001thank you foreign okay all right I'm going to take a motion to come out of executive session at 6 40. I'll make a motion Sarah Katie second all in favor close setting zero thank you we will call to order the regular Board of Ed meeting for Tuesday September 26th at 6 41 and we'll be given to pledge please pledge allegiance Liberty it's just some housekeeping please take note of the emergency exits on the side and behind you there's no smoking anywhere on school property and if you're planning to address the board please sign in on the sheet and the meeting is being streamed on our YouTube page um just a quick announcement we have been having many struggles with sound in the room and on our stream so we're trying some new on off technique
002tonight in hopes that it's going to resolve it so just take note of that and please be patient okay I'm gonna jump into the agenda and we're going to start with the introduction of our student Representatives if you'd like to just introduce yourselves and tell us about so that'd be great um hi I'm Lily we put packets bye you guys hopefully you were able to see them um so I'm a senior this is my second year as a board of ed representative some of my current interests I love real estate I have internet Keller Williams Realty for over a year um I do compare comparative market analysis I attend listings showings inspections I plan to get my real estate license by next August and I love to shop and I love little white dogs thank
003you okay and after college I mean after high school I plan to attend a university major in business I hope to be a broker after that or hold a position in either marketing or management in a company uh hi I'm Dylan I'm a senior this year and it's my first year as a board of a student representative uh some of my current interests uh I've always since elementary school want expired to be a biomedical engineer uh since then I've been working hard to make that happen one of my greatest achievements has been since the age of three I've been in karates for 14 years and I've achieved the rank of third degree black belt I was awarded the rensselaer's Medalist award in my junior year of high school and After High School I haven't pinpointed
004one University yet but I know I plan on going to a university with high engineering esteem a little evening getting a career after graduation um my name is Elizabeth I'm a senior and it's my first year as a board of ed rep my biggest interest is the world of business and finance for my whole High School career I've been involved with anything business and finance I've actually had the pleasure of working in the town recovery finance office along with okay um my other interests also include Girl Scouts which I've actually recently just received my Gold Award for a couple days thank you thank you um After High School and for college my plan is to get a MBA with a concentration in finance international business and finance is one of my greatest passions and I'm
005very much working hard on the application process and I'm looking forward to a few tries for me we've been going to correspondence this is just a reminder that the valley central education foundation's 10th Annual Harvest award reception will be held at the Country Club at outerkill on Wednesday October 4th pm serious sowing the seed wall board will be because Kim Carver and the reaping the dream award will be presented to Derek DeVoe Central High School has earned the distinction of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association scholar athlete School of Excellence [Applause] School of Excellence is awarded to schools who had 75 of their varsity programs qualify for and receive the New York State you could help me out on what all of the letters stand for Public High School Athletic Association thank
006you scholar athlete team award during the 22-23 school qualified is interpreted to mean teams having met all of the scholar athlete team award programs criteria with 75 of the team maintaining a grade point average of 90 or above congratulations um I just want to make one note on the proposed consent agenda under extracurricular appointments uh to three and four that is a full term not split okay three and four fold says split it's actually full um it's just a last minute change it's updated it will be posted but I just want to make sure you guys are aware all right um so I'm going to take a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion Sarah second Android discussion all in favor aye opposed seven zero thank you okay next we're going to
007move on to our student representatives for their first report hi so I'm in charge of back to school today so starting off um Hispanic heritage Spirit has been strong um Hispanic Heritage Month uh was in full swing starting September 15th the hallways are decorated with student work to Showcase Hispanic heritage there's some pictures on the papers um Mrs Hernandez College to class did a personal reflection on this Hispanic Heritage Month allowed students to observe around the school and how they felt about this the designs and in their lives and then on Wednesday starting last week the lunch will be read in Spanish I do announcements so I'm also expanding my Spanish vocabulary so some honorable mentions uh student IDs are required upon entry for all students I really like this I think it brings a
008lot of safety knowing everyone in the school is truly a student um lockers seem to stay vacant even with option to claim one I know I should go out and get a locker because I need one but um getting into school is a lot more efficient it still takes a little bit of time to get out that's okay um gym floors are beautiful very nice and new I noticed that and overall the school feels a lot safer with more security and moving on to school spirit the grad store is up and running it's really exciting for all grad kids including myself to build a sense of community amongst the students and give out the supplies to students and help with their academic just help with academically there's a picture of the grad store right there
009with everything laid out um also Mr Schaefer's AP bio class to build some Spirit we did egg drops and there's a picture to your right of us on the bleachers and that was a lot of fun and I thought about like built some competition I know a lot of classes do that as well and team media pictures were very nice they looked awesome I thought they looked very professional I'm in charge of school activities for this meeting and many clubs and sports have spring to life already in new school year sports teams began practices before school officially back in the session and there's the fields like the track the pool they're all full of athletes practicing getting to the groove for games and meet soon to come things like the cross-country volleyball swimming just to
010name a few uh powder Puffs on the way and many of us are excited to attend it'll be held on Wednesday October 11th as well as the homecoming game which is another exciting Sports point for students it'll be Thursday the 13th homecoming dance also takes place the day after from seven to nine should be a great time to reconnect with everyone one big time before the school year really sets into full swing along with sports many clubs have started hollering for them for new and returning members Shakespeare has its site set on a performance marked for October 20th and 21st they'll be performing A Midsummer Night's Dream attending will be free with their welcoming donations as well Science Olympia has begun recruiting new members and from the looks of the first meeting it seems like
011we have a good team up and coming it's important time for seniors as well many colleges are open to early action and early decision around now but are closing very soon college fair is a perfect perfect opportunity to get in touch perfect admission staff for college for the college or colleges if your seniors may want to be looking to apply to and is highly recommended the seniors take advantage of this opportunity it will take place October 11th same day as the pattern birth game thank you I'm in charge of new changes um as you can see at the high school there's been many new changes in the parking lot both inside and outside um the new traffic pattern has been quite interesting to learn and has been proven to be quite effective personally when I
012first saw the changes when I drove in professional orientation I was very like surprised it looked very Camp college campus feeling a friend of mine actually came to last football game and told me that the school looked amazing so I was I was like mindful wow um the front of the campus changes a little bit as well there used to be stairways leading up to all the entrances those have been removed in efforts to help with accessibility to them there are also pillars starting from the entryways to avoid possible accidents some other changes within the school including the student body were put in place for security and efficiency throughout daily operations a new program has put it been put in called e-hall passes where students and teachers log in their passes on the Chromebooks it
013started in full swing at the beginning of the year but had to take a break for a little bit and is now piloting with a couple of teachers as well some people did think it took a little bit more time than the other system again need to learn and I'm sure it'll work in the future however we still have room specific passes there's one hall pass for each classroom and bathroom passes that are color coded based on the location of the class and the closest bathroom all bathrooms also now have Vape detectors with signs posted outside the bathroom doors for all students to see and finally teacher collegial times were originally eliminated but have been brought back to help for once a week which US students are very happy for and awaiting anticipated discussion of
014bringing back more than one thank you what okay we're going to move on to the superintendent schools so last week we had many many open houses and I had the opportunity to attend Berea Middle School and High School open house and it was just wonderful to see all of the parents and visiting teachers and just getting back to the swing of things and really understanding the um the way that things function and getting information to be active participants so just want to encourage parents the turnout was wonderful do you want to continue that throughout the year that you maintain the open communication with your teachers and um and anyone at the school to always help you that we are here for you um the Dei committee met on September 18th and we have new members
015that have joined and we did an orientation for the new members earlier than the actual meeting and we are working towards increasing and having a identified Focus so at the next meeting I'll be able to do that and I had the opportunity to attend the agribusiness tour and have the opportunity to visit many farms and no no farms in the area and have many many ideas that I plan to work on to really support our students having more internships and collaborations with businesses in our community um so for curriculum instruction we did give out a professional learning survey for feedback from our staff for future professional learning experiences we have so far received 224 responses for that survey it does include ranking of different topics in addition to an opportunity to give specific feedback for
016any topic that was not included in the survey additionally those that is being aligned that we are sorry the PD that we are currently scheduling is aligned to our student engagement as well as our sense of belonging and we're working with youth Communications and BOCES to support that as well curriculum and instruction is also working um in regards to identifying a literacy program and so I've started to meet with different Consultants today I met with iready as a potential consultant for one of our literacy programs and or math so I will keep you updated in regards to who I'm meeting with and how our next steps regarding that as well that's all I have good evening um so we have our recruitment committee meeting tomorrow night here at Central for the first time um at
0175 PM we have members of administration teachers community members and even a student from SUNY New Paltz who will take part in that and we'll meet for an hour tomorrow and I'll let you know on the October 10th Board of Ed meeting how that goes and what our plan will be for the future meetings also New York State health care worker bonus program we're concluding our fourth vesting period which ends on October 1st and submission will be on October 31st that'll be the fourth of the five vesting periods so we're working right now to identify employees who are eligible who weren't paid out during one of the two of the first three vesting periods and working with the business office to submit those the fifth vesting Fifth and final vesting period for now at least
018will run from October 23rd or October 1st 2023 to March 31st 2024 and the submission date for that will be May 1st 2024 and that'll be the fine Fifth and final vesting period that's all I have here so just to follow up from the last meeting where I shared and you received a copy of the letter that went to dot so the end result was compromise dot did hear our concerns and they shared their concerns that they need to address this as soon as possible so they have altered their plans for a shorter shutdown of 17K so as you see they have pivoted from doing a full closure for six weeks to now doing as much work as they can prior to closing the low the road but it will end up being closed for
019a short period of time we will be sharing updated bus information with parents next week and Steve bradney has been working with these cold land fire department to ensure that services are still being able to be provided to coldenham elementary school if they need it that's all I have for tonight are we going to try to one extra buses nope same amount of buses um some minor delays there will be some students that have to shift onto other buses but all in all it'll be an inconvenience that's what I'll say yeah thanks next one we have 54 students additional students than we did at the end of June other than that we pretty much have the same enrollment that we had at the close of the year last year I have two presentations this evening
020first is our food service welcome thank you um the 20 the 2022-23 year our meals went back to normal as far as traditional payment schedule for the first time since covet 19. um New York state is in the process of looking at cep Community eligibility participation for all schools who have a certain percentage of direct certification which is snap Medicaid Foster and homeless families families in New York in New York state the percentage has always been a 40 or higher the USDA is looking to lower the percentage this is still being sorted out by the USDA if this is passed the USDA that would mean free meals to everyone both breakfast and lunch we are doing our due diligence and getting all required data ready to go in the event Valley Central meets the new
021percentage that they set with that being said um they gave us an idea that we might be one of the percentages and so they told us to get a lot of things together and everything goes back to April um and what is our percentage back in April versus how many meals we serve this April versus how many meals we served the year before just for breakfast alone this past year we served in April about a little over 900. the year before that we did 20 000. so with the same amount of staff that we had doing the 9 000 or the 900 so we're gearing up for good things to come okay so um this year was our review year with New York Child Nutrition which occurs every three years this audit is to ensure
022that Valley Central is compliant with all aspects of food service Financial Federal and State compliance and reimbursements procurement nutritionals training hassip and everything that falls under the umbrella of food service department is assessed I'm happy to report that Valley Central is compliant in every aspect of food service within New York State the food service department also had an extensive internal audit in addition to the annual audit of the food service department our exiting interview with Nugent Hassler on January 6 was outstanding was outstanding with no findings the food service department is in compliance with all aspects we were able to replace outdated pieces of equipment this year that needed extensive repair this will help reduce repair costs in the years to come as you are aware the union agreement for nutrition for the nutritional staff
023was agreed upon February 2023 I'm really looking forward to this upcoming year this because possibly all of our children are going to eat free good possibility no promises but good possibility that's it any questions concerns good thank you [Music] thank you good evening my name is Ryan Schmidt I'm the director of facilities at Valley Central School District I've been in charge of the facilities department for the last six years I've worked in District for a total 20 years in different positions last year was extremely busy with all the construction taking place at our middle school high school from the Monday after graduation until a few days before school opened this place had contractors working everywhere new construction bus staging area student drop off and pickup area sidewalks leading to parking lots right turn exits new
024trees plantings along with the concession stand building this campus really looks amazing with all the needed safety improvements completed projects in Brewery elementary school hallways on the first floor were painted paved Pathways to upper lower playgrounds at East cold in hand we had 10 classrooms that got painted over the summer libraries Health office outside bathrooms store lighting was installed on a stage in Walden hallways and lockers were painted on all three floors of the main building along with floors on the first second and third floor also the folding tables were removed out of the cafeteria Capital Improvements projects overhang over the 52 Wing was removed and encapsulated with a soffit installed new classroom unit ventilators in the 52 wing and replace classroom flooring tiles and the 52 Wing as well at Montgomery Elementary School cafeteria
025was painted we were placed in art room sink in lower cabinets band room was painted painted staircases on the main building in high school the gym floor was completely replaced the auditorium floor was painted in the middle school the cafeteria was painted and installed water coolers with bottle filling stations athletic fields we had some repairs made to the tennis courts Aquatic Center we had the walls on the pool deck area were repainted HVAC system was installed in a spectator area and bench evacuators were installed on the pool deck I'm looking forward to upcoming projects we've got a scoreboard that's going to be replaced on the on the stadium Fields we've got a tennis court replacement coming up and secured vestibules and upcoming capital projects I am honored that I have the privilege of working for
026this District I want to thank you for the support of the Valley Central Community thank you any questions yes so before we move on I forgot to let our student Representatives off the hook so if you guys you're more than welcome to stay but if you have some pressing homework or something you're you can be this route and they're gone and they're gone like the wind all right we're going to move on to community participation we'll start with Fran um I attended uh represented the Board of Ed at the diversity equity and inclusion uh marketing it was a very very healthy discussion um it was nice to become part of this committee and and hear what work had been done up into this point and you know interesting to discuss the work ahead it's a
027great committee filled with you know incredibly smart and concerned people and I think the most impressive thing to me was that there was a parent on the committee who spoke about the fact that she chose to live in this district and have her children attend our schools because she saw that we have a Dei committee and are doing the work so it was you know pretty impactful yes for me [Music] I think there you go um I attended a vcef meeting just as a reminder as fabula said there will be a reception honoring um Kim Carver and Derek Devoe on I believe it's next Wednesday on the fourth yep October 4th tickets are available on the um you can just go on the website for information and I attended a couple of volleyball games JV
028is undefeated so that's very exciting okay um I attended the um what was it called before the Dei meeting the um right or the onboarding oh sorry that was the word I'm trying to think of the onboarding as the alternate alternate to the Dei committee I went to the onboarding meeting um what a great group of people that is um I also attended open house at the high school um I went to a couple volleyball games and attended the football game last week the battle ago I was also able to attend the high school and middle school open houses last week and many sporting events football volleyball swimming and uh we just had our first aquatic committee meeting before this week Diana um I was able to attend both middle school and high school open
029houses which were really well run and actually really wonderful teachers did a great job and lots of soccer games so many soccer games all right I I attend a football game I went to the senior guidance meeting as well so that was oh exciting yeah it was good okay all right uh we're gonna move on no public comment we're going to move on to Old business so can I get a motion for the approval of the Middle School Heritage months program plan Katie second Fran all in favor post seven zero thank you uh next is new business motion for the adoption of the school safety plan 2324 Diana second second Sarah all in favor okay post 7-0 thank you motion for the approval agreement between Valley Central School District and SJ and Associates this is
030for outpatient rehab Services motion Angela II Fran all in favor aye opposed seven zero thank you motion for the approval of capital project change orders this was a sign and some paint strippings for hand second Katie all in favor opposed seven zero and then we have two Club Charter presentations the first presentation is our boom Wacker Club presenting for the Boomwhackers tonight will be and we'll be presenting providers tonight okay I am not Mr Ackley um but Mr Ackley was not able to make it tonight but he did send his presentation to present to the board as well so the boomwhacker club is being is a Charter Club that's being introduced to Walden Elementary it is currently at East goldenham and I do not know enough about the Boomwhackers because I don't know the instrument
031however with that said um he does go into detail in regards to Boomwhackers or uh two tuned tubes that are Rhythm rhythmically played um when struck on your your hand or your knee and bowmaker will make us a pop sound as designated for that pitch so the goals of the club are to engage the student performance opportunities and composition instruction to enhance the VC K-12 music curriculum scope and sequence where students will increase their knowledge and understanding of standard and non-standard rhythmic and Mel melodic music notation to create a safe learning environment for all students to feel accepted and be successful while collaborating in music baking the charter will be offered to grades to students in grades three through five and we'll rehearse Wednesday mornings beginning in January from 805 to 8 45 with an
032end product being a spring performance so some ways that we've seen Boomwhackers used or the Blue Man Group pop that has really popular popularized the instrument itself and that is something that is also that is the students are going to be exploring so this slide is just a overview of Mr ackley's own experience with General music and music enrichment camp and use and boom markers over the summer instruction will be set up similar to classroom music instruction where they will review note names and rhythms practicing practicing the lyrics and lining them up in the notes of the Boomwhackers foreign I will not Sing Mary Had a Little Lamb Mary [Laughter] any other questions so there is an interest level with it and especially with it being at another elementary school as well there he's looking
033to bridge the the programs and be able to if possible combine groups but I'm not exactly sure how he wants to go about that um so but there is definitely an interest in it being at another Elementary School offering at Walden as well you're welcome foreign hi good evening everyone my name is Aaron Murphy I Am A World Language teacher and social emotional Mentor at Valley Central High School tonight with me I have Junior and student ambassador for Morgan's message Molly Jeffrey all right um Morgan's message let me back up and give you a little bit of a timeline last January January of 2023 Molly approached me asking me if I would consider being The Faculty advisor for this club Morgan's message and I had never heard of Morgan's message before so I did a
034little bit of research and Molly told me about her time as a student ambassador for Morgan's message Morgan's message is a National Organization to support student athletes um when to uh excuse me to support student athletes who might suffer from Silent mental health issues struggling to balance their performance during their Athletics and their personal life working at home school um whatever so our goal is to break the stigma surrounding mental health by providing student athletes and coaches with resources to help identify some of those areas where you might not necessarily see big warning signs to the decline in mental health and so we just have some information that we wanted to share with you and hopes to approve our Charter this evening um I first became involved with Morgan's message because I had a family
035member attempt to take their own life and in the months after I just felt so helpless and Warren's message has given me the resources to help people and to educate people on what they can do if they know someone who's suffering and yeah so Morgan's message was created through her family and friends uh um uh Collegiate athlete who took their own lives several years ago and in in processing their own grief wanted to create resources to help support students who may be struggling and so we'd like to bring this here to Valley Central because we know that mental health and social emotional learning is important at the high school I'm a check and connect advisor in an after-school advisor and mentor and um so we know that there are students who have high risk High
036need that are easily identifiable we can highlight them on a page but what about our student athletes what about those students who academically are performing fine and may seem okay but otherwise might be struggling internally and so um well he wants to talk about just a couple of our data points we have a lot and we know that if we're nearing the end of the night so we'll keep it brief so a couple Studies have found that one in six U.S youths between ages 6 and 17 experience a mental health disorder every year and that suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 15 to 24 which the general like average of that is a high school student and a lot of people don't know that it's okay to not be okay and
037that they're not alone and we want to make them aware of that we know that our own BC Community is still processing in the aftermath of Tyler's passing last year and we are working really hard we want to bring some of that some of those resources to our to our community to our students to families to um to Athletics so we know that stress and pressure to perform um to perform in during Athletics during games and balancing life obligations can lead to Performance anxiety panic and panic attacks and we ultimately end up in the cycle of panic and it just seems very difficult to get out of and so by bringing Morgan's message to to the high school we are hoping to provide resources um to provide resources for what is and what is unhelpful
038for for families for coaches for peers being around uh one another for our student athletes because we know that injury can often coincide with the decline in mental health especially particularly with our student athletes when you're unable to perform you feel like you are unable to reach your capacity [Music] there we go um and so we our aim for Morgan's message and bringing a chapter to the high school is to provide resources from the national chapter of this the National Organization to identify warning signs of declining mental health and to help provide steps to move forward when students might be struggling or even just to be able to get that ball rolling with that conversation that can often be difficult to have especially if you don't feel like you are trained enough to have difficult
039conversations and so um our takeaways are are pretty succinct it's okay to not be okay yeah um and talking about mental health and mental illness breaks the stigma around it and makes people feel less ashamed um building strong relationships with others is incredibly important because the more someone trusts you the more likely they are to come to you if they aren't feeling like themselves and sports are an excellent outlet for stress but they also cause a lot of stress and put a lot of pressure on student athletes and there is always a strong VC Community to support anyone who's struggling thank you for your time this evening we appreciate it thank you thank you okay next just take note of the review for curriculum K-12 physical education heritage month program and the middle school grade
040seven is available and then we have the agreement between Valley Central School District and new leaders can I get a motion to adopt that agreement Sarah second okay Angela all in favor seven zero okay uh that is agenda we are gonna go back into executive session to discuss employment history of a particular employee we will not take action when we come out so we'll come out out of executive session and adjourn the meeting for the evening so Craig thank you very much appreciate it and I will take a motion to go into executive session at 7 21. Sarah a second Katie all in favor thanks 7-0 thank you very much folks