Board of Education Meeting - December 8th @ 6:30pm

001Okay. Can I get a motion to come out of executive session at 6:37? >> Jane. Second, Fran. All in favor? >> Opposed? 70. Thank you. Okay. We're going to call to order the regular meeting of the board of education for December 8th at 6:38. And we'll begin with the pledge, please. Pian flag of America. >> Okay, some housekeeping. Please take note of the emergency exits on the side and behind you. There's no smoking anywhere on school property. If you're planning to address the board, please sign in on the sheet provided and the meeting is being uh streamed on our district YouTube page. Okay. So, uh before we jump into the agenda, I just want to discuss our ongoing contract negotiations with the SRP unit, which includes our par profofessionals and our secretarial staff. In recent

002weeks, there's been some concerning information circulating in the paper and on social media. Tomorrow, detailed information will be shared with staff and parents through Parent Square. But I just want to take a moment to discuss it here tonight. So, let me begin by saying that we value and appreciate our parent professionals and secretarial staff. They are essential to our schools and the success of our children. While negotiating, we strive to be competitive and fair. while also being fiscally responsible. This unit is one of six groups that we negotiate with. So, we need to consider everything from a shortterm and long-term financial perspective. While we work on negotiating a new contract, the pairs and secretarial staff continue to work under their existing contract. When we negotiate, parties sit down at a table to exchange information and

003try to bargain out what works best for everyone. This negotiation is a little different because we have both paras and secretarial staff in one unit. There are 225 paras and t 23 secretarial staff members. Both groups are valued but also have very different roles and have very different needs. Negotiations involve open dialogue, compromise and patience from all parties. It is not us against them. Negotiation, contracts, and sitting at a bargaining table is a business matter. It's a complex process with many moving parts and probably too many lawyers. It's business, but it's also very personal. Personal because it affects people we care about. Being able to put gas in your car, food on your table, and pay an electric bill is personal. I'll spare you I my I grew up poor stories and simply say that

004these things should not be taken for granted. As with any negotiation, neither side gets everything they want. But we thought we had reached an agreement during the last school year. Unfortunately, there was one remaining item that brought us to a halt. That brought us to an impass. An impass is a legal process, a joint declaration that gets filed declaring no progress and triggers mediation. The district wanted to uh continue discussions over the summer, but the union was not available. So, unfortunately, we did lose 60 days. Again, this is not us against them. This is not the union against the district. We are all the district. You are the district. The community, our taxpayers are the district. So when we say our goal is to negotiate a contract that works best for everyone, we're also talking

005about our taxpayers. It's personal for them as well. We wanted to finish this eight months ago and continue to strive to reach an agreement that is fair for both the payers and secretarial staff. We were ready yesterday, are ready today, and we will be ready tomorrow. It's our hope that the SRP union leaders have shared the current offer with their members so that they can see the progress and also what is causing the impass. Our goal has not changed. We want to negotiate a contract that works best for everyone. Please know that any additional delays are not a reflection of our respect or appreciation for these dedicated team members. They are essential to our schools and to our children. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on uh to the agenda and we're going to

006begin with correspondence, please. >> Good evening everyone. I have a few reminders. The middle school winter concert will happen. We have two concerts at the middle school. Tuesday, December 9th and Wednesday, December 10th. Both of them are at 7:00 p.m. At Montgomery Elementary School, their winter concert is Monday, December 16th at 6:30 p.m. And the high school winter concert is Wednesday, December 17th at 7 p.m. I hope you can join us. >> Okay. All right. Next, we're going to move on to commendations. >> So, this is an exciting night for commendations. I am going to ask our athletic director, Miss Uhielski, to join us um at the podium because we have two athletic teams and members here because it is time to celebrate them. They have done an outstanding job this year and I'm going

007to turn it over to her. Good evening everyone. Um this evening we're here to celebrate uh two of our fall sports teams accomplishments. We have our girls volleyball team here. And we have [cheering] [applause] our girls volleyball team has a lot to celebrate this evening. First of all, they were class uh AAA division champions. [applause] They've earned the first ever section 9 title in Valley Central history. For anyone that was able to make the match, it was an exciting match. They defeated Pine Bush uh 3-2 in a remarkable comeback after being down two sets. Uh they never gave up. Just watching this team all fall, all season, well into the state tournament, they never gave up. They gave 100% every single time they went out onto the volleyball court. You could tell they played as

008a team and with a lot of tenacity and a lot of hard work is what got them here. Um, we also like to celebrate the fact that after becoming division champs, section 9 champs, they moved on to the state regional semi-finals. This achievement again is another and represents another historic milestone here at Valley Central for the volleyball program. We'd like to recognize our all section players for the season. Uh we have Janna Rodriguez. [applause] Also uh named to the fourth team for all state class A uh was Janna Rodriguez. >> [applause] >> our all section first team players, Elena Singleton and McKenzie Rodriguez. And our all section player for second team, Ella Frisbee. All right, we'd like to take this time to call up uh each one of our players and recognize them. We have

009two certificates here. One from our board of education, our school district, and another from the New York State public for recognizing your accomplishments to making it to the state tournament this season. So, we have Maddie Baxter, [applause] Ella Frisbee, Tegan Germaine, Ellie Kresky, Gerjanna Landon, Olivia Kni Rodriguez, McKenzie Rodriguez, Leila Santiago, Abigail Segret, Elena Singleton, Sophia Stevens, Ava Tuttle, Jazella Teravaro, and Kina Veras. We'd also like to recognize our coaches, Madison Vampel. come on up. And Paige Majuski, Congratulations, girls, for another great season. It was my first season here at Valley Central, and I was excited to join you for such great accomplishments. Congratulations [applause] for swimming and diving this past fall. We have uh swimmer Molly Hoover. Molly earned the area's only other individual section 9 championship, winning the 100redyard butterfly with a personal

010best time of 59.68 68 seconds, finishing ahead of Our Lady of Lords, Katie Sheret. She also qualified for the state meet in the 100yard fly, securing her spot two weeks earlier in the OCIAA Division Championship. Uh Katie or Molly, sorry, Molly moved on to the girls swimming and diving state championships in Webster, New York, and finished 29th. [applause] Also qualifying for the state meet just like Molly was our diver Elanor O'Neal. Eleanor. [applause] Eleanor finished third in section 9 in the diving event with an outstanding score of 4996.50, 50, significantly surpassing her OCIA Division 1 score of 413.15 and well above the state qualifying standard of 440. [applause] Is Molly Hoover here with us this evening? Come on up, Molly. [applause] and Eleanor O'Neal. [applause] And they were coached this season by Katie Faruga, Caitlyn

011Troy, and Thomas Plitch. Come on up, coaches. >> [applause] >> Katie's here to represent the coaches. Take all the certificates. >> An outstanding season to our swimmers. Let's give them and diver. Let's give them another round of applause. All right, congratulations everybody. Uh, next we're going to move on. We have a presentation from our Berea Elementary School students. So, we'll invite them in and then we're going to have one uh agenda change. After we do the presentation and consent, we're going to move our club presentations up so that those students can go home and do some homework. Good evening. I'm Carara Rap, principal here at Berea. I'm joined by our assistant principal, Mrs. Nancy Fitz Simmons. And on behalf of Mrs. Fitz Simmons, and myself, it's my pleasure to introduce Berea's student council under the

012leadership of Mrs. Dasca. Before you is a dedicated group of leaders who have already made a significant impact on our school community this year with the organization and implementation of several successful events and initiatives that are unique to Berea. They have demonstrated responsibility, creativity, and a strong commitment to representing their peers. What makes this group truly exceptional is their leadership. They often stop by my office to pitch new ideas, thoughtful, well planned, and always centered on how they can make our school an even better place. Their initiative and enthusiasm remind us that they are not only leaders today, but the leaders of tomorrow this evening. They're very proud and excited to update you on their accomplishments and the many exciting projects that they have planned for the remainder of the school year. Please join me

013in welcoming Mrs. Dasca and our Berea Student Council. Welcome. I'm Christina Sterasa and this is my fourth year as the adviser for the Berea Student Council. I'd like to introduce my spectacular student council members here tonight. These kids inspire me and help me create and bring wonderful events through their dedication, school pride, and leadership here at Berea Elementary School. Our president is not feeling well tonight, so the vice president is stepping up and Evangelene Mahar. >> They're just going to introduce themselves. [applause] >> Here are the student council third, fourth, and fifth grade representatives. My name is Matthew. >> My name is Emily. >> My name is Addie. My name is Anthony. >> My name is Grace. >> My name is Anukica. >> My name is Brooklyn. >> My name is Fedor. >> My name

014is Alia. >> My name is Hamza. >> My name is Harper. >> My name is Aaron. >> My name is Riley E. My name is Trent. >> My name is Riley C. I was excited to join the student council and be a leader and role model in our school as part of a student council government group. Each class in grades three through fifth five electives for the class for their class. From these eight president, vice president, secretary and treasurer are elected. Our mission as Berea Student Council is to develop community service projects for the school and community. The council also plans school spirit days and organizes other school related projects. We begin our year with a back to school kickoff assembly. On Constitution Day, the student council sponsors an assembly to welcome back to welcome

015students back. Miss Rap and Mrs. Vit Simmons displayed a slideshow in the cafeteria and reviewed the expectations and the rules at Berea. They also revealed the theme of the year. This year, our theme was voted on by the whole school, students and staff. The theme presented by the student council won. It is level up. We wanted students and staff to persevere to and to elevate our game in all we do. So here we are tonight having the opportunity to level up before you during the assembly. The stu the spirit day schedule was shared. Students and staff know that the first Wednesday of the month we show our spirit and pride. Posters are created to by student council members and hung up around the school to remind everyone about all events throughout the year. At the

016end of the assembly, Mrs. Sherasa challenged us to level it up by asking questions about Constitution Day. Since we learned the rules of our school, she made the she made the connection to our country's rules, the Constitution. Then, grades 3 through 5 students remained to learn how to show their leadership by joining the student council. We understood that we would have to write a speech and present it to our class to be voted on by our classmates. Now there are two representatives and an alternate for each class in grades 3 through 5 for a total of 29 student council members this year. This year was the first annual DAV Field of Flags at Berea Elementary. Under the guidance of our school of our student council advisor, Mrs. Deresa the representatives and community raised over $750

017which was donated through the PTO to disabled American veterans DAV in support of those who have been bravely served our country. Mrs. Derasa's goal was to make a donation to earn 24 flags, but the overwhelming support of our Berea community passed that with a donation of with a donation of over $750 and 72 flags placed on the front lawn near 17K. The student council anxiously awaited the flags to be delivered. During the meeting, we made tags with veterans names to attach to the flags in their honor. These names were from staff and students that have family members or friends in the military. Students willingly came volunteered to come an extra day before school and go outside during their recesses to plant the flags and attached the waterproof tags. As we were creating the field of

018flags, cars passing on 17K honked their horns to show their support. Mrs. Teresa also received texts from veterans that walked our field of flags to find their tag, like veteran Adamant. Even a retired teacher, Miss Herman, sent a text from Maryland to say how excited her father was to tell her about the flag display at Berea. He wanted me to share how much he appreciated it and to thank the student council. On November 10th, the Berea Elementary Student Council welcomed New York State Assemblyman Brian Maher to help dedicate our field of flags in honor of the veterans within our community. Fourth grade students representatives Ava Rougerello sang God Bless America and led our students with her beautiful voice and confidence. The assembly was attended by students in grades 2 to 5 and was both touching

019and inspiring, reminding us of the importance of service, gratitude, and remembrance. After the first annual Field of Flag ceremony, we reflected and agreed it was a huge success. We hope to grow the field to fill the whole grass area near 17K over the next few years and add more songs. Kindland is a community-based program that promotes what else? Kindness. The first year we began with Miss Saska posting a new kindness challenge for us at each of our student council meetings. This consisted of an act of kindness, such an as an inspiring quote, exercise, or activity, which would spread joy to the rest of our classmates. Our goal was to challenge ourselves to take what we learned in our meetings and perform it for the rest of the month. The next meeting, we would share our

020experiences and receive a new kind challenge. Last year, I helped put all of our kindness hands into a heart shape in creating one of the lobby bulletin boards. We also shared acts of kindness we spotted around the school and we could enter them into the Kindland website to complete with other organizations. We didn't win this time, but we definitely succeeded in promoting much kindness through Berea. This year, Kindland is leveling up by sending us a whole box of we will promote kindness in school and at home with a kindness calendar challenge. Teachers, students, and all staff will have the opportunity to share an act of kindness they spotted and write it down on a postcard provided by Kindland to that person. We can't wait to see how far the kindness spread will spread. Our duties

021go beyond attending meetings. Miss Deraska and members of the student council have creative ideas to display on our front lobby bulletin boards and throughout the hallways of our school. [clears throat] Our bulletin boards focus on acts of kindness and encourage school spirit, pride, and the pillars of character. Sometimes we design the posters at school during our meeting, but sometimes we take them home. Here are some pictures of our bulletin boards around our hallways. During our de December meeting, we got right to business. There was so much to do. After we finished our week, each member got to choose six cookies from the cookie exchange. There was a table filled. We got to taste a variety of cookies from other famil family's traditions. Everyone enjoyed a sweet treat that morning and also took some to go.

022This is a tradition that we will carry on. Sorry, there are no pictures for this because we were doing very important business enjoying our dectable cookies. >> Operation toy train is a new service project this year. At our last student council meeting, many students brought in a toy to put in the donation box. Our goal is to fill one box. We are very close to the top again. Feel free to drop off a toy here anytime before this Friday. It's Super Bowl time. Berea has joined the program by tackling hunger by participating in the nationalwide Super Bowl of Caring. The Super Bowl of Caring uses energy around our nation's largest sporting event to mobilize and inspire youth to fight hunger and proity. The Berea Student Council has collected canned souped items that will be donated

023to the Montgomery Food Pantry in cups of soup and juice boxes for the backpack snack attack program that provides weekend snack bags for VC families. That is our first down choosing where we'll donate and support. Second down is registering each w each year with the program. Third down is designing and hanging posters to spread the word that Berea is collecting cans and cups of soup. The fourth down is when students count cans during their recess time and report the count each week over the announcements. Each year we have increased the number of cans, soups, and juice boxes collected. The picture here was the soup collected in our first year participating. Feel free to join us as we tackle hunger and drop off canned or cups of soups during our two weeks before the Super Bowl.

024This year, student council members will read soup jokes and NFL facts on the morning announcements to bring more awareness of our community service project. We all have our NFL teams you are cheering for, but let's know that we need to get off the sidelines and help those in our community. Go team Berea. This is the two-year tradition because the first deer was ran out. A staff member asked Mr. Asa if she could would help her find Berea students interested in walking in the Montgomery St. Patrick's Day parade. She got the float and Mrs. Jasa bought this brought the students filled file filled with school spirit. Students have loved being able to decorate the float. There's so many students that come dressed to impress with their St. Patrick's Day outfit. The number one thing the students

025enjoy about the St. part about the parade is giving the candy to the spectators along the route. The part they are not as thrilled about is the time they needed to wait for the parade to begin. After the parade, some students said the next year they would like to walk walk the route instead of riding in the float. They love waving and seeing their friends on the sides. After the parade, the students helped take off the decorations and clean up the trailer that was donated for the parade. Also, a big shout out to the student that would could not make the parade, but wanted to participate. He took home a poster paper and made it an outstanding VC St. Patrick's Day poster for the float last year. Did you know May is mental health awareness

026month? Mental health is the way we think and feel about ourselves and the world around us. It affects how we cope with life's challenges and stresses. Everyone has challenges that affect us. It is critical to know tools and supports to improve our mental health. Mental health is something we should all care about. Over the past two years, this tradition has grown into something really special at our school. Student council representatives begin by giving their ideas for each theme for the days of the week. They also help lead the activities and share the coping skill of the day. On the morning announcements, we read a coping skill such as deep breathing like a starfish. Positive self-t talk like I can statements. I can be confident and present before an audience at the board office meeting. How

027just like colors we have many emotions and it's okay. How music can help change our mood. and how doing yoga like the tree and going outside to get vitamin D is important. As our kickoff or our final day of the week, the whole school wears green and participates in a mental health walk. It is a onem walk with pausing points to learn and try coping skills. To prepare for the whole school walk, we made signs for each coping skill pausing point and directed the teachers with their class to their starting points. As we all walk, there is music which motivates and creates a positive mood. Many teachers asked Mrs. Sterosa if we could do the walk every morning. This is a great way to remind everyone that taking care of our minds is just as

028important as taking care of our bodies. This week helps our whole school community learn healthy ways to handle stress. We are proud to be a part of it and we are excited to keep growing this tradition. The student council has also assisted the PTO with teacher appreciation week. Although we show our appreciation every day to our teachers, this week we show the them a little bit more. Over the years, we have written special notes for to teachers telling them specifically why they are special or important to us. Another year we wrote a page in a book to our teachers and supportive staffs. Last year it was a wicked theme. We wrapped candy bars and water bottles with wicked phrases. Then we came before school and personally handed each the teachers the wicked themed books that

029the PTO bounded and wrapped. Another morning, we came early to put treats into their mailboxes to surprise them with a treat. We love surprising our teachers and staffs and hope to continue to assist the PTO in many more surprises this year in May. I'm very excited to tell you about Flag Day at Berea Elementary School. One of our school's most special traditions. Flag Day is a time when our whole school comes together to honor the American flag and the veterans who served our country. We are very lucky to continue this tradition with our advisor, Mr. Mrs. Daska. We are getting ready in April. First, we write an interactive script that includes facts about the flag. Then, we get our parts and practice them all through May. We also designed the invitations that we sent to

030veterans from the VFWs in Maybrook, Walden, and Montgomery, as well as any family members who are veterans. The student council president even walks to central office to invite the board of education in person. In our meetings in May and June, Mr. Nebraska teaches us sign language for the words to grand old flag and we make decorations for the breakfast that happens on flag day morning. The ceremony takes place on June 14th. The day starts with the delicious breakfast with our families and veterans. We get to sit with them, ask questions, and hear their stories. We get the chance to honor their service and learn from their example. Last year, my grandpa, a proud veteran who served in the US Army, came and he said that he was amazed at how well students run the ceremony.

031We have had the mayors of Walden, John Ramos, or Becky Pearson join us for the last four years. This past year, veterans from all three communities came, which made it even more exciting. After breakfast, everyone gathers outside for the ceremony at the flag pole. We say the pledge together, looking up at the tatter old flag that waved in front of Berea all year. The veterans help us lower the old worn flag while Taps is played on the trumpet. Then they guide us as we carefully fold the flag into a tight triangle. One student presents the folded flag to a veteran so it can be retired properly. Finally, we raise a brand new flag and the entire school sings Grand Old Flag. It's a moment that reminds all of us how important the flag is and

032how much pride and respect it represents. Everyone who helps with the flag day works hard. We are always excited to be part of the it. It's patriotic ceremony that brings our school and community together and we can't wait to do it again this year. We hope you were able to see all the wonderful events that hap happened because of the student council. Thank you. Have a great night. [applause] >> All right. >> Good job, guys. Thank you very much. >> That was a good presentation. only goes downhill from here. [laughter] >> All right. Next, we're going to move on to our proposed consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? >> Angela. Second. >> Jane. All in favor? >> Opposed? On consent? >> That's new business. All in favor? >> Opposed? 70. Thank you.

033Okay, as I mentioned, we're going to shift our agenda a little bit and we're going to have our clubs do their presentation uh so that those students are able to head home afterwards if they choose to. Uh, good evening everybody. My name is Mr. Fowler. I'm a high school math and computer science teacher. I'm here to present a potential club that we're um posing the name Control Alt Vikings. Those of you with computer knowledge knowalt altdelete brings up your task manager. So, it's a little bit of a pun on that. Um, before I get started, I want you to know that the brainchild of this is Brady Wilder, a student. He's a freshman at the high school. Stand and be recognized. [applause] Uh, just a phenomenal student. I am simply the messenger. He presented me

034with all these club ideas, but he did not want to speak in front of an audience. So, I'm speaking on his behalf this evening. Um so first why would VC want a coding related club? Um as you all know computing jobs are fast growing even with the advent of AI. There are jobs out there for students with these skills. Um they're strengthening real world skills even if they don't become a computer scientist. The fields that they enter are likely to involve computer science in some way shape or form. Um they have the opportunity to be creative, develop creative solutions, solve problems in interesting ways. um and they're building uh their logical skills, their problem solving skills, their communication skills, their leadership skills, all of those things. Um so, so most of these I um touched

035on already, but um the big ones that I feel that this club would emphasize is building leadership, working as a team. Um there's a competition that students can participate in that I'll talk about in a moment um where they are forced to work as a team. Okay. Um so our plan is to have at minimum monthly meetings where we meet and um we do a variety of things. One of those things would be working on coding projects or learning new coding concepts. Um offering peer-to-peer support for students that need help with these computing concepts. Um prepare for an annual competition at Sienna College. Again, I'll touch more on that in a second, but there is a yearly competition um with students from across New York State that our students here at VC could partake in.

036Um bring in guest speakers to speak to the students about potential careers in this field. Um as I mentioned before, you don't have to be a computer scientist to use computer science skills. Um there's a lot of careers out there for those students interested in this stuff. Um, we're open to any high school student. There's no prior experience needed. Um, some of the things we'll work on is teaching stu students how to code. Um, building apps, games, and websites. Um, exploring cyber security and AI. Cyber security is a major job market right now. Um, all of these companies have big data centers and they're trying to protect them from bad people. So, employing people with those skills is very important. uh the programming contest that I mentioned at Sienna College last year, these are last

037year's stats, they had 27 schools from across New York State, uh with 113 different teams with 424 total students participating. That is something that through our partnership with Sienna, we have the opportunity to partake in. Um this year's competition is in April. Um future plans, we're hoping to grow membership um to expand interest um use this club as a pipeline to feed into our computer science courses that we offer. Um for those not aware, we do have three computer science courses at the high school now, which is puts us ahead of more than 50% of New York State. Um and also we offer um seven college credits in computer science as well. Are there any questions for myself or Brady or any of I have a handful of students sprinkled throughout the audience that came

038in support of this. >> How many students do you have interested right now? >> I believe on the signup sheet I've only had contact with the students in my courses. I believe there was like 12 there, but once we're able to advertise, I believe this is going to take off. >> Is there a fee for the competition at Sienna College or >> There's no fee. The only thing that would be required is a bus of some sort to get us there. >> Is it possible for the the students to come up and and just briefly share why they would want this club? >> Sure. >> You're all you know who you are. Come on up. >> Yes, please. There's many of you. [applause] >> Start it off. Hi, my name is Brady Wilder. Um, so

039the reason why I believe this should be a club is because there are a lot of people who really want to pursue fields in stuff like computer science. Now, while they there are courses for this, the courses cover um computer science as a whole. However, this club delves dives deeper into the teamwork aspect of computer programming and all of its challenges required. [applause] >> Yeah, basically what he said it's good it's builds good teamwork and just knowledge of computers. Uh yeah. >> [applause] >> I'm be honest. The only reason why I'm here is because of this guy. [applause] >> Um, I feel computer science as a whole, it can be scary for somebody that wants to get into it but doesn't want to have the burden of going to a class every day. I feel

040a club like this could enable students to try it out and if they enjoyed the computer science topic forever pursue it and it would open up people to a concept that's in our everyday lives. [applause] The computer science classes we have at the school do a pretty good job at uh giving people the knowledge of computer science. However, there are some people that wish to have like more knowledge of computer science, and this could be an excellent uh extracurricular opportunity to enrich people's knowledge of computer science, especially if they plan on majoring in computer science. And again, this can build up a lot more on teamwork, a lot more than uh the three computer science classes we offer, the school can. [applause] Uh I believe in having a computer science club at our school would

041be a very important uh addition because when I was a freshman there was no opportunity such as this and I was unsure whether or not to do computer science but I had to take on other initiatives that the school did offer and participate in other programs outside school. And with this program students would be able to dabble and try things that are outside of the curriculum like software development and other aspects like cyber security. I just feel like having a program like this would allow students to have a low stakes environment to try computer science and just to build a collaborative effort and work with the different people. And I just feel like having a program like this would allow more people of different backgrounds to try computer science and see whether or not they

042like it or put their own creative spin on it. [applause] >> Thank you everybody. I don't think I could have said it better myself. >> All right. Thank you. Your presentation was good, but you know, >> the students are always better. >> I am here for them. >> The students always present much much better. >> Okay. All right. Next we have the debate club. >> You have to present as an argument. testing. All right, cool. Um, I'm Mr. Singh. I'm a special ed teacher at the high school and the girls are here to pitch the Valley Central debate team. >> I'm Violet. I'm Ella. I'm Sophie. I'm >> and this is our presentation on why Central we believe a debate team would benefit Valley Central High School because it teaches students to voice their opinions

043with confidence as well as to be open to ideas of others views and opinions. It also builds a sense of community within our students and within our group. It also teaches students to be open to having productive conversation on views that they may not agree on. We have three goals that we think would benefit the success of our club. One goal we have would be to encourage productive conversation. This would mainly create a sense of community with the students. Increasing confidence in public speaking is also a major goal we have for the debate team. Another goal we have is to not only encourage independent but also critical thinking and engage in more current events. There are many ways we can meet these goals. One way would be discussing topics that students are actually passionate about

044by allowing the students to choose and vote on topics which would also encourage students to be more interested in what they are debating on. We also having in-class debates would be a great way to build confidence, especially if a student isn't comfortable yet to compete, which takes a lot of public speaking in front of people. The in-class debates will reduce anxiety and allow members to practice speaking in front of crowds. Some qualities we expect students to have in this club include respect and inclusivity. If students do not show these qualities, consequences will be enforced. At first, a warning will be given. If misbehavior continues, suspension from the team will be discussed. Our council and advisers will decide the longevity of the suspension if needed. The debate sessions will occur as Oxford style arguments. The agenda

045for each debate will include the opening session, the debate session, and the closing session. The opening session will include the introduction of the topic being discussed at the debate as well as the teams and participants. The debate session will be the presentation of the arguments and rebuttals that the participants have prepared. The closing session will summarize most of the ideas and statements that were made during the debate session. Cost can be associated with starting a team. So, some ways we plan on helping with this are a parent versus student debate. We believe a parent first student debate can bring parents and students together and a fun way to raise money for our cause. We also believe that this will draw more people in to be interested in our debate team. We also believe raffles, bake

046sales, and trivia nights will be excellent ideas and ways to raise money. All events will be organized and executed by members of this team. We have about 15 students that are that we are aware of that are interested in joining the debate team, boys and girls included. We are confident that once this club is official, we will have many more. We know this because we have only talked to students in our class. So we are certain that there are many more students that will will want to join and I'll be the main adviser for the debate team. If you were wondering what the difference between mock trial and debate team will be. Compared to mock trial, debate club teaches students how to have logical arguments on specific topics. It is also a team event where

047you argue and respond to another team. Mock trial consists of a specific court case. In mock trial, students go through procedures for for a mock trial event. These trials are about criminal and civil cases and are assigned by New York State. In conclusion, the debate club will affect the students here at Valley Central High School in a positive way to help them grow and change their perspectives on communication. Students can now gain the ability to have conversations on topics without arguing or getting mad at each other. As a student of Valley Central High School, we have seen firsthand of what lack of communication can do. This is cause many fights and complications between different students and also in friend groups as well. We hope to develop productive communication skills within our debate team. This can

048prevent conflicts within our high school and within our area within our students. It also can follow us into adulthood. As adults, the ability to have conversations about things we may not all agree on can help with our friendships, relationships, social life, and can follow us into our work. This concludes our presentation and thank you for listening. We will be open to questions at this point in time. [applause] Um what are there specific competitions that you're interested in um um applying or um getting into? Right now we aren't there are some um there are some competitions that we have heard of that um we can compete at as well as one other school that would be interested in also debating. >> Thank you very much. Great job. >> Thank you. [applause] When you're ready, we'll take

049you on. All right. Next, we're going to move on to reports, and we're going to start with our student representatives for our December report. Our sports um consists such as our fall sports wrapped up recently and well our teams finished our their scenes very strong. Many athletes completed in sections and some even advanced in states such as our volleyball team. Winter sports are now underway and athletes are already training hard and getting ready for their upcoming competitions. For atmosphere and community, on November 22nd, the high school hosted the holiday class fair. A huge number of community members came out to support and the building was full of great energy. Also, the science honor society held a food drive and collected a large amount of food to donate to Montgomery food shelter. >> Our JROTC program

050ran their first annual toy drive and recently completed a crispy cream fundraiser as well. And our for the animals club ran a food and supply drive for the humane society of Walden. student or students donated pet food and like a bunch of other animal supplies and it was an awesome way to like give back to the animals of our community and across the board our honor societies have been volunteering at various events to give back support to our community. However, one issue that we've noticed across the high school was like many people sticking to the same friend groups and like not interacting with each other. So, a way to combat this is like introducing like more activities during study halls or lunch to like promote socialization. And that's all that we have for our December

051report. >> Thank you. Next, we'll move on to the superintendent of schools. >> December has been a very busy month. We have already started um budget planning with principles and directors. And so we've begun to meet with them um to begin to build the budget for the next school year. at the wa at the Walden Rotary Club on November 12th. I had the opportunity to share with the Rotary Club an update in the status of Valley Central and as always, they're very supportive and happy and um continue to be our biggest fans. On November 13th, I attended the Spanish Honor Society. On November 18th, the PTA council at November 20th, we had delicious food at ALC Thanksgiving celebration. And I do have to say that many of the students actually cooked and their food was

052just outstanding. I need to have some recipes. Um, November 22nd, I attended the craft fair and unfortunately I didn't win any of the raffles, but they were wonderful. There was a a an array of different opportunities. Um, parent teacher conferences this year was on November 24th and 25th. And I do have to say each year we continue to increase the number of parents that come out. And so I just want to thank the parents and the teachers for really working together to support our students. Middle school and high school student recognition ceremonies happen to be on the same day this year, December 4th, because of our snow day. And it was a wonderful opportunity to highlight and and share successes of students in both the middle school and the high school. Students were very happy

053to get their awards and parents very proud. On Friday, I attended the Karen Feller basketball tournament um with great excite excitement and then just want to give an update in regard to um how we're doing with our cell phone policy in middle school and high school particularly. So for I did share the numbers in September, in October and November, we only had five um incidents of giving students warning at the middle school. And then at the high school in October, there were 71 incidents of warnings. That is a 72 decrease from September. There were 25 students um that we confiscated their phones. 20 um where we confiscated them and their parents had to come and get them. In November there were 20 students. So we went from 71 to 20 with warnings and we went

054from 25 to 19 with student confiscations in November and then we are at the same number with parents um coming to pick up phones and confiscations. So, it seems to be working um that we have um implemented a cell phone policy that has helped engage students to have more conversations and begin to develop relationships and speak to each other as opposed to being on their devices. At this time, I also want to welcome a new member of the VC family. We have um bittersweet to say that Miss Golick is is retiring in January, but we do have her replacement with us. Christina Kalen will be joining us in January and I just want to welcome her to uh Valley Central. You can you can give a round of applause and welcome her. [applause] >> Thank

055you. >> All right. Next, we'll move on to the assistant superintendent for business. >> Okay. So, a few quick things uh for me and then I'm going to yield some time um to our director of facilities and our maintenance foreman to give you an update on the fields. So last week I had the opportunity to speak to the this year's leadership orange cohort again. I was uh invited to speak to them last year. So it was myself and a couple other superintendents and assistant superintendents from around the county. It was a great opportunity to share a little bit about what school leadership um uh looks like and opens their eyes and and possibly talks them out of going into this field. But um it was it was a great conversation. Uh next is uh budget

056meetings. We had four budget meetings today, so that is off and running and more to come. As you know, we'll start the presentations to the board and the public in January. Um, I did have a conversation with NAERTA following up from our last board meeting where the board has some interest in doing an an energy audit. It does look like there are some opportunities for us. So, I need to do some more research, but I'll come back um with something hopefully in January. Um, and then lastly, I just wanted to to um share a huge thank you to the town of Walkill Police and the EMS. Um, we had a very very minor uh bus accident this morning, but it did cause the town of Walkill police and EMS to respond. Um, by far that

057was the most thorough um evaluation that I have seen done um by the town of Walkill. They not only did the the police officer go through the bus, we had 12 students on board, did a did an assessment of all the students, but then when the EMS team uh got there as well, they did another very very thorough evaluation. So, thank I'm thankful for them. It was bitter bitter cold, but um by far they are they are top-notch. I was very very impressed. So, I'm sorry. There were no injuries. No injuries at all. closed. Um, so, um, so with that, I'm going to turn over to director of facilities Ryan Schmidt and the tallest employee in the district, uh, Christopher Degro. He is a maintenance foreman. They're going to give you an update on our

058fields. >> Good evening. I'm Ryan Schmidt, director of facilities of LA Central School District. Uh, just wanted to give you an update on the athletic fields. Weekly field walks were performed from September until the end of November to assess concerns and overall field conditions. Our primary focus was to maintain the fields to the highest quality playing surface we can for the students and community. During these observations, field conditions did show seasonal wear and areas of improvement. We did reach out to Cornell University to help us devise both a short and long-term goal. The building grounds department is working very closely with athletic director as well as assistant superintendent for business to meet and exceed the district's field expectations moving forward. At this time, I'd like to introduce Chris Drop, maintenance foreman, to tell you a

059little bit about the work that was done. >> Thank you, Ryan. Good evening, everyone. Um just to expand a little bit further on what what Ryan was speaking about um we've implemented schedules for mowing, arration, irrigation, seating, and also field rest to help the overall look and feel of the fields. For an initial two-eek period, we took one half of the JV and modified football field from use and aggressively groomed it as per the recommendations we received. The field now being less compacted as well as the visual aspect of the area improved greatly within this time frame. Collectively, we decided to leave the field out of use for an additional two weeks to monitor the results, and they were exactly what we hoped for and more. At the conclusion of the the fall sports season,

060all the athletic fields have been airrated with a core plug time machine, which pulls plugs of dirt from the ground, leaving an area for seed to sew, and the pulled plugs then serves as a top coat of soil. We also overseeded late October to ensure a positive start to the spring sports season. Moving forward, we will continue to follow the schedule for the ongoing maintenance of the fields and also implement a rotating practice schedule to help alleviate the pressure on the fields during the peak of the sports seasons. We are looking forward to a great start to the spring sports season 2026. >> Any questions? >> Yeah. So, I guess specifically the football field, right? Because that's one that got the most attention. So obviously it's winter. So how are we looking as far as

061spring and what can we do now? Like >> so what we did as soon as this the fall season was over we airated it heavily. Um and then we also have an aravator that actually put seed down into the soil right now. So come spring we'll have seed that's already germinated come up and then really in May that'll be done again throughout September also. And how about baseball and softball fields? >> Baseball and football fields. All the infields were turned over ready for spring and then outfields were also airated >> airated seated. So we're looking forward to the spring sports and uh we're going to see a a positive impact, you know, moving forward. >> Yeah. I just have a question. Is there any other resources that you need? because I'm just confused as to

062what was happening before versus what's happening now. >> We have a lot of sports on the fields. So you can you know the fields will get maintained and then you have sports you know fall you're wear >> right and we're also going to implement a rotating schedule where the fields aren't going to be practiced on as often. We're gonna try to find different areas within the district where students can practice so the re the fields can actually have a time to recover so to speak throughout the season so they're not getting beat up as heavily. >> We're trying to use practice. >> Yeah. Okay. Right now research wise fieldwise we're multip. So, are there more resources that we're going to need in order to be able to do that rotation of practice scheduling? I mean,

063is it going to require more transportation? Is it >> we're looking back for further different areas? >> So, if I can just add one of the things that we um have agreed to talk to as we go into our budget conversations is if if there is any additional equipment that's needed. Um, one of the pieces of equipment that Brian uh had requested previously was an irrigation equipment for the back soccer fields. It would be more of a mobile piece of equipment that would connect to a hose and manually would have to get put out and brought back in. Um, we've talked about if there's a need for any additional mowing equipment. Um, one of the uh, ideas that Cornell had presented, a lot of um, I don't I don't want to say school districts because

064I don't have the facts on that yet, but a lot of golf courses and uh, most likely with college fields are going towards autonomous mowing and he had presented that as an idea and uh, it's some consideration that we would have to give. Um, obviously concerns with that, right? But um some conversations that we need to have and and we'll be having um a budget presentation. I think we're in February for maintenance. So looking forward to that. >> So as as the schools progress, I we've added a lot I mean we didn't have lacrosse years ago. We added lacrosse. Now we're looking at maybe modified lacrosse. So, you know, we're adding more sports. They're not um even in years ago it was football, soccer, it was fair, you know, it wasn't as as much, you

065know, stuff now. So, now even springtime we have it's not just softball, you know, and baseball. Now, we have lacrosse and other things that are these fields really until May. So, >> yeah. I mean, and some of it is really, you know, practice areas. If we practice on game fields, they're going to get beat up. I mean, that's, you know, we're trying to get a the stadium field looking good for graduation. And there's three weeks between when when we let, you know, when the season's over for lacrosse till we have graduation. So, it's >> I'm feeling confident that you will. Yes. >> [clears throat] >> And then just to further expand on that, the uh the modified in JV football field, it's considered a practice field for the varsity level players, but it's really the

066>> it's their game field. So, like I like I said, we Yeah. So if we can move them to different areas within the district or even just further areas, you know, further out and sort of back 40 if you will to practice and run their drills just to keep them off that that area so you know the soil doesn't get compacted and that there's you know this >> got a lot of tear up between you know 50 yard line and 30 yard line >> that is the well I will say um rotation is going to be a big piece of this and uh our athletic director Teresa, I don't know if she's still here, um she is very dedicated to seeing some improvement back there. So, uh that'll be a piece of it. She'll work

067with the coaches and the facilities team to to rotate staff around and and it will not necessarily be an automatic um overnight. Um it's not going to look like Augusta National out there in the spring. It's it's going to take a couple seasons of um following that Cornell plan to a tea, making sure it's mowed twice a week, three times a week um during the heavy grow growing season if necessary, weekly overseating when the teams are on it. It's going to be a full picture. One of the the things that the um the turf scientist said from Cornell was uh when when he asked how many fields or how many teams do we have here, he's like you you have a lot of traffic. So, if um we can do a really good job over

068the next couple seasons of keeping track of data, how many how how often teams are on those fields, are they getting rest, and it um essentially it helps us when we do get to a point of having the conversation of turf is just maybe the traffic is that the amount of traffic that we have is just simp simply not possible on a grass field. it's something that would benefit from an artificial turf, but at least we'll gather that data and have it when that conversation comes up. >> You mentioned irrigation. Do we have um like permanent irrigation in any fields right now or is it just >> Yeah, so so the main football field does have irrigation and then there's a football field behind the grand stand that has irrigation as well. Um the boys

069baseball varsity fields does have it around like let's say the infield. So when they talked about the um when Brad was talking about like an irrigation thing, there's a rain cannon that you can purchase that you know right now July August our grass out in that field is dry. When the students come back in September it's it's a dust ball. So, you know, if we don't have the the the seasonal water that we need, you know, you need an inch of rain a week to keep good grass going. So, if you had something that can irrigate, let's say, the soccer fields, you wouldn't have the conditions we have out there. Also, correct? You we would need water out on them. So, in a sprinkler system or something that you could water them, especially throughout the

070deep, you know, times that it dries out. >> All right. Any other questions? Good. All right. >> Make it happen. >> All right. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Great. >> All right. Next, we're going to Brad, are you done? >> All right. Next, we'll move on to the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. >> Thank you. Thank you all for coming out tonight. I will be short and sweet. Um, just wanted to say that I did attend the uh ALC Thanksgiving feast. I go every year. It is um it it's just an opportunity for the community to come together and eat family style. It's something not to be missed and truly the food is always delicious. So, thank you to the staff and the and the students that did prepare the food and um very

071grateful for that. And just congratulations again to the charters that presented. They did a very well job today. And that's all I have for tonight. Thank you. All right. Next, we'll move on to the assistant superintendent for human resources. >> Good evening all. I'd like to start my report tonight by congratulating a couple of groups of people. We have three teachers who are being recommended for tenure tonight. So, congratulations to them on this important milestone in their careers. We also have six staff members who have announced their retirement. So, we wish them well as they move on to future endeavors. We have had a busy month on the hiring end. On tonight's agenda, we are recommending for hire three teachers, two food service workers, one clerical staff, three par professionals, and a new assistant to

072the superintendent and board of education. We welcome all of you to Valley Central. And lastly, I'd like to thank uh ALC as well for inviting me to their Thanksgiving dinner. It was amazing, delicious, and I'm looking forward to next year's as well. That's it for me. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Next, we're going to move on to our climate and culture presentation. >> So, I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce Mr. Stellantano, who is from Diliger and RAD, who works with us in um our data in multiple ways. Um but particularly tonight, we're going to talk about the climate and culture results from the survey this fall. And good afternoon or rather good evening everybody. Uh as the superintendent mentioned my name is Nick Salatano. I'm here with uh Dillinger Research and

073Applied Data. We've been partnered with the district now for a little over two years. And uh as was mentioned part of our role uh throughout the district is to help facilitate uh analyze and or rather collect analyze the data from the culture and climate survey. So I will uh be walking through uh those results for this evening. Um so just really quickly who Dillinger uh RAD is. Uh we are a Connecticut based nonprofit. Uh our focus is uh around supporting both school districts, schools, uh state level departments of education as well as nonprofits around all things data. Usually it is uh about kind of tackling a lot of different challenges that those organizations face and through the use of data and facilitation and support we try to uh help uh provide the best solutions uh

074possible. Uh our partnership with Valley Central does include uh helping develop, implement and track uh the school improvement plans uh conduct ad hoc data analysis for both district and school level uh folks as well as support data teams through customized data tools and analyses. What we quickly uh go through for this evening is uh quickly identify uh what exactly the culture and climate survey is providing a bit of context uh go through the historical surveys in terms of how it slightly differs uh to this current year's culture and climate talk about our current approach and then dive into uh the 2526 statistics really detailing out or elevating a couple of the different questions across students staff and uh parents uh along with what those significant takeaways are. So in terms of the culture and climate

075survey, it really is a uh measure of the school climate and is used to help basically assess and understand where uh the overall climate and culture of a particular school is. And so folks might ask like what exactly does that mean? It really is sort of understanding the needs uh the challenges and really uh the overall health of various schools and districts uh at large. And so the culture and climate survey is established or really encouraged uh by the New York State uh department of education. Uh but it is important to note it is not required. Um there are only a few subsets of schools uh here on the bottom where you can see that if schools are identified for comprehensive support and or improvement uh they are mandated or required to uh conduct the

076culture and climate survey. So in the case of Valley Central, it is really taken uh by choice to really keep assessing where um both the schools and the district is and as is sort of the focus to continually improve and uh build upon uh the successes over the past couple years. [snorts] So in terms of really establishing how and what the culture and climate survey hopes to attain, we kind of always go back to uh the DIS district strategic plan that was established last year and that is going through 2029. uh three priorities that we try to focus um a lot of the questions around which is one priority one elevating that student success and engagement two community belonging in BC pride and then priority three uh thinking about that clear and transparent communication so

077the 2425 culture and climate survey um it's important to note before the 2425 uh a panorama uh which is a um educational tech company which also focuses on culture and climate survey was or had been utilized um the decision to switch over to sort of a homegrown uh Valley Central survey to really be able to customize and adapt the specific questions to the needs of uh the district and the schools was chosen. So, it's important to note for 2425 uh we did um establish use that survey to really establish a baseline and really focus on measure that sense of belonging and engagement. Uh we did do a fall, winter, and spring survey. We had about 676 staff, about 3,000 students, and over 300 families took at least one of those surveys from across uh the

078entire year. Uh we did have about 42 to 30 38 to 42 questions across each of the three surveys. And um in terms of what we were measuring, there are basically broad subgroups uh that we tried to capture when we did the survey. educating students, school culture, school leadership, staff, student family leadership relationships, strategic plans, school improvement plans, and district leaderships were all sort of the big broad buckets uh that we had sort of designed a lot of the questions around. In terms of this year, we wanted to continue to build off of that sense of uh belonging and student engagement. Uh we did try to pair down the questions uh given that we knew uh some of some of the surveys that reached 40 questions do make it somewhat prohibitive for uh you know

079anywhere from the third graders to families who were busy and so we tried to sort of minimize the set of questions. In the fall we had 501 staff 2500 students at least took one uh at least took the survey and then we just finished up the family survey which we had about 176 families complete the survey. In this case, we've tried to solidify some of our categories as we continue to again refine and evolve uh the survey. Educating students is uh definitely top and foremost. We broke up school culture into two distinct areas. Engagement in school climate being one along with sense of belonging being the other. Then we'd like to focus on school leadership, communication, school improvement, district leadership uh being the remaining. So, in terms of what exactly we're asking, all of the

080questions outside of maybe one or two are um multiple choice or what we call a liyker scale. Originally in 2425, we had a four-point liyker scale with the positive sentiment being the top two choices. And we had gotten some really good feedback uh from the school board last year in regards to thinking about how we were establishing the liyker scale in terms of positivity and negativity. So in go in going into this year's uh set of questions, we kept the four-point liyker scale, but we adjusted the options. So your top two choices were positive and the top two choices were negative. So it really helped establish a clear delineation between are you, you know, in a positive uh thought process when it comes to this question or are you in a negative thought process? And

081we thought that might help both make it clear in regards to how uh respondents can be thinking about the uh questions as well as being able to compare I think in a good better sense positive and negative sentiment. Any questions before I jump in too? Great. So student survey takeaways um what we have here uh on the basically slide is a summary of all those categories. So again, in terms of really thinking about how to present this data in a very quick and meaningful way, um this is probably the simplistic way in regards to by school and or total district on the lefth hand side along with again your categories averaging the total percent that were positive. And so that is anybody who were selected the top two choices is thought of as being a

082positive sentiment. And so what we're looking at in terms of percentages would be the percent that were positively supporting the various questions that we asked. So everything is color-coded for your enjoyment. Uh green meaning the higher positive rating whereas your yellows and your oranges are your most negative uh sort or rather the lowest positive sentiment or on the flip side what your most negative sentiment was. So, as an example here, East Colenham Elementary School scored our highest positive sentiment under school leadership at 94%. Uh, again, all the questions that were asked under that uh subcategory had a an average of a 94% positive rating. Whereas, your communication under Valley Central High School uh received the lowest highest the lowest positive sentiment at 53%. General trends and we'll go into a couple of the different key

083questions that we thought were really important. your overall school leadership uh in general has high levels of positive sentiment to also include school culture around specifically engagement and school climate and uh the school improvement as well. So in in terms of some of the key questions that we just wanted to elevate uh for the school board and for the public at large uh student survey around positive sentiment uh by category you can see basically range from 81 uh 61% all the way up to 81%. Uh for the fall 2526 survey educating students and school leadership ranked the highest. Um and so we thought that was a really positive uh sort of takeaway. Um communication and school improvement and that's really around understanding what the goals are of each school. What are the objectives? What are

084the priorities and how we're working towards that sort of rank the lowest again and I say lowest relatively because these are generally both one good scores and two improvements over last year. Uh that was one of the big questions that we wanted to ask is like are we moving forward and are we improving upon uh what we saw and so school culture showed a notable improvement increasing from 68% positive sentiment in the fall to 78% in the 2526 uh school year. Um other categories like educating students school leadership and school improvement also showed slight increases uh but you know not as good as school culture. All right. How frequently do you experience loneliness at school? And so this was one of the questions that were really uh important to the principles and to the district

085last year when it came to understanding the needs of the students. And so part of the question was uh how frequently in terms of very frequently to not frequently at all do you feel lonely? And so from that perspective what we saw was that comparing from 2425 to 2526 we actually saw a higher proportion of students not experiencing loneliness. Um and so the kind of back and forth on this is we saw a positive movement in regards to students not feeling lonely and feeling that they had I would say the support network and the needs both from the students and their peers along with adults as well. Um part of the work that we did last year and that we continue to do this year was offer a question around do you want support? Um

086and that was really important again from some of the principles because if we are asking I think this really important question about feeling lonely, it's how can we better then provide supports to those students who need it. So out of the 631 students who reported feeling lonely. Um 163 of them did request to uh have an adult out outreach to them to uh start to build that bridge and start to help them through uh what they perceive to be loneliness. I should also note too on the lefth hand side we have elementary, middle and high school. Um your middle school uh so the 72% is experiencing infrequent or never feeling lonely. And so your middle school scored the highest in terms of 79% feeling good in terms of loneliness whereas elementary and high school fell

087slightly behind at 72 and 70%. So is there someone at school like a teacher or staff member you trust and feel safe talking to? um most elementary schools and so again on the left hand side you can see elementary then middle then high school is your how much support or what's your positive uh answer to this question in regards to for instance elementary school saying 83% felt they had a trusted adult. So, interestingly, and we had talked to the district about this and the principles is that as kids get older, um their uh their ability to identify adults within the building to feel like they are trusted and could connect with does slightly decrease as time goes on. We did find that at those transitional years, particularly 9th grade, is where you find your lowest

088rated uh sense of having a trusted adult. And so that's something that's been brought uh to the attention of the principles and the district and they're working to really try to think about how to extend and uh build those bridges between adults and students. Um students in the fall of 2425 um did report slightly greater access to trusted adults, 88% versus 78% um than in the fall. So that is something again that has been a focus and that we're continuing to work on. Uh do you feel safe at school? Uh again the scores did improve. uh year-over-year. However, as you can see, uh kids who are in elementary school report the highest level of feeling safe. And then as time goes on between middle and high school, you see that overall positive rate start to

089decrease down to 69%. On most days, how enthusiastic you are about being at school. Um again, very correlated to uh the uh grade level. So your elementary kids are all extremely excited about 67% and that starts to decrease down to 49% and 38% respectively. In terms of the staff survey takeaways, uh again same type of setup. We did ask very general uh I should say we asked um a set of questions per category again broken out by elementary school on the lefth hand side and the district on the bottom. um educating students, school culture, and school leadership all had extremely high uh positive uh sentiments where communication um I think across had probably had the highest variance across each elementary school and overall district. Your overall positive sentiment, district leadership and school improvement scored uh

090the lowest in comparison to all six categories. Very much in the same way when we think about by category. Um in the fall 24-25 survey, educating students and school leadership categories demonstrated the strongest whereas the district leadership and school improvements are the lowest uh areas. It is important to note that we did see positive improvement again uh year-over-year uh across all categories. Um how clearly do you display and explain what students are expected to learn in class? Um, some might think that that's a completely random question. Part of the district uh objective especially for this year is both around um questions as well as uh posting uh learning targets. And so part of the culture and climate survey that we try to get at is understanding where both staff, students, and families think and perceive

091where they are in terms of what we're trying to accomplish so that we have the data to be able to support them uh throughout the entire year. So from that perspective, you can see that across elementary, middle, and high school, we had almost near um agreeance that uh students uh are or should see in terms of their what they're expected to learn clearly displayed uh across their classrooms. How often do you provide opportunities for students to ask questions of you or their classmates that deepen their learning? Again, part of the process around what the district has been really focused on in terms of supporting their staff and supporting the schools is around the idea of how do we improve uh engagement within the classroom. Part of that engagement is really measuring uh how much opportunity

092do students uh take in terms of both asking questions to their teacher as well as asking questions to their peers. And so again, as we think about how uh the staff responded, again, 95, 97, and 96% all uh positively uh thought that they frequently or all the time provided opportunities for students to ask questions. How motivated are you to come to work most days? Again, very high ratings from 91% all the way to 92% across all three uh grade levels. And then we wanted to have an open-ended question around the cell phone policy given um the nature of implementing a fairly new uh process across the district. Uh 70% of staff responded to this open-ended question. Most staff expressed extremely strong approval uh of the new cell phone policy, describing it as a muchneeded change.

093Uh some class uh rooms reported feeling calmer and more productive. Some respondents uh did voice uh concern about emergency communications or inconsistent enforcement across the school. Uh but that was very I would say minimal in comparison to the broader uh takeaway that the cell phone policy was uh much supported. Overall, the majority agreed the policy has been uh produced a noticeable positive shift in school culture and uh student behavior. Finally, the family survey. Uh we did do somewhat asynchronous surveys. We did the student and staff survey earlier in October. We just finished up the family survey uh the past two weeks. Uh we did have about 176 respondents. Again, slightly lower than last year's uh fall. Um but that is something that we're in terms of thinking about trying to tie in with specific events

094that parents attend. We did try it uh this year at um open house, I'm sorry, teacher conferences. And I think we want to try to shift it to do it as an open house because that might be a more opportune time for parents to have time and space to be able to take those surveys. So, we'll be endeavoring to improve those respondents. Um, again, as you can see across the board, uh, slight variation across each category, um, with school leadership hitting an all-time high both at Walden Elementary School and Valley Central Middle School. Um in terms of uh district school communication um again improved over last year but still uh coming in uh last in regards to the uh additional categories. So the family survey positive sentiment uh by category uh in the fall of

09524 2526 school leadership and educating students demonstrated the strongest uh performance. All categories categories did show improvement uh year-over-year from the fall survey. Um, school leadership showed the largest increase by 10%. District and school communication saw a notable rise uh by 7%. Overall perception of the school performance and communication are trending positively. Generally, how comfortable are your child's teacher and supporting your student needs? Again, we saw significant um levels of support both or rather I should say at the elementary and especially at the middle school uh with the high school coming in third but still very strong at uh 75%. On most days, how enthusiastic is your child or children about being at school? Um, again, this was very much in line with how the students themselves had reported it. Elementary feeling very uh positive

096and excited. Uh, then slightly decreasing middle and then to high school. Overall, interestingly, as we start to kind of compare, families thought uh I think a little bit more enthusiasm than maybe the students themselves had responded. Uh, but generally uh all followed suit. School leadership. How informed are your school leaders about classroom instruction? Um, elementary and middle school showed extremely strong uh support in regards to 90% having a positive uh support around their uh instructional leaders having a sense of what was going on in the classroom. High school uh had a dip of about 64%. Um and in as usual all cases we did see an increase a high school with the smallest of about 3% increase. Communication how aware of you your school's improvement plan. Uh this is an area certainly of improvement where

097from the perspective of how well and uh cognizant are parents tracking in terms of again those key objectives um around that I know the uh principles have all um presented to you over the past month or two. Um about 60 58 and 66%. So quite not where we want to be uh as a district uh but one that we're working to again push out uh as a community. We did ask the same question around cell phone policies to the parents and uh again 90% of the families responded again much like the staff most families did support very explicitly the idea of a cell phone policy that it is working and that it's providing um both I think uh a better culture and a better environment for their students to learn. Uh some respondents did raise

098concerns about um not being able to reach their child in a case of an emergency and I know um that has been trying to be communicating in regards to better uh utilizing the central office of the each school to be able to communicate that effectively. Um a few parents did find the uh found communication about the phone violations confusing or unclear. Um and that's been uh sort of trans uh admitted to the district but overall feedback showed a very strong uh support of the cell phone policy. And so finally in terms of next steps and I wonder in terms of next steps uh two two areas that we really wanted to focus on that we've been communicating through uh the school improvement plans and through regular meetings and parent uh trainings. One from the school

099perspective is really thinking about developing a very explicit plan to get the school improvement plan and their objectives out to the community. Part of the importance of understanding uh the school improvement plan and the key objectives is so that it takes a community to actually move the needle in some of these areas. As the principles have identified, these are the most critical areas that they want to improve upon. And so, as we know, you can't do it by yourself. And so really kind of getting on board with ensuring that everybody within the community understands that can only benefit I think the school in in large. Uh we are reviewing the data um individually with the principles and their staff. In turn they are themselves reviewing the data with their staff to try to ideulate on

100both what is positive what can be improved upon and how can we move forward. Uh we are developing school specific questions for the winter survey. So what we endeavor to try to do is the fall and the spring surveys are almost identical so that we can measure uh improvement across the year. We do try to have a very abbreviated winter survey so that um the staff no I'm sorry the principles can basically ask very explicit questions about some of their school improvement objectives in terms of how processes are working, how strategies can be improved upon um etc. So we allow the principles to really tailor specific questions to the needs of their school building. In terms of the district, uh we're continuing to refine the district communication. Uh there is the district uh communication committee

101that's been uh developing and working very closely with um both gathering input uh from the community around improving the website in terms of implementing monthly newsletters, communication committees and updating the district website along with really emphasizing uh specifically out uh ensuring that the district leadership has a more I think um open district leadership outreach to school staff. Uh the ask uh HR meetings throughout the districts have been implemented. Lunch and before and after chats with the central office admin have also been scheduled so that we can actually um start to I think open up the dialogue more between uh teachers and central office so that more questions and more I think uh communication can be had directly. So I just want to add that the last piece of lunchon before we're in the process of

102finalizing schedules. So we're not completely not all scheduled yet. >> Thank you. Uh that is the very quick down and dirty of the culture and climate survey for the fall. Uh do I have any questions? >> Questions? >> Um my questions actually are for Miss Vila if that's all right. Um, in the simplest terms, the superintendent manages the district, the board provides oversight, and then the public ultimately holds the board accountable every May when they vote. Um, the climate survey data, it's one of the most important tools we have to fulfill our oversight oversight responsibilities. So, my questions are all about that and helping us do our job. Um, can you share any of the main themes of um without any identif identifying information from the open-ended comments uh on on district leadership like what

103was the general census of the feeling? >> There was not open-ended comments. The only open-ended comments were around the cell phone policy. >> Okay. Um this is our second survey with district leadership scores below the national average. Can you walk us through what steps were taken after last year's scores to help say that again? >> When sorry when you say national average can because in terms of comparison I would need to look at exactly what questions were asked so we could have a sense of that. So just in general um in my research I found an average of 72 to 78% um roughly in terms of approval scores for lack of better words and we were below that these past two times. So >> so that's you can't necessarily compare I don't know what score

104that was from what exact you know is that panorama is that their own mate score. So those are not appleto apples and I don't know under what circumstances that was given. So I can't say that that that's an equal comparison. >> Okay, that's fair. Um, >> but I I think it's also important to note, so to your point, right, I was showing the overall average scores. There are a lot of individual questions that I've had conversations with both the um well the superintendent and then some of the assistant superintendent. Um, some of it does come down to, you know, stating that uh there's a trust or not understanding if they can trust. Um, interestingly on the flip side, they feel like the district does respond extremely well to some of their personal uh, needs and

105challenges. And so it's really sort of teasing out, I think, very explicitly what is it that to your point are uh, staff I think struggling to understand when it comes to the central office. So that was part of the reason. That was part of the reason why I think we approached it from two different perspectives. One, making sure that from a communication standpoint, a lot more information is going out so that the staff is understanding about both I think processes and policies and initiatives that are taking place and successes. But then also too in really establishing that clear back and forth dialogue. It was interesting because I think especially last year when we're t when we were working very closely with the principles about communication um they I think were really stymied in some ways

106because they thought they were initiating a lot of great communication strategies and it still wasn't moving the needle. So part of that lesson that we all learned was that sometimes I think your definition of communication and what you're learning can slightly differ and some sometimes it's really important to understand let's align first on what we mean when we say certain things in terms of both communication feedback timeliness timeliness for some might be you know late for others or vice versa and so part of that uh you know outreach to school staff asking the HR having that conversation is really making sure that I think everybody body's on the same page when it comes to some of this stuff. >> The other thing I want to point out, it doesn't say central office staff. We have

107seven directors. So, district means all of that, right? It means it means everyone that's part of at a district level. It also has indicated though, yes, we do have areas of improvement. We have continued to improve. So, I guess my last question would be um for the buildings that scored the lowest um I do like the idea that you're doing some outreach. I think that's great. Would the buildings that um scored the lowest in that survey, would there be any additional supports for them to help them feel like their needs are being met? So any any building principal has also have these results and that's part of the school improvement plan is that as they create they use this data to make accommodations to revise what's going on to ask for support and so the

108answer is yes and it also depends on the feedback from the build building principles and they are to work collaboratively with their staff members to talk about exactly what is it that they need and what is it they're going to focus on. There's a lot of data there and so we can't tackle everything and so they have to prioritize and based on what they're prioritizing that is what they will get the support on because next year they might prioritize on something else right so it's really that we we can um you know do can't do everything but we do focus on the the neediest areas that they've identified >> okay I'm sorry just that made me think of one more thing would it be possible then uh maybe on a monthly basis you come back

109and just give us an update on what's happening to try to help raise those scores and let the staff feel supported. Would that be possible? >> We can we can discuss how we'll have to talk about how you would be able to do that. We'll have to talk about that more. I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to figure it out, right? On a monthly basis if you would even have We'll have to talk about it some more. >> Okay. I think that would be important though some in some way or fashion. Okay, >> Fran. Thank you. [clears throat] >> So I that slide is that slide in the presentation that we were emailed. >> I think part of it is cut off. >> Okay. Yeah, because I don't that bottom piece in mine.

110>> Yeah, we we lost it after updated district website. >> Okay. Yeah. So can you read after updated district website before I ask my question because my question >> it says uh district leadership outreach to school staff ask HR meetings through the dis throughout the district and then lunch and before and after chats with central office admin. >> Okay that helps because I was wondering where the district leadership takeaways uh next steps would be. So my only question, not a question, but the maybe it's to get some clarification or to make a point. People are saying that they want to stay with the district long term. So I don't know how that question was asked, but you know, in many cases, most of the people that work in this district have tenure. They've been here

111for a long time. I don't know. I don't know if asking people whether they'll stay in a district is is going to connect clearly to how people feel about leadership in the district or you know the district itself. Do you know what I'm saying? Like I I don't know what options people have to actually get up and leave you know a job that they're working in. >> Yep. No, that's that's a great question. Um, so the the way we phrase the question was do you want to stay with the district long term? So it's not can you, it's not will you, it's do you want to. Um, and so I think to your point, we could try to tease out a couple different things. Um, >> yeah, >> you know, in the same vein, we

112also asked, sorry, I'm just looking how optimistic are you that your school will improve in the future? Um, so they're they're tied together in terms of thinking about uh where they are. And so we can re-evaluate that question. I think it's pretty clear in regards to, you know, want verse need versus can, I think, are three distinct words. >> Fran, I like to say that um, you know, if somebody works at Valley Central, it's a good good reputation to have. And so that just because someone may have tenure or work here, they have options. And so I believe they're choosing to stay here because they're dedicated and they're committed to Valley Central. They don't there's there's no reason nothing is stopping them except them wanting to be here. >> And I think a kind of

113an important point to that, right? So, do you want to stay with the district long term? 365 said very sure. Uh 96 said sure. Right. So, that kind of gives you it's not like they were wishy-washy about it. They really emphasized it. >> And what's the um the total of respondents versus the total >> uh y >> staff within the district? What's the percentage? 501 respondents. >> So what is that in terms >> we have 800 about 800 employees. >> Is that a typical uh statistical >> number that you see? >> It was a it was a very healthy response especially considering last year we had about the same uh number of response and that was a marketed improvement from the year prior. >> Great. That's all my questions. >> Yeah. I'm just curious um

114because in the in the data it's there's a um a line that says don't have enough information to answer and so there were respondents to responses to that um response as well but those weren't included in the positive or negative. I mean understandably but so why why do you not take into account those in the in the data? So part of the feedback that we got last year uh from the both the principles and the staff was that some felt that some questions were not pertinent to them uh nor do they feel like they were qualified to answer. And so um in terms of the way that we can design this by adding that option that in and of itself is actually a finding in and of itself to say okay why to your point

115do folks don't feel like they have uh the ability to answer those questions. Sometimes it's they weren't put into those positions. Sometimes they just don't have any experience in that or sometimes they just yeah they don't have an opinion one way or another. So to your point, yeah, we can't incorporate it into positive or negative. Um but it's also something that we took into account when we analyzed it and we talked to the district and the principles to sort of indicate to them again back to the sort of you know what kind of questions and what kind of conversations can you have with focus groups. That would be a really good one uh in terms of like, oh, why why do you think some staff members didn't respond to this question or that question? And

116that's a great way to kind of approach that topic. >> Thank you. [applause] >> All right. Next, we're going to move on to the Oxford delegates meeting update. Um so the OXPA delegates meeting uh this month was um virtual. Um it was the legislative forum with our local representatives. Um we had Chris um I'm going to pronounce his name wrong. Ustrus. Um Carl Brainac. Uh we had a representative from Rob Ronaldson's office. A representative from um Assembly Mayor's office. Um we had both um Senator Scufus and um uh his um somebody from his office um Assemblyman Jacobson and Assemblywoman um Paula K on the line or on the call. Um there were bunch of different topics um discussed. Foundation aid study was one. um flexibility in the district in um their savings reserves. Um there

117was a discussion about passing a bill possibly to give the districts more um latitude in their in their reserves and how uh much they're allowed to save. Um they talked about the cell phone ban. Um they also talked about um uh the salary salary cap for um Bosey's representative or Bosey's um superintendent and um teachers. Um there's two bills on the floor right now to extend the zero uh emission bus um legislation to push that out further. Um so it was mentioned that um districts should definitely be lobbying to make sure those bills get passed. Um and then the final topic was um the status of federal funding and mandates. Um, and it was talked about that New York State um, doesn't rely on federal funding as much as some other states do. So, we're

118in a better position than than some states are. Um, but it's still definitely something that we need to be aware of in our budgeting season going forward. Um, and then the last thing that was mentioned was New York State has a sort of a rainy day fund if federal funding is um um cut to different areas and um there's a pretty healthy amount in there. So hopefully New York State will be able to pull from that to help us out. So >> great. It was a pretty good discussion but for two hours. >> All right. Yeah, >> technology committee. [laughter] >> Sure, >> you're busy. >> Um, so I'm just going to start out by saying that um it was very disappointing with the attendance. Um there were 21 people on that mailing list to

119attend the um the meeting and only seven people showed up. Um so it's you know we have a technology committee for a reason and if we're not getting feedback from the stakeholders in the district I you know it's very challenging for our um IT department to push agend initiatives forward. So um but the people who did show up we had a great conversation about the Prometheium board um refresh cycles. Um, all the Prometheian boards are getting older now and we need to start thinking about how we're going to um refresh them or cycle them out. Um, I think it was the Berea has been um testing out a couple different boards um to determine which one they would want to see put in. Um, so that's good. so they have a an idea of what

120the new technology looks like. Um it was suggested that um you some of these boards not all the staff know how to use it, use all the functions in it. So it was suggested that there be some more professional training on how to use all the different cool functions and not just use it as a big monitor in the classroom. Um the next topic was cyber security and um training not only staff but students to not click on links that they should not be clicking on that exposes the district to um um you know threats um you know it's digital literacy um that we need to teach both our staff and our students. um talked about the roll out of multiffactor authentication. Um Chromebooks were discussed. Um we have a huge um I think there

121were over a thousand Chromebooks that we have that are either coming towards obsolete or damaged in some way, shape or form. Spill somebody spilled a drink on it or dropped it. Um, so it's a huge task for our IT department to keep up with those Chromebooks. Um, and then finally, we um reviewed the district's uh software licenses and also the usage of each one of those licenses. And so that's where it would have been good to have more people in the room for this discussion of, okay, this program only has 10% usage of the licenses. Who's actually using these? So that's going to be a good process to go through because that's could be a huge savings for the district to um narrow down our place usages. So that was it. Thank you. >> All

122right. Very good. Next we'll move on to community participation. We start with Bob. [clears throat] >> I won't I won't steal uh another board member's thunder. I'm sure she's going to talk about it, but I went to the volleyball game, the playoff game. Um the girls played their hearts out. It was uh it was a good exciting game and wish the outcome was different but uh congratulations uh to what we still hear from there that's uh on a great season. I attended and volunteered at the Valley Central Scholarship Craft Fair. And once again, you know, this is an incredible event that happens every year that is combines, you know, VC pride and school spirit and volunteerism and having been a member of the scholarship council for many years, um, and now just volunteering. If you

123had an egg sandwich, that was me. Um, you know, we there's always comments from the vendors that say, you know, the students are incredible. There's so much volunteer student participation that day. Um, that makes it such a pleasurable event for the vendors to come to, let alone the amount of the community that comes through our doors um to sort of celebrate the beginning of the holidays. And so I think it's just a testimony to this community um what a great event that is and how much money that event raises for our seniors um who are graduating. >> Jane >> um I was able to attend the um volleyball regionals at Mount St. Mary's. Um wish it had ended differently but I have to give a huge shout out to the volleyball program at Valley Central.

124Um I remember um when my daughter was in elementary school uh I don't know how many years 10 plus years ago um they started the clinics at the at the elementary school for fifth and sixth graders. Um and I think we're finally seeing the fruits of that labor. Um it's you know it's finally paid off. So that's great. Um I also attended the Karenfeller tournament on um Wednesday um to watch Valley Central win. Um they look great. They look like a very cohesive team this year. Um and then finally I attended the um regional superintendent and board dinner and symposium um this year which was in um Brewster and the topic was um the uniquely human advantage preparing today's students for success in the age of AI. And so, um, it was, um, the person

125who ran it was the executive director of the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center. Um, and she was excellent. Um, she talked about how schools need to adapt their standards and assessments to help students thrive in the era of AI while emphasizing the critical human qualities that technology can't replace. creat creativity, empathy, and critical thinking. So, I have some resources that she shared if anyone's interested. >> Uh like Jane and Bob, I attended the regional volleyball game at the Mount. Um I attended parent teacher conferences. It was great to see a lot of our parents out there um and coming to the conferences. I also attended a high school PTSA meeting where they're continuing with their fundraising, student engagement, and grants to teachers and teacher appreciation activities such as breakfasts. Um they host many ice skating

126events and coat drives and buying board games for the high school. If you don't know that, it's just a they have so many fundraising events for our kids. Um also, just save the date. The Wizards are coming on March 11th, so keep that in mind. Um and any staff member and parent who hasn't joined yet, I def you know I recommend that you join. It supports great great efforts. Um I also attended the craft fair and the scholarship committee just does a tremendous job u putting together that event and I also helped set up pocketbook bingo. It's a very serious event. Um people get really into it. Um and it raised um a lot of funds for the all night grad uh celebration. Great. Diana, >> um, I also attended the ALC Thanksgiving dinner. Um,

127>> yeah, thank you. >> The ALC Thanksgiving dinner. Um, an event that I've attended for several years in a row. Um, it just seemed like it was even more food this year. Delicious. It was just absolutely wonderful. The students have a special tradition that they do. They um they the staff chooses a number according to the seats that the students are sitting at. Two students are chosen and they have a little competition for pulling the um the wishbone to see who wins. And that's always a fun thing to watch and see who wins. Um I also attended the fifth grade living museum at Montgomery Elementary School. The students did an amazing job. The costumes were just so creative and so wonderful. They they really put their hearts and souls into into their presentations. They were

128so well prepared and it was just very well done and very well attended that there was a line for people to get in that was wrapped all the way around the school. So, it was a very popular event. Um, I also attended a training for the MTSS um, a couple of weeks ago and that was an interesting afternoon. >> It was a productive afternoon. Yes. Yes, it was productive. >> It was interesting. This is training. >> Um, I was at parent teacher conferences and I mentioned that only because it's my first time going during the day instead of at night. Pro tip, go during the day if you're able to because everything is more relaxed. The teachers, it was it was a it's always a wonderful experience as long as my kids are behaved, but

129it was much better during the day. Um, the teachers did a great job getting everyone in and out and, you know, communicating as usual. Um, I was at the Kinfeller basketball tournament. Unfortunately, Jean, they lost on Friday, but still good and and it's great to see the community come out and really support that scholarship and and Karin's family. Um, and I went to my first PTA council meeting, which was awesome. Really, I was pleasantly surprised. Not that I thought it wouldn't be, but it was just a really good conversation about a plethora of topics and you have participation from every school. Um, so it's a really good conversation. >> Great. Uh I also went to ALC a great time as every year. Um at the table we had I'll call a debate in which I

130was correct. I won the debate. However, I went to my cell phone as a resource and I got yelled at big time for using myself. Man did I mean I was only male at the table but there Oh my goodness. So anyway, I got beat up. All right, that's it. So, we're going to move on to uh public comment. >> Okay, we're about to begin the public comment portion of our meeting. We have public comment because it's important for us to hear concerns and issues from our community members. Please note that the board is here to listen and public comment is not designed to be a discussion. If needed, the board or designated staff member will research concerns and get back to you accordingly. We want our school board meetings to serve an example to

131our students. So we ask that you demonstrate mutual respect. We ask speakers address their comments to the board directly and insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility. Uh the board res uh we will now entertain public comment for four minutes for each what for each person. >> Yeah. Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention one thing. Um, no mentioning uh school personnel or individual students by name or implication. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Uh, we're going to begin with Laura Fenizy. >> Hope I said that right. Hi, how are you? I hate that I have to go after those kids. I do not speak as eloquently in public. So, we're going to see how this goes. My name is Laura Fenizy and I have two children that go to

132Valley Central School District. One in middle school and one in Walden Elementary. In the last two years, my family has had three specific deaths, three significant tragedies, one just happening in October this year. All family members were taken far too soon. We also had a military deployment that left them without their dad in the home for months. Needless to say, we were a mess. Grasping at anything that would help, I reached out to the school to let them know what was going on. With swift action, paraprofessionals came to their aid and mine along with the entirety of the schools. They were able to see the bad days when the teacher had the teachers had 25 other kids they had to keep their eyes on. They were able to help on a level that maybe the

133teachers couldn't. Without those individuals, my kids could have gone down a route that we couldn't stop. They watched them, how they were reacting to situations, how their mannerisms changed, and ultimately helped us and are still helping us get through something I never thought my family would have to deal with. You see, teachers are at the forefront, the ones that educate and guide. They pull they put their all into what they do to help shape the minds of the children. But in the background supporting them are the par profofessionals, SRPs, administrative assistants among all the other professionals. These people are crucial to how a school works. If you think of a school as a simple machine, each each piece of the machine is not any less important than another. These folks come to work and put

134everything to the side to be able to put their whole hearts into these kids and their jobs. They work tirelessly to make each year memorable and into and to ensure that each child gets the help they need. Teachers can only do so much and I think we can all agree almost all teachers take on more than they need because they are dedicated to what they do. But so do all these other professionals. They care and they truly do because I was one of those people they cared about. My kids were one of those people they cared about. I have seen it firsthand. I can also say this because I was a paraprofessional. For a brief time, I was a paraprofessional at Walden Elementary. It was to date my favorite job. I was planning to retire

135from there. Every day I came in and worked one-on-one with a child in a classroom, and each day I loved it even more. However, after my first paycheck, I shook my head. How was I supposed to help my household with the paycheck I was given for two weeks of pouring my heart into my job? Still, I wanted to retire from there. It was a wonderful place and I wanted to make a difference. You're now probably wondering why my time was so brief if I'm up here spouting about how much I loved it. I got offered a job without even looking. And I still didn't want to take it. But when push came to shove, money was the issue. It pained me to leave Walden Elementary and to not be able to make an impact in

136the future of the kids who may need it as they did for my kids, but it was what was needed to be done for my family. I hate that money was a deciding factor, but we all get gas weekly, food shop, pay our mortgages, our heat bills, and we know the bill companies don't care. Money is a deciding factor. Even when emotions tell us different, these people aren't asking for much. Pay them a little more. Give them a contract. Stop with a runaround. They don't want millions of dollars just to be able to survive in a world that is expensive even for the best penny pinchers. They work hard. They put their all into it. And they are a very large reason teachers can be successful in the classroom. Without them, school would be lost.

137And so would my kids. Thank you. [applause] >> Next is Tom Stoddard. Good evening, members of the board and district leadership. and I had student representatives, I would have left too, honestly, at this rate. My name is Tom Ser. I'm a teacher and department chair at the middle school, as well as the boys varsity lacrosse coach. When I was asked to speak earlier last week, I debated whether it was wise or quite frankly even beneficial. When faced with difficult decisions, I try to collect and review data and then go by what my heart and my gut tells me. So the data, we have roughly 250 members in our SRP unit, par profofessionals, secretaries, and support staff. They've been working with an expired contract for 160 days. Last school year, 25% of our paras in the

138middle school decided not to return. This school year, we already reached 28%. 28% have decided to seek employment elsewhere. Ask yourself, why is that? Those 250 members represent 6.75 million of our 2425 budget that can be seen online on our website. That's about 27,000 per person. These are people who keep our schools running and support students and teachers every day. How soon we forget that our SRP unit was one of the main components throughout our time during COVID. Now, let's compare that to central office. That building houses about 24 employees who are also essential to the function of our school district. Those 24 employees make up $2.45 million of our budget according to our district website. That's over $100,000 per person, almost three and a half times more than what our SRP unit members account

139for. Also, keep in mind that central office contracts have never gone to mediation. Even though many of these contracts have upwards of 5% increases, yet mediation has has become common practice for the people in the trenches such as your administrative unit currently with the SRP unit and not to predict the future, but I foresee it happening with our teachers negotiations as well. Now, from the heart, you may have noticed I began by listing my position in the district. I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about repercussions for speaking for uh here tonight. Unfortunately, that's where many of us feel things stand today in the present school climate as could be seen or should have been seen by the climate survey. Besides being a teacher, I'm also a taxpayer, a community member, a small

140business owner, and an Army veteran. I mentioned that reluctantly. I've never been one to boast about my service, but I think it matters for what I'm about to say. I served eight years, not nearly as long nor as admirably as staff members like Andrew Labali, Steve Ragny, Alan Stout, or Chris Spencer, just to name a few. But I learned a lot during my time in the Army. And one of the lessons that was drilled repeatedly was about leadership. All of you sitting here, whether you're a first year board member, board president, assistant superintendent, or the superintendent at Valley Central, you are in positions of leadership whether you like it or not. You do not get to hide behind the shadows of your titles. Your decisions directly impact students, teachers, support staff in this community. For

141those of you who don't know, the Army loves acronyms, and one of the most famous is their version of leadership. LDR SHIP. L is for loyalty. Be loyal to this district and the community you serve. D is for duty. Do your job fully and responsibly. R is for respect. Give respect always. True leaders lead with respect even when it is not reciprocated. S is for selfless service. Put others before yourself. When things go right, give praise. It's because of them. When things go wrong, take responsibility and accountability and fix it. It's your fault. Even when it's not. H is for honor. Be proud of what you do and how you do it. I is for integrity. Do what is right legally, morally, ethically. P is for personal courage. Stand up for what's right, even when

142you're standing alone. So, in closing, we are not asking for special treatment. We're asking for leaders. Our SRPs have shown loyalty. They've done their duty. They've supported every one of us. And it's time for us to step up and represent what leadership is. The students deserve stability. The staff deserves respect. The taxpayers deserve fairness. Do what's right. Negotiate in good faith and settle the contract. I'll leave you with this last piece that I tell my seniors on my team every year. Your goal as a leader is not personal success. It's not individual improvement. Those are important goals, but they're not this goal. Your goal is to build relationships, make others better, and leave this place better than you found it. even if that means you must suffer and sacrifice for the good of others because

143that's what great leaders do. Remember, your title does not make you a leader. Your pay does not make you a leader. Your actions make you a leader. And right now, many of those actions are being questioned by staff, the community, and even the students. Thank you. Have a good night. [applause] Next is Samantha Barman or Borman. Good evening members of the board, administrators, and community members. My name is Samantha Borman, and I have been a preparer professional with the Valley Central School District since 2017. Thank you for giving me the time to speak tonight. I am here to talk about the importance of the school related professionals who keep our district running every single day. Specifically, our paraprofessionals, secretaries, and LPNs. Paraprofessionals are in our classrooms helping students learn, supporting special education needs, and step

144in wherever teachers and students need them most. Secretaries are the backbone of every building, handling families schedules, emergencies, paperwork, and a thousand unexpected tasks that keep our schools functioning smoothly. and our LPNs are the health and safety lifeline for so many students. Providing medical care, managing chronic conditions, and being a calm presence when a child is scared, hurting, or struggling. These roles are not optional. They are not extras. They are essential to the success of our students and the stability of our schools. But despite the importance of this work, far too many paraprofessionals, secretaries, and LPNs cannot afford to live on the wages they earn here. Many work multiple jobs. Many struggle to support their own families. The truth is simple. One job should be enough, especially when that job is caring for children in

145our public schools. Tonight, we are asking for a fair contract. Not a generous one, not an extravagant one, just a fair, respectful, livable contract that reflects the real value of the work we do. We aren't asking for much. We just want to be able to go to the grocery store without worrying about every dollar. We want to be able to maybe once in a while buy the Bush's baked beans instead of the Campbell. Thank you for your time and for doing what is right for the staff who support your students every day. Thank you. [applause] Next is Don Burgerer. No. All right. Uh Barney Zim Zima >> I would rather not speak with my back to you guys. >> Barney, you're addressing the board. So if you could just go to the mic and they

146can catch it on YouTube as well. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we've talked about this. It's very you invite the public to the meeting and then you know you can present to the board from there and then the public can also enjoy. Okay. And if you ask this wasn't even part of my speech but now speech but now that we're talking about it let's talk about it. If you were to ask the public how many can hear you clearly, I venture to guess you're going to get very few hands past say the second row. Okay, we've also talked about the microphones, the projection. The board talks to each other. You guys don't project out to the crowd. You invite them, but then you act like you don't want them here. I didn't mean to speak

147tonight, as you can see by how I'm dressed. the same as last time. But when I heard Ryan Schmidt, head of maintenance and his associate talk, I couldn't help myself. These guys are handcuffed. You might as well bring them up in shackles because when they get up here and they're asked about questions about athletic fields, they have nothing to say. Because there is nothing to say. Ryan was asked, "Any tools you need? Are there any tools?" You know what he needs? He needs a magic wand. That's what he needs. Okay, because we have two fields. That's it. So, you have, correct me if I'm wrong, okay? You have a week in June, maybe you have July and August, two hottest months. How you going to recreate grass? Okay, he can buy as many airators and

148plugers and bags of seed and bags of fertilizer and put as many irrigation systems in as he wants, but if you graze cattle too long on one field, there's nothing left. So, if we play spring lacrosse and football and soccer and everything, when are you going to grow the grass? Can't. It's impossible. Okay. So, my suggestion to the board is to educate yourself with Ryan Schmidt as to realistically what is involved in having Valley Central School District have a couple fields that are respectable. Forget the fact that we probably will never see a turf field. If we didn't get one when Medline came in and we didn't get one when Amazon come came in, we're never going to get one. So, we have one field. Okay. I happen to be the assistant varsity coach with

149Mr. Stoddard. Can you see the resemblance? We have pictures of the crease of the lacrosse field just full of water. We have You can't exist an entire high school on two fields. You just can't. Forget the turf. I love playing lacrosse on grass. Keep the grass. But that JV football field you're talking about, there's no grass on that field. Is there >> right now? There is cross. Well, and after football and after dry weather and after digging it up with cleats and I you can put the irrigation system in as long and turn it on as long as you want. But if you're irrigating areas that don't have grass, you get mud. Okay, we've been going through it for years and years and years. You can buy them as many mowers you bought in mowers

150last year. Well, that's great for out front here where there's grass and you put American flags and nobody rips it up, but you can't do it at the high school on the football field and what you call a JV football field. It's I got better at my house. So, my suggestion, talk to Ryan and his crew. Be educated on what's involved. We have lots of space. lots of space without cutting any trees down to reorganize those fields so that we can get a couple more in there and then we can rotate because you can't take players off a field for a month or two months or three months. You need a full season minimum. Am I correct? >> Okay, thank you very much. >> Oh, you cut me off. >> Well, time's up. So, you

151can close if you'd like. Yeah, I'll close with you guys need to care, okay? Care about your athletics. I volunteer I volunteered in this town since the day I came in here 13 years ago and I've seen it nothing but go down. I've been with Coach Stoddard two years. I've been with Modify two years before that. Okay. All the way down to the players, the enthusiasm is going down. You guys sit here and you give everybody accolades. Oh, the swimming team, the this, the thatum. Let's put some important crap on the table about the fights in the halls and the this and the that and everything else that means something. I'm done. >> All right. Thank you. [applause] >> All right. Next, we're going to move on to old business, the approval of club charter,

152uh, the Wishtakers cooking club. Can I get a motion to approve? >> Who's that? Diana. Second. Fran. All in favor? >> Opposed? 70. Thank you. Can I get approval of the revised 2526 board of ed meeting schedule? >> Angela second. Jane. All in favor? >> Opposed? 70. Thank you. All right. Uh we're going to move on. We did the high school charter club. So, we're going to move on to the 25 uh oh jeez, the 26 27 budget planning board initiatives. So we'll go around and um we'll ask people to talk about their initiatives, what it is, where it adds value, and then what we'll do is if we have consensus, we'll ask central office to research it for consideration and more information on this year's budget. And this is just the first discussion of

153items. So uh we'll start with that. So Bob, I'm going to start with you. And again, if you could say what it is, uh, you know, the W's basically, why you look for it and what what district goal it ties back to and what the value is. >> Uh, I have no specific board initiative plan for right now. >> Okay, fine. Fran, >> so I didn't realize that Brad was going to bring up the fields and the and the presentation. So, the first thing I had was field management. you know, whether or not we need to consider a more than what Cornell has provided. I I understand what Cornell provided and I I listened. Um just seems to me that we may need something even deeper to evaluate long term our fields. So that goes

154along with uh elevating student success and engagement and community belonging in VC pride. >> Okay. So I'm just going to mention something and >> we'll finish talking because I >> So we have um they're doing an assessment of our fields and the positioning of our fields. >> So like that's underway now. So I think like for long term I think that's that's already happening. So, >> okay. >> I don't know if you're looking for more than that right now. >> Well, I just want to I guess what I'm looking at is making a commitment to support what's needed, right? What resources are needed? if there is machinery needed, if there is like to that's what I'm suggesting that we consider long-term what we might need in terms of resources to not just, you know, put

155a band-aid on our fields, but actually create, you know, fields that students can play on, practice on. >> Yeah. >> You know, safely. >> And I feel like we have that. I don't want to speak for you guys, >> but >> I feel like we're we have that, right? >> Like, do we need I I guess I guess do you feel like we need anything else in the budget at this point that And I don't know, maybe it was too early, but do you feel like you need anything else in the budget to rectify our situation? >> Um, I mean, possibly some equipment requests that we bring forward. Um, as we talk about rotation and giving our field some uh space is we do I think long-term capital planning for the district, we do need

156to consider the spaces that we do have at like for example here at Berea after we um had finished up at the high school. We had come up here with Cornell to kind of evaluate the fields here. They are just in not a good enough condition that we could use um for athletics. But I think uh as we go through this athletic um improvement study, perhaps if for example um the community would like to have a a soccer type field at each elementary school that would help us be able to rotate things around. Um short term, um we may be able to work out some sort of agreement with the town to to use some of their fields from time to time to to help with traffic, but immediately not not necessarily. >> Okay. So,

157and that's so and I don't want to take away from you, but I guess that's what I was gonna like at this point. Do you need any board initiative at this point? >> No, I I think we've received the message loud and clear. Um, and if there's anything that we need in next year's budget, um, we'll bring it forward when we meet with you guys in February. >> Okay. My second is to consider a bus transportation. uh I don't know what you call it, a feasibility study or something to evaluate the cost benefit of considering to bring on a bus system through Valley Central rather than contractually. Again, this is a long-term, you know, idea in terms of would it be better for us? I recognize that that we may there may be an extension

158to, you know, electric busing, but it's gonna come at some point. You know, we're gonna it's going to be here and and it should be. So, how, you know, we might want to consider an analysis of and maybe speaking to other districts that actually do have their own fleets to consider, you know, what how they went into that decision. So that would be something that I would like to see recommended and I think that goes to you know really again um this if there are savings how we can use those savings to support some other initiatives that we need to take a look at in this district. >> Okay. So let's talk about that and see if we have majority that would want to have that feasibility study as part of next year's budget. Right.

159So, we need to see if we have consensus. So, >> I'll just go around and you can tell me whether you're interested in looking for a feasibility study to implement our own busing system. So, Bob, I'm going to go with you. Yes or no? >> This would just be to see if it would be cost effective to institute busing. >> Uh yeah, I mean >> I mean it's a start. It's basically >> yeah I mean I think if we get the majority we'll have to narrow in on exactly what we want in the feasibility but is there any do you have >> um I guess transportation is a huge cost if it could save us money somehow for them >> okay so you'd be interested in feasibility okay Jane >> I'm not sure right now

160>> you're not sure you want it or >> okay I I do not Um, I'm not against it, but I I just feel like we're an educational institution. I'm not looking to start a busing company at this point. >> I'd be open to a feasibility study. >> Okay, Diana. >> No. Okay, Jame, back to you. I'm gonna go with feasibility study. >> Okay. So that's four for pursuing a feasibility study to implement our own busing system. Um and then I guess I don't know if you guys need to take that away and if you like that's pretty broad scope so I don't even know where to start with that as far as narrowing it down. I mean we're talking about starting a busing company like buy buying buses and >> Yeah. So, I think what

161we're first talking about is finding a company to run a feasibility report, which would include, right, getting getting a price for that, bringing it to the board, >> um to to to start up our own bus company and all of that that what it entails. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Uh >> so, we'll have to do research on who does that feasibility report and how to do that. Well, could you instead of hiring a company, could you ask a another district that has their own in-house busing and just find out what the cost would be and sort of do it >> there's no way >> doing a startup >> than uh another district. So, we would not be able to just take their numbers, >> right? So, I think at this point we're talking

162about assessing the cost, right? I mean, we're not saying we're definitely going to do it. We need to understand. I mean, if it cost a million dollars to do a feasibility study, we might not want to do a feasibility study, right? >> So, I guess that's what our ask is at this point is to see >> the cost of a study, who might do it, and and whether that would be part of the budget. >> I don't advise having this conversation um right now. A couple things is one is there's there's not many things here I would recommend against enough more so than keeping transportation out outsourced. Number two, we are literally going to hit the street for a new 5-year RFP um within the next week and any company out there that's watching this

163board meeting is going to say Valley Central may back away from me in three years and we are going to eat the cost. So, I really do not think it's an opportunity right now. I mean, we anticipate going into another five-year contract. At the same time, we're going to evaluate long-term whether or not having that um capital investment that we will take to do electric busing is worthwhile having inhouse. Um we strongly believe that having our own facility, our own charging equipment um on our property is the best way to go long term, but right now given um where we're at timing, I I can't recommend we go forward, but we'll do whatever the board would like to do. >> Okay. Instead of doing voting on each one as we go, can we talk about

164all of them first and then maybe like we'll realize that, you know, maybe transportation is not something I want to I'd rather support something else that somebody else has brought up. >> You understand what I'm saying? >> Yeah. I mean, we can try. It's going to it's going to be pretty hard. We're going to be revisiting topics. >> There's not enough people that supports it. This was a long-term looking at something down the road. It wasn't to impact our current plans and our current RFP. It was to take a look at what it would take, what it would look like, so that maybe at some point if you wanted to explore if there was a real cost savings to do it. That's what it is. So may just Yeah, I think I think what he's

165saying is that maybe now isn't the time for this initiative. >> Okay, >> moving on. I got one more. >> Okay, go ahead. [laughter] >> Um, we talked about this a couple of meetings ago. I don't know which meeting about piloting uh solar energy at one of our schools with over parking you know um with parking spot you know lot coverage um solar energy not roof but I forget what it's called but it's on top of the parking right to create like a parking lot >> solar okay >> canopy there you go canopy >> okay So go ahead. >> My suggestion is that we consider doing this pilot and looking at uh costs and looking at the incentives that that we may be able to get through Minnesota to actually be able to pilot in

166one of our schools. See what the energy >> Okay. So I'm really confused because we just had I don't know if it was the last meeting before where everybody had to come to the table with what they wanted. Nobody came with anything. The outcome was to do the naerta. So now are you going back to putting something on the table? >> No, we talked about pilot. There was that was >> we had a we had a meeting where people were specifically supposed to come with items for consideration. Solar, geothermal. >> I did >> the whole list. And nobody had anything that night. >> I think I did. [laughter] I've been beating this drum. So >> if four people are interested in supporting this, >> nobody had anything. >> Okay. >> I think we did talk

167about a few options. >> That's where the NAERTA survey came out of that discussion. That's the only thing that came out. >> The only thing that had the support of the board was the NAERTA energy spend. >> Okay. So which >> I'm not saying you can't reintroduce it. >> Yeah. >> I'm just saying >> doing it until I go. >> Okay. So, [laughter] so your your initiative is to pilot solar >> parking garage >> a solar yes a canopy in one of the schools to you know to you know assess I mean it will bring energy it will bring sa savings but um I think we when we talked about it you know when we received the information from the study it was like, well, we can't do this everywhere. We might be able to

168start somewhere and then slowly, you know, create these opportunities throughout our district. So whether that comes from the NAERTA study or, you know, whatever we get brought back from NAERTA in terms of what the incentives are, that's that would be my recommendation. >> But so are you waiting you want to wait for the results of the NAERTA? No, I think that we heard that there was nicer incentives available. >> Okay. So then what's on the table is a p a pilot to pilot solar parking garage at one of the schools and >> it's just a canopy. >> Whatever you want to call it. >> It's basically an array on top of parking lot. >> Yes. Okay. a solar parking cover over top of asphalt in a school. And what school do you have a school?

169>> No, I pick one of the elementary schools, one of the areas that >> Okay. So, this would be the I guess we're asking to look at the cost of piloting a solar parking whatever over top of fall out of elementary school. So let me go down and see if we have four in favor of pursuing this within this magic next budget discussion. So Bob, are you interested in that? >> I don't think so. >> Okay. Jane, >> not without seeing that. I sort of study first. >> Angela, >> not right now, but eventually. >> Okay. I'm gonna know also. Diana, >> Katie, >> okay. After the So that might be something for the next time around. Okay. Anything else for Okay, Jane. >> Um, I would like to um build an internship and career

170explor uh exploration program um in our high school um and provide the insurance necessary for students to be able to learn and work out at private companies. um sort of similar to I know Pine Bush and both go have um these kinds of programs that they offer. There's >> work for Thank you. work-based learning programs um because I think we need to build this program now um before the portrait of a graduate roles completely um comes into effect because that's going to be a big portion of the portrait of [snorts] a graduate um model. Um that's with my first item. >> Okay, Bob, you have interest in that? Yep. Okay, >> Fran. >> Yes. >> Okay, Angela. >> Yes. I know that there's aspects of it already implemented, but expanding it. Yes. >> Yep. I'm

171a Yes, Katie. >> Yes. >> All right. So, that is to intern exploration building intern program into private companies >> work-based >> work work based. I knew Goian had I didn't know who else did you say? >> Pine Bush has Okay. Next, Jen. Are you specifically looking to expand on workbased learning? >> Well, so I I don't want to answer your qu your thing, but this is where kids go out and and actually >> we have a placement for that though. >> We have teachers at the high school that are certified as for workbased learning. So that I'm just asking if so that I have better understanding and I can work with the superintendent. >> It's probably expansion. >> Yeah. And again, I don't want to answer your but like >> but I mean I've

172heard that we can't place pe students in um because we don't have the insuranceances to cover the students being in private that that's a a um a barrier to having our students go out and work do workbased programs. So I'm I mean I guess it's it's getting that as well. >> Transportation. >> So So I Yeah. Yeah. So I guess the ask would be to evaluate what you have now >> and may maybe we need to understand that and then we can help >> it look at what go and pine bush are doing and see where we can sort of follow their models. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh J. >> All right. So again going with the portrait of a graduate um coming down the pike um looking at our curriculum um and

173um looking at what kind of staff uh professional development we need to um implement all these um portrait or graduate initiatives. Thank you. You have all the right terminal. >> Okay. I don't. So, do we need a board initiative for that or I mean that's something you have to do anyway, right? So, I don't know. >> I mean, I just want to make sure that we have enough money in our professional development budget. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, you guys, that's their responsibility, I guess, is what I'm saying. >> Right. So, you got that. >> Yeah. We Well, when we create the budget, we'll put a number there taking that into consideration. >> Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Um the next item was uh consistency and standard for all district buildings and grounds. Um

174this is community pride. Um so when we did our school walkthroughs this fall um you could see that you know maybe um there were different levels of workmanship in certain schools versus others and so just to have a community or districtwide this is the standard that we do things to um might be worthwhile. >> Okay. So I don't know what to do with that standard operating procedures for I mean I would think we have something >> consistency for the sequence they walked around they did not see >> okay >> if the board would like to do that >> yeah so >> yeah Can you give me an example of something you saw a difference between two schools? >> Um the painting of the tread um uh what am I trying to say? >> Yes. >>

175So yeah. So >> I don't know that's Yeah. I don't >> Well, I mean do we have standard operating procedures for between each buildings? >> Yeah. Like this is how you >> I think that's more of a procedural thing, right? >> But you don't you need the manh hours to put the the procedures together. >> Yeah. So, um >> I'll just say as as Brad said, we'll come back. >> Yeah. Let's come come back to that. And then and then if they need budget money because I I think it's more it's it's more management procedure because if somebody's painting this step and not painting that step >> I don't know why. >> So that's what I mean. >> So right >> if we if we're not being consistent then we need to change something and

176it's either >> right also understanding that the different buildings might also impact consistency as well but it doesn't mean that everybody can't pay a step. So, all right, let's come back. >> And I feel like we've we've taken a large step to address that already. And I say large, I mean the tallest guy in the room right now. He has really kind of taken that. Not to put any pressure on Chris, but he's he's been having regular meetings and walkthroughs with our uh building custodial team and and letting them know what his standards are, but if there's anything, you know, beyond that, I think we can come back at the next meeting. But >> anything else? Oh, go ahead. Keep going. >> Go ahead. >> I mean, you're probably going to say this is not

177a budget thing either. Um um but as far as like, you know, continue our BC pride and being one district. Um I often notice that our um district letterhead or different buildings, building to building, they're all different. Um, and it's very inconsistent and I think it's confusing sometimes for outside people. We look like we're, you know, not and same with the email um, um, signatures at the bottom of so I, you know, it's a small initiative, but the branding I think it makes a huge um, difference if we all are look the same. Um and then finally um we had heard about maybe having informal board of ed meet and greets um to hear people not in a public st you know so that we can actually have a conversation back and forth. Um it'd

178be good to if we could schedule some of those into next year's >> that's not a budget thing. I mean, that's a willingness. >> So, we can we can talk about >> setting up an extra room, you know, part of it. >> We'll go to the first b home basketball game, set up table. >> Yeah. So, we'll we'll have to talk about that. >> Yeah. >> So, okay. >> Anything else? >> Nope. Okay. Andrew. >> Uh, so my first item is a combination of HR, curriculum, and uh professional development in the budget. Uh my priority is um well we have many students who are ready and eager for rigorous learning um in in especially in the high school and Miss Mohika spoke about that last I believe it was last meeting uh about initiatives and

179incorporating [snorts] more college level classes and making it more accessible for our students. Um, one thing in terms of a budget, I don't know how this works because I'm coming from a district where you don't negotiate uh, salaries, but I know for example for dual enrollment opportunities such as Sunni Orange English 101, um, you know, that class helps students accelerate academically and build confidence in college level uh, level work. So I know that many of the the partner colleges like Sunni Orange, they require a masters in English, not just an education. So I think putting in the budget and I don't know how this works if it's going to cost more money when we hire teachers to really start looking um for example for English so there's more opportunity um so that teacher would have

180a masters in English in addition to English education so it's kind of two different things because the English education teacher cannot teach a college level class so I know it's kind of confusing >> what you're asking for so >> so I'm asking for the budget >> change our hiring require No, not hiring requirements, but looking at who's retiring and who we're hiring so we have enough teachers with the proper certification because that might cost more money because if we if we want we want to expand our college level um courses, which we talked about last month, we need to hire teachers who have the correct certification. They're not so an English teacher, right? a 101 teacher, you cannot have a master's. You cannot have an a ma an English education masters. You need to have

181a master's actually in English. >> Okay. >> So, my priority would be to see if there's a budgeting um you know, it might cost more money to have to hire teachers that have more, you know, more education. So, it doesn't limit the number of classes that we could offer for accessibility for students. I know Sunni Orange it's definitely required like you need to have your master and for most Sunnis classes you need to have the masters actually in the coursework. So, >> okay. So, and I don't know if this is a budget thing either, but so basically >> salaries like I just want to make >> sure we have enough money to hire people that have better qualifications so that we can in turn pass that on to our >> right if it's and it

182aligns to if if Alis's goals of offering [clears throat] more classes >> okay all the classes >> okay so is that >> or can our so at this point what we will do is explore >> right so what we will do is explore. Miss Moika will look at the colleges and the partnerships and what they're requiring. So, Sunni Orange is one of them, but we will look at others to see what is required of the staff who has to teach those particular dual enrollment classes. >> Okay? >> And then we'll come back and then we'll we'll be able to >> that'll help us tell if we need more money for teaching. >> It's good stuff. It's just like I I need you to say I want you to buy this for me. >> [laughter] >>

183No, I just like it's awareness that this is a real problem. You know, it could be a real problem. And my second priority was really um we've already discussed it about uh the fields and you know, making honest data driven evaluation of our current fields. >> Okay, great. Diana, >> I did have a field on my list, but I'm not going to revisit that. It's already been talked about. Um, but I did want to bring up [snorts] the idea of supporting our students and our staff with the cell phone policy by introducing another pouches. Maybe introduce it a grade level at a time. Um, it would be up to administration. you know, if we wanted to start it in sixth grade or ninth grade or depending on the school, but I think um you know,

184to support our students with social emotional learning to get them to interact more and to engage more with one another, it might make it easier for them to transition. >> Okay. So, you're you want to try pilot at one grade level or or what? Well, yes. Pilot at one grade level and then Well, I would say it would be up to them whether they would want to start it in the middle school or the high school. >> Okay. So, I I think I think we probably have to give some direction because you have to buy the pouches. You need resources to Right. So, so there's there's material and resources and so you want them to pick a grade level or >> well then start at then I would say start at the middle school level

185um started at the sixth grade level and if it something that you wouldn't want to continue you would have them maybe if if the program if you didn't want to continue the program then you have those pouches available for those students who are repeatedly um not following the policy they could, you know, maybe they would need like a little extra support, a little less um temptation perhaps, but um I would like to suggest that we um start like maybe in the sixth grade and then in the future add continue to add grade levels. >> Okay. Okay. Bob, would you be interested in a yonder pouch pilot at the sixth grade level? >> Our our school my school Monroe Bear uses yonder pouches. I think they are great. They work well. Um, I would be nervous

186about doing it at one individual grade level within a building. I think that would cause a lot of issues. Um, I would be more for doing it one entire building at a time versus one grade level at a time just because of the the chaos in the building would be difficult. >> Okay. So, are you changing it to the whole middle school? >> Well, I was just thinking of cost, you know, in starting it smaller [clears throat] because they I know that they are pricey. So, I can tell you we we had looked at this before we transitioned into our cell phone policy. I did not do this course just for the middle school or just the high school, but between our 6 to 12, it would be $72,000 just for the pouches and then

187ongoing replacement plus the staffing that it requires for you to have them check bags and all of that. So, >> okay. So, so at this point I think we're talking about looking looking at a price to to do the pilot for the middle school. Is that what we're hearing? >> I don't know about middle school because aren't the most issues in high school, not the middle school. >> Okay. >> A lot of kids I mean they have cell phones, right? Is that true? >> Okay. >> I pretty much thought that a lot of kids had them. Um, >> so I've heard that um the kids are finding ways around um there, you know, not having their cell phones on their person. They're finding ways to clone their phones on their um not that I should

188be saying this out loud. >> Um but anyway, I don't think yonderes are going to do anything because they're going to find another way around it. >> Okay, so wait a minute. Let me go back to what's on the table here because we went from six to middle school to high school. So, what are we what are we talking about here? What are we voting on? Are we talking about piloting yonder pouches at the high school now? >> You started it. >> I know I started it. Um, the high school would be fine if that's where most of the issues are. I guess I was just thinking starting with with the sixth grade just to start with the lower grade level and as you work it up, you eventually have everybody cover them. >> Okay.

189So, you're sticking with sixth grade. >> Okay. So, >> but I'm willing to change it to high school. [laughter] Okay. [clears throat] But I >> whichever will get the most. >> Okay. So, are we doing high school? >> We'll do high school. >> Okay. So, the question is most of the issues are are you interested in looking at the cost of yonder pouches at the high school. Bob? >> Yes, I am. I will also say it's not just >> Oh, no. The whole >> everything. >> Yes. time on and off the bus. >> Okay, Fran. >> Yes, I I would be interested, but I would also want to be sure that the high school personnel is involved in exploring this as well. Like I don't I wouldn't want us to set an initiative without having

190a buy in from >> We're not even there yet. We're just talking about the price. >> Mr. Bon, can I just uh just revisit? So, I just want to be clear. We want to figure out that price when we had at the high school 143 students with warnings in September, October went to 71, and November went to 20. like I just want to make sure because because we just and and I do know children get around it during the day and I do know that we need to probably work on more consistency through the staff but it is nowhere like it was before that I can assure you and so I just want to make sure because you've asked me to report on this and so I have and so I just want to make

191sure that knowing these numbers you still want us to look at at the prices for going to the high school for yonder I'd like to see what >> friend. >> Yes. >> Jen, >> no. >> Angela, >> no. >> Diana is a yes. Katie, >> I'm a no. So, wait, where does that line? >> Four to three. No. Four to three. No. Okay. Right. Right. I mean, if we do want to spend money on that, you know, through OXPA, they were talking about backfilling with different um you know, things to keep kids entertained, not on their phones. So, um for example, like games in the um lunchroom. >> Um >> I hear you. >> You know, different things like that. >> Anything else? >> That's all. >> Okay. I have one thing. >> Oh god.

192>> Uh, and I brought this up before. It was rejected, but now it's budget time. I don't care if it's third grade, fourth grade. I would like a trip. I'm going to say third grade. I would like a trip for every third grader in this district to an aquarium, the Museum of Natural History, the planet. Every every single student in that grade every year goes to that destination, right? Doesn't change. I don't care what school you're in, but it gives them an opportunity. We know that we have some um economic differences in the schools where some kids get more opportunity than others and that I can't control that. But what we can control is to give each child an opportunity to go to to a place. And so I'm not designating the place and and

193I say I think third grade is probably a good grade. If it's fourth, it's fourth. But it stays the same every single year. And I don't care what this PTA is doing and this one's doing every they know every year Valley Central is sending this group of kids to wherever. So that that's my item. So I'm going to ask who would support that? Bob, would you support that? >> Thank you. >> J. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? Last call. question publicly. My question is, is civics being taught at the high school >> as a as a standalone course, not a five minute? >> It is it is not it is not a singleton. We have um we do have a civic readiness seals and we have a um an adviser

194or a coordinator of that, but it is not a singleton course. Is there a course that can be included in the high school curriculum? >> I would have to explore that with the social studies department. >> Okay. >> It is it I think Fran, I don't want to speak for you. Um I think it just in regards to you're looking at not embedded in curriculum. You're looking as a singleton. It used to be right years ago, there used to be civics, you know, a course that was designed to help students understand how government, how things work. >> But there are certain since then, since it was taught, there are certain standards that embedded across multiple courses, >> right? from middle school up through well even before that but and then in regards to government itself

195then that's where you would see a lot of the also very explicit standards that are taught within government if that's what you're thinking about. >> Yeah, that's what I was thinking about. I just I was just thinking that you know over the course of many years now you know we've just seen that not a lot of people have an understanding and it starts at I think at the high school. I mean certainly starts younger you know but more so um you know critically thinking at the high school level in terms of civic you know awareness and understanding you know voting you know participating um you know it's one of those like everything you learn you learned in kindergarten and I feel like there's some things that people you know could learn better at the high

196school level to prepare them for you know community participation I was just wondering if if there was a separate course because I was going to suggest that we might want to include something like that, you know, in our curriculum, but there really is no separate course that >> No. Okay. That's it. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. [clears throat] We're going to move on to the next item, which is the approval of the agreement with Orange County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council. Can I get a motion to approve? >> Katie second. Fran. All in favor? >> Opposed? 70. Thank you. Got a motion for the approval of consultant agreement with leading education practice. Motion to approve. >> Jane, >> Angela discussion. >> I went back to look at this contract and I'm just I don't

197understand. There's not a monetary amount in this contract. It's $250 per hour, but there's no minimum, maximum. How how are we supporting this contract in a budget in our budget? Right now, >> the money is coming from the allocated money of the consultant fees that we have. And if you're asking on the amount, there would be an amount no greater than $35,000. >> But that's not written in this. that that's for multiple reasons. One that we can stop at any time. So we can we can say that we are only going to use the person for 10 hours. We're only going to use the person for 20 hours, whatever it is that that we choose to um as opposed to um having it be something else. So I'm not sure what your Go ahead. So,

198so that amount is your your budget cap for this >> correct? Because I have I know the the number of of amounts for all the consultants and staying within the budget. >> I understand that. But when I look at this particular proposal, it doesn't h it just proposes a whole bunch of activities with a $250 an hour. It doesn't actually say in this proposal that this person is going to spend between 10 and 50 hours potentially. So I just didn't understand that. The other question I would have is it in terms of the timeline the timeline speaks to sorry I'm scrolling to get to the page. Um it says January February 2025. >> It's probably a typo. should be January. >> The whole thing is 2025. Okay. >> So, is this I guess I >>

199it's odd for me to agree to something that doesn't have a monetary cap, >> but I understand that you're keeping it within your budget. So you feel comfortable that that agreeing to this proposal doesn't put us in any position other than >> No, because we're the ones who schedule the time and when they're going to come and and monitor the work. >> Okay. >> So where I see the December date as like the very first page, which is probably the date of the proposal. Do you see 2025 throughout? >> Yeah. If you look at page um you know it's the um let me see where it starts. Starts on page 12 the phase and timeline you see on the left phase and timeline. >> So it goes January to February 2025 and >> March 2025.

200>> Okay. So that has to get updated. All right. So we need to get a new one from them. All right. So we we can do that. We can approve it with a modified date. Right. >> Do that. Okay. So all all in favor knowing that they need to modify the date to 2026. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. 70. Thank you. All right. Next is the approval of consultant agreement. Oh, that that was right. Next approval of consultant agreement with Jess Blanc. I don't know, man. It's 20110. We're not done. Uh Katie second Diana. All in favor? >> Opposed? >> I just have a question about this. Sorry. >> Did you say discussion? >> Yeah, go ahead. [laughter] Um, again I guess going to this is this from now until the

201end of the school year >> because you said that it's what what's these expenses are what's within the current budget for consultants. >> So this is just for this school for this school year. Yes. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. 70. Okay, that brings us to the end of our agenda, not the end of our meeting. Ken, thank you for being with us. We are going into executive session to discuss contract negotiations. We will adjourn at the end of that. We will not take any additional action when we come out of executive session. We'll just adjourn the meeting. So, thank you very much for joining and have a good night. Oh, I need a motion to go into executive session to discuss contract negotiations. >> Fran second. >> Angela. >>

202All in favor? >> Oppos? 70. >> Are we going back to the steam room >> at 9:40? Back to the steam room. If somebody could let us in the steam room.