001Welcome to the uh Fredonia Central School Board of Education meeting for uh Tuesday, April 28th, 2026. Uh we begin each meeting with a pledge to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh so, tonight before we approve the agenda, um there are a few uh special guests present. Uh Miss Joint and the Garden Club are here, are present tonight uh to uh speak about the Garden Club. And Dr. Zayas, uh I'll pass it over to you, Bruce. >> Yeah, we're really excited to have a variety of students here, as well as uh Miss Joint. Miss Joint is a great example of someone who joined us a couple years ago,
002um talking a lot about her interests, how they could have a positive impact on our school community, and she has absolutely delivered um in a lot of different ways. Um Garden Club um is just one example. Um so, we thought she could give us and the students could give us a quick overview of some of the work they've been doing, and uh I heard they might even get gifts along the way, so maybe >> I'm going to hand it over to the club. >> Good evening, members of the school board and administration. We are excited to share something sweet that we recently brought learning to life to life, our schoolyard maple syrup project. Together, we experienced the entire journey of production, from tapping trees and collecting sap to the final reward of syrup-topped candies. This
003project complimentary our monthly local food tasting program. We read partner with Mrs. Tomaszewski's life skills class to introduce local seasonal foods to the student body through tastings. This March, we shared our syrup with the entire third grade, sparking curiosity and school-wide pride. We also entered the New York State Agriculture in the Classroom contest after taking third place in the high school division last year. We are proud to continue this tradition and include more students each year. >> Guided by the teachings of Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, we framed this experience around the idea of responsibility and reciprocity. We learned that when we take from Earth, we have responsibility to give back. To honor the maple trees that made this possible, our members volunteer at the local Arbor Day event hosted by Kravitz Tree Service. They distributed
004um 1,000 free trees to our community, and the Kravitz family has been a wonderful supporter of our club. Thank you for your time and supporting hands-on experience that nurture a deep connection between our students, community community, and the natural world. >> Yeah. Well, thank you, students. Thank you, Ms. Joiner. Thank you for Ms. Joiner for your enthusiasm and efforts. We've heard a lot about you and all the work you're doing at with gardening. It's It's really terrific. >> Thank you. >> And you know, I think a month ago I joked I heard about this, I joked it'd be nice if we had some maple syrup delivered. So, thank you again. Thank you, Ms. Joiner. >> THANK YOU, GUYS. >> HEY. UM YOU'RE FREE TO GO. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SIT THROUGH THE ENTIRE MEETING. It's
005>> Thank you. >> I'm not I'm not going to say it's all downhill from here, but it's it's Thank you very much. Um All right. Well, next where approve the agenda for the regular meeting of April 28th, 2026, including personnel but excluding A1 and new business but excluding A and B. Uh do we have a motion to table? >> Could I pull uh seven >> I forgot to ask. >> Yeah. Could I pull seven E for future discussion? It's the uh drama club trip. >> Seven seven E >> Got it. Make sure it don't go past Um Uh anything else to uh take out of consent calendar? Um so, could I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> First and second. Thank you. Um Any uh all in favor? >> Aye. >>
006Opposed. Okay, so next we have our first round of uh public commentary. Uh the board has reserved this time to hear comments from the audience. Those wishing to address the board are asked to stand. Please give your name and address. You limit your comments to five minutes or less. Uh concerns and comments during this session though should be directly related to any item that's listed on the proposed agenda. We have a second commentary period at the end where you can speak on anything. Is there anybody that would like to comment on the agenda? No? Okay, we'll move on. And so now we're going to move into our minutes. We have two minutes to approve. First of the actually the first one is to approve corrected minutes from the regular meeting of March 24th of 2026.
007Uh could I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. First and motion and second. Um Now, because this is corrected minutes, uh is there anything to correct on this? >> There is. >> Mr. Senise, can you remind us >> Yes, sure. Essentially, what happened we are fortunate enough to have brought on a new OT. Um, Kelsey Moser. And OTs walk an interesting line in terms of hiring. They are part of civil service, but they are also part of our FTA. So, um, when she was appointed, uh, she was appointed as civil service requested. However, because she is also a member of FTA, we needed to correct the minutes to kind of combine the two postings as they have They're they're dissimilar types of postings, I guess is the best way
008to put it. So, this kind of satisfies both ends of the spectrum. >> Okay. So, we didn't correct it. >> Yeah. There was nothing There's nothing that has changed about her position, her salary, or anything else. It's literally just how it was listed in the minutes. That's the only thing. >> Typology? >> Yep, exactly. >> Okay. Um, all in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? Then we have our minutes from the regular meeting of April 20th, 2026. Call a motion to bring that to the table. >> So moved. >> Thanks. Ms. Galler, second? Thanks. Ms. Ford, um, any questions on those minutes? Uh, if not, uh, all in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? Brings us to our financial treasurer's report from Mr. Forbes, budget investment revenue. >> Yep, we'll take those all together. On the expenditure
009side, not a whole lot of adjustment to what you're seeing before on the dashboard. Things are continuing to track following the budget, lines that we had in. On the revenue side, March is a lot of activity, which is normal. We picked up $7,000 in interest investment earnings. Also, we had three separate state aid payments totaling 6.2 million, which we received, plus lottery aid of 152,000, and summer school aid of 281,000. So, quite a lot of funds flowing through in March, which as I mentioned is typical. Investment rates, we started off the year at 4.1 ish and they took a big dive to 3.5 in December and now they've seemingly held steady in that range. So, that's good cuz that allows us to recapture a little bit of interest income. Other than that, nothing else. >>
010Any Any questions on those reports? Um so, that brings us to our treasurer's report. Uh can I have a motion to bring that to the table? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Marshall. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Ports. >> No issue there. >> Okay. Uh all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Um so, we're out of finance or in the personnel. Uh And tonight, uh we're pleased to approve the probationary appointment of Laura Burnside, uh holds a professional certification in school psychology, uh to a probationary teaching position in the school psychologist uh tenure. Can I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Um Dr. Zilliox. >> Yeah, thank you first of all for Laura for being here tonight. We appreciate it. Welcome aboard here, Fredonia. Um
011we're always happy to have a graduate returning um to the um district or the the building. Um also a Fredonia resident who's, you know, kind of cementing um that school and work relationship here right um where you live. So, that is um fantastic. Um as you know, um we have an interview process um within our hiring process where candidates meet with the building level um and then later on with district office and every once in a while a candidate um arrives on the scene and their experience of almost 20 years um shines through and it's very clear that Laura has had a range of experiences um within the duties of a school psychologist and is really prepared to uh hit the ground running and has really developed really fantastic skill set that we think will
012pay dividends across the board for our students, our families, for our faculty and staff and for the district. We are excited to have her on board and Mr. Valente, anything you want to add? >> Yeah, when we interview people we look for I look for people who are going to make us better and Laura is the candidate who will immediately lift our our building up and we've had a vacancy for a while in the in the elementary school so I'm very happy to have that filled especially somebody who's going to you know stay here for the long term. So I'm ready for July 1st and because I'm going to be the lead learner here alongside of her and everybody else. Kristen? >> Oh, sure. Thank you. We had a really robust interview process and Laura
013clearly emerged as our frontrunner so I'm thrilled to have her on board and I really can't wait to see what she brings to us. Thank you. >> Great. >> Let's do a lap, DR. WRIGHT. >> UM I IT WAS WONDERFUL TO meet Laura and talk with her and hear her experience as I've said many many times my roots are in special ed and I well you know you always go back to your roots in something and so it was wonderful to talk with Laura and to talk interventions and and ideas and you know ideas that she comes and has experience with and that we all get to benefit from most notably our students so we are static to be able to have Laura as part of our school family. >> Great. Great. Yeah, before we
014congratulate we have to approve you so uh all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? CONGRATULATIONS DR. WRIGHT. SINCE YOU'RE HERE UH ANY ANY COMMENTS? >> SURE. >> We'll put you on the spot so >> I thank you so much. Thank you Dr. Ziliak's, um everybody who interviewed me, Board of Education. I I've been to the school um K to 12. I'm a I'm a former student. I'm a former Hillbilly. I'm a proud parent of a fourth and sixth seventh grader. Gosh, I lost track of her. Um I have had nothing but fabulous experiences as a student and a parent and I'm just thrilled to be a part of the staff now. Um I I'm just happy to be home. So. >> Thank you. >> ALL RIGHT. WELL, MOVING ON INTO UH THAT'S ALL for personnel
015and new business. We need to approve the ballot for the election of board members to the Board of Cooperative Educational Services. Okay. Could I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Yes, Mr. Barnes second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Dr. Ziliak's collaboration on this? >> Um a pretty standard annual election here. Um there are five seats available, five candidates. All of the candidates are incumbents. I think that helps our decision making here at our level. Um and all the candidates seem to have been successful and are doing a nice job and looking to continue their good work. We appreciate them being willing to do so. >> Yeah, very easy decision making for us. Five five for five. Uh any further questions before we approve? Uh all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? All right.
016We feel I have to say thank you to them for uh you know, their service to to volunteer to do this. It's quite a bit of work and we appreciate that. Um We also need to adopt a resolution approving the 2026-27 tentative BOCES administrative budget uh in the amount of $4,204,103. Um can I have a motion, please? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Dr. Zilliox. >> Oh, yeah. Again, um, pretty standard, uh, resolution, um, annual resolution. Um, we've talked in our last couple meetings, uh, about, um, increasing students attending BOCES CTE programs, P-TECH programs, um, their assistance uh, with our special education instruction. Um, really a great resource. We're very thankful that BOCES is available to us. Um, and each year, much like ourselves, they piece a budget together um,
017that reflects their good work and their efforts to really, uh, continue to support uh, students, offer programming, and, uh, continue to develop those relationships not only with the component districts, but also also with our students. >> Okay, so >> Any, uh, questions on that budget? Uh, all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Um, and Mr. Martin requested that we, uh, pull from consent, uh, the request for an overnight, uh, retreat and trip, uh Mr. Martin. >> I I will be brief. Uh, I just wanted to, uh, briefly discuss this issue, um, in in the vein of this being, uh, no cost to the district. Uh, Nashwan spoke uh, last week about how, I think it was last week, and I had a few after meetings, how important it is to have access to, uh, I
018think he mentioned athletics. Um, and how this was different in this district than it was, uh, in other in other parts of, uh, other parts of the country, other parts of the world, um, and he valued that access. So, uh, I think we're doing a really good job of trying to weigh the, uh, where we can fund items like this and where we can't. I just want to make sure we're very thorough about it and would like to encourage um especially in situations like this where there's a really high level of participation, encourage more of that type of activity whether it is provided by the district or it is provided by the students and fundraising and you know, when we get something like this help comes from everywhere and I think but I just wanted
019to be in support of not just this individual trip but the district doing things like this and doing doing more things like this. Miss Joy being here tonight kind of feeds right into that philosophy of mine. I think when we can take advantage of teachers who are dedicated to the district and have a passion let them let them run their passion and provide access to kids where we can. That's really all I wanted to say. >> Um just a little background here. So um you know, this started to my knowledge with a Ben Wendel who is our drama coordinator and does a great job with our productions. Really wanted to enhance the experience for those students getting students down to New York City see the show, do a little sightseeing as well. So some families
020do pay for this straight out. Um there are some students who and they can tap into their fundraising whether that was for money attached to band, orchestra or chorus. So that's available. And then there are is also the option through Mr. Wendel. We do have some community organizations who have been willing to sponsor students that this might be a stretch for. So there's a couple different avenues to make sure students have access. The trip is usually capped at about 48 students more for transportation than anything else and it seems like we that works out well that we We about roughly half the students in drama club who tend to make this trip if not once maybe several times during their career here with us. So, there are some options and certainly we're sensitive to everything
021that you mentioned. >> Absolutely. Yeah, I can't agree more. You know, I try to encourage the teachers to have these interests and you know, encourage them to to pursue them. It's it's fantastic. They they go above and beyond. It's great. Any other comments to add or? Okay, thank you, Mr. Martin. And this leads to our second round of public comment which is similar to the first except that it can be on any topic. Is there anybody like to speak to the board on any of the other topics? No, okay. Well, then we'll go into our superintendent's report, Dr. Zaleski. Yeah, a couple things in concept tonight. Um we are continuing to offer driver ed during the summer. That's a win for our students and our families. We appreciate Dan Binninger from our science department being
022willing to do that each year. So, we're excited about that coming upcoming opportunity. Um although tonight we don't have anything official about our budget on the agenda, I just wanted to summarize a few things. Over the past four meetings we've had four separate budget presentations. Um all of this is rooted in a couple things. Back to our mission, vision, core beliefs, this idea of becoming our greatest selves, being innovative, dynamic, and global in what we do as a district. And in terms of core belief, front and center would really our willingness and desire be student centered in all that we do. Um our board this year also developed budget principles were that were also at the heart of this work. Um one of the things that we've talked about um are some changing dynamics over
023the last few years in Fredonia. Um we're proud that our student population has a slight increase, only about 2%, but still an increase um which is unlike a lot of districts in New York and a lot of districts locally. Um but we have seen significant increases in English language learners, students with disabilities, um those identified as economically disadvantaged, those who are identified as homeless. Um as I mentioned earlier, students going into our career and technical programs as well as P-Tech. And also just to increase in families with Hispanic backgrounds. Um so the needs are changing, so we have shifted a little bit in those positions that we've hired over time, including some of those um involved with COVID money that's been talked about on numerous occasions. Uh special education teachers, ENL teachers, counselors, school psych,
024social workers. Uh we added an Hispanic outreach coordinator as well as needs in speech, um occupational therapy, and physical therapy. So some changing dynamics that we're adjusting to and at the end of the day, it's really about meeting students' needs and we have strived and continue to really put all our efforts towards offering those opportunities, offering those experiences, offering that support, offering those services to our students across the board um based on their needs. So over the last four meetings, we have reduced um a little bit over $3 million um where we started in the budget process. Um our tax levy increase will be at 2.44% um which is our tax cap. Um the budget to budget increase is 3.16%. Um I got a few questions about where that relates to inflation. So whether you're
025talking about Shauktalk County, New York State or the US as a whole inflation ranges from about 3.3 to 4% so we're under at 3.16. I also just want to remind everybody that we have been at or below the tax cap every year it has been instituted. Nine out of those 15 years we've been below the cap. Unfortunately we did make a reduction in two elementary positions. We also are transitioning one of our key paid classes to a combined special ed gen ed classroom which will allow for reimbursement through Shauktalk County. This is actually the second class we will have added um in that regard. The first class has been running this year and we have been able to um benefit from that reimbursement. Technically we're still we are still waiting for final numbers from New
026York State since the budget continues to be late. I just want to remind everybody that our next meeting is in a week on May 5th that is technically our budget hearing. Mr. Forbes will walk us through a lot of fun information one last time and then we look forward to our vote May 19th. We hope that everybody will get out have their voice heard and be part of the process. You'll be seeing a lot of information on social media newsletters some postcards going home as reminders. As Katherine and Ashwan shared with us last week budget plays a role behind all of those experiences and opportunities for our students. Again we are really fighting to keep all of those experiences available and accessible to our students. Um usually at this point I'd like to share a
027little bit of good news that's happening across the district. Catherine, I was hoping you could lead us off. >> Of course. Um I uh want to share a little bit about Spectator, which is our school newspaper, if anyone doesn't know. Um over the weekend, we were able to attend the New York Press Association conference, and we actually returned with a second place award for overall publication and 11 individual awards in various categories. Um so, three students got to attend, um one of which was me. And um we were able to go to workshops and meet with other journalists. Um I mean, like the New York Times was there. It wasn't just high schoolers. There was actually only two high schools that were able to attend, um us included, and we were also the only um
028high school from Western New York to get a recognition like that. Um most of the other schools we even compete are from Long Island or our private schools, so it's really special that, you know, over here, all the way far away, we were able to get a reward or an award, too. Um It was really, really amazing to get to see that kind of environment and to have exposure to a more professional setting of journalism. Um it's something that, even though I've been a part of Spectator for so long, I haven't really gotten to see that experience of it. Um so, it was really interesting and an amazing opportunity for us and a great recognition for our school, as well. >> Awesome, Catherine. Thank you so much. Yes. Next one. >> Um so, I want
029to recognize some of the people who are participating in spring sports, and these people were recognized by uh Dan Palmer himself. So, my first person is Caden Stracickula. He is a sophomore and he plays unified sports and he especially loves unified bocce ball. Um, he's also the co-secretary of unified club. Um, some interests about him, he loves history and loves watching baseball, especially the Philadelphia Phillies. So, uh, Dan Palmer would like to congratulate Caden for being the WDOE person of the day. And then we have two more people, both of whom are on the flag football team. So, the next person as the athlete of the day was Emma Perry of the Fredonia flag football team. She helped the Lady Billies defeat West Seneca 33 to 13 on Saturday as she rushed for 108 yards
030on 15 carries and led led the defense with six flag pulls. Last week she scored three touchdowns and rushed for 109 yards in a 54-0 win over Lackawanna and a 39-32 win over Spencerport. She gained 136 yards rushing with 16 carries. So, she was one of the athletes of the day. And another athlete of the day, also a flag football player, was Maddy Cohames of the flag football team. She helped the Lady Billies lead to a 5-0 season with her pass-catching ability. In a 39-32 win over Spencerport, she caught nine passes for 152 yards, four touchdowns. In a 40-12 win over Depew, she had five catches for 158 yards, three touchdowns. In a 54-0 win over Lackawanna, she scored touchdowns on both sides of the ball as a TD catch and a pick-six. So, congratulations
031to Maddy, Caden, and Emma. >> Thanks. >> Um, beyond those events, we also have a lot of things happening across the district in terms of literacy and also with our curriculum council, Dr. Wright has been extremely helpful in leading those efforts this year. If I could you can us just a quick update. Either or both. >> Sure, sure. Not nearly as exciting as everything going on across the table. Congratulations to all. That's really wonderful. Um so, literacy um we continue this year to do our weekly meetings, and these are grades K through 4, monthly meetings with UPK. And this is the real all in, as I've said, um initiative with our H and H Into Reading. And it's been amazing to see the growth since September and the rich conversations, the relationships built, and you
032know, we come together and teachers are sharing articles so that I can attach those to the agendas and everybody can have them, and we're having deep dive conversations and best practices and discussions of alignment now that they're feeling really confident and good with this, um extending it into AIS and RTI, looking at vocabulary, cross-referencing it or cross-walking it, as we say in the eduspeak world, with their other core academic areas to now say, "Okay, well, if this story has science vocabulary, do I want to do this here as a preview of science science vocabulary for when they teach science this spring, or do I want to move this to coordinate it with the science?" So, um our next round of each quarter we have done a half-day release with subs so that the teams can
033get together and really do the deep dive in the curriculum, do the curriculum writing. Um all the things that, you know, it's very hard to do in the school year, you know, in real time. So, that's been part of our plan, and it's been very valuable. So, that's their next step is looking at that, as well as the course they want to look at for next year for both H and H and UFLI, the phonics program, which is being used K-2. Um and we're all very excited to see what's going to happen now that our students in kindergarten, first, and second grade have had every day daily instruction in the same program, UFLI, um University of Florida Literacy Initiative, in phonics to see as they age up. So, our first graders will now have kindergartners
034who've had this all year. So, we're excited to see as these cohorts go up and examine the data to see some of them get to Paul Hammes and in the middle school in fifth grade, um you know, where where what that looks like. So, that's a lot of exciting things for us curriculum nerds. Um curriculum council, that is again comprised of all of our instructional leaders from across all areas UPK 12, not just classroom, but um special areas related services, CTE, as well as our administrators. So, um it is a robust group of 33. And um we started out this year examining what we know of portrait of a graduate. And again, New York State has set their own timeline of summer 2027 for when they will give this final iteration of part one. So,
035there's nothing really new about that, but we continue to keep an eye on it, continue to keep it in the forefront. So, to get ready for those things, um we are really examining the best way to approach creating a curriculum review cycle, um as well as how that would crosswalk or cross-reference with our professional learning plan, and that is a requirement by the New York State Education Department that every so many years you revise, update, and um get that in order. So, we figured it's a good time to align all of those things at once. So, we'll do those behind-the-scenes things. Sure. >> Thank you, Dr. Rait. Just a couple other things. Um I wanted to recognize our music department. You uh took a trip to Orlando recently, participated in a music festival. Uh thanks
036to Mr. Bennett and his group for making that happen. Another great opportunity. Um I took a lap through the Observer um before our meeting. A lot of things going on. Um softball softball has had a couple big wins lately. Dunkirk, Jamestown, Southwestern, and Silver Creek only one loss on the season um at this point. Also, our JV team had a big win over Dunkirk yesterday as well. Um boys club boys golf, we have a number of young men doing a nice job. Ryan Kelly, Jordan Kelly, Keyshawn Malkowski, Braedon Truby, RJ Coopman, all doing fantastic with boys golf. Girls, Sydney Hoffman, Gianna Novelli, Liz Proper, Abby Shikansky, Josie Swanson, and Lily Mancuso. But yeah, doing a good job with girls golf. Track, Maryella Russo, Alessandra Boughey. Both names multiple times in multiple meets. Nice job, ladies.
037Also boys tennis recently, a win at Casa Vega, Jackson Spangler, and Bryce Harper leading the way. Baseball, big win over Salamanca recently, 13 to 3. Matt Cowan, Brady Crawford, Colin Bruce, Paulie Tubone, Jeff Frame, Max Hazelton all doing a great job. We heard a little bit about Fife football already, but only one loss on the season so far for Fife football as well. So a lot of great things happening, a lot of success, a lot of recognition. And again, in the background of that, the school finances supporting these efforts, supporting these opportunities to make it happen for our students. So nice job, everybody. >> Any any further questions on the superintendent's report? Thank you, Dr. Wright. Thanks to everyone and Catherine for that good reports and kudos to the Spectator once again. Doing an awesome
038job. So, our next regular Board of Education meeting will be Tuesday, May 2nd, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. here in the high school library. Before we go around the table, any other general comments from the board? >> I have I have a comment. I noticed something in the paper a couple days ago about the Beaver Club and I don't know if anybody saw that, but they they're sponsoring the Little League. They bought some machinery to help smooth out their fields. They're they're basically Little League baseball fields, which is a great idea. And uh contribution to the Beaver Club, but they also mentioned that uh Mr. Haas was building the benches uh with the engineering um up here. And that caught my eye that uh we have that collaboration going on with the Beaver Club and the
039Little League and you know, I there was some commentary in from the Beaver Club president about how their goal is to help the Little League because they like to get the kids off the cell phones and outdoors. And it really aligns with our our our mission, our vision. And uh so, just wanted to give a shout-out to the Beaver Club. And a few years ago, didn't they put up the scoreboard also on So, uh it's really nice to see that uh that the Beaver Club's stepping up and helping out. And also, I you know, you mentioned playing football. Have we talked about Mr. Trandahl? My my son-in-law said that he was coach of the week or something. Well, I'll go with me. He said he he said he won um season tickets for next year.
040That's not true, but you know, congratulations to Mr. Trandahl. >> Yeah. >> Good job. Good job. >> And if you look out by our loading docks, you'll see that Mr. Haas's class are about halfway through the benches. They're making progress. Um they've been chipping away. It's good. >> Around the table, Mr. Trandahl. >> Yeah, so yeah, Mr. Haas's construction systems class is actually is the class that's that's creating the benches. It's it's cool. Um we had another WDOE athlete of the day today, actually, too. So, Ryan Kelly for golf today, too. So, just to to piggyback on Nashwan there. So, that one didn't come out until later in the day. Um just a couple of things for me then. Uh first senior activity is Friday this week. So, we have decision day. Um students are
041encouraged to wear their the shirt of their college choice, trade school choice, or career choice. Uh, and staff is encouraged to participate as well. AP exams get away get underway next week and then the following week as well. So, we'll be bussing kids over to SUNY Fredonia Dods Hall. We have a couple of classrooms secured there. Um, if you have some time afterwards and you can take the trip down, I invite you the board to take a quick walk toward the main courtyard to see our picnic tables outside. They're painted, they're sealed, and outside we hope to, if the weather holds and it's warm enough, start to be able to let students outside next week in the courtyard uh, to use the picnic tables. Um, again, a shout-out to Cooper Stenger who ran a pretty
042tight ship in getting them painted, sealed, and outside for use. And then, uh, one other invite from us is a unified assembly game on May 15th. That's a 1:00 start here. We all all of our students go down and participate in as the uh, audience. But, um, our unified team will take on Pembroke at 1:00 on May 15th. So, if you have any availability that day, we'd love to see you in attendance as well. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Tadt. Ms. Plumb. >> Yes, we are right in the middle of state testing season. So, we finished and administered our ELA um, assessments last week. We are in the middle of math right now with science for fifth and eighth graders next week. Um, our Quest kids had their soggy one-day hike on Saturday um,
043with a two-day hike coming up soon this weekend. And then, finally, for our fourth quarter attendance incentive, we have an in it to win it game. So, every kid's name has been entered into a spinner and then we spin a wheel one per grade level and draw um, names for a prize. Commending them on being in school. >> Thank you, Ms. Plumb. Mr. Dollinger. >> Last week at the elementary school we celebrated uh, Earth Day. We turned it into Earth Week. So, all the classrooms got outside and planted trees. We took uh, cuttings of plants. Our classroom rabbit got loose. We found some mice and bats in the building, but all under the guise of learning. So, it was a good week at the elementary school. Um the month of May is mental health month,
044so we're going to do a thanks for the dogs and the kids. Uh we're going to encourage lower screen time and and in our classrooms for our kids. We're going to have some cafeteria activities where we kind of mix the kids up where they sit with their new friends um and and nice little activities like that. Um and I also want to thank Mr. Bertrando as well because whether you know it or not, he runs a lot of summer clubs for our elementary school kids, gym rats, uh girls basketball, boys basketball, and that really helps the families in the area out for um you know a good experience. And that's all we got with the elementary school. >> That's a great example of going above and beyond. >> Yeah. Oh, he's great. >> Yeah. >>
045Ms. Carroll. >> Um you talked about some community partnerships. I just wanted to thank uh the athletes and the athletic uh director PJ Gondola on the student for the new campus for once again um providing a really exciting event for our unified athletes. They had their opening basketball game last week against Dunkirk. Fredonia won. It's a really nice event. Um the college has been great supporters of that and it really results in some nice relationships and um just some ongoing, you know, interactions that they we've built with them. So, thanks to them and um you know, once again, I just wanted to talk about our new school psychologist. I want to tell, you know, the board that it is hard sometimes for us to be our best selves when we're working at less than capacity.
046In other words, when we're not fully staffed. So, um you know, I really can't tell you how happy I am to be back at full force with our school psychologist. Our staff in special ed and our families have been incredibly accommodating and flexible while we've been filling the gap and creative ways. So, um welcome to our world. >> Thank you, Ms. Carroll. >> Yeah. Dr. Wright, anything else? >> Um just a couple things. It's so exciting to see, you know, Mimi take this idea um and this is just one of the many, many projects that she has um you know, worked on, grants that have been written, inspiring staff to do, you know, all sorts of things and enjoying it. It's their love and their passion like you said in first year students to be
047able to experience these things. When you're walking out, if you look, you'll see the hydroponic, one of the hydroponic gardens over there um and there are several of those all as a result of grants that she has worked, you know, to secure and um share so generously with the rest of the school community. So, um it's really exciting. Congratulations on their third place um you know, win. That's pretty awesome, too. And then um just the other thing I wanted to highlight the middle school and the hard work they've been doing in their attendance initiative. Dr. Melissa Rivers at Erie 2 BOCES um is part of a committee with the state to do to look at attendance. And at the recent BOCES, she had said, "If there are any districts that have been doing any amazing
048things, you know, with their attendance initiatives, we would love those examples." And it is so exciting to be able to say, "Fredonia." You know, and to be able to highlight the hard work of Mrs. Balhamis and Mrs. Marsh. So, we we're very grateful for that. >> Great. Thank you Dr. Wright. Uh Mr. Forbes, anything? >> No. Mr. Forbes, thank Are you there? Um so, we anticipate the need to enter into executive session to discuss personnel matters. Um Uh so, can I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Uh all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Thank you. Into executive. Uh students uh