November 18th, 2025 - Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening and welcome to the November 18th meeting of the Enore Board of Education. We have a tobacco policy in place. There is no smoking within 100 ft of any school building. Please rise rise for the pledge of allegiance. Board clerk, will you please call roll? >> Trusty Smith >> here. >> Trusty Jared >> here. >> Trusty Mitchell Moral >> here. >> Trusty Jerome >> here. >> Trusty Goodrich >> here. >> Trusty Ken >> here. >> Trusty Bishop >> here. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our welcome this evening is from our interim middle school principal, Don Sim Sim Salamini. Sorry about that. Um he'll welcome us. Thank you, Don. Best thing. Oh, there we go. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to share a brief update on the work happening at onour Antior Middle

002School. I got the tongue tied too. This year we have been focused on supporting students academic, social, and emotional growth and building a stronger sense of community and connection for our middle schoolers and their families. Middle school is a critical bridge between elementary school and high school. This is where students move from learning to read to reading to learn. In practical terms, that means literacy becomes the foundation for success in every subject, science, social studies, math, and ELA. Students are no longer just recalling facts. They're expected to extract meaning, evaluate sources, and apply what they learn to new situations. When we get this right at the middle level, we increase student engagement, build confidence, and prevent gaps that can limit future choices. Our job is to keep reinforcing strong reading and thinking skills in every

003content area while encouraging curiosity and discussion in the classroom. To support that work, we use MAP growth assessments in English and math three times per year. These assessments give us more than just a snapshot. They provide growth data and specific skill information that we combine with what we see in a classroom and what we track in branching minds. Excuse me. From there we identify areas of strength and where students need more support that drives targeted interventions, flexible grouping and the way we use our AIS sections so we are not guessing who needs help and in what areas. Branching minds is the platform we are using to support a more systematic approach to academic and behavioral support. Grade level teams use it in their meetings to review student data, identify students who may need tier one,

004two, or three academic supports, and document what interventions we are putting in place. We initiated a full roll out across the middle school back in September during the superintendent's conference days. So, every grade level is using the same language and the same program and structure. The goal is simple. early identification, more consistent support, and clearer communication with families about what we are doing to help their child. To make support more accessible, we have built extra help directly into the school day during fifth period lunch and also after after school extra help four days a week, Monday through Thursday. The extra help setting is meant to be active and focused. Students can work directly with teachers, get clarification on assignments, and receive help with specific skills or content. We also created an independent study room for

005students who need just a quiet place to work, read, or catch up on assignments. Some students just need that structured, distractionfree, reduced space to be successful. We're trying to provide it. Communication with families have been a major focus this year. Right now, Parent Square includes 244 students, 101 staff and teachers, and 416 parents connected just to our middle school. So far, we have sent over 87 posts, and there have been over 882 direct messages from families. All of that activity is a sign that families are engaging with the school and that they have a direct line to teachers and administration. Just as a brief aside, one parent directly only communicates with me directly through the messaging. And what's great about it, I get it right away. I respond right away. It's just an informality in

006a formal setting. So, it is a it is a great tool. By the way, the goal is to keep families informed, reduce surprises, and make it easier for parents to reach out when they have a question or concern. As my example, that parent does all the time. just answers the question a lot easier that way. In addition to individual messages, I send weekly updates to families. These go out through the YouTube platform and I notify the families through the parent square. Families can also access these videos on our websites. These weekly communications give parents a regular look into what is happening in the building, upcoming events, academic reminders, celebrations, and sometimes a quick snapshot inside the classrooms. This consistency help families feel more connected to the school and re reinforces what we see that we

007see them as partners in their child's education. Also, on another side, on that note, I've noticed my viewership is going down because I'm putting all the information into the email as well as in the uh descriptor of the YouTube box, which is fine long as I'm getting the information out. But if you want to see a little fun, play hit play. Student Council. Our middle school student government continued this year with strong student interest. We had over 15 students running for office. They had to petition for candidacy, collect signatures from classmates, and campaign by hanging posters in the hallways around the school. Close to 150 students voted during lunch, and we even had a student ballot verification committee to ensure uh accuracy and correctness. This was more than just about filling positions. It was a

008It was a chance to give students the experience and what it means to participate in a democratic process, hear their voices, and accept the results with maturity. Those students that did not make it onto the election were also given an opportunity to be uh grade level officers. And I plan on meeting with them at least once a month to hear their concerns and then address them as well. Sorry about that. The Grave Rave uh is one of the highlights for students this past fall. The Grave Rave is a Halloween themed event hosted by our National Junior Honor Society with support from our booster club. Events like this matter. They give students something positive to look forward to, build school spirit, and create memories that tie students to their school community. Behind the scenes, there's a

009lot of planning and supervision and coordination with staff and families. But the payoff is a school climate where students feel that this is their place and that the adults are invested in them beyond academics. Our booster club partnership has been an important part of enriching the middle school experience. The booster club has maintained a visible presence at our various events around the school and during the evening such as open house, parent teacher conferences, as well as the grave rave. They're also working with us on future activities, one of them being sledding sometime in the winter. um on the hill. I heard we get snow up here. So, this kind of collaboration helps us stretch resources, offer more experiences, and build a stronger connection between families, athletics, and the school. I'm going to butcher his last

010name, so I apologize. We also continue to invest in the arts. One example is our collaboration with arts mid Hudson and teaching artist Ken S. We'll just go with that on the Catskill Witch Project. He I asked him a couple of times how to pronounce it and I just doesn't stick. Our sixth through 8th grade students created their own original play based upon the cats local folklore. Ken also led sixth grade theater workshops that focus on various theater-based skills such as centering, perceiving, listening, observing, and embodying a character. He had half the sixth grade up here on the audi on the stage could hear a pin drop as he's walking them through various exercises. That group The second group came, there was some overlap. Those kids still participated it. The ones that did it the

011first time, it was excellent. It was wonderful to see how attuned they were to that project. The work is not just about performance. It builds confidence, communication skills, and creativity. It also gives students a chance to see themselves as part of the broader cultural and artistic story of our region. Now, some upcoming middle school activities such as Community Connections Day sometime in January 2026. This is a re-imagined version of diversity day. The goal is to give students structured opportunities to explore different experiences and communities through activities and areas like crafts, music, cooking, and other handson experiences that broaden their understanding of the world and each other. We're also working on on various alternatives to indoor recess, which will include games, movies, and open gym options. This focus keeps students active, engaged, and supervised in a

012productive way when the weather keeps them indoors. And finally, we also today we recognize our school related professionals day. They we reached out to them and noted that they are a crucial part of the daily life of the building and play a key role in keeping things running smoothly for our students. In summary, our work at Anttori Middle School is centered on strong instruction, targeted support, consistent communication with families, and meaningful opportunities for students to connect, lead, and grow. Thank you for your ongoing support of our students, our staff, and our programs. Happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. >> I do want to start by thanking you. Come over here. Um my second child has started middle school this year with one already in middle school and everything that you

013shared um is is so true. The communication has been outstanding this year and I it's not just coming from me but many other parents just feel really grounded about what's going on and that makes such a huge difference. Um, and I I had a question about just how you feel it's going integrating the sixth grade into the middle school and the dynamic between the middle school area of six, seven, eight and the the high school that kind of like surrounds it to the side. Do you see progress or changes or >> So I see the um it's going I think the sixth grade has adjusted very well. not being here last year, I can't really speak to the situation occurred last year. Uh there are high school students that walk through the hallway and I

014have to tell you, they're actually quite mature about it and they they don't want to be bothered either. They step through as quietly as possible as they can. They don't make a mus or a fuss. We do I'm working with um Lance and Sarah as well to address to limit the number. There are just times when it is closer for those students that when they're exiting their classroom to go down the middle school hallway, but the middle school being up in the upper middle school hall uh provides them a sense of you know centeringness um quietness in that area. It is a little um noisier uh because we have six and seven there but they're all four of their classes their core classes are pretty much right across the hall from each other. So that

015gives them that sense. the teachers are constantly out in the hallway assisting the sixth graders even to this day um cleaning out their lockers, fixing the lock situation or just helping them get organized to get from you know period 2 to period 3. So it's I'm up there frequently uh a lot of the time more up there than I am down in the lower section of the hallway because of the sixth and seventh graders. They just need a little bit more TLC to get going. But they're doing great. Um there was some growing pains coming from uh Bennett to here but that's naturally um due to the fifth grade sixth grade maturity level and process but that is I definitely faded I would say by the end of September those things you know you see

016it when eth goes to nth you see it when fifth goes to sixth anytime there's a transition from one building to another there's always a little growing pain um the sixth graders have really adapted very well >> that's great to hear thank you. >> Thank you. >> I also have a daughter in the middle school and um I'm just want to echo and I'm very impressed with your combination of geniality and organization, the communication. Um it's really um makes a parent feel great to know that the principal of the middle school is um really making sure to be keep everybody in touch and um and with a blend of humor and um >> thank you >> sternness at the same or whatever the word we want. Um uh I guess my question would be I

017love seeing in the presentation this blend of um academic support um and then these these opportunities for students to join in person together and do you see a a relatively good amount of engagement by a by a span of the the the middle school? Like are are the kids into hanging out together and going to the grave rave and you know being active together? Is are they do they behave behave as a cohort I guess is my question. >> I see you know the current eighth graders came over last year as the seventh graders with the sixth grade. So I think they're they're a different um I guess setting for them because they came over with the sixth grade. So they sixth and seventh came over at one shot last year. Uh the eighth graders

018now are ninth graders. So they're at a different level or a different but they are definitely within a cohort of interactions together. Seventh graders they really do interact very well together. Um across their within the grade level and across the grade level we had over I think 150 students at the grave rave. Um it was very well attended across the various grade levels. Um it was excellent. It was a wonderful evening. Um and to see them all come out. So I want to increase those type of opportunities because the school should be more than just you know the the classrooms and the nine period day and the lunch but to give them those opportunities as I even said is to give them to see that but I do see them interacting across grade levels as

019well. I see some of the eighth graders assisting the sixth graders uh and seventh graders as well. So I do see up and down um interactions as well as across uh in more in a positive realm. Um so I do see that cafeteria very noisy um but they're very much engaged uh you know positively sharing uh we brought games into the cafeteria just so they could at least use them in there but outside we have various students who are playing different sports uh football or they're playing kickball foursquare and it is a mix of grade levels so that's key to see >> thank you so much and um I just think it's so important And and something we really a gift that we offer is for these children to play together and learn from each

020other and be in the same space together um in the room sharing different ideas and learning together. So thank you so much. >> If I may continue just the the essential is like the sixth graders can learn from the eighth graders, eighth graders can learn from the sixth graders. It's the interaction. It's the friendliness and openness. This community is a tight-knit community already. They're riding the same buses together. So playing together is something that's just a natural offshoot and there is a lot of learning from playing. I started off with saying um you know middle school is a bridge something I firmly believe in. It's not just something I put on here. I actually started teaching in a middle school way back when. So to come full circle back is uh it's a blessing for

021me and to see that um the kids are wonderful. So I enjoy them. Any other questions or comments? >> Um, thank you for this presentation. I think it's very helpful. Uh, I saw parents square for the first time from a board uh another board member and uh because I don't have any kids in the school district at this time and uh when my kids went to school here uh I may have talked to the principal once a year, you know, if that. Right. So this is great to see. So my question is um all this interaction with the parents, do you think it has helped reduce absenteeism? >> I haven't run the numbers yet, but I think the it could only improve things interactions and I don't have the data to support it one way

022the other and I will definitely get that tomorrow. Um it is if at at the worst it does is increase the amount of time of of of effort. That's if that's the at the least it does. Um I can only see it going up from there. The connection is how I believe is that when the parent drops the child off and puts them on the bus, they're in our in our care and our charge for the next seven, eight hours. So at that point if I can communicate what's going on that will reduce any stress or any uncertainty for the child and their parents they're giving us their most precious commodity their product um to us for those number of hours. So it's key essential just to share hey this is what's going on just

023so if you have any questions um just so they know that it's just not a an empty box that the kid comes to. So, um, I find that to be at least the most powerful part of it. >> So, do you have I don't know does you ever get on your computer and this big red flag shows up because all of a sudden a student, you know, is been absent for unusual amount of time. >> So, every at least every month I meet with the attendance clerk um attendance clerk, our attendance monitoring um social workers. We meet monthly. I'm in constant contact with our counselors. So, we do do outreach. It's not just once a month. So, uh there's any time our numbers are any concern numbers, excuse me, roundabout students that have concern are

024very low number that we have any issues and we have been um addressing them as we go along. Uh outreach has been continuous. One of the things is with branching minds uh everyone speaks the same language with the um MTSS framework multi-ter system of support. So the sixth grade 7th grade eighth grade counselors um all the teachers are speaking the same language and working with Missow with rolling that out has been tremendous. So one of the things is during those initially at the beginning of the year it was every week the grade levels would meet. So every Tuesday was sixth grade, every seventh grade. Seventh grade was every Wednesday, Thursday. But as things were going on, um we reduced it to twice a month or every other week. Um so that way as we're moving

025along if it ever needs. So at every one of those meetings, it comes up an academic concern, an attendance concern or behavioral concern. So those are brought up so the team gets to meet. So it's not just waiting for that once a month. Once a month meeting is something specific with Mrs. Marin that I meet with as well as the nurse. So that's something different, but it's all about attendance. If we get them in, we could do wonders. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you so much, Don. >> Thank you very much. Have a wonderful evening. >> Thank you. >> Uh, next, our MTSS coordinator, Elizabeth, will present to us on multi-tered systems of supports. I think. Okay, we're working. I promise I did not give him extra cookies to plug MTSS, but I have

026to say I was it made my heart happy. Not to sound silly, but um we just started our work this year and I'll I'll talk about it in here. But it's great to hear um that come over into having such a large piece of what's going on in the building right now. So with that, I will uh get right to the point. Um this some of these slides will be familiar to some of you because I did have the opportunity to meet with you in January, but I know we have some new faces. So, I I left a couple of the same ones in to just give it a little bit of an overview and then talk about some of the pieces that we were able to see over the course of last year coming

027into the beginning of this year and what some of our conversations look like. There we go. So, MTSS, that's the the tongue twister of multi-tiered system of supports. We're pretty good with just MTSS. Um, but it's that system that we have chosen as a district. It's been over the course of several years now that we've been working very hard to roll this out and to do it very specifically with very intentionally and really to to look at how we support our students in each way, not just academics. We talked about attendance, social emotional pieces, but also using our data to drive those conversations and really that collaborative piece of having everybody together. Who needs to be there at that table to address those concerns and not only address the concerns, but where do we need

028to help further our students? Because we we have full classes. You know, how do we help it further the learning of all of our students? So, our goals where we start to achieve that positive and equitable outcomes for all of our students using that problem solving and prevention model trying to get ahead of things before they get too bad. um with those that evidence using databased decision- makingaking, using that data to drive our understanding of why our students might be struggling and then to put our heads together to figure out what to do for them to find those interventions to match them and then to pro then to figure out to progress monitor them because we also need to know if what we're doing is actually helping because we can give a student the best

029instructor with the best program that we research finds but it might not be the right one for them. So we are consistently looking back to see is it working and that's really important to monitor that progress and really just to maintain our commitment to the system to making sure our grade level meetings are happening to make sure we're using the data to make sure we are utilizing that structure that we've put into place because this was a very big change for us and we know system systemic change takes three to five We've just entered year two and I think some of our data is already showing and that's what I want to show you tonight the tiers of our interventions. Um throughout conversations in MTSS you'll hear about tier one, tier two, tier three. Our

030tier one kids are really all of our kids, our classroom, our regular teachers, our classrooms. what goes on, you know, are we providing our kids with the appropriate academic instruction, the appropriate social emotional supports, so on and so forth. And if they need a little help in the classroom, what does our classroom teachers do? They help them in whatever that way that looks like. Tier two and tier three, we get a little bit more specialized. Tier two could be in a classroom where teachers work with their students in small groups. So really we look at when we look when we talk as teams like who's in those small groups why are they in those small groups what are we working on and again that can be the classroom teacher on many occasions sometimes when kids

031need a higher level of support we start talking about our specialists might be our AIS teachers it might even be a speech teacher or an occupational therapist or whoever happens to be pushing into the classroom for different reasons but really Level tier three is our most intense levels of support we provide our kids. And just to kind of make a note with that is it could be very intensive support, but that re it still has nothing to do with special education or classification. This is just providing all of our kids with what they need despite labels, despite programs, despite anything else. If one of our students need it, we figure out a way to get it. Where do we find our data? Right now, we we really take data from just about everywhere. Some of

032our main sources we use are MAPS growth reports. It's a standardized testing kids do three times a year. Don mentioned it. And we look at ELA and math. We have Renaissance Star, which is a similar test. We use it more for math just as kind of a backup. We do reading running records where our teachers meet with all most of our students particularly at the elementary level individually to to see how their reading levels are moving forward is what we're looking for. Our of course our New York State assessments uh some cases some standardized testing is available and of course the classroom reports. We have report cards. We h we have what a student is doing on their regular assessments in the classroom. things along the lines of teacher input. We have a lot of

033conversations and again around attendance, social emotional needs. We really I start all of our grade level meetings with a reminder. We're going to go through our kids and if there's a student that we don't talk about that you have an attendance concern, a social emotional concern or an academic concern that's not showing up in these numbers, make sure you bring them forward and the teachers do. Um certainly again our teacher our teacher input, behavior patterns, attendance concerns, executive functioning, all of those pieces come to the table. This is Don mentioned branching minds. This is just a quick sample of what a students report could look like. All of our teachers have access to all of their students and their assessment history over the last several years. This includes their running records, their state assessments, their

034star scores, their MAP scores, and they can see where the progression is. So, if now they have that student and something just doesn't look right, maybe a student was for the last couple years they're right where they were supposed to and this September wasn't the case. So, now it's an immediate flag right there and the teacher can say, "What happened?" or "What do I need to do?" maybe they just had a bad day. So, one of the pieces that we talked about quite a bit is using maps as our schoolwide assessment to help monitor our progress. Last year, um I I was asked to take a look at our data, not just the state data, not just the MAPS data, but our specific data here at Antiora. And I found this case to be true

035both years. our MAP scores, how our students perform on maps is consistently aligned with our state assessment results. Um, I did two graphs with this on it. The uh they call it how it's correlated. Anything with a statistical correlation over 75 is considered highly correlated. Both of our scores are in in 084 and in math I believe it's 0 83. It's on the next slide but you can see our graph there directly. So that at least tells us as a district what we're seeing on our MAP scores is truly an indicator on how they do perform on the on the state test score on the state school assessment. Excuse me. This is the ELA and math is very similar. So because certainly we want to know if the things we're doing where we're spending our

036time is important and meaningful like is this really giving us a good idea how kids are doing and we're finding for our kids it certainly is you know so looking at taking all that down and and what do we do then with all of that? What do our conversations start to look at look like? And you know, these are just, you know, some of those adjustments together. We look at those, you know, we identify the key strategies. And this is where having all the specialists at the table really comes in handy, you know, because we look like where do we have to modify or adjust this students program to again give them what they need. So we provide the intervention, we monitor it, and then we communicate. we come back to that same table to

037talk about how it's going. Sometimes it's going well, they're making progress, we continue on that road. If it's not, where do we need to make adjustments? Sometimes it's a group, sometimes it's a provider, sometimes it's a program, but we get together to be able to do that. And again, having that team at the table brings all different views with it. So, one of the things we talk a lot about, talk a lot about is our AIS providers, our specialists, as um Miss Laughlin likes to refer to them as our surgeons um because they really get in there, you know. So we use that data to identify what we need to do using those state assessments, using the maps, using that classroom data and then provide that targeted instruction, you know, and making sure that we're

038providing the instruction, but it's also aligned with the classroom because the connection between our AIS teachers and and our classroom teachers is so vital because that they need to be able to have the opportunity to communicate and because we don't want people working against each other. We want everybody working in tandem together, you know, and if one is working on, say it's a student with reading difficulties, one can work on phonics, the other one can work on comprehension. We don't want to both be working on phonics because then the comprehension goes out the door for a simple explanation. So really that collaboration and communication is super important, you know, and having those conversations. One example I'm thinking back to one of Don's uh grade levels that I met with having everybody at the table looking

039at student data we immediately were able to identify specifically we had one student who was read receiving reading AIS services which was wonderful but when we looked back in the history scores were okay they didn't do so hot on the last state assessment but we're like h we knew something had happened in the spring that that student wasn't quite on par, but they didn't do good on the math and they consistently had but they weren't in math AIS. We were able to make that switch immediately. We had the school counsel, we had the students counselor at the table, we had their team, they went into the the program said, we can make the change in the pro in scheduling and boom, it was done. And it it was so important to be able to see

040around the table that we didn't have to wait. We didn't have to wait a month. We didn't have to wait six weeks for report cards. The players were there and we were able to do it. Uh the other thing we look at is discretionary services. We are blessed to have phenomenal providers for speech, for occupational therapy, physical therapy, assist of technology, and certainly all of our counselors. So, we talk about discretionary services. So, we could have a student, for example, I'll use kindergarten as an example, for for a little one whose fine motor skills need a little work. We have occupational therapists who can support the classroom teacher at that team meeting. We can invite their input. Sometimes they've already taken a peek at the student and they're able to come to the table with

041the information and provide the classroom teacher with some maybe tools. Same thing all the way down the line. Our counselors are a vital part. They see so many of our kids discretionary because it's what they need at that time. They they're able to contact the parents. so on and so forth. And how do we monitor and evaluate? This is where our progress monitoring comes in. We start with that baseline. Where did they start? What are our goals for that student? How often are we going to look at them? And then communicate it. And that really is that that cycle we try and follow. So, did this help last year, which is what I was very excited? I know you've seen the the state ed scores from our from our spring, but the first thing I

042looked at was our maps data. So, just our local assessment. So, when I look at it, we look at that, you know, green, orange, red. So, our tier one kids, we want most of most of our kids belong in that tier one. In September, we had, let's see, my eyes aren't that great, but 63% of our kids were in tier one. Okay, not bad. In June, 84% of our kids moved up to tier 1. We had 60 kids in tier 2 and that went down to 31 students. We had 50 students at tier three, our highest level of need. And let's see, that went down to 22. So for me, right off the bat in ELA, I was like, "Wow, that's a big difference." In math, it was similar. I have to say, and we

043had 70, let's see, like I said, my eyes are not good. 70 students, 170 students, that went up to 282. Tier two, we had 82 students and that dropped to 39. Our tier three kids, we had 52, that went down to 21, you know, and and I didn't describe this too much at all. Actually, in the last slide, I can go back. But of our tier one kids in math, okay, 165 of them stayed there. I had five jump to a tier two. My tier 2 kids, I had 67 of them jump to a one. And out of the I only had 13 kids stay. Two dropped a little bit. And of our tier three kids, 20 of them actually went to tier one. They went all the way to the best spot we'd land

044like them in. So I look at that and I can I don't think I need to bore you with ELA, but same idea. Just looking at our tier three kids, we had 50 of them at tier three, 27 went all the way to tier one, and 12 of them went to tier two. So really some amazing growth for our kids. And then I looked at their state scores. I was able to compare kids that had tests, you know, took the state test two years in a row. And of those kids in ELA, 75% of our kids improved their score like which by itself is a big deal. So they they moved up in their score, but 44% of them actually improved their score enough to move up a whole level on the state assessment. And

045that was that was the big deal. So in 2024, we had 62 students score in a level one. Of those students, 29 went up to a two. Six went up to a three and one went even to a four. We had 78 students at a level two. 44 of them went to a level three and five jumped to a four. And we had 105 students on level three. 44 of them jumped to a level four. So it's we wanted to really look at is this making a difference for kids? math. Same idea. 76% of our kids improved on their score, allowing 40% of them to jump a level. Um, 63 kids were at that level one and 24 and 25. 23 jumped to a two and four of them went to a three. 91 started

046at a level two. 49 jumped to a three, five to a four. And of the 116 kids that started on a three, 38 of them went to a four. So, lots of numbers, but important ones because each one of our students, each one of their ability to grow makes a difference, you know. So, where are we going next? You heard a lot from from Don on working at the at the middle school, which is a big jump this year. Um, we're continuing to work in the elementary schools to really get better at it because last year was year one. We're still a little sloppy. We're we're still figuring out the kinks and we will. And as we as we find those kinks, we'll adjust. And you know, the the difference is making we want to

047make a difference for kids. As the adults, we can adjust. We have to make sure we're doing what's right for them. and really just to continue to get stronger and um continue our work with the branching minds platform because that has been an amazing tool for us. And with that, any questions for me? >> Yay. This is great. Um it's very heartening um to see these students move um up in levels with that have negative triggers um in whatever data sets you're referencing. >> Teachers are working hard. Um my question is is do you ever have positive triggers for students who are consistently performing at a top level in terms of enhancing their programming and moving them even farther up the to the next rung on the ladder so to speak. >> I think a

048lot of those conversations really take place at those grade level meetings where we have we know where our kids are and we actually go down the entire list start to finish. Um, so there isn't a student high to low that we don't discuss. Some certainly have more discussion than others, but the questions of how do we further challenge our students and how can we do that certainly is at that table. >> Great. I would love to hear more about that as as we look at true equity. um looking at again those sort of negative, neutral and positive and um being able to address the entire student body. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I love the uh your smile kind of says it all. Okay. You're you're really proud of this and uh and that's

049good. That's that's great. I love the the last name in MTSS system. All right, because in my 45 year career, um I've worked on a lot of systems. 150 people were trying to work together on one project. All right, where do you think the problems happen? It's because you have one group doesn't communicate well with the other group and there's no o overlap between the two groups, right? So you have a a boundary condition. All right? So there's separation. And the bigger separation, the the more likelihood you're going to have a problem. You know, I call those big boundary problems creasses, you know, and and that's where always the errors happen. That's you know, person A or division A is not talking to division B. And so it's great that this this is happening here.

050This is really important. So, >> thank you. And I think, you know, one of the things that certainly has been the support of the district and the board in doing this work and allowing me, you know, and in my position now to be able to work and carry that over into all of the different groups into each grade level, helping support that common language, helping support the common tools, I think, is really what's helping drive this forward. And we know we need to make things live beyond us. And I want this to be able to to live beyond me, live beyond all of us. That that system is in place to support our students. Thank you so much. I I know you feel like you were just here in January, but I do think that

051it's so complex in such a beautiful way. It's really helpful, I think, for the whole community to hear about it. And then we see these assessment scores rise, which there is no company or nonprofit on earth that wouldn't say, "Now wait a second. How did you do that?" and then circling back and having assistant superintendent laughing really point back to the MTSS system and then to get to dig into it again. Um, absolutely with this data is so phenomenal. >> We are so blessed to have this program and to have you be able to give your full attention to this. I'm reminded of a hurly town meeting we were at a long like six months ago and one of the um trustees of the town said, "You're asking for this money for the budget, but

052how are the kids doing?" And Victoria said, "Our kids do quite well, but I feel really good about the whole community seeing this. Um this is amazing. This is something to be super proud of. And I can't believe it's only been a year. >> It's absolutely. And when I was when I got to be here in January, we didn't have the second data points yet. So for me able to bring it back is is to me just to me it's in the numbers. The the numbers to me just show the hard work of all the teachers, what they're doing. the conversation shift alone looking back to the data and and really we we've moved on in our conversations into that that more strategic and using what we know. I can see that this is only

053going to go like Trusty Jerome was saying like the potential for our ability to really hone in and as a parent I I am so thrilled to hear that every kid on every grade level is is like touched on and these meetings I mean there's so much here that's so phenomenal. Thank you and thank you to all of our teachers watching or not watching. Thank you. >> Thank you. Have a great night. Hi. Um, sorry, one more question. Um, I think this echoing what everybody else said, this is really wonderful to hear. Um, I have just a sort of a two-part question on sort of how we sustain this over time from a staff perspective. >> Um, my first question is, so MTSS was brought into our district. Somebody else developed it elsewhere, right? And

054uh I'm wondering if you consider MTSS as a system, as a mature system. You described it as a language that our teachers are all learning to speak. Is that a language that is gaining a lot of new terms and concepts as you know currently or is it pretty stable from what you need to learn? >> I I think I'm comfortable saying it's pretty stable. Sometimes the language changes just a little bit. I think when I was here in January, we talked about the history of MTSS and it started I'm gonna go back as far as I remember into the early 90s. I think it existed as what was called the child study team. Child study team became the oh goodness what was after child study IST. the uh instructional support team instructional support team became

055RTI or response to intervention and response to intervention has now become MTSS. With each step it has grown and that's really what that's come back to is we we stopped just sitting and talking about a kid because everybody was complaining about them back in the child study days. You have to study the child so to speak and it's grown. it went to RTI, but RTI was more academically more of an academiconly focus. It came out of some of the legislation when it came to diagnosing learning disabilities. And with that, MTSS bloomed from there, incorporating more of the whole child, looking at things like attendance, social, emotional, and academic. So, I think a combination of that's not going anywhere because we know we need to help kids plus the work we as a district have done

056have done um with our plan and I think as long as we continue with our plan and adjust it as we need to the district I mean teachers put in two years I would say worth of work into developing that plan. Um and that's really sustain that's what's going to make it sustainable. You know, one of my tasks is working with the principles because they're involved at each of the grade level meetings. They they're part they're a key part of it because as we establish ourselves, the principles will be running the meeting, the teachers will be helping run the meetings. It it needs to become embedded which will be what makes it even more sustainable over time. >> Thank you. And then I guess my other question is in thinking of it as a language

057and a system that you sort of have to really learn and and you know develop a deep understanding of when we have staff turnover when we have somebody new coming in. Do you feel like our staff will be knowledgeable enough in this system to that we have in-house trainers or is this something we should be thinking of you know PD on a constant basis or how how do you how do we train up new people who don't know the ways of MTSS? >> There you go. My my initial answer is both. So ultimately I absolutely especially as we become um I'll say we become more mature in this process. Again, we're in year two, so we're all still learning. Um, for example, this year I did training with the middle school myself right here in

058house, introduced them to branching minds, and then when new teachers came to our first grade level meetings, even the teachers just gave them the flatout rundown. You know, it's it's kind of straightforward in many ways. Um, but over time, I think it's going to be looking at turnover of staff, maybe, you know, bringing in some refreshers. But right now I'm very confident in what we have established in the house and we have supports we have supports through branching minds that we that I can still reach out to. We we can get support for the district and we have several of those pieces available to us. So I think again it's a little bit of both. >> Thank you very much. >> I just have a quick comment. Um I'm a numbers guy. I like looking

059at data, but I also want to remind you and those teachers out there sometimes uh we all try to like stay in our lane, right? And I've never been one to stay in my lane. And it's okay to cross the lane a little bit. You know, I give you one example. I solved a really big performance problem just by talking to a guy at the vending machine that worked for another corporation. And I said, "You're doing what?" Right. and and I was leaving that company and my exit interview I told them what the problem was right so sometimes it's just you know good communication cross those boundaries >> absolutely >> thanks so much Liz >> thank you excellent presentation we're in good hands >> all right we'll move on to item uh 4001 the board

060of education will award tenure And before I read all of this um all this detailed stuff about tenure, I'd like to invite Mr. Bono up to uh talk a little bit about our tenure nominees. Thank you, Miss Fallow. Okay. Um, I'm going to start by talking about Shayla McGawen, who's sitting in the audience back there. You want to give a wave or you can come up, whatever you prefer. Miss McGawan began her career elementary school during the 2021-22 school year. Within the first few months of her employment, her natural leadership ability and playful interactions with the students made it extremely clear to everyone that she was an asset to our school community. Without formal training, she uses therapeutic crisis intervention techniques to appropriately and kindly manage students when the need arises. Her skill set to

061gain the attention of a large group and help manage students at dismissal is utilized every day and is appreciated by the staff at Bennett. Her youth and her professional interactions with students allow her to engage playfully while also maintaining order and discipline. Miss McGawan is a valued member of Bennett's PBIS team and was an integral part of the success of the fall, winter, and spring festivals, even this past fall festival. She also serves on the Bennett building safety team. Miss McGawan is extremely popular among the students. She's well respected by all and is a pleasure to work with. A pleasant demeanor, a strong work ethic, and a dedication to our students truly makes her an asset to the Ontario Central School District. Based on a comprehensive review, Miss McGawen's credentials, classroom observations, and performance with

062all of that, it is my recommendation to the superintendent of schools that she be considered for tenure at this time. I'm also here to talk about Stephanie Prman who's in the audience. Come on up, Stephanie. Should I start with when you were sitting in my biology classroom in room 204? >> Miss Pilman began her career, her professional career at Antioart during the 2021 school year. as a full-time substitute for Phoenicia under the direction of Liz Fallow. In September 2021, she became a onetoone monitor and then in December 2021, she became a teaching assistant at Phoenicia. Miss Perman was transferred to Bennett as a first grade teaching assistant under the direction of Miss Shup. Actually, she's she's sh now. Okay, thank you. They presented them they present themselves as a seamless team. Miss Prman is extremely

063independent and acclimated well and acclimated well to Bennett. She eagerly accepts additional responsibilities and does a fantastic job dismissing students at afternoon pickups to the appropriate adults. To date, she's never lost a child. Um, given Miss Pearlman's volunteerism in our local community, she's also volunteered, I may have strong armed her, to be a member of our cardiac emergency response team. Thank you for that volunteerism. Miss Pearlman is a has a pleasant demeanor, a strong work ethic, and is truly dedicated to our students. Based on a comprehensive review of Miss Pearlman's credentials and her classroom observations and tremendous performance, it is my recommendation to Superintendent McLaren that she also be considered for tenure. Thank you, Stephanie. Thank you, Mr. Bono. The following named instructional personnel having served a period of probationary status consistent with the education

064law of the state of New York and provisions of the commissioner's regulations and having received continuing satisfactory evaluations for performance are hereby recommended by the superintendent of schools for approval for tenure status with a probationary period of 128 2021. 1 to 127 2025. Certified teaching assistant Shaylen McGawan hereby receives tenure on 128 with a probationary period of 128 2021 to 127205. Certified Teaching Assistant Stephanie Pearlman hereby receives tenure on 12A 2025. May I have a first? Trusty Jared. Second, Trusty Canudson. Any questions or comments? All in favor? That's unanimous. Congratulations. There are some refreshments out in the hallway outside the auditorium. Please help yourselves before you leave. >> You're welcome. Right. All right. On to item 5.01. Uh, may I have a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the tenure of a particular

065employee and to consult with legal counsel? Trusty Jerome sec first. A second. Trusty Smith. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Okay, that's unanimous. Thank you. We should be back in 45 minutes. All right, we are back from executive session. May I have a motion to exit executive session and return to the public session? Trusty Jerome first. Second, Trusty Goodrich. All in favor? All right. Thank you. Uh item 6.01 is acceptance of minutes. The board of education hereby accepts the minutes of the October 21st, 2025 meeting. May I have a first? Trusty Jared. Second. Trusty Smith. Any questions or comments? All in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you. On to Superintendent District News. Good evening. Um I'm sorry that our ANTIA um members had laughed already uh because I want to recognize today is school related

066professionals day. We have a talented and dedicated group of school related professionals who serve our students and our school community with dedication and empathy every day. These are the individuals who first greet our students in the morning, make sure they have a clean, safe, and caring environment in which to learn, provide uh additional instructional supports, care for them when they're not feeling well, ensure that they are fed nutritious food, and support them in all of their endeavors. Uh so I wanted to say thank you to all of these individuals for all that they do for our students and for us. Uh we are looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday, but please know that with uh these holidays that are coming, uh winter weather is also coming for coming towards us. And just a reminder that

067we have a process in place for determining delays, early dismissals, and school closures. Please know that we will bring students into school whenever possible so that we can provide instruction and to ensure that they are a able to access school meals and all of the important services that they receive here in school. This will sometimes result in an early dismissal so that our buses are able to deliver students home before a later afternoon or early evening weather event. I understand that the schedule is sometimes challenging for families and I apologize for the inconveniences that it causes, but our priority is to provide students with all the resources that we have available. When the weather is concerning in the morning, our director of transportation will be out checking the roads before uh generally before 4:00 a.m.

068and touching base with the various municipalities that clear the roads to ensure that we can bring students to school safely. He uh is also skilled at reading the radar and will be checking multiple forecast sources before making a recommendation to me and I will always error on the side of caution. So, uh as we are entering this season of inclement weather, please make sure that you are set up to receive calls or text through our automated messaging system if that is how you would like to be notified of a school closing delay or early dismissal. If you would like to sign up, um, please reach out to Sharon Wood, who is, um, the shared clerical support for Assistant Superintendent Laughen and myself. You, she can be reached, uh, via email at swood atontura.k12.ny. us. And

069also just a reminder, it is our practice to utilize our allotted snow days for inclement weather and we will not implement remote learning if we go over those days. We know that many families in our district do not have uh strong internet access and with inclement weather, many families will experience power outages as well. If we exceed our allotted snow days, we will utilize the snow day makeup days that are included on our school calendar. And this information about um inclement weather practices will be posted in the next day or two as well. So there have been a lot of events happening around the district this fall. Uh our winter sports have begun as of this week. As usual, we have an incredible number of student athletes who participate in sports and they appreciate our

070community support. If you're interested, you can find out what games are scheduled by looking at the athletics web page. the calendar is the calendar of um athletic events is maintained there and updated as contests are often rescheduled during this time of the year due to the weather. Um I would also like to thank all of the firefighters and veterans who participated in sharing their skills, expertise, and experiences with our students over the past several weeks. We are so fortunate to have a community full of individuals who are willing and enthusiastic to enrich the lives of our students. Um, we are actually going to go over the capital project presentation. So, I don't need to say too much about that. Um, we have had two of our three scheduled book study gatherings. We are engaging in

071wonderful discussions. Uh, we very much appreciate the participation of the individuals who have joined us so far. Our final meeting will be on Monday, December 1st. Anyone who is interested interested in joining is welcome. You don't need to have participated in the first two meetings. Um and we do still have copies of the book if you're interested in um getting a copy of the book to read. You could also reach out to Sharon Wood again swood at on at antior.k12.ny. us. Um, and I would like to ask assistant superintendent Laughen if she could provide a brief update on all of the work that we've been doing as a district um, in our multiple AI endeavors. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um, members of the Antiora instructional staff, including building principles, our technology director, John Rymer,

072teachers, library media specialist, and school counselors. We're participating in the Olter Bosey's AI circle experience to collaborate and learn with other districts around the Mid Hudson region. The AI circle provides a structured space to experiment with AI tools, test ideas, and refine instructional approaches designed to help districts integrate AI meaningfully into their practice. I've asked our team to use this place and space as uh time to dream, experiment, and wonder outside of our comfort zone and to reimagine what AI might bring to the district. So that's our AI circle which is one piece of what's going on. Um in concert with that along with superintendent McLaren the same team members are engaged in the Kosen AI readiness review with Dr. Julie Ross Kleimman from Olster Boseies. As many of you um may remember, Julie presented

073the Kosen process to the board last year, and we're fortunate to be part of the pilot program to help the district reflect upon its implementation readiness. This process supports our thinking on the district's readiness level for implementing AI in the areas of academic AI literacy among both staff and students, data, technical, legal, and security readiness. We will work to define and explore our concerns as well as create a roadmap to implementation including recommendations to the board on AI policy. And as you remember about a year ago, I believe the board took a look at a potential AI policy and the decision was made to pause until we could get a little deeper into some of this work and uh have recommendations made back from those groups. Thank you. >> Thank you both. Any questions for

074the superintendent or assistant superintendent? Laughen. >> Did you Did you say that weather updates were going to be posted to Parent Square? >> The process um that we follow will be updated uh on our website soon will be posted and I think also shared on social media. just a a version of what I was explaining in terms of how um we make the decisions and a reminder. I don't I trust how you make the decisions, but I'm just saying like if there's a school delay, will I get a parent square alert >> or if school is canled or something like that, will because it's just was a little dusting the other morning and my daughter was on my phone checking my email and I'm just thinking, "Oh my god, that would be so great if

075I could just go to Parents Square and like see there's going to be a two-hour delay or there's going to be a XYZ, you know, whatever. I will confirm that we have that set up. >> Okay, cool. Thank you. >> But yes, for that dusting the other day, our director of transportation was out and very kindly called me at 4:50 a.m. to let me know that we can come to school. >> All right. On Oh, go ahead. for the AI piece. Um, so we had we had put the polic you know policy on hold or whatever put off talking about it. When do you think you might be coming when might we be talking about that? Do you have any idea? >> I'm not sure on an exact date. There's kind of a process that

076we work through. I mean, I think it would be nice if we had something by spring or earlier, but again, it's a it's a group. It's kind of an organic process and we're not really sure the questions we're going to stumble upon and and you know the um how long it's going to take us to work through that. >> Great. I was just thinking that this year I think we should have some sort of update. Okay. >> Definitely we'll keep you updated as we as we move along. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Yes. Now we're going to work through this PowerPoint presentation. >> Mr. Rhyr, do I need to get the remote or can I work through it from here and you can change the slides for those at home. Okay. So, we wanted

077to provide this presentation for those um who might be interested in seeing it and may not be able to access it another way. This is uh presentation to go over some of the basic information uh regarding the vote that we will have on December 10th. Um so, just as a brief headline, it is a revised plan that still includes no tax increase. The board wants to um let the community know that they listened. Um we all want to keep grade five as part of the elementary school. We want to address the highest priority safety and infrastructure improvements. Um very importantly, the overall price of what is being proposed is 40% lower than what was proposed in May and the borrowing is cut by more than half. and we have separated the Bennett expansion from the

078central campus upgrades. So the first proposition will be um structured in order to create a K5 elementary school. This will um mean adding eight new classrooms um with a new art room which is larger than the current art room that is at Bennett Elementary. That art room is in an uh existing general education classroom. So the new art room would be larger. It is expanding the library, creating a new primary entrance which has a security vestibule and moves the main offices over to that security vestibule and also includes exterior access restrooms which could be utilized instead of um portaotties up at the um fields on that end of the campus. Um the first proposition also strengthens the infrastructure at Bennett. It provides uh additional electric service updates and new boilers so that um the expansion

079of the building can be serviced appropriately. Uh a safer drape drop off loop and pickoff pickup loop pardon me. uh relocated outdoor play space and parking, replacement of sanitary sewer lines, drainage system um adjustments, and fuel tank relocation and replacement. I think it's important to note the new drop off loop and the relocated play space and parking is really a incredible safety enhancement and separates traffic from our students when they're um playing and keeps them safe um during pickup and drop off from um parent and visitor vehicles. So, Proposition one is really what will determine where fifth grade is. Um, as we move forward to a central campus, if proposition one is approved, our Bennett Elementary School will be the onor elementary school on our central campus and it will house K5 and 68 will

080be at the middle school. If proposition one is not approved, then it will still be the elementary school for Antiora on our central campus, but it will be a K4 building and the fifth grade will move into the middle school. Proposition two includes infrastructure updates that cover the entire Bennett or Boyceville campus. So, at Bennett, we will be modernizing and expanding the existing music rooms. Um, right now they are former kindergarten classrooms. They have uh kind of an oddly shaped outer wall with those existing windows that will be um eliminated. So it the music rooms will have much better soundproofing. They will be expanded and modernized and they will have new uh windows and upgraded ceiling and lighting which will be really incredible for our musicians. In addition, the entire wall of windows at Bennett

081will be replaced um with new more efficient windows. Uh at the middle school high school, we are going to modernize three more science classrooms. We have already done one, but we will be doing three more. We are renovating the nurses suite to improve privacy. Addressing drainage at the athletic grass fields, expanding the accessibility for those fields for our community to come and watch, and resurfacing the track, which will serve both our students and our community. Um, as we often have community members who utilize our track. Proposition one funding. So we are expecting to take out a bond of $26.9 million which is similar to um a fixed rate mortgage that you may have at home. The bond payment will be approximately $2.4 million each year. that um bond payment will be offset by state aid

082that we will receive for the building of $687,600 and the um savings that we will gain from centralizing which would be about $3.2 million. So there will be no increase in the tax levy and we will actually have additional savings to offset future um expenses in our budget. Proposition two, we need borrow nothing. Um we will be utilizing the $10 million that we have in our capital reserve along with $5 million in cash um on hand. And so that will actually cost our voters nothing and incur no debt. Um it does generate state aid revenue as well. So, Proposition two will not have any uh impact on our um on our tax levy either. So, as I uh explained, Proposition One will actually end up providing us with savings and that savings can be used

083in the future to offset different um increases that we will uh incur. There could be increases in our expenses due to uh every just regular um CPI increases in utilities, in our salaries, in benefits, but also um we are facing potential uh funding cuts as we are all watching very closely what's happening at the federal government. Uh if the federal government cuts revenue to the states, then the states are likely to cut revenue to our schools. So this will help us protect against some um program cuts because we will have savings to use. I am not Oh, I think John is taking care of me. Thank you, John. Um really importantly, if um you are unable to access the voting on December 10th in any way, we have early mail ballot available. Um you can

084obtain an application online. You can obtain an application in any of our um local libraries, at our town halls. You can call our district clerk or email our district clerk. Um, as long as you apply by December 3rd, you can get your ballot by mail. Um, if you apply by December 9th in person, you can come and get your ballot. The applications are also at Teta's Market. Um, as long as you return your ballot by December 10th, your vote will count. Um, you can return your ballot on December 10th in person here at Boyceville at our polling place or on December 10th there will be a uh secure dropbox at Woodstock Elementary from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Um, only on December 10th will that be available. So on your ballot will be proposition one

085and proposition two. Please note it is not an eitheror situation. We are not asking you to approve proposition or deny proposition one and approve or deny proposition two as um opposed to each other. They are two individual items that serve two purposes. Proposition one again is the determining factor on where fifth grade will reside when we are a central campus. Proposition two includes uh renovations and upgrades across the Boyceville campus. So voting on Wednesday, December 10th is here in the Enture Middle School from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. And again, there will be a ballot dropbox at Woodstock on December 10th from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please visit the website. There's a lot of really um rich information there. It is onora.k12.ny. usward slashrevised path. There were few frequently asked questions, there are voting

086directions, there are photos, there are design concepts. There's a lot of really great information. Um, and I believe it is being added to regularly as more information becomes available. There will be newsletters um out to all of our district residents. They will be in the mail next week. We have tried to avoid some of the delays that have been seen in our postal service recently. We are going to actually pick them up and bring them to each of our local post offices so they do not travel uh up to Albany and back and experience delays because we really very much want everyone to have the information they need in order to cast an informed ballot. Is there anything else that I >> just one minor clarification? Not only does the Woodstock dropbox close at 5:00

087PM, but all early mail ballots need to be returned wherever you're returning them by 5:00 p.m. that day. That is a hard deadline for all early mail ballots. So, if you're bringing it to Central, um if you're mailing it, you know, mail it a couple days in advance so that it gets in that day's mail. But um that is true for all male ballots. And then I did just have one question that a um a community member was concerned that um uh they're bring they were bringing an older person to the wrestling room to vote. We're going to make sure that all the parking that's that is adjacent to the wrestling room is going to be absolutely clear of because the faculty and staff will be here working right in the building. But um they

088were concerned that there'd be plenty of parking for the um for the public on that day and that all those um spaces be reserved for the voters. >> Yes, we have already um spoken with our administrative team. We are going to ask that our faculty and staff park on the other side of the building by the tennis courts so that we have the maximum amount of parking available for our community on the day of the vote. I had a a question, excuse me, from a community member as well. Um, will there be parking in the front like in the bus lane in front of the high school or just a, you know, uh, along central if needed? Can people park in front of the building? >> We will probably have people here to direct people

089where to park. Um, I think it'll be along the front of the building and uh, along the side of this building. Uh, I don't anticipate that we will need to use the bus lane, but we will have people here um directing where to park. >> Thank you. >> Trusty Mitchell Morell, then Trusty Goodrich. Um, there's usually a board meeting the day of votes and I know there isn't one. So, how are we going to get the results? What's the protocol for that? How do we hear the news? So after the polls close, I will publicly announce it and I'll also post it on our website that night. So 9:30, 10 o'clock it'll be posted. Um I want to congratulate the communications committee for doing so much work. This is our one committee that uh has

090been working overtime here. So thank you so much. great job on this. Um, when we met with the PTA in Woodstock, they brought out something that I kind of knew but really forgotten about. So, Proposition One keeps K through five at Bennett, but it also keeps the fifth graders being bust with the other elementary students. Correct. >> Yeah, >> that is correct. >> Yeah. Yeah. So they brought that up and I said, "Oh, wow." You know, that's good clarification. The um the classrooms, eight new classrooms, new art room, expanded library, new science classrooms, they are all going to get air conditioning, right? >> Correct. >> So, our little kindergarteners and first graders, they're gonna they're going to have AC. >> Yes. I I do want to um just take a moment to note for your

091question about transportation. Um much like when we had the afterchool program at Bennett when Bennett was a 46 on the late run when the students at Bennett stayed for the late run, they rode the late run home with the older students. And I will also note there were no issues on those runs. But that was late run only. The regular home to school runs are separate. Um, we've emphasized that mail and ballots have to be dropped by 5:00 p.m. But I just want to emphasize that the poll at Central Campus, the polling place will be open till 900 p.m. 7 to 9. 7 to 9. So, that's a good long day that we made sure um to give the most flexibility to our community members. >> I think that's a wonderful point to make. We've

092never opened the polls at 7:00 a.m. It's for the 21 years I've been here, it's always been 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., which is a fairly short voting window. I feel like this this is a much expanded opportunity. Amanda, did you want to take a few minutes to give us a little overview of everything that you've got going on in terms of the vote? Sure. So, I didn't prepare the nuts and bolts of everything. Um, but what I did want to speak to about uh speak about was just the early mail ballot status and where we're at so far. Um, so as a quick update, so far we've received 61 early mail ballots to date. Um, not including all of the absentee ballots that we um historically receive um from voters every year. Um, and

093just some background history, early mail voting for school districts in New York State became widely available starting January 1st, 2024. um our communications committee has done a wonderful job getting the word out there um for early mail ballot and the information which is why we've seen a huge increase compared to last year. Um I've also noticed a lot of interest from community members and they're reaching out with questions and showing a lot of interest around the capital project very positively. Um, and just as a reminder, as everyone has mentioned, um, early mail ballot applications are available online and in many of the local, um, libraries and and towns and Ted's Market. Um, uh, so so they're everywhere if if someone wants to vote. Um, and then again, as a reminder, December 10th from 7 to

0949 in the wrestling room of the middle school, high school. Just very quickly, I know we have a lot of digital natives out there, especially if you're watching on YouTube. You're probably a digital person, aren't you? So, um I just wanted to share that um uh a very digital way you can submit the early ballot app early ballot application. I did this myself so I can confirm that it works. You can download the application, fill it out, sign it, take a picture with your phone, email that phone, sorry, email that picture from your phone to Amanda Gates. her address is on the back of the application in small letters. It's up at the upper right, but it's there, district clerk. Um, and that photo of your signed and dated application counts as a scan. It's

095a perfectly acceptable scan. And then once you've emailed that um that photo to Amanda, you're done. It's she will mail you a ballot. You don't have to go to the post office. You don't even need a stamp. So, just a reminder, uh, I'm doing a mail mail mail and ballot uh, myself and, uh, don't forget to sign the back of the envelope and date it, okay? Because that's one of the things that people uh, forget. Uh, if you want to return it to the administration after you fill in the ballot, uh, is there a dropbox outside the administration or do you have to come by during regular business hours to drop it off? what kind of what's the process for that? >> So, we do have a a dropbox. Um it's it's not something that

096we're widely advertising. Um we have historically received um applications and ballots in our dropbox. Um but it it's not something that that we like to do. So, our office is open until 4. We likely have someone always there until 5 um to drop off the the applications or the ballot. Um, I do have a deputy clerk, so I personally leave at 3:30, four o'clock. Um, so that person stays later than me and and can swap out a ballot with the application. Um, so that that is the best way if we're dropping it off at central to to do it in person. That way we can make sure that we have it and it's been received. >> And Amanda, what time uh would that start in the morning? Like what like what time do uh folks

097arrive in the office in the morning? So if people want to come as early as >> I'm here by seven. >> Okay. So from seven in the morning until about 5 each weekday. >> Correct. >> Okay. That's well while school is open. >> Yes. Yes. >> Correct. Okay. Good. Any other questions or comments? >> I do have a quick comment. Um, so if you're not computer savvy, but you have a child or a friend who is, I can receive your application from that email as long as you personally are filling out your own application. It does not need to come from your email address itself. Thank you. >> Thank you, Amanda. All right, we'll move on to board district news. Do any trustees have news to report? I will say that um first thing I

098want to report on is the lovely middle school play that was produced and uh by some of our students who were also actors in the play. Um, it was called The Catskill Witch and it was directed by our musical director, Mr. Ken. >> Mr. S. That's what they >> Mr. S, fondly referred to as Mr. S. Uh, it was spectacular. It was really a wonderful job. Uh, the students performed it. Uh, these were seventh and eighth graders and they performed it for fifth and sixth graders. Um, Mr. s actually worked with the fifth and sixth graders prior to the uh performance to discuss theater with them and also to um have them participate in a sound experience that was incorporated in the play. It was lovely. He did the same thing on the day that

099the performance was here in the auditorium performed for the public. And so, uh, the people th those of us who were here actually participated like the kids did, uh, the day before. It was really lovely. Um, the other thing that I'll just report on is that uh trustees have been putting a lot of extra time in uh being uh available to our constituents and the public at libraries um >> firehouses I can't remember all the places we've been town board meetings um and we'll be continuing doing that. uh any place that will have us come and talk about the two propositions and uh the the whole of the voting process. Um we are when we are when we're out there in the public, we have the mail the early mail and ballot uh applications. Um

100we have a a an easy four-step process to, you know, like just like we just discussed, mailing it in or taking a picture of it and sending it via email. Um, so we're we're doing everything that we can to support the community in any way that we can to uh help them understand the process and the propositions. Anybody else? So I just want to talk quickly about our book club that we've been having which has been very wonderful in many ways. We're discussing this book, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Height, which is um really about um social media, personal tech, and and the effect it's had on um the mental health of 10 to 16 year olds over the last decade and a half or so. And um we've had some really great discussions. Um

101really I I would say more than half of the of the people who were have came to these discussions either work for the district or are board trustees. We had some great parents as well. I'm I'm a little sad we didn't get more parents. I know it's difficult uh especially if you have young kids. Um, but I do want to just put in one more plug for um December 1st because um even if you signed up and you didn't make it to the first two, please still come on December 1st because what we're discussing on December 1st is the third section of this book, which is really about the first two um sections are really about a diagnosis of what has happened to our society and what has happened to our children. And the third

102section is really about what can we do to help them. And so the third section is really about um collective community action. So it's really kind of the most important section for the community to to think about. I would suggest though if you are coming to the last one on December 1st, do read the first two sections because you you should know what they're he's talking about what we need to do something about. Um but um I even if you signed up and you missed the first two, please come to the third one because they're they're really great um discussions and and it also just heartens me to know that so many of our um administrators and and teachers who have been coming to these sessions um really care about this issue and and that

103they are um developing their own thinking on it as well. Um uh so even though we didn't get as many parents as we wanted, I I'm I'm heartened that the um the folks who work here are put in an extra time to really think about these issues because I think they're super important. Thanks. I could say this every meeting, but I do want to shout out the Woodstock PTA, the Bennett PTA, and the booster clubs who all threw amazing fall and Halloween festivals, and the two elementary school PTAs are now thick in the holiday boutiques, which is the cutest thing in the entire world, where they scour a 100 mile radius for amazing, beautiful little gifts and all the kids come through and get to give these and wrap them all guys for real. Wrap

104them all so that the kids can come and get pre-wrapped tokens to bring home and give their loved ones. It's so much effort that they all put in. If you've been thinking about meeting some amazing people and being a part of a beautiful community, now is a time of year they could always use extra hands. So, I just would encourage you um to to show up there to those things and um if you're not a parent and I know there's like public events to just keep your eyes peeled for the next one, but to thank them all because what they do makes our school as special as it is. It really wouldn't be what it is without those three organizations. So, thank you so much. So true that the PTA really bring the magic. Um,

105and also something I find very fun is spirit week, which is this week at Woodstock. Maybe Jenny will tell us about it at the high school, but yes, dressed in like your favorite sports jersey. Today was crazy sock day, which is very subtle. And tomorrow is twin day. And like everyone's so excited and it's so cute. And it's also book fair this week at Woodstock. So, there's a lot going on. >> Yeah. I just want to say I really enjoyed the Casc show. That was great. I mean, my ancestry goes back a long time. Um, my family is in the history of Green County, so I know a lot about a lot of stuff here, and I didn't know about that one. So, that was good. That was it was fun to watch. Well, what

106was really great about that show is uh how comfortable those actors were after the show to talk to the audience. Uh they were very comfortable. I mean, it was it was great to see. I mean, that's that's hard to teach that. I've seen grown adults in their 60 in their 60s and they will run out of the building if they have to talk to more than 10 10 people. So, it was nice to see. Uh do do we want to talk about the New York State Ed uh uh New York State School Board Association Expo now or we want to wait? Okay. So, a number number of us went to the New York uh school board association convention and uh education expo uh and it was it was great. We had a presentation by Tom

107uh Shyiver on uh dignity index. So it's uh trying to teach us to all get along in this polarized world that we live in no matter what the issues are whether it's a schoolboard issue or whether it's uh something at the national level. And uh and I thought that was really good. Um so it was it was helpful for me. I know on a personal point of view and we went to a lot of great educational sessions. I went into one session where um a superintendent decided to take one of uh the principles and put them in charge of one thing and that is to uh help reduce uh student uh help improve uh student showing up at school. Right. So, uh, yeah, that's that was and when you look at it, I was thinking

108about it. I said, you know, all right, let's say we could reduce our absenteeism by 5%. If you put how do you put a money value on that, right? That's my own personal way of thinking about things. So, you got kids showing up to school, 5% improvement there. Well, 5% of our budget is $3 million. So, you want to put a value on it, it's a $3 million gain right there just by, you know, reducing our absenteeism by 5%. So, um, is it worth it to put one person in charge? I mean, that person was going around showing up at at the parents house with the CPS. She uh, he had a full-time job doing that and she was really good at it. So it's interesting, you know, but that that was just, you know,

109one of the sessions we went to. >> Great. Anybody else? Yes. >> I want to just if there was any measured tone to like the review of the Catskill Witch, it was just so exceptional. Um, you anybody who's listening should absolutely come. It's what Antiora does better, I think, than anyone. these um young women conceived um designed they it was such an elegant beautiful produ it was an amazing production. It was an amazing production and I had to put like a couple cup tired tonight a couple of exclamation points around that come because it will blow your mind um the next time that Mr. S does a production it's extraordinary. So, I just wanted to give it one more shot. Okay. Anybody else? All right. We're going to move on and hear from our student

110representative, Jenny. So, I actually have some things written out. So, the National Honor Society of the High School had a very successful Socktober, which is when we donate socks and or we collect socks and then donate them. and we had a lot of turnout from Woodstock which was very nice. Um we also had with the help of Miss Kuru um a bunch of boxes set up for food drives because SNAP benefits were running out and we had at least 10 boxes of food that are going to p the pantry across the street in Boyville in Woodstock just all over so the people that need it can get it and that's very helpful. And then winter sports started. I think today's the second day of practice. Um and then additionally, the National Honor Society is starting

111their coat drive very soon. So winter coats get donated and then dropped off to the people that need them at um certain places. And then also Woodstock had its holiday craft fair, I think, last Saturday, and it was really good. It's a bunch of local vendors that hand make different sorts of crafts from crochet to sculpture to pretty much anything. And that was very nice. And it is middle school spirit week. And today was crazy pajama pajama day. And tomorrow is teachers dress like students and students dress like teachers. So that one's going to be fun. And that's pretty much it, I think. >> Awesome. Thanks, Johnny. All right, we will move on uh to item 10.01. The board will acknowledge the public uh public be heard comments from our last meeting. The following folks

112spoke. Cindy O' Conor, Danielle Albertie, uh Stephanie Bryant, Adam Snyder, Francis Kudson, and Ursula Halahan. We thank them. Is anyone um does anyone wish to speak tonight? All right, we will move on to item 12.01, discussion and possible action. We're going to discuss our district goals for the 2526 school year. We all have a copy of the um the Google Doc information that um that we've been putting some information into. Um above the Google doc are our uh 2425 school uh district goals including our goal about culture and climate, our goal about uh chronic absenteeism, our academic goal, our fiscal planning and oversight goal, and our communication goal. Who would like to begin? Trusty Mitchell Morell. Um, I'm not sure if this is controversial, but I personally like feel like there's been too much in

113uh emphasis on the absentee stuff. And I feel like it's making like like kind of like pitting like families and parents against like like just like is first of all it's breeding paranoia like oh can we be out? Is this okay? Like when really I feel like people aren't really out on purpose. like that's more the the symptom and then usually something obviously larger is going on which could be like them going to Europe or like you know or something bad too but I just I I don't like love the culture it's creating and like I feel like people are always like well is this okay and like I'm on this kindergarten chat and everyone's like always so scared and like I just I'm just not that into it and I just feel like maybe

114we're putting too much emphasis on it. So what trusty Mitchell Morurell just said raised a question in my mind maybe for administration. It reminds me that Missow I think was talking about how attendance is a part of the MTSS holistic which is so amazing like the way they holistically look at students. So would that be I guess with the goals this year what I was trying to think about is their goals. It's not the idea isn't to reiterate everything we want to see happening in the district in all places because that would never be accomplishable. So, it that made me wonder if maybe administration could weigh in on if MTSS is like a satisfactory way to interface with chronic absenteeism on a childbychild basis. Is does that feel like it's doing that um that a

115a board goal would if we said like last year, you know, to improve chronic absenteeism. Is that happening through MTSS to the extent do you think we need another goal or is that kind of like we're on it? >> Do you want me to I I I just want to say something first. I um I think that um Antur has always been very proactive in reaching out to families if a child is absent for a number of days. Um, you know, usually it's the school nurse, um, possibly the principal, certainly the school the the social worker or the teacher. But a number of years ago, we um hired a social worker specifically to be um sort of a home liaison. So um, Mrs. Mnon works really closely with um the principles and then communicates with

116parents if there's a concern and and she's a lovely person. Um I don't think she's threatening at all. you know, she's ve she's a very highly trained social worker and um I mean I can just say from it's not my own personal experience, but my granddaughter was out sick last year like with COVID two times in a row. So she was out for a number of days, was in school for like a week or so and then out again. And um and Mrs. Mernon reached out to my daughter and uh you know just to say we're a little concerned about my granddaughter and and so it's just a it's it's more of a a kinder gentler process uh maybe than um than we've had in the past and it is all monitored through um certainly

117through attendance but through MTSS because that is that's a major part of of that process >> and I think all that is Great. I guess I don't think I we need it as a board goal anymore. >> I think I would just note also that you know that I I feel that the board goal was really targeting chronic absenteeism, not students who were out sporadically for particular reasons. Um, I would say regardless of whether the board makes this a goal again this year, it is part of our process. We do have personnel dedicated to um addressing issues that families may have there. You know, some of it when we're talking chronic absenteeism, some of it is school avoidance, some of it is, you know, chronic illness. it it's not necessarily parents who were who have

118a child who's been sick twice in two weeks or so. >> But if it's something like chronic illness, what can we as a board really do about that? I don't know. It just feels like Yes. I mean, there's so many specific situations. I don't know. It's like that letter that goes out at the beginning that's like I think that maybe people misinterpreted as being like we really can't miss school. Like I don't know. I I just don't know if it's the again I mean I guess I would say like the absenteeism is the final result of so many other things that we can't control and that I don't even know if are necessarily our purview to control but yeah I don't know >> just to answer the question or way of possibly answering the question

119for discussion you know I feel like highlighting the board putting out front that we think it's really important that students be in school is sort ort of a guiding value statement. And I'll just say like I I just remember I don't I don't I really don't know the specifics of what happens in this district um uh in terms of absenteeism. Um but I will say when I was in high school like I I just I know I had friends whose parents just didn't really they didn't always come to school and it was sometimes because it was just they didn't feel like it and their parents weren't particularly um concerned about that. And so I don't know if that happens much up here, but but I do think there is there just is some inherent value

120in just putting a flag in the ground saying if you're sick, you're sick. If you're you know, if you're going on an amazing trip that's going to be an amazing enriching experience for you, maybe that's worth missing a few days of school. But you know, if you're missing school, it should really be for a very good reason. like it's and and that and that board goal to me was just a statement of um you know we value kids being in school because we think it's super important and I also remember that we were coming out of COVID when you know being in school wasn't a wasn't a thing at all for a long time and I think that bred some habits in certain quarters of the community that like well maybe I don't really need

121to come in >> and I think there um correct me if I'm wrong um superintendent and assistant superintendent that um that there was a state mandate to address chronic absenteeism. Um and I think it was it it was a direct result of the pandemic and having kids learning from home and not and and just feeling awkward coming back into a social setting. So, um, you know, districts were mandated to keep an eye on chronic absenteeism. I think that the data that we were seeing uh initially during that time of the mandate uh was a little um confusing because they they at the time the state hadn't even determined the difference between um you know like so kids that are out because they have a chronic illness or or things like that um versus school avoidance.

122or just not wanting to get up in the morning. And so those so I think the state has defined what chronic absenteeism means now. And so that the data that we're receiving is even a little different. Um, I don't think there's anything wrong with having uh a goal that basically or or kind of like like you stated some our our our statement you just talking about how important it is to us that students attend school. I'm not sure what we can do, what the board can do to, I don't know, uh, force kids to come to school or, you know, or monitor that ourselves or or enforce that with the administration. >> I think um, much like the goal that exists last year, just I think what the board did say is that coming to

123school is important. That's that's how this goal reads to me. and to continue to reduce chronic absenteeism rates which I think is happening happening um partially naturally from coming back from the pandemic and partially because um all of our faculty and staff and administrators are really focused on it and now that it's being um included in the MTSS um platform it will again receive more attention if the board wants to have this as a goal again just as a statement of priority. Then we can continue to once a year just present where we are and and it can it it can be as simple as that. But it will it will remain a priority for us regardless just attendance. Um and we will continue to work on that. >> Yeah. I mean, I I went

124through the one session there at the uh and New York State School Board Association and they they that one school district uh up by Saratoga, they worked really hard to um you know, reduce their absenteeism and uh they put a principal that was her full-time job and um she worked very hard and had significant good results. Uh I talked to a superintendent up in the northern part of New York State and um he did some very unique things. He he um actually asked uh the seniors to form a committee to advise the board and how they could reduce you know improve absenteeism. This school district was on a uh Indian reservation by the way that uh actually uh the school uh was in both Canada and New York State across the border, right? Which were

125very unique and uh he actually had monitors on the school buses talking to students, you know, what can they do to, you know, to reduce absenteeism. So there are things that we can that the school can do to uh improve that. And I I mean I I'm just going to say again, I think we we have a lot of uh school administration, um social workers, psychologists, school nurses, our SRO's, our you know, go do home visits, you know, I mean, uh our our our social workers do home visits. Um, you know, I think I think we're well on our way to um making major improvements and I I would imagine that we have made major improvements certainly since that state mandate came out after the pandemic. So Caroline and then Rick. >> Okay. So I'm

126I'm looking at these goals and I've um you know again I'm a little bit overwhelmed like when we were looking at capital prep like I'm seeing values, I'm seeing goals like So I think there's like a prioritization and editorial process that we're going to go through. One things as far as um chronic absenteeism um you know I think I've made it clear that in a radically digital world in-person experiences are will create the leaders for tomorrow. I say this a lot. Um actually at the Catskill Witch I had um a woman describe the fact that this part that her granddaughters or her daughter's participation in the play was the carrot that she used to get her daughter to come to school. So I would like the goal to look like how can we have in-person

127whether that's plays whether that's musical performances whether that's like getting together and painting a mural you know whatever playing sports are certainly part of that but like as a board goal to bring our student body together the same way that I was asking Mr. Salamini about like like are they into it? Are they going to the parties? you know, how can we support our booster clubs? Like to me, that's a goal. Um I think that um yeah, a lot of this stuff I'm looking at and I'm like, this is something I think we've done, but I want to see like one, two, three goals that we can, you know, that we could actually achieve in the next year and see improvements on rather than, you know, an exhaustive list. And for chronic absenteeism in particular,

128I would like to see us maybe talk about our core value of bringing students together in real life so that they know how to talk to I mean know how to talk to one another, know how to answer a question from an older person or a teacher or a coach or whatever it is like that's I could get behind that. So, I just had a thought and this this addresses the sort of prioritization and what we want to push forward. Um, uh, I it occurred to me that I wonder if we could rip a page out of the NISBA business meeting, which I both Trusty Jared and I have attended for six or seven hours at a time. Um, but when you get that uh book of resolutions, they sort of split it into here's

129some here's some resolutions that we passed last year or the year before and these are ongoing like or you know they might be up for renewal and I wonder if we could have say these are our new goals for 25 26 and that's just one two or three you know what we really want what we really are focusing on now and then below that prior goals that we're still working on in a separate category so that they're not, you know, like absenteeism is something we always want. We, you know, this is something we always want to be working on, but we're not pushing it up to the front of the, you know, to the front of the presentation this year because it's it's it's a value we have and we don't want to let it

130go, but we also, you know, we're working on it and we want to keep working on it. That is a category that might be an idea. I think that's a really interesting idea to have the sort of like the 10year and then they sunset like but they're there and wow what trusty Jerome was saying really got me excited about just something that I hadn't thought about which which is like how do you flip that um school reluctance on its head. So, something I'm just going to literally throw out there as a possible action goal could be maybe something along along the lines of exploring um more or different or increased support for in-person experiences in the school buildings. Uh like for example, uh my daughter came home. I rate that the sixth and seventh graders

131are excluded from the musical and the eighth through 12th graders are invited to be a part of the musical. I mean, she is gonna pick it in front of the school. Um, and I I get it. You know, it's because I think a lot of it was that the kids that couldn't be a part of the Catskill Witch and that, you know, saw the musical last year have been waiting. And so maybe part of this is exploring as a district, especially with centralization coming in two years and our discussions around afterchool activities at the elementary level. That feels to me like a a a goal that would take some time to unpack, but that would certainly support the transition we're already doing and might flip it around and kind of find some creative new ways

132that kids get that bring them to school. While I was listening to my colleagues talk, I was thinking that I would be willing to wager on how attendance has improved since cell phones are not allowed in hands during the school day. I would imagine that because there's more, you know, um, like the middle school principal is telling us about how noisy the cafeteria is. Um, you know, and and I've heard from so many teachers about how, you know, kids are talking in the hall now, kids actually communicate with them in the classrooms. That engagement is, I don't know, it's intoxicating, you know, and much more I think in terms of being in school and wanting to come to school because you're actually communicating with your friends and your teachers uh rather than just being you

133know glancing down at a screen and and avoiding uh listening and communicating with humans. >> Yeah. I just want to put in a we were talking about carrots. I just want to put in a pitch for, you know, class and lunch and gym and just hanging out with your friends, you know, like it doesn't always have to be a shiny thing that draws you to school. I think it's really getting the kids to engage with each other. And um, you know, I just don't want I don't want us to make this kind of bifurcation between, you know, the fun things and school. school should be where they're a community that they want to come and be a part of and and class is a huge part of that. >> I was just going to say

134nothing will make you want to come to school more than having a crush on someone. Like that's the most like motivating thing that helps with absenteeism. That is true. So, what are we thinking about chronic absenteeism? I'm going to bring us back >> having it. I just like every time I see it, I'm like, "Oh, this thing again." Like, I just like it doesn't speak to me personally, but I if it speaks to you guys, I'm totally fine with it. I just for me, it's just like a little And again, I feel like the culture around it is a little weird. just like um in a way it's like it like I think people think like the principles are watching them or something like that maybe not be true but also again going back a

135little bit to the letter that like especially new families coming in with kindergarteners received kind of like we're watch like you know we're really careful about absenteeism I think it got um misinterpreted a little >> would it be worth trying to just reframe it instead of having it actually be called chronic absenteeism maybe increasing attendance or improving attendance or >> or even just we want you to be in school, you know, like seriously like um uh I think sometimes the clinical word is a turnoff. You know, the word chronic is very medical, right? The word absenteeism is very technical and just like our board wants to see our kids in school every day. That plain English whenever po Well, yeah, ideally. Yeah. Yeah, I think that there's something in there about >> as much as

136possible. >> A core value of this district is having children together. That's what we can offer. And so we value every day a student can be in school. I agree with you. Chronic absenteeism to your point, Trustee Mitchell Morurell, it becomes like you stop hearing it, right? It just is. But the reason we want these children together is because we really value our community. We have such a great community of children. They're like they love each, you know, like so putting that at the beginning of it rather than, you know, we want to >> see abs and chronic whatever. You know what I'm saying? I guess it goes with the other goals that uh that I guess mostly I listed here. So you know when I first joined the board we got trained they said

137you know you should have goals that you can measure. So obviously you know absenteeism you can measure you can measure uh uh graduation rates uh you can measure you know how the students do on various test scores that New York State Ed uh publishes and when I saw a list of the top 10 uh schools in the United States they listed all those kinds of stats uh it's kind of like u it it's a drawing measurement. It doesn't really say a lot of positive stuff, but you know, what do we want to list as goals? Do we want to measure things? Do we want to have uh I I really you um Trusty Bishop pointed to the Ellenville Central School District uh goals and uh I really like the way those were written as well.

138So, yeah, I I don't know what we want to do here, you know. I love Superintendent McLaren's suggestion of a reframing. I think it reflects what everybody's saying about our community and how it's like a great thing. We're like we you know if we can just maybe my suggestion take superintendent's suggestion and rename this value something like you know increase school attendance and participation and then maybe you know everything that's there says it but just like looking at it from the point of view maybe even adding something on um like in that Ellenville style that uh talks about like the positives about um interpersonal community and like the social emotional benefits and growth of being together and maybe if we just you know re rejiggered it like that it it would look completely different as

139a parent I would read that and I'd be like yeah you know instead of like oh gosh I don't know I might get in trouble. So, how about um we >> wordsmith >> words smmith this and one one thing that we have to add though is we we do have to address instruction or like you know being be present for instruction. I know I know there's a lot of really really great things going on and we're so proud of it and we do that so well here. Um, but I think it's important to, you know, mention that when you're when you miss, I mean, I I do know that from, you know, personally, too. When you miss a lot of school, even because you're sick, you fall behind so fast and and that is it's

140really hard to kind of dig your way out of that hole. So, um, yeah. All right. So, we'll work on that. We'll work on this word smithing, making it more positive, for sure. Trusty Jared, would you would you like to talk about the academic goal? >> All right. So when we first started with this goal, it was the goal from last year and then we agreed as a board that the academic ad hoc committee could kind of be the engine to help move that goal forward because there's a lot going on and it would make some space for it. And then um Trusty Bishop sent examples of how the Ellenville School District uh chunks out their goals to make it a simple idea and then to put some actionable steps beneath it. So I reworked

141um that goal and of course I'm completely open to all input and feedback. Um, and just to note, you know, it's an interesting thing. I think the conversation we're having about the chronic absenteeism goal, but um, I omitted things that I think our district is doing in an outstanding way that I don't think our district is going to stop doing. I didn't see a reason to say improve standardized test scores. That is obviously happening with Bells. And so I just felt like maybe my perspective was the goal could maybe unpack some things that not that we're not doing well, but just that we could just shine a little extra attention on if we wanted to. Um, but I I wouldn't want anybody to interpret what's not on these bullet points as me saying that those

142things are not essential or that we're we shouldn't be focusing on them. And I think that's the tricky thing about the goals. Like Trusty Kudson was saying, do we want to have like the big ones up at the top and then our smaller? I think it's something definitely worth worth talking about. Um, okay. So, the simple the simpler title I propose is monitor and improve student success. And the first part I thought would be actionable and time-sensitive is assess shifts in curriculum, course offerings, instruction, and professional development needed to align with portrait of a graduate by fall 2027. Now, that I take from New York State Assistant um Superintendent Laughen, I'm I know has way more information that said partial implementation suggested by fall 2027, full implementation by fall 2029. So, I just put that

1432027 in there, but I mean, you know, I think that's like two years, and we talked about making our goals one or two years, maybe. So, to me, that feels like an exploratory goal. um then provide robust professional development opportunities to equip employees to enhance student academic performance. This one I feel like we do a great job of already, but it's something that I feel like just as a board trustee, I'd love to hear more about and especially in tandem with the portrait of a graduate. I know um superintendants are already working on and it's really cool and exciting stuff. So, I just thought those two kind of rode well together. continue to consistently identify and track students facing academic, social, and emotional challenges and implement interventions that are regularly elevated for evaluated for success.

144Again, that's one I feel like we're already doing, but it felt weird to leave it out, so I put it in. MTSS is Yeah. And so I just put it there because then when I read this out loud and had this last goal there without that one, I just felt kind of lopsided. But I that would be the one I would pull out. The last one I suggested was identify opportunities for enhanced academic pathways that support students who thrive with greater rigor. So I my one question is um around the uh action continue to consistent uh to consistently identify and track students facing academic, social or emotional challenges and implement interventions that are regularly evaluated for success. Um that is a very specific action that's you know uh the way it's written here um makes

145me think that it would be tracking to the individual student and that is definitely not something that the board you know could even get reports on. I'll take that opportunity to say I agree with you. And that would have been I literally just put that in there because I felt like and like Trusty Kudson was saying this would be a great place in our forever Mount Rushmore board goals, you know, to just say that, you know, yes, like the best education for all of our students. it just that felt missing from this goal without it there. But I would totally I agree and I would ax it in a second because I feel like the school is doing it so well and I I hear what you're saying about it being specific. It it would

146almost be the same as saying continue to support the implementation of MTSS and through that process this is what happens. Um, this is great. Thank you so much, Trusty Jared. Um, uh, I agree with the conversation that just took place about, uh, you know, again, simple words like to continue to implement MTSS, you know, that's great. Um and the other bullet points I'm uh I'm right on track with. I especially wanted to just comment um on the first uh not only portrait of a graduate but as we do move to a centralized campus as we look at this drastic decline in enrollment. I think that we have well I can say I think that we should be designing the curriculum in a very intentional way because this school district doesn't look the same as it

147did 10 years ago at all. Um and I think that New York State is rising to meet that challenge with portrait of a graduate. And I want us to be thinking in that same um mindset. If you know I love that we're starting to think about AI. We're think about this value of being in person to balance that digital piece. What about our curriculum? Like what does our curric is it suitable for a school in 2025 26 27 or is it something that's outdated? Because I think for me part of what has helped me accept this idea of a central campus is the fact that we are building for the future and that we are rethinking um old legacy models that are no longer applicable. So I really like that first bullet point. >> So

148I just want to say is just in in crafting these goals for the board or the district. Yeah, I think it's um I think we always have to keep in mind our respective roles um relative to um the superintendent and the staff and the teachers. Um we we really need to think of ourselves as 50,000 foot, you know, overview. we're we're setting broad goals that are implemented by our administration and the teachers and uh so like when like that what jumped out at me I think that shift from continue to consistently identify and track students um yeah we want the de the the district to develop those programs that do that right but we're not designing down to the detail level of how that happens we we need to give these folks, you know, this

149is what we think we should be moving toward as a district and let them sort of figure out how it gets done. So, I think we need to write our goals that way. >> Agreed, Trusty Gerard. I guess it's a wording question. Um because this goal is also in the Ellenville goals, but I maybe the difference is they used the phrase ensure that curriculum, instructional programs, and assessment tools are aligned with the New York State learning standards. I didn't think that was really sexy for our district because I think we do that. And so I thought portrait of a graduate would be a better place for to set our sights. But that maybe just the change in the word from insure to assess is what makes it go from so can we just change the

150word assess and then it is that what we mean to say like that we as a board our goal is to monitor trusty Kudson use your microphone because you're saying valuable things. >> Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I feel like we're an oversight board, right? So, so that we should be seeking data on these things and you know um monitoring and giving the superintendent feedback on how it's going. You know, that's that's sort of our role. I mean, I'm cool with monitoring, but I think that as you talk about that that higher view, that higher level view, like where is the piece where we as a board envision a district that is future facing and not looking not based on some old model. So I don't want to write the curriculum to your point, but I do

151want us to agree or disagree that we are shifting into the future in a very intentional way. So I don't know what that language looks like, but monitoring to me doesn't address that visionary aspect and that I do think is the goals perview. I I think ensure is is a better word because um our you know our job as the board is to ensure that these wonderful things happen and we do that by voting yes on um you know policies and on um curriculum and things like that or hiring you know new teachers and and all of that. then it's the administration's responsibility and the uh educator's responsibility to put all that into action. And I think that by by ending this with um you know the the the part about the portrait of a

152ga of a graduate by 2027 is really um like aspirational and it shows that we are not I mean we're there there are standards that are that come out all the time that uh that teachers have to teach by and so we really can't be mired in the past. We we have to keep moving forward and we do keep moving forward. Um but I think this this goal could be um I don't know. I mean I think it's I think it's basically it's well written. >> Yeah. it, you know, it's just tweaking a few things, taking, you know, taking out that the piece about identifying and I think just plugging in MTSS to support students, you know, continue to consistently um use the, you know, we could spell it out, not use just MTSS, yeah,

153the implementation of MTSS to support students facing and then just take you use the rest of that part because that's really what MTS is helping, you know, kids that are facing ing academic, social or emotional challenges and implement interventions that regularly evaluate regularly evaluated for success. >> Yeah, trust. >> That sounds good. Um, so do we want to add something? I I know about AI. I I know uh assistant superintendent laughing has a goal probably next spring. We we're going to have more information on what a goal should be. Should we have a goal that says, you know, we we need an AI policy by by next uh spring. Um I I am the more I learn about AI, the more I realize that the biggest part of that to have a a policy is

154safety for the children. Uh the I I read the Chicago uh public school uh AI policy which was recommended by the one uh session that I uh went to by both the people in New York City and the people the person from Buffalo and uh they both recommended the Chicago public school AI policy and um a big part of that is safety. uh you got to know what applications to purchase to realize what AI uh applications uh are get some kind of a certification that they're safe for our children. So, we we need that. And do we want to set that as a goal uh to let everybody know that to let this the parents know that, you know, we're thinking about it and we do have a goal to make it safe. >> Um

155yes, I definitely think whatever with AI, but like just alongside it, I was thinking there sort of a separate but parallel thought. um related to what Trusty Jerome said is like maybe we could include something like prioritizing in-person prioritizing and valuing in-person learning and experiences or something like that. So, I actually put an AI the very early versions of an AI policy goal in the in the spreadsheet. Um, and I tried to make it as 50,000 foot as I could. And, uh, I sent around an article. I don't know if how many I sent it today so you probably haven't had much of a chance to read it but I I think there's what super assistant superintendent Lafren is doing is super important with Boseies and developing there's there's sort of a district level AI

156implementation question right but then there's also what are the students facing right now and that the reason I thought maybe we would want to consider having something specifically about AI this years because I really feel like this is one of those class I've said this before I think this is one of those classic situations where the technology is like a rocket right and it's moving so fast that um um and it's having I think already probably impacts negative impacts on our students in certain ways and I just I just wanted to read you just a little bit of this New York Times article because there's there's research that's literally a couple months old at this point it's it's it's rolling off the presses because this is so new, people are figuring out, you know, what

157it is. And what I what I really focused on here was there was a study. They asked a bunch um a whole big group of students to write an essay from 500 to a,000 words and they divided them into different groups. The first group, their initial approach to the essay was to use chat GBT entirely. Uh, the second group could use Google. They could use Google search, but they couldn't use artificial intelligence. And the third group had to start their essay only using their brains. That's it. And they hooked them up to brain monitors. And the kids who you only were only using their brains had way higher levels of brain activity during the essay writing. The Google kids had less. and the chat GBT kids had almost no brain activity because they were just

158basically letting the the machine write the essay for them. Right? But the section I wanted to read to you was the most striking res revelation arose after the students finished the writing exercise. One minute after completing their essays, the students were asked to quote any part of their essay. The vast majority of chat GPT users, 83% could not recall a single sentence. In contrast, the students using Google search engine could quote some parts and the students who relied on no tech could recite lots of lines with some even quoting almost the entirety of their essays verbatim. It has been one minute. You cannot really cannot say anything, said Natalyia Kosima, the research scientists at MIT Media Lab who led the study about the chat GPT users. If you don't remember what you wrote, you don't

159feel ownership. Do you even care? So, and then they had them rewrite it. And the kids who used their brains to start when they were allowed to use chat GBT to to um edit and rewrite their essay and they actually had even higher levels of brain activity, they they got they did even better. Um the cru the crucial critical step according to this one study which is still fairly new but it was really dramatic finding was that what matters when you're um approaching uh the any kind of intellectual task is that you do the work first. Like the first step has to be you. And if it's not there's a measurable cognitive decline um for students who allow chat GPT to do the first step for them. Right. And so the reason I think this

160there's urgency to this is because chatbt is out there now. Right. And um I don't know how much this is happening in our district, but I think we ought to find out or try to make try to make some steps to try to find out. Um couple of ideas I've had I had the I read an article a few months ago that was all um precipitated by a college just surveying their faculty and saying how's it going with a AI what do you notice and they let them respond anonymously and they said and they got some very honest answers. Um but so I think if I put myself in the place of that student who has an assignment is thinking am I going to really put in the work here or am I going to

161let take a shortcut here um it would be really you know it would be very very tempting to take that shortcut. So, um, I'm just thinking as a stop gap until we can figure out, you know, until we can spend a year or two really figuring out what's going on research- wise, just an expectation or a norm or a statement of value that we expect our students to do the first part of the work on any assignments themselves. And it could be like an honor code. I don't know. there. Again, this is something that I think is I'm getting too much into the specifics here. Like this is the the administration and the faculty would have to figure this out, but like if I put it 50,000 foot as simply as I could, I would

162say by the end of the year, we should give our students some specific guidance on what we think for them is ethical, is the right way, is the most healthy way for them to engage with this technology. So, I agree with you. It's really hard not to get into specifics. Um, I think that we should absolutely have something. It sort of goes to my earlier comment to try to start even there's if there's language around it like this is we know this is an ongoing challenge or whatever it is. I think it's important to get it in place. Um, some heartening thoughts are that um I'm thinking of a couple of my daughter's teachers who insist that she shows her work. It's like drafting that problem um solution statement at the beginning. Um anybody who

163in the field knows this garbage in garbage out that's the that's the standard and human judgment never goes away. So how do we teach and that's the piece right that's the drafting piece. So how do we maybe that's the highlevel statement that you know we prioritize human as we prioritize humans in this district and in person you know that's that's what we do at on so it it does align with our with our um our values but maybe it's something to that I don't know we can talk about that more but I do think time is of I mean we don't wait on that like I think we do need something um to start with um but I have loved like the her getting she won't get the credit unless she shows how she got

164to the answer. Um it doesn't mean that you she couldn't feed it into something later to fill out the edges or to to argue with or edit, but um anyway, those are the weeds, right? >> So, I guess this is a question for uh our superintendent and assistant superintendent. I mean, what do you envision the process and the timeline? I mean, who's going to be making some of these decisions? Is it Ulster County? Is it going to be the state? Is it going to be us here? I mean, h we got to get to a point where we have we have our school policy manual, right? So, we have to get to a point where we have an AI section in there, I assume. and you know what's and and trying to figure out how

165do we get there you know at a high level and in what kind of time frame uh you know I mean obviously Chicago public school did a good job you know could copy that you know but again I I I'm worried about the we need the safety aspect first that that part scares me right I don't we we got to make sure, you know, if we're going to have school teachers start to use some of these applications, we got to make sure they're they're certified and they're safe. Um, so I looking for some feedback here. I mean, all of these things that I'm hearing are definitely part of our process and discussion. um providing a timeline to where there's recommendations from people that are actually doing this. Um you know, I'm really grateful that you

166put up uh shared the process with which you're experiencing uh your your daughter's teachers working through this. I just want everybody to know we are not in a state of paralysis here in the school district. We are grappling with this. We are experimenting. We are we are trying. We are discussing. We are experimenting. We are are watching um uh all of those things happen. When it comes to an AI platform, um you know, we we certainly cannot control what students choose to do or what they have access to when they're not in school. But when it comes to in being here and what we what we might choose to utilize, you know, we're looking at at platforms that are law 2d compliant that are contained and anything that we would do would certainly be piloted

167thoroughly by teachers only first. I mean, it's going to be a process. Um, there will be recommendations, but you know, that that's that's where we get to in policy. and we just wanted to, you know, this this board could have chose to just rubber stamp the NISBA policy. We got a policy, great, move on. And and not that that would have necessarily been a bad choice, but the thinking was to uh embrace and and listen to people who are um in the classroom. What is it looking like? What are you thinking about? And just kind of roll through that. Now, Olster Boseis has been supporting us in the process. So, it is countywide. It is certainly going to be district-wide and supported here. New York State is not doing anything on this. They're stepping away.

168They're not going to give us the guidance. There's some states that have been fantastic. I suggest if you're interested in looking at some state policy. Take a look at North Carolina. They did some fantastic work on this and actually in our AI circle, we've been looking at that. So, that's great guidance. Um, but New York State isn't going to give us the answer for whatever reason. They they like to give us really granular details on most things, but this they are not and we're not going to get it. So, they're really going to leave this up to districts on how to approach this, how to do that. So, um, that's all something we're considering. And you know the way one thing I've learned in the past over four years here is in Anora we we

169generally work at a very grassroots level and that is not a fast process but it is a thorough process and sometimes the the pathway is not a straight one. It is definitely iterative and you know it is possible that the that the AI policy that first emerges is not the AI policy that is the second version or the third version or the fourth version. there's just so much unknown and I think the idea is that we get in the mix with safety at first but also um you know if you if you take a look at the these aspects of the portrait of the graduate many of the things that that you are that you are mentioning are really embedded in this and I think this is a great pathway forward for for us to

170to work towards that and I promise there are conversations s discussions, planning, all kinds of things that are going on. This is not being ignored. We aren't putting our heads under the bed and just hoping it, you know, because that's not happening. So, um I just want to reassure everyone that it is it is being discussed and talked about and um it's just wanting a little bit more time to explore and be able to to make a recommendation. There is no way that we would ever adopt anything that would not be ED2D law requ that that is not Edlaw 2D compliant. That will not be happening. If that happens at home, that's one thing, but that is not going to happen. John Rhymer, director of technology, is so knowledgeable and supportive and partners with us

171step by step in that process and helps us think through that. And everybody has a role in this. So, um, I don't know if that is helpful or or answers questions or if there's anything more specifically I could try to address. I'm just thinking as I'm listening to you talk um that because this is such a big deal and it's something that I think the board doesn't want to let lie, right? Um you know, Rick made a a Trusty Kudson made a comment um that, you know, he he thinks that we're already playing catchup and everybody is already playing catchup. you know, if you're not working for Chat GPT or Claude or somebody something and um uh I'm wondering if the board's goal is to become better educated or like and and and but the

172board isn't really doing that work. So the board would monitor or um learn through uh maybe um a presentation by you or or some yeah some somebody that's involved with that Boseie circle um who can better inform us and by doing that at the board table we're better informing everybody who's paying attention. So, you know, I don't know if that's if that could be a goal that would result in developing a policy, Jenny. Um, I, you know, I wasn't going to say it and then it came up when Superintendent Laughen and then you and you know I'm really glad Trusty Jerome mentioned her daughter's experience because I sometimes try not to be anecdotal about my kids but then I forget like when I showed Trusty Goodrich Parent Square that if you don't have a kid,

173you have no idea. And and what that really what I started thinking and then when Stephan um um Superintendent Laughen was speaking, I thought, yeah, I'm going to say it. What I I think might be a missing piece that the board possibly could address is I feel confident as well that in school my children are very clear about what they're expected to do and the teachers talk to them about you cannot generate this from X or projects are handdrawn and and things like that. my sixth grader and eighth grade grader are clear on that they're not supposed to go downstairs and try and kick an essay out of chat GBT. They know it. Um, and I'm wondering if maybe the piece is our amazing educators who are dealing with it really well. Our kids who

174are being given instruction about you have to show your work. You can't just put this into ChatgPT. Maybe that missing part of education is partnering with our parents and families at home. And maybe that's something that we could make some movement on while this awesome process unfolds that needs time. But I feel confident that the teachers are giving clear directions to the kids. And maybe it's a communication of those current um understandings and boundaries that need to get home in a clear way so that you as the parent are like, "No, no, you're not going to go downstairs on your PC and do this. You're going to sit here with your Chromebook and do it because your Chromebook," Thanks to John Rhyr, who my kids are always complaining. All the kids are complaining. knows when

175they put things on there and he knows how to lock it down. They can't get anything on these Chromebooks. Mr. Rhyr is on their trail and it's off of there in a second. So, you know, if parents knew this, then I think that we could, you know, like sandwich these kids a little bit. just yeah there are districts I I found a policy last year where who go at this by um adopting a disclosure um you know requirement that that when kids hand in work they say I used I used these tools for this then I and if I and if you use a tool you just disclose like so that the teacher can see you like how what they're looking at got created and I I think that's a great idea that I think

176a real I mean I really feel like The most effective campaign would be say um parents you know when your kids's going to hand in their work tomorrow engage with them say you know did you I we know your teachers expect you to do this work you know the important parts of this work yourself did you do that you know and how did you do that it could now it could be a written disclosure to the teacher it could also be encouraging that conversation at home you know I don't know what our best um but that that's my worry is that um you know that um it's it's home. It's not the it's not what's happening in school. It's you know the the saying is that ethics is is how you behave when nobody's looking

177right. So um and uh I think at that age when you're an adolescent or something it's you know a little guidance is goes a long way. Um, first of all, I love uh, Superintendent Laughing that like you shared so much with us. This conversation, I mean, that could be the goal to have more dialogue. Um, I hosted an event yesterday where we had a room full of people in the city and in we were talking with AI avatars. It was a group experience. The people the avatars were in conversation. What if we had what if it was more of an educational approach like come in and let's all have a facilitator help a room full of parents and students you know write a I I don't know what the exercise would be but like maybe

178that's the goal like how to demystify it to put guard rails around AI is silly it won't work disclosures maybe but what about a goal being like how do we you know you can do it with our other humans that's what all these entrepreneurs reneurs are doing is they're building with you know other human beings for other human beings. It's actually quite amazing. So maybe that we could think about that as an AI goal less restrictive and more exploratory um and doing it yeah with with students and parents and pulling into your point community. That would just be another way of thinking about it as our administration puts guard rails around it that we need to have guard. That's your perview and that you're doing. But um I really like this conversation and it's important

179that we um play with this technology, learn this technology because it is our future. So the the thing that I heard here uh amongst all the trustees that's new to me is what uh trustee Jared said. You know maybe we can provide guidance for the parents. Uh hadn't heard that before. That's kind of interesting to me. It's almost like a shared learning experience because we would be learning um we would be uh hearing about what's what's going on at the AI circle at Boseis. Um you know possibly we could hear some um some of some of the things that are going on in the classrooms. you know, if teachers would be willing to uh to share that or uh assistant superintendent laughing could gather that maybe and and provide it to us in public. So

180even if we can't provide fun experiences working with avatars, you know, like but but not I'm not saying that we can't, but you know, that that would be really fun. But um uh or frustrating, but um but if we could hear about how some teachers are managing it, you know, like like Trusty Jerome's example of her daughter's her daughter's teacher. So, we're going to have to craft something here. We don't have to do it tonight. We can do it in the Google doc, but what do you think? >> So, this is really a community outreach goal. Is that a good way of putting it? And we do community outreach on a lot of we do create a lot of community outreach on our capital projects on I mean I think we this is not something

181that's unfamiliar to us. >> Right. We'll expand the road show. >> All right. What's next? Um do we want to Trusty Goodrich? I'm going to say that I think that a lot of the more databased goals that you have here could be incorporated into the academic goal. Would that work for you? >> Yeah, that that works for me. Yeah, that's good. Is that something Trusty Jared that you think could be could happen? >> Actually, Ellenville's goal uh references in the title um attendance along with um the student success. Um so like one of the bullet points in the Ellenville goal is Oh my god, there's a lot here. Ah, evaluate and improve student achievement and attendance is the name of their goal. So, the name of our goal could be monitor and improve student success

182and attendance. And then um so in Ellenville's bullet points they have in there a target graduation rate which I didn't put in just because I do remember the discussion about that we are such a small student body. I remember Superintendent McLaren saying that like percentages get really dicey when the numbers get really small and I didn't want to put us in a situation that would be like very hard for but um maybe we could wordsmith this academic goal more like the Ellenville academic goal and include the um attendance goals in there and anything I think we should discuss as a board the um the graduation rate one just because I I wouldn't want to word smith something that what you know but I think the attendance one is pretty clear because we've all just talked

183about that. >> I just I'm curious how um how you all feel about continuing the culture and climate goal. Um, and I would take a stab at that with the Ellenville model of like action steps. Although there there are some action steps there or an action step, but I'd like to see that um committee meet and just get some ideas about how students, teachers, parents, you know, administrators feel about the culture and climate, you know, based on our DEI andB uh policy. >> Yeah, I read through that and um the one thing that I find is missing again is this and again I don't know if I'm speaking for myself or for um how many on the board, but like this very specific piece of us being in this location in the mountains in community

184with other people like this is very general. It's fine. It could be for any progressive, you know, school. Um, or otherwise. Uh, but what if I were to I think we achieve this in a lot of ways and what I I'm just craving that like what what is specific to Antiora so I could read it read it and really be like yes that's us you know that's us. I think culture and climate is such an important thing to to dive into, especially like coming into a central campus and like Trusty Jerome was saying like really bringing into focus what our values are and I would love to see this get some legs and dance around and absolutely. >> All right, I'll I'll work on that in the uh Google doc. Anything else that we want

185to discuss around goals? I just want to say these are some very exciting, awesome goals and it's been so wonderful to talk about it with everyone and I'm really looking forward to this this whole year of of digging into them. Yes, good good talk. Good work. We'll keep it going. All right. And we'll, you know, we'll this is going to remain on the agenda until we get there. Uh, do we need a break or do we want to keep going? It's late. Okay. All right. On to the consent agenda. Um, the board hereby approves items number 14.02 through 14.16. Um, may I have a first? Trusty Mitch Moral. Second, Trusty Jared. Any questions and or comments? Trusty Jared. >> Uh, just two things. One thing, I just wanted to thank the community members for that

186amazing donation. I don't know what a wrestling light is, but I'm sure it's really really important and it's a very very significant donation. So, thank you. >> It is. And we uh at the booster club last night um one of the booster club um officers was super excited about what that's going to be like at the at you know, a wrestling event. So, I don't even know what they're called. Matches. Yeah. I I'm not a wrestling fan, so I I don't even like to watch it. I'm afraid to watch it, actually. But but um yeah, that's a beautiful donation. >> And the other thing was I was very happy to see the district receiving a settlement from Jewels, the um I don't even want to say the word, vaping company. But luckily, it seems somebody's

187forced them to pay money to public school districts for the purpose of educating the students about the dangers around it. There is no teenager that doesn't need to hear that 52 more times. And I'm really excited our district got some funding. I'm sure there will be some really good programming around that. So, hooray. >> Trusty Mitchell Morell, did you have a chance to take a look at the schedule? You okay? And it looks great. >> Oh, good. Good. I took a look at it, too, just in case. I know you've been super busy. Okay. Super. So, all right. Um, Trusty Goodrich, I'm looking at it. I can't find it. So, included here is the um rate of pay for the uh for the vote for the uh the ballot people. Is that correct? So, did

188I It says per seven hours, but they're working more than seven hours. So, I I'm not sure if does that money that's listed there, is that representative what they're going to get paid or >> per seven hours? So, if someone is making $200 per seven hours and they're working the full time from 7 to 9, then they'll be getting the four $400 for the day. >> All right, that makes me feel better. Plus, they they are working hard. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of time, you know, from seven past nine o'clock. So, yeah. >> Yes. >> All right. We're going to vote. We're just gonna keep ra going on with all in favor. All in favor. Okay, that's unan on the consent agenda. Consent agenda. >> It's late. >> It is late. Sorry. All

189right. On to item 15.01. Approve all contracts and independent contract retainers. The board hereby approves items number 15.02 through 15.04. May I have a first? Trusty Mitch Moral, second Trusty Jared. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Okay, that's unanimous. Thank you. On to policies. Item 16.01 is the first reading of policy 1512. public be heard uh of of public be heard at board meetings. And if you uh had a chance to take a look at the draft policy, uh we have included the language uh the new language that we've that we added to uh the original public be heard statement that we've read for for many years. Um, we did make uh a change in the way that it is presented. Trusty Jared made a made a recommendation that um kind of softens the

190feeling of what we're saying to a degree by not by ending with the part about the board president um may have, you know, call law enforcement and have somebody removed at the end. that's moved up and the end is a little more positive and uh you know that that's the positive part about like we want to hear from you. We understand that people um you know sometimes things are emotional and we we want we want to hear from you. So um we'll just take another look at that um and we'll be voting on that at the next board meeting. So at one point I had raised the possibility that the sort of the crowd control we'll call it the crowd control aspects of section of that could be possibly not read every meeting but at

191the discretion of the presidents reading it to this empty room would be kind of pointless and it and it also would be I don't know it just it's more aggressive language in general and it it's um it feels you know I I feel like there are many of our meetings probably 90 sub plus percent of our meetings we wouldn't need that section at all. So I just don't know if that's possible for that say this section can be added at the discretion of the board president and because we'll know I feel like the president will always know whether we're going to need it or not for that particular meeting when they show up. I think the conversation in the policy committee was that um it it sort of sets a um an expectation and the

192expectation is that we and uh any community members who are attending our meeting and are coming to speak to us at the podium are going to follow the same code of conduct that we expect our students and staff to to follow. and that sometimes um it could it things could get a little edgy um you know into public be heard when we're not expecting um something sometimes people you know people don't always sign up for public be heard and they're just here and then they decide to speak. So we thought that instead of making it at the discretion of the president that it would just be something we would read every time it adds I don't know two or three minutes to the reading may maybe not even maybe one minute and um uh that

193it would just be a better idea to have it read every time but you know we can discuss that before we vote on it for sure. I had, you know, offered that thought and then we did have kind of a lengthy discussion kind of playing through different scenarios at which point you know it was like well like you know how do you feel about it being at the discretion of the president and like who's the president and what are their feelings and also you know it just if it felt it did start to feel like it it would be better if it was it is and if it's not it's not even though I had the same thought at the Yeah, I think legally you got to be consistent. You can't just do it one

194one time then do it differently because otherwise it just doesn't mean anything, you know. So, uh it's kind of like upholding a patent, you know, you either have to uphold the patent or you or you don't, right? So, if you don't uphold it, then you may as well not have the patent. All right. On to 16.02. Second reading and adoption of policy 1412, organizational chart. The board of education hereby adopts policy 14 uh I'm sorry, 4212 as written. May I have a first? Trusty Jared. Second, Trustee Mitchell Morurell. Any questions or comments? All in favor? That's unanimous. Uh 16.03. Second reading and adoption of policy 5570. Audit committees. The board of education hereby adopts policy 5570 as written. May I have a first? Trusty Smith. Second. Trusty Kudson. Any questions or comments? All in favor?

195That's unanimous. Item 16.04, second reading and adoption of policy 7223, graduation ceremonies. The Ontario Board of Education hereby adopts policy 20 uh 7223 as written. May I have a first? Trusty Jerome. Second, Trusty Goodrich. Any questions or comments? All in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you. Any committee reports? Trusty Jared. Then trustee the academic achievement ad hoc committee had a very productive initial meeting exploring the scope of the committee and how it can support the board's academic goal for the coming year. and we had discussed the really fantastic growth in our students New York State test scores and agreed that it would be a wonderful lens to revisit the MTSS program through. And we look forward to discovering more about the really great work that our district students, teachers, and administrators are all doing and communicating

196it to the board and the community. And we look forward to meeting again after the December 10th bond vote. Thank you, Trusty Metro Morell. Uh, tomorrow facilities is meeting at Woodstock, but yesterday or Monday, um, we had our my first meeting of health and wellness and we talked about that was yesterday >> and we talked about was Oh, yesterday was Monday. Interesting. Um Um, I've just talked about meet, greet, and eat. It's coming together tentative date of April 20th, but we'll get back to you if that happens. And um we have some great ideas that I don't know if I'm supposed to say or not. One idea I just have to say is doing tours for like alumni and their partners or whoever of our school before just to attract more community members. And I

197thought that was such a good idea. And yeah, we're just working hard on other things and it was a good first meeting. >> Awesome. Thank you, Trusty Kenudson. >> So, I feel like rather than trying to describe when the communications committee was working in the past several weeks, it might be easier just to describe when we weren't working, which was when we were sleeping basically. But no, I so communications has been very busy, but I just wanted just to take a second to shout out uh Holly and Renee at Boseies who are have been our amazing consultants who have really gone above and beyond to to we've been pumping out an amaz astonishing amount of material over a couple of weeks and just wanted to uh thank them and say what a wonderful job they've

198been doing. I want to shout out our president and vice president for the tireless work that they've been doing. I'm on the communications committee, but you guys really make sure that every everything is so thoroughly reviewed and thank you. You really worked over time. >> So, yeah, you can't say enough about the communications committee. They really overachieved. But a question I have uh the videos that are coming out that are on Facebook, are they also going to be available elsewhere on the Anora website or Yeah, they are on the YouTube channel. If you go to the tab that says shorts, they're all there. I discovered it by accident. I didn't know that through the communications committee, but I was just Oh, what's shorts? Oh, there's me. So, All right. Um, any other committee updates? All

199right. Oh, go ahead. >> I'm pretty sure that we the policy committee met too, right? Yeah, the policy committee met, >> right? And that that we always know that the policy committee met because we have policies on >> I'm new here. I'm new here. >> Okay. Any unfinish finished business? >> Any new business? >> So, you're going to say, "Don't forget to vote, right?" >> It's It's on the agenda. >> Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm gonna say it before John cuts us off. Um, any requests for information? Go ahead. I was wondering what the protocol is what with the Chromebooks. Um, how many do we have? When do we replace them? Do we have a a number that we maintain as backups? Um, I'm just because they're relied on so heavily by the students now.

200Um just would love to understand more about um how how we're managing that resource and if if we need how we know if we need more or anything like that. I think I'm I asked I mentioned this a while ago and it um I just uh again the what does the educational journey look like for a sixth grader who is either very interested in or excels at math and also that journey for science. Any other RFIs? All right. Before we adjourn, I just want to remind everyone out there in YouTube land, please do not forget to vote on December 10th, 2025. It's just about three weeks from today. Uh you can vote here at the Boyceville campus live and in person or you can vote uh via mail as we've discussed at length tonight. And

201you can drop your mail-in ballot at the dropbox at Woodstock Elementary School between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 pm on December 10th >> central >> or at central whenever it's open from 7:00 a.m. until about 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Trusty Goodrich second. Oh, Trusty Mitchell Morel, did you want to say something? >> Oh, you want pointing at me. Everyone's putting their hats on. Look, not just me. >> Okay. I love your hats. >> All right. What? Did we have a second? Trusty Jared. All in favor? >> All right. Thank you all.