001Welcome to the Fredonia Central School Board of Education meeting for Tuesday, November 4th, 2025. Uh we start each meeting with a pledge to the flag. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance 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. Well, before we uh begin the meeting uh and approve the agenda, I would like to ask for a moment of silence for Ron Wakefield, a former employee who recently uh passed away. Uh Dr. Zelios, um this always said there's a former employee. >> Yeah, definitely. And this one hits a little closer to home that it's connected to two of our current employees. So, um, Ron is Maria Wakefield's, uh, father. You might know, Maria
002is our elementary school secretary. Uh, great lady and, uh, does a lot for the elementary school. And, uh, then that would mean that Albert Ramirez, who was at our last meeting, um, that's his, uh, father-in-law. Um, so we were very sorry to hear this news. Um there was a nice uh calling hours that many of us attended um last week and service the following day. Um we appreciate the people from the Fredonia family showing up to support both Albert Maria and we're sorry to hear about Ron. So if we could please have a moment of silence. Thank you. Uh before we uh start the agenda uh we do have an addendum. Uh it is uh under new business 7D. Um and in the uh agenda we need to approve agenda for the regular meeting of
003November 4th, 2025. Uh including consent for personnel but excluding A1 through three and consent for uh new business. All of new business. Can I have a motion to bring that to the table? M for a second. >> Second, >> Mr. Marshall. Thank you. Anything hold including the consent or the addendum? I'm sorry. >> Okay. If not, all in favor? >> Opposed? Okay. Uh, next we have our public comment. Uh, boards reserve this time to hear from the public. State your name and address. Look at your comments in the five minutes or less. has to be directly related to the agenda for this uh public comment. Anybody like to speak tonight first session? Um so we'll move on and uh we need to approve the minutes from the regular meeting of October uh 21st 2025. Have
004a motion to bring that to the table. >> Mr. Kenny has a second. >> Second. >> So thank you. Any questions on those minutes? >> All in favor? opposed. Next up is the financial uh treasures report. Uh we have budget, investment, and revenue reports. Mr. Forbes, they kind of deal with all together as we normally do. On the revenue side, that's where most of the adjustments occurred. Um when you put the tax levy out on September 1st, you have to put the full amount of receivable so it becomes a revenue source. So if you look at the first line, real property tax current year, it shows the $15 million is received which obviously on the first day of tax collection it wouldn't be the same with the star which is in the next line. We
005also did receive our lottery aid, our every lottery a payment at the end of the month which is listed under and partly foundation aid which is listed under state aid section and also our textbook aid. Uh investments continue to track a little bit lower than last year but still in a positive. We're able to to try to get some extra income there. So, that's good. On the expenditure side, we really didn't make many adjustments yet, but we begin to see that now that things are rolling along into October, November, we can kind of take a look at what we projected versus what's coming in. So, there'll be some adjustments starting to show up on that side as well. >> Any questions on those reports? >> Mr. Mark, >> uh you said investments are tracking lower
006than last year. >> Yes. >> How are they compared to budget? Well, right now through this month, uh, because you're seeing September is still below, but we're actually already above into October and November. So, that's good. The rates did go down a little bit with the changes last week, but not as much as anybody thought they would. So, last year we were probably running around 41, 42, and right now we're like 38, 37. >> Um, any other questions? I have a question. Um, so last night we learned I You know, I didn't under realize that we get like foundation aid in pieces. We don't get all one lump sum. How many pieces are there to to the aid? We get like what does it >> you get a little bit at the front end which
007is in September which includes a lottery which is part of your foundation formula and then you really don't get a whole lot until you get into the spring and then you get what they call the March payments in the spring sustaining advance. So you end up getting about $5 million in the month of month month of March alone and then another in April and generally speaking there's probably five or 600,000 that gets deferred at the end of the year and we get that in August from the state and then on Bosey's aid we get about 800,000 of that in September from the previous year once they close their books out. So it's not it's not a other than the small lottery aid payments which are about $60,000 a month. It's not a every month you
008get a check. This is a chunk then nothing chunk and part of that is that they realize school districts are taking their tax levy in September, October, November. So they don't need to have >> cash flow cash flow is because the tax supports it. >> Yep. In the fall. >> Okay. Um well, next is the treasures report. I have a motion to bring that to the table. >> Mr. Kenny and Mr. Martin, a second. Um Mr. Forbes, anything on the treasures report? All in favor? >> Opposed? So now we uh have uh next up in financial is to award transportation contracts. I have a motion that move >> Mr. Marshall will second. >> Second, Mr. Forbes, any uh can you give us the details on this one? Yeah, this one is a special education student
009that it was determined they needed an outside placement post has a new program called Bloom which is in Jamestown. Uh we were able to link up with Dunker. So you can see that on the contract amounts it's listed as shared or solo on the shared days which is hopefully most days it'll be with Dunker and we get the savings off of that and obviously on the single days it'll be a little bit more. >> Any questions on that? Uh, no, but just again, I know we've talked about this, but just for public knowledge because someone might look at that and see $500 or $431 a day be that's a that's a big thing. So, these are obligatory things that we're required to do and then this is a shared resource or shared service that we've
010gone out of our way, right, to find and hook up to reduce the cost whenever possible. >> Right. And this is obviously an unbudgeted situation, but you do get transportation aid on it and the Bosey's program is also an unbudgeted situation. So, it's a sizable change in those two areas to our budgeted amount. >> Yeah. And then the the refresh my memory. It's 80 some odd percent reimburse. >> 75. >> Yeah. I forgot. I was going to ask that last night. The transportation aid, it's 75% >> 7275. >> Yeah. And so the issues with anything like this, it becomes you have to front it out now because categorical aid categorical aid received in the year subsequent. So it impacts your potentially impacts your fund balance now but then next year you can bring it back.
011>> Does transportation aid fluctuate year to year? >> Not much. >> Are there parameters that would make it fluctuate like >> No, they pretty much take >> what's it taking get the pricing straight up? So does that have to do with um like the socioeconomic you know >> things like the weight of average attendance and all that is in most of the formulas it is in there but steady on enrollment. So >> so they they they factor it to attendance so you actually get some more aid if you have more attendance because kids are on buses. >> Yeah. So that's good. Not the reason we want kids to attend, but it's kind of a nice bonus. So >> do you usually find that it washes out from year to year? Like we're going to have
012this increased expense this year, we're going to get the money next year. Well, >> it won't be 100% wash out. And for whatever reason, some of the high cost special ed students become transient. So it could be that through through the course we have someone else leave or do we have another one come in >> and in the world of the school finances one of the worst case scenarios and this has happened to other districts that happened in Brockton a long time ago where you get a family of two or three kids that don't go to the same place now you have to transport in two different places you have their degree of service and not there's no way to anticipate that >> any other questions on that >> all in favor I I >>
013opposed. Also under financial is to approve the ratification of a big one ratification contract between the superintendent of schools and the salaried support staff association otherwise known as SSSA for the period of July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2029. Can I have a motion to bring that to the table? >> Mr. Martin a second. >> Second. Thank you. Dr. This is nice nice thing to have done. >> Yeah, good news. I just wanted to share a little bit of a summary um of this agreement. Um the SSSA ratified last week and as Mr. Johnson said, we are looking to do the same tonight. This is a four-year agreement. Uh we want to very much thank uh both teams that were involved. Um on our side, we used overseas labor relations who was very helpful um
014in these kinds of processes. Uh we appreciate the time, effort, energy of everybody involved. Um it's definitely a commitment. Um and thankfully we were able to keep a respectful collaborative tone and energy uh during the process and really have some good open dialogue around a number of issues uh between the district and the SSSA. Um there were good conversations um about a number of ongoing issues and uh we all believe that we reached a fair agreement. Um, our board of education had a chance to review the contract in depth at our last meeting in executive session when um, Kurt Just from labor relations came to review much of what I'm going to share with you tonight. So, we just want you to be aware that the board has time to process this and think about
015this before ratification on a particular evening. Um, a summary of some of the key agreed upon items includes um, some minor things um, like updating titles um, in the recognition clause and making sure that they match the wage schedule and civil service titles. Um, clarifying who in the union will sit in on SSSA job interviews along with district office and our administrative team. Uh, we clarify time frames for grievous grievance processes. um and especially look to avoid one clause that was there that might cause the board of education should they need to get involved in creating an additional meeting. So we worked out a time frame that wouldn't cause that to happen. Um, if a grievance is filed and we can't get a resolution at the district level, we also agree to replace uh what
016most people call AAA, the American Arbitration Association with PERB or the Public Employment Relations Board. Um, in our experience, um, this is definitely a less expensive option and a little bit more of a user-friendly option. And I think at this point all of our associations have made this transition. Uh in part of the contract that talks about uh sick bank uh we had had some issues in the past about the term prolonged illness and what does exactly that mean? Um and we have agreed that a prolonged illness is one that is 20 consecutive school days. So that is included in our contract language. We went to a semionthly pay schedule. We also clarified payment for summer work and added job related training for clerical staff. We also clarified that the days that 10 month and
01711th month employees needed to report to work um which there were some inconsistencies with 12 months employees. So that was helpful to get everybody on the same page. And we also added two briement days um into the contractual language. Um part of this process was was us really analyzing uh the wages in all titles. Um based on the information that we had um reviewed, we did determine that Fredonia um had been in the bottom quarter of wages in most title areas amongst our component most districts. So that includes 27 districts. Please remember that last year uh we did adjust nurses when we are having um some struggles there. So, that was taken care of previously. Um you know, part of this discussion around wages is that we certainly want to honor the good work that's
018being done by our current employees. We want to be competitive in the market and attract qualified candidates. Um we also want to be able to retain our employees and have them remain with us for um many years. Um we also wanted to address compression u within the pay scale that is caused by the increases in minimum wage but then that also creates a smaller gap in between new employees and employees that have come on board in recent years. So in many times the difference between a new employee and somebody who have been here five years, six years and seven years was very small. So we try to address that as well. And the salary terms look like this. For um this school year, the 2526 year, um all employees would get an 80 cents increase
019on their base, but then there would be additional money based on years of service ranging from 20 cents up into a $1.70. So again, that's the compression part that gets a little bit more separation of employees based on the time that they've been here. Um, next school year 2627 will be a straight 5% increase. Um, in 2728 we'll go back to the same thing that we did this year 80 cents then the additional money for years of service and then in the 2829 year we'll be at 4%. So again thanks to all involved. Um, I believe both sides feel good about the process and the results and I wasn't sure if there was any followup from the board tonight. Any thoughts, comments or questions or thank you for all the work you did and the
020support Dr. Zelox and all others that were involved in negotiating a fair and equitable contract. Um so um if there's no other questions, all in favor >> I opposed. Great. on the personnel. Um so under personnel uh our first first item is to upon the recommendation recommendation of the superintendent approve the probationary appointment of Emily Diamond who holds a professional certification in students with disabilities grades 7 through 12 biology to a probationary uh teaching position in the special education tenure area. Could I have a motion to bring this to the table? >> Uh Hello and miss Han was it? Okay. Thank you. Uh Dr. Zo, some background on Miss Diamond. >> Yeah. Well, first of all, we're excited. This is uh the one position that has remained unfilled. Uh we want to say thanks to
021Delbar who has filled in in a variety of positions across the district, but again for the last 10 weeks. Uh she's been really helpful in the high school, so thank you to her. Um but this was a position that was vacated um over the summer and we just haven't found the um right fit. So we were happy to meet um with Emily and talk with her a little bit about her qualified qualifications as a special education teacher. Um she is from Jamestown and also attended JCC. Uh she actually got a bachelor's in psychology at Sunni Fredonia and also a minor in Latino studies which is a nice fit for some of our developments in the district. She later went on to get her mers in special ed at Mercyverse. She has um a lot of
022experience previously uh partly at the GA learning center uh in Jamestown, then at JobCore, then at Falner, then at Panama Schools where she is working until the end of this week. And in total, that's just under 30 years of experience. So, we are happy to have her come on board um starting uh this coming Monday. uh join the Fredonia family and integrate into what's happening at the high school. So, we're looking forward um to all of that. Mr. Selli, did I miss anything or anything you wanted to share? >> No, she um you know, she put her I think she put her application in on Monday and by Tuesday we were interviewing already and um we tried to jump on that really quickly and she interviewed really well with us. Everybody on the committee um
023you know found everything that she had to say in terms of her history and teaching very interesting. She worked at the GA home in Jamestown for quite a while, which is working in an alternative setting. Um, and and kind of made her way into the public school system after that. And so, we're really excited to have her on board here. >> Any questions on that before we remove her? All in favor? >> Opposed? And welcome Miss Skyman to the Fonia staff. Um, sounds like she has a lot of experience, so be very welcome. Um, so also to personnel, we uh back to the SSSA theme. Um, we need to approve Steve Mcoli as a head of the custodial department effective September 15, 2025. Uh, Sally perh SSSA contract. Have a motion to the table. >>
024Mr. Foron, a second. >> Second, >> Mr. Marshall. Thanks. Uh, Dr. Zilios. Yeah, these next two resolutions, two and three, kind of go hand in hand. They are both heads of departments, custodial and maintenance, uh Steve McNoli and also Doug Essex. So, um when there was some retirements, um at the end of last school year, um we looked at going to a slightly different model um for how we would oversee these departments. You probably remember um we had talked here in public session about a director of facilities. Um we advertised for a director of facilities. we interviewed uh for the position and really just did not have the right fit or um a person that we thought would be fully successful here in Fredonia. Um in some conversations back and forth with SSSA about where
025this stands and how this might work um and some concerns about where certain aspects of the director um position would fall. um we decided to kind of backtrack slightly but improve um in what we had in place before. Um true this will be an SS SSSA member um who will be overseeing other members but um and this was in consultation with the board of education. We really felt it was important to really delineate um what things fell under custodial and what things fell under maintenance. At times in the past there's been a little bit of confusion there. Um we really wanted to ensure that there was some collaboration and coordinating um between um the two positions and this is really a joint effort and one that um has an element of working together within it.
026And we also um wanted to make sure we had a clear plan for if one of the department heads was absent, what would happen in that case and the other department head will be helping uh with both departments on those occasions. And everybody is in the loop and clear um on how this will work. So we're excited about this opportunity. We're excited that both Steve and Doug um step forward um showing interest in this position and um we're excited to move forward. In fact, you'll see that the position has actually retro to a little earlier in this year and they have for the most part been acting in this role or a similar role for um a little over a month or two now. So, um, we're confident that this is going to be a
027nice, um, adjustment and is really going to put both departments in a good place to be successful. So, great. Any further questions from the board on that? >> All in favor? >> Opposed? And our second approval uh, from the SSA on this is to approve Doug Essex as head of maintenance department effective uh, September 65th. Sorry >> 15 2025 salary will be per SSSA contract. Have a motion to bring that to the table. >> So move >> Miss Han a second. >> Second to thank you Dr. Julio. >> Yeah, this is just the second half of that. Again, we appreciate Doug stepping up and uh showing an interest and being willing to take on a leadership position. So, both great guys and uh we look forward to them serving in this role. Any questions? All
028in favor? >> Opposed? Um that's great. Mr. Essic and Mr. highly respected members of the uh uh SSSA. So, that's fantastic news. Um the rest is under consent for personnel and new business. takes us right to our second round of public comments. Anybody like to speak? Moving right on. Um, we have a superintendent report. All right, we keep them rolling here. We have a few items, but we're going to try to keep them moving. Um, again, having personnel items and consent is not a reflection on the importance of the position, but really just on the flow of our meetings. But um we do like to go back and highlight a few things um from those resolutions. Um you might have noticed two familiar names there who are now permanent here in the district. Uh Brandy
029Klemire, our high school nurse, and Vonita Orbani Castella, who is our elementary nurse, both registered nurse. You probably remember um sometime in the past when we were really struggling um having nurses on staff and being able to really have our buildings run smoothly on a daily basis. Um since we made those adjustments to the SSA contract that I referred to earlier um and people like Bonita um and Brandy have come on board things have run much smoother. They've done a great job and have really provided uh great service to our students. Um in these offices but also across the district um as well. So congratulations to both uh Randy and Bonita. We appreciate everything they bring to the table and also appreciate helping to solidify um the excellent care um in the district over this
030time. We also have several other permanent um positions um cleaners and our uh secretarial food service. Uh those are Wendy Reid, Olivia Urbacher, Emily Mo, uh Caitlyn Hart. We also um finally have got permanent status for um Kim Le who has been serving as student service director. Um she was finally able to take a test and pass the test and then become permanent. So, thank you to her for her work behind the scenes making sure that she has the proper certification and everything settled there. We also have three pro probationary appointments coming on board right now. Two um or sorry, one um teacher aid and two under food service. Those are Heather Montgomery, Francis Martinez, and also I mean Love. So, congratulations to them. Welcome aboard. We're happy to have them in the district. You
031might have noticed in the subs a familiar name, Gary Butler um has not only returned to the district um to help out in our middle school cafeteria, but is also now subbing as a cleaner when needed and he's really helped us out in a couple of situations where we were short-handed. So, thanks to Gary and always good to see uh employees returning um to the district when uh needed or if desired. Um, also, you know, each superintendent's report, now that we're solidifying kind of how we're working, um, directly with our student representatives, um, we'll have a moment um, during each superintendent point for them to share some information with us. Um, over the past few weeks, they've been thinking about the start of school, maybe what's gone well, what things could be improved. Um, they've
032reached out to some of their classmates to gather some information. So, we were hoping you can share whatever you would like to share with us tonight. >> Awesome. Thank you for this opportunity to talk about our recent back to school survey that uh we did at the high school. >> Um I think that our survey um so it went off pretty strong. We got 87 responses which was a good cross-section of our total student body. Um the overall sentiment was positive with the responses. We got a 3.78 out of five and um we'd like to share some more specific areas where students feel the school is excelling. >> Uh the top three positives that were selected were attendance, fitting in and finding friends, and communication with teachers and administration, which over half of the people
033surveyed believe was effective and went well. Many students also highlighted that joining extracurriculars. Well, this was a smooth and positive experience for them, which I know definitely was partly to Mr. Tanelli sending out weekly emails about every club that was happening this week and where it was happening and everything with that. So, these results show that we are successfully fostering a welcoming and connected school environment. >> So, um some areas where students are uh signaling for more support. Um the D shows that 73.1% of students selected that they're struggling with a lack of sleep and 55.1% reported that they're having trouble managing their homework load. Other issues that they mentioned included technology challenges and difficulties with course scheduling and availability. That's something that occurs every year. So that's not something that happens uh quite often.
034These numbers indicate that uh the administration and board might want to direct these resources and attention. These responses also offer an excellent starting point for discussion. We hope this data can trigger conversations about balancing an academic demands with student loyalty. >> So, um, one thing that we did find out, um, many students didn't know about our specific role as student representative. There were a few questions directed toward us in the survey leading us to believe that the student body is they weren't sure who uh Kath and I were so or how we function what we serve on the board. So uh we'd like to work with the administration to brainstorm more effective ways to introduce ourselves and the purpose with the student representative role and to introduce ourselves to the entire high school. And we
035really want the students to know who we are and that we're always available and eager to listen to them. And that's it. And we can answer any questions. >> I missed this. The challenge is sleep, which I expected that to be number one. Uh what was number two? >> Um it was a homework mode. >> Homework mode. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions for question? Yeah. What do you think the challenge What do you think they meant by technology challenges? Do you think um technology at home or here at school or what do you think? >> Um I think it's probably a good mixture of both. They weren't really particularly specific, but it is often that people have issues with like IT loaners and getting a Chromebook or they may have left their Chromebook
036at home. So, it's a good mix of both. >> That's great. Thank you. Love it. Hope you bring this more and more. >> Yeah, that's great. It's a great idea, you know, to introduce the student body to what you're doing and brainstorming how you can do that. So, thank you for that. Thank you. >> I did have a followup as well if that's okay. Um I think you know the point of more and more like so what happens with this um survey feedback? Is there a way that you will report it out to the student body? Um since they contributed their time to you. Um is there an opportunity for what you shared with us to be shared with the students in some way? And then maybe what comes next? Yeah, I'm hoping that uh
037this can obviously trigger some conversation and maybe when we bring the survey back to the students, it kind of also comes with some solutions or some change that's trying to be made just to kind of show that we're not just asking them these questions for no reason and that we're asking for a purpose and for change to be made. So, I'm hoping when we kind of bring that back to the students, there can also be something else to give them that was from you guys as well. >> So, really >> maybe um I'm just thinking that's that's great. Maybe there's more work to do on your side before that happens on our side. digging into those three issues that were most challenging and make maybe a little more information gathering on those and soliciting ideas
038from the student body and from the two of you about how we might address those issues. >> And once you work through it, we need to work out how we address it or who addresses it from this side. So that's all all good stuff. It's good. >> And I know we had spoken a little bit about using the spectator as a way to communicate with the students. >> Yeah. Yeah. One option. Yeah, for sure. Um, anything else from Katherine Des report? Back to Dr. Zilak. Any other items on the superintendent report tonight? >> Yep. A few more. Um, >> you said two. So, >> or was it or did I say few? Um the uh board last night had a retreat that uh was focused on our budget process. Uh it was the entire board.
039Dr. Wright, Mr. Forbes, Miss Katherine Forna was here as well as myself. Um that was put on by representatives from NISPA New School Board Association. And we really got pretty deep into the process. Covered a lot of information, expenditures, revenue, the importance of representing each of those visually. um got into some information about fund balance and building fund balance, staffing and benefits, equipment, material supplies, contractual expenses, OC services, debt service and inner fund transferred capital outlay projects and capital projects which we have some experience with shared services, uh restricted reserves, tax levy limit and also some comparative analysis and intermixed in there was how we can best uh communicate information about our budget to the community at certain intervals um over the course of the budget process. So, I felt like it went very well.
040Um a lot of information. Um I think there was a good mix of reminding us of certain aspects of the process as well as expanding our knowledge a little bit in certain areas. Um we absolutely appreciate everybody who participated. I don't know if any other board member would have anything else to share, but um we just wanted to make sure our community was aware that we're always taking steps to sharpen our saw a little bit and uh you know make sure that we're as informed as possible. >> Any comments from last night session or >> I I just I really appreciated it. Um, Steve, thank you for all of your work in organizing it and identifying these experts. Uh, you know, we were led by someone with significant amount of experience and really um just
041some different perspectives. So, I think a very valuable good use of our time um last night. So, >> great. You know, I this is our third in a row retreat and uh this one was focusing on the budget. A lot to learn. Uh valuable uh my brain was on fire most of the night. Uh but uh you know it really helps us set set the table for uh the budget season which will comes very soon sooner than we think. So, uh, thanks to everybody willing to come into these retreats and they're willing to be open and willing to learn because, uh, you know, there's so much to learn. So, thank you for that. Um, a few more doctors. >> A few more. Yeah, we're going to keep it rolling. Um, you know, we recognize that
042there are a number of concerns and you might have seen some articles recently in a variety of publications regarding the uncertain stat status of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP, um, as a resource um, that many of our local families depend on. And we wanted to remind everybody of some of the options available to our families here in the district and here locally. Um, please remember that we have both the Edge and the Edge Junior. Now that is more focused on clothes, um, hygiene products and toiletries. Um, but we can be of assistance if anybody is in need of any of those kinds of items. We also have a food pantry right here um, which is primarily groceries um, as a way of providing additional support to our families. Um, our social workers are
043definitely the brains um, behind these operations and we want to thank them for their hard work here. That includes at the high school cat eye um at the middle school and elementary school Ella Wiggers and also at the elementary and wheel lock Cassie Pharaoh. Um we also have a partners in kind walk up food pantry right on the chestnight street playground um at wheelock that doesn't require anybody to talk to anybody. You just walk up take what's available there and uh it's restocked periodically. Um we do have a good number of um individuals who tap into that resource. We also have the food backpack program available um at the elementary and wheel lock where food is sent home on the weekends um for any of those programs. You could reach out to any of our
044offices, any of our social workers, any of our administrators, and we can get you in touch if this is something that could be helpful to you or someone you know. We also wanted to share that the board is actively looking um for ways that they they can support these efforts. Um we're kind of brainstorming a couple ideas there. So more information to follow on that. Um outside of the district but fairly locally um the Fredonia Presbyterian Church um is very helpful in connecting families with food resources. Uh Feedmore of Western New York is certainly a primary player in the area. Sunni Fredonia also has some resources available. Um there is the friendly kitchen on Washington A in Dunkerk that's available and also the St. S St. Susan Center but that is in Jamestown a little
045bit of a drive um down the road. But we just wanted to make people aware of some other possibilities um with this uncertainty and um you know we are looking for ways in which we can help and support our families across the board. I also want to share and highlight that um our board of uh education members over the last couple years have definitely made an effort to attend Bosey's board of education meetings. This allows us to be aware of what's happening internally within the Bosey's organizations, but also items that pertain to again the 27 component districts and there's a lot of good information there. I believe there might be a meeting tomorrow night that perhaps >> that just occurred to me and was very frightened that you might >> maybe I missed >> that
046Mrs. H might be attending and I think that's at Luis so not >> a far drive. Um so we appreciate our board um getting involved and I know the uh personnel Dr. Oorc um over at Bosei certainly appreciates seeing some familiar Fredonia faces. Um there I also just wanted to come back to that we continue to review our booster fundraising um and we have a meeting next week to discuss this in more details. One of the ideas that we're looking at right now is creating a list of guiding principles for our fundraising that will support um open communication, transparency, accountability, prioritization, equity among teams and other items in in that vein. Um and we will continue to have updates on our progress here, but we're looking at having something in place um fairly quickly. Um
047lastly, lastly, I wanted to uh share that our review of our facilities from a an accessibility point of view um also continues. Thanks to Braden for the article recently, very well done. Appreciate you including some of the information that we shared with you. Um we have reconnected with our district architect Young White um with a renewed focus on the areas that came up um here in public comment the other night. Again, this includes the main campus playground, our elementary school office restroom, our science labs, our athletic facilities, our chorus room, and our swimming pool. Um our facilities committee, which is made up of three board members, myself, Mr. Forbes, and we get assistance from Young and Wright. Um we'll be touring these areas to um see exactly what we're talking about and review some of
048the options um for hopeful resolution in the coming months and we will keep everyone updated on our progress there as well. Any uh questions, comments? >> Uh you had a nice comprehensive list of local resources for families suffering from food insecurity. Is there a way to share those out other than just to people who who listen to this. >> Sure. >> Yeah, we can put together some social media >> social before the end of the week. >> Good suggestion. Any other questions or >> a few, but it was well worth the time. Well done. All right. uh on to um our uh next regular board of education meeting will be Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 at 6 p.m. here in the high school library. Uh and we also have some board correspondents. Uh thanks in advance,
049Miss Han, for tomorrow night. My apologies. I did a trifecta of retos on top of what you're going to speak on as you attended the disciplines. >> Sure. Thank you. Yes. So the uh New York State School Board Association annual meeting was in New York City. So that was very exciting. Um it was a great conference. I started on Wednesday with the pre-convention school law conference which was very informative um particularly about first amendment and issues and students uh which law controls federal or state law if they conflict in different situations impacting schools. And then I thought the most interesting session of that one was a simulated board meeting where attorneys who represent school districts played the roles of different people at a board meeting and um all kinds of crazy things broke loose. So
050that was really fun. Um and just talking through what can come up and what are some appropriate ways to to uh deal with different things. And then the following day, it was uh two-day conference. Um and it began with uh so it was bookended by keynote sessions. The first one was Tim Shrivever talking about his dignity index and then the keynote at the end was um Steve Hartman from CBS News talking about his kindness 101. And those were just incredible enriching um soul affirming keynotes. So that was amazing. And then in in between those bookends I I mostly focused on sessions that dealt with board operations. Um as Dr. Zilio said, kind of trying to sharpen the saw. And then um so that we don't lose anything I learned there, I immediately reached out to
051our board president um to share what I had learned so it wouldn't be lost. And I'm um going to distribute some notes on those things as well to the other school board members, but just uh sessions on meet schoolboard meetings, executive sessions, um student school board representatives, and some innovations happening and establishing strong board norms for success. It was just a lot of really interesting information that I hope to share out. >> Great. Great. Thank you. Any questions on that at all? I I uh you know, thank you for attending uh in your busy professional life. I find those simulations the best way that I learn actually. >> They're really a good good good uh tool. Um but uh you you find found it valuable enough that somebody should attend next year. >> I believe
052someone from our school board should attend every year. There were representatives I would say from most of the of the school districts in Shiakwa County. >> Um and next year is in Buffalo. I believe the following year may also be in Buffalo and then back to back. So >> we got multiple members going up. It's a great learning experience. It's a real real f it's a fantastic conference. They do a great job, don't they? >> They do. And then and the sessions, there are so many taking place at the same time that you can't be at all of them, but they do have a digital experience now that was recently added where you can go back and listen to sessions that you had to miss. >> Yeah. Yeah. So maybe next year we could hit
053more sessions with more in Buffalo. So, thank you so much for going. You got busy. You got a busy week this week, too. So, thank you. Thank you. Um, so, um, yeah. So, that's, uh, board correspondence. Uh, any other general comments from the board before we move around the table? >> Mr. Tali. >> Sure. Um, just a couple of thank yous. Uh, the ambassador club held a trick-or- treat for our elementary students. I think we had about five classes full of elementary students come down. So, um, that club had all the kids dress up and they had different spots along our first floor hallways for the kids to come down and trick-or- treat. It was great. Um, tomorrow night is our National Honor Society induction at the high school. So, it's a 600 p.m. start
054in the auditorium if anybody would like to stop in. It's usually about a 30 minute or so um, presentation for the students getting inducted into the National Honor Society. Um, so that should be a very nice night as well. Um, last week was our first uh, concert for the year at the high schools. was the high school pops concert which is a really well attended event here at the high school. Um so that's our band chorus orchestration all the offshoots of uh each performance group the jazz band the madricals um all singing um pops which uh is a great night for them. Uh and then before that was the Triumph Music Honor Society induction as well. So, um, we had about it was a huge crop of kids, about 20 kids get inducted into the
055Triumph Music Honor Society, um, that night. And then in November, uh, next weekend and then two weekends out from there are the NISMA, uh, competitions that take place. So, that'll be at Pioneer. The first one is the junior NISMA. Um, we have about 25 students participating in that at Pioneer High School uh, next week or this upcoming weekend. Yesterday, Unified Club attended their leadership conference at Sunni Fredonia. You may have seen pictures uh on the Facebook page for that. Um speakers, games, leadership opportunities throughout the day for our unified club. We had about 30 students attend that trip as well. And then this upcoming weekend, we have Model UN attending their conference uh at Ganon University. So, we have quite a few trips out there. Um but a lot of really fun activities at the
056high school for our our clubs. >> Thank you very much. And uh you know, it's a great idea that they mentioned that you're putting out those emails, you know, reminders to the students. So, it's a good idea. Thanks. Great, Miss Paulus. >> Yes. So, at the last board meeting, I believe I shared that our incentive would be wrapping up for attendance at the end of the quarter. So, Halloween happened to be the end of the first quarter. Might as well just add to the madness and throw in there attendance incentive. So, um we had out of 462 students, we had roughly 410 that received their um 95% attendance for the first quarter. So, that's very encouraging. Um while we still continue to identify and support those individuals that struggle with their attendance, it was nice
057to be able to recognize those kids that come to school every day, um the 95 percentage um points allowed students to be absent um no more than three times during the first quarter. So that was great to be able to celebrate so many of our kids to come to school every day. >> Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you. Um, we also are now on to our second quarter incentive where we have like a chain link activity kind of leading up until break. So, similarly for the 95% attendance in each of those first period classrooms, they can add a link and then there's incentives along the way. Um, our modified girls basketball is up and running now that it's the first of the winter sports to start with some open gyms and tryyous this week. And of course,
058musical is underway with just a few weeks before the big show, but tickets are open and out there. So, November 21st and 22nd, I believe, are the dates. So, yes, we're excited for Rudolph Jr. >> Thank you. And thanks for uh focusing on the attendance and uh you're increasing our transportation aid. It's good. >> No problem, >> Mr. Joinger. >> Good. Um so about a year ago our building kind of identified an area of growth and we wanted to make sure our kids weren't um as squirly and they were making good choices. So over the past year I've spoken about various programs PAX leader me and Billy's um PAX is kind of just like um routines and signals like simple we blow a harmonica to get the attention of kids and we do that consistently
059across the building and it works. leader of me is teaching the seven habits and you guys have heard about the habits and things like that and billies are our tickets that we give for to recognize good behavior. So I wanted to see if this was actually working. So I looked at the behavior referrals. So last year in the month of September we had about 20 behavior referrals. This month we had about 20 as well or I'm sorry uh last uh yeah this year in September we had about 20. Last year in October we had 41 behavior referrals. So it kind of spiked, you know. This year, I'm proud to report that in the month of October, we we had half of that, only 26 behavior referrals. So, my simple brain would like to think that
060all three of these things are coming together in harmony and our behavior referrals hopefully have flatlined and that will continue. So, we're going to continue the good work that we're doing with PAX leader and me and Billy's and I would love to report uh the month of November and uh December and hopefully those referrals stay right where they are. And that's all I have for today. >> Thank you. Thank you for taking that on. And uh >> yeah, >> you know, that's good data that that's that's the data that the board likes. That's our goal this year is more data and um behavioral referrals is a piece of that, you know. >> So the month of November of 2024 was a doozy with about 60 referrals. So I'm hoping that you know the past does
061not repeat itself. We'll see. I'll let you know. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> So we were very excited to have the culmination of our quality stars assessment happen. um we um went through a very grueling process over the last little over a year where we submitted about 86 pages of data and documentation of what our teachers and students are doing at preK. Um and then we got a preliminary rating of four stars out of five, which is if you think about a hotel or restaurant rating, it's really very significant. We were thrilled to get that four-star rating. Um but it was preliminary. We had to have somebody come in from Quality Stars and actually observe our program to make sure that the data that we submitted was accurate. And so we had someone from
062Albany come down and visit us. Last week, three days. They spent three hours in three separate classrooms, taking diligent notes um on all of the different standards for Quality Stars. And we were thrilled to find out that we um were confirmed as a four-star rating program for quality stars for our prek program. Many many kudos to our prek staff, the teachers, the aids, the support staff, the parents, the community all pitched in um their big sigh of relief. Um we knew that they could do it, but to have that affirmation back from um the experts was just really fulfilling to them. So, we're thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. In that same vein, we've been reviewing our FastBridge data for kindergarten, taking a look at our early literacy and early numeracy as well as behavior um ratings that
063the teachers do for the students. We've started our SAT, our student assistance team process. So for students that really are at like a tier three level that aren't at about 10% of a concerns or at risk, we are going to dive in soon especially at kindergarten because we know the sooner we give them early intervention the gap is closed more quickly and so we're starting that process um with our SAT meetings um next week. So excited about that. And our prek students are also being screened. We give them a preliminary screening that is vetted through state ed. They tell us what we need to use. um that is a reliable and a valid measure of student achievement. And then we take those students, review that based on student performance. And we give them an additional
064screening because they're four. And what we know about students that are four is that they're four. And talk about being squirly. They have a hard time sitting. These are all done one-on-one. Um we take the time to really make sure they're comfortable so we can get accurate measures for the students. And so we're taking that second step now to see how much progress has been made since the beginning of the year. Do we need to do a little bit further? we need to go a little bit step further. So, that is happening this week right now. Um, thrilled to announce we had um our first hopefully annual autism moms lunchon last Saturday with the Autism Caring Center out of Pittsburgh and it was a huge success. We had 25 people come on a Saturday to
065come spend some time together networking, sharing resources, talking about some of the struggles on as it is as a parent with a disability. And we also had some guest speakers that came in that gave some great tips and ideas as well as some vendors that helped these parents. It was just heartwarming. Lots of tears, lots of laughs. Um, everybody said, "Can we do this again soon?" So, we're hoping to get even more moms to come in so we can support our families with this. Um, in that same vein, Cassie Frell, as Dr. Zel mentioned earlier, has been working with Don White from Parents as Teachers out of JCLC. Um they've started a parent group. So they are meeting with parents open to anybody um once a month to come in. They have coffee and donuts
066and they actually ask the parents the topics that they'd like to talk about. Um addressing things like attendance um you name it, whatever the parents want to come up with. So they've started doing that as well. And Don has been working with Toys for Tots collecting um already collecting Christmas items for these families. So she was out delivering Christmas gifts yesterday which was beautiful. Um and we do have on our real life Facebook page um all the food pantries listed and access for the community to be able to you know where they can go where they can access any food for food insecurities. >> Great. Thanks Mer. Yeah, fantastic news about fourstar. >> Yeah, I was just thinking, you know, you mentioned the data you had and you know, the behavioral referrals and the attendance
067and you know, we hear it and then at least for me, I for I forget, right? And I say it it'd be great if it could be emailed to us some of that data so we could archive it because that's one of our goals this year is to archive our data so we can see it from year to year and track and uh that'd be great. So, Thank you very much, Mr. Forbes. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> On your four stars, do we get a plaque or what's the opportunity for us to really be able to share and promote that within our community? >> Question. I I got um a certificate um that I printed out, put on the door of my office and shared with everybody. But it's certainly something that I could pass
068along to the district office. Um Katie, we can talk and put it out on the on the web page or Certainly we want to promote that. >> Definitely. >> Any other questions? >> Sorry, Mr. Moors. I I skipped Dr. R. Dr. >> That's okay. Mr. >> Um, thank you. So, we have on Monday, November 10th is our next inservice day with um our um FTA and SSA units. And um all of I want to thank all of our building administrators for working collaboratively, our instructional leaders for for talking to their groups and providing the input and helping us to make sure that um the professional development is is responsive to needs. One of the things we've been working really hard on um that's part of our district plan is literacy and specifically we have been
069focusing on the EPQ4. Um HMH into reading is the curriculum that last year we did our pilot with. This year our plan is called allin. We are all in. Um and that is for grades K through four. So we have also as part of that last year's literacy addestation work we talked um extensively about meeting those needs for early learning including phenemic awareness, funological awareness, all of those sorts of things. And so um in a collaborative group and looking at resources, it was determined that we would be using the UFly um phenemic program. and that is stands for the uni University of Florida literacy institute. So it um while all the phmics and phonics are firmly embedded into HMH, this is a manual that is K2 that allows all teachers K2 to have that resource
070in their hand to see what was done before, what's coming ahead. And it also allows grades three and four to use that as a remedial resource as they provide those tier 2 services. that they can all see exactly where that progression is and it also allows everybody to receive youthwide training. So, um Mr. Jollinger worked to arrange some of that so that half the staff have that opposite packs in the summer or I mean in the August inservice and the second half of that group um will be receiving that training on November 10th and that's through our partnership with Boseies. So, thank you to Brian Hilton for coming and doing that. And that means that every teacher UPK4 will have had this UFI training. So, again, trying to make sure that it's systematic, that we're
071providing our staff with what they need, that we have students experiencing that continuity of education. Um, also as part of that is we are doing our weekly literacy meetings. And so it was very fun today to meet with all grades UPK through four and make sure that we are staying focused on that. And that includes me, you know, and what I said to all groups was, you know, areas like Barnes & Noble would not have all the self-help group things and all the habit books and habits of mind, atomic habits, all the things if all of us didn't struggle with habits. And so this is one of the ways that we're doing that. So we'll be having weekly literacy meetings with grades K through four to make sure we are all on track with that.
072And our first quarter um goal was consistent vocabulary in line with the HMH program and everybody talked about how they're using it and the you know um all of that. Our second quarter has to do with the actual reading lessons that are part of the HM program. And so then as part of the half day on nove or on part of the inservice day November 10th the second half of the day will be those vertical conversations K through four um as our inservice. So, we're working hard to calibrate, make sure we're all along in the same direction so that our students um as they progress, we can see the differences not just in the grade level, but in that year-to-year cohort. So, conceivably then our students who are in kindergarten as they come through first,
073second, third, fourth will all have experienced this exact same program, exact same series, and teachers will all have been training to provide that to our students. So, we're very excited about that. >> Thank you. I mean, vertical is so important. It's difficult to do, but it's great. And all the structure of the PD is fantastic. >> Mr. Forbes, now you're done. >> Miss Morrison, >> just a real quick reminder to the board. The legislative breakfast is coming up. We'll be able to wait in this year. Um, so y'all should have gotten emails from Trish. Just let me know tomorrow if you can so I can get a registered. Sheila's already there. Um, so just kind of let me know if you can. >> Do you know the date? >> 15. I think it's the 15th.
074>> Yeah, Saturday 15. >> Yeah, it's their usual day, but it's obviously breakfast rather than if you need me to remind you tomorrow, I can send you res. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Um, any other comments from the board on that? Um if not uh we anticipate the need to enter into executive session to discuss personal issues. Have a motion to bring that down to the table. So move second this morning. Okay. All in favor >> opposed. Thank you for attending. Drive safe. You can have anybody sign and uh Mr. Gar.