make sure that the students are able to use that facility correctly be it if we don't have enough space because they're being used by other programs uh finding a way to make room for those programs so we're not cutting anything for the students but making sure that the students have their lunchroom thank you Mr Johnson I think like most people I would like to see the kids back in the cafeteria it's not quite as clean and simple as that though um as I mentioned earlier on and as Mr Feldman

078mentioned during his budget presentation we hired a number of teachers during the with the federal money during the Culvert time frame the reason we did that was we could decrease class sizes down to 12 13 kids so that we would be able to meet the spacing requirements and and so on to be able to keep getting and getting our kids back into school earlier which we did at the same time all those teachers are required as again as Mr Coleman mentioned we are required to keep all those teachers we can't lay them off it wouldn't be the right thing to do anyways so right now we are using literally every space in our elementary schools for classroom teachers is where we're at and we've all moved some other people into the cafeterias there are no

079empty spaces that's a that's a big problem our population has been growing in each of our elementary schools which is awesome I mean that's a great thing we've talked about if there's a committee which I believe Mr Jess will be talking about tonight at least they're meeting the built and use committee for some of their suggestions but it's not quite as easy as it might seem um and lastly I think there's a little bit of a misunderstanding about it when the kids go to the cafeteria to eat lunch they still eat with their same classroom group they don't spread around with other people they just don't get to say what they want to they still leave them with their classroom group to be able to move kids efficiently in and out of the class the

080cafeteria okay I I think the uh part of that question is a priority what what is the priority uh in your thinking about kids eating together in a cafeteria or kids sitting in a classroom that they've been sitting all day and not having a chance to really have a another conversation other than classroom activities but anyways let me ask my second question um and you can add add on to that if you'd like uh that first question and the response to this one this one has more to do with parents and what do you believe parents should know what their children are being taught and have a say the parents have a say in those programs including books used so that's a pretty broad question there but I appreciate your answer so I think it's

081Paramount for our parents to um know what is going on in the classroom have a say in what's going on in the classroom um the school in the district does not uh become the parents during the the time that the student is with the district um the parents at the school district is acting in place of the school uh the parents um so I do think that the parent needs to have a be a PR uh Pinnacle focus on on what is um what the curriculum is and allowing them to make sure have transparency on what is going on in the classroom thank you Mr Johnson our parents have a method of being able to do that they can communicate with their teachers right now through the various programs and they should be communicating with

082them and watching what their kids are learning and they can ask questions of the teachers on a regular basis is what they're doing um I think if they followed through on that and they would have a much better understanding of what goes on in the classrooms as far as choosing the books there's a state law generates a process of how we choose what books go in a classroom and right now we don't buy very many books anyways just about everything is done with the computer so that's sort of a moot point Scott Iverson I believe that the students the teachers and the parents should collab or collaborate with each other um and I do believe that everyone should have a say okay okay thank you thank you thank you any other questions this is Reagan

083Clemens coming up um I think I'll piggyback on Dirk's comment um so as the building is filled with teachers who have advanced degrees in education and administrators who have advanced degrees and those things um you know similar like when I go to the dentist or my kids with a dentist I don't then tell the dentist how to treat my child's teeth because I don't have the background it doesn't mean that I don't have a vested interest in my child in their best interest and I want to have some you know want to know what's happening and consent to things but I'm certainly not going to dictate or you know insist on that I know better than the dentist so there is an issue in a small group of people in the world that um you

084know that parents should have an equal say with teachers as far as what their kids are learning and how they're learning even though like I don't know how to teach a child how to read you know I read with my kids but I don't know how that is broken down because I don't have the training where do you guys fit as far as that balance of like respecting the really Advanced degrees are required to do that job properly versus parents who love their kids and want nothing but the best for them Mr Johnson will start with you um I agree with you we have professionals that make a good living they've spent a long time learning their Craft um especially at our administrative level they uh they're the ones that propose the decisions or any

085of the work to the school board before anything might be changed um they they explain to us what and why because obviously and none of us are also education professionals well each have our own backgrounds that we bring forward to the table I'm sorry except for Peter I I apologize Peter because Peter is a teacher I I apologize for that and Mr liable is also financially I just I do apologize about this we've got those but anyways the it's all those different backgrounds just gives us the ability to ask the right questions of them as we help move forward with programs um I I strongly believe that those are the people that need to decide what we're doing but it has to be based on on good sound research it can't be just we're gonna

086willy-nilly pick a new program and a new way of teaching every week you know just the things have to be based on sound salad research and then we move for Harris what we want to see is going to work does that mean parents can't have input no they can't they can come to the board meeting they collect new board members if that's what they choose to do and express their concerns about that stuff or they can go directly to the school principles and work their way up the administration I think that concerns that the the highly paid professionals those are the ones that should be making those decisions Scott Iverson um I I do agree with that I agree that people um go for a long time to get those education and they want to

087educate our students in a way that has been set forth um but I do again I think that the parents should still have a voice and they should be able to tell or collaborate with the teacher and with the school and maybe it's the right setting to come to one of the board meetings to do that Mr beckinghausen so I do agree with both candidates um I better than most most people understand that the teachers did go through all that training I have family members that are teachers my sister herself just finished uh School two years ago and got our master's degree and is now teaching in the Winslow School District um so I do understand that these teachers put everything they have and more into these students and um the problem that I see

088is sometimes the parents aren't being listened to and that those makes you say that mask so parents need to have a voice in how their children are are being taught not necessarily what one plus one is but there are times and I'm not saying it's happening here but I would I I do see that there is and I've heard from parents um across Erie County that there is curriculum that is being pushed that um does not fall in line with parent values for example values for example so for example um some parents have very uh religious views for example and things are being taught against uh that those those values that they might hold so a parent should have that right and ability to say there needs to be a spot where hey my I

089don't want my kids um exposed to certain things um I'm not saying that things should be erased from from from curriculum but uh there is a point where uh parents should have some say and I just have one more question sure um there's a I don't remember who said it but something about like um there is non-essential funding in the budget um so that got me thinking to spread it to everyone is there something that you wish you could put in the budget and is there something you wish that you could unfund from the budget like if you had your way is there something you'd like to fund that maybe would be a dream or something that you really would like to unfund because you feel that money could be used in a better way

090says Iverson I I go back to again with the school buses and getting bus drivers and we need our sports teams to come back we were number one we were number one we were number one when I was here we were number one when my children were here we need to bring that back we need to put some some money into those extracurricular activities um it's not school is school but it's very important for the two students to get together and do those other things as well anything that you would unfund anything that I would unfund um not that I can think of right now eckenhausen so my primary focus is making sure that the students have all the funding they need to be able to do any sport art um music extracurriculars that they

091they wish to do um I was fortunate enough to have parents that were able to provide all the different things I could do Eagle Scout I swam um baseball I did a lot of different sports um growing up and not every not every kid has that opportunity so I think um if I was going to fund anything further it would be all of the different extracurriculars sports Music Arts everything that goes to everything that goes towards um the children's um ability to to round themselves as as young adults anything that you would unfund um I can't think of anything at the moment Mr Johnson it's a tough one I mean I've I'd have nothing that I would have fun because Mr Feldman would have heard about it sometime in the last five months um as

092what my counterparts on the board um I think our budget actually covers all this stuff that the kids need right now we've done a good good decent job on that the one thing I would like to fund and I don't know how I'm going to do it is an immediate increase in the size of our classroom buildings and in our buildings I mean we we talked we've we've gone this year with the board and met at each one of the schools and I asked at least a couple of them before I went through what would be your your immediate wish and I and when we were at Maple mirror which is our our biggest one right now for being squeezed um they do have the clad the classes you were talking about out back in

093the school and they call them learning Cottages I heard them say it over their little dance fancy name for the trailer but anyways I said other than us dropping two more classrooms at the end of your building what would you like immediately and they said six classrooms not two so it's um it's it's that's the biggest thing I just wish and if we are going to come be asked for funding tell them whether it's mayor the rest of the board whoever it is in a couple more years we're going to ask you for more funding and probably to add some space to some of our schools that's discussion has already started that would be I would be thank you any other questions from the audience yes sir if you could come up to the podium

094two questions in mind uh first off yeah the school has uh been making continuing efforts to uh seek to be more inclusive of the diversity student body and to meet the differing needs of educational needs of students so I was uh learning yeah what would you seek to do as a board member to help further those efforts of include inclusivity in meeting the differing educational needs of students Mr Johnson let's start with you this time we're already doing if we have a diversity equity and inclusion committee going on right now um that which I'm a member of it as some others as Mr Raven almost was a member of the committee um and on top of that we have five individual subcommunities subcommittees doing different studies and moving them forward some of them are going

095to be presented in the next month or two for changes there's a number of ongoing things in every one of them we've reached out to the community and gotten Community leaders we've had we have students on committees there's there's we've gotten a lot of different people already involved in this so it's not just Administration and teachers and and the board and that's already ongoing it's been ongoing for more than a year if anybody wants to read about it it's on our website it's just you can find the Dei the opening page and get a lot more information this is Scott Iverson um yes I think that it will be important to have the students really get out and teach us because we can all learn no matter how old we are about their backgrounds so

096we should have a week for you know the different backgrounds that they have and I know we're very diverse we speak I think 40 plus languages here um so I think it would be really important if they could get together and start teaching each other about their backgrounds and and where they come from Mr beckinghausen um I wholeheartedly agree with what Don just said um I think um having having everyone learn about all the diverse backgrounds um I remember as a kid uh one of the things we did was even doing cultural cultural stuff um I think making sure that everyone understands everyone has a different background different history they come from a different place they might have um different experiences in life than than you might have so making sure that all our students

097are learning um all the different shades and colors that the world has and how wonderful they are yes and another question was that in a matter of the informational literacy which is an important skill for in modern times for being able to learn how to acquire and evaluate and make use of information so I was wondering uh yeah what would you seek to do in order to help further advance the teaching of information literacy in our schools Mrs Iverson literacy at Sweet Home is really Second To None um so I'm I am sure we can always improve but right now again they're sending people to our district because of our you know literacy or so we're getting you know students sent to us because of how where we stand Mr Beckham um so that is

098something that I would as we were talking about earlier teachers um the administration have that background that we must lean on some of that um making sure that our students have uh adequate scores and exams and um like I said if they need additional help making sure the funding is there to provide that to the students and Mr Johnson I agree with Mrs Iverson I appreciate it very well thank you sir any other questions from the audience okay sure come on up hello my name is Diane Scott I'm as Don told you I am her mother I'm very proud of her um I'm not going to ask you any questions I just want to leave you with a couple words okay um respect [Laughter] respect compassion teamwork and listen truly listen I don't know what

099the results are going to be of this election of course you know I'm biased but remember those words respect compassion teamwork and listen thank you thank you okay with no other questions uh how about a round of applause for our candidates they did a nice job uh just as a point of information again voting uh on both the School District budget and the Board of Education Election will take place in this room on Tuesday May the 16th from seven to nine eight nine PM um and uh if you're not in District uh on the date for traveler work you can call the district office and we can get you an absentee ballot so good luck to our candidates I think at this time the board can take their seats and we'll go about our business

100foreign [Music] can you try and uh share again sorry I'm looking at you it's the worst part oh just hit one button s so that we have to start the meeting and then we go to the study version yes could I have a motion to adjourn the special session so moved any conversation second second any conversation all in favor aye aye he just went to the bathroom um next that takes us to the approval of the agenda which we'll be doing next week any comments concerns that takes us to the minutes of the previous meeting any questions comments concerns next is Communications has anyone received communication no thank you I think we I got an invite so we got an invite from um Glendale was it Glendale glendale's learning day and didn't we get something

101from Harris Beach for dinner or uh Erie County Association of course those are the only ones that's right okay okay all right that takes us to our 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 attendance and participation by District residents people having business within the boundaries of the school district and people who do business with the Board of Education speakers must be at least 16 years of age and they are limited to three minutes please preface your comments with your name address and 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

102must state which agenda item they are speaking on any takers once you come up here state your name address and um you have three minutes about that was in the meeting already sure okay and we have a three minute it's more of an agenda yeah well is this it's not the calendar it's not the calendar Oh I thought it was previous he thought it was but I need to see the calendar before I ask okay then that's going to take us to our second session yeah so this is from the first prior session I heard something and I didn't ask a question after about the budget yes some of these statements we have to make we will have to the question about the calendar has to wait until the second an open session okay she

103has questions about I don't have a question about the budget I just want to know where something is located on the budget or on the website is that a private letter you can send to Mr genestri or Mr something that Dirk mentioned already so man I can answer is there a question about where on the website what can I just write down for you I don't wanna always send an email send you an email yeah how about Kim because we can't do questions answered right now why don't you send Mr um Feldman a question a question about that and he'll get right back to you okay yep thanks Kim all right anybody else all right next is unfinished business and we have none that takes us to the superintendent's report um thank you Mrs Jason

104we wanted to start tonight uh with a presentation by Mrs Bayless on our uh calendar thank you a proposed calendar thank you Dr janestri and thank you to all of you for being here this evening um I have the uh pleasure of revealing the highly anticipated reveal of the 2023-24 calendar recommendation so um for everyone for those who are are viewing this evening um we we uh put together when we do the calendar every year um the process is to convene a committee of stakeholder groups to come together and take a look at the calendar based on the parameters that are set um for us and there and where we have some discretion so I'd like to thank those who served on our calendar committee this year we had members from our parent group from

105all of our ptas from our teachers union our service employees union our administrative Union and of course district office so thank you to those who have served I won't read through all of the names but thank you for your service the first thing that we take a look at when we build a calendar for the school year and there's a number of items one is the State education department sets forth some regulations that we take a look at and make sure our calendar meets those regulations we take a look at the New York State assessments and Regents exam schedule all legal holidays contractual language stakeholder interests the BOCES calendar and emergency closure considerations so I'm going to take take each one of those in a little more detail so the first one is the New

106York State education department puts forth regulations for building the calendar and under New York State education law we must be in session for at least 180 days to maximize our foundational Foundation Aid allocations we also look at the commissioner regulations related to aggregate annual aggregate minimum hours so we do make have to make sure that our from grades k6 that we have at least 900 hours of instruction and from grade 7 12 990 hours of instruction it does permit half days or shortened days of student attendance which also count towards those aggregate hours the other piece that we take a look at in terms of what aggregate hours means those are any days that we are in session it does include Regents exam days and state assessment dates it also includes up to four superintendents

107conference days and there are some parameters of when superintendent's conference days can occur which include before the first day of instruction on the last day of instruction parent teacher conference days can be counted as superintendent's conference days and we can also hold conference days at the end of August which would be subject to our collective bargaining agreements and of course we would not hold them on a legal holiday or a Saturday take a look at the next year's Regents exam and assessment schedules we do have the exam dates for next year for January and June and also the New York State assessments for grades three through eight and Ela and math as well as the computer-based testing windows so we'll take those into account when we build our calendar um the next thing we take

108a look at um on the US um been building the calendar are all of our legal holidays so on the on the screen before you are all of the legal holidays that occur during the the school year um the only connect um uh acceptor um edit we've made to our calendar this year is in the past um we've referred to the October Day Columbus Day as strictly Columbus Day and this year we are adding the indigenous people's day we're making that recommendation to the board to add that language on on the school district calendar this was a conversation that was had in our Dei committee and our subcommittee groups and there's some conversations about keeping it strictly Columbus Day or honoring which is the state or the federal holiday as well as adding the language

109for indigenous peoples day which is by state and federal Proclamation and they're obviously the remaining holidays are the annual holidays that have been traditionally held including more recently the Juneteenth holiday we also take a look at the parameters set forth by our the contracts our collective bargaining agreements so under our teachers contract we do work 186 days um yeah the first day being after Labor Day and the last day allowing for the day after Regents rating day we do have two half days near the end of the last or the first two trimesters for report cards and two half days for elementary student attendance at the end of the school year the calendar also does provide for parent-teacher conference days which include the elementary a full day and one extended day and at the middle

110school and the high school and extended an extended day finally we take into account some stakeholder considerations which include our obviously our first and foremost goal is to maximize the instructional days for n hours for our students we also like to align with the yuriwan BOCES calendar many of our students of course are take coursework with the Erie one whether it's through the special education program or through the Career and Technical education program so it's important to align our calendar with the BOCES calendars to optimize instructional time in both settings we like to make sure we build in time for emergency closure days and to minimize the days of half of half days of student attendance at the elementary level to help our parents and families and we of course continue to want to honor

111the need for evening hours for parent-teacher conferences at all levels we've been continuing the elementary trimester calendar which has been very successful for the elementary program I mean to provide the elementary teachers with those half days to prepare for their report cards for prior to those conference days and so with all those considerations that we take into account and with input from our stakeholder groups at the calendar committee we reveal our calendar here we are proposing that our calendar and just like some note too this every year when we build a calendar sometimes the the calendar contracts or expands based on when Labor Day falls and when the rating Day falls this year our calendar is more generous Labor Day falls a little earlier and the rating day allows for more opportunity and flexibility in

112the calendar than we had in particular last year last year was a very tight calendar this year does allow for some more opportunity in the calendar so we are looking to open the day after Labor Day on September 5th with our staff development day and first student day of student attendance would be September 6th we're looking at November 7th which is also election day as our second superintendent's conference day the November recess for Thanksgiving we are looking to include the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so it'd be Wednesday Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving recess November 1st and 7th are tied together with the elementary program for the half day report cards and staff development day together with parent-teacher conference days without those days are on the 7th and the 8th we do have a we're proposing a

113winter recess that would include December 25th through the 29th a midwinter recess in February the 19th through the 23rd our third superintendent's conference day on March 8th a longer spring recess this year which would start on Friday March 29th and go through Monday April 8th and this does include the solar eclipse day we appear to be in the direct path of a total solar eclipse and this much anticipated event is expected to bring lots of visitors and tourists to our area and is projected to shut down our region right at the end of the school day so in anticipation of of that event school districts in the region are planning to close on the Monday after East the spring recess break and which would then put us back in session on Tuesday April 9th um

114finally we're looking to have our elementary half days June 24th and 25th with a final staff day of June 26th um so that in summary again are we honor our the teacher work day of 186 days our student attendance days would then be at elementary at 183 and secondary at 186. we've listed our superintendent's conference dates on the proceeding page and um where it results in the final calendar which is very hard to see on the last slide of the draft of the calendar that we'd be proposing to the board of education for the 23-24 school year and this page and the next slide you'll see um the this is the erie1 BOCES school calendar and you'll see that all of our dates do align with the area one calendar with the only exception is

115the um they uh Erie one starts a day sooner because they start their superintendent's conference days before Labor Day and the only other difference is that they are in they've built into their calendar the opportunity to be off the day prior to Memorial Day weekend but otherwise our calendar does align with the erie1 calendar to support our students who do take instruction opportunities with erie1 so that is the calendar in a nutshell and I don't know if anyone has any questions about how the calendar is built or or the recommendations that have been made by the calendar committee I do have one um because I didn't notice it before but if uh for the day before Memorial the Friday before Memorial Day um for all our students that would be going out to a CTE

116program what do we do with the mate so they stay back here at school um and um there's opportunities for them to they so for in some cases they spend half their day here for classes anyway um and if it's the the other half of the day um they there might be some work that they can do here and get caught up or they may be excused for the remainder of the day I could shed a little more clarity to that day as well that is not a set in stone day okay that is a teacher contracted floating day so as long as there are for erie1 BOCES if there are is one remaining School emergency closure day that they will be off if the district uses all of their snow days that is the

117first day that gets removed back so what is a kind of a floating day that's interesting thank you for that clarification I'm sure that they didn't clarify that for me Mrs Ballas what was the discussion I didn't quite follow it I for what it's worth I fully support uh referencing Columbus Day in accordance with the federal population of indigenous people's day but what was the discussion I mean is that is that part of the proposal for the calendar or is it not yeah so so last year and previous years if you recall our the Sweet Home school district calendar just referred to that day as Columbus Day right um and it we know that there have been proclamations federal and state proclamations to also honor that day as indigenous people's day right so we did

118have the conversation through the Dei committee about looking at that day and ensure um from up from showing up from a policy perspective making sure that day was reflective of Columbus Day and Indigenous people's day there was conversation about whether or not the day should just be indigenous people's day or National Heritage day or some other name or whether it should remain exclusively Columbus Day and I think there was some um there were lots of different opinions on what it could be but I I think the in the end the the majority believe that uh the uh in terms of complying with state and federal policy that to name the day as the federal and state governments have issued as Columbus indigenous people's day okay there are some districts who go exclusively indigenous people's day

119right um and some who've remained exclusively Columbus Day and there was a belief that would to be most inclusive would be to provide both um opportunities on our school calendar that's right thank you yep for sure thank you my nails thank you thanks for all the work in that committee for sure thank you thank you Mrs Bayless uh so just a couple quick updates um as we were coming onto the floor tonight uh we were getting emails regarding the New York state budget um being passed and coming through uh some bills started to come through um as we were basically entering the floor tonight and nisbo was sending out emails um regarding them as well um what we do know is that our foundation Aid is maintained as uh as was in our previous run

120our estimated run um the uh set aside the foundation Aid set aside for high impact tutoring was thrown out by the legislature um so we appreciate that that you uh you know they take our foundation Aid and then they start to tell us exactly what we have to do with it um that's called the set aside so the set-aside was removed for high impact tutoring I think there was a lot of questions on what high impact tutoring was and that's why I didn't make it through there was some added uh funding for upk programming but we did not receive any of that added funding um and maybe that's a question that might come up Thursday with Senator galliman but um we'll we'll look into that a little bit more um the maximum earnings cap for

121uh New York State uh retirees School retirees um and School Employees was also lifted for another year and that will expire on June 30th 2024 so a lot of the things that we saw that were going to be included in the budget there were and there's no major really no major surprises so far that have come out but I think full approval might happen by the end of the week I would say yeah the only other piece uh there was some discussion uh capital outlay projects bumped to 250 thousand dollars that didn't make it through the to the executive budget uh they remain at a hundred thousand dollars which is what we had budgeted for is there anything in there I don't know where I read it about um giving all kids breakfast lunch and

122make it through but what I will say is there's been additional funding added to schools that qualify for the community eligible program uh which we are a part of um so I would imagine there was some talk about that potentially obviously going away uh but with the added the funding added to that uh we'll go through the application process again and I would imagine giving our economic makeup and our demographic makeup that we would continue in that program and all of our kids would eat free for um both breakfast and for that program there's a form that parents need to sign back we'll we traditionally send out a free and reduced of lunch form uh we ask that everybody does that um because not only does it help us get that funding but it helps

123with our re as well so not as easy this time hold on one second let's try again foreign uh we're very proud that may is a very busy month here at sweet home and I thought tonight we could highlight um our music program and music concert season um some of the things that uh we're really proud of will be happening all in the Middle School auditorium uh this may so uh pretty much every week uh there will be a series of concerts at all levels from Orchestra to band to chorus Jazz Wind Ensemble you name it um the music department will be very busy this uh this spring and uh throughout the month of May so I encourage all of our community to attend a concert at the Middle School uh the work of our

124students and the music department is just fantastic uh and can't wait to attend some of those events so hope to see everybody there throughout the month of May uh I know it was mentioned tonight uh by Mr Johnson our building uh use committee will be meeting uh we were supposed to meet on Thursday but we moved that meeting to Monday we're trying to move it to Monday because Mr Feldman and I were invited to a meeting with Senator Gallivan on Thursday so we're trying to switch it around um but uh we were given a task at the last meeting um and especially um thank you to Mrs battaglia's input um to go back and come up with ideas on improving the overall student experience and all of our elementary buildings where we are having spacing

125issues uh in in everywhere from our classrooms to our cafeterias so uh we have tasked the committee with coming up with ideas for improving the lunch experience or what the ideal lunch experience should look like um at sweet home and then um ideas for building use for special programs uh as well uh because a lot of our special programming is happening in our cafeterias right now due to lack of space long term the committee is looking at our enrollment uh in enrollment studies uh and going to make recommendations as far as where we should go with our bill upcoming building projects those building projects or capital projects are already in the works as we are in the idea stage right now we have met with our architects in all four of our elementary buildings uh

126the principals have put wish lists together of what they would like out of their building project and also what they must have out of their building project based on the building condition survey for each building so a lot of the building conditions survey items are stuff that the public doesn't see like HVAC Mechanicals Roofing that sort of thing windows but we recognize and so do our Architects that our next Focus for our Capital project will most likely be on our elementary buildings and whether that is every idea is on the table whether that is expansion at our elementary buildings especially maplemere and Glendale seem to be where it's critical right now or is it a complete remodel of our elementary buildings to fall in line with 21st Century Learning uh that would fall in line

127with our strategic plan that will be presented next month so a lot of ideas on the board one of the things is it's a good problem to have that our enroll and continues to increase and that we're projecting enrollment increases over the next 10 years so um so we'll continue to work as a committee we've met often we're going to continue to meet and we're excited about this work because it could really reshape our elementary buildings look um and really prepare our students better for a better future so excited about this work but we know there's a lot of work that work ahead uh and then this is also a busy time for board meetings as well as we wrap up the school year um we had their budget hearing District vote tonight calendar presentation

128uh next week we're going to have students um from our from the art show come in our award-winning students in photography uh present to the board um Dr Wilson will have a uh update on science and math curriculum that she's been working hard with our teachers um on and um uh and and we'll have a presentation for the board on that and then miss Bayless will have a uh information for the board on the Safety Code of Conduct presentation and public hearing as well uh June is also going to be a very exciting month here at our board meetings uh we are very excited that our strategic plan uh that's been in development for a year uh with Dr Wilson leading that effort uh is is ready to be presented uh and uh we're excited

129about the outcome uh and I'll just say one of the highlights of it and and the board knows this but the public should know as well the amount of community input into this plan was unprecedented BOCES has never seen the amount of community input um that has has been generated um by this by a particular strategic plan in the district so um and they do this work all the time so we're we're super excited to present because our entire Community has has uh has embraced it and and put it into it uh we'll also have a presentation on uh for Mrs Bayless leading that effort with uh Dei and what the work of our district-wide committee has done this year and the five subcommittees have done which has been remarkable because all stakeholder groups uh

130parents students administrators teachers staff had been and board members of course have been involved in this work and making positive difference and positive change um in the district we'll also have our retirement and tenure reception um in June uh presentation for Mr Feldman on attendance and wellness and um we'll wrap up with a presentation on what the building news committee came through so it's going to be a busy a couple of months but uh um a culmination of a lot of the hard work that the district has done um starting with with the guidance from the board which we really appreciate that is what we have tonight questions still only have two meetings per month right well somebody still only have two meetings right yeah I do have well I don't know if it's a

131question or statement informational item I don't know uh Chef uh they would like to do their presentations for their awards at our June study session maybe we'll do three meetings yeah all right yeah all right that is so and maybe we can consider front loading those award presentations considering how long that meeting might go but yeah just uh maybe we can talk about that uh David or June agenda setting yeah it's where I'm taking agenda setting so I'm just gonna put it on your plate and you guys can decide what you want to do with it okay it's a nice part to not being on the agenda setting committee any feedback uh reporting out on the mini grants that they awarded um I know it's absolutely okay so there you go there's something else to

132try and work into so maybe we'll have to talk about maybe a third I mean we've got a lot to cram into two meetings and I don't want to shortchange anyone so that's going to have to be a discussion we have we can do that with people Urban nowhere better to be on a Tuesday Tuesdays all right um I'm sorry Dr genestri mentioned a lot of our upcoming events and that takes us to new business that we'll be voting on next week first is class placements I have there's 500 pages of special ed this month that I'm reading through I don't know if you've gotten through with Scott but I I'm getting through it I'll have it done by next week for everybody um B is our financial monthly Financial reports uh C is our

133bids for health and medical supplies emergency transportation bid athletic and physical education supplies anything any questions D is our request for proposal our printer management a remote print access he is our district attendance calendar our district payroll calendar and district holiday calendar f is our corrective action plan could you maybe just speak about that a little bit Mr Feldman which corrective action the State Controllers report sure uh so the state comptroller's audit uh was released um really last month sometime as part of that we have 90 days to issue a board approved corrective action plan uh the state comptroller's audit uh per regulation can be found really in two places can be found on the state comptroller's website it can also be found on the district website on the district business office page that's a

134button right there you can kind of see that you can see also our response to the audit findings and then our corrective action plan which you have here in front of you of the corrective action plan addresses the two recommendations really in the audit one about Surplus fund balance exceeding the statutory limit and the second about how the board and District officials should adopt realistic budgets and ensure uh year to year encumbrances are valid so we've addressed that uh the the the corrective action plan has been vetted certainly by Mike and I we've talked about it but we've also shared it with our audit committee our audit committee has given it a thumbs up which is why it is now to you uh it is on the district website on the board of education page

135that uh for the public to see at any point in time and then lastly uh once and if it's approved we need to excuse me we need to um then submit it to the state office state comptroller's office as well as the commissioner of education and keep it posted on our website which we'll certainly do okay thank you very much just to have a comment I want to I want to thank you for for putting in there in the plan is because the Comptroller's office called us out for our debt Reserve yet you mentioned it in here that they've got a specific controller opinion 95-24 that says we could do exactly what they're calling us out for doing so they're contradicting them so ourselves and I know I'm glad you noted that yep so it

136was a finding uh in our last uh sticking tours audit as well um in 2016 uh it was due to a misstep in in Aid that's explained in in both the report in our in our letter uh we also addressed it and our response to the state comptroller's office uh that we felt as though what we were doing was prudent um based upon this ruling based upon the opinion of our external auditor and we were also very disappointed uh that we um when the Auditors were on site we gave them a very detailed plan about how her regulation that Debt Service Reserve will be spent down to zero an offset of the local share in regards to that particular Capital Improvement project and that never made it into the report easy all right next is

137our corrective action plan in response to the internal audit applications okay um H is our revised policy our second reading I is our annual District vote we have the chief election inspector Jay is our BOCES Dexter Sweet Home contract let me just explain a little about that one too sure sure it's not go ahead oh I'm sorry no no no go ahead I'm sorry you looked at me and I didn't realize [Laughter] yeah so um so I will say Mr Feldman has done uh a great job negotiating a new um lease with BOCES it is a three-year lease um for Dexter Terrace uh in that lease is a uh out for the district with a Year's notice um two BOCES that in case we need that building for additional space whether it be um grade

138level whether it be for housing and Elementary School in case of a major renovation uh that we could take that building up with a Year's notice so um it is a three-year lease but but we have that out in it uh and it maintains um pretty much the same pricing except we've added the annex they've asked to use the annex and that will generate two thousand dollars more a month correct it's an extension of the current lease adding two thousand dollars a month in additional rent for the annex uh they are we have a draft of it now uh there was an error in it that we noticed we're waiting for it to come back uh and it will be on the agenda for next week um obviously if you're comfortable in voting on a

139pen that would be great if you're not we can certainly push it off did we Grant bow season out same it's the same on both sorry it's the same on both sides thank you oh um they gave what they gave us one I was just curious uh K is our partial real property tax exam for volunteer firefighters and M and ml is our disposal of obsolete property any questions all right that takes us to informational items hi everyone uh so first and foremost I just want to say thank you all for bearing with me and being patient I know the last couple of meetings I've just like problem after problem so I just want to say thank you uh for that um so since the last time uh I spoke uh there have been a

140couple of different uh things that we've done so last time I talked about the Senate vacancy uh in student government due to uh Connie Chen leaving uh unfortunately so we had our full group meeting where we interviewed three sophomores who were all vying for this spot of Senator we asked them to um talk a little bit about themselves and what they hope to contribute to our organization we asked what the first thing they would do if they got into that position was and how they would go about accomplishing it after that after we interviewed them we had a private ballot within our own group and we decided on sophomore Lily Fisher to become a senator in replacement for Kanye because um she's she's was our acting secretary and she was a part of student government

141last year and so we're happy to have her back this year uh the Athletics and music and art committees have begun working on decorating for the Panther pit we held an art contest uh in which uh the panther pit would get a banner designed that would kind of symbolize Sweet Home Athletics and we opened that submissions for that contest in the end of March and at the end of spring break we chose the winner who got a 100 gift card and um the winner was Hunter tryloft who's a junior and we actually have the banner printed out it's in Mrs Bruce's room now and we're hoping to hang that up sometime later this week on the uh next to the bleachers next to the turf so something else that we're planning on bringing back um

142which was one of my goals to bring back this year is the prize wheel um in the main foyer that's something that Student Government brought to Sweet Home and it's because of covid it kind of the purpose of this prize wheel got changed but we're hoping to revert it back to what it initially was um and putting small prizes with hopefully pop-up contests and things of that nature it's kind of boost School morale and get us back to um where we were prior to Kobe uh Earth day pass as well and one of our goals this year was to continue what we did last year and hand out biodegradable cups with plants in it and that's exactly what we did this year again that was just a fun little thing to honor Earth Day um

143we had the meeting at Central Kitchen with Mrs Sajak and we kind of just discussed what has changed since last year and where we want to move from now so we discussed the honestly like as a student myself I can attest to the fact that the variety in school food has definitely increased I uh many of my friends have noticed it as well and the new options that were being given um they're they're Hit or Miss as with all options but there have been a lot of really big hits that I mentioned to Mrs Sajak and she told me that you know they're not directly in contact with the students so they're not sure what we like or what we don't like and so that's kind of why they're experimenting so it was good to

144let them know that some of the things that they're um pushing out to us are being accepted well and she said that um it's good to hear that so that they can plan accordingly for what they want to push out in following years so that's hopefully something that we can continue annually moving forward uh Glendale and maybe maplemere both both elementary schools invited us to um present at their leadership days at the end of May there's no as far as I'm aware at the moment there we haven't been shared any specific topics yet but hopefully in the upcoming weeks we are we are going to put together a presentation so that's just going to be a really fun thing um you know we had the maple mirror uh black history presentation earlier on in the

145year and now we're doing Glendale maybe mirror again so hopefully that's something we can continue to do and Branch out to the other elementary schools in the Middle School in the following years another one of our goals uh before the end of the year we want to have one more spirit week and hopefully an end of the year event uh perhaps nothing like super big but just something that to end the year in a fun and memorable way that's still in deliberation and nothing has been finalized yet but um that's definitely one of my end goals and um obviously uh this this was a while ago but the Pi Day celebration at the high school um the stickers and Tattoos the pizza that was um being handed out and pieing our favorite teachers in the

146face it was just a really good um just a really good way to both like acknowledge Pi Day and um boost School morale and that's that's the kind of stuff that I I personally feel that makes sweet home really special and that's the kind of stuff that I hope to see um in the Futures even after I graduate um and obviously the really big balls for bucks um assembly that we had the other day that was that was just a lot of fun um and shout out to miss Mansell for really working hard and putting that together because that was just a really cool experience um Mr carty looks amazing so um it's scary that was eleven thousand dollars I think yeah it was it was eleven thousand dollars which is amazing um and as

147Dr janeshri said it is concert season um as a member of concert Corral I hope to see some of you guys at our concert on May 25th and that's all I have great thank you Peter um not much over the last couple weeks other than some sporting events and I feel for the athletic department with their scheduling with all the way um well you play in the rain we don't you play in the rain and the snow in the sleet and the hail that was just um I just I have a lot of stuff over the next couple weeks so I'll hold off so next week great okay thank you Scott um we had a legislative team meeting it was our last one of the year um we did discuss to some extent the upcoming

148legislative dinner it's gonna be a little bit of a reverse we're going to give the legislators that are coming the two of them chance to talk to us and tell them about the session that was just completed um I attended the Twist on Tech program for over with bow seasoning sorry gotta find My Notes because we put them in the wrong though um it was over to Canton BOCES I have never been there even though I went to school it was interesting they um took the auto repair the auto body repair shop out of there we took up a lot of space and they've added three new programs there instead um they got just under 600 students in the building in the building they actually set it up for us in groups so we could

149go around and I learned about animal science and exercise science welding culinary arts and electrical systems with some of the ones I got to say um culinary arts was tough to leave I believe the two gentlemen making desserts were sweet home kids Dave didn't mention that his message but I'm pretty sure they were sweet home kids and they were everything there was awesome that was pretty cool um just the different things that they showed us as we were going around at them and how they do it was just was fascinating to me the programs and it's like I've said it before but I'm going to say it again it's you know the most these programs are not what people thought of four years ago they are outstanding programs that you know that our that our

150kids really should be considering and understanding you know the good things that they've got to offer on them and the last one just be today um before we came you know before we came over here today I attended at least part of the unified basketball game uh West Seneca West had some bus problems and came ended up coming half hour late but um uh I guess this is the first game of the year for the kids and they were doing I think they ever had 16 day when I left it was uh they were doing quite well everybody was having fun it was a good turnout just like usual um the drill team did a quick performance at halftime and I got to meet one of our therapy Ducks because she was there with Mrs

151benkowski and that would be it I'm done yep okay thank you Josh well good evening everybody it's good to be back I appreciate uh your understanding and assistance dealing with my ugly mug up on the big screen over the last few months or more than a few months last more than half a year so thank you for good I am so I got back as of Friday so I don't have much report uh Monday was the chef meeting so I mentioned one of the big highlights I remain continually impressed with um not only their initiatives but the sustainment for the more mature programs right that's one of the hardest things to do in kind of your sophomore year of any sort of any sort of order organization is keeping the things that you've started alive

152and they've done that in Spades uh you know their their backpack program is still running strong and running well uh the prom dress program is is doing the same so uh they do have two board members that are vacant right now and they're soliciting input or not input interest rather for those positions right now but other than that that's all I have thank you Haley um I've got a couple meetings coming up in the next week two weeks so nothing I'll share next week okay thank you Peter Brian I'm sorry that's okay you guys look alike so all right the uh yeah I had um will Ridge on uh last Friday had science night uh so I attended that with uh my kids and that was a nice event the highlight of the event was

153the bubble um demonstration which was an hour long um show put on by one individual um uh a young lady who Incorporated dancing lights and then these huge bubbles and I I will just say we've come a long way from covet to where you know we've had we had kids encapsulated in bubbles and and um you know giant bubbles over people popping you know and um there will be there were probably a lot of kids that needed showers after that so but um it was a really nice event and that that was put on uh by the PTA and they did a great job with that um the other thing I also attended the spring Music Festival which was last week Wednesday at the middle school and he done a great job thank you Amy

154I like Peter don't have much spent a lot of time in the uncertainty of this weather at sporting events but um and my mind is a little full with stuff going on at work so all right thank you um I would just like to mention that Mr Feldman emailed me or texted me whatever um we have three candidates for our scholarship so I'll forward all that to you and just give me back your picks and we'll go from there and when do you need did we all give you checks yet uh no no uh June 1st June 1st okay thank you all right that takes us to our next Open Session do I need to read okay okay next is Personnel teaching and administrative as well as service any questions comments all right with that

155I'll make a motion to adjourn to Executive session for matters of students second