001six times. Um, welcome to the Fonius Central School Board of Education meeting for Tuesday, October 25th 1st, 2025. We begin each meeting with the pledge to the flag. I aliance 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. Um so before we uh approve the agenda I would like to note that two valued members of our Freedom family uh recently passed away. Um Dr. Zodox, this is always unfortunate and sad news. Anything you can share with us? Yeah, I just wanted to share uh first of all our sympathy to the um families. Um I understand from talking to a few people that Carl Brandt was not only um a strong board member but also was very
002involved and very um engaged with our local fire department. Um so thanks to him for his service uh both on the board and with uh Fredonia Fire Department. So that's great. Um as well as um Audrey Parker. Um I heard a couple of stories about her. Now, some of our really veteran staff actually had her um in kindergarten at Wheelock um and they really had some nice stories to share and remember her fondly. They also were always impressed that years after uh having them in class, she always remembered their name. So, that's always good to hear. But we'd like to just take a moment of silence in recognition of these two individuals. Thank you. Also before we approve the agenda, I would like to welcome to the table uh our other ex official student board
003member uh Arif. So welcome Neshwan. [applause] You have a chance to hear a little intro uh information about Neshwan and Katherine will have some thoughts for the group and our round table. I also would just want to take a quick minute minute to uh recognize um board of education recognition week which was technically last week but we didn't have a board meeting. So if you look around the room today you can see that our elementary students felt the need to share um some thanks and um some messages with our board of education. We have a bunch on the windows, some on the pillars here, some on the bookcases, some behind me. Thank you to our elementary students as well as our elementary elementary teachers for facilitating that. Please know board we appreciate everything that you
004do. We recognize this is a volunteer position um and your time, energy and commitment to the district, to our students, to our families um is very much appreciated. So, round of applause for our board of education. [applause] >> Well, thank you Dr. So I have some thank you uh elementary students for these posters and uh I I don't know about you board members but I I didn't realize it was board of education week so it's a really nice gesture and uh it makes us feel great especially when it comes from the the little kids you know for the students and uh so we very much appreciate we really do enjoy our jobs believe it or not. So um so moving on um so we need to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of October
00521st 20125 uh tonight it includes all consent a consent for all personnel and all business motion to bring that to the table Mr. Marshall and second Miss Anything that anybody would like to vote tonight. Good. Okay. Uh all in favor? >> I opposed. >> Great. Well, uh we move right into our first round of public commentary. And for those of you that are new to a board meeting, uh we have two rounds, one at the start, one at the end. Uh they are slightly different. So, I'll read off the uh the general rules for the uh first session. Uh the board has reserved this time to hear comments from the audience. Uh those wishing to address the board are asked to stand, give their name and address, and please limit your comments to 5 minutes
006or less. Uh concerns and comments during this session, the first session should be directly related to items listed on the proposed agenda for this meeting. Uh is there anybody like to speak to uh to the warrant session? >> Very good. This this isn't related, but it's almost impossible to hear you back here. >> Oh, okay. I'll start shouting, but maybe >> there's a Thank you for that. Yeah, I'll I'll speak up. >> Oh, yeah. That helps. >> Um, so, uh, the next item on our agenda is to approve the minutes from the regular meeting of October 7th, 2025. I got a motion to bring that to the table. Miss Miss [snorts] Gallo and Miss Han. Okay, thank you. Any questions on those minutes? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Well, that uh moves us
007right into we have two special presentations tonight. Uh our first uh special presentation is new faculty introduction. So, I'll pass it over to Dr. Zill. Yeah. One of the things that's exciting about each school year is new people that come on board. Some with some experience, some new teachers to the district, some from out of the area, some from right here, local Shiitaka County folks. Um we are certainly sad to see um our retirees go, but um on the plus side, we have new people come into the district, new skill sets, new energy, new attitude. Um and this year's group is no exception. They have uh hit the ground running to begin this school year. We are very pleased um with how the uh last month and a half has gone. Um thank you to
008everybody, but especially to um the new people who are here tonight. Um we're going to ask people to um come on up to the microphone and run through just a little bit of information in terms of their name, their position, where they went to high school, where they went to college, maybe a little bit about what's happening in their class right now, and also maybe some reflection on uh Fredonia as a community or as a school district um as each comes up. So um I know some things shifted. So um Jenny, is she here tonight? Wilson She wanted a baby. >> Okay. I I wasn't sure if she was on it. Uh Jenna Health first. >> Let's do it. >> Why Jackie put me right here. >> All right. I'm Jenna Ke. I am the
009new additional school counselor at the elementary school. So I am Well, thanks guys. Um, [applause] I am a Fredonia High School graduate. Um, I went to Sunni Fredonia for elementary education and then I went to Kenishious for my counseling degree. Um, topics I'm currently working on. I looked at Jackie and was like, "Okay, Jackie, what are we saying?" Um, what are we working on? Uh, lots of good stuff. Trying to really hone in on our um tiered supports for behavior. getting some behavior interventions. Um really just making sure that the kiddos know who I am, know my face. Um that's really my biggest thing. My goal is to know as many names as I possibly can by the end of the year. Um and just be a support for staff as well as students and
010our families. And then something I enjoy, um I love seeing a lot of familiar faces. Um, I would say one of my biggest things that I love is Miss Lamp. She's here. She every time she sees my kiddo down at Weelock, she always makes sure to tell me how great of a job she's doing. And that's something that I will never take for granted. That's it. [applause] >> Uh, Jackie Monahan. >> Sure. [applause] Hey everyone, I'm Jackie Monahan, the school psychologist here and um really grateful to be here. I um I grew up in Hamburg and I graduated from Frontier High School and I grew up lots of like huge memories. One is a blizzard of 77 if people can remember that one. A lot of you probably don't, but I do. And so, and
011I say that because um I uh went to undergraduate school at Sunni Bingmpington and came back and I actually worked as a par profofessional at the Stanley um uh Faulk School in in Buffalo and uh as a pair professional and decided I really liked working with kids. So, I went to graduate school at Form University um in New York City and decided I liked New York City. So, I ended up staying in New York City and a suburb in Connecticut for the last 20 plus years. So, I'm back here and I love it. I'm really loving being in Fredonia. I love the lake means so much to me and there's something about, you know, the culture of people here in Western New York and particularly county and you know these areas and uh it feels
012very familiar uh to me and so I'm grateful to to be here. um things that I'm working on is uh you know I'm old my my sons are older um and I really feel like relationship building is just so important you know especially right now you know there's a lot of tuning out there's a lot of you know ordering things in and and just having we don't have that access to human contact as much so one of the things I'm trying to do is to be present you know and and to listen you know I feel like for our students as well there's a lot of do this do that, you know, and there's a lot for teachers, expectations. So, um, one of the things I'm working on is relationship building, slowing down, listening to
013people. So, um, that's my goal for the year. Um, in that, you know, really just being supportive, um, because I'm new to this area, listening to my administrators, listening to my staff, listening to my students, like I said, and families. The other thing is really connecting with families and giving all of you a voice here as well. So, um, with that, I'm grateful to be here and I'm looking forward to seeing what this winter's going to bring [laughter] because I visit during Christmas and different times, but I haven't been here all season long. So, we'll see. So far, it's been a great fall, though. So, thanks, [applause] >> Conor Pelican. >> [applause] >> Hello. I kind of have [laughter] to. >> Hi, my name is Con Peline. Um, so I'm >> The mic does move
014up. >> Oh, does it? Okay. >> That's okay. Can you get that? >> I know. All right. >> Hello. [laughter] >> You guys can hear me. Okay. All right. My name is Connor Pelican. I am from West Sakica, New York, right down Buffalo. So, it's about 40 minutes away. Uh, I graduated in West Senica in 2020. Uh, and I'm currently just graduated from Buffalo State, not last May, but two years ago. Um, I'm still in grad school for my M's program going for literacy. Uh right now in the elementary school I teach a first grade 121 self-contained classroom. Um and it's honestly been such a great experience and I love it so much. It is my first year as a teacher and I think I've learned a lot in my first month of being here.
015Um I'm very grateful to the staff that I get to work with here. Everyone's been super supportive, super helpful, especially for a first year teacher. I feel like I've been supported more than anywhere else. by the staff here and the admin and the pair of professionals. It's really been a great experience for me. Um some things we are working on our classroom are just social skills and kind of you know phonics, CBC words, uh addition, subtraction, just some basic first grade stuff. Um but the kids are really enjoying it. We try to take uh every day time. First grade is supposed to be fun too, so we do do some fun things in there. Um, so I'm just really uh happy to be here and grateful for the opportunity. So, thank you guys. [applause] >>
016Is Alexi here? >> Yeah, Alexi, go ahead. >> Hello everybody. My name is Alexi Karstensson. I am from Buffalo, New York. I graduated first in my class ever for Tapestry Charter High School, which was very exciting. I went to Nag University to study education and decided it was a good idea to work with kids and here we are and uh I'm I'm very grateful to be in Fredonia this year. Um I teach fifth and sixth grade special education uh focusing on ELA and math. One thing that is really remarkable about any school is anticipating the the needs of others. Teachers do that all the time. And we're thinking about what does the student need, what does the family need, what do the teachers need. And a big thing this week I've had a lot of
017teachers reach out to me saying, "Well, what do you need too?" And I think the social and emotional and that mental health of staff is equally important. And you don't get that every place and every day. And sometimes you don't have to ask for it, you just receive it. And that's been great to have. One thing I'm working on in the classroom right now, we're doing our fall uh myth and legend unit. So in ELA class, my students are attempting to read our fifth grade reading of the Sleepy Hollow, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And we're looking forward to our fun time of uh end of the month doing our carving pumpkins. And another important thing, we're also learning to play, which seems a little silly for fifth grade, but it's really important that we
018get a chance to um play board games and have activities together, get off of our devices. So, we have no Chromebooks for Fun Friday. Uh we play Uno, we play chess, we do um dominoes, puzzles, and at the end of every time we play, I always make sure my students say, "Thank you for playing with me, and you're a good sport, too." And I think that's very important. Thanks for your time. [applause] >> [applause] >> Shane Murphy. [applause] >> Hello. Uh, some of you already know me. I'm Shane Murphy and you know me because I was born and raised in Fredonia. I spent a lot of time in these halls. I think my first year in Welock was probably either 1999 or uh 2000. So, I've been in Fredonia for quite a long time and
019so I graduated from Fredonia High School and then I followed to graduate from Sunni Fredonia with a bachelor's um just in regular biology. I spent some time then in Maine where I was a park ranger for Aadia National Park and then I also was uh working in a genetics lab for Jackson Laboratory and after I spent some time pretty much living out of a truck for a while uh need uh the need to help out family back in Western New York brought me back to the area and I decided to pursue a master's in science education and lo and behold I became a science teacher and in the grand scheme of things I found myself back in Fredonia And um so within my classroom right now, uh one of the uh topics we're covering heavily
020within my biology class is we're talking about macroolelecules, the importance of carbohydrates, uh breaking them down into sugars, talking about the importance of proteins, how they're built up by amino acids. I have one of my students right now nodding his head. I didn't give him any extra candy to make it seem like I'm teaching them so well. I promise. Um and then in my uh uh general physics uh like physics and general science class for 8th grade, we are currently learning the the different states of matter um and talking about in which uh you know gases turn into uh liquids, liquids turn into solids and all of that energy transfer. And um one of my favorite things about Fredonia and one of the things that brought me back to Fredonia every single year without fail
021and even some of my friends uh like Vincent Apalito if any of you know him uh is the backpacking program Quest. It is so paramount to a lot of the experience our students get. And now the fact that I'm an eighth grade teacher I slip it in all the time. I'm like oh man we're going to have so much fun on Quest or like oh really hope you sign up for that program. So, that is one of my favorite things of uh the Fredonia Central School District. Thank you, [applause] >> Donna Reed. [applause] >> Hi everyone. Can I turn on your speech? [laughter] >> So, um I'm Donna Reed. I'm the new school psychologist at the middle school and I am super happy to be here. Uh I have a lot of experience in a
022lot of different districts. I graduated from Robert's Wesian College about 13 years ago or so and I've been full speed ahead ever since. Um why do I love my job? I love my job in and of itself because I get to build relationships with kids and I get to build relationships with teachers and with staff and I get to pull it all together so that we can make students be successful. Why do I like being here in Fredonia? Well, I got to tell you, I love my middle school people. They are awesome. And I'm not just saying that because they're here right now, but I honestly and all the schools I've worked in, I've never felt so connected to a group of people. I live in Alden, by the way. I don't live anywhere near
023here. And I drive an hour to get here every day. And I do it gladly because I know when I come to school every day, my people are going to be there and they're going to be supporting me and they're going to be following through on what I ask them to do. as challenging as these things are, they're going to do it. And my teachers are great and the students are great and I get to build relationships with the kids and help the staff build their relationships to help them be successful in class. Now, I don't have anything fancy to say. I wish I had all that to say that you said because it was awesome, but I was up at 4:00 this morning and I did write a little poem. So, I want to
024share it with you if you wouldn't mind. This gives you a little bit of an idea on what we do as school psychologists because you ask a counselor what they do or a teacher what they do, it seems pretty apparent. But sometimes when you ask a school psychologist, it's not. So here's a little bit of what we do. There once was a man named Tucket [laughter] whose class has caused quite a rucket. So he came to see me, a psychologist the asked, "Hey, can you help me with something?" So I looked him in the eye and said, "Sure, I can try." And off to his room we went. But as we walked in, much to his chagrin, his students were content. I turned to him and said with a grin, "You're welcome. What more can
025I do for you?" He shuffled his feet and looked pretty heat and said, "Wait, what did you do?" I said with a smile, "Well, they needed a while, so when you took a break, they did, too. Now it's your turn, and they are ready to learn. So now you can go do what you do. They will sit for a while if you show them your style and give them their moments their due. But as you can see, they will indeed read, but not when your aim is not true. You see, Mr. Tucket, be will or be beluck it, your students, they need more than facts. They need to trust. They take breaks and feel welcome. But if not, they will indeed fool's act. As I turned to leave, I he sigh he he heaved and
026shaking his head, he said, "How did you know that my class would be so when all you did was walk down?" I turned to him then and said as a friend, "I didn't. But what a thing we found. [applause] Yeah, that should be hard to tell. [applause] >> Hi everyone. Um, I'm Chaz Kovak. I teach eighth grade special. Um, I went to Eden Junior Senior High School, graduated from Sunni Fedonia in 2015, then went to St. Benzer in Robert Sweslin, which I just got my master's degree in the mail a month ago. So, that's very nice. It's finally over with. Uh, but we'll start over with that. Um, so in terms of the topics that I teach, I actually work with Mr. Murphy for eighth grade science. Um, very fun class together. Um, and like
027you said, we're doing uh different types of matter, solid, liquids, and gases. I also help co-e math, social studies, and English. And some things I like about Fedonia, again, going to Fidonia State. Um, the sense of community, the sense of support, and the sense of teamwork that I feel like everyone's works very well together. um especially with the parents as Jamie knows and other parents are that just a sense of community and just working together. So thank you. [applause] >> I didn't see Christian. Is Christian here? >> So Christian was technically with us part-time last year and this year full-time. So he's not exactly new, but we thought we'd invite him in. Uh anyway, uh Mary Joe [applause] Hi everyone. I'm Mary Joe. Um I come from Jamestown. I graduated from Jamestown High School back
028in 1988. So I'm one of the older ones. Um I actually went to Fredonia and received my bachelor's degree in business administration. And after that, um, I went into right into work and I actually taught the majority of my life, college level business. Um, and then decided it was probably time just to stay home and take care of my kids. I have two young children and so I'm kind of late to the game. I got my um, master's degree in business from Kenishious College. I've taught in a couple of school districts. Um, and I have taught middle school level as well as high school level. And um, I really enjoy both levels, but I'm happy to be back with high schoolers. Um, why I like Fredonia, it's a great school district. Um, probably one of
029the most organized school districts I've been in in a while. And I'm just thankful for the opportunity. Um, so I teach career and financial management, um, JCC, um, hospitality and tourism, accounting, and, um, there's one more in there, computer applications. So, there's it's quite a quite a few, but, um, I'm used to that schedule of classes and I'm really happy to be teaching the students. Um, I'll just give you one example of what we're doing in accounting right now. And it's not a lot of fun, but we are learning about tea accounts and we're learning how to journal in uh, general journals. So, thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it. [applause] Elizabeth Shaw. [applause] >> Hi, I'm Liz Shaw. Uh, I like chemistry. So, I'm from Dunkerk, Fredonia originally. Um, but I went
030to school at Silver Creek High School where I graduated. Um, I went to Fredonia and started out in special education and then I actually took a class with one of teacher that retired from Fredonia from here, Lee Cervacious. He's an old name. Um, but he must have liked teaching because he taught a class over at Fredonia for with about physics for new teachers and I realized I liked science there. >> Um, so I switched. I got my bachelor's in chemistry but I always knew I loved teaching. Um, but I still went to UB and got my master's in chemistry. Uh, I studied protein engineering a lot. Um, [clears throat] but one day I realized I really enjoyed teaching other people about what I was learning. And so I went back to Fredonia, got my masters
031in teaching, uh, and went to a community- based school out in Colorado. Uh, there I learned that really a classroom is a family and we build that environment together. And so when I came here and started teaching chemistry, I've kind of taken some of those ideas. And so right now we're learning about the atomic structure in the atom, which that's cool. Atoms make up everything. Yeah, we're made out of matter. Um, but science is all around us. And so we're starting this one project uh where we're learning about ions. And I'm excited to see the students dig into it. and we'll build our own electrolyte drinks. And so I bring in all these natural places where we get electrolytes, right? We have salt. That's a nice one. Pickle juice is a great way to try
032some of these electrolytes. Uh coconut water, lemonade, apple juice. And the students design and market their own drink. And of course, we have to make them and test them and see which one is the best. And also by default sometimes we designed the worst tasting one but really what these electrolytes do in our bodies and so researching what does the potassium why do we need this sodium um so yeah it's about me I like chemistry I'm excited to see the kids digging into the projects [applause] >> thank you everybody one of the uh teachers who could not be here tonight is [clears throat] John Jao he was here um on the night he was approved. But again, just as a reminder, uh John is middle school science. Um he attended New Hartford High School outside
033of Udica and then Bingington University. Um in eighth grade, they are discussing properties of matter. In seventh grade, life science, they are beginning to discuss how organels help cells perform the necessary functions of life. So, pretty heavy science stuff going on there. Um he really enjoys the friendliness of Fredonia and everyone being willing to help. um he has reached out to a number of people as he adjusts to his new position and people have been really helpful and he concludes with go Billies. So he's adjusting to the Fredonia family. So, I think what you heard tonight is a really good representation of not only the u mix of personalities and experiences that people bring with them um to Fredonia uh as they start their career here and also uh all the great things that they're
034doing and a genuine concern for students and wanting to do good things for our district. So, thanks everyone for being here. We really appreciate it. I don't know if the board has any comments or questions. Feel free. This is really nice. I enjoyed it. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, any comments or I think or >> you can comment. >> I'll come I'll comment. I mean, you know, such positive energy, right? I mean, such an impressive group. Uh, Dr. Wright, Dr. Zilas, I think you did pretty well with the interview process. I think we got some real good ones here. and uh you know thank you for sharing your stories with us because as a board you know we we we don't get to meet and greet and hopefully we can do that in
035a more personal level another time but we really do enjoy meeting not only the new staff but the veteran staff and by by speaking of veteran staff I think how many spoke tonight maybe eight perhaps we have many more than eight people here tonight so you have a lot of supporters here including a lot of veteran teachers I saw walking And so I think we should give a round of applause to all who came here to support this. [applause] [applause] So uh you know uh we also have another uh presentation coming up that you might be interested in listening to. Um after that uh feel free. We have we've had a very busy day, right? And now you're here. We really appreciate you coming tonight. But you know a you know either now or after
036the next presentation if you feel like you need to you're not offending us believe me. But uh thank you so much for this night on the uh school board week. Uh we've got the posters up for the young kids. We've got our new teachers. We're feeling pretty good. So thank you once again. But we'll move along on to our next presentation and Dr. Zilc. So we have a presentation from Albert Ernes Sanchez on the outreach program. So welcome Mr. Yeah, we are uh excited to have Albert here tonight to share a little bit about his position. This is also a moment for the board of education and us as administrators because there's moments where you have an idea and then sometimes you're able to implement and put some things in place. In this case, this
037position and then you see the rewards and the benefits and things play out in a positive way um for students, faculty, staff, families. And this is a really great example of that for the board of education that ultimately approves these positions. This is also a moment where they took action and now we're going to talk about some of the benefits and the positives that have come out of that board action. So, thanks for supporting this um at the board level. Um just to get into it a little bit, a couple points of data just to reflect on that are relevant here. Um I think um you know one of the things that we're always kind of monitoring is what does our total population look like? Now when the state tracks data it's K12. Not that
038we don't love our preK students but they're usually counted in a separate prek category. So this is uh K12 information and you can see on the the far left here this is 20101. um we were above 1500 students and not unlike a lot of districts in New York State there's been some decline um but as you see we move in increments of really five years here to 1516 2021 and um over the last 5 years or so we've slightly increased which is not um similar to a lot of districts especially locally that have continued to decline so we've um somewhat stabilized in terms of our population even increased increase slightly and we're excited about that and feel good about that. Um, in terms of the percent of our families that identify as Hispanic, you will
039see again this is going all the way back to 2005 on the far left. We were under um 5% at the moment and again in increments in five up until 202526. We're currently just a little under 20%. So, a fairly significant maybe even a dramatic increase in um families who identify as Hispanic um as part of our school school community. Um this brings a lot of opportunity and diversity um traditions, culture into our district. We're excited about this as well. um but also was part of the the reason for thinking about adding a position in terms of how do we help support um these families and really the idea of having a go-to person that they can connect with um who is Spanish speaking um can really relate uh to them not only in terms
040of their language but their culture, their background um some of the experiences they might have had as a family um And that that's part of how we got to to adding this position. Although Elbert does not work solely with ENL students or um students who are learning English while they're with us, um we thought we would just track that data because some of those students are part of the population he works with. And again, back in 2010 on the far left there, we were right about 20 students or so that were part of the district. um pretty big increase over into 1516 and then it's remained um pretty um steady up until 25 26 where we're at you know in the lower 50s in terms of students um that are here as part of our
041ENL program. Um that was part of the reason we added Miss Lamp a little bit ago which uh someone uh spoke about her this evening. Um, and in general, our ELA department takes these students under their wing, does a great job really, um, assisting them, helping them be successful, um, here in our school setting. So, just a couple data points before we turn it over to Albert. Um, we're certainly excited about having him here tonight. Thank you. Um, we're also excited about being able to provide these families um with someone that their real sole purpose is to assist them um and be a partner um in their son or daughter's education. And as you'll hear, some of this spills over into other ways that Albert is helping students and families beyond just the straight academic
042piece or the socialization in school. and he really I think he's using the term jack of all trades um within the presentation. So we'll hear a little bit about that. [clears throat] Albert, welcome. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you for inviting me here tonight and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of our grow and fon Hispanic community. My name is Albert Ramirez and as you know I've been the Hispanic outreach coordinator for our district for the last three and a half years. There seems to be some talk about me being nervous for this presentation and that's nonsense. Also, when Dr. Zelius asked me yesterday how I was doing, I might or might not have nervously responded, I was sweating bricks. I must admit that public speaking is not something I'm
043particularly fond of, to put it mildly. As a matter of fact, I have had a hard time coming to terms with this moment, but repeating to myself how important it is for our board of education and our district to better understand the details of what I do. Yet, doing this presentation does not come easily. I've been as excited about it as I've been dreading this moment. You see, English is not my mother tongue. My accent tends to increase exponentially under pressure. What if I fumble my words? What if I freeze? What if I go too fast? What if I don't enunciate properly? What if I'm not intelligible? But if I or if I can't be heard, most importantly, what if I don't explain myself well enough? I must overcome these fears. Those I represent and
044the many challenges that our amazing team throughout the district help our ELLs overcome each day are too important for me to miss this chance. Great. I'm getting into my head. More pressure. Allow me to go back a little. Hi. >> Not even three weeks ago, one of our high school ENL students came to see me during her lunch break and begged me to help her. She looked mortified. Of course, I said, "What can I help you with?" She explained that she had a presentation in a few periods on a book they had been reading in ELA. She seemed to be holding back tears. She went on to say that she was utterly terrified to speak publicly in English, no less, in front of her peers. Even though she had been practicing with her incredible ENL
045teacher, these poor kids still had a pit in her stomach and was as nervous as one can be. Calmly and confidently, I told her that she had nothing to worry about, that all of us were once her age and knew exactly what she was feeling like, that all the students hated doing presentations in front of their class, and that we would work on it together until she felt better. And so we did. She truly sounded so much better in English than I thought she could at this point. We practiced reading those paragraphs aloud time and time again. Each instance a little bit louder and with a little more confidence, assertively. As the bell rang, I could tell she wasn't quite as nervous. I wanted so badly to go to her presentation and to show her
046my support, but I knew that the last thing she needed was an even larger crowd. How did she do, you ask? Well, she got 100. And I got that one feeling one gets when you know that all she needed was a little reassurance and a pinch of additional encouragement. And then it hit me. She pulled through. She put aside her fears. What right do I then have to be here moping about my own presentation? And so here we are. I thought that sharing my own experience would be a nice segue into helping you better understand what some daily interactions feel like for our English language learners. Here's a short clip of a film about an ELLL student named Moises. >> We have testing all week this week and next week. The tests are going to
047be hard, but that's all right because we're going to try really hard. Isn't that right, Cameron? >> Yes, Miss Okay, great. Everyone listen up. So, we're going to want to work on we get ours from answer the information story. Okay, we're going to go ahead practice the act test. You got to read first on No, this is not practical. We're going to take notes from the story and we're going to turn it into a math problem and we're going to walk through it together. Okay. >> So, the boy ran three blocks. >> So, everyone write three blocks. >> How long did it take him to run three blocks? Very good. Six minutes. >> All right. So then we go on to ask us how long will it take him to run 20 blocks? What do
048we do? >> How many minutes is that per block? >> Eight minutes. No, it's not eight minutes. Michelle >> 18 minutes. >> Nope. Not 18 minutes. >> Yes. En >> 40. Yeah. Very good. How'd you get 40? >> You don't know. 40 is the right answer. How did you get it? >> I forgot. >> You forgot. >> Okay. Does anyone know how we get 40? Yes. >> Yep, that's right. Very good. Great. Can you tell us how you got that? >> Yep. Very good. But can you explain to the class what you did here? How you got that? Joe, >> do you want to lose your recess? >> No. >> Okay, then paints a picture, doesn't it? So, how do we service this growing segment of our population? Aside from the phenomenal work that our
049that all our teachers and staff do every day, special shout out to our absolutely amazing ENL team. Here are a few of the mandates and regulations that we need to follow. Ensuring meaningful communication with limited English proficient parents. I know there's a lot to unpack here, but these are just small snippets of some of the criteria that we need to follow. putting a theme to it all and as highlighted in the bottom right of the screen, the sentiment revolves around this. Limited English proficiency parents are entitled to meaningful communication in a language they can understand, such as through translated materials of a language interpreter and to adequate notice of information about any program, service, or activity that is called to the attention of nonle parent errors. trying to keep true to the case acronym I've
050been known to preach about but seem to be failing at simple stupid here are a couple slides portraying some of the more significant documents and directives please know that I'll happily share this PowerPoint presentation as well as these documents with anyone interested so what is a Hispanic outreach coordinator and what do they do a Hispanic outreach coordinator is in essence and besides a mouthful The official designation given by the New York State Department of Civil Service, a Hispanic outreach coordinator acts as a liaison between an organiza, an organization like a school, a nonprofit or a government agency, and the Hispanic community to promote services, build relationships, and address community needs. Key responsibilities include developing and delivering culturally relevant programs, translating materials, facilitating communication, and connecting individuals and families with resources for education, healthcare, legal aid,
051and other support systems. This role requires strong community engagement, organizational skills, and often fluency in Spanish. What are the core responsibilities? Leaison and communication serve as a bridge between the organization and the Hispanic community, ensuring clear and culturally competent communication. Program coordination plan, implement, and manage outreach programs and events designed to engage the community. Service facilitation help community members access services like healthcare, education, housing, and legal aid by providing information, referrals, and direct assistance. Resource development. Creating distributed materials in Spanish to raise awareness about program availability. Community engagement. Build trust and strong relationships by participating in community events and collaborating with local partners and organizations. Advocacy. Advocate for the needs of the Hispanic community within the organization and the broader community. As far as the required skills and qualifications, I won't go through all the
052details for the sake of time, but obviously uh things such as language proficiency, uh cultural competency, community experience, and soft skills such as strong organizational communication and interpersonal skills which are necessary for managing events, working with teams, and assisting community members. So getting down to the nitty-gritty, what are our specific needs as a district? How many students and families are being supported in one capacity or another? How many students and family Sorry myself for that question to be properly addressed? First, we need to know the number of ELLs that we have. Sounds simple, but it truly isn't. Allow me to explain. We can look at the number of ENL students we have, but although the majority of them are Hispanic, not all ENL students nor their families are Hispanic. Conversely, not all our Hispanic students
053nor their families are ENL. As of today, we know that we have a total of 47 ENL students and a similar number of families. There are six in Wheelock, 14 at the elementary school, 16 in the middle school, and 16 in the high school. However, this number fluctuates on an almost monthly basis. These students move into our district, some students leave our district, yet down the road, one or two years later, some return. So, how do we get our answers? We can look into our district's powerful, wonderful uh power school database for those families that have requested Spanish translations. But even that gives us a false notion as not everyone selected this option when they registered either because they missed it, didn't understand it, or simply because they prefer communications in English instead, which obviously
054is their prerogative. As a matter of fact, I have only been able to see 26 students having selected Spanish translations, which I know based on the number of ENL students we have alone that that can't be right. We have about 50. Piling on, we also have piling on, we also have all the families that are likely flying under under the radar, such as those whose kids are not ENL, who didn't select the option to receive communications in Spanish, even though they could definitely use it, and or who simply don't engage regularly, even though would like them to. This is something I'm trying to correct without rattling any feathers since a Hispanic last name doesn't necessarily amount to someone who wants to be spoken with in Spanish or addressed as part of the Hispanic community. Which
055brings us to yet another layer of complexity to the issue. What exactly defines who is Hispanic? What happens when what when only one of the parents is Hispanic? Are the kids then automatically considered Hispanic? What about families who identify as Hispanic but are entirely bilingual or only English speaking? Should we still provide or offer them services based solely on their ethnicity? Unfortunately, I don't have answers to many of these questions. Extrapolating and honestly mostly guesstimating, I can infer that on any given year, we must have around 200 Hispanic students and a similar number of families. In short, and as a liazison, I try my best to not get lost in translation. See what I did there? And to assist anyone who needs my services, updating our power school database as needed. In this spirit and
056seeing how I'm like and well positioned to do so unofficially and when possible requested, I also assessed our foreign exchange students, their host families, and any families of any other nationality and their kids who might struggle with English. One of the many things I enjoy about my job is that every day brings a new challenge, an opportunity to help, to build bridges, and to bring people together. After all, and as a whole, we we want the same thing, the success of our students. These are some of the services that I provide. >> Please feel free to stop me at any point if you need clarifications or you have any questions. There's really quite a few and I know I'm taking a lot of time. To wrap it up, here are here are a few quick
057visuals of some of the supporting events described. Is this a border celebration in wheel up with um staff and students? Oh, I think I went too far. Apologies. This is our last 2025 culture fair where we created passport for all the kids that visited us. We have different stations with all that come. It was really phenomenal. I hope you got a chance to see it. Here's a cooking class that uh was actually taught by one of our district parents on Puerto Rican delegates. And as a final heartwarming moment, one of our Hispanic students trying her glasses for the first time. >> A huge thank you on her behalf to the generous folks of the FDA student assistance fund. In case you can't read it, uh she sent a thank you note. It says, "Thank you
058to everyone for helping me with my glasses. I'm immensely grateful. I will no longer have incurring headaches." I hope I was able to shed some light into my role within our district and what we all do to support the Hispanic community. Please do not hesitate to let me know if there are any questions or concerns that I can make myself with. [clears throat] [applause] >> I just want to add that Dr. right was um really instrumental in establishing this commission this position and then um with oversight um over the last several years. So kudos to Dr. Wright. We appreciate um her moving this forward and her guidance along the way and her offering um assistance to Albert um over the course of this time. Any questions, comments from the board? >> That's great. So glad
059you came a lot. Very [clears throat] fun. Thank you for everything that you do for our students and our community. And I am wondering because I I my husband works at the National Comedy Center and really high praise. Did you bring a group of students there over the summer? Last summer we did. We actually met. It was wonderful and we uh we brought a group. They had a great time. It's a fantastic place. I recommend everybody highly check it out. [laughter] Well, he highly uh complimented you and the group of people he brought there. Had a great time. >> Thank you. >> One of the nice pieces here, if you are new to the district and you weren't aware of Albert or exactly what he did, hopefully this gives you an insight. If you're a
060community member here tonight and you know somebody who might benefit um from interacting with Albert, feel free to reach out. He's very easy to get a hold of in the district and uh he's here to help. So, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate >> [applause] >> Yes. Uh, you know, such an impactful presentation and I'm so glad everybody stayed because uh not only for the board but for all of our teachers to see uh that presentation probably is very very important and uh you know it I for one I totally immersed myself into what it must feel like from that video. uh that you know just the hurdles you have to overcome. So thank you Mr. Ramirez for all that you do. Thank you Dr. Wright or Dr. Zilios and Dr. White for putting together
061the data because the data is something that's very eye opening for us also that you know we we see you know an increase in population and we need you know need to meet that need that increase in population. So the data is very very the board always um welcomes data. So thank you for that at this point. >> Yeah, you can say it. You got it. >> Um thank you everyone for coming tonight. You're welcome to stay for the rest of it. It won't be as exciting as what we've just had. Uh if you'd like to see the rest of the board meeting, feel free to stay. But you know, you've all had very busy days and if you feel the need to leave, uh we we certainly understand. Thank you so much for coming
062this to this meeting. So, thank you. Uh we'll move on now and we're moving into our financial and treasures reports. Uh we have Mr. Forb's uh uh budget status, investment and revenue report. So, anything to report there? Yeah, really not a whole lot. Uh August is not very busy much like July wasn't. Um on the expenditure side, probably 60% of what we spent through that point of August 31st was salary, benefits, and health insurance. Not a lot going on there. And on the revenue side, we took in over 57,000 out of some 37 million that we'll receive during the course of the year. So not a lot there, not a lot of adjustment. Um that'll all be when we start seeing the September, October, November some of the expenses. Uh investments, we're doing not quite
063as good as last year. the rates are down a little bit, but we're trying to kind of pull more out there each time we do it and hold a little longer to try to help offset some of our expenditures. Um, the last couple years has been a really big plus for us to have that extra revenue to help offset some of these other anticipated. Sure. >> Any questions from the board on those reports? Um, nothing updated on last year's expenditures and >> No, we're we're uh the audit report is in process. We should be finalizing that any day now. We've had a couple of things with the state because it's at the same time you're doing the audit, you're also doing the state final reports. So there are a couple things that will affect the
064numbers in audit. Nothing major, but it does have to be reflected in that report. So I'm anticipating having that pretty quickly. >> Okay, great. >> And then once we have that, we can show the final amounts and I'm sure Mrs. Nappy will talk about that as far too. Very good. Uh next we have the treasures report. I need a motion for that. >> Miss Fora, a second. >> Mr. Kitty, thank you. Mr. Forbes, anything on that? >> Any qu? No questions because there's nothing to report. All in favor? >> Opposed? >> All right. We have one other item under financial and that's to approve the contract for uh pediat pediatric home nursing services uh for substitute nursing. Do I have a motion to bring that to the table? Miss Scull second, Mr. Marshall, Miss Dr.
065Zillian, Mr. Forbes. >> Oh, yeah. Although we are in a much better place than we were some time ago with our nurses and thank you to all of our nurses, our nurse assistants who do a fantastic job. Um, every once in a while um whether it's absences or um lately field trips, we are looking for substitutes and um Aena is a service that provides substitutes. We enter a contract with them um at least over the time that I've been here each year annually and um it's as needed. There is no cost unless we actually utilize somebody for the day. And uh we've had uh some really great field trips to Harvest View Alageney State Park over the last couple weeks. Um and every once in a while there's more than one on a day which
066also is another um opportunity to have a sub in the building. So, um they're great and uh the nurses that they um provide for us are qualified and on top of their game and usually come in and transition really nicely um into our school day. So, um that's the rationale behind needing an approval tonight. >> Thank you. >> Any questions from the board? >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Well, um, normally there's items to approve under personnel and new business. Tonight's a rare night. Actually, the second, uh, meeting in a row where we have nothing, uh, to approve. It's all in consent. So, we can move directly to our second round of public comment. Is there anyone else that would like to address the board tonight? Hello, my name is Ellen Leon. I'm in third
067grade in Miss's class. I'm here today to talk about how some parts of our school are not accessible for all people. I was born with spinal ver moving around can be a little bit more challenging for people with spider which is why access is very important to me. I was very excited to start this school year with an even but even more excited when I heard about the playground update because I love to play with my friends. My mom has been asking for an accessible playground since I was three and now I'm eight. That's five whole years ago. I was looking forward to finally having a playground that I could use my wheelchair braces and crutches on. It has been so frustrating with the wood chips because I want to keep up with my friends.
068My use my crutches on my wheelchair doesn't work on the wood chips and the floor isn't that flat for me. I use my crutches. I have no other choice but to crawl on the wood chips. In order to play with my friends on the playground, the [clears throat] wood chips hurt my hands, [snorts] so I wear gloves to crawl. I have to drag my legs through the wood chips, so [snorts] I wear an extra pair of pants so the wood chips don't pierce my legs. I have to be really careful that [clears throat] I don't hurt my legs or feet because I might not feel it. I was very disappointed to learn that the only change a quarter of the playgrounds flooring. Not even the big kid playground which is where I like to play.
069The wood chips are not The wood chips on the playgrounds have caused many issues injuries for lots of kids. The wood chips are dangerous for everyone. The rubber flooring is much softer thing to land on. If kids fall off, kids throw them at each other. Kids have gotten wood chips in their eyes. Kids have gotten splinters from falling on the wood chips. [snorts] When kids are running, the wood chips get kicked and stuck in kids shoes and they step on them. The wood chips are now ending up all over the new flooring anyway, [snorts] which is very frustrating. One time I had a skirt. I loved but I had to throw it away because it was so covered in wood chips that we couldn't get them off. The wood chips are just terrible for everyone.
070Having an accessible playground would be better for everyone. [applause] [cheering] >> [applause] [applause] [cheering] >> There's some additional um letters from students in our class that are also asking that we um promote the winch >> and in addition from the health department I'd like to offer support to Elelliana and our staff and to all the kids. It's it's not just a handicap situation. I s I've been a school nurse for over 25 years. I've worked in Kataragus County, Casadega County. I've worked frontier, Lakeshore, in the city of Buffalo. And this is almost obsolete that there's wood chips in a playground. It's much more hygienic to have the rubber floor, for lack of a better phrase of what to call it. It's safer. It's cleaner. We can hose it down. I offer all the support I
071can to our kids and to this great staff that is also supporting that we really need to update to be stay in touch with the times. And I just want to offer my support to Elelliana and to the rest of our kids. Thanks for the opportunity. And I know you'll consider it because it's a smart thing. [applause] >> [applause] >> Well, thank you, Elelliana, for uh having the courage to go up there and speak like that. You you knocked it out of the park. >> Yeah. >> Um and uh you know, there are pieces, you know, for every public speaker, not just you, but every public speaker that comes up, you know, we hear for the first time. So, um, if you please leave your statement so that we could reread it as a board
072so we can, uh, digest it and and look it over more thoroughly. So, uh, Miss Miss Morrison here would be happy to take your statement at the end end of the meeting and, uh, and, uh, we can look at it. Um, Dr. Zilios, um, I think you're perhaps looking in from this. >> I'll follow up. It seemed like there might have been some other people who would like to speak. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Hi, my name is Joanna Gold. Um, I'm a parent in the district. I have two children. Um, so this is what I would like to share. Good evening, members of the board and community members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. It is so meaningful to see so many people here as Elelliana's words were truly the exciting part tonight
073and why so many of us are present. I want to take a moment to talk about something deeply personal to me, a culture of safety and belonging for all students. The Americans with Disabilities Act isn't just a legal requirement. It is a moral one. When our schools are fully ADA compliant, we're not just removing physical barriers. We're sending a message that every child deserves to participate, to learn, and to thrive without limitation. Accessibility benefits everyone. We call it incidental benefit. From students with and without disabilities to families to teachers who want to reach every learner. But true inclusion goes beyond compliance. It's about culture. It's about creating classrooms where differences are not just accommodated but celebrated. And Missy, that is so evident that you are doing such a beautiful job with that. [applause] Where students
074learn, where students of all abilities learn with each other, not apart from each other. Where every child feels feels seen, valued, and capable of success. I urge the district to continue prioritizing ADA compliance in our facilities, technology, and instructional practices, and to provide ongoing training and support so that inclusion is woven into the fabric of our schools. When we build an environment that welcomes all learners, we don't just support students with disabilities. We strengthen our entire community. Let's make sure every child, regardless of ability, knows that they belong here. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> Um before you speak, um I think I'm sorry I'm having a bad night of catching names. Um >> Joanna Gold. >> Joanna. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. And also you you had electronically. >> I did. Yeah. I
075can send it along. >> By by email to the school board. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi. Um, Heather [clears throat] McIntoffer and Caroline Collins and Caroline's Elelliana's classmate and um wrote something but would like me to read it. Right. Yeah. So, Caroline would like to say um you should change the school because Elelliana can't get downstairs anywhere there are stairs. Put a ramp for Elelliana. You should do that because she can't get downstairs with her wheelchair or crutches. So that's what Caroline wrote and I just wrote um Elelliana said it so much better than than I'm going to say and so I'm just here to echo that. Um and just say making these changes is a legal requirement. It has to happen. Um but it's also and and it's beyond the the playground but
076also the other changes that I know um her and her family are pushing for. Um it's also a value that I want the school to be teaching and living. Um, I appreciate the ways that many people here have supported both my kids. Um, uh, both of whom I app they've supported both my kids and I I want them to see that we prioritize the value that everyone gets access to everything and everywhere in this school and that everyone is valued and that fits with their with her Elelliana and her family's call for um, also for education about disabilities, greater visibility of people with disabilities. Um, all that's important for every kid here, which Elelliana said so perfectly. Um, my dad was on the school board for 10 years, so I have some idea of um
077how hard the board's work is, especially when the budget gets voted down. I hope this can be a reminder also to the community how important it is to support school budgets because I know these conversations get harder when school budgets get voted down. But even when resources are tight, accessibility is just a legal and ethical priority. and I just want to be part of making sure the board hears how important that is to the community. Thank you. [applause] And Heather and Carolyn, Heather, if you could [clears throat] pass your uh [cough] yours electronic to the school board, too. >> I'm sorry. >> The email address school board just um we we can tell you after the meeting, but it's school board Thank you to everyone that came out tonight. Um I just wanted to say
078you know I know that the school board has approved um you know celebrating spinobipida awareness month and that is happening this month Friday. Uh, I think everyone's wearing teal and uh, thank you to Miss the for all of her support. Um, I know that these are tough conversations to have and I know that when it comes to our budget, times are tough. Um, but we've had 35 years of school budgets that have been passed since ADA um, in 1990. So, that's 35 years of school budgets that have not addressed these issues. Um, so now's the time to do it. Um we actually have a quote or I have some um information related to the to the law regarding this. It is the New York State executive law article 15 the human rights law indicates segregation
079and it's is in discrimination uh section 292 subdivision 19 um regarding the specific discrimination law including disability and education law is section 296 subdivision 4. it shall be unlawful discriminatory practice for an educational institution to deny the use of its facilities. So, I just wanted to share that this is, you know, a legal issue that um we need to address and um it's not just the playground. I know that that's right now Elelliana's biggest priority, which I totally appreciate. Um but we also have a school nurse's office bathroom that isn't accessible. We also have a a pool that a chorus room um that isn't accessible and unfortunately you know it creates a segregated environment. Um you know Elelliana is an amazing swimmer. Uh we anticipate that she will want to swim uh for the district
080and I think she would do great on the swim team. Her legs work amazing underwater. [applause] Unfortunately, the pool is also not accessible. Um, so things that you know I hope that you will all consider. Um, again, I am overwhelmed by this. So, thank you. [applause] April Hartung 9025 Spowden Road music educator here since 2003 and um I have witnessed between my middle school and high school and now also elementary school students um how many students haven't been able to participate in a lot of our music programming um efficiently, effectively and um righteously as they should and how they can and they could be the best musician that they can be because we have um rooms and I know that like everyone has already said, you know, um when we come up to budget time,
081it is a bit of a is it is a bit of a a trial and error type of situation, but um just for these students, the chorus room is completely on stairs. Um Elelliana has wonderful friends that will sit next to her in the uh far far back of the classroom, but even getting her wheelchair in and out of the room is very very difficult. My biggest concern is when we have a fire trail, I have 60 students in there and she is one of a few that cannot navigate stairs very easily. So, um me, myself, and maybe two or three aids that will be in the classroom to assist that um situation can be very difficult, especially making our way from if you all know and where where the chorus room is all the
082way out to the middle school parking lot. It's not very accessible and it's very difficult. And um I know when um Elelliana's mom first came up here and I was at the board meeting and she talked about the accessibility for the playgrounds, I I contacted her. I said, "Listen, let's go to the school. If anyone wants to tell me where I need to go, I will be the first one to make the move." So, you know, I would really love to know, do we have grants that we can help build these different um facilities that we need? Do we have other ways that we can reach out to community members that can make make this the next best place where our students become their visions of best of their best selves? Um, that's all I
083have to say. Thank you. [applause] >> Hello everyone. I know most of you here. Um, my name is Megan Nway. I am one of the school nurses through the district. Um, I work close with Elelliana, um, with Bonita Costella as the RN and as I am the CCMA. I just wanted to share real quick how wonderful it is to have Elelliana in our school and just be that voice that's here tonight. And I also understand too that this is a big decision and this is something that needs to be done. I feel like we all have to remember actually no we all have to remember why do we have a job because of these children. So we have to remember why we're here. We have all these children here. We wouldn't have a job without
084them. So we have to really put that intake of every single student which I know Fredonia does so well. I have three wonderful children um that Mr. Drawinger is a big part of with elementary and we're very thankful for that. Um, but I also want to piggyback on Mrs. Hartum. I have a daughter named Serenity. She's 14. She's in high school. She plays a violin. She loves it. She has auditory processing disorder and she's very scared that [sighs] she's not going to be able to play the violin in the future because she tells me, "Mom, there's not enough room." And that breaks my heart because um we have gotten through so much with this violin and paid a lot of money with lessons and just with us just really really helping her, trying to get
085her out there. And she tells me she's nervous that she doesn't know if they're going to allow her to play the violin as kids are coming along, which is great. However, there's not enough room and I know we can do better. Um, so I just wanted to give that a piggyback from what Mrs. Hartum says and to be a voice for Elelliana and also a voice for the health office to have more space. Our middle school, high school health office has more space. U, Mrs. Castell and I do not have a lot of space. So, it is hard, especially when there's two of us and we're bumping into each other and we have so many kids that have needs and we have to be able to figure out where to put them. Um, Maria knows,
086Mrs. Witcher know, because sometimes they have to come and help us by taking a few kiddos that don't have fevers or, you know, nothing that can be shared when it comes to any sickness. And it is frustrating and it is upsetting. And I know Fonia, we can do better. I know we can and we need to for these kids. So, just remember why we're here. And please, please always remember, you have no idea what other people are going through. So, just be kind. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Narrowway and Miss Miss Hog. Um, anybody else like to address the board tonight before we move into Dr. Zilox's superintendent report, which you may be addressing a little bit of this in. Um, but thank you for all those comments. We'll take them on board.
087If you have statements, please pass them on to us so that we can reflect on it um, you know, in the moment because we had 50 minutes of conversation here, but we also need to read uh read your statements. Um if there's no other public comment, um we'll move into the superintendent report. Yeah, I'll uh kind of switch up my order a little bit here, but um first of all, I thank you for being here tonight. You did a great job. Um I first met Ilana when she was in Mr. Putney's room down at Wheelock and uh seeing her transition from grade to grade now with Mrs. T. Um, I usually do a morning lap around the building and I typically uh see Ilana and it's uh always great to see her smile and um
088she is a force of nature um and an inspiration to everybody because she is a go-getter and she will do whatever everyone else is doing and be part of the crew and just really um be involved and participate in what's going on in or around her classroom. and um it's been a pleasure to see that um on a daily basis since the time that I've been here. Um also I want to thank Mrs. Leon who's been a definite advocate um for not only her daughter but I think everybody um who's looking for access um and we appreciate that. We want parents to be involved. We want parents to come to board meetings. We want parents to share their thoughts and you you do that. In fact, Mr. Challenger, Mrs. Pharaoh and I um met with
089Mrs. Leon at the beginning of the school year and she did run through and I'll touch on them, you know, a number of concerns beyond the playground, but we're certainly concerned about the playground. Um, and uh we appreciate you being here and and everybody else who's here tonight. Thank you for that. um you know in this discussion um I absolutely you know as a as a group of people who are mag working for the good of the students here and I think everybody around this table you know is a is a student first person um we are committed um to providing accessibility it's a matter of how exactly do we make that happen um we're constantly looking at our current date. What does this look like right now? Um what are the alternatives? What are
090our options? What are the things that um can be done to make upgrades um in these areas that have um come up tonight? We absolutely work with our architect Young Wright who's extremely knowledgeable in this area um and try to rely on their expertise to give us um solid recommendations um suggestions about how we can move this for forward. um they have put us in a position to capitalize on some of this through our capital project and outlay projects. And again, a capital project is a larger project that's voted on in the community. An outlay project is something we can do each year for a total of $100,000. Um typically after some architect fee and if we do work outside, like on the playgrounds, we need to do $10,000 of work inside. So it typically
091comes out to be about $70,000. we can um spend on these areas. And um you probably know some of um our proposals that we've moved forward have been approved like Proposition One um within Proposition One right now are two brand new playgrounds at um Realock that will be state-of-the-art. Um the cost of those two playgrounds is going to be a little over a million dollars. Um so there is an economic piece to this. Now luckily through a capital project, we're going to get eight >> [clears throat] >> back on that amount, sorry, of about 82.7% um which ends up being a good deal. Yeah, we need to prepared to uh pay for the cost of that upfront. um you know within um Proposition 2 was some work on our athletic fields that certainly would have
092resolved issues um for accessibility um across multiple facilities. Um part of Proposition two um was the chorus room and our music suites and that certainly would have addressed some of those issues. So unfortunately those things didn't get approved. Um and again we're looking at alternatives. We're looking at options. We're looking at how to make um this work. I am definitely aware of the concern with the middle school, high school science labs that will be coming up down the road. Um in terms of our swimming pool, it turns out that we do have a Hoyer lift um at the pool. Um each year we make sure that is up and operating um correctly. That is in process right now with our um custodial and maintenance staff. Um so although that doesn't solve every problem, it's certainly
093helpful and something um that will be in place. Um we're aware of the U bathrooms at the elementary nurses um office that you mentioned here. Um again, I know on the list was the chorus rooms as well as the athletic fields and also the um playground on the main campus. So, you know, the the the rub in all this is, you know, how do we position this financially to be able to make um progress in this area? We're continuing to look at those options that are more traditional capital projects, outlay projects. Um unfortunately, as Mrs. hard tongue outlined. There are some grants available for this work, but typically those go to schools um that are identified as um facing economic hardship or economic challenges beyond what we experience here in Fredonia. Um however um we
094do have a grant writer um as part of a service we have to hose. Um we have reached out to her to see what the options might be for a district like Fredonia. um and how we can begin to chip away at some of these issues um that have been brought to the table and concern. Please know when conversations happen like this here tonight, we are listening. We're processing. Um this isn't something that is a one-time shot for us and you know it goes away and there's not follow-up discussion. Um this is an ongoing discussion as I said with Young and Wright. Um we have some facilities committee meetings coming up that this is part of that work as well. Um we're also working um you know internally as an admin team to think about
095um how we can make this work as well. We have a variety of people who have been in a variety of districts and there might be some avenues that we can explore that haven't been traditionally part of um things that we pursue um caring for um at the you know end of the day I just did want to mention I don't mean to steal any thunder from Mr. Drowning in the round table uh after this um but we have taken some steps again we talked about you know kind of building this culture beyond the facilities itself um we got some recommendations from Mrs. Non about books that we should be adding to our library that um focus on inclusivity. We're making some purchases there. Um we are also in the process of bringing in a
096guest speaker who wrote Adam's Way um which is about the challenges of a hockey player with a disability. Um we're looking at a full assembly and I don't know if that's been completely established but I think we're looking at prior to Thanksgiving. >> November 18th. >> Okay. Yeah. So November 18th. So um fantastic. Um and as mentioned um on October 25th uh we are honoring World Spa Day. Um at least from the information we see it was wear teal or I think the supplement is yellow. Um which might be more in my wardrobe. So, uh, that seems to be, um, an option and that's already out on social media. I know Mr. Dallinger is sending a letter home later this week, um, regarding that. So, please know we are trying to move this forward. Please
097know this is part of the ongoing conversation and I don't want anyone to feel like we're avoiding or ignoring or not recognizing that there's work to be done. I don't know if the board has any comments, thoughts um, at this point. Um, I have other things in my superintendent report, but I thought we'd pause here for a moment. >> Um, I'm on the facilities committee and I'm wondering if there'd be a nice thought in December for first meeting to tour firsthand some of these areas. >> Sure. >> So, um, so that would be my thought. Um, I think we need to think outside the box after prop two and three were voted down last year, which would have solved some of these issues, but we have to think outside the box and grant writing is
098maybe there's something there that you know anything any other comments on this particular issue. Just one thing that um at the Shiitaka County School Board Association, we're we're um having a legislative breakfast with Senator Burello and some other legislators uh in November and we're determining what our top five priorities are based on what the priorities of our school districts are. And I prioritized as the highest priority um increasing the capital outlay limit from the current 100k to somewhere between 250 and 500k per year. Um which would authorize districts to spend that on capital projects and receive building a the following year. >> It's already paying off you being on this committee. >> Well, I know that that's making any difference whatsoever. you're championing our own. >> We are pushing that. [snorts] >> That's great. Great
099to hear. >> And I know that's been up for discussion probably at least the last four or five years um at the state level. And I I feel like the longer it's in discussion, the better the chance of that moving forward eventually. That would be extremely helpful um on the district side of things. Absolutely. >> Were there special permits we could apply? memory serves me correct. There was some special permits we could apply to [snorts] kind of bend limits for the capital young and right talked about that or maybe I'm imagining >> I would defer to you John. >> No okay information >> maybe we can talk a little bit more and get our memories jogged. [snorts] Um on that >> yep >> on that topic other topics >> I will keep it moving. Uh
100in consent tonight was uh the approval of Christina Yoast who will be joining us as a teacher aid. Welcome to Christina. Also Heather Kennedy who will be joining us as a food service helper. Welcome to Heather. Um also a familiar name and face um on the agenda in the subs Lisa Forbes um who just recently retired. She's been assisting us with some evaluations at Relock. Thank you, Delisa. Welcome back to the district. Um we also are getting close and at the tail end of the process in negotiations with SSSA. That's our support staff. Um we're excited um about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There'll be more information coming forward um about um that contract and resolution between the district um and the unit. Um we appreciate everybody for their time and
101effort. Um we've had from Erie Boseis to labor relations Kirk Gustoson and also Shelby Galy who have been assisting us with that process. They've been extremely helpful um in being involved in a number of negotiations across the county and really can bring kind of a leveling influence and um an expertise there that's been helpful in our discussions. I also wanted to just touch base. The board received an email about uh transportation for our fall sports season. Um as you might remember back in the spring, we were really struggling with um runs um being delayed, sometimes even cancelled um for sporting events. Um thanks to Nick Patrando, our AD who has really made this a focus this season. Thanks to First Student who's been extremely cooperative, helpful, and is engaged with us in trying to solve
102this problem. um we've made some improvement, but we still have a little bit of room to to work and um a little bit more improvement to do. So, over the course of this fall se there was 72 sports charters or trips. Um they refer to them as charters. Um five of those trips were delayed. Um unfortunately, two out of the five affected the same team, which was our JV and varsity girls soccer team, and one of those trips was to um Alagany. And I know that creates a little bit more stress and anxiety when it's a long trip to begin with and then you get a late start. So, we certainly apologize to those teams um that have had a delay and sorry to our soccer team that that happened twice. Um but compared to
103the spring, not that we're satisfied with this. Um five out of 72 is definitely moving in the right direction. Um, but we really want to make sure that um, we're doing everything we can to have everything run smoothly and our student athletes get to where they need to be on time as well as our coaches. So, um, this continues to be a focus um, in the district. We will continue to work uh to avoid these kind of delays and we'll continue to have updates here um as the winter season kicks off and uh we begin to um get back into the uh the runs that'll be on pause here a little bit with some playoffs and the and the wrap up of the fall season. I also just want to mention fundraising uh very briefly.
104We've had a parent come Julie Mula to speak in public session. she had raised some concerns and some questions about fundraising particular to a particular team. Um, and again, when we hear information, we're listening, we're processing. Um, we're reflecting on where are we in this? How can we move forward? What adjustments do need to be made? What clarifications do need to be made? Um, do we need to commit to [cough] some things to writing? Um so everybody knows the expectations or our philosophy or our mindset behind um certain aspects of this and please know we also look at at it more broadly than one team. Although we're talking about one team in the moment, this is really about our larger fundraising that happens across the district. So this is under review. We're reflecting. We're looking
105at possibilities. We're reaching out to other districts to understand how they handle um this aspect um of their district and how we can borrow and at times steal um to not reinvent the wheel unnecessarily. Um but again, please know when people bring things to the board, we're listening, we're processing, we want to make things better and we want to improve. So that is um absolutely in play. And um I've had a number of uh calls and also emails back and forth with Julie. So we continue to communicate around these issues. I do want to reiterate um that our coaches are a hardworking um group of individuals who are absolutely committed to their sport and they're even more so committed to our student athletes. the amount of time, effort, energy they put in um to their
106programs. Um especially if you look at it over a calendar year is unbelievable. It's incredible um the commitment and the time. Um most are also balancing teaching load, a role as a husband, wife, father, mother, um other family obligations. So please know we appreciate everything that our coaches do. um and we thank them for being part of what's happening here at Fredonia. Um going all the way back to my entry interviews in the top three um things that people valued in Fredonia were our extracurriculars and our um athletic programs. Um they continue to be strong. That goes back to our coaches um as well as our students. Um, but we need the adults there to uh to kick things off, provide some guidance and and move those programs forward. So, thank you for everybody who
107is involved in um our athletic programs. And again, thank you to Nick Patrando who's [snorts] done a nice job taking over as our ad. Other than that, um I think that's it unless there's questions, comments from the board. anything from the board? Thanks for the superintendent report. Um so, um we have some board correspondents, but before that, our next regular uh board of education meeting will be Tuesday, November 4th at 6 p.m. right here in the high school library. You have a uh some board correspondents, though. Um first, uh I'll start it off. Uh we're having we're going to be holding a board retreat on Monday. Just a reminder to the board, Monday, November 3rd uh with New York State School Board Association representative here in the library. So just mark your calendars for that
108annual board retreat. It's turned out to be very helpful in the past and we continue to do that. Uh and Miss Miss Han uh as a member of the Chicago School Board Association uh association now um a board member uh you had a meeting the other night and also I think you went up and saw the commissioner uh speak. >> Yes, there are a lot of exciting things going on with the Shiitaka County School Board Association. Um we there was an event on October 7th. It was a fireside conversation with Dr. Betty Rosa, who is the New York State Commissioner of Education. She oversees 700 school districts with 3.2 million students in New York State. Um, this was co-sponsored between the Shiitaka County School Board Association and the Erie County Association of School Boards. Um,
109and our C CCSBA president, Celeste Clearary, had the idea to give Dr. Rosa Welch's jelly and grape juice and Concord grapes. So, he was able to promote our county. Um, and Todd Crannle, uh, who I think actually picked those grapes, had a chance to speak with Dr. Rosa's chief of staff about rural education and invited that person to speak at a future CCSBA dinner meeting. So, that was great. Then we had an opportunity to ask questions and I asked um how the shift in the graduation framework that will be impacting [clears throat] students entering 9th grade in 2029 2030 um and thereafter how that will or whether it will benefit special ed students. and she was excited about that question because unbeknownst to me her PhD dissertation was on specialed students and she um said
110that in fact the graduation framework will be great for that in that it will give multiple pathways more flexibility and more of a whole student focus um rather than the current kind of regent framework only. So that was a great uh meeting. And then the following night there was a CCSBA dinner meeting um that we were at together, the three of us, and that was Matt Douse, the NISBA attorney, spoke about um as we touched on briefly a moment ago, the 2026 legislative priorities and New York State legislative trends. Um, so we talked a bit about shared services provisions and the hope that those will be renewed and the issue that many are concerned with right now, this zero emission electric bus mandate. A lot of districts are pushing to repeal, delay, or modify that
111mandate. And I did mention there will be that legislative breakfast that's taking place November 15th at our very own white in. Great. Well, thank you for attending those meetings. Thank you very much. Um, so uh any other general comments from the board tonight before we uh move around the table? Actually, before we move around, I was able to Mr. Tanelli uh you know, Katherine and Nan once again welcome Neshwan and um I hear that you've uh you've got you're working on a few things. uh care to comment on what you're working on. >> Okay. Um I'll start uh just with kind of our plan going forward and our role in the board of education and what we can do in the beginning of the school year. So far, we have planned a survey to give
112out to students just reflecting on the first month of school and any concerns they had, things that went well, things that we can work on for the future. Uh we know that previous years there's been some difficulty getting people to answer surveys through emails and things. So we're planning to do it in person during lunch periods. All digital but in person and maybe a little reward for students that will fill it out just to get more people um get more people to talk with and to hear from and hopefully have that ready by the next board meeting. >> Fantastic. That'd be great. We're looking forward to the student voice this year and uh Miss Han is is your mentor and hopefully we can get the three of you together in your busy schedules and uh
113along with me and Dr. Zilios and uh go through some other things to work on for the the for the year. So >> absolutely >> thank you very much. Thank you. Now Katherine's first meeting she had a chance to share a little bit about herself and we wanted to uh give Nashwan that same um opportunity. Um, one of the things that's uh a nice counterbalance is Katherine has gone to Fredonia and lived in Fredonia her entire life and is that kind of tried and true hometown girl. Um, and Neshwan is new to us over the last couple years. So, I was hoping you could maybe share a little bit about where you've been and how you ended up in Fredonia. I was hoping you could also share why you thought you might be a good
114fit for the position. And I was also hoping you could share a little bit about this whole thing with NASA. >> Um, so, uh, I appreciate it, Dr. Zilla. So, um I do apologize for not being for the at the past two board meetings. I've had commitments for my soccer team, but I'm happy that I'm here today. Um so, I am Nashwan Reef and I'm a senior here and I moved here last year from southern Alabama and I'm very excited to be in Fredonia and um one of the things that I think I bring to the board is that my experience of being in a very different environment compared to Fredonia. I was in a much more urban setting when I lived in Alabama and both of my parents are educators which is why I
115moved to New York. My mom is a professor at Sunni Fredonia and my dad is a professor at Kenishious. So um I believe I have a fair amount of input to provide and I'd like to see Fidonia thrive. And um regarding NASA, I am an aspiring aerospace engineer. So this weekend I will be going down to Cape Canaveral, Florida to present research that I did over the summer with a NASA internship. So very interesting. [applause] [applause] >> We'll be excited to hear about that presentation and the survey that you're putting together. So thank you very much. Moving on, Mr. Tanel, move around the table. Now >> I am not going to Cape Canaveral. >> [laughter] >> Um, but I will tell you a couple things. So, having to follow that and then our girl over
116here who is awesome tonight. Um, I'm just going to tell you a couple things going on at the high school real quick. Um, we have our annual Veterans Day breakfast and parade coming up. So, that'll be on November 7th this year. It's actually the Friday before uh Veterans Day happens. And Veterans Day happens on a Tuesday this year and Monday is a uh an inservice day. So, Friday the 7th it will happen. We have an 8:30 breakfast here at the high school and then a 9:15 parade through our main campus and then the veterans will then head on over to Veloc for the parade at 9:30 over there. Um, and then on October 31st, not only will we be celebrating Halloween here at the high school, um, but we will also be celebrating a great
117start. So teachers are now nominating students uh in the in the uh idea of pride and we're using the idea of preparedness for our first um nomination. Um, so [snorts] teachers are nominating students and we'll have our first Pride breakfast uh that morning. And then of course, uh, obviously we're finishing up the first quarter here. So we've got all that kind of stuff happening already. Um, but with that, we are finishing up our fall sports as well. Our boys soccer team had a win today in the playoffs. Most of our teams are in their last week of either regular season games or just beginning their playoffs. So we want to thank all of our student athletes for the work through their seasons. Um, our coaches and and all our participants in that as well. So
118that's where we are with that. >> Great. Thank you. Miss Williams. >> Yes. So, welcome to both of our student board members. Now, our side of the table is complete with joining us tonight. Um, and I, you know, great presentations by both Elelliana and, um, Albert, if he's still here. Um, both very captivating and informative. So, thank you. Um, just a couple of quick things. We wrapped up our parent teacher conferences last week with solid packed nights, both Thursday evenings, um, the past two Thursdays. So, thank you to our families who are dedicated to carve some time out and come in and meet with the teachers. And a huge thank you to the teachers for continuing to, you know, bridge that gap and communicate. They've continued to hold conferences even outside of those two reserved
119evening blocks just to try to fit people in around and accommodate their schedule. So, those were successful evenings. Our attendance incentive has continued and we'll wrap up at the end of the quarter next Friday. So, we've done both the um classroom incentives with the game board that I had referred to um a little healthy competition and then we will also be recognizing individual student attendance if they have um been present 95% of the time during the first quarter which allows them um just less than three absences. So, we'll have a um individual recognition for their efforts in coming build building good habits about coming to school every day. um and it's a good h um problem to have but there will be a lot of students that we will be celebrating on that day. So
120it's that's great to see >> um so hopefully the next meeting I can share with you some of that data too. >> Great. >> And finally kind of piggybacking on what Mr. Tanelli said we have started our first pride incentive for the year and we have made the connection between prepared so the P for pride and being proactive. So trying to weave in some of that leader and me language too with our habits and so students are earning tickets for being prepared for class or being prepared for school and we draw winners during lunches individual winners. So that's always exciting too. >> Great. Thank you for sharing this point. >> Good. Well good job Alana tonight and Miss Thank you for being here. It's awesome to have an inclusive teacher. Good job. I'll see you
121tomorrow morning. So in the uh elementary school thanks to Mrs. Hartung for scheduling the Hosani Native American Dance Troop who was here last week. It's kind of a cool little cultural perspective and um the kids get to learn to dance. So, it's a fun activity. The next time we'll be meeting as a whole group in the Odd is uh on Halloween when we have our masked reader event. It's kind of cool. We put a mask on some teachers. They read a book. We alter their voice and the kids have to guess who is reading the book. So, it's pretty wellreceived. Um, and then on the spooky theme, I want to thank uh Mrs. Joint from the high school and her food and garden club and working with Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Thomas Chopsky's kids. Um, each
122month they're cooking something um like out of the ordinary and serving it to our third graders during lunch so they can try new foods. So, this month it'll be something pumpkin um related is what she told me. So, we're very excited for that. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Miss >> Thanks, Miss Harrell. Um, thank you Elean for being here and your mom and dad and for organizing this. It truly takes a village also. This is great. So, um, I really appreciate the turnout and, um, you know, I take your concerns, the concerns of our students with disabilities and their families to heart and I appreciate your advocacy, more than you know. Um, I want you to know that I'm your advocate as well. And there's not one minute that I take this position
123for granted. So, thank you. I really appreciate your voices. It was really important. And I sent a picture. I don't know if Okay. And just um I you know, not running a building, I don't have a lot of events to talk about, but I reached out to my teachers. I was like, "Tell me what's some good things going on." Um one person emailed me back with a lot of the fun things that are happening at the elementary building. And in the fall, you know, we're in full fall mode, right? There's a lot to do. There's a lot of things to celebrate. one of them being apples. So, Mrs. uh Quakowsky's 1211 second grade classroom did some an apple day. So, they did some things around science and buoyancy. They did some data collection. They did
124some observation. They did some cutting, some cleaning, and they did some eating of a matcha. So, I just wanted to share that those pictures. I thought they were great. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you. >> Um, so couple things. Um, I can't tell Aliana enough. I how much I'm I'm so proud of you. I remember you as a kindergarten student and talking with your parents at that time about needing an ADA accessible playground and so thrilled that we're finally getting there at Welock and know it needs to go everywhere. I have two books in my office that I look at daily. Um, and one is and she persisted that Elelliana gave me and the other is everyone matters. And I look at them daily as a reminder because they're both very true.
125And I think thank you Elelliana and your parents for those gifts because they're great great reminders. I also want to put a shout out to Albert because I call Albert I think every day if not several times a day to assist me in um different ways with our students that have um needs in the community and whatnot. and he is always there in a heartbeat um with a smile on his face a lot of times bringing coffee which is like splendid but he just does so much for so many of our community members so thank you Albert that was wonderful to hear you speak tonight it's great um we have a couple things going on our UBK visited the fire station today in Fredonia for fire safety week which was very fun we had a
126lot of fire hats going on today blown in the wind a little bit but they had a great time thank you to Fredonia fire department for that tomorrow the New York State troopers will be at FAC school. I encourage anyone and everyone that has a car seat, a booster seat. Um they are going to be doing an inspection. They'll be checking the car seats to make sure they're installed correctly. They'll be giving advice, words of wisdom, giving out car seats if needed. So um please spread it out to the community because I know it takes a PhD to put a car seat in. Um it takes me at least an hour to put my grandson's car seat in. It's hard. It's not um an easy task. So they have volunteered to come to do that
127for our community tomorrow. Um and then on Saturday, I'm thrilled to be partnering with um the Autism Caring Center out of Pittsburgh who are coming to do our first and hopefully annual autism moms networking lunchon um when we've invited all moms in the area, Kataragus, Shnaka County, Erie County to come have a network of support. Um if your child has autism, you're dealing with things that not everybody understands. And so this gives an opportunity for these moms and their support to come together and have that time. There'll be some speakers, some motivate motivation providing lunch for them. So there still is an opportunity for people to join us. So if you would like to come, we have sponsorships. It's $20, but we have many sponsorships. So please don't let that limit anybody from joining us
128on Saturday. It will be a great event. 11 o'clock at ELO. >> Thank you, Miss Piper. Dr. Wright. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um it was exciting to be able to introduce everybody to our new faculty. So uh we had a great time over our three days with our new faculty orientation. So um if any of them are still here, thank you. Um but I'm glad that everybody in the crowd also got to meet our new faculty and meet the new faces. Um and speaking of the crowd, we thank you for being here. It's so nice not to have an empty room. It's wonderful to hear the perspectives, the voices, the thoughts, the concerns, um the kudos, like sharing your experiences. It's important. Like we're here for that. So, we're grateful you're here. We're grateful
129you're sharing. So, thank you for staying in for the long haul. It's appreciated. Thank you, Elelliana. Thank you for all those who spoke. Thank you, Speed, for being uh right there to make sure that her words were heard correctly, clearly. Um it's uh it it means a tremendous amount. Um and to Mr. Ramirez, who is incredibly humble, I will sing his praises as thank you, Mrs. Piper also um you know in thinking of a Hispanic outreach coordinator if you think of a ven diagram you think about the school and you think about the families and you think about the students where that all comes together is where his position is. He helps our teachers. He helps our families. He helps all of us administrators, the support staff. Um he's developed a beautiful partnership with the
130Shiitakqua literacy right here in Fredonia helping families um to have, you know, uh lessons in reading English or translation. He's actually he's one of our biggest people who's like, "Would you like a teacher aid position?" and he gets out, you know, we've had bilingual teacher aids because, you know, um he sees all of the places that, you know, and values all the different ways we can work together. I know that in, you know, some more difficult situations um for administrators, he's right there to help navigate certainly Mrs. Pharaoh in different um special education contexts. Um so, it's really there's so much and as he said, you never you never know. I was so glad he had the picture of the student with the glasses um at the end because that's an example of it. You
131know, we can I can think of another little guy that because of the language barrier as well as being such a young child, the inability to articulate what was going on and to be able to facilitate, you know, um that family's ability to get appropriate medical, not just services, but assessments and realize, oh my goodness, this was actually, you know, a simple fix. who just couldn't understand him and couldn't understand the needs and and had that language barrier. So, there's just so much that happens behind the scenes to support everybody. So, thank you Mr. Ramirez so much. Um, and last, I'm excited to share that I talked with high school Spanish teacher Kathy Krueger today. And one of the things our district has been working on, and all the kudos goes to her for her
132hard work, is the seal of by literacy. And um, we are officially in with New York State for that for this year. And right now, 20 students are on track. It's early. It's October, but I believe in them. And, uh, we're hoping we will see 20 students cross that finish line earning the seal of biiteracy. So big shout out to Kathy. Um and we're very excited about um this inonia. So thank you >> Mr. Ford. Anything else tonight? Uh just very quickly uh we're in the last couple weeks of school tax collection. Had a large number of conversations with taxpayers all of which were were pretty good and we did have a few glitches with the mail but I think we're about on pace with the normal collection percentage. The other thing is I haven't
133heard ven diagram in a long time >> but I knew what it was. It's a while. It's a while. >> Does Warren say anything? >> Um, I will come to you and grab your speech if that's okay after the meeting. Um, if anyone else has a print out, I can grab it from you on over there. Uh, for anyone who wants um, and can email. It's just schoolboard all one word at get ready for the alphabet soup. fcd.wy ric.org. Um, but you can also just go on to our website um under the board of education information and the link is right there on the right hand side of the website as well to email. So, we look forward to getting all of your comments from tonight. >> So, it's not schoolboard.com. >> No, no, it's
134not. That might be a totally different >> um I'm going to echo Dr. Wright's thoughts, closing comments. Just uh you know, thank you everyone for spending your evening with us. means a lot to us. Thank you all tonight's speakers and her thoughts. Uh our new teachers for your speaking tonight. Albert for speaking. Uh Elelliana, so nice to meet you. And you rocked it. Um we have executive tonight. So we're not we're not finished. You are, but we're not finished. Uh we anticipate the need to enter into executive session to discuss collective bargaining and agreements and personnel. We have a motion to bring that to the table. A second Mr. Kenny. All in favor? >> Opposed. Uh we are now in uh the executive session moving into it. Our students please come up and get sign
135forms. Any