001Yes. >> Welcome to the summer school board of education meeting for Tuesday, August 26. We begin each meeting with the pledge of the flags. Please join to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with justice for all. Let me know if I need to speak up because of the rain. Pretty hot out there. Um so listen, uh tonight uh we have an addendum. Uh to add to our agenda, looks like it's all consent. Uh we also need to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of August 26, 2025 with consent, including personnel, but excluding B1 and B2 and all new business. Uh, could I have a motion to bring that to the table? >> Moscow. Thank you. A second. Second. Mr. Marshall.
002Thank you. Is there anything anyone would like to have pulled out of the agenda or the agenda? >> Okay. If not, all in favor? >> Opposed? Okay. So, uh, next we move right into our first round of public comment, which is the board has reserved this time to hear comments from the audience. Those wishing to address the board are asked to stand, give your name and address, and limit your comments to five minutes or less. Uh, concerns and comments during this session should be directly related to items that are listed on tonight's proposed agenda. Is there anybody like to speak uh to tonight's proposed agenda? Straight line. Moving right on. Uh, we need to approve the minutes from the regular meeting of August 12th, 2025. [clears throat] Can I have a motion to bring that
003to the table? I have a second. Second, Mr. Chenny, thanks. Any questions on those minutes? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. So, we're moving right into the financial treasures report. Uh, we have a couple of items tonight. Uh, first is to approve the bid, which I believe is an annual bid. Uh, this bid is from Bagot Loro Bagot, CPAP PC for external audit services. I have a motion to bring that to the table. Mullen, thank you. A second Mr. Thank you. Uh Mr. Mr. Forbes or Dr. Z. Turn it over to Mr. Force. So every 5 years districts are required to offer services. This is why did not appear on process secured for back in the Rio. That brings us to the agenda for tonight. Okay. Any questions on that? If not, all in
004favor? Okay. Uh we also have our this time of year approve our uh transportation contracts for the year. These are not all of them because they pop up from time to time but quite a few of them. Uh got a motion bring this to the tablecloth and a second uh Dr. Yeah. So each year we have this brief conversation because uh in a district where we uh lease our services and we don't own our own transportation equipment, sometimes uh the prices that appear on the agenda catch people off guard and are like wow. That is uh significant. But there are a couple things to note here. So when we are looking at these prices on a particular one and these runs are our regular AM and PM bus runs that happen on a daily basis
005taking um our children back and forth to school. This does not involve anything in athletics or anything beyond the school day. This is just kind of the typical bus runs. Um these prices include um the following um a number of personnel um such as the dispatcher um management and or clerical staff. It includes the buses themselves. It includes any maintenance associated with the buses. Um it includes the bus mechanics that are employed by first um to provide that maintenance to the buses. and provides bus drivers, also bus monitors when needed. There's not a monitor on every bus, but quite a few buses. Um, part of the process of maintaining your eligibility to be a bus driver is that there is random drug testing. So, that included in all this. Um, also is included as part
006of getting your license are a variety of I didn't realize there was three road tests that they have to take. that's all included. There's also like annual physical um for all bus drivers included. Um there's do inspections for all of the transportation equipment which um being part of districts where um we own our own services. That is an intense process. Um that usually happens near the end of the summer as you gear up for the school year. Um there is health insurance um for the employees of for student. There's also life insurance that they provide. Um, one thing I didn't think about that I was talking about um today again, um, registration for all of the buses. Um, and if you think about the first student as an organization across the country, it's a staggering
007number the amount of money they just spend on registering the buses in each state. Um, it includes the bus garage itself, um, and all the utilities and things that need to be part of the bus garage. um the bus lifts, the tools, um the insurance um that would be above and beyond any insurance we currently um have within the district here. Um there's all kinds of trainings that need to happen annually and um some beyond that per student who does just because they think it's helpful, not necessarily required. There's trainers that provide that training. Um there are a lot of consumable items attached to um bus buses, tires, batteries, brakes, windshield wipers uh and such. And then you just have the other regular parts um that are little more durable but ultimately need to be
008replaced over time. Um, on the first student bus, there is a monitoring system which allows them to see the speed of the bus, if a bus came to a complete stop, where that bus is located. Um, there's also camera systems on those buses. There's also GPS attached with each one of those buses, and each bus has a tablet that helps run that equipment, so on and so forth. So, there is a lot involved in those crises. Sometimes people just might think, yeah, you get a bus and a driver and that's about it. Um, and all of these things together are built into those prices um per run. Just as a little bit um of further information um before and after school, we have 18 buses that are part of our regular runs. Um right now,
009a gas bus is about $150,000. um an electric bus is around $400,000. So to think about us purchasing our own equipment, we're starting to go in that direction and get to be a huge amount of money. Um if that ever was a consideration or would be a consideration because I think that's sometimes the logical bath some people see this crisis and go why don't we just do this ourselves. Well, that is possible, but we're talking about um a substantial investment and all of the money that we spend on transportation is eatable and our transportation rate job is 72. So 72%. So you know if we spend $100, we get eventually and ultimately 72. Um, so for those reasons, I think all of that combined is why I forgot we probably initially got involved in this
010kind of uh relationship with her student and why we maintain that relationship at this point. So just want to provide a little background um as we don't talk about this typically more than just once a year. So questions um preemptively answered my questions but uh it is super important I think for the public to know that everything you just said is true. It's uh this isn't an expensive endeavor if you look at it on the surface it would seem like uh we should be able to do it for a lot less money than that but the reality is all those factors that you just mentioned. That's why we need to be where we are. That's why we are here soon. >> We should also mention that these are all extensions. They're not separate these are
011new contracts based upon the contract that we two years ago are 2.99% a follow up. So throughout the year we will have additional bus runs that pop up. Can you just talk about why those are necessary? >> There should be at least two or three coming to your next meeting which is in two cases special offer. And then we also have additional separate stances that arise where it's the middle of the year and there's a student that needs an accommodation to go on this and we are responsible for that student. You do your usual ride share where you can cooperate with other schools. with another district right now that has a homeless situation that we have in the past which is way cost. That's a comprehensive list. I mean I knew some of that many
012but I thought so there's a lot to it. It's more than just um any other questions comments from the board transportation pretty thank you Dr. for your list. Um all in favor I >> opposed. So that brings us to a special presentation. Uh Mr. Petrando is in attendance tonight. Uh he's going to speak on the 2024 25 sports and athletics uh reviewed this past season uh season. So Dr. Zillian comments Travis starts. Oh yeah, just uh again, you know, we recognize um the the value in our sports programs, the learning that happens in our sports programs. Really thinking about um you know, these [cough] commitment, [clears throat] dedication, um being part of something larger than yourself, being part of a team, teamwork, um you know, and all the benefits that come along with that. and
013uh we see it as a really essential part of a student's uh education should they choose to be involved. Um laced into that is a bunch of student athletes who are fantastic and really do a nice job representing our school in an extremely positive way. I want to thank everybody who participates uh in our program and please know that's not lost on us. We recognize that some students choose not to. Um, we would like to think there's a real benefit to doing that. We appreciate our student athletes who participate in the same way that we appreciate our our coaches uh dedicated group of people who really go above and beyond um and make a true commitment um to spending time and uh developing young people across the board. And then we also have our AD
014Mr. Trando, you jumped into the mix with you the last couple years. You've been doing a great job and we appreciate all that you do to make it happen. So, thank you for thank you for having me. It's it's not a oneperson show here. As you all know, it takes a lot of people to get to where we're at. And I'll kind of go through that as we go here. But again, I wanted to come and just kind of present to the board, give you a little bit of information as to what the athletic program is all about. that way if you had any questions I'd be happy to answer those as well. Dr. Z just mentioned it, but you know, first and foremost, there is a host of individuals across the board here that
015ultimately make this happen, right? There's the game day staff, everything that goes into when we host a competition or we attend some place. We have the behind the scenes, everything that helps us to get to this point where we finally get to play and compete against other schools, the day-to-day staff, and then ultimately the support staff. And really this whole kind of athletics component, it could not be done by one person. By no means am I the person that is pulling all the strings because all of these people along the way have helped us, helped our students, helped our athletes to be able to do what they do on a day-to-day basis. Now, one of the things that I'm most proud of, and this is something I've really tried to bestow upon our coaches, is
016the simple fact that this is an extension of the classroom. I don't look at it as extracurricular. We're really trying to focus in on coaches. All these different things, all these different elements that you get through sports, the old cliche, sports develop and teach character. That may be true, but you have to have that catalyst that ultimately helps to do that. And one of the things that we really stressed last year, we're continuing to stress this year, is this idea that we are students first. And this extension of the classroom can lead to the field, to the court, to whatever surface we're playing on. But one of the proudest things for the fourth consecutive year, we have ultimately made uh again the school of excellence award. And what this essentially is, it's out of section
017six. Every section does this, but section six, you need to have 75% or more of your varsity teams average, team average of 90 or above. We had 23 out of our 25 varsity teams excel in that area. We are one of 21 schools in section 6 of 96 different school districts, 96 different buildings that were able to achieve this. And again, for us to do this for the fourth consecutive year and for the eighth time in the last 10 years, it is pretty impressive. not only from the athlete standpoint, the coaches, but then also the great community we have here with our students and our staff as well. Sorry, I don't have. Now, I shared this with our coaches last year, and this is one of the things that I I've been extremely proud of.
018This is now my 19th year here at Ferdon High School. And even though the logos have changed over the years and the faces have changed and some names have stayed the same throughout the years with the community, [laughter] the one other consistent that we've had here is the fact that our athletic program is right there. I say this all the time and I'm very fortunate to go to a bunch of different gyms. I'm very fortunate to go to a bunch of different schools. When you walk into other gyms, there are very few gyms that rival what our athletes, our students, what our community has been able to do over those years. And again, this is cumulative and we were very fortunate, as I will share here in a moment, to add to this list. But
019that's the special thing is that, you know, people will graduate, but that tradition doesn't graduate, right? And we've really tried to bestow that not only with our athletes coming up, but also with our coaches to carry on that very proud tradition, whether it's their first year as a head coach or, you know, many years down the road. Now, just to give you an idea of all of our champions, and I'll get them up here. We had multiple league champions, including two singles. We had sectional champions. We had state qualifiers, and we had three state champions. very very impressive considering not only the size of our district but also with the number of sports that we offer. There are very few okay schools not only in section six but that I would argue in the state
020that were able to see this much achievement just in one calendar year. With that being said, we also had many recognized to all state teams including another high school all-American who we'll talk about here in a second. But again, this is recognized in section 6, which is essentially Western New York. Over here, we've got our New York State sports writers team. They're recognized across statewide, across all different classifications when it comes to schools. And then ultimately, Elizabeth Buchcci Schaefer, who also won the states last year of diving, was once again nominated as a high school all-American. On top of that, you know, we just keep going. We had a bunch of different record breakers. Elizabeth Poochie Schaefer not only won states but she also set her six dive total at even higher mark. All our
021girls swim coach she mentioned it but there are very few pools that that Elizabeth is swallowing that she has not or does not hold the record for the dive. It's absolutely amazing. Trent Krener not only did it once but did it twice last year in the pool. One of these records was from way back in 1979. So that one was clearly one that had been there for a long time. We had our 4x4 girls track team and then Alise May in the triple jump as well. We're also very fortunate with the support of not only the school board but the community with our unified sports program. Last year we offered botchi for the first time. I will share the numbers here in a moment but we had great participation numbers there. Bowling is now in
022its fourth or fifth year. again phenomenal numbers basketball third year and one of the great things that we were able to have last year and be able to recognize not only with our school district but our community is the fact that we are now a national unified champion school that is a very very select company not only in New York state but across the United States as well now I did mention those participation numbers this is a little small up here but I can send you this we had very very good numbers through all of our different seasons and all all of our different teams. Last year we were combined in the fall for swimming and cross country in the winter for wrestling and then in the spring for and I'm sorry for swimming in
023the winter as well and then in the spring for girls mod softball and golf. Girls mod softball. We were very fortunate. We were worried about losing them last year as far as a team with our participation numbers. I talked with Scott Hazelton over at Forestville. They were in a similar situation. We're able to create a situation where we combine teams to save not I don't want to say save the program, allow these young women to participate and compete at the modified level. And then just to kind of give you an idea with these numbers here, we had se we almost 800 different athletes wear I should say combined an orange and black uniform. One of the things that I talked about at our coaches meeting two weeks ago now is just the pride and honor
024that needs to go into wearing that orange and black when you put that uniform on, you represent yourselves, you represent your school, you represent your community, you represent all of these different things. And it's just amazing when I started crunching these numbers that with everyday PE and obviously our not extracurricular but co-curricular athletics we are not only helping these athletes these student athletes to stay engaged mentally, physically, socially, emotionally and that's one of the special things here as as I mentioned all of our teams had full rosters. There was only a couple situations that we had to combine and it not only benefited our student athletes but also the student athletes from these other schools that we combined with as well. As far as the evaluations, I had sent this to the board. If you
025have questions, I'd be happy to answer. But [clears throat] just real quick, administrative feedback. Things were very, very smooth last year. I thought everybody was very much on the same page. District funding sufficient for that year. I have talked with Mr. Forbes and him and I have been in constant communication about some things obviously moving forward that we want to consider. Just knowing that with the wear and tear equipment etc will need being looked at. officials. We actually talked about this at the section six meeting, but the average age of officials is not getting any younger. And we need to start looking at some sort of recruitment process, maybe even with our student athletes that are willing to get out there, put in the time because, as I mentioned, eventually in the next 5 years,
026we are going to have an exodus of individuals who just decide to step away, not because they don't want to, but just physically because they're unable to. And at that point, I'm not sure where we're going to be, but I know it's probably not going to be a great situation if in the fact we are having a shortage of officials. Other evaluation, and I want to mention this as well, at the end of each season, I send out an evaluation form to each of the coaches and they fill in all these different criteria. And as I just shared with the other ones, a lot of great parent community support, policies and procedures. Going back to the administrative support was right there. Public relations and the media, they were spot on. I say it all the
027time to our coaches. You know, we're very fortunate in Chicago County to have the observer, the Post Journal, Braden, who covers a ton of our games. All right. Ashley Brown. There are there are schools in Erie County that basically have circulation in the Buffalo News and right now the Buffalo News with where they're at, they're only doing big piece type stories. So for us and our athletes and our community to get highlighted the way they do, it's it's simply amazing and we're again we're very fortunate to have that down here in Chicago County. scheduling of activities, just a couple hiccups here and there just due to the nature of certain things that come up, but we were able to iron those out. Again, student discipline, eligibility. One of the things we really focused on last
028year was to be proactive from the beginning of the year and try and get students who may struggle in the classroom with this student athlete concept on the right track. We started out on the blue card. There were some hiccups early on, but I really think we were able to catch these individuals before they got five weeks into the school year. They dug themselves a pretty big hole that they couldn't got out of and ultimately helped them academically. Supplies and equipment. Again, we were able to move some money around when things came up with the help of Mr. Forbes and I will say Greg Lauer, too, who helped to put the budget together and then I got my first taste of what that entails this past winter. Very exciting stuff. I know. And then lastly,
029just kind of two of the bigger items that I don't want to say were problematic. Obviously, it's on everybody's radar. Dr. Z just talked a little bit about. One of them, facilities. I know we've talked about this for many, many years. Again, those are things we're obviously going to have to continue to identify and work on as we move forward. Then the transportation issues. Last year, it wasn't anybody's particular fault, but on any given day, at first student, a driver called in, they were sick, they couldn't make it. Obviously, that changed after school bus runs. That changed after school charters. That had to move games around very, very frequently. In some instances, we had to have parents drive. It wasn't the ideal situation, but through trial and error, a lot of conversations with Dr. and
030I trying to remedy the situation. We were able to for the most part get everybody to where they need to be on times. Again, we had to adjust at times, but overall, I don't know if it could have got any worse, but I'm glad I got that out of the way on my first year. Now I have a little bit better of idea how to handle that. And then just kind of moving forward into this fall, currently we have 296 student athletes participating in all of our sports, just shy of 300. And one of the things that we shared at the coaches meeting and I wanted to highlight is just kind of this idea of where we start, right? Our foundational components and these four priorities, core teaching and coaching priorities of us helping to
031establish our students becoming the best version of themselves. We're really just putting into practice with that co-curricular component here that everything we do on a day-to-day basis is not at a loss once we get to we'll say day after button. And I know I cruised through that. I was told I had about 10 minutes. So if anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. If not, then that's okay, too. Miss, >> thank you so much. Um, I'm wondering if you could tell us something about the blue card. When does how does that kick in? >> Sure. So, right now the blue card is an academic component to basically say that if a student is failing two or more classes that we obviously need to get them to a level that they're able to,
032you know, be in a situation that they're passing. Now, just because you may be struggling academically doesn't necessarily put you in a situation where you're unable to compete, participate in any extracurricular. This is not just intercolastic sport driven, but it could be for the play, the musical, anything along those lines. Essentially, the students have to stay after multiple times a week. They have to get their blue card signed. If they are all caught up on assignments, if they have stayed after, they don't necessarily have to be passing, but they need to be working towards getting their grade to a passing level. And these are evaluated every 5 weeks. You know, huge shout out to Miss Scoresi who last year really took this on full head. We did this a couple years prior. We got away
033from it with co, but again with that notion that we want to get our students off to the right foot. We didn't want to allow them fivew week head start to sort of dig themselves a hole as I mentioned before that they couldn't get out of and then really position themselves to where they're uh you know clawing and scratching their way out the rest of the year just to get above sort of season. That's great. >> Does that answer your question? >> Sure does. >> It's great to hear that we're doing things for students tonight. Obviously, a lot of our student athletes have really good grades, but it's not doing stuff to help those maybe. Um, can you talk about the busing? It was an issue last year. You said we anticipate it's going to
034be an issue again, which I'm assuming you do. Are we doing anything to address that? Like, are we pushing for later start times on games or any help? >> It's kind of a combination of a little bit of everything that you described. I did reach out to you for a student. They seem to think that they're going to have some extra drivers this year which will help with the charters after school. As you all know, what Dr. Zilc described is the bus company for a student, they have to take care of not only our bus runs, but also with dunker. So, as I mentioned before, if somebody calls in, if somebody is sick, somebody needs to pick up that run and then it's just sort of the domino effect from there. One of the things
035that I started to look at is, you know, right now before we were taking a boys modified soccer bus and a boys varsity soccer, varsity girls, mod girls, and we were taking two separate buses and they were going to the same location. So I said, "Look, look, coaches, we're going to try this the first couple games. We're going to see if it can work. We may have to eventually if it comes down to it. got the travel roster where unfortunately not everybody that's on the roster will be able to travel just due to two bus obviously constraints and with that mindset instead of having two buses out we have one bus out. One of the other things that has also helped us out within our girls swim program has helped us out with transportation. So
036anytime our girls swim team has to travel on the road Pine Valley is part of their agreement to merge with us. They have said we're going to take the transportation which frees up another bus. One of the problems we had specifically in the spring, again, we didn't have the greatest spring weather. You all know that, but similar type item. If we have two teams going to the same spot, I'm going to do my best to make sure that if again buses are tight or we have a bunch of charters out that day, Dunkerick has a bunch of charters out that day or we're going to see if we can't consolidate it within reason and safety to make sure that we not only get our athletes there on time, but we also don't have to move
037games around too much. the spring it becomes extremely problematic as I mentioned due to the weather and unfortunately mother nature is still undefeated so we're still trying to beat her but I don't know >> along with that when our older kids are playing sports girls softball share boys baseball do they not travel >> that was one of the things I had brought up and unfortunately because the leagues are slightly different. They don't always align, but moving forward now knowing what I know, anytime that, let's say, the boys baseball team and the girls softball team is both going to Southwestern, we're going to consolidate the bus. There are certain issues where there's a team that doesn't necessarily align and I'm going to do my best to make sure that that [cough] we don't have, you know,
03810 charters going out and everybody's going to different spots where we have to be creative and move things around. That is definitely one of the things that I noticed and I learned last year is that there's opportunities for these consolidations. I just need to look at it. Coaches need to sort of look at it and brag about it. That way we can get the games in on time, especially with the nature of the schedule when it comes to section six and then New York State playoffs. >> Thinking out loud here, I think we've spoken about this before. It's not really time for a big discussion about it now, but would it Dr. Z mentioned all the costs associated with only buses, but wouldn't it are there any districts that own like one bus or something?
039>> We've actually explored that opportunity. I've talked to Mr. Forbes about maybe trying to get a rental van through Enterprise or I mean, we've really exhausted a lot of these. The issue is, and this is what I found out just meeting with these athletic directors at the different meetings, is that even the districts that have their own buses and they have their own drivers and mechanics, they're in the same situation. They're struggling to have drivers. They're struggling when somebody calls in, they have to make that up, but they have their own charters. And that's where it becomes somewhat problematic. Now, for some of maybe the smaller schools, and I think this could be a really good opportunity for me to reach out to them that don't have a ton of fall sports or winter sports
040or whatever, maybe we can reach out to them to see if we are on a pinch that we could potentially utilize their services. For instance, right now, I believe the only Forestville I think they only have girls volleyball that is solo. Everything else is with Soda Creek. Now, I don't know specifically what their arrangement is on transportation, but based on the proximity, maybe that's something I can look into and explore. >> They have their own buses. >> Forestville has their own buses. Yes. >> Mr. Forest have any seven or 12 passenger dances? sports like golf, tennis, any hazard plus um any any student or certainly weaker because you don't need a special driver. Correct. first student unfortunately does not even their smaller buses uh due to sort of the special needs that they have for
041transportation issues with them those are really tied up for the for a long time I talked to Mr. Forbes about saying hey you know Boseies have hands that are called upies I spoke with them last year and unfortunately it's like every single time just dead end roadblock roadblock roadblocks last few months all those schools. >> Some of them do. They do. A lot of those schools though, they also have their own transportation department. Kind of what Dr. Z said before. They have somebody that services them. I don't know if specifically if those vehicles are leased, that could be something that that I look into, but I know for certain, yes, especially what you just described there for some of those sports that don't necessarily need 42 passenger vehicle or able to buy some. From the
042other side of it, you have to think of first student as being a business. So they're not going to have a 12 passenger van that they don't use that's sitting in the parking lot for six out of seven days a week. They need their vehicles to be moving, right? Um I think it's a creative solution having join the school. We have how many schools do we provide? I mean >> Yeah. So in the fall it is boys and girls cross country that includes modified varsity and modified. That's Westfield and Fredonia. When we get to swimming that's where we have five different schools. We have Fredonia, we have Dunkerk, we have Forestville, we have Pine Valley and we have Casadena. And Pine Valley's actually been creative too to make sure that they not only get their
043athletes there, but they actually have a transportation coordinator that both districts share. They're able to swing by, pick up the Cassida ladies and then bring them and drop them off as well. Into the into the winter, we're combined with wrestling boys and girls with Silver Creek Forestville. And then in the spring, I'm not sure what's going to happen with mod softball again just a one-year merger based on numbers, but we are combining golf to Forestville. But I assume that in all these most of these cases we would sustain team on our own but we're doing this to help these schools out. Do we have do we have sports where we would have more? >> Based on the numbers last year it would only been modified girls soccer. boy swim would have been extremely low and
044and that might have been one that we would have had to consider merging because there was only around I think 11 athletes on that specific team. But from from the other mergers, Forgonia had enough participants to be able to carry >> my world at the end. >> Forestville when we merged with mod softball last year. I talked to Scott and I said, "Hey, based on this late season merger, we're already struggling with buses. Would you be able to pick up the buses for the girls modified softball team?" They were able to do that. So again, it's one of those collaborative processes that if we're able to get ahead of it, have some conversations, we're able to have some successes. The unfortunate part, as I mentioned though, is a lot of times, you know, I dreaded
045looking at my phone or even answering the phone when the first student called because I knew it was going to create basically, as I mentioned, this domino effect where we were all set and then all of a sudden 2:00 hits and [clears throat] boom, everything just kind of goes, you know, by the wayside. It's it's more of a daytoday thing than it is a long-term thing. The long-term thing is, you know, I can look at the schedule and we can move different pieces around, but it really what it really came down to last year was the day-to-day uncertainty of what was going to take place. >> Question one other comment. Um, I saw in your slide that you were working already with Mr. Bennett and music to resolve conflicts proactively and I just appreciate that
046because a lot of the kids too music and sports and it's very difficult and those conflicts are out of their hands and so I appreciate because it's a special thing to be able to do both and it's it's hard for those conflicts. I just want to say it's a big deal in my >> and really there was just one instance last fall that we had a playoff game and there was just no way that we can meet the advantages due to the nature of the section 6 state playoffs and you know once once we kind of both came to an understanding on that we're able to go get this upcoming year and say hey this is what we can avoid these potential weeks again that doesn't take into consideration any snow days or anything else
047but if we can try and get ahead of the curve then right >> much is greatly working on it. >> You do a great job. Thank you. >> Again, I I appreciate that. I've mentioned this before. I'm I'm very humbled and honored to carry on the tradition, but it isn't a oneperson show. It's really it it takes the board of education. You know, again, just going back to it, we were able to add modified girls flag football this last year. That was a board decision. It's the teachers, it's the community, it's everybody that helps to make this go. I'm the one that they call though when issues come up. And I guess that's that's part for the course and and I accept that. But again, people for many years have been able to provide me
048as a coach for what I needed and now it's just my turn to get it forward. So I appreciate it. >> Anything else? >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you everybody. >> [applause] >> And Mr. Petra, we know you have a lot of commitments and uh if you need to head out, we certainly understand. >> I taught government for years. I got to stay for the whole function. [laughter] >> We won't sign your chief. >> Thank you very much. That was great. I have I have to watch that twice. You did such a great job with job with athletics. Um, okay, great. Uh, so we're going to move on to personnel now. And we have uh two uh two approvals for hiring tonight. Uh, our first is uh we need to uh approve the appointment of
049Shane Murphy who's in attendance who holds professional certification biology 7 through 12 to a probationary teaching position in the science tender area. I have a motion to bring that to the table. So, Mr. Kenny, a second. >> Second, >> Miss Han. Thank you, Dr. Zo. >> Yeah. So, at this stage of the game, you know, you kind of get down to the layer and sometimes you're not sure who uh who might come forward as a candidate. So, um with both our appointments tonight, um certainly Shane, we're very lucky to have somebody with his credentials, which I'll talk about in a minute. Um coming on board with our school science program. So, welcome uh to Shane. And uh just to give you a little a little more information u masters of science um from Buff State
050bachelors of science right here in Sunni Fredonia. Um taught three years of high school science um in alligator limestone. So glad to have you back in the uh black and orange here. Uh student who taught down the road at Mro made this point. Um also did some substitute teaching in Casadega. And speaking of sports, some cross country assistant coach somewhere along the line there. One of the unique things about Shane um is a big part of his background. He's also been involved in Quest here for you know number of years. Shane >> 16 or 17 >> 16 17 years definitely um background in conservation outdoor recreational educational programs experiences. Um again, Quest right here locally, but also a couple different things in Maine. Um some connection with Buffalo area and also in James Town as
051well. So um all of that um really I think put Shane in a position where he has some unique and um very positive relationships with our students and uh I think he's going to do a fantastic job. Again, very happy to have him on board. Miss Paul Hey, anything you'd like to add? Yes, we are elated um that he'll be starting the year for us. I think he's going to be an amazing addition to both our science departments and our teammate um staff. So, we are just we are thrilled to have him. I he's done such a great job for us subming our kids and families. Um I think it's going to be a great fit. >> Great. Thank you. Well, first we'll uh approve you and then we'll congratulate your comments. So, uh any
052questions first? Hello favor opposed. Congratulations, Mr. B. [applause] As is tradition, we always ask those in attendance if they have to say a few words. You know, any comments at all or >> um looking forward to it. Thank you. It's going to be a great time. It's good to be back and it's a bright future. Looking forward to >> Is your brother Sean? >> Yeah. Yep. Sean and Shane. >> Yep. Sean, my my sons and daughters, classmate, teammate, everything. So, and Quest, I was I was out there this year and wow, what a what a program. So, great. You hit the ground running with those kids. They already know you. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm looking forward to uh applying the relationships I make with the eighth graders over the entire academic year before we
053get out on quests. Um, I get to know them here and there and I get to know the student leaders really well, but I'm excited to sort of, you know, put the bug in their ear both, you know, literally and potentially metaphorically for quest being out there. So, it's going to be great. >> That's a big plus. A big plus. Congratulations again. And like Mr. Patrino, you're not a history major. So, if you feel like you he would like to meet you. >> Well, I took my lessons from Mr. So, I also [laughter] forgot about that. Yes. Okay. >> So, [laughter] you can you can skip out if you want, but you're welcome to stay. Thank you. Uh, our second approval tonight is the appointment of uh Jackie Vanahan who holds program certifications in school
054psychologist and special education for probationary teaching and position at the school psychologist uh tenure area. I have a motion to do that. Second, Mr. Bart second. Second, >> Miss um Dr. Z again, uh you know, start coming down the wire and this position's been open for a while. Although Mrs. Pharaoh was able to secure some support, uh from Boseies last year to help kind of offset that gap, but um this position's been opening uh school sites in general are more difficult to find and uh that actually hires are in the market locally. So, um, Jackie, uh, has worked a number of years in Connecticut, uh, starting right in the early, um, 2000s and spent a lot of time in, uh, Roen Public Schools. Um, pretty much from 2006 until now, was in New Fairfield uh,
055prior to that, also at the Connecticut Center for Child Development. Um, and just has a really varied background. Uh, She did her her masters at form and she did uh her bachelor's at Bingington. Uh we're very fortunate to have her coming on board. That means she's a great fit uh for our elementary school. There's a wealth of experiences. She does tend to send her regards. She obviously in Guatemala right now visiting her son who's in the Peace Corp. So that's pretty exciting. and uh have talked with her a number of times while she has been there um interviewing and kind of wrapping up this process. So um we're excited. Mr. Gallinger, anything you want to go with next? >> It's a uh she's a great person. Chris and I had the honor of interviewing her
056and she's a storyteller, very personable. I think she'll have no problems very quickly uh building relationships with kids and teachers. So I think we're lucky to have her. Anything from you? >> Yeah, no say she was a really great person to meet with. um all of her references talked about her relationship building, her role with children. I think her agency work, her special ed background, um certainly brings a lot to the table in terms of school psychology. So, we're really excited to have the full complement of our school psychologist. >> Any questions, comments from the board? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Congrats to uh Miss Manhattan for joining us. Uh two two good positions, science and psychology. And uh how how are we set for years? >> So in terms of straight instructional
057programs, we are or instructional positions uh pardon me. Uh we are good to go. Is there one? >> Okay, that's right. She had Yeah, I lost them. Um, so one special ed teacher um a couple aids here and there that um also resigned recently. In fact, on the agenda, so we're good. We're down from where we were a month ago. Yeah, we're in a good spot. That's great. That's great. Thank you. Okay. Well, moving on. Uh rest of personnel is in consent and uh so is all new business. So, we're into our second public comment. Anybody like to speak outside the agenda? Brings us to the superintendent. So, >> yeah, a couple things. Uh, in fact, they'll cover our other guests here tonight in some fashion. Um, earlier today, um, obviously we had our opening
058with faculty and staff. Very positive, very upbeat. Uh, very welcoming, enjoyable day. It was great to see everybody back in the building. Um, we started as an admin team with a presentation this morning and I'm not going to take you through all of it. I'm just going to kind of hit on some of the highlights. Um, but you know, certainly one thing we want to do is thank everybody um who is involved in getting everything ready for today and then again on Tuesday when students actually um enter the building. uh but also thinking about everything that's going to happen over these next 10 months and really just showing some gratitude and thanks uh for everybody. A couple things just to highlight inside of the building's looking fantastic. Our grounds are looking great um for our
059fall uh sports season. Um all the fields were ready to go. Um looking really good. It also helped that we didn't have to mow a whole lot this summer. Um, but we'll take it and can probably use the rain to soften up the fields a little bit that we just got a little bit ago. Um, obviously our admin team is here almost all summer working hard. Um, sometimes people say to me, "What do you administrators do all summer when um, less kids in the building, but um, you know, a lot of hard work. Uh, our high school summer school went very well. Our extended year summer program went very well. Um, our secretaries are here, 12 month hardworking group, um, who really are the engine behind all of our offices and make things go. So,
060um, not going to take time to read through all of those, but um, just a great group of people with the goal of doing great things for kids as we approach the school. also welcomed um our new members and at some point we've hit on all these people um but we had a moment to introduce everybody I'm sure at the building level there'll be a little bit more of an introduction uh when they get to the faculty meetings most of them are tomorrow um so yeah new staff we lock elementary school high school um we touched very briefly um you know trying to ground everything back really in that idea of initial vision before we come back You know, our mission really being, you know, why do we exist? What do we see as our
061purpose? And this idea of everyone who comes here is for every student. And we back when we established these statements, we really went through defining all of the words that combine make the statements of what they are. Same thing with our vision statement. What do we aspire to be as a district? We aspire to be innovative. idea that they look at what we're doing with our students and what we're doing as adults. Again, we took the time to really think about all of those terms and what they mean to us. Again, core beliefs think about um what are the principles that drive our behavior and our decision. And we've spent a lot of time recently on being very student focused um and also communication with positive intent. Really all of these core beliefs are equally
062as important um those other ones that we just really highlighted um over recent conversations. So long-term plan, we reminded people that we had a committee of people together um that really set a direction for the district over the next 3 to 5 years. We reminded people that we drew some comparisons between ourselves and other districts locally um and similar districts across the state. Um we absolutely uh put a community survey out there tried to get input from as many stakeholders as we possibly could and that eventually uh resulted in a swap analysis [clears throat] thinking about where we are in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Um that resulted in a larger plan. It was visual that Dr. Wright was nice enough to piece together for us. But it's really that middle column where
063the bulk of the work is sort of simplified this idea of focusing on [clears throat] curriculum intervention the seven habits along with the year and me which we'll talk about momentarily and also thinking about not only capital projects um but also just upgrading the facilities in general. also talked a little bit about our ongoing facilities work and we do a couple exciting things I just want to remind people of um part of our outlay project for the summer again our $100,000 yearly annual um project that we're able to do at the 80able rate of $82 back on um every $100 we spend um upgraded some flooring in the elementary school that's kind of the the side amount that we need to spend indoors if you can work outdoors, but we are just concluding work on
064really upgrading accessibility to main campus playground. We have really uh expanded the rubberized surface out there. We have a new piece of equipment. Um it's very collaborative and inclusive and also swing that serves the same. So, we're excited. It's still [clears throat] fenced off right now. Um that surface is just cured over the last few days. Um but we're hoping to be good to go and the chips back in place for the remainder of the playground um by the time the kids come on Tuesday. So we're excited. As we know, we also passed uh Proposition One as Cap as part of our capital project vote almost a year ago now. Um $22 million worth of work. We divided it into phase one and phase two. Um phase one that will be coming up um about
065a year from now or at least at the end of the school year is going to be a bunch of work uh with the roofs at Wheelock. Um two new playgrounds in Wheelock that are going to be really sharp and state-of-the-art. Um some work on our maintenance shed down at the Wheelock campus. Also our track resurfacing out back. Um and we also um recently did a board tour um of some of this work and got a chance to go up on the roofs here anyway which will eventually be part of the phase 2 work um and really see the wear and tear that happens over time and we look at those air handler units that some of them look like maybe they've been through a war and a battle and may be losing the battle
066at this point. Um and also really gives you a perspective of the amount of roofs we have. Um especially here on the main campus um it's expansive and that makes sense that primarily our campus is one floor which obviously increases the square footage of our rooms. But um we ended up getting some electrical panels looking at our generator that'll eventually be replaced. Um it was a good moment um to spend the right reviewing some of the work that will be done. Uh more information coming on phase two um of prop one um which is a little bit further down the road and u we're happy to be up and running and moving forward with phase one and they'll be excited. We also talked a little bit today about the seven habits of being near me.
067As you know we've spent the last year or so um working the adults in our district to really think about um what are these athletes? What does this look like for us personally as adults or professionally as adults and then now thinking about how are we going to connect students to this work and it's exciting and we'll see an update from each of our buildings. But we reminded everybody of the seven habits and um a brief summary of each one of those um habits and how they help people be effective, be successful in whatever their role might be. Um we also have a couple visuals that we've been using to really think about um you know as a as more of a visual reminder. um and also breaking it down a little bit more um
068into thinking about managing yourself and then also um leading others and kind of ultimately unleashing potential for everyone across the district. Each of our buildings is at a different spot and it makes sense different ages, different groups, um different approaches to how we do this. So right now um they are starting to really get into that early learning curriculum and that will be um the start of the school year in elementary saying they have um dedicated a time or day when they will start um teaching lessons uh based on the seven habits and the intera um middle school starting with the first eight days again really getting this into the classroom and opening the door to those conversations and this information the high school is a little bit different and we do happen to have
069Barb here tonight who is our leader and coach. Um she is intermittently throughout the district uh working at times individually uh with each building team, sometimes with our admin team and most recently with a group of high school students who are really looking at um first of all that they they have learned about these concepts and now they're thinking about next steps uh at the high school level. So Barb, maybe you could just give us a one to two minute overview of the work you've been doing and what's happening tomorrow. >> Good evening everyone. >> I'm Barb Lner. I'm your leader and me coach and I just want to tell you how honored I am to be here and part of your journey. It's a process that we bring into districts, buildings, staff, students, families
070that really transforms your culture into one where the end in mind habit two is that students will be leading. They'll be leading themselves. They'll be leading with others and they'll be leading in their school. And most importantly, they'll be empowered by your staff to lead their own learning. One of the fifth paradigms that we work through is how do we re-engage families and community to our schools postco and that's probably the most challenging one. One of which all of your staff and and building administrators are leaning into but it's educators and families partner to develop the whole child. And so that's what we're leaning into as a transformational process. It looks different in each of the buildings. Elementary, preK, and elementary are starting with that direct teach. Middle school, there needs to be some scaffolding
071where eventually students will be leading those lessons. And high school, I've had the honor to work with them two days in July building their capacity of what the seven habits are, what is leadership, and what are the some of the things that they want to do to transform the culture of their school. They will be doing a kickoff tomorrow for the high school staff and they will be also leading a kickoff for the middle school staff. And this is this is literally where it starts. And so those students will probably take on more and more leadership roles and opportunities. They will probably be mentoring some of the middle school because that's the in [clears throat] between these, right? So they're kind of right. That's a very important age. But then if they have other students
072to be their mentors and to be their guides and their role models, they too will be stepping into that. I have K8 buildings, high schools that don't do their back to school, that don't run their events. It's all students. So the 3 to 5 year vision from now from here to 3 to 5 years is your students will be leading. They'll be leading things in events in their school. They'll be leading their learning. They will be teaching these lessons. a lot of it happening first at high school then it will go down and trickle down into but we have kindergarteners that could lead if we see that paradigm and so it's a big shift it's a shift and we build we had a a real graceful year to build this staff because this is a
073paradigm shift for staff right we have to live through release rather than control and that takes that takes a lot of um a shift because we're adults So, I would hope that you get a chance to go into the buildings this year. Tomorrow, you can see some of this happening where the students are going to be leading their kickoffs and I'm just really excited to be your partner and to be here as the coach. It is not Franklin Cubby's process. It is not Marvin Litner's process. It is your process. It is Predonia School District. It is each of the buildings. It will look different because you have different staff, students, and families in each of these buildings. So, I'm just honored to be part of your process. Any questions? When you're doing a lot of
074this, what it does is it aligns with what you're already doing and the results that you want to get designed to help you get those results. So, thank you. And I just heard you were having a meeting tonight and I thought I would come and just see what you're all about and introduce myself. >> So, thank you. >> Thanks. >> Appreciate you being here. Thank you. Um, you know, the other thing we did today was really, um, you know, try to set a tone for the school year. And one of the things that we want to do is show that we're engaged in the habits as well. You know, the habits is sharpen the saw, which is really about professional development, moving forward in your profession, your responsibilities, um, taking a step forward, improving your
075game, whatever you want to call it. Um, and I feel like every year as an admin team, especially in the summer, we all do this, but we really haven't shared it out. Um, so we just all took a minute. I want to ask everybody just to summarize and maybe down to 30 45 seconds. Um, the slide that they shared today, um, kind of under this guise of not only showing that, hey, we're we're walking the walk with seven habits. We're sharpening the saw as an example today. uh but also that um there's some unity amongst our admin team. We're a united front and we're together and we're really looking forward to a great school year and um we continue to collaborate as we go. Um what I had looked into a little bit this summer
076is the ideas of Marcus Aurelius, right? So Roman emperor from over 2,000 years ago. And it's amazing um to see the crossover between Marcus Aurelius and leader and me number one or the seven habits and a lot of other um pretty common themes in either leadership or in education. Um I didn't share all these today. if you can click one more um Kate. Um but these are just 10 of them that are laced into um the work and just a couple um first of all number one um don't worry about others are doing focus on you um is the one that I've really um landed on this summer and really thinking about you know within a school district within a community and within a state there's a lot going on um and the one thing
077I can control my sphere of influence most importantly is myself um and really spending some time thinking about how can I get better at what I'm doing um and therefore that'll automatically contribute to the greater good. Um another one here that ties in directly with um leader in me or seven habits is never complain. You can create change and one of the tenants within the uh habits is that you know the change starts with us. Change starts with me. Um, and everybody has the ability to create change. And if you find yourself in a situation that might require change. So, just a couple examples there. I used a quick clip which I want to show from Jerry Seinfeld um talking about where he gets material from and then talking about how he started reading um
078Aurelius and that really again made him stop worrying about what other people think of him, how he is perceived people that talk negatively about him and that spending a lot of time or energy in that space is really wasted time. How can he be a better comedian? How can we be a better husband? How can we be a better father is really what we should be doing and the most beneficial um to us. So that was my piece. Why aren't you right? >> Great. Thank you. So I focused um and really I've been focusing I should say a lot um on the concept of impermanence and it really is the shift in perspective and it looks at um impermanence as liberating rather than something painful. And so um I chose this to be a visual
079representation of it and that is um a mandala a sand mandala specifically. Those are created painstakingly over days um by in this case Buddhist monks. And what they do at the end of this incredible creation and if you've you can YouTube video it, but they have these wooden tools they use to actually blow these really thin lines intricately over these designs. And each of the designs has a theme. So the theme of of the design is meant to be something positive they want to share with the world at the end of it. And that's what you see there. They begin to then take a brush and sweep all of it into the center into a pile. This beautiful creation and then that is taken and put into a vessel and carried to a water source
080where they release it. So that what the symbolic um nature of it is. Say for example compassion, empathy, whatever that is what they're the energy they're putting into the water to travel to wherever it may travel. And um so that's just one example and you can see this in many different um parts of life. So as I began to look at it for myself you know and we think about you know there's all kinds of memes and sayings about you know when just keep going and you know dance in the rain and all this stuff but impermanence also is the happy times. So those that day after Christmas morning, right, when we're all like a, you know, but rather staying present, you know, appreciate it. And I was saying today, you know, it's why we
081capture all those pictures we never print out anymore because we want a piece of that. So go back, revisit it, but look at it as liberating you rather than agonizing and anxiety over it or so sad about it or any of those things. Just it's it's how it goes. There's there's times, you know, and that's what I started looking for all over in the world. And I started looking at song lyrics. So we all know turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn you you know the famous song you know to everything there is a purpose there is a season and um you know when I think about being a mom and child rearing right some of those days you're just like oh my gosh you know but then you
082turn around and go I miss it so much so it's the idea of stay in the here and now and know that everything in life has the impermanence so >> this is terrible >> it's really deep Mine was about geese. So I understand it took quite quite steep. >> We got to live this today which is >> so many years ago right here in our district on one of the opening days there was a gentleman that came and presented some information and I don't remember how he woke this but he left behind this little story parallel called the sense of loose and um there's a couple of different phases to it. So the first card talks about um when geese fly in a V formation that formation has some power to it. It creates uplift
083and it creates velocity and strength for everyone to um move in a common d or for all those birds to move in a common direction have a sense of community and get to their destination more quickly and efficiently because they're traveling on the thrust of each other. Um so then the next part is when one of those geese falls out of formation um it feels the drag and the resistance of going in on their own and because geese are really smart that just quickly gets back into formation because they need to fly um on the power that's needed. So the lesson there is if we have as much sense as boost we will fly in sustained formation with those heading the same direction as us. Uh the next part we talked a little bit about
084leadership. So the lead loose and the being um is breaking through the wind and really the one that's kind of creating your power, but that leads inevitably is tired and has to rotate back and other groups takes points. So, um, sort of the the lesson there is that leadership is hard and it's really worthwhile to share those hard tasks and for us to really work together to do the hard work. Um, geese honk from behind to encourage the ones in front of them to keep up the pace and keep up the speed. And we all hear that honking, right? There's noise behind us. Um, the honking should be encouragement. And we also have to make sure that our honking doesn't really mean something else um that we're really staying positive being virgin. And then finally,
085when one of those geese falls um gets sick or is wounded by a gunshot and can't fly anymore, it is said that two geese fall out of formation, follow that wounded bird down to the ground, wait with it until it's ready to take flight again until it only then do the other birds um join back in either out on their own or join another flock and hopefully catch up with their own. So really the big takeaway is that if we have as much will sort of stick by support no matter what. So, that was my my thought for today. Um, it's recycled again from many many years ago, but I feel like it's a really important uh little piece. I've seen it tried with different things. I've seen different I've seen it credited to different
086people. But um I credited the person that I did research I believe that very good. >> Mrs. Piper shared and I'll just summarize in a couple seconds uh that we lock who did a volunteer book study about the let them be and you know I think her thing was really this idea of gaining peace, confidence and freedom when you stop trying to control other people and their choices and really instead focus on your own. So Amy and I had sort of a connection there in terms of what we were sharing. Uh Markinger, how about you? >> Uh yeah. So I felt it was important to take my time to honor some of our new employees, our new hires and things like that. And I shared with the whole district one of my favorite questions. So
087when I'm interviewing, um I always ask every teacher, I go, why are some teachers more successful than others? And that kind of like I learn a lot from people. That helps me understand what they view as successful. and then it helps me better understand um the things that they'll do in the classroom. So this summer, uh, as a part of my self-reflection and growth, I asked myself, why are some schools more successful than others? And, um, I've taught all around Western New York from Dunkerk, I've taught there for 10 years to Orchard Park for a little bit, Pioneer for a short time, and then here. And, um, through my four districts, I've learned that the schools are very similar. Like, they all have good kids, they want to learn, the teachers want to do the
088right thing, but um, what's the big difference? And I think um the schools that are most successful are the ones that celebrate that are relentless about celebrating their successes. They're the schools that when they're in public, they're they're singing the school's praises. They're not the schools that are saying, "Oh, wo was our school." So, I issued a challenge to everyone. I said, "Let's make the positives so loud this year that the negatives kind of fade into the background." And I didn't want to um say we're not going to ignore the challenges cuz sure like any district good ones and the bad ones, we are going to have challenges. Um I uh so my challenge to the staff was let's not ignore those. Let's just not give them the microphone. Let's approach every situation with a
089win-win attitude and uh seek them to understand. So that was kind of my message this year and I think it was uh received. Um our assistant principal at the uh middle school shared um you know kind of this thought about you know how do how do we respond um to our environment? She used the example of boiling water, right? And you know a carrot kind of softens and get weak if you put it in boiling water and an egg on the other hand kind of gets hard and rigid um in that environment. And then she talked about this idea of, you know, if you take a coffee maker and you put it in that environment, it actually um transforms um and creates something new in that environment. Um and basically encouraging people, you know, if
090you have to be one of those things, think about being the coffee bean as opposed to um the other two alternatives. So that was a nice uh nice summary from her. Uh Jamie Paul. So, I share just kind of a a bit of a personal connection. So, um last last spring, I think it was mid-March, I found myself driving 10 hours back and forth to two soccer games in the Ohio area in the pouring down rain. And so, I was feeling very sorry for myself because I'm spending my weekend doing this. And I thought, I can't believe I have to spend my weekend driving 10 hours in the pouring down rain. And I can't believe I'm not going to get anything done. Um, and you know, then I all of a sudden it occurred to
091me that these are things that you've got to do. These are things that you have the opportunity to do. You've got to spend the weekend with Nora. You've got to watch her play soccer. You've got to watch her play something she loves and that I love to watch. Um, you know, you get to stand on the sidelines in what turned from pouring down rain to sideways rain and hail and then snow one day. But these were all things I got to do and you know I just thought to myself this is how I need to shift my own mindset and I remind myself of that periodically. In fact this is a concept we could have applied about 2 hours ago when we were standing on slash field and drenched. I think we're nearly dry by
092now but we got to do that just some time ago. So I should similarly I challenge the staff to just consider that when that internal narrative is quick to go to I have to fill in the blank whether it's one time a year one time a day or just once ever try to shift to I get to and even if the circumstances doesn't change the you know the outcome doesn't change at least if their own personal perception shifts in a slightly positive way perhaps you know that will have a better better outlook at the end of it. So, you're open. >> So, Sarah's nest here, our high school AP uh made some connections with um you know, comparison between an eagle building a nest and our schools. And I didn't really think about that um
093metaphoric comparison prior, but it's true. You know, and it go starts with one stick or one piece of material and then over time these things are layered together to eventually produce a safe, secure um environment um for the younger eagles, right? It's a little oasis unto itself um much like our school. So um that was an interesting comparison. And then Rob Tanelli brought it home with the boss. That's right. Yeah. Well, um, so I I started by saying, you know, Dr. Z challenge us to to put these together. And really, after 10 months as a high school principal and we finally get through graduation, you you you want to relax a little bit. And so, usually I just spend my summer watching the garbage TV that I so much uh enjoy watching. But, um, it
094did make me think a little bit and and I do read a lot. Um, being a former English teacher, it's one of my favorite things to do. Um, and I and I do love Bruce Springsteen a lot, too. Um, and so I use a little bit of of him on this. So, like Jamie just mentioned, she she travels a lot for soccer. She live with my daughter. Um, and and last May or so, uh, we found ourselves in New Jersey for a soccer tournament. And, um, Beyonce was playing a concert in New York City and she wanted so badly to take one night. We go out there and I said, "Honey, why would you do that when we could go to Asbury Park when Springsteen got started?" And so there we are in Asbury Park
095at the bottom left there. [laughter] But, um, It it started my journey down uh you know a couple of things that I thought about here. So this summer I read a book about Bruce Springsteen uh that somebody wrote and him making the Born to Run album. Um his first two albums had already been released in Well, the record company backed him big time. Um and in this it talks about how he took two and a half almost three years to try to perfect this album uh before it came out because he knew it was his last chance. Um they weren't going to say they made the choice of going to be get back Bruce or get back really Joel. But if he failed this time, he wasn't going to get backed up. Um, in in
096this summer, he also released, it's a picture on there, too, eight album set, things that he had never released over the last however many years he's been writing music. And, uh, when you talk about somebody who could sit on 60some songs, um, release them, they're, you know, in my eyes, they're they're beautiful, genius songs. Some of the the lyrics are up there. Follow your dream is the first song on on that album. Um and and so it just kind of makes me think like how long do you sit on things that I would consider fantastic, perfect. Um get those ideas out there. Um how much work are you willing to put into things so that you don't fail? Um and that's the the book, you know, run a little bit this summer. So there's just
097a few questions that I pose there again that you can kind of think about. That's how uh I brought it all. The other nice thing about this, I think it demonstrated from people, you know, that as an admin team, we're we're a unique group. Um, and you know, from Mark is to Bruce Springsteen to all the different things that kind of came up here. And it also, I think, shows some balance as a team. You know, we have some of us who are a little more extroverted, some are more introverted, introverted. Some of our skill sets are special ed, elementary ed, secondary ed, middle school. um you know we balance each other out and as a collective we are much stronger um than as an individual and uh we definitely have a renewed sense of
098collaboration and working together and all being in this together and I think that um was evident in the in the conversation today. Um like any other day there was some things that were uh a little more businessy uh in the mix. Uh Tim Kaplier, our school safety officer officer, did a great job um giving some highlights of our school safety plans. Appreciate that. Um Kristen touched on some mandated training around restraint, seclusion uh in the educational setting as well as Margie also leading a little bit about um some of the requirements for child abuse in the education setting and what our obligation uh as adults. So, that was our morning. Um, and it got the school year off to a great start. I think we are feeling pretty good about where we are in the
099moment and uh I think we're poised to have a great school year. We're certainly excited to have the students um show up on Tuesday and uh the next couple days we have a variety of meetings and activities and opportunities um for teams to meet and faculty meetings and students to present um and really get things up and running for the school year. The last thing I wanted to touch on um brings us to our fourth guest today. Um Braden uh you know I shared some information with him uh about the concerns about our water testing that we talked about a couple other times in public session once in May and once just recently in July. Um, and we really put some information out to our school community, uh, faculty and staff as well as our
100families, um, about some of the gaps in the 2021 testing and some of the things that we're doing to improve. Um, and Ray was nice enough to receive that information and incorporated in the article this morning. So, thank you for that. Um we appreciate your uh collaboration and as uh Nick mentioned earlier also um with the attention you personally but also your publication uh spends not only in moments on our faculty and staff uh but our students and in particular in moments our student athletes. So thanks for all of the above. We appreciate it. [applause] >> I think that wraps it up unless there's questions. Any questions on the superintendent report? Um, what a great opening day. I have to say that that last slide there is what we usually see for the opening day.
101Nuts and bolts. What a great idea to have inspirational messages from the uh for the admin team. Um, and you know what? It gives your staff insight into your personalities too, which is great. All those contributions were fantastic and really knowing what students are with their teachers. Probably the teacher didn't quite say, "Wow, that really, you know, they made that very inspirational." So, I'm sure they were it resonated with them. Uh, everything was very inspirational. I have to say, I mean, this family inspired me to help. That's why Miss Linder, thank you for coming. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. Thank you for coming tonight. Uh, you know, year two of the long long-term plan and it's exciting. It's very exciting. Leader of me is a great component of that. And, you know, I'll
102tell you two words that at least personally resonate with me. Student love. Student blood. It's that's how you get things done. So, thank you for all that, Dr. Zelios. Um, so if there's no other questions from the uh from the board, uh, I've written so much on here I can't even read what's next. Um, I think it's >> next board of education. >> Oh, the next You might have to read it for me. I've written all over it. Next board of education meeting will be Tuesday, September 9th, 2025 at 6 High School Library. Uh, general any other general comments from the board? Miss Han, you you attended a few events, right? >> Um I did. So one was uh um Chicago County School Board Association dinner meeting about um effective school boards. That was a
103great they're going to send out a power one which I'll share. Um, so, uh, then the other thing was as our district's legislative liaison to the Chicago County School Board Association, I attended a virtual meeting with a staff member, Congressman Langworthy. Um and we had an opportunity to tell share with his representative what um what our legislative priorities are which basically come from the New York State School Board Association. I don't make the money. Um but I did take the liberty of kind of picking three that I thought represented our school district well. Um, so I mentioned that we're a smaller rural school district and that um, some of our priorities, our our federal legislative priorities are um, that of Title One be sufficiently funded to support schools dealing with learning gaps, mental health needs,
104and chronic absenteeism. I mentioned that we have a great special ed program to allow students with special needs and that we um want Congress to commit to full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA. And thirdly, that um we urge Congress to reject all voucher proposals that divert tax dollars from public schools. >> Great. Well, thank you for taking the time championing our cause um with our legislator. That's fantastic. Any other items from the room? No. Okay, great. Uh I'll go around the table. Mr. Tanelli, anything else tonight? >> I was actually just going to say a few things about the me tonight. Um so I'm really excited because tomorrow really kicks it off for our school. Um, our kids have they came in for two days over uh July,
105but they also came in the last two days uh Monday, Tuesday of this week. And uh they've put together probably about 30 minutes of material for our faculty meeting tomorrow where they're going to introduce a lot of the seven many of the seven habits to to teachers to show them what it for them what it looks like, what it feels like to to be a part of this. Um student le has been thrown out a couple of times tonight and um that's really what this is. So, um, I'm usually like a 20 to 25 minute faculty meeting guy. Tomorrow's going to be a little bit longer and I'm actually really excited about that for the first time um because it's going to be what they want us to know uh about leader and me, what
106they have found to be really important for them about the seven habits. They've identified some of the areas of the school that they really want to focus in on. The cafeteria being one. um you know just a couple places where they feel like they can really lend a hand to show their leadership uh and to bring forth uh what they want for high school to be. Um so technically there's 12 kids on the lighthouse team. Um there's been about a steady group of eight of them that have been able to attend with practices and some other things going on now. Um [clears throat] and they I was upstairs for a little bit with them today. They've run through their presentation three or four times. They've got, you know, what everybody's going to say and they've
107got a speaker coming because they've got walk up music for people to use and all kinds of stuff. So, it's it's going to be a blast for for us to actually see this in action tomorrow. So, um I'm really excited. It's a a heck of a group of of students. Uh there's been four instrumental teachers on the lighthouse team as well, Kathy Cooper, maybe joint Lori Addington, and um Capay who have really put their time and energy and effort in with them as well. So, I said it's been really instructions. Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Miss. >> Yes. And we'll be excited to welcome them. Um, after they wrap up at the high school, they'll hop down to the middle school for a similar presentation. Um, I just wanted to give a quick
108shout out to our tech department. I know we've said a lot of thank yous as we get ready for the start of the school year. But when I think about all that tech does to set up not only our current staff, our new staff and then for all of our kids to get their devices and waiting on this but orders to come in so that this items can be the devices and chargers can be staged in the kids first period, you know, classroom by Tuesday. I they are just and then of course, you know, as teachers are coming back into the building, lots of questions and troubleshooting different things. So they have worked extremely hard this summer and will continue to. So, I very much appreciate um Andy Black and Ryan L and Z as
109our tech and of course our student tech helpers, too. They've been amazing. Um and speaking of students, we do have some fifth or so now sixth graders that will be coming back um for our fifth grade orientation on Thursday to help um show some kids around. They will actually be part of the presentation and explaining some of the different pieces of it to our fifth graders and their families. So, we're excited to um welcome them in as well as some other kids that will help just during open house later on Thursday afternoon. So, all good. Thanks. >> Great. Thank you. Mr. >> Uh tomorrow, our teachers are split between two different trainings. Uh one group is going to be working with this tax good behavior game where they're learning um strategies that they can use
110in the classroom to help manage unruly children in a positive way. And then the other half of the staff is uh learning about UFI. It's a phonics program that we've adopted. and there's a lot of um excitement and momentum about that. And then in November um we'll train the other half of the staff. So there's a good buzz going into tomorrow. I'm excited for both opportunities. Very amazing. >> All of those things and more, right? So um you know, I guess I'm really excited about this year where we've really refined and rightsized some of our programming. Um looking at some service delivery changes. We have some ideas floating out there about growing some new initiatives for growth based learning and inclusive opportunities. So, a lot of really good positive stuff happening and I'm just excited
111to kind of get it all underway. Um, thank you, Miss H, for supporting special education in your legislative session. I really appreciate that. So, >> Thank you. So, um, yeah, it's been, you know, today is always a big energizing day, which is wonderful it truly is. Um I want to say a huge thank you to our leadership team that you see here um as well as our two assistant principles and um Kim Fingenheimer Kappyer, Cat Buyer, Cassie Frell, all of them were part of our new faculty orientation and it truly takes a team to make that happen. Um and our new faculty had um the admin team with them on Monday and Tuesday. We did a lot of learning and part of that included making sure that they were set up with their leader in
112the account so that they could because they haven't been here before have that seven habits and a condensed you know um self-paced module to show them that and give them some time to access that um and get familiar with it so they aren't coming in wondering what these words mean and things like that. So, we're grateful for our leader and partners um with that and certainly um for Barb for being here and then thank you Jamie for shouting out our tech department. You know sometimes when we say department we forget that it's two and a half people for the district. So 174 staff members um almost 300 completely that have to complete that modules that have to reset. That's not even with the you know almost 1500 kids. So it's you know huge. So, we're
113so appreciative of what we do. The print shop always has everything ready and ready to go for all the things going on. And um today um for the first time, the goal that we've always wanted to do is to have a uh teaching assistant um and food service helpers training academy. And we did that because uh we had about an hour and a half where we worked on deescalation strategies and we talked about how we can work with each other, work with students and you know all the tenants of learning seven habits and you can see them over and over many different things. And the first the very very very first step in any deescalation situation um when a child does not have the self-control they need the situation it's up to us to then
114help deescalate it. Our goal is always when you're in charge of you, you're regulated. When a child is not in charge of them, they need you to co-regulate. It just means you're the co-pilot. You're taking and you can help me with this. It's not a steering wheel, but what is it in a plane that you know you grab a hold of? Is it a steering wheel? >> Okay. Okay. So, you know, this is you're Yes, it is a I didn't expect that. Um, so and you know when you co-regulate that's all you're doing is you're co-piloting until the pilot is back in charge, the child is back in charge of themselves. Every single deescalation strategy starts with you, the adult. You have to be in the mindset. You have to be You can't help so
115many if you're not regulated yourself. So, we had a chance to work with our food service helpers who see every single kid every single day. our um aids who are you know working with some of our student the reason students have an aid is because they struggle. So we we we were so excited to do that and um due to a kind of a a hiccup in the day it turned out that Mrs. Pharaoh and I got to uh co-present and co-lead this and um the first thing I said to her I go this is your goose slide I go we're sitting here helping each other in the street and all this kind of stuff and it was so fun. So I appreciate partners day. It was nice to to do that. So, we were
116really excited to be able to have that time um with our teacher aids today. As a reminder, food service and teacher aid are part of the CSEA and they attend day one only. So, they aren't here for day two and three of in service. So, we were able to capitalize on that. I know it's been a goal we've all had. So, we excited to be able to do that. >> Thank you. Completely opposite of all that [laughter] you have putting out that the school tax bill should be mailed tomorrow. I'm looking forward to and also our weekend. >> Most looking forward to opening my >> I can look forward to tomorrow. >> No, I'm good. Okay, good. And thanks to the administr running on the run, right? >> Or caffeine. I don't know. either one
117you're it's it's a lot of work. So, thank you for um we anticipate the need to enter into executive session tonight to discuss personal collective bargaining items. We got a motion for second Mr. Martin second Mr. Marshall. Thank you. All in favor? >> Opposed. Thank you for attending tonight's meeting everybody and enjoy what's all together. Thank you.