Board of Education Meeting/Work Session, 10-8-24

001Okay. Good evening everyone. It is Tuesday, October 8th and the board is opening tonight's work session. Um, where we we will be discussing, um, proposed bylaws, amendments and resolutions for the 2024 and is the annual business meeting. And then we will, um, have our open regular business meeting at 630. Um, so let's start off the meeting with our pledge plan, which. I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So we usually how usually everyone has in front of them the new voting delegates guide with proposed resolutions. So if you turn to page nine that starts the resolutions that we need to go through. And Scott had a good idea of sort of bulking them

002together, which we can try to do. Um, you know, if we don't have comments or issues with anything, there's no need to have a big, long discussion about every single one. Only if someone has a question or, uh, doesn't think they're a favor or wants to voice opinions on something. So for the we'll just bulk the first two right now because, um, uh, so just anyone have any, um, questions or comments or anything about either of these proposed resolutions? These are the first set we're doing are the ones that are being recommended by this, uh, by the resolutions committee, um, for adoption. So these are all ones that Elizabeth wants to put forth. So does anyone have any any comments on proposed resolution? 1 or 2? Everybody good with supporting those. Okay. So Melissa you

003can do this however you can. However you want to organize it. Um, when I've done it I usually just write yes or no next to each resolution. So when that when you're on the meeting, you'll know which way, uh, the board wants you to vote. So, um, for proposed resolution one and two, we will vote in favor of those two. So moving on to three. Um, and this is a, um, resolution that I think Doctor Ghosh gets some thoughts on. Yes. Thank you. Uh, well, I understand that, um, this, uh, would want to, um, you know, promote equity. Um, you know, just thinking back to our discussions around what is, uh, management role. What's a board role? Um, it's really a management issue. It's a it's not a solely board function to take a, a

004leadership role when it comes to equity could mean different things in different, um, and different districts. And, um, you know, if there happens to be disagreement between what that would mean from a board perspective versus a management perspective that can cause, cause confusion and backfire. Um, and so, you know, if that's our thinking on it, if a board would like to support it. Um, then we would just ask that the structures that we have in place locally stay there. And the dialog that we have continued. Okay. Thank you. I'm just reading through it. Um. It gets very close to talking about curriculum. Uh, the Washington School board, I read up on it, and they have a meeting. And what are their number of people who are fishers? It sounds like it's dabbling in curriculum and

005of course, in Tulsa. And that would be consistent with what Doctor Batch is saying. Is that truly the role of the board? Well, the concept of the statement is great. It's some of it's two words I would say. Yeah, I think probably everybody would agree with everything that's included in this story that it it could be blurring the lines. And we do already have things in place that illustrators, um, handle. So anybody have any thoughts on this one. And this happens to like the concept and what's put forth is not objectionable. But just sometimes it's, you know, it's it's not clear. Sometimes it's, uh, what it's really mean. It's yeah, confusing or so it's not that we're against necessarily the content. Obviously we're not. But just sometimes I think it's one that's sort of saying

006like, it's just it's been providing best practices like that's not really. Uh, it didn't say that. Well, even in the second bullet to like invite discussion among students, parents, staff and the community, we can invite we the board can invite discussions with the community, but we don't invite direct. You know, we don't get in with the students and the teacher. So it may be just a little bit overboard. Uh, definitely. Yeah, I would say no. All right. Are you guys okay with, uh, uh, saying no on this one and that one? I don't think it is good. I think they just. Written in morning. Poorly. Yeah, I love y'all too. Sometimes if we're going to support something, I think we support it as it's written or we don't support it. I'd rather not support it

007than support something that, you know, we don't agree with all of it. Yeah. Okay. So we're going to Mark I want to know. Okay. Let's move on to um resolution for um, which I think Victor, you had some thoughts on. Yeah, I understand the intent, um, recognizing that recruitment of, of new teachers is going to become a greater challenge in the future. So my, uh, position is strictly financial, uh, in that collapsing tier six, uh, of the pension system into, uh, tier four and provide those same benefits would undoubtedly have an increase on the contribution rate that a school district has to pay about that year on five also. That's okay. I'm I'm told you're both either mislabeled or supported. No. You know, four is no. Four is about this the supposedly something you're let's

008sorry I have four being. Yeah. Uh, I have four being about the tiers. Yeah. And being about Boces. I have you guys I have seen them for those years. If I was to learn a second and my answer on page nine like, no, I'm sorry I his 11th. Yeah. All right. Okay. Hang on a second, everyone. The first is from the same place. Well, I'm from Syria, so I don't know. Yeah, I brought my own two, but then we have one sitting here, so let's just see where. It gets. You know what I mean? So for. I mean, we never really even know. So you know what you'll have to notice at the meeting. Depending on how we come out on four and five, depending on how they're numbered at the actual meeting. Just keep

009in mind on four and five that they may be switched because this site printed from this this website, I'm sure Lauren printed it too. So I don't know why they're not the same. So the one I printed at home matches the keypad. The one you're on? Yeah. So strange. But just. You're. So. Let's just go with the one that Victor was talking about, whether it's 4 or 5 in your book. So, Victor. Go ahead. Sorry. Well, I was just going to say, like, you know, my position is strictly financial from the financial perspective. Um, but any, um, added benefit, it's going to cost the school districts taxpayers more money. And I see Steven may disagree and and think that it would be, you know, beneficial for recruitment in the future. Um, so my my position

010was strictly, uh, in a financial sense. Okay. What do you have to do? Can you share your boss? No idea. What maker. Um, if we're sharing from a financial perspective, from, uh, just, you know, human resources teacher shortage world, I know that this is kind of one of the deterring factors. So but I understand, though, the financial implications that would it would across the district. So they want to. Just. So we're all clear. If you're there, they want to put tier six where we'd get rid of to your six into your five. And and they would. Yeah. They would basically collapse it into um, tier four and reducing the, uh, the retirement age and increasing the, uh, um, pension a small amount. Now, is this something um, this is in effect right now. Correct characteristics

011again. And is this, um, whatever. I mean, I know everyone is trying to get the absolute best teachers that that we can get. Is is and I know there's teacher shortages significantly in certain states, but it is this something that you think would have a major impact on? I can't say that it would have a major impact. You know, it is definitely a topic of conversation, but I can't say that it's like a huge deterrent right now. Mhm. You think that would say? There's other things that are deterrents for teachers. But, um, this is this is big. Like especially the the younger teachers who are coming in. Um, there's some animosity, especially, um, within like our union, there's some animosity. Um, but let's see over here on their terms, the school board. Um, but it

012is it is a big deal. It really is the number the the not just the number of years that you'd be working. Um. Which, you know, going what Jimmy is always saying about tired teachers. You have to work like you have to work a lot longer. So like I already have 30 plus years in it 55. So you have to work on 63, like you're going to have that many more years. Um, and the there's a lot of inequity in the amount of money. I, I thought it was in here or somewhere where it like, actually broke down, like how much your pension is. I was the difference is between actions. I was here on the bottom or so. It's like if you had the salary. And so tiers one, 3 or 4, which belongs

013to year one anymore versus tier five versus tier six. ABC. Mhm. And we personally have a lot of people in CR five and six. I could say that tier five has very few people, and that's just because it was only open for such a short period of time. Tier 16 I think within a year and a half after tier five. So there's there very few people into your five, but the tier six numbers are growing us, that's all. Our new people are turning over. All the new teachers are tier six. But. Um, I had just made some note to add that I would support this. Um, but I feel it's very important to support our new incoming, um, teachers as much as veteran teachers. There's also something to be said about retention. If you actually

014have a passion. People are not going to get that. Especially on those hard years. Well. And we also have to keep in mind that we are voting to. Telling us. But yes, we support you. Um, advocating for something this is not you know, we're obviously not, you know, voting on like, this is not happening simply because we're saying go and advocate stuff. So we have that in perspective too. Who's not changing for that? And so I actually don't know. But I think it's it's our one vote for or against. I mean it's sitting here establishing tier equity for tiers five and six. So you know I know it's either we support that or we don't. But I landed on the. Yes. Yes. Okay. Everybody else, it sounds like we're in support. So I would say

015no button which are in Congress or something. Okay. So so was there anybody else who's not in favor of supporting. Uh, all right. So that one's going to be a guess. And Melissa, it's either 4 or 5. All right. So now let's go to the one that addresses, um, poses. Does anyone have, um. I know, like, paranoid. Like I'm not reading the right one anymore. It's okay. It's easier for me. Explain. I would just say from the, uh, from the West Point meeting, it gets mentioned a lot of the problems with policies as it's benefits packages. So they have a strong package of. Things weighing them down so slightly, looking to up, quite sadly, some of the worms. Am I reading this? Right under the cap is. Two a week. But then averages are higher

016in our lottery. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Their cap is under what most in our state that might be beneficial for competitive areas like Westchester, Putnam and such. It's below the cap. So, um, I think you're looking for folks. Yeah. So I'm, I'm getting, like, the one that I circulated around. I must they must have made changes since then. So I'm using the one that was left at your desk, and that's number four. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's for. Um. So any thoughts on this? Just seen a lot of stuff with potions. It's at that rate from overseas, is capped out a bit to also act out, um, a type just back for the things that we do. A lot of basis is capped out because that's how New York State controls costs. You know, we can

017talk about changing it. But once again, this is going to be something that goes up to the state to determine for how we want to decide that. On this video I want to talk about numbers, which is the most recent one. This is actually from our if we're into the postseason or taxes near Harvard. Yeah. So which is college ministry costs at each uh, school district based? Does anyone have posters? I don't like that it doesn't have an end date. Like. Um, a maximum of 2008, a 208,000. For how long? I can can't. That's what there's some reason at some point what they said that was the reason 2019. Yeah. Yeah. Every couple of years they would it. Opus Dei marketplace, and I pick a number that's unlike the bucket. So I guess what they're

018saying with this, though, is that they they want there to be no limit. And in legislation it's currently 208,000. And they want to support legislation to eliminate the limit so that, you know, Ozzy's superintendent here in the, you know, to make more and maybe bosses in other parts of, you know, would not make as much. I mean, more theoretically you get to. Upstate position that they just feel like bad luck. It could happen. What? That what? It was like something like that city. Did they not know they were 5050? A lot of people are worried about most of these people. Some of them actually sit on both these boards, and they've always said their concern with Boces is when Boces develop their health plan and retirement plan. It was already, in their opinion, overly generous,

019so a lot of their cash flow problems result around them giving out too much. Similar to the tier structure that was there. That's why they were against it. Because they they just they both used the money properly. This does not sound like it's an appropriate thing. This is a cap thing, but that the people that were not in favor were at issues with how Boces operates. I would be fair, but he subsequently raised the cats to be admired, but not done. So yeah. So you're thinking more, uh, not to eliminate a cap, but to make it more like a cap, but right now. But that's why you do that. Because every year. Right. You have to alter. Right? Right. Which legislature's not going to do something every year. So what are you guys thinking on

020this one? I agree with you anyway. But practically speaking, that's not. And it's also not what this looks, right? It's not what this is. Yeah. Um. Um, but I know I'm kind of important. I think you need to have be able to pay people fairly in whatever area you're located in. I don't like my services, so I tend to. Yes. I think it's important to keep. Salaries competitive with other districts. So we need high quality superintendents of to stay there. Is everybody okay with us? That's. It's not your item but. Okay. So. All right. So now we're going to number five. Um. So. So I was just looking at the one that was printed tonight on the table. Yeah, that's a world. That's the one that I was worried about. Yeah. But you just felt

021that people say. I don't know. Look, you know, I think somebody could carry it, you know, carry it. I'm saying it's, you know, it's it's no five. Not the cheers. Oh I'm sorry. Yes. So when we said that we were, um. Oh yes. I'm sorry. Okay. So now we're on to six. Thanks. You should be straight. Go for it. Okay. Um. So six. Any thoughts? And. This would be similar to the compensation package. I think it's for that the levels that they put out to get packets. Yeah. Right. It certainly seems reasonable that but the aid should be more consistent with what it actually costs. Right. Any opposition on this one. You know. It's about finding out the numbers. I am, I suppose, for a reason. All right. So are we a yes on this

022one? No. All right, moving on to seven. Um. Remand the current civil service system to modernize exam materials and increase the frequency of exam administration. That seems like a good idea. Comment. Mr. Handcuffs with us? Yes. Okay. So there were yes on that. Yeah. Yeah. Great. All right. It was uh, then this was for legislation that would provide for sufficient funding for building aid, for the construction of a new school that would replace, replace one or more outdated and antiquated schools. So what? They get left over? I think the time it plays out over a period of time. They're trying to shorten the period of time to get more a. Got it. When you're replacing a whole school that doesn't. Right. Okay. Okay. Any thoughts on this one? You know. I think that's something the

023state would never agree to, but we could be in favor. Everybody over the line. Okay. Okay. All right. Nine. Uh, new York State School board association advocate for timely decisions on steroid. Yes. I want to say no. Yeah. Okay. Um, ten that we, uh, would support hybrid electric busses as an alternative option to the New York State's 100% zero emission electric school bus fleet mandate. No question. No idea at all. Yeah. All right. We, uh. Yes. On this one. Yeah. Yes, yes. Okay. 11. Uh, that is the urge, the governor and legislature and I said to prioritize the human resources, processes and programs that will ensure, oh, this is are obviously one of the only two of them, but I was completely in favor of. Well, that's got it. Oh. I'm sorry. What about the.

024Um, okay. All right. Third. Uh, 12. This was for funding for technology and related expenses for smartphone regulation policies, whether pursued by districts, voluntarily or mandated by the state. Everybody in favor of us. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So the state's going to make you do anyway. The second round. Bye. All right. Uh, 13% more legislation at the state level that would allow school districts whose pre-kindergarten programs were oversubscribed to show enrollment, preference to students who are economically disadvantaged and or English language learners until such time as the programs become truly universal. This is one that I actually disagreed with. Um, you know, I believe that public education is for all and that number that, um, designates those that qualify for free reduced lunch or not as a national number. And the cost of living in this

025region is, is high. And so, yeah, some of that might be right over that line, like you just as much as someone. Right, right, right. Um, and and even for a middle of the road income families, you know, pre-K is expensive. So I think public education is about, um, and this would take that away. I agree. Sorry. I agree too. I think we feel a lot in this country right now and also. Just so there's there's no stigma that's coming and not coming from. Yeah that's great. No, I don't ever okay. Someone was out with them. No searching. Okay. 14. This is shall I advocate for direct lending assistance to school districts for any student students who enter Boces, uh, CTE program or any affiliated career training program resulting in a post-graduation license or certificate.

026So when I say I mean it can't say that they want us to get more money based upon. And there is a incredible shortage of technical skills and published. And that's, I guess, the purpose behind it. I don't understand the rationale of what they're saying. So there's that impulse to say what's now, says college bound peers of Boces. Students had access to various state federal financial assistance programs for their career paths, which do not rely solely on direct local tax revenue. I'm not sure. Um, any idea on what you think? What they could be talking about there? And do they mean like? I have trouble understanding. It looks to me like if they think so. I go to these, um, Cannock school and graduation. You know, if you go to college and stuff, they're special

027programs for that. They say that they stand by you. I think it says here you enter Boces Career Technical Location program or any affiliate career training program. So you want to do the mechanic school while you're still in high school. I mean, but like this is a saying the if a if we are someone not going to most needs but to some other kind of technical program right on the right hand, there's no aid available until you get past high school. Right? That that's not a read on this, but I know. Right? That makes sense. I don't know how you pay for. I just don't understand the distinction. Between what? College bound kids? What assistance programs they're talking about. Nova Scotia. Continuing their education through proceeds, you know, and the past. I think it's the

028islanders. So it says under the rationale says they deserve the same. They funded support associates. You can qualify for that. But starkly you just so. Like a said, they're going to be looking for 10600 Mechanicsville state federal funding for assistance programs. Do they not have that proposes? I don't know if they look at it. What do you know? My read on this would be that I. You know, we send students to Boces. Um, a lot of those programs are fully subscribed, but not everybody, right? Not every district might be able to afford to send students services. So maybe it's saying that there should be more aid for that. Number one of the number two it Boces is oversubscribed. Are there other options? Are there other CTE or certificated pathways that we could do like with

029for example, or outside of Boces probably received on that. Um, because the blue ribbon commission is most definitely going to, you know, uh, pushing for CTE programs and certifications. I mean, I guess if the. The gist of this is that school districts get more money, more money to put toward the than we should, you know, like stopgap measure because they know Boces is tapped out. They're saying, well then send us schools and yeah. Okay. So I'm in favor of this one is everybody? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So 14 is my guess. All right. 15. Uh, never advocate for New York Swim's initiative to be extended, expanded to include additional enhanced and targeted state funding specifically dedicated to constructing schools in K through 12 schools and for increased aid for operating, maintaining, etc., those facilities.

030Enhanced funding should be built into the building. A formula to promote equitable and Year-Round access to swimming instruction for all students. I'm like us and the US to. Like a strong believer of kids. Yeah. Well, early. Yeah. Regarding, quote unquote genius. I don't know if that's correct. Okay, so yes I'm 15. Of drama game. But yeah. Okay. Uh, resolution 16 is with support legislation of the state level to allow school districts to provide an opt out declination to transportation services. The robust perspective on this part of the world. I mean, if parents or kids are driving to school every day that they have to have their bus stop and every kid has a spot on the bus, right? So if you opt out, you no longer have a spot on the bus to make it

031because it's cleaner. But that's like one day you can't drive and your kid can't get on the bus, right? Victor. Yeah, yeah, I, I chose this, so I think it would just create logistical nightmare for districts if a, you know, a family opts out and then their circumstances change and requires and then opt back in a route may not be available for that. And and it's always a challenge and I equated it. And you know, I can appreciate this. The request for private school transportation is due April 1st. Rarely does anyone get their application by April 1st. So then to be able to monitor this, I think it would just be a nightmare. Nightmare. Yeah, yeah. And honestly, I bet it would kind of be a nightmare for the parents too, who may have thought

032opting out wasn't going to be a problem. And then all of a sudden something changes, or even it just changes for a short period of time. Then they're stuck. And transportation is constantly evaluated throughout for, you know, first month of school and, you know, and they are thinking, that's this idea. Like, you take student counts and, you know, if you're able to collapse routes, you will, you know, uh, adjust your routes. So they were provided the most efficient transportation. We're not just a public, you know, bus service that just, you know, pulls up with an empty bus stop just because it's designated. Right. Um, but I think this off average costs will struggle, and I don't think you'll save that much. You have five kids standing at one bus stop want to get on? So

033I think it's the video of the shortage, the bus driver shortage. But it doesn't make sense. But you would need a significant number of kids topped out to work to make it. All right. So this is a Huntington. You know their area. It must be sisters in their area. All right. So we're we're no on that. Is everybody okay with a no on that okay. All right. Uh, 17 is advocate the state education department to review and revise. Uh, but I don't even I can't even say that unless he has exam criteria. Ensure mature, realistic, fair, and accurate assessment of each students English language proficiency and services. How total testing and ensure examination. Give you a longer answer, that will be okay. So then. Okay. I really feel like I'm not doing what I mean.

034I'll tell you what I. I mean, I'm going to guess if it's a, um. No, I won't say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jen, you're going on. Yeah. All right, so we'll move on to 18. But there's one key that should refrain from administering and nice hotel and isolate exams in the computer based format until those tests have been properly vetted and field tested. Yes. Illustrative. Yes it was. I'll get everyone to come get. Okay. Uh 19. That is, for advocating for any totally funded study of the foundation aid formula performed by any organization to be required to perform for transparency and meaningful public engagement. Okay? Yes. Everyone I'll go with. Yes. I'm sorry. Okay. I say that's okay. It's. I like with any organization by any organization. Is there anybody at this point proposed

035resolution 20. That means we will advocate for additional state and or federal funding for the education of fellow students in a manner that meeting meaningfully reflects the increased costs associated with the instructional needs of students. It includes the Regional Cost Index and its analysis and funding. Yes, yes, just like updating that for maintenance, everything costs more. All right, 21. Um, advocating for the upward modification of the inflexible restrictive per pupil expenditure limits for the state universal pre-kindergarten pre-kindergarten program, currently set at $5,400 to mirror those provisions allowable for state universal full-day pre-kindergarten. Yes. Yea yea yea yea. 22, but both oppose the proposed amendments to certain sections listed of the Commissioner of Education regulations related to mixed competition and extra class athletic activities. I think this is related to the thing the state is going

036to roll out. Did roll out? Correct? Yeah they will. This is definitely part. By the time the resolution had to be passed. Okay, so this is not even something that's. It's not an issue. So and so then it would. It can be sort of something. It doesn't exist. So we're supporting this even though they may pull it that day, but they will cook herself a steak and always say, don't come back, okay. It's the same. All right. So is everyone in favor of this one? You know, the idea that there shouldn't be a significant adverse effect for allowing, uh, transgender students to, um, participate in the, um, but the gender that they identify with. So the New York State Public Athletic Association has said we need that significant adverse effect needs to be the rule.

037It can't just be carte blanche that that has to be there and like we're closed. Amendment took that language out. The proposed amendment, um, had said, right. They the proposed amendment, um, had said right that they would take away a significant adverse effect. Okay. So this resolution is for Nisbet to oppose any amendment that takes out significant adverse effect from any. Not relating to. Mixed. Source. Does everybody. So, for example, if a biological male wanted to play flag football, the significant adverse effect would have to stay in effect. In order to say that. That biological impact would have a significant adverse effect in a female in the female game. Um, so that's this. That's the language to try to address, you know, the inequities that may exist in certain situations. Yes, but not every situation.

038But it's not all encompassing. It just has the have. Okay, so then this seems like we're supporting this, uh, this, uh, resolution. Yes. Yes. So before this resolution, this would before that significant adverse effect language was put in that anybody could play any sport, um, regardless of gender. This is significant adverse effects. There is weight that there has to be a benchmark that's met in order to make sure that there's not a significant a negative impact on the non transgender students that are playing that sport. Back to the stuff in question. Yes. Yes. And I'll have guidelines set up to. Well, it's off the table all together now. So that that while there can be mixed competition that takes place when there are, um, certain aspects that, um, like certain, like flag football, for example,

039girls flag football, a biological male could not engage girls flag football if they identifies as transgender because it would have a significant adverse effect, but not as many of them. Um, don't know. But I think what you're thinking about it is that. It's, um. All right. So then this is something that we, um. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Or athletic director is in favor of it. The other statewide athletic director. We need to preserve that, but also actually be. Good. They'll still, even though the amendment is apparently not, as Scott said, it could be brought back at any moment. So you will still vote on whether or not it is. But I will advocate for that, because if it comes back to life before next year, is was going to want to know that thing. And it's

040caveat yes. So you'll still vote on that for the school board association, the sport associations, the administration association. They all came out in stopping the state from changing it. And then also the public stood up and that's what pulled it back. But they can always and that's fine. All right. And the commissioner said last week or two weeks ago that, um, you know, they they started this conversation in the pursuit of equity and realized that it went too far. And there would and that's where there would be the negative impact on some female sports if it was going away. So that's why there's the support of this resolution. Okay. And then we'll move on to 23. Uh, that is the oppose efforts to establish additional school closure holidays without commensurate adjustments to the school calendar.

041So I know we talked about this even on, um, Juneteenth. Like, you want to make sure that you have a holiday, but you still wanna make sure the kids are in school. Yeah. So that's what this goes to in case another holiday. Um, okay. Okay. Yeah. So is everyone in favor of this one? Yes. Uh, okay. We're good on 23 or 24. Um. Nothing. Okay? We can't even write it. Right? But all right. It's repetitive, but the New York State School Boards Association advocates for the minimization of field testing and school district decision making rights to refuse to participate in field testing without penalty from New York State Education Department. It's related to the habitat stuff. You know, it's related to like field testing regions and things like that that are required to take the

042class time to get a field test so that then they can use it to decide numbers and statistics and proper and figures, things like that. So interferes with you teaching your classes. Yeah. Okay. Everybody in support of this. Okay. I think one of the we got a committee and then I got the kids gathered. And that's why they oppose it, because they don't feel they have an. You know. Yeah. Understood. Okay. 25 is what supports and upholds the mission of the Conference of Big Five School Districts for voting, proposing a more equitable and adequate funding system, delivering high quality education to all children. We didn't. Five schools for one. More likely. Yeah. That's us. Coming right up. If he wants anyone to have any, um, issue with this one? No. So are we go with

043supporting this and saying, okay, all right, 25 so now these are resolutions that are not recommended for adoption, not recommended by the resolution committee. But just like the other ones, we can agree or disagree. So we can still support things. So just to go through those um 26. Resolved that Nisbet supports legislation to eliminate regions testing at the high school level in favor of state final exams that comply with Essa. Uh regulations in 10th 11th grade for Ela, math and science. So I think some of the explanation of the resolutions is helpfulness. And what we heard at the, um, at the state a couple of weeks ago is that they still want a traditional pathway to exist for students that can, you know, engage in that and be successful with it. So taking that away

044would be actually eliminating options. The way the blue Ribbon commission is heading and this is an option, you don't necessarily have to pass these exams in order to graduate. So this would actually be. Support going down on us, right? Yeah. Okay, so this is, you know, a little simpler. All right. Um, 27. That is what advocating for a cap on these budget increases. Um. You know, the explanation says it doesn't reflect the realities of increasing costs and labor scarcity. Anyone home? I thought. You okay going with the committee on this? That it's a no. Or. Yeah. So the committee does not support this resolution to advocate for a cap on basis hosting budgeting. It has to stand. But it's not going back to the Federal Reserve yet. So reviewing it would be inconsistent to get

045it. All right so 27 is enough. Okay. Uh 28. Resolved, that newspaper shall advocate for the new Foundation 8.0, to be voted on by the New York State Legislature, and not through regulatory actions of FISA. Let me just say that individually we think about things like anybody in the new formula. I think that every study or other research study that they said, as opposed to, I mean, the people in general that are also well known as. Yeah. And the resolutions committees are nice. That doesn't have the authority referenced in the resolution. So, you know, no sense. Nobody's going to advocate for something that doesn't exist. Can't have it. So that's a no. Everybody's good on no. 28. Okay 29. Resolved the municipality for the repeal of the 2019 law that remove the religious moral exemptions

046to immunization. Anyone have thoughts on this one? This one. I remember when polio was back through religious exemptions. Yeah, yeah. If it's a health of a child medical, then no problem. When it becomes religious, it just becomes difficult also to model. So polio was back in Europe. Yeah. Yeah I know on this. Anybody. So we're collectively okay with a no vote on that. Okay. Uh, proposed resolution three. So all that is, uh, shall advocate for local control. I do love how certain words like. Yeah, it's, like strenuously object when God allows. You really mean to say that? No matter with him. Okay. Um. Yeah. And apology. Okay. Resolve that this would advocate for local control of education administration to the county executive or school board when appropriate avenues, but does not support this. Okay. And

047we all know that. 31. That visible oppose any legislation or divisive regulation mandating comprehensive k-through-12 gender and sexuality education. I also. And is that something that we feel spending or this is just one of those preemptive strikes? So something that really sticks this. Here to the standards. Yeah. Okay. Okay, everybody go with the. I wonder what. 32. So all that is to oppose any legislation or nice and regulation that would allow biological males to participate in female athletics. It was just that was discussed with the other. Um. Resolution that we are just discussing. Okay, so we're okay with a no vote. Okay. Uh proposed Resolution 33. This vote opposing any legislation or nicer regulation that would mandate any recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Commission, including mandating a culturally responsive, sustaining education framework. Everyone okay with,

048uh, you know, on that level? Yeah. Right. 34. That is the urge neither to rescind the unnecessary early dismissal mandate. Wait, what does that mean? No, that's not it. Yeah, that's how we ran. We're having one on Friday. How do you not like to sit? Okay. The day before Thanksgiving. Okay. Ready? We're going to. With no other. Uh, 35. And there's still legislation that would grant judges the ability to require bail in cases of violent threats against school districts and for staff and or students and school districts. Um. Yeah. Yeah, I would imagine. And I think they're just trying to. But also the incredible increase in swatting and all that stuff. Yeah, just a caution to try to keep at it, but I don't feel that base of the school. The legal system analysis, but

049it was under review. All right, so we're good with a no. I'm not. 36. The resolve in his vocational work to develop state law that requires Woolworth's conduct at least three member trainings during each school year on topics determined by the board and other relevant stakeholders. Yeah. Um. Yeah. And anyone have a problem with what we have? Uh, listen, we do this anyway, so I don't know. But. But they don't want Amanda to attribute that to the dependance on people already. I spent a lot of time on your house. Yeah, well. Not close. Okay. 37. Uh, I mean, I guess, you know, how many more? 300. That's a lot of fun, you know? 38? Yeah, but 37. But there's so many things. There's a man as we go along. All right, so just anyone on

05037. Um. They're saying you have to have a recess time. Advocates for 30 to 40 minutes per day of recess time, being officially recognized as an alternative for instructional time in elementary schools and counting for demanding evidence. Now we have time or any time. Yeah. Uh, there is time that we schedule. Um, part of when we submit, um, a report for state aid giving two thresholds, the minimum number of days and then 900 million. Saturday elementary night, 90th. Um, secondary. Um, and so recess and lunch do not count in those minutes. Believe is asking for that to be Kamasutra or anyone that would that would be that would be great for us. Um, not necessarily allow us to reach the threshold or easier or I would think there's districts that don't have limited recess. So

051that's why I mean, this is a great thing, but we're already close enough. All right. So is everyone. I mean, I would say, yeah. Um, well, I think everybody would love for their tons of recess time, but I don't think, practically speaking, teachers can get on board. They're also obligated to go tournament and do that. It's like what's on the other side? I think that I mean, like, uh, if you're like, well, then it would be playtime in the classroom. And I feel like it's not many benefits there, actually, if you wanted to get involved in it, but it would actually help. Reduce. It because sometimes I don't think recess. Um. All right. So or we would, um, um, I guess I might just reply, but if there's anybody sitting here. So we started learning

052from looking at what happened. The way that I feel now is that brings us now is considered unstructured time without the future. I if I'm reading this right, I feel like it would allow. Playtime with a teacher there to perhaps help with some of the social or emotional issues that might come up during recess. By mentoring linked ideas. $49. Do you have any in terms of the. I don't have an objection at all. I mean, in terms of the impact on it, I don't think there would be much it would just allow us to count what we're doing already towards those events and events. Okay, so what are. I was away from the thinkers thinking. No, I didn't read it, I maybe I missed it, I didn't hear the teachers being out there, but, um,

053but I think it goes back to those 900 that I haven't mentioned, that threshold that we have to meet each year. Right now, it's not counted as instructional time. So it's saying and I say count children to account. This is a category that's not right. But I know that it's I'm I'm thinking if it's 30 and 40 minutes, it's saying if that's more than what's allowed time, um, I would see and as you know more social emotional well-being. So if there was time that was considered minutes, I would think that would be considered with a professional. And for, um, they know that it's not clear as to. Yeah, I think it's clear like, okay, that's fine. Then we just have to read. Uh, well, hang on, I don't know where we all stand on on

054that one. Um, 37 I, I offer something I think it might also be making sure that there is adequate recess time. Some schools only allocate 15 to 20 minutes for kids to have recess. And they're saying that they need, uh, the way I read it, it's at least 30 to 40 minutes in order to get outside, decompress, be able to, you know, run around friends and play. I don't think it's taking away at all from under time. I think it was just allowing that counts. Yeah. And it seems like like what you're saying, it's addressing schools and not doing that and allowing it to count really does help us in terms of providing. Yeah, what we need to provide for kids. All right. So words everybody wants. Everyone's got that okay. Then what's up with

055uh the parameters. Yeah I mean I mean yeah I mean it's it's a good thing we all agree with that. All right. So also you can vote on enough people do um, for everybody here we're meeting has not started yet. We're just doing a work session and we just need two more minutes and then we will start recording you. Um, okay, so the amendments are two. Actually, it's 1 to 8. There's one. Yeah, there's one today. Um, that gave you a little bit more explanation on, like, building a lot of places before I put in that bottom line. Oh. So actually so eight, which we were in favor of would actually be this amended version. Yeah. Um, which includes the italicized language. So just I assume that we're still in. Yes. Yeah. You know, four

056and 11, which is the stuff that you were bringing notwithstanding of the draft, of course, one of the specifics of what they had said, first of all. Okay. All right, all right. Good. Okay. All right. So I swear we're there. Okay. All right. So I see you have your marching orders for all of them when they come through. And it is shorter than would have been because I need nourishment along the way. So make sure there's some extra attention. Okay, so can I have a motion to, um. But both men are exceptional. Cynthia on emotion and manner on the second. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. All right, so we've got 625. So five minutes from the start of. I also want to reiterate. I think it's all right. Good evening everyone. It

057is October 8th, about 631. Um, and, uh, we will open up tonight's, uh, board meeting, uh, with a pledge to the club. I live in the United States and sense of nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, so we'll start with the Ministry of Commerce and we'll start short selling. And so last Wednesday, New York State Assemblyman Matt Slater visited our pre-K classes. And in addition to representing the towns of Kent, Paterson, Hutt Valley, Carmel, southeast, summers, Yorktown and the village of Brewster. He's also a Navy reservist, serving in the Navy Cargo Handling Battalion eight. Uh, one really special surprise we had was that some women. Slater, dropped in on one of our N.J. ROTC classes, where he addressed architects. He shared his experiences serving in the U.S. Navy. And also,

058I had a really great Q&A session with our cadets. They asked some really great questions about his work, as in Solomon, but also serving within the Navy itself. Um, it was a fantastic visit and our students really appreciated his time and experience. All right. Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. Yes. Thank you. I just want to recognize our assistant principals at the Salvation Council. Mary, um, and Dave, for facilitating our new teacher academy a couple of weeks ago. The first one of the year around classroom management came to support. And I did anything other for my husband. Okay. All right. Doctor. Okay. Uh, a few brief comments, but in my opinion, important comments. Uh, first is, uh, you may have seen the green and white blueprints on Thornton Road leading into, uh, JFK and and the high

059school. And even if you are on City Star. Uh, that was the idea of, uh, Town of Southeast Supervisor Nick durante. Um, with the full support of the town board and down highway department, and you were able to get this done. Daniel Michelini, who is, uh, an art teacher at, um, the middle school and a TV star. The design or PTA is key for the stencil. Ronnie Fagan really helped. And with assisting in moving this forward, Glen Brier, director of uh facilities, was there to assist with the efforts. Rooster paint donated. The paint was just a really nice sergeant. And we, uh, thank Supervisor durante and the town of moving this idea forward. Uh, the second announcement has to do with homecoming. Uh, so, as you know, we have homecoming on Friday, October uh, 25th.

060Um, thanks to the efforts of a number of people, we are able to bring the bonfire back. It can now be the world class bonfire. Um, but it will be something, uh, we're we're planning on doing it at 6:00. Uh, right before the football game. It'll be at, uh, the small field that sort of is adjacent to the turf field next to JFK. And, uh, right after that, the tennis courts. So we'd really like to thank a number of people who have helped to bring it to this, this point. The fire department has been absolutely incredible. Uh, chief Mike Miller and Steve Miller, um, and all the volunteers of the fire department. So when we we've been talking about this for a while and, um, they sort of put out feelers to their, their, uh,

061volunteers and said, you know what? Everybody be available on this night if we can get this happen and, and filled out just like that. And then the number of volunteers that have responded is incredible already. Of course, our, uh, our town supervisor, Nick durante, as well. But fryer is out there today with, um, with Assistant Chief Miller looking at, you know, uh, an aerial view of the field and walking the ground to see where the best place to be. And of course, our team that's going to help make this happen. So we'll get it off the ground this year. We'll see how it goes. If it goes well, we'll build on the successes for next year. And of course we'll have more information and, uh, and PR to come, but it's a nice way to

062build on the already, you know, tremendous booster pride in you. That concludes my call. Thank you. All right. Great. Thanks. That's great. And I have such a simple thing. Those bear flag, but it really looks so. I've had so many people comment on it. So that was a great idea. Thank you to everybody. Had anything to do with it. And, uh, I was just going to say that we had the first, our first, um, football game on the turf. You have obviously other sports have had the opportunity to have their home games. And, um, I've been to a lot of football games over the years, and I just between the team one, which is great, the band, the marching band was outstanding. I mean, they just they've added like a whole other layer with, you

063know, um, sort of core choreography and the flag for the flag twirlers, the cheerleaders, the dance floor, everyone. It was really a fun. Everyone signed their seats for the whole, um, halftime. So thank you to all those many, many people who made, uh, that have included all the students. Okay. So now we will move to our student representative, Sebastian. Hi. Good evening. Uh, just some happenings, uh, these last few weeks at our high school, several makeshift men from the RPI visited our in JROTC this week. Uh, PSAT days, October 16th. Juniors will be taking the PSAT, while sophomores will be taking the practice act. Freshmen will be participating in a variety of activities and social emotional health based seminars. All seniors will have the opportunity to partake in either. Stop the Bleed training by PNW,

064Boces Safety Office or a safety seminar presented by our SRO Deputy Government. Open House is Friday US October 17th at 630. Varsity football team won its home opener against Nyack 14 to 7, as mentioned this past Saturday. The next home game will be Thursday, uh, versus Fox Lane. The fall drama Amadeus will begin on November 1st at 7 p.m., and the high school will be celebrating Italian Heritage Month throughout October. Uh, and was middle school on Monday, uh, they celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with two spectacular performances. Seventh and eighth graders watched a performance from Valens Monaco, and sixth graders watched a performance titled Plato from Reaction Dance Company. Thank you to PNW Boces Arts and Education program for funding these performances. Today, the Brewster Fire Department came to celebrate and educate students on fire prevention.

065All grades received the presentation and the sixth graders got to try out the equipment. The MHS student government campaign season kicked off this week, and students will create posters, make speeches, and get sworn in. Two weeks after the entire school votes on Wednesday, ten slash 16 city staff will recognize Hispanic Heritage Month with student performances organized by our music teacher as Ortiz Wallace Welch. City staff student clubs are going strong. School clubs are key to developing critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, leadership and creative collaboration skills, among others. This year, we have many choices such as intramurals, line dancing, Spanish walks and wellness, strategic games, gardening, basketball, science, sewing, soccer, arts and eats, and the land of public cloud. City star will also hold its Fall Book Fair October 21st to the 25th, and Q starts

066planning a Veteran's Day tribute to honor our local veterans in November. Finally, uh, JFK, uh, the Brewster Fire Department will be joining JFK on Thursday, October 10th, where they will be able to share safety information with our students to get to see a fire engine in an ambulance. The JFK Reading and Math program is set to begin next week, and additionally, our morning clubs including music, 3D Art, steam, Crazy Eights, World Language and Board Games will begin next Wednesday. Trick or treat is happening on Saturday, October 19th in the parking lot. We're so excited to see all the transit students dressed up. Thank you. Thank you. Switzerland. Okay, so now we'll move on to presentations recognition and discussion. Number one external audit presentation. Yeah. So partners. Okay. So we're, uh, joined by Albert Calvino from

067Pkf O'Connor. Davies. He's going to provide an update, the Board of Education about our, uh, financial statement audit that was just included in this first model. There's a little funny, but you're going to cross over on your. I want him sour and I'm going to survive. But I'm sorry. Hey, want to go to a few things? Like, what do they call me when we're part of communications in 2024? Jonathan Ryan expenditures. Create a budget that I'll go into more detailed comparison of years later with major revenues in major expenditures. And I'm over here at that service. So we're required. Communication management's responsibility as responsibility is for selecting and implementing. Uh, probably the accounting policies rarely presented with financial statements requires that you establish establishing and maintaining effective controls over financial reporting, compliance with laws, regulations

068and provisions of contracts and agreements, providing full financial records and information for the auditors, and setting the tone of the. Now our responsibility as auditors to deliver an independent audit report on financial statements with the district received an unmodified opinion, which provides and we have an appointed financial statement. Uh, we also received a report on his own financial reporting, in part by calling or auditing standards and the Senate hearing on material weaknesses and working conditions. Please note that I can post for the audit. Report on applying for each major federal program where there's a lot of attention. And we tested the school lunch program to show. We also do an extra classroom activities report and a revised dedication to the Ministry of the government's. Uh, our to any fraud or illegal acts or no return.

069What if there were no note in the account and no difficulties in the conduct of the audit, and there are no uncorrected misstatements and no disagreements are not involved. Now I'm going to go through the, uh. General fund revenues and expenses. Budget. So as you can see, there are a few columns on the strategy. The first column is the original budget that was adopted by the district about 2324. To write the final budget column. That is your adopted by year, plus any budget modification you made during your budget transfers, request or amendments. The actual column is what actually happened throughout the year and you can see the end result. The district had, um, a surplus of 3.2 million and a part of the fund balance down to 22.89 million. The next time you see in

070conferences, you have 520,000 encumbrances for this year and the various home that is final compared to actual. As you can see, the district and the budget in revenues by 2.8 million bracket. We'll discuss further in the next few slides. And expenditures by 3.4 million. And that brings up to 46.3 million better than budget. Now this side I'll discuss the main roads. So the, uh, columns are somewhat from the previous slide, as I mentioned. You can see that compared to the budget, the actual we did 2.8 million better than budgeted. That's mainly made up of the use of money in property. So a district invests in New York class. And due to the higher interest rates and the district contributing about an additional 9 million. Um, so you need a main investment income. Uh, 2.2 million.

071And that's 1.5 million better than anticipated budget. Next is your state aid. As you see the state aid, you better than budgeted. And state aid is, um, due to the state aid allocation in the state. That's my pupil count. And when the state came out with the original policy anticipated and contributing less to the district. And you actually receive more later on. In addition, the district also received two new funding sources this year than current last year. And that's due to the, uh, sports gambling raging and also cannabis, where you can see about 1 million. Okay. So that gotten about 9%, about 2.9. Um, that a lot of parents. Next is your, uh, expenditures. So compared to the budget unit, the district did 3.4 million better than budgeted. And that's going to in your GHGs.

072You have 960,090 and $16 on apologize. And that's due to, um, the, uh, rates for your electricity and control rates. Came in lower than anticipated. And, um, in addition, there are also less renovation costs of 560,000. I'm going to spend the next year on your teaching and program process with disabilities where combined, that's about, uh, 671,000. That's due to, uh, less students enrolling in anticipated in various occasion programs. Uh, next is your people. Transportation. Humans 718,000. Better than budget that students who, uh. You vacant positions in your positions. But budget anticipates and positions and you actually have positions currently. Uh, working. And the employee benefits is 401,000 federal employees. And that's due to the savings you have on one of the vacant positions in transportation, health care, quality, retirement costs, and all your other benefit

073goals. The next slide is your general fund balance analysis. So you can see it from your non-central union. Prepaid expenses are 1.1 million. Then the district had restricted compounds and these are all restricted by state of your taxing liability. Your time is reversed. Access your capital improvements. That was not 40 million total. He was out of sight by -2.8 million. That's due to your accommodations that I mentioned earlier, and I would have 20,000 in those every subsequent years. Um, appropriations, we had 25.3 million. And you have an underlying fund balance of 4.7 million, which around the 4% mark your fund balance. You can't get any revenue. And the last thing we'll talk about is here. That's Earth's. So this slide is a summary of all your services throughout the year. You have bonds throughout the

074year for the 3 million. And there's a long term lease on 6 million. These are leases on your money and your, uh, meaning of your years, your business for us. And, um, and you're all the lease you have for leases, so you're criminal leases. That goes on until 2029. And your bonds and get free bonds out seeing what's going on. And in 2034. What it means. A financial pandemic, most likely for yourself. How do you want to have a life? So great. Thank you. Oh, that's great that I read that we have $6 million between. So what I'm asking are the same answers. So on the revenue side of the budget, we have two positive variances of about $3 million in total. One was interest because, uh, as we recall, when we adopted budget in

075April, subsequent to adopting the 2324 budget, uh, the fed increased, uh, interest rate, etc. So we did much better than our interest budget that we, you know, finalized in April. Um, so we had a, uh, significant increase in interest revenue to get back worse. Um, and then the other was sitting. So over the last three years, 78 have been restored and the state has been actually moving goalposts in on us. So in April, when they tell you you're going to receive X amount of money, what actually ends up happening or it has happened over the last three years is they're giving you X and then more of than X. Uh, then as Albert explained, some of it is due to, uh, gambling proceeds and uh, and cannabis, uh, revenues. So those are two positive developments.

076Um, you know, that affected us last year. And then on the expenditure side of the budget every year, um, we always you're not allowed to overextend your budget. Uh, so we spent 97% of our expenditure budget just using rough numbers of our budgets, 100 million. And we spent 97 million. There's there's the other, uh, uh, positive variance of 30 nos. But we have a $6.2 million in cash after this past year, 3.2. So in almost the entirety of it, which, uh, the Finance committee met and recommended that we increase our capital reserve. So we increase our capital reserve by that same amount. Okay. So, um, 2.8 was an increase in revenue. 2.875. That's 2.9. And then we underspent by 3.5. So the two of them together. So yeah, the other half of the equation is

077appropriated fund balance. So appropriated fund balance is essentially a positive loss of revenue. So you would have to subtract 3 million from appropriated fund balance. And then you would get out of that 3.2. Okay. So get that the finance committee had voted on that, but we went up 4 million last year in budget. Right. Was it bought? Are you talking about the tax or total? I'm talking about the total budget. Our total budget went up by. Right. Our budget increased 3.9. Yeah, 4 million, $4 million. So we went up $4 million. We have remained in the bank. Are full of unbalances about $22 million. That's bizarre. You know, like. But I'm saying after this year, again, I'm not understanding the fund balance. Okay, so because when I look at, you know, and I say, right,

078I got more revenue and I underspend $6.2 million, that's what I'm looking at. And so without moving any of that money around from last year, we have $6.2 million. Why not 3.2? Because. Because we appropriated every year on the revenue side of our budget fund balance. So we we say we're going to use a $3 million of our savings, which not only do we not use that, but where the money goes in this fund back. It's a budget number. So it's like it's like a budget with loss and revenue is essentially more expensive. So we didn't make three. We didn't make 2.9 million extra last year. Uh, our surplus in actual dollars ignoring, you know, budgets. Our surplus last year was 3.2 million. Okay. At some point, we should do that. 3.2 million is 80%

079of what we raise our our budget off this year. We have underspent significantly. We always have to understand that's great. We have underspent significantly. And every year, except for the one year where we got a boatload of tax funding and this I'm saying this now because I'm going to say this the entire time. We are constantly going back to the well, including the capital budget. I mean, I want those bathrooms on the on the, on the thing more than anyone. But like, this is something we have to consider. We have money in the bank, a lot of money in the bank. And when we go back to the well and ask our on our community and pay for more money, this is what I'm going to bring up every single time. Yeah. And I would

080just I would just say that. Um, so within our region, the other northern Westchester Boces region, of the 18 school districts in our region as of the year ended 2023, which I don't have everybody's updated numbers for the year that just ended 2015, we ranked, um, 12 out of 18 in terms of fund balance compared to the budget. So in other words, there are 11 districts who have a greater fund balance as a percentage of their budgets. And Brewster, we ran 12 out of those 15. So it's not like Brewster. It's unique. And that where, you know, we have spent a windfall of money. We're actually lower than middle of the road in our region. But we did. We were fairly unique with the amount of state aid that we have received compared to those

081around us. Um, I believe Carmel and I actually, I think all the districts in our region, I should say the majority of districts in our region benefited from, they all benefited. But when you look at the amounts that we got compared to the rest of them, we pretty certain that we got substantially more than them when we looked at them. And I think both those school districts were like 1000 less or at least made impact where 1000 less. So like, this is it's an important note that we when we go back to the well, last year, we didn't ask for any money because we asked for, you know, the $86 million this year. We went back and asked for $4 million, uh, with very small class sizes. Um, and I have sat on that side

082of it saying that we need smaller class sizes when we had 2827, but when we get down to 19, we don't need 17. So this is going and letting you guys know that this is going to be something that I'm continually talking about. Because budget season, as you say, starts now. Um, so I think it's an important thing that we look at our coffers and say that, yes, we've been blessed and we balance it, but we're running under, um, a lot, a lot of numbers, which is is fantastic. That's where you want to be. So kudos to the district for being exactly where we want to be. But when we go back out to our constituents, I think we have to be mindful of what we're we're asking for. And it shouldn't be anywhere near

0834 million. Um, based on the money that we have sitting, um, on, on our balance sheets. All right. Thank you, Victor, on that interest and the state, additional state. And looking at the revenue. Um, I mean, that's part of this. That's the driving force behind the surplus. Yeah, those were the two or the two. And those are things that we don't know any at the time that the budget is right. So thankfully it works in our favor, but it could also not be there. Right. So we don't control the foundation any changes that we may get before the interest. Okay. Does anybody else have any questions? We're also the other districts. We have different population acts. We have different, uh, student needs. We have higher um, we have reduced lunch resources. We also have to

084take into account that now they're starting to cut things. So we're not going to see this influx. And the state has repetitively said, um, well, it's right. We're not going to be hit this with the last time we get additional resources and they're going to buy them out. And that's without actually a good time. So we do have to look out for my lesson plan for the future. And I don't think Victor is going to be out there not planning I think. But what you've told us everything. Here. Is that our skate aid? We reached where we are now so that that we're not getting the windfall. So we've gotten a windfall. Windfall? Windfall which there's been a or not windfall. We have gotten money that we should have gotten all along. So that's the

085benefit. But we are still expecting those steady levels, even with the interest level. Even as of the interest rate cuts, we still have been at a much higher rates. They're not going to be cutting to such a degree in the foreseeable future. That's not going to still bring us value on money that we were not getting in three years ago and so forth. So we can't, you know, it's not going to dry up like that. Plus, we have reached our plateau, at least for now, with the state aid that that money is theoretically expected to be there. And if there's not the funds going to fall out on everything that we have and everything's going to have to be a good degree. Yeah. Any other questions? Mr. Calvino, thank you again. Thank you. Robert. And

086for the record, I have a hard copy of the financial savings. If you if you've read a post to our website to it's available electronically. But if you care about the physical copies by all means of one three. All right. Thank you. All right, now we'll move on to number two on the resident technology. So Action item number one asks you to consider the approval of the internal and external audit reports. Um, part of the internal audit uh works are uh, residency um program. So here is, um, some context and, um, um. Some of our, um, I don't know, approach to how we are, um, expanding or looking at these activities. So, uh, just a moment to explain this chart for a bit. Left hand side, uh, column. You'll see some time frames. Right. We

087have a broken down for June of 2023. July 1st to December 31st of 2023. Uh, January 1st to, uh, June 30th of 2024. Correct. Uh, you'll see, we added a sort of perspective number for all the the calendar year, uh, uh, 2024 at the time of the audit. Um, we which was around September 18 or 19. These are the number of outstanding leases that we had that expired within those particular timeframes. So you can see, for example, in June of 2023, we had, um, you know, 30, 60 people were impacted. Uh, 70 students for July 1st to December 31st and then 350 to 56 students. Uh, part of why we're showing you, um, the difference between September 18 to 19 and now is because of the progress that we've made. And we'll explain in the

088next slide, uh, why that happens. Um, and also to show you that, you know, this is a continual ongoing effort that we are going to, uh, continue to dedicate resources to. Um, and although we will be diligent and we'll continue to, um, you know, follow the letter of law and do all that we need to do to protect resources. Uh, these numbers will never go down to zero. We will always be, um, on our to do list. And in order to make sure that we are remaining vigilant. Uh, one, uh, key number in the bottom right hand corner. So if we think about the number of students in 2020 calendar year 2024, we have 526 students that have yet to, uh, verify these leases. So that's a number that we, um, are pursuing with, starting

089with me and in chronological order. And the oldest, uh, to to the, um, your most recent. So some other considerations and some additional context for this. Um, about a third of our families, um, or our students, um, lease or rent. So those are normal home owners that, um, typically have to, um, provide, um, you know, documentation each year that they are still living at the address that they originally enrolled at. That's about, again, around 1000, 1000 students. Um, it's important to note, and you'll see this, this big number, that sort of balloon. Um, and that is because part of partly because we work out of residency office or from May until the end of August. This is a very specialized skill set. Uh, at this time, after an unexpected resignation, to be able to get

090someone place someone in place. But we're very happy with the individual that we have. And you can see just from starting at the end of August to where we are now, the, um, the does that has been made and um, particularly the, you know, the top she rose uh, with those outstanding, um, older, older releases, uh, something that we found and, you know, although we are pointed to, uh, literally, um, as leader in the region and residency efforts, uh, something that we continue to learn, um, is how best to allocate resources. Um, and, and what are those ways that we can really verify residency most effectively is through home visits? And this is time intensive. Uh, but it really allows for us to ensure that, uh, individuals live there. So this is after we had

091repeated efforts to get documentation from from families that are either not able to provide their documentation or they're not responsive. And so we have our residency options or that, that, um, that goes and shows up some other ways that we have really built in efficiencies. Um, is thinking about the routes that we're taking, whether they're the most number of students that we can hit the reticular, um, area. And how can we we know that we have, you know, 2 hours or 3 hours to do this on this particular day. You know what? Where is that cluster where we can get to and try and verify residency in that way? Um, we also have made some adjustments and, and previously there was about one day a week that was dedicated and basically that increased that to,

092uh, the two days. Now we're also looking at ways that we are more effectively communicating with families directly. So putting out maybe some of the, uh, the, the barriers that would, um, if people aren't checking emails or there's too many parents where, for example. So where are the ways that we're, we're, um, making sure that we're, we're connecting, um, with families. Um, so again, this is a continual effort. That number will never be zero. But it's something that we are, you know, vigorously pursuing. If feel like now that we have our residency officer in place. Um, and we're learning from some of what we've done in the past. Um, that we're doing all we can to make sure these numbers, um, go down. And then we'll continue to, to be vigilant around this and report

093out, uh, to all of you. So I'm, I'm going to take some questions, though. Quite honestly, I'm not sure I'll have all the. You, um, when you look at 357 526, how many of them are foundlings versus individuals, right? No, that's a number on that. But that's why we wanted to make sure that you had, you know, um, I'm more consistent in this metric. What? We're recording this out. So it's about a thousand students overall that are in this. Um, um, yeah. And obviously temporary living threshold with a, uh, non, non, uh, homeowners. Uh, so I don't know how many families are within that get that number just because I'm sure that's going to drop down if I like a minimum of 20%. And the other thing is, is that, I mean, we are we

094are doing this, um, we've made great strides, but we are a border county and we, you know, that's that's one of the reasons why you have to be more diligent than other areas that are that are further in. We have, you know, a city that that is right next to us, apartment buildings. I mean, I pass to on the way home is instead of going to each individual, is it something that can be talked from an efficiency say like, hey landlord, um, this big we have, you know, these kids here, can you tell us, you know, can you just give us the ten leases that you have pertaining to students versus having to go to a family member and do something like that? So part of the. Yes, and I think that what that part

095of what the, um, residency officer has been able to do is to work and say, okay, these are the, the, uh, you know, x number of students that are within that, you know, that let's say that first benchmark right out June of 2023. But part of the problem is to obviously not all leases expire at the same time. Right? So we're but we have these different tiers, um, where we might say, okay, there are 20 to 20 students in this particular area, but like kind of of students have, you know, um, leases from 2023. And, uh, you know, another matter, how many, you know, a family every five year and then the the rest are yet to expire. So how do you sort of balance that while trying to build in a specialty? I would

096say like quarterly find like the most high grossing locations with the most students and do that. Um, if you guys are able to do that, the other thing is what are your goals? So I think the momentum, um, that has happened from the 36 to 1770, the 31 is great. Um, I don't necessarily know what we jump from. Are you saying? So by the end of this year, we are under 75. Yeah. Okay. Um, what are what are the goals like? So, you know, understand not zero goals. What you know, for your residents. 18, you know, is it getting that through, you know, 50% is it getting down to one of those things or can we down to that, that we're tracking and striving for that level to be able to say like, yep, we

097have we have cleared everybody in 2023 by the end of this year. Yeah. I mean, there's um, again, it and it's hard because with all of these students are different circumstances. Right. Um, and I know we all know that we've been entrenched in this forever. I mean, part of our goal is to ensure consistency in the residency department. You know, having, um, residency officers that have come and gone, um, and have done a good job while they're here. Now, that consistency is, is is key to us being able to do this. And so we don't have this backlog where we have to keep up. Um, but I think it might be useful for us to look at trends over time while we are able to have the residency officers in place, for us to be

098able to benchmark and say, how many kids can we clear, we have an excellent time. All right. And then the last thing is that, um, you know, there is, uh, a huge amount, uh, um, some more of the roster or people that just fix up an apartment and open that up. And, uh, I know we've discussed this in the past, and we are not responsible for checking on egress, carbon monoxide and fire and everything like that. However, we should have every single location that we go to, a piece of paper from the town that says, you need to have this. And I'm certain if we call the town right now and say, yeah, we'll get you something that says you have to have egress, not there, because you have to have that so that we

099are at least telling people, uh, as our, our student, our student families that you should be expecting all of these things in your apartment from your landlord, that you're going to be giving money, uh, to these people on a regular basis, and that they are susceptible to loss, even if, if, if you as, as the, uh, rent or not to try to push towards greater safety for our student. And I'm happy to ask him for Scott life, but I'm having at the town or something like that that they could give out and hand to each family and or each one of those apartment buildings that we're going to. Thank you. Anyone else? Any questions? So if we looking at 526 students, about 80% of our population. Um, so I do know the towns residents. Um,

100national registration laws are noted. So there's not a lot from the town's perspective. Um, what they brought in purposely, it seems, you know, the village, all the ones that I looked at in this whole area that require registration of housing units, but there's no. Well, we'll talk about fallback if we have people that are unable are pensioners, but I could raise, um, nieces if we have any. Is there any teeth and wrinkles? Well, we can say if you don't do this by this period of time, this will happen to you for our students to provide. Yeah. That's why we try and do everything we can to keep students enrolled, because once they've been able to meet the threshold of, uh, being a proving residency. And if they haven't missed documentation, you know, legally, as you

101know, that's a different, different bar to meet. So we do all that we can to check the boxes and, and, and keep students enrolled while we're making sure that they still live where they sit, where they've already proven that they register. Um, but that's why home visits are so key, because, you know, the amount of time that you could spend calling and trying to get, you know, information, um, you could just drag out and see that, you know, that they live there. Um, but it's not. I mean, we do have situations where students have been, um, you know, just enrolled. And as a result of not being able to provide those. And then there were like about four weeks later, our re-enrolled, um, you know, following this back up basis. And now also relates that

102in the past, we've worked with both students and we've had certain things, student sites and certain restrictions. What? The residency offices that we currently want. It's it's something where we need to allocate more resources, more help or assistance of some type, uh, to aid them in their task. Is it just that, you know, a couple of people, especially now they have that's now four have a backlog and there's already we all just playing catch up. Is there something we can do from our respective to aid. I know that over, um, over time, I don't remember the exact timeframe, but at least within the last year, we added some additional variable support or clerical support in that department. Um, and, you know, the, the we we could always look into what support proposals can provide or

103anywhere else in order to help you over that, that, that, that black box. Um, I just want to reiterate that we'll continue to be chasing this or because of the what, you know, a thousand students that are um, and these, um, you know, are not homeowners that need to approve this each year will be that, that same sort of thing. But we can definitely look into additional resources. But it's it's also it's also like if, you know, it's much easier to keep my kid if I move to, you know, Patterson, it's much easier for me to keep my kid here. And I can drop them off in the morning on the way to work. So one of the things that we did talk about a long time ago is the transition when you transition in

104school. So if we're grouping those for 126 kids as a family, and then you theoretically go down by, I would assume it's higher than 20%, but let's just say it's 20%. And then you look at it and say, okay, what can we catch up on with the resources now that we have for 2022 words in terms of the hiring? But after that, why don't we look at it as transition rate so that we are saying that, uh, we are always going to try to do this on a, on a yearly basis, but if not, but at least maybe not everybody every time is excited. But I'm not giving it an out. I'm saying you got 526 to do. I'm saying prioritization. Okay. And in the past we've worked with outside groups like people. And it's

105it's a strenuous process. Sometimes people register and we work with Cap. It's the most it is something we can do with them again or something that much uh, still kind of information that speak to people. Um, and they would go over the different information that there is while our residents, you know, is bilingual, the more resources, the better that it is a big help to overcome for someone who doesn't have cancer. So it's still active. And then the other thing that these people need to understand is that they that they are paying money and should expect a certain level of safety and that they, that every single apartment that they live in should have a fire alarm, a carbon monoxide egress. I understand financial situations of social, economic and so forth, but we have, uh,

106folks that will take advantage of that. And how do we make certain that our students are still safe and can, you know, effectively get out of a fire and know that there's a fire here, that there's fire and be able to get out without, you know, because someone's, you know, trying to cut corners. And a lot of that is beyond our capabilities. We can always ask and talk to the town. And I'm sure the town has volunteered multiple times. Thank you. Want to share the list? Can we look at the list and talk to their lives? Yeah, because there's always a middle ground to everything. And of course, anything we can do 60,000. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. All right. So we'll move on to our third presentation, which is age 12 middle school and

107high school 20 2425 called presentation. He. I could even up the whole size of them for sure. 612. And I was there and they were there. I was wondering. Okay, let me do that. All right, let's start. So first off, um, I just want to thank everyone here for the opportunity, um, to be able to work out well. Um, and one, one that realize how close it is. Um, the kids are interesting. Watch them grow. Uh, it's been a lot of fun. And, uh, working with our staff has been great. So that's the first thing I want to say. And, um, speaking on behalf of myself and also. And also Mr. Flores, um, was not presenting what I was, but AT&T consulting on things like those later. So we want to. So our goals. Okay.

108So first goal is physical and emotional safety of our students. And it's only for 25 school year. Age levels will include students belonging by focusing on creating connections just in the development of character education. Um so this is partly character education came about partly, uh, from issues that I have seen before from students, um, at the high school as far as, uh, character development and especially like a quick profile of that new skills, um, that I felt we needed to address at the younger levels. Um, but also, um, it looks even more by the summer reading that we have, um, the Concord, um, fans games to convocation. And I love that we ran the summer by Adam Grant or Hidden Potential. And that book basically, um, solidified things for me as far as creating that

109connection between character creation and success, you know? So, uh, I always say that if we all were getting tested right now on the seventh grade math, we probably wouldn't do very well. Um, but of those character traits that we have learned along the way that will drive us to be successful. Uh, so where we're at right now, um, so how are we going to do this? But also in that sense of belonging amongst our students by offering various opportunities that empower students to establish positive relationships, cultivate strong character traits, and build valuable values for community. So one of the ways that we're going to do this is by creating an environment where students feel a connection to our school, which is really important. Eventually, that goal, and I want everyone in our school to be

110connected to either an adult or an activity that they're doing in our school, and we're working our way towards getting there. Um, so, for example, um, our Second Step program, um, is flying high with our sixth graders. Last year with the pilot, uh, this year we have invited it as part of our sixth grade curriculum. So thank you to our teachers, uh, for taking the time block to teach our students on social emotional skills. And a big thank you to Mr. Staff of things they actually for organizing, um, the timing with our teachers and meeting with our teachers in order to help improve base into their curriculum. We're also, uh, we also have implemented a wheel Wells course pilot, okay, which is the, uh, middle school version of the VHS light curriculum, um, that I

111love. And basically that curriculum focuses on acceptable functioning, um, academic skills to teach our skill, our students, how to study um, and 21st century skills like collaboration and communication that we always talk about. Uh, so it's really hard to. Sort of started class after the schedule had been made, but I want to give a big thank you to Sarah Booker. All jumped right in at the idea of doing this part of the week with the auto 80 next year. We want this to be school wide. Okay. That's the tough part. Everything for second step. We're going to be school one next year. And four um, are we are well we are well of course, um, another way that we are helping our students is through the partnership with Community Agency. So I want to give

112a thank you to all this Microsoft and Mr. Suarez, because they were able to do this through our grade level meaning um, so for example, today fire department came in that was put by um, this one goes up, um, but um, to be able to come in and teach our students about fire safety, you know, eventually as we go on, we can go to one of the other classifications. Um, I'm looking forward to see gizmo talking. Um, uh, well, that. Okay. Um, looking forward to that. Um, um, Grimes, a former white PD detective, is going to be doing internet safety presentation. Uh, the CPC will do, uh, presentation on dark prevention. And yesterday. No. Sorry. So the dance company last week. Last week I've been a day one. I thought that was awesome. Today. It's

113okay. It's been a while since that, um, explanation. So yesterday we had a great presentation, uh, for the ballet Hispanic girl and, uh, company called Pueblo, which our students absolutely love. And they were talking about it the next day, which was amazing. Um, another way that we're also building our dedication is the students property. So big shout out, Master Chief. We have 140 students already come out to the closed program. Um, and again, this is everything that we want to talk about with the development of our students are ROTC program is highly successful at the high school, and we want to bring that down to our students so that they are ready to go once they hit my grade. Uh, we have our state school ambassador VHS collection. Uh, that is and Ashley Sebastian, our

114student speaker, are connecting, um, bringing the high school students down to help us out. Uh, PBIs, which has been very interesting for me to be able to go around, uh, the celebrations and milestones provide our students with, uh, uh, distribution of bear box and grizzly box to our teachers and watching our dancing bears. Um, I'm getting used to the grade level, but put it away, so. But it's been great. And then, um, leadership involvement. So big thank you to the Star Valley, Miss Ratner, uh, for the work that they're doing at the second for our involvement. Okay, is to continue the leverage to leverage the expertise of the subcommittee, uh, to evaluate and refine our physical and procedural safety protocols. So, um, one of the things that actually behind racial diversity, uh, that's only part

115of our school, of our teachers. Okay. And staff members get CPR certified. So at any point in our school cafeteria, something happens. There are people that are prepared to help out, uh, that are not the nurses. And and another way that we're working with it is also to, uh, I have developed a six year, um, friendship plan, okay, in conjunction with our, um, district office. Um, because one of the first things that I had that I did notice over the summer was that, um, the learning environment was not great. Um, as far as the furniture that our students are. So the first example of that. Okay, I want to thank Mr. Pryor and associates of making it work is that we looked at our music area and our music department program in bowling. Uh, but

116unfortunately, they did not have enough storage or proper storage facility for all the instruments. So we were able to upgrade that area over the summer, which they did a great job of just playing, um, their crafts basically. So big. Thank you to them, um, for their support and how invested they are in our reviews, you know, like that, that we lose. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. If you want to clear up. Okay. So this goal is connected to improving student learning. So throughout the 2024 2025 academic school year, agents welcome prioritized enriching students understanding of career opportunities through the integration of grade level activities and performance tasks specifically designed to align with the profile of the graduate sales. So what does that mean and how are we

117going to make that happen? Um, so through grade level activities and presentations, we want to create an a shared experience across the three grade level. We met with our guidance department. Um, and we formulate a plan so that every grade experiences everything that is connected to career opportunity. So for example, in sixth grade they will receive a career fair. In seventh grade they will take a trip to a college university. Um, in eighth grade they will receive a college visit as well. Um, and then do some sort of project that is connected to our success project that that's more mature. This year, our readers will get a career fair and a college in that because since we're starting this, we want to make sure that they get the most opportunities before they go to school.

118Um, we we are going to continue to educate students on the opportunities that we have within the district, such as P-tech, um, and synagogues, for example. I was astounded last week, as I mean, it was almost like Mary Poppins carpet bag. All these kids just kept coming out of the classroom. They were so excited about to go. So thank you, Mr. Chief, for bringing that to Wells Middle School. Um, we have CTE courses that students can take, such as career exploration, woodworking, and build a business. We have a program called School Links that, uh, our counselors and our Ela teachers use, that students can determine career interest. Um, and then they can make informed decisions about their course offerings based off of whatever they learn about themselves for their potential careers. Uh, we are beginning

119our conversations on what a capstone project could look like in the eighth grade, and that is connected to to our success projects, which is has a career focus. Um, and then we are developing the students off scale. So for example, at 21st Century Executive Functioning Skills, we had a track, uh semipublic checking connect, which was at the end of the day, students would, um, get a slide connected to their teacher saying, okay, this is what's happening after school. Now we put more onus on the kids this year so that checking on tablets in the morning and then in the afternoon, students are expected to open up their emails. They get a student square with information that's connected to a link, and it outlines everything that's happening for the day. Um, in terms of after school

120activities and anything that might be coming up within the school, something that we added to that is also a major of the day. So every day we get to learn about a new major that's going to be happening for semester one. And in semester two it will be career of the day. So they're able to read a little snippet about different careers and different majors that are connected with those. Um, coming out, what we're looking to do for next summer is to provide more summer activities. Um, to avoid summer slide. So we already have or summer reading, but we're also working to help in math practice and sign language practice and using an act like Duolingo. Um, and then we also have academic eligibility this year for our athletes. So, um, this is a new,

121uh, a new policy, I would say, in our pool where athletes have to maintain at 75 or higher in order to avoid academic probation in any class. And when they fall below 75 in any class, they will have to stay for, well, academy after school until 326. So let's go to their practice. But they do have the day after school, um, to do some extra help to get the rainbow. Um, and they've heard of that again to develop dedication, perseverance and overcoming obstacles connected to your character. I'm so glad because I. We threatened all the time. Uh. You can you're not going to be able to be on the team. And then. So we got him. Yeah, we got him. Real. And the nurses, they're done a lot of working there. Um, and then the

122second bubble connected to this whole event throughout the school year. Wells will improve student academic performance and reduce achievement gaps. And the implementation of the revised MTF US plan. Um, so we have a number of things happening. Teachers are now receiving, um, some extra PD during our the fourth Tuesday of the month of our our. So our first one was a great success. We reviewed the MTA access website which was Revamp Services Park. And finally, Mrs. Nelson, thank you for that. Um, so we articulated that process to them. Um, and through that presentation, teachers now are able to see the resources that they have in terms of tier one and tier two strategies. Um, and then at the administrative level, we will continue with our, our, our process sort of problem solving meetings where we

123have students, parents, teachers, counselors and administrators at the table to develop Smart goals for kids really gets the kid involved in this in this process. Um, and then within, you know, they set a goal themselves, themselves that's attainable. The teacher goes back to their team and communicates their goal. And then six weeks and come back to the table and say, okay, is this working? What else do you need? Goals. What other support can we get? All right. So going over three we're going to have between the two of us it's about transition support and staff development. Uh so during the 24. So if we want to ensure a smooth transition of leadership for a worldwide salary plan. So as soon as I was, um, lucky enough to get that position, I actually did a training

124on the natural ag plants. And then unbeknownst to me, uh, I had to do it again over the summer, um, a second time around, which made me an expert, I guess at that point, um, in the entry plan. But it really has it really has been great. Um, because what that has allowed me to do is be able to interview, um, everyone at our school, at our school that's involved with our schools. Um, so anyone from the sodium secretariat to our, our leadership team, um, they've been outstanding with me and some of the things that we talked about, just one getting to know them, which, uh, our staff actually shaded, um, their roles in the building. And how did that support them? Um, at their leader, as we move along in this plan, uh, we're

125now going to move into the student phase of it. Uh, we're going to have a principal roundtables. Um, and so Doctor Ghosh is going to be there as well on that. Uh, was on the principal superintendent round table. So to hear from our students and then meeting with parents starting in November as well. So everyone should receive a parent's worth of these so that um, about certain times and I'll move certain times of the day to make it comfortable for everyone, including some after school times, so that we can meet and talk about, you know, a shared future of the world. Um, um, and again, I want to thank the first people that I really want to thank. Um, is my ability okay? Because, um, they've made this transition so smooth for me. Um, this

126also is a great instructional leader. Um, and so she has really taken off and she'll express during our, the second part of the role, um, for expert aid. And, um, Mr. Slaughter is actually technical 80, 40% at our school or really, he's 100/100. Um, that's what he is. Not only do knows what 40% is, he's there all the time and he's constantly helping. So he's really doing two jobs right now. And I want to be able to acknowledge that in front of everyone today. All right. So our final piece of this whole is that during our school year, we will enhance professional development and support for our instructional staff, which will impact student learning. Um, we're very excited about this. We have a lot of different funding allocated for professional development, and we want to

127make sure that we're utilizing it correctly. Um. Um, so our overarching goal is to improve differentiation so that all student meetings are being. And that doesn't mean just supporting students that might be struggling and challenging students that might need that extra boost. Uh, we're currently working with staff on identifying, um, overlap in skill deficiencies from the 6 to 8 tests last year for Ela in there and the star test that they took this year. So we're really looking at what are the skills that need to be in both exams so that we can start to address right now. Um, teachers are identifying common assessments that they have so that we can use the star as an indicator for growth, but we can also use common assessments that teachers are reading. And, you know, there are

128lessons are tailored to in the classroom. Um, so our goal is used to measure progress. And it's given three times a year. And then as relevant as Congress estimates that teachers will choose. Uh, we're utilizing our time in for, uh, for adults, for professional development. We have the Tuesday, uh, the fourth Tuesday power hour. We have something called 20 times. So when students receive grade level presentations, that allows us to release the teachers and give them some extra time with us for professional development. And then we also really try to utilize faculty meetings as well, um, to sharpen instructional practices. But with that, um, we're also looking to work with our teacher and making sure that local teachers and or teachers are working cohesively together. Um, and there's been a lot of talk about vertical

129articulation, making sure that the grade levels are talking to each other, especially at the transitional years. So every teacher is talking to our sixth grade, uh, teachers on the eighth and ninth to make sure that the skills that students should be learning and utilizing are everyone's up to date on that information. So with that, but in my conclusion to our presentation, I won't have any questions. Anyone and. All right. Uh, great. Thanks, guys. Um, so I have mentioned this week objectives are but bmt, mts, so I won't reiterated. But you know, being mindful of how do we make it tangible. Uh, and and do that um, in your goal three teacher engagement, you know, every, uh, you have this whole spectrum, every school, everywhere, amazing teachers, uh, teachers that used to be amazing. And then

130and then not so great teachers. How do you get them all back up to that level? So it would be great to be able to see what you're going to do with that teacher engagement. Um, and, you know, I've been harping on Michelle for a long time about Sped kids who have gifts in other areas being given the opportunity to go into advanced. Well, now you have neurodiverse children that are in an advanced class and that teacher is intolerant. You're moving, you're tapping, you're doing this. I struggle every day with neurodiverse children. It's it's very challenging in my own home. But now in the teacher environment, how do we get these teachers to be able to deal with these children coming up into, into classes that maybe they weren't there before and being a little

131bit more tolerant of some of those things. So, um, the pushing the teachers to be that may have have have gotten tired. I couldn't do the same thing for 20 years. So I totally get how do we get them over the line? And then I'll talk about it more when we get up to, um, the p-tech. But how are you going to start to intrigue these kids in eighth grade about what P-tech is? And then if there's going to be limitations on the numbers of how many are going to be able to do, what is the plan for how they will be, um, enrolled. And I think that is it's something. Oh, sorry. No, it's one more thing. Principal round table, I think, you know, you had mentioned this, uh, principal and superintendent diversity of

132kids. Like, it's not your top kids. It is the whole spectrum of everyone. Right. Thank you. You know. So just to answer, um, actually probably both questions. Number one, um, we consider ourselves a professional development school, uh, because we are lifelong learners. The reason we're in this profession is because we're constantly learning. Um, and that is the same for our teachers. Uh, so new strategies evolve. Um, and it's not the same problem that it was taught 20 somewhat years ago in school. And the reality is, is that the more we, um, the professional development, uh, teachers, the more tools we give them to then give our students in the classroom. So that's our goal, and that's for our faculty meetings. They've been restructured that way, where probably like 10% of the meeting Maggie was there.

133Today is just information. The rest of the time we're learning, um, something, you know, um, is the same for doing that one time. It's the same for a whole hour. So we're looking at at least three hours a month, uh, professional apart for professional development for our teachers every month. And when you add that to the entire year, that's a lot of thought, um, that we have to be able to support our students. And it's the tools they having the ability to have the tools, which is amazing. And, and then their, their willingness and desire to absorb it and move forward because we can all get stuck. We could all get growth, having breakthrough on that and make certain that those teachers that maybe ten years ago were here and kind of have that slip,

134how are we letting them know that they that that really engagement is really important. You got another ten years, you got another five years, you know. And I bring up all the time you guys had teachers that retired last year. And luckily enough, my kid that that teacher came out, my kids got and I'm thrilled because I don't know how it was on day one, but he was amazing in his last year and he's amazing in his first year of retirement. So like, that's the kind of energy that we dream of. You're not going to get that all the time, but how do we make certain that we're getting back? And you're feeling that like every every single one of us gets the slog gets the blues in our job, you know, gets the doldrums.

135How do we get that re-engagement and how do we make it so that they want to? You can lead a horse to water, but then we also need them to actually want to, uh, participate. So being able to reset, it's never really created value to find what we can create that by and and bring inspire. A lot of times we just need to be inspired over and over again. So that's something that we're really focusing on right now. And the other piece I think is knowing your staff, everyone is great at something and really tapping into that and utilizing that because that empowers people. It makes it inspires them, get them excited. Um, so knowing our staff and using them using a powerful tool for professional development is other teacher. Um, so having teachers teach

136teachers the balance right there because that's your colleagues. You trust them, the trust is already there. So that's something that we're looking at. And through these other, um, times, we have to candy, we're just laying out the foundation now talking about data and analysis. How do you analyze these are really setting the foundation for them. And then we want to tap into our different staff members that do a great job as organizers or chunking or whatever it may be, and setting that loose to to educate itself and just work with people. Right. You get a part of our district and bring about our focus being in differentiation. And that's from top to bottom to us. And then that's what we're looking for when we talk about observations, uh, we're looking to see that application of

137what we're learning. Much as anyone else on machines. And, um. See dogs. Fantastic. That's how I could say no to it now. One out of five kids in high school in this program is incredible. I love the information with the CPR. Now, there's a way to keep evolving this, you know, so quickly and if appropriate, you know, lots of training options that wherever uh, to teachers, you never know one person, one time is something like that. And, um. What we're doing here is. I'm hoping we also have ones that ones that aren't college related. Yeah, the training part of that is definitely not every kid needs to go and make more money coming out of Hvac. Big scenario in that regard. But, um, any of that would be appreciated. I guess. Um, yeah. Just thank

138you for the attention and the details that you provided with your vision to. And. Yes. Is, is that those being your goals? I think that's really important. We've talked about this for a long time at the board table. I know penetration I talked about it. Um, and to see how that will be rolled out at the middle school level is really important. Um, also thinking about, you know, teachers with the amount of stuff that they have to do, everything they have to learn the children in front of them and, um, the curriculum and standards and everything that's constantly changing and adding. I always talk about that teacher of play, Super Bowl, and it can feel like, how am I going to do all of that? So, um, by really spelling out your plan for professional

139development, it's important, um, and helps us understand that. So thank you. And from board perspective, like if there's anything else we can do to help support you, um, because that work is super important and we know that our kids will be, um, you know, benefiting from it. And just also, another thank you for the attention to study skills and how important it is for kids to understand how to study and feel like when we get to elementary school, you know, they have one teacher or two teacher that knows them really well, and then all of a sudden they're in middle school, um, there's six, seven, eight, nine, whatever. Teachers that and kids now have to manage their time and their homework. And you know, what classes do I have tests in and things like that

140that can for a lot of kids, it can just feel like too much. They don't know how and they may shut down and come out other ways. So I think that's really important to help prepare you for the next level and high school. Another thing too, on my mind. You know, we talk about those years, the transitional years. You know, I also feel that the transition year from 6 to 7, it's huge. Um, so that's something to, you know, I'm sure you're on it as well. But, um, that transition from, you know, knowing that sixth grade is still elementary school, even though this is the middle school. And how do we help kids know, learn how to advocate for themselves or not learn how to get resources and, um, and help themselves. So, um, this

141sounds great. And, um, they're just excited for, what, the years to bring up. Well, one last thing. Uh, I love the feedback. You know, like the sitting down and doing all of that. Um, so I think that's that's amazing. Um, given to understand our schools and then we're, I think as a whole, as a district, we're getting better. There's the survey, the panel we're having and so forth. But it would be great to understand, like in next year's presentation, like what were the things that came up that you think that you were able to accomplish or what you still need to get to? But it's it's the measuring of that stuff and being able to go back to all those that your constituents within your school and say, I was able to deliver on this.

142I wasn't able to deliver on this, but it's still on my radar. This, you know, this has changed or something like that. And how do you continue to foster that, that circle of engagement and so forth. So awesome. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else? Any questions? Um. Thank you. I don't. We are very worried about, uh, leaving those in for a faculty meeting this afternoon. So I would like to put that on my vote for the. Marshals and not. Necessary. That's very concerned. So I want to thank you all for having us here tonight. Um, quick presentation, actually, my favorite presentation that we have to give. Uh, because I don't like to keep things satisfied until I can change things around. I see when you go for the bullet. Um, uh, the overarching goals and three

143main goals are very similar to the district goals. Very similar to which you have a very sort of city style. And what else? Um, but it's the it's a drill down. Um, and as we talk about it, you'll see that we spent a lot of time trying to focus on what we thought we were doing. Well, what we we thought we were doing well with being part of doing so great. And how can we fix this? So in addition of doing this summer, we took the opportunity, myself and Lauren, to really change a lot of the committees that we work on and a lot of the things that we worked on. So there was things that Lauren really felt passionate about, and I was like, okay, you can take over that and vice versa. So

144we're going to be jumping in and giving out back and forth, and we'll try to be our first goal. Like everyone's goal is taking physical and emotional safety of our students and staff at the forefront of all of our decision. So did I. No idea I was going to do this, but I'm going to go off script a little bit because I think it's important to point to Mr. Rodriguez. He's not looking at me right now, but just super proud of the presentation that you and Ms. Mancuso just conducted. And I know you guys made an excellent decision when you selected in as principal at both middle school. It left a void for our team. But Mr. Crawford, as I mentioned at the end of last year, totally stepped up. So Mickey and I are

145so proud of his team. Um, so congratulations to Carlos again in front of everyone. And this is any testament to what they can, um, expect at Wells. Job well done. And Dave, welcome to the team officially again, everyone. So thank you for that. Um, you know me a little bit too. Um, but as we mentioned, our goals, um, very similar to what Wells just mentioned and, um, you know, and that just keeping that physical and emotional safety of our students and staff in, in the forefront of everything that we do. So I know I mentioned the Panorama surveys and that's what we're going to start. That's one of our starting points, seeing what we do well and even more importantly, where we need to improve and hear specifically from our students and our staff what

146that faculty is. Um, Nikki laughs about this all the time, but relationship building is really one of my strengths in my opinion. Um, but we really want to keep that certainly. And work on of, again, everything that we do, not only students, with, with staff, with students, with each other. You know, kids can be cruel and they can be mean, but it's really important that they find one another and the same thing sometimes for adults. Um, so we want to make sure that we're continuing to build that capacity in our building, specifically from second staff, which we piloted last year, which focuses on continuing that growth mindset, that sense of belonging and really building a positive culture in our little building. Um, we have stolen the next, uh, second bullet. Big bullet. The in-house mentoring

147program. Every time is yellow. And Mr. Silky and Mr. Connery. Doctors. You mentioned it for the last couple years. We would always look at each other and think, like, how can we bring that to VHS? Quite frankly, it can be very successful in all four of our buildings. Um, and that's something that's aspirational. That's a goal of ours. So this year it's really implemented at the high school. We generally have the students, and we began to learn that we have a staff want to volunteer that time to help those at risk students, um, feel more engaged at school, improve their attendance, and also improve their academic performance. So, um. On top of previous goals, uh, we partnered with Covid care. We have the grants improve health care and coalitions. That care which you can save.

148Um. And thank you. Buildings and grounds and platform for building. And they're almost complete. Two complete officers, one for cold care and one for the guidance counselor that we have. Uh, so they've done a fantastic job. They need a lobby. Um, they need access to someone who will let them in. They need privacy. They will be in our building, hopefully starting in November. Two days a week from 11 to 5. And their focus is going to be on things that are counselors, our social workers and our school psychologist and do, which is really some of that familiar outreach. Um, it's the pieces that we always want to do we just can't get to. Um, because our counselors are involved in anxiety school avoidance attendance, same as our social workers, but it's the ability for them

149to reach out on a mental health level or deeper mental health level. And we can do in a building. Uh, which is why we're really looking forward to partnering with health care. Um, tomorrow is our first principal advisory. When we went into Shell and Megan. Oh, we did Lawrence as we did because. So we have superintendent principals advisory. We invite 45 to 60 students. Um, it's 45 minutes. It's an hour, I'll say. And we really asked them, what did you really enjoy about high school? What do you enjoy about high school? What do you dislike about high school? Um, what can we do better? Um, what can we improve and how do we go about doing it? Uh, some of our club ideas and come out of this. Um. Our students. Um, our senior lounge

150came out of this, uh, student, uh, principals advisory, doing a lot of fantastic things that has come for us in this principal's advisory. And hopefully tomorrow we'll have some great ideas to uncover. What? Getting everybody out. Thank you all for the opportunity to present tonight. Um, I'm here to talk about the state of Maine. Um, if you maybe only once a month. Um, and its job is to continue to build relationships with the businesses with the Webster Boces. Um, as well as of the county sheriff's department. Um, I'll be spearheading this committee. Um, and this is our second meeting will be tomorrow. Our community of teachers aides monitor the myself, the SRO, the nursing staff. Um, anybody in the building who has a stake in public safety? Everybody. Um, so we being a very respected

151person, we have gone over and had after actually boards on our safety grow so far to see what we can do better. Um, things are lacking where the sound isn't loud enough. Um, how to address those larger areas of the cafeteria? Um, already? I had a meeting with Mr. Crane. Lord, thank you for, you know, engaging me in my in my, uh, ideas, um, in order to create a more acceptable system for serious specifically, especially those heavy lunch periods where they can't hear a way to get decent detention without yelling or screaming or getting a bowl going, get something that's in house that's able to use. Um, we also have our front lobbies that in our construction, we create a new safety vestibule. Um, other things, of course. Um, to create a more safe environment

152for our students, our staff. Or a semicolon in academic programing to extend learning. Uh, or first of all, really came out of one of the vision goals of, uh, of this district. And it a success project. So technically, a success project should be completed early in the year. At the end of the year, 25, 76, uh, with the high school felt. And as we wait until the end, we might mess it up. There's a good possibility that we'll have something that's really just lackluster. So over the summer, uh, relaxed guidance and guidance, we work together with a large group districtwide, and then we, um, my my liaison to me identified all of my senior teachers. If you teach a senior year on this committee, and we realized we do a lot of this, we are

153almost at the Success Project piece. So all the students who are sitting here tonight are here for super public affairs. Well, they have a project that they have to do. They have a group project, identify, um, a problem in your community, an actor who needs to design an action plan where you're acting, who's seeking to, you know, solve this problem. Uh, so that's a large chunk of those success projects staging the presentations online. They do research on them. They go out meeting and do that. But the successful project will be taken one step further. It'll be a reflection or reflection about all five of the profile of the graduate skills. And then there will be a recording that they will do, that they will submit to us and, uh, they'll get your check. Yes. You

154did wonderful on those projects. Or maybe, uh, you need some help with that. And the plan is to introduce this research projects to the seniors on October 17th. And then we're going to do, uh, a run through this year, and we will have a panel evaluating all of the success projects, uh, in June at the beginning of June. Uh, so we're very proud of the work we've done. Uh, we're also going to Simsbury and Connecticut from Virginia, I think, in December. So think their brains and see what else. See? Uh, we're also, uh, obviously looking to always improve our writing results. Uh, we have the implementation of the Sony platform, different writing framework, our temporary composition class, which we put in place last year. But this year, um, with the help of Grace, the story

155our writing coach is doing this. We are more intentional about what teachers are teaching and what composition, but it's taught to predominantly 10th grade students. Um, and these are teachers that were identified as being exceptional teachers of writing. So those are the teachers that are teaching that class. Continuing the work led by Mr. Rodriguez. Up until this year, I have taken over the NTFS team and I've had the distinct pleasure of working alongside three phenomenal educators. So we've got and he's a rose. Um, she's one of our special educators. And she had fired seniors in a prior district, specifically working on NTFS and building supports for students improve their academic performance. Uh, you know, that inspired her work with career. She scaled an embarrassing school, but she has such a breadth of knowledge of tech

156apps for education that really reach students and make learning accessible to all of them. And then, as some fondly refer to, um, Jeff McCann as our, um, queen of guidance, all things social emotional learning. Um, so we religiously every Thursday at 750, we are at the PCR. So it's, you know, 40 minutes of undisturbed and uh, we have since, you know, but the first couple weeks of school identify 12 at risk ninth grader and we use the Starr data, we use their assessment towards the Ela exam. We also looked at their, uh, report cards coming up from the middle school. And we have been able to roster two sections that I asked with Marcus. Your, um, we've identified areas of deficit. We have already helped them to develop plans for improvement. And I said just

157really monitoring that progress, at least through definitely through the rest of the first marking period and probably into the second marking period. Um, just to check for their progress. And we'll be doing things similar not to those exams, but in a similar way for our students in grades, not, uh, sciences, um, academic support. Thank you. Um, I don't want to steal too much of his thunder because I know he's presenting next. But we look forward to continuing to partner with Mr. Sora and helping to recruit a second cohort for him. It's. It's awesome. These are some pictures actually taken from some classrooms. And there's a but, I don't know, work. Um, I know they love one at the middle school and they love and just my advisor, but we are really thankful that he joined

158our team and we look forward to continuing to grow, uh, not only pizza products offerings. So last year on one visit, we were standing in the hallway talking about Mr. Hammond's class and saying, oh, you know, we have like, some small machines. Uh, is there anything we can do about it? And Charlotte asked if he was already thinking about using our classroom. So over the summer, um, I have to have a speech happening in a classrooms for different programs. But this was amazing. Uh, they can. Buildings and grounds. Uh, going into this classroom, it really was just an average math classroom at the end of the hallway. Uh, which is what abled it enabled them to, uh, take out a small portion of the neighboring classroom to build a closet. Then we are modular outside,

159where we're able to store wood and some of the, uh, machinery that's gone into CTU. They put the electric drops in there, and they put sound panels in, and then we were in furniture. And it's a complete CTE program. So not only are the kids getting this class, but this is opened up to, uh, house a basic carpentry class, uh, chair making and home improvement on top of our Stem experience. I just got a box on it today. It's gorgeous. And it's so beautiful. Like I said, I want to do more so I can tell the little, you know, they're really doing a fantastic job. And, you know, outside of the ninth grader. And so he teaches a class where to start exploring, learning something else not to explain it, but it rotates. They rotate

160through 3 to 4 sections total. Um, and then his other four classrooms are just so loaded with hands and we had to turn the kids away. So we just hated that we could only teach five classes, but it's a full class at the same time. So, uh, one of the other things that I feel really passionate about is, um, adding to our dual enrollment programs. Um, I love the dual enrollment option. And this year we partnered with Manhattanville because we already had an outstanding partnership with them. Um, uh, we are offering us history with Abbeville. So in 1130, you are now able to get, um, three credits if you have no columns, $150, uh, as a junior, which we hadn't done before. So we continue to and, uh, those dual enrollment classes and expand upon

161that. And we really are encouraging the majority of our, our 11th grade students to be in Manhattan. But also we have inclusion Manhattanville classrooms. Uh, anybody can take the class. Um, they're willing to go register for the class, pay the tuition, and pass class. So it's, uh, it's definitely something that's different for us. Uh, we're hoping next year that our Manhattanville English will house the vast majority of our students. We're shooting for 80% to begin with and go to English. So we figured 80%. And so consequently, the percentage of our students that go on to 2 or 4 year universities and made up of a new, uh, college experience would be nice to actually. Something else that we are equally happy about has been this idea of, like, routines. Um, I don't think it's any,

162uh, surprise or shock, but we had a tough time last year with our freshmen, which is what for this idea of having teams making. I also have a middle school background. So when you talk about transition from a middle school to a high school, how can we best support them so that we all have a positive experience of high school? So we created my three teams. We split the grade pretty evenly. I've got a green team in a white team and all the students, let's use the white team as an example, have the same English social studies abilities as part science and math. Uh, teachers. So use it with Nikki's genius and then help with general Secretary. We were able to create a schedule with developers previously where teachers now have common planning and prep

163time. So two English teachers have the same here you got that wouldn't necessarily happen in the past. And then the entire team passed off uh, one period on Fridays. So either first period or fourth period and really provides time for articulation, for collaboration. The parent wants to come in and meet with the team. Now they don't have to meet with six different teachers. They can come and meet with everyone at once. We've also afforded an opportunity for guidance counselors, a communal offer, their input on their students. Um, administration is present, and what I can say is in the first six weeks of school, it's been a completely different experience for us, definitely as administrators and certainly for our my grade students. So it's been a great transition. Um, and within that same idea and being,

164um, we were able to also start embedded honors option in our English and social studies classes. So we're years past they were separate. We had an honors track and a region track. Now my family's in very, very English. And so we've got heterogeneous groups, uh, where teachers, you know, thank you to you all for providing us with the possibility of having Mary Ford come in and really serve as a consultant and leading our teachers. When you talk about who's teaching these courses, who are very intentional of who we selected, and the marriage has worked out because those teachers wanted to be a part of the ninth grade experience. Um, so students are able to learn alongside students that maybe they were never in classes with your perspective and ideas from students that that are very

165different from their own. Um, but working up to honors, um, distinction and waiting for us and that recommendation for 10th grade. So if they do the work, if they participate in these tiered assignments, if they earned a 90 grade point average by the end of the year and they are recommended by their teacher, they will certainly still be alive to that opportunity in 10th grade to be AP world and 10th grade for the both of those, um, have been specifically implemented in ninth grade and are two points of progress. And I think. So the last thing for rule number two is to live plc work on top of our taking out our senior teachers and creating those of senior success projects. The rest of the building ninth, 10th and 11th grade are working on projects

166that focus on the five of skills employed by undergraduate. So every single course, whether it's an elective or a core class, has to have a minimum complete project with reflection depends on whatever skill they have. Those projects are focusing. So the project could be anything related, uh, to their course. Um, but we've been getting them, um, intentional plc time to focus on working on, uh, uh, work. Um, and uh, they've been working with more and then on PLC time and then I've been working with them senior successful. Um, so our final goal, number three, is to improve daily classroom attendance. Um, during this school year to 2024 2025. We will create a formalized committee which will meet every week, identified family action students batteries that are in attendance, and create individualized plans to improve attendance

167engagement in the homeschool partnership. Um, we had our initial meeting today, um, making, um, uh, critical guidance ourselves. Administration, um, school nurse teachers. Um, and our goal is to really focus on this. Um, we want to do things like create partnership with community based partners or parents. Um, we have to understand that being absent is something that we want to help them with because we care, right? Um, also try to find ways to, um, engage our students if they are engaged in alternative strategies besides, you know, disciplinary, but more things to help them become more well-rounded member of our community. So these are some of the ideas that we're looking at. Um, I think that brings me to a very well, I looking forward to, uh, you know, kind of some data and then kind

168of a little. Thank you, Dr. Olson. Anybody else want to start? I'll start this. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So in terms of, I'm really excited to see the relationship building with us as part of our goal, especially the student student. Um, as communication and the use of cell phone has increased our. Because, you know, can't don't have it anymore. Um, and they certainly don't know how to speak to each other or an adult. Um, so I think that is an awesome goal. Um. I always love the Principal Advisory committee, including kids, because it gives them a sense of being connected, um, and having their like. Reasonably wants and needs. Yes. Um. Um, being heard and perhaps being addressed. Yeah. Um. I also really love the composition class, as our writing skills have been more and

169more focused on writing for testing or whatever you need for a test. Um, actually learning to write has fallen by the wayside. Um, and I think that's really important. I do have a question about your dual enrollment, because you guys have it. I looked it up, and I love so much of it. Um, is it replacement to replace one possible or. Yeah. So we still have events. Uh, so we have AP world history. That's generally the first one that can rotate. Uh, we have a push which is in U.S. history. We've had a fair amount of can switch into Manhattanville, uh, U.S. history. Because the reality is if. All things being the same. If you, um, pass your Manhattanville College, you are getting those three credits for surviving. It's, um. Yeah, it's as opposed to.

170I hope I get a four on five and I hope to college I want to go to is going to accept that AP, uh, test and get credit, which is, uh, a longshot, um, that the ivys don't take anything for granted. Right? Uh, so it really is something that we feel passionate about, which is probably what we continue to have. Are you finding more schools are accepting the dual enrollment credits and making credits? Um, yes. Uh, because even if they don't get a U.S. history credit, they'll get that a lot of credit. And they're still getting those three credits. So I think it was last year, um, I think we had a student, uh, student mom thank us because her daughter went to Suny New Paltz in 1839, convinced she had 39 credits when she

171lost her. Which is amazing. You know, so, uh, we do work. We see it like chunking up, you know, in our math classes and stuff. You see, um, Manhattanville is Buyeo. We have file, we have English, and now we have U.S., we have su file, which is Syracuse University, University of Albany, which is science research. So there's, uh, quite a few colleges that we partner, and several of them offer both to do the AP and the college. I would say no, I was just saying, yeah, because in some of our neighborhoods, which is violence, bless you. It's our math classes that are generally considered. Yeah. Not really. So if your kid failed the AP, she can still. Yeah. Oh yes. I wanted to see how their what she does is usually, um, pre-calc calculus. Um,

172okay. For the AP and stats and balance and so all of those. Yeah. So it's usually the math that goes oh let me have the option which just carries out the time work. Go see them both work full bodies and throughout. So yeah paragraph. Okay. Anyone else have questions? So, I mean, most of you. Um, okay. So the the taming of the ninth grade, I think that's awesome. Especially with carrying over, uh, what's familiar to kids from middle school. Things like it would be similar. So I think that's awesome. Um, also, um, with creating and planning, time is so important as well, especially with, you know, things like data analysis or things that, you know, you're going to be asking of them. I think that's perfect. Um, I'm also thinking about how important it is

173to pay attention to study skills and lack of study skills that kids may have that are currently in the high school and just, you know, thinking about how these the kids that are here now or the Common Core kindergarten and they were the elementary kids that didn't have teachers college and did not have foundations, did not have equity. They were the middle school kids that were Covid. So they may be. And you're talking about the ninth grade. They I'm sure you know this, but just thinking out, uh, they may have significantly more gaps that kids are has. So anything that you can do to continue making sure that they're showing up study skills and being on top of how to manage their assignments and if they're missing assignments and help them out with those things.

174And also just really excited to see all of the kids have friends that you're having now. We have the capital project that we know is going to have so much space, but you're not waiting for that and you're giving more opportunities to kids now, which is really important. So thank you. And also again just carrots iceberg right here. And, um, so a lot of a lot of great, great stuff. Um, really excited. Couple of things. The relationship building like to see is like really seeing that because, uh, you know, I have a kid, uh, freshman in college that's already reached out to her teachers and thanked them for teaching them math. But, ah, my other kids, you know, there is a significant difference between an honors kid and a non honors kid and how you

175build those relationships and get back. So how how do you guys, uh, foster that? Um, I love the surveys because these kids have voices. So being able to hear what they have to say again, within reason, I think it's important. One of the things, Michelle, that we've talked about so often is talking to the kids that graduated, what did we not do to and like homecomings coming up. You know, I see several of them at football games. Thomas can literally go around and get an email list, go and yell at 100 kids for the end of the day, say, what did you wish you have? What what are you screwed on in college? What do you wish you had a survey? There is a survey that I do things out, um, at the end of

176the year. And that's some of our classes are actually created. So, um, Michelle, uh, just looking at it, I was just having this conversation about a health and instrument health services platform for next year. I'm still working that out, but it would probably look like the summer moratorium. I would have a bio teacher and health teacher, and they would teach it, and it would become that foundation, because a lot of her kids are going to find that perfect. But talking to kids who graduated, I've said, is what what what did we miss on what did you what are you guys talking about? Um, the parents, those pulling out those nine kids. Because I do feel that in high school that it gets lost. And those kids, they have so much to this point, has so

177much more support in the lower grades. I know Dr. Rose is amazing. Um, I think that, um, you know, so being able to see that is, is exactly the tangibility that I've been talking about that we want to be able to see for that. Um, I think that social studies class is actually sixth credit for Manhattanville because it's one on one and 1 or 2 for people. That's amazing. And because you just get to float on a ton of stuff. And I've been the benefactor of it and having a kid in it. Now, getting that some of that exposure is great. Um, loved. Would love to see the writing results from 10th grade. I know it was an intro year, but how are we going to be able to track this? Because these were our

178lost kids, uh, last year. Like, you know, we all know my point of view on Teachers college and the disaster that I'll never get those years back for, for those kids interacting. And it's almost as an intervention. But now how do we measure that is going to be important? Um, I am completely torn on that, uh, honors program, social studies in English. So being able to understand birds of a feather flock together. So those kids that rise up, or are they good influences on the other kids and pull other kids out? So it's going to be so fascinating to be able to see that, because that really is our hope that that's what's going to happen, that they're going to pull up, you know, the lower level, the students that are in that class. And

179ideally they work long and hard as a teacher, is with Mary Ford on the Dolphin Folio. So they'll all have to continue. Portfolio. Um, and if you want to be an honors student, if you feel you can do the honors work and you complete those assignments and that level of tiered assignments, then you will get high honors waiting at the end. And that's great. Yeah. Um, do we still have an attendance issue? Yes. Okay. So we're done for. I know New York State just released that report, but I was just wondering how that ended up here. And then I had one more. Okay. So. Um, I have one more question. Oh, cool. Care any like, insurance or liability stuff like I like that. Yes. That's all that was all around the sign there. Like I

180can't remember the contract on that. It's in August. Come back. All right. But it hands off that liability to that okay. All right. Thank you. Families. All right. Thanks. Anyone have any questions? Um. Yeah, I know it's scary. So is for the student mental health piece. Yeah, it could be the most important thing about it. And it just. Well, I can't even get into it. But thank you so much for that. Um, the principal advisory selection, I would assume. Let's have a quick mix up of the students like any other group. Yeah, we have everybody here. Random is the best. Uh, we we kind of all vote on it in the office. We police start throwing names. We call kids who are involved in sports in nothing. Uh, you know, parents, you name it into

181there for a month. We have them sit on that committee. So, um, you have to be right. Um, you know, enrollment. I mean, that's late in the morning. My youngest, I think we have all year, um, school with all the crazy kids. Um, this is set projects. I can't wait to the end of the year. I know that can happen in the loop on that. That's that's fantastic. And, I mean, that's part of it. Absolutely. And I think it's quite safe. And I hope any improvement to that will also lead into improving our graduation rates. Yes. So are we doing it as a positive? I mean, just the more additional supports that are not. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank them. Thank you very much. Yeah. What do you mean, kinds of things? All

182right, here you go. Some of the. All right. So under the argument, you know it's just a little bit on the lines. Okay. All right. So first off I thank everybody for having me out here tonight. Uh, to talk about who's to say goals. Um, so before I even get started, um, just to clarify, for some people that don't really know the program. Uh, so it's pathways and technology, and we have three majors with an athlete. We have electrical technology development technology and cybersecurity. Um, but this is a dual enrollment program. Okay. And, um, we started with our first forward this year. And so we'll talk a little bit about that. Uh, so the three major goals of what I have today also circle around um, partnerships, pathways and recruitment goals. And I will try

183to answer some of the questions I heard earlier, uh, from Jamie earlier. I'll try to answer some of those. Uh, while we have and if you have any other, just let me know. Okay. So, uh, the first of all, here, we have to, you know, go with course pathways to the three majors that we're offering, um, an impact program. Uh, so a couple of things. Uh, our ultimate goal here is for the kids at the end of this year to be able to declare which major they want to do, okay, cybersecurity or one of the tech courses that we have. All right, so the first cohort, like, um, my counterpart in the high school already mentioned they're taking a Stem sports class right now, currently on the seventh exploratory class. All four borders are a

184different subject for them. Okay. Taught by four different teachers. So I'd like to just give a special, uh, thank you to my trainer, Glenn Pulmonary, Matthew Charlie and Shane Carroll, who took on the load to work with my, uh, first cohort. Okay. Uh, they take in water, and then they just do kind of a round robin rotation with the subject variable. They are going to go there. The blessing of the ultimate goal there is to select the major by the end of the year. So they get a kind of a little taste of sampling. But each course, uh, of what they can look forward to in the four years that they are in the program, that's, uh, also, uh, part of this, um, this goal with the 24, 25 school year Instagram senior developed to

185develop and plan for three different pathways. Um, so next year they will be taking their first dual enrollment course. Uh, right now, the two courses that are going to be offered. Uh, they're saying it's going to be a series like the Dimensional Systems course. In the civil course, like a civil school of tech or civil engineering course. But, uh, with our, our steering committee this, uh, last week, uh, it may change up a little bit what the first two courses are for next year. They actually have the curriculum by WCC. Okay. All right. Um, our second goal is to release all of this. Let's do that. Okay. All right. This establish a collaborative framework for community partnerships and educational experiences. I have to tell you, one of the most, like important parts of the program.

186Of course, this is for the for the students, for the children. But we can't make it happen without community partnerships. Okay. And we're sort of a little not really partnerships. Brewster has a lot of manufacturing, a lot of tech companies all around, and they are eager to help us. Okay. So, uh, during this this year, we're going to be holding, but we're going to have our steering committee host, uh, with the whole starting with several meetings from here. Uh, we had our first one last week. Fantastic. I mean, uh, so I just want to I need to shout out our partners that we have that we've done, uh, so far, so from out little machinery. Uh, we're ordering a lot of our our major. Um, you know, our machine is our our rather than all

187that stuff is, uh, Martin Harris on the machinery. Uh, he was at our steering committee. Uh, the butcher Chamber of Commerce. Uh, other, uh, all around us. Uh, she not only is supporting our program, but a lot is in the program within the first year of the program as well. Well, uh, we have dairy conveyor caught. Uh, and, uh, Captain Bray was the HR person there and one of the engineers there as well, and is working with us within the program as well. Okay. Uh, from Fryer Machine Machines. Larry Fryer himself is working with us to make it a no. Right. I like this one. Uh, kind of the best random will, because, uh. Uh, Gary, uh, Nowak is actually a graduate from racer, and he was front and center during that steering committee meeting

188to talk about the things that we need. And it's also the beauty of manufacturing there. Um, and I'll mention partner precision first and talk about, uh, Shawn Hamilton, who's the director of operations, a former graduate as well, years ago. Uh, and also within there, Angela Shapiro, who's, uh, the HR manager there, but she's also, uh, part of, uh, one of the machinery, which is really big for our program. And uh, earlier the that was mentioned from several board members about the CTE programs and stuff like that. So while I'm doing a lot of my connections with, uh, companies in an area like the local 60, I'm also making those connects for CTE programing that we're trying to build that. Right. So if they sit there and give you a call and say, I don't know,

189it's really quite simple, just join us because we can we can definitely use your help for something else. Right. So that's what I've been working on. Okay. Um, and that's our way to connect to the non-college pathways that I heard earlier mentioned. So we're starting we're starting with, uh, partnering up with, uh, companies that don't necessarily need, uh, college degrees, but they need certificates and stuff like that from students. And so I think it's very important. Uh, now, uh, we also met with, uh, several district officials. So, uh, we had, um, Mr. Jones with us, and so was, uh, Doctor Ghosh. So I appreciate both of them joining us as well. And by us community college, we also have one of the professors there as well with us from the cybersecurity department as well. That's

190Professor Watkins. He was there as well. Everybody was there to talk to us and help us kind of come up with what our curriculum should look like, what they're expecting when the kids step foot on campus a couple of years from now, and what certificates, uh, our kids can get, uh, moving towards the future. So this was, uh, pretty good. We plan to deploy three times a year. They got direction of our program and discuss it with expectations. Uh, you know, with students and reflect. Now, that's just it's very cool. Okay. So, um, you know, keeping in constant contact, uh, with this group and also going into this one smaller kind of advisory groups. And I'm going to meet with them constantly pretty much once a month. I've been meeting with them already. We just

191have informally called a district committee because we're going to keep it more concentrated towards whatever the tech field is. Right. So because just cybersecurity personnel, we're going to keep it with them along so we can kind of, you know, uh, but more of kind of like intimate setting where we can talk about what's going on and what we need for each particular, uh, field that we're looking for. So we're doing that. And those advisory committees will consist of we'll have our industry partners, uh, this is personal stuff, but we're going to add teachers to those. And a couple of our students and a couple of our students are able to witness, uh, how the steering committee work. I've got to mention they showed up to that meeting as well, and they helped out as well.

192Uh, they've gotten people to work and also include WCC professors. Okay. All right. It's not written up there as well. But part of this goal as well is to, uh, we are going to be planning a lot of site visits. Okay. Uh, we have one coming up November 8th. We're going to visit their economic cooperation. It's a very weird name, considering, but it's not. It's a conveyor for its robotics machineries. Okay. And that's right. You are my vehicle. Okay, so they're linking up with us as well to show us everything that's going on there. And we'll be visiting WCC probably about twice this year. Okay. With this as well. It's important to know that. We have, um, we have some of this. We have a couple of other things that we're going to be doing

193with the kids. During the summer of this year, we had our first summer bridge. I think it's important to mention that, okay, our summer bridge, we visited, uh, James Williams for companies to visit the WCC. And the biggest complaint we got from the kids for this week, the, uh, summer bridge of Summer Stem program, like science, tech, engineering and math, uh, was that we didn't get enough time at each place. So that was a good complaint. I like that you think, uh, for next year, what we're planning on doing is kind of editing the way that looks for the next cohort and for our first cohort. And they have declared a major. And I'll talk about that in a minute. As they declared a major, we're going to, uh, they're going to be visiting, uh,

194more major specific, uh, industry partners, and they're going to be going to WCC for a couple of, uh, uh, you know, uh, they have a couple of events for the kids, cybersecurity events, electrical, mechanical technology. And that's also going to be very big. Right. Okay. So goal number three. Okay. We're looking for the next caller. Okay. Uh, recruit, uh, we're trying to recruit at a minimum, about 40 students, uh, for the 25, 26 school year. Got it. We're good. Thank you. Sir. Uh, what is it? 2526 for here. With the focus on underrepresented populations within the tech fields. Now, again, we spoke about this kind of last year, but it's a very deceptive topic. Okay, we can't talk about minority populations. What was talking about? What do you mean technologically as well? Okay. Both parties

195are very underrepresented in the tech community. Additionally. So that's what we're looking to recruit having for, um, as long as we're at anywhere above 15%. Okay, of that population, we're good to go. And we can we can allow anybody that's about. And we just have to make sure we consulted for the purpose of impact. Okay. Uh, we're going to host, uh, you know, the pizza kind of night once again. So for parents of the program, hope to see somebody there. Okay. The application process and the student expectations. With that, I will conduct student assemblies and visits to inform students of the program. I'm a parent communicating, uh, you know, communicating and updating this, updating the staff of both schools, the middle school and high school again, just so they can get a better understanding of

196where we're at and where we're going. Now, I've already spoken to a bunch of our kids. They want to work with me to talk to the parents as well, and to talk to the status of the work, to see, to show them what's going on in the program. So I think it's going to be a good thing. They want to work with us, with us, uh, some of our meetings as well. And I know there are people waiting for things like, you know what? We I saw a couple pictures that are going on in the Stem explorer. Sorry. Oh, I'll be here for a minute. I'm not good enough. I think the people understand. So we had our our partner from Allendale Industries, uh, Mark Harris, was training our teachers on, uh, the, the desktop

197CNC machine that we bought for the program. Uh, thank God you can see the two that are looking really intense. They they understood what was going on because I didn't. So thank God they knew what was going on. Right. Uh, this is one of the schematics in grandpa's past that was drawn up by one of our, uh, our young ladies in the program. I mean, once, uh, the steering committee, sort of my correction center of the steering committee, they looked at, they would just say, we want to hire you right now. Just looking at the schematic. Okay. And so we have a, you know, a couple of our kids. And this was part of our summer bridge program here. They got a robotic arm for kids to test and everything as well with the program.

198And it's kind of where we're at right now. Questions. Right? Right. I think. Exactly. There you go. That's it. Keeps me honest with that. Thank you. So this year, we had 40. You know, this whole good question. So this year we are 53, 53. So there's room for more. Your baseline is 40. So next year if it if it rose what is the cap amount that you can do for next year. So we're trying to judge our our like attrition what our attrition may be. Okay. So when we originally top of the grant uh you know do we say that roughly about 25 students would be there towards the end of the program? If it's more we're trying to keep the cap on, really try to keep the cap at about 55, okay, for the

199program. But if they're more, they're more I mean, I don't want to deny, you know, the kids, we obviously we take the program I really don't okay. You know, so it's really based off of interest right now. And then to be, um, being mechanical and electrical, what is the overlap that we have with Boces? Um, you guys, I know Boces is doing ultimate electrician program versus mechanical engineering and electrical engineering more type. But what does that overlap? Okay. So we are so the program that we're doing so the most is probably um program primarily if I'm, if I'm mistaken, please put it's a city style program. Right. We're doing that. Those are almost where this is the technicians that are running the basis. So we're not working with the, you know, the electricians. My uncle

200was electrician for 40 years. Uh, love him, but he's not, uh, programing computers and creating from scratch and designing all the schematics to, to, to for the robotics. And so our kids are looking towards that level of it. Right. So you're looking at the let's put it this way in like, uh, kind of like, um, a sequence. You have the electrical engineer, you have the electrical text, and then you have electricians, right? So they're all three different roles. These are ones kind of programing the machinery, trying to get out, drawing the schematics for them and wiring and everything like that so they don't overlap. Uh, because it's, they're actually two different things. It's funny you ask me that though, because I said I said the same thing when I first started. It was a lot

201of questions that I had to get answered as well. There was a wave of electricity, and that's what are we talking about here? And so I've been driving the electrical, uh, tech. So you know what? The people we've met, uh, the companies we've met and talked, we've done cc a lot of it deals, a lot more robotics across the US, and that's probably the best way about it. And what are you guys factoring out? It's your intuition like saying that, you know, for each year. So uh, that's how hard that this would just be a guess I would say maybe about lose about maybe 6 or 7 a year, I think each year or each year for like, let's say just for each cohort. So, so, so at the end, if you have 53, you're

202expecting hopefully 47. Yeah. So by the end of this year 47. But honestly the way, uh, they paid for teachers for this program, the kids love the program. So I don't think we're going to lose it. Uh, maybe we're going to 2 or 3, but they're really loving the program. Uh, so I'm, I want to say I think we're going to beat our numbers, uh, that we originally had a random saying that will be 25 by the time this year. I think we're going to have about 30, 32. That's what I believe. And then the last question is, and we've talked about this earlier, Michelle was like opportunities for other kids that, you know, 10th, 11th, 12th graders, if there's room in those four cohorts, not the cohort per se, but room in the classes

203that the cohort is participating in. Uh, are they is there access for these kids? Because we had a ton of kids that got, uh, rejected from Boces this year. I think that the opportunity to do anything within that field that are mechanically inclined. So regardless of, you know, whether it's, uh, engineering or, uh, technician, it's there opportunity for that. So with everybody currently no. For 9 to 10. Yeah. So like if they have great next year and we're sitting there, let's say we lost about 6 or 7 kids in the program. They didn't take one of the college courses yet. Okay. So we can sit there on a case by case basis and talk to them about it. So I think, uh, we did mention this as well, but we have, uh. Nico, right? Uh,

204the Ignasi Azar is our counselor, so he's keeping a close eye on the kids. And he has a couple of other students that he's working with as well. So he's keeping an eye on those as well to see what we, you know, times where we want to throw them into the program. We can throw him into the program as well, because if they're showing signs of learning, if this is even though it's going along with there's a lot of alternative learning going on here, right? Everything's project based. So the kids may, you know, just finish off algebra, but that may be all you need, because all of the courses that we're taking in WCC are math based, but specifically for the psych courses and cybersecurity. Right. Thank you for your. Anyone else have any questions?

205So one quick. Yes. Um. I want to thank everybody involved. I can't wait to see how this program turns out. And I would just say, we have to shout out our partners every chance we can get. What they're doing for our students and our children is amazing. And we need to let everybody know. Anytime stand on walls and put it on anything, we can definitely thank them over and over again what they've done. Absolutely. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, everybody, for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Okay. So now we're going to move to our first opportunity for public comments. Um, this opportunity relates to the action items. So any comments made during this public from our experience should be limited to, um, the action items which are

206listed in D on our agenda. Um, Scott, would you do me a favor? Um, so if anyone has any public remarks that they'd like to make, we just ask them to come up to the podium and let you state your name. Um, all of the speakers will have three minutes to make whatever remarks you'd like to make. And, um, we'll prompt you to finish up if you get some 30 minutes. Um, and we just ask that you direct all of your comments to the board. Um, and also we also ask that you not, um, discuss individual district personnel where students in your remarks, if your remarks require that, we ask that you send an email to the board, which is the opiate booster school board. So if anyone has any remarks you'd like to make

207tonight relating to the action items listed in exhibit and, uh, on the agenda, please feel free to go to the podium. Okay. I don't see anyone in the room who's going to the podium. And we also did not receive any emails, um, relating to action items. So we will move on to action items. I actually have one question. Yes. Since we've kept waiting so long, there's a way to move our tenured people to the forefront of this discussion, and we have to wait to the consent agenda. I think we need to enter a consent agenda, but I apologize. It's, um. Yeah, it's not for the most of it. And at this point, we'll try. Um, action item number one, approval of a external audit reports and corrective action plan the internal audit report corrective action

208and recommended follow up focus area and see audit committee charter. Yeah. So just a reminder that we're subject to several types of audits. Uh, this evening we're being presented with our financial statement audit, which is our external audit, uh, as well as our internal audit and risk assessment. Um, so they've been reviewed by our, our audit committee who met on October 1st. Um, and it's also being recommended by the audit committee that the intensive focus area of audit for our internal audit this spring, um, focus on, uh, accounts payable and purchasing. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jen on the motion. Melissa on the second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero.

209Action. Item number two. Approval of corrected tax roll applications. If so, in two instances, a clerical error was named um by the town, which resulted in the creation of an erroneous tax bill and now requires it to be corrected and reissue. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Scott, on the motion you gave me on the second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number three. Denial of service attacks. Roll application. So in this instance, the uh, director of real Property Tax services for Putnam County is recommending that we deny denying that its request for a private tax credit. Thank you. I have a motion and a second for this item.

210Cynthia on the motion and Scott on the second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? And seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number four. Authorization of vendor specific credit card. Additional use or temporary? Yes. We have, uh, two, uh, credit cards. Um, vendor specific credit cards to me from one of our employees is out on medical leave for requesting that a third employee be provided with the card in his absence. And during that time, the, uh, card is deactivated of an employee that, um. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion and a second for this item. Simply on the motion. Listen. Second, any questions or comments? So now we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number

211five to the disposal of district property. JFK Office Officer. This is being recommended in accordance with Board of Health Policy 5250 disposal of district property. Okay. Thank you. And I have a motion and a second Scott on the motion. Jamie on the second. Any questions or comments? Just one more question. Obviously not with this test, but with all the natural disasters and damage being done across the country. This will be specific to us as a whole. But maybe schools in the areas, other districts, you know, way to pool resources we have that are not bad, but you just moved on to something else. In any compiled that we have a resource to sense other places without being too complex and probably too cumbersome because I could use that, but we can certainly look into it.

212I would think maybe through Boces, um, there might be something that Boces can assist us with in that formation. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number six. Approval of purchase contracts pursuant to competitive bids. Transportation GM OEM Vehicle parts. This is a competitive bid held for purchasing GM um original manufacturer parts recommended to be awarded to the lowest uh responsible bidder, which is anchor all auto. All right. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item simply on the motion. And then we'll second then. Anyone have any questions or comments? Okay seeing. Then we'll go to the vote. All those in favor say aye. Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number seven.

213Approval of resolution for placement on paid administrative leave. Yes. The board was provided with additional details for tonight's meeting regarding assembly. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Jan. On the motion. Motion on second. Any questions or comments? So the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number eight. Approval of Stipulation of agreement for compensation for grades. For part time food service helpers and assistant cooks. Yes. This employee establishes compensation for 15 minute breaks that occurred between August 13th and October 8th. Uh, part time food service helpers and assisted close. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Scott on the motion. Jamie on the second. Any questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven

214zero. On to the consent agenda. Okay, so, uh, I'd like to recognize a couple of retirees that I've noticed, uh, noted on tonight's agenda. Karen Barkey, pre-K teacher, JFK, uh, will be retiring at the 31 year service district, as well as Robin McCallum, uh, physical education teacher at Sea Star. Also, uh, at the end with, uh, 31 years of service to the district. So we wish them well, uh, in their next chapter. Um, and I just want to say thank you so much for those of you receiving tenure tonight and for patiently waiting. So it's my honor to recognize three educators this evening who are being recommended for tenure, uh, Kelsey Beyer, Jamie Dini, and Jenna Stall. Uh, at this time, I invite Mrs. And be able to, uh, share some remarks regarding uh immediate.

215Thank you. Mrs. Feeney is a dedicated professional who is committed to student success. Under her leadership, our district has embarked on a dual language pathway, helping Brewster to move from a one way language pathway to a two way pass. She is a professional who is driven to learn and uses her knowledge to help drive instructional practice forward. Mrs. Heaney is recognized as a leader and voice in the Tesol dual language field, as she brings her expertise to conferences around the country and most notably, this coming February, she will be in Atlanta presenting at the National Association of Bilingual Education 54th Annual International Conference, very long title on the topic of Translanguaging. She has been a solid addition to our staff and we very much enjoyed working with her. Now, I invite Mr. Rodriguez to share

216a few remarks about me and stop by. It's. Thank you for inviting me back. Uh, I just want to first of all say that it's really hard to find, um, really good teachers, um, that are so invested as the two teachers that I want to speak on behalf of tonight. Um, so far as my song, um, as a song has been a component of both Wells and DHS. Uh, well, as Pacific Nation has implemented, uh, innovative units and activities. She had developed a fitness based workout package, organizing heart challenge and coordinated fitness related activity for Heart Health Month. Uh. Additionally, she has created and implemented a life skills health curriculum. Uh, during the Covid 19 pandemic, she established a virtual building for our students, which was great. Um, it's also, uh, has also enhanced recess

217by creating the popular four box block of four square that you see students playing with all the time. Uh, making recess more enjoyable and organized for students. She has successfully established on the student web page, securing a fully funded project for laminator for the high school pop education program as well. Uh, furthermore, this fall, as a strong advocate, our students have initiated the creation of AP elective course, which has now transitioned into a sixth grade exploratory, uh, class called Personal Fitness. She is responsible for conducting the AP testing for fall and spring athletes, which is really important for another student. Um, this fall, deeply involved in the school community through her participation in various community involvement activities. She has learned demonstrated the rock, paper, scissors activity for grades 6 to 8. Uh, spearheaded the sixth

218grade. PBA has reward four way volleyball and perceptually as an organized staff versus police officer basketball game, which is what became, uh, successful fundraising event for our eighth grade easy trip. So please come to that this year. Um, yeah, this is all. Thank you so much for that. This Chelsea buyers soon to be. This is Morocco. This is what I love. Um. Misfire. Uh, you can visit Morocco. Uh, the businesses in March. Uh, marching band director Welles. Um, he has made significant contributions over the past four years. She played a pivotal role in growing the marching band from seven members to over 75. Uh, to help you into the high school program, she developed the middle school marching band program and the seven eight program. These programs allow students to transition seamlessly into the marching

219band as full time members. Uh, some notable achievements include performing the national anthem at a Mets game here. They won tonight. Uh, I happened to perform at a WNBA basketball game and marching down Main Street, U.S.A., beating them at Disney World. Additionally, the marching band performed at Yukon Band Aid earlier this year. Miss buyer Um has also been instrumental here on the band program in the middle school. Since 2020, the number of students in the middle school band has tripled as the need for more storage. Uh. She has employed various strategies to achieve this, including the recruitment combining concerts with VHS and vertical alignment. As far as versus, the versatility, excuse me is evident for her teaching experience. Through her four years at W mass, she has taught 11 different courses ranging from music technology

220to drumming in piano. She has also spearheaded the April Components finale for spring concerts, where all eighth grade band Orchestra 95 students come together for culminating events. Furthermore, Ms. Fire serves as their musical producer, a position she has held for two years. She successfully brought back the musical in 2022, involving approximately 60 students. There's nobody in this musical scrambling. They start production. Congratulations, Miss Potter. Um. So. Can I have a motion and a second? Uh, Melissa and Dora on the second. Any questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Congratulations. We don't advertise, but this is the last step in getting tenure. Sitting through a lengthy wait I need to bring here. You guys made it, but your family members were together, and, um.

221Okay, so now we're at Mars. We're at our second opportunity. You know, I don't wanna talk about, um, so if anyone has any remarks that they'd like to make to the board, it's not limited to anything on the agenda you can do. So now, the same sort of guidelines apply. Just please state your name, make your, um, remarks from the podium, and everyone has, uh, each speaker has three minutes to make whatever remarks they like to make. And we just ask that you not, um, discuss or name individual district personnel or students in your remarks. So if anyone has any public remarks you'd like to make, please make your way to the podium. Okay. I don't see anybody in the room would like to make remarks. And. But I know that we did receive an

222email. So Cynthia will bring us. Um, on October 2nd, we received an email from a community member. Um, as a follow up to questions and discussion from our, uh, community forum on the Capital Project. Um, about the renovations to the new ROTC facilities at the high school. Um, currently, the renovations are slated for the very far future. Um, but these projects are not dependent on each other. Is there a way to consider moving this up in the pipeline? I think we would agree with any chance of being able to expedite that part of the project. And so there's a construction, uh, meeting next week, and we will follow up with that individual after that meeting. And then with, uh, the community at the October 22nd working. We can only go to. Thank you. Um, more

223remarks and BOE committee updates. Anyone have anything they want to share? Long-tum. Of the times. Uh, what's thanks and appreciates for retirees. And I look at your comments. Um, 1 or 2 point out are going to see a lot more sports side postings. And I appreciate the average doing that. It's enthusing somewhat. Nice to see I was able to attend um last week set to meeting, and it was so great to see the continuance of that group and the support. They definitely got the support they provide to each other. I want to thank everybody involved that it's a very important part, something to rely upon communities. Um, also be able to get up to the, um, the county economic development. They had a revive downtown revitalization meeting. And one of the key components is that

224they spoke about revitalization of the town of Worcester. They gave updates on that, and they were hoping that there was some type of educational piece coming through as part of the revitalization. So I'm looking forward to hearing from them what it will be. But they and all the other groups pointed out the continuing need for, uh, advancement of students in the trades. Um, other ones are at again, the need for that is second only to the need for housing for these type of individuals. But they are working on this, and I would never like to throw more work on our district office and that. Gosh. But there was nobody else from the school systems in attendance, so it might be nice to be ahead of the curve on some things. Plus, you got a nice

225little breakfast and all the local representatives. So there a lot of that community and we can even slide into our families, a lot of corporate people involved in that event. I'll send it to you next time I see it. I've had conversations with a number of, um, individuals regarding that. I'll just say that now. They did invite me to breakfast. So now you have them out there in the back here in the show. Uh, this weekend, on Sunday, the Brewster VFW post 672 is having their monthly breakfasts, the first of the season, and they have to be last year as they getting kitchen issues. And this is not only the one that supports the Roxy program. So but ask everybody to come out to, uh, the VFW this weekend. I believe it's from 9 to

22611, um, for a nice breakfast and show support for our VFW members. As those veterans and pointed out previously, the trunk or treat is coming up JFK. So it sounds like an event, but again, looking forward to. Uh, Scott, you said that the VFW was funded. All right. Thanks. The second Sunday of the month, and they start in October. Go. And. All right. I just wanted to let you guys know that I did go to the west part of August for officers training last week, and it was a post Boces and the Boces culinary students prepared dinner served. They did a great job. That was really good. Um, and the officers training was good. Um, we had a lot of like, table conversations. I was going to hear from other boards, and, um, I promised

227me to thank our policy committee. Um, that's probably one of probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest job that the school board has is to set the policy for the district and one of the school districts there. Their board had not reviewed policy since 2017, and they new board members were now spearheading. That is a awesome undertaking. And it just made me think, thank goodness for one of the policy, community and support of this board and prior boards, ensuring that we don't get into that kind of a situation. So, uh, there was um, and outside of Jeremy. Does anyone else have anything they want to say? Okay. So, uh, just, um, move on. Our next meeting is October 22nd. As always, if you have any comments that you'd like to support, you can

228do so by email. Uh, to the board notes. And the superintendent at the old school board. I just need a motion to adjourn the meeting in a second. So, um, the motion and the second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Uh, thank you for coming, everyone. Congratulations to our ten year appointees, our retirees. Thank you very much for.