001Good. Welcome to the Alfred Central School Board of Education meeting for Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. Uh we start each meeting with a pledge to the flag. So, please join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh so uh we need to approve the agenda for our meeting tonight, April 8th, 2025. Uh it includes a consent for this might be a record all of personnel and all new business. So that is uh unique. Uh is there anything anyone would like pulled out of consent? No. Okay. All in favor? Opposed? I'm sorry. Oh, did I? I'm sorry. Um, yes. Do I have a motion? Second. Second. Okay. Thank you. And we did.
002All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Uh, we move into public uh comment. The board reserve this time to hear comments from the audience. Those wishing to address the board are asked to stand, give their name and address, and limit your comments to five minutes or less per individual or group. Um uh concerns of his comments during this session should be directly related to the uh items listed on a proposed agenda for this meeting. So is it for the agenda, Mary? Yes. Uh okay. So big crowd tonight. Yeah. Oh, Mary Day 4422 Oswin Road. So I see the budget is on the agenda tonight. So I'll take this opportunity now. So, as you know, well, I'm saying with the budget, you have to hold the line. Okay? Hold the line. The voters spoke in December. And we
003talked about we just don't have a strong business or populist tax base, and you can't keep fighting the hand that feeds you. Okay? Those here for decades, they just it's like getting blood from a stone. You can't do it. And then the 50% or more that the village of Fredonia is proposing. I've been busy with I can't give you the pulse right now. I know it was a buzz in December. I can't give you I'm busy with my son my own ranching and farming activities and I'm briefly even homeschooling three of my grandsons right now so I can't really tell you that but I know like far a farmer right down the road they're selling their property they've been there for decades they can't afford the taxes you know and then in town you know
004you've got poverty issues and just people trying to make it so I'm not talking about you need to make cuts you can't just things that people want and you say no we can't do that you really have to make cuts and I know that's not easy but homeowners have to do it and you need to probably als also start the ball rolling on consolidation. Somebody has to do it. I know there's state factors, but in other states they' be like a northern county type school system. It wouldn't be all these individuals. And I think um what I would suggest is everybody falls prey to a comfortable complacency. What we have, we get used to it, but it is a comfortable complacency. Administratively, you're topheavy. Okay? There should probably be cuts there. I can give you
005the specific history on vice principles that came in uh that came in when the state had that crazy APR was rolled out where it was it was massive the amount of observations all the paperwork principal said that's all we'll have time to do we need help and I remember at the time I was in and out of the union board and I remember Darren you might have even been president's time I can't remember doesn't matter but I had I remember saying if there's money shouldn't we be opposing this a little bit all these observations and I and this not that part of it but the if there's money shouldn't we maybe be hiring reading teachers if the money's there especially at the younger levels but that's why it came in because that there were never
006there were not vice principles or assistants before that it was like this APR but that's gone away hasn't gone away but that massive amount of paperwork is gone and so now of course you're used to comfortable with having these vice principles but they were never before and that a part has gone away at that level it really has and frankly it it's difficult to say I know but it really doesn't affect student achievement. What student achievement is affected by is by conscientious and competent teachers in the trenches who educate themselves. That's what student achievement accounts for. So you really need to look at that because that is the history on that and I remember very well. Um another thing is in and out with budgets. Sometimes the position was in, sometimes it was out, but
007that would be your director. You can call it an assistant superintendent, but the director of curriculum or human resources. I don't know what the title is exactly now, but that was never a thing that was guaranteed. When there was a hard budget, that position was cut. And whatever paperwork was needed, it was divided out between the superintendent and principles. It really was. And some of it, a lot of it is a lot of paperwork from the state. Some of it's grants, but a lot of them are not even competitive grants. It's just a matter of getting getting the paperwork out and the principles they did that out and they did that that was a position that was never guaranteed and so um that that would be an idea. Um I don't think the public's aware.
008Okay. So everybody moved up to Welock when that was the thing and then they moved back. I'm sure it has to be a state requirement that there's an administrator or certified person down there. But is the public aware that this principal at a highly that position, not the person on is is a highly paid position only responsible for two grade levels? That's not fiscally responsible. That position seems to me could take on some of the responsibilities of what I just described with the paperwork and curriculum and things like that. that is just not fiscally responsible um for that and certainly shouldn't be hiring any more administrators or assistant principles. I don't know why a survey went out in the elementary school asking the teachers about budgetarily should we hire an assistant principal certainly shouldn't be
009hiring anymore so I don't know where that came from. Um so administratively you're topheavy. Okay. Now, the public would think of these as department heads, but there are a lot of instructional leaders. That list has gotten this long. Okay. Department heads, yes, there should be for the for the for the main areas, but one for every grade level and then within the school, one for every subject. That's just not necessary. Teachers don't need to be paid for every time they turn around for just normal things that we do. Okay? So, you don't need that many. You need some, but you don't need all that many. So that that's an area there. 30 seconds left. Okay. Well, I can come back and do again. So, um, if you don't like what I'm saying. Okay. Yes, I
010realize it, but so, um, I could say more about that, but the accountability behind that, I'm not sure it's even there. I know when I had that position, I I won't take that time right there. But, um, and I've said it before about retiring teachers. You don't need to replace them. Okay? That's a financial gift at the I think there's one at Welock. There's another one at my level. Last year I I'd said don't replace me. There's another one retiring. And at the time it was like well it's too soon. They're they're team me. We have to study it. Well, what's the study say? Okay. Matter of fact, grade five and six are still elementary classes. That fifth teacher instead of the six could be a self-contained classroom, which actually for an elementary student would
011probably be a very welcome thing for many of the students. You don't need to replace those people. So, I'm going to have to interject. Okay. Um, not that we don't appreciate your comments, but you're up to seven minutes. So, okay. And I I appreciate up in 30 seconds. The time I had last time. So, the last thing you should do is consider is the board get in to the classrooms. Observe. You'll see many good things. Observe other things. Do a survey. Do a survey to the teachers independent of administrators and independent of the union and put some measure of confidentiality into it. so that the teachers don't feel repercussions, but you'll get ideas of what inside waste is, their ideas of what would be good, what's not. And I challenge you to do that because
012you you'll also find just cultural things and that's how you can improve. And so I take that matter to heart and you can't you can't keep killing the taxpayers is what you're doing. Okay. Thank you. I know you didn't like what I have to say, so you're real careful on my time tonight, but I do appreciate the time. No, it's not that we don't value your comments. It's just we have a timer, right? And it's five minutes and you you got eight. Yes. No, I appreciate that. And think of what what affects student achievement. All these things have not done well with student achievement. I looked it up on the the state test. Almost every area, at least in LA, you're below even the state. The state is doing well in Fredonia except for one
013grade level. You're well below even the state. Thank you. Um All right. Moving on. We need to approve the minutes from the regular meeting of March 18th, 2025. I have a motion to bring that to the table. So move, Miss Han. Thank you. A second. Second. Mr. Kenny. Thank you. Uh any questions on those minutes? All in favor? I opposed. All right. Well, moving into our the big topic for the night, which is the budget. Uh so, Mr. Forbes, I'll pass it on to you. I want to open with a little intro real quick. All right. Um, so, um, I just want to remind everybody and, uh, to please note that our budget is currently a work in progress. Um, we need to adopt a budget by April 25th. U, we will be adding a
014board of education meeting on April 24th for final review and adoption. Um, we are hoping that by giving ourselves another couple weeks here um, that the variety of unknowns that still exists in the process will be cleared up um, over these next two weeks. Mr. Forbes will describe some of those unknowns um here shortly. Um we feel like this will help us have the most up-to-date information we can prior to final adoption um and will also allow us to make as thoughtful a decisions as possible. Um as we plan our annual budget, we consider several factors as part of the process each year. In the end, we want to ensure that all students have access to a strong education program and a wide variety of experiences that we offer to our students, adults, and families
015while still being mindful of the cost to our community taxpayers. There is a balance we are attempting to strike here where all students are in a position to be successful and have their needs met while not overburdening our families with a levy increase they cannot manage. We look at a variety of things each year as we prepare and work our way through the bud budget process. Um, one of them is student needs and enrollment. Um, our enrollment has plateaued over the past few years with some even slight increases here and there along the way. Our projection showed that our enrollment appears to remain steady over the next few years. We also look at academic and district priorities. Through our long-term planning, we have identified the following focus areas. Literacy, curriculum review, academic and behavioral interventions,
016social emotional learning through leader and me, and also planning for upgraded facilities. We want our budget to align with these priorities and support meaningful work in these areas moving forward. Student services. We absolutely consider the needs of our students with disabilities, English language learners, those who require speech, occupational and physical therapy, as well as other student populations in need of support. We also look at operating costs. Um, each year our faculty and staff uh brings with it adjustments in both salary and benefits. We absolutely account for those. We also look at supplies and materials and account for the cost of items like textbooks, technology and other educational materials. We look at um the utilities uh that we all have and all organizations have electricity, gas, water and other essential services. We also take into account
017um our transportation as well as the provisions in the updated contract with the student that was renegotiated about a year ago. We also look at facilities and allocating funds for ongoing maintenance and necessary repairs. As you know, we have a couple different things going on with capital projects. Um, our larger capital project involving Proposition One maintenance items. U, this was approved by our community in December and we look forward to getting that going to make sure that our facilities are in a good place. We are also utilizing the 100k capital outlays each year. As a result of this work in our school buildings um continue to be warm, safe, secure and dry. Our reimbursement aid on such work is 82.7%. We also look at both state and federal funding to have a clear picture as
018possible of what our allocations will ultimately be. The timing of the New York State budget is not always helpful and often we do not have final aid numbers by the time we adopt our final budget. It is possible this might be the case again this year. The budget is currently late. Um but we hope that adding this additional meeting will counteract that pattern. We look at local taxes. Again, we attempt to balance all of the experiences we offer to students with the cost to our community. We also look at other revenue streams um and maximizing funding coming into the district. Um this year we are looking particularly at reimbursement um through county for UPK services also our general Boseies reimbursements as well as um grants um particularly attached to special education. Our discussion tonight moves
019the conversation forward as we make our way towards final adoption on April 24. Any numbers shared tonight represent where we currently are in the process, not the numbers that we will eventually land on and agree to when we officially adopt. During our process, we are open and listen to and take in account any feedback from any members of our school community. As always, feel free to reach out to me or Mr. Forbes directly or contact us through the district or business offices with comments, questions, concerns, or idea. Um although again the budget is currently a work in progress we do have an update tonight on where we currently stand and for that we turn it over to Mr. Ports. So first of all tonight you have each board member has at their seat the budget
020information book but this is the historical data three main areas taxes personnel and then other information which kind of lumps together a bunch of different things like bonds closings expenses uh transportation tuition and those kind of things. So that's for your information and ready to review when you have time. Uh secondly we're going to take a look at our budget as it stands today and as Dr. Zilax has already outlined this is not the final uh that will be happening on April 24th. This is where we stand today and it's part of the process as we work through that you understand where we are and where we've been and where we're going. So we'll go through the slides very similar to the budget workshop last week just with updated information since then. We do have
021a number of remaining unknowns. Uh equalization rates and assessments those are typically tax levy changes. So that would be in August when we set the tax levy. So I would classify those as ongoing and not final. Our final post costs typically this is an area that's in flux. The high cost specialized students have a tendency to be a little bit transient. We're also taking a look at all that placements. Still working on some of our computer and technology information to try to whittle that down to the final cost. As Dr. Zillax mentioned, we're also working with county and New York State to set up a classroom at the wheel school. There is a tuition or a rate setting unit. tuition rate setting unit for the state that will provide a reimbursement rate for the district
022if that's approved. Um we have the approval on the class. We don't have the approval on the rate yet. And from that we're able to bill back to the county any eligible student within that program. So that that could be um significant revenue for us depending on what the rate is depending on the final enrollment from Mrs. Piper. We also have not accounted for the emergency phone project yet as that's an ongoing discussion as to the nature of the scope and timing. Final transportation cost as part of our RFP last year for transportation with per student. Uh there's a provision to build in a refund or rebate on certain costs. So we're taking a look at that. It's depending on number of runs, location, students traveling and so on. So that is a process and
023if we don't have the ability to apply it this year, we do have the ability to take a look at applying it within the remaining contract years. We also don't have final staffing at this point. As Dr. Zilc mentioned, we do not have the final state aid figures yet. The next page shows a proposed budget expenditure summary. And what we have here is the lefth hand column is last year's budget or current year budget. The middle column is what was given to the board at the workshop meeting last week. The right hand column is where we are today. So essentially we've reduced another 122,000 what you saw last Tuesday. Breakdown of expenditures by area and percent of budget. Salaries are 49.84% benefits are 19.74%. So we're in that 70% range again for salary and benefits
024which is essentially a locked in number. You can see the rest of distribution across the expenditure areas, equipment, materials, supplies, contractual expense, OC services, and our debt. How do we get to where we are today? Um, in the budget process, the initial footprint is where I take everything that we have, all the codes across my whole document, and put in what I think that might be the case at that point in time. From there, we take a look at shifting any salaries that we can to our grants. Taking a look obviously any cuts, any retirements, any ads, any requests from the principles that we can bring in, those kinds of things. And through that process, we're able to reduce our initial filter in all of these areas. 766,000, which is a shift to our grants,
025which is our title grants and our 611 and 619 special education grants. As you know, the rescue plan money has expired, and so that's no longer part of our budget process. Um, other key things in there we're carrying, we reduced 150,000 from our original equipment request, 270,000 from our contractional request, and our benefits are down to 179,000 from the initial request. Part of that is shifting some of that to grants. Part of that is doing the actual count on what coverages are being held by the employees and and getting the rates on that. Salary and benefits to overall we're up 5.52% on the instructional side. We are negotiating with the freedom teachers association. So we do have to have a placeholder in for that. On the non-instructional side, we have salary support staff association contract
026is also under negotiation. So there's a placeholder for that and the number reflects a number of additional aids at the primary elementary level that were added over the course of last year. Next page is our staffing. We did have five instructional positions, the high school principal that we taken out and we budgeted replacements for each of those. Five of the people that are retiring were eligible for staff incentives through their contracts and so we've accounted for that in this budget. Taking a look at this the benefit summary, you can see the cost through the associated retirement systems, employees and teachers retirement, social security, which of course is tied to any salaries, our comp, our life insurance, unemployment, disability and group health. The the big one there is obviously health insurance. We're up about four and
027a half% through the source from this year. So that's reflected in there as well. Equipment, materials, and supplies as group. We're up 259,000 which looks like a high percentage again because it's 27% but really it's only in a $30 million budget. It's only a million dollars worth of expenses. So not a lot of movement there. And next slide shows the equipment requests that we currently have in the budget by department. See custodial maintenance 12,000 and 119,000 which is replacement of tractor and truck curriculum cycle which is our continuing program with the music department. We budget money every year to keep their instrument replacement cycle going. You can see across the instructional areas the requests that were made at Wock Elementary Middle High School computer technology has 17,500 in there and I think I mentioned at
028the workshop meeting it was a much larger number in equipment side but we've been able to shift that to the Bose side which becomes aidable as we purchase equipment through that line. Contractual expense in Bosei services we're up 362,000 210 in contractual and 151 in our Bosei services both services would encompass any student related situation like alt edge high cost special ed different guidance programs different library programs things of that nature and also all of our computer technology support like our payroll system the raptor system at the doors and things like Next slide just so shows some major impacts currently in the budget. Um so looking at computer assistant instruction, we're up 116,000 which reflects what I mentioned a moment ago that we shifted money over and that's to try to keep a replacement cycle
029going on our Chromebooks and iPads. Also the addition of a couple of large screens for the teaching aspect and also bunch of parts to repair the current Chromebooks. Transportation, we're up 243,000 in part because of the contract rate, in part because we've added additional runs during the course of the year, a couple of which we'll have on the agenda in a few minutes. And then we had to add for the proposition one uh 395,000 is an inter fund transfer. This goes in as an expense in 2526 because aid is paid on categoric such as project the aid doesn't come back till 2627. So there's an impact of that in the first year. Next slide is just a summary of our existing debt and the in transfer I just mentioned. If you go to the slide
030after that, it gives a summary of the projects that we still have on the books and what the interest and principal payments are for those. See on the revenue side, the next slide, you see the breakdown between state, local, federal, and fund balance and tax levy. In this proposed budget, state aid represents 49.5% of our revenue stream. Our tax levy represents 47.03% of the revenue stream. And the balance is made up of 49 95,000 of local sources, things like tuition, admissions, interest income from our investments, $100,000 federal aid, which is our Medicare reimbursement. And also, we're currently applying 750,000 of fund balance towards the budget. So much like we did with the expense side just to show a breakdown of percent as I mentioned a moment ago estimated tax lev is 47.04 s is 49.51
031Medicare.25 local sources 1.27 27 and the remaining 1.93 is made up by the funds. The next few slides are just for board information. They contain the source for our local revenue. Take a look through. You have the pilot agreements, the student tuition which I mentioned, interest income, which I mentioned, our rent down at lock school. Those are all part two pages of that. And then a page that shows our state and federal sources. All of the revenues listed are based on the governor's proposal in January. Our foundation aid is our basic operating aid is not tied directly to any categorical situation. All the remaining aids on the page from excess cost to computer, software, hardware, those are all based on expenditures in one year with the aid coming back in the subsequent year. So they're
032considered to be the categorical section of the state revenue picture. Also in this budget, we have a capital outlay project, $100,000. We're projecting right now to do field work on the athletic floors at the main street campus. For any $100,000 capital outlay project you do outside, you need to have $10,000 worth of work inside and a minimum. So, we're looking to do some flooring in the elementary school. There's also required New York State architectural fee as part of that. As Dr. Zilox had mentioned up front, we do get 82.7% revenue back from the state on that. So our our cost is not the $1,200,000 amount once we get the revenue back. Next slide just outline some of the shared services that the district is participating in right now. Uh we're in consortium for health insurance,
033workers comp, electric and natural gas. Three of the four of those are through Boseies. We also participate in the cooperative equipment program with Boseies and the central business office for our payroll. We do have a municipal agreement with the village of Freonia for the fuel for our district vehicles. We share athletic programs with other neighboring districts. We have transportation currently with that we're sharing with three other local districts. We still have a part-time art teacher position which is shared with Forestville and also we're sharing a special education child one going each way for with Forestville as well. The tax levy limit uh is currently for our district at 4.65% for this year. It originally was brought in as a 2% cap but due to allowable exceptions it's not 2% necessarily. Currently this budget we are
034over that amount and we can exceed the cap if we were do a 60% majority or we need to make further reductions to get at or below the 4.65%. If our budget was to be defeated twice we would have to comply with the administrative cap. This cannot see exceed the administrative portion of the prior year which is 11.51% of the budget. We're currently 19,000 below that cap in compliance should we need to go there. Next slide is tax levy limit. The x's on the right hand side represent the years that we are below the cap number in each of the years we've been at or below the cap number. Um you can see that if you take a look across number of years here that our generally our tax levy percentage has been fairly low
035and we've only had one year since 20134 that we've exceeded 1.73% and that was in the 2324 school year. So we've done a good job of maintaining the percentage on the tax. What's left to do? Taking a look at this slide, you can see that the maximum tax levy we're allowed is 17,958,000. Our current proposed tax levy is 18,242, which means to get to the cap, you would need to reduce another 284,000. If you decided that you wanted to go all the way to zero, would be another million 82,000 on the budget or landing somewhere in between. It would depend on on what that number becomes. uh to get to the cap we would have to either make additional reductions, find additional revenue sources, or apply additional fund balance. Uh that I would not be
036recommending of the three courses and we'll continue to work on as I mentioned this is not the final and we still have some room to change. Uh next slide is our comparative tax levy just forformational purposes from 2018 2019 to 202425 our average tax levy increase was 1.12%. Our three-year average is 1.9%. And then the next slide is just comparative budget data showing the percent of change over time from 2013. So again, this is not our final. This is where we are today. We wanted to bring the board up to date with that information. Great. Thanks, Mr. Forbes. Uh questions from the board. Yeah. Um, you mentioned the transportation and a refund or rebate and I'm wondering what's that about. How is it different from aid? Uh, it's different from aid because it's coming directly
037back from first student. As part of the contract RFP and then discussion, we move some percentages around and part of that became what we think about a rebate if these certain criteria are met or not met. So that's how we arrived at and you mentioned we could possibly use it this year or save it. And what are the factors in that decision? That would be up to the district. The for student is willing to do it in any fashion that we wanted. If we had wanted to split over the five years of the contract, we could have done that. We opted not to because of where we were at that point. And now this year or maybe next year, we might need to have some additional funds review. So we kind of held on to
038it as a piece of the whole. And do we know what approximately what that amount would be? Uh it's about 200,000 if you were maximized through the course of the contract. So would that offset the increase then or no? You can't use it for if if we applied it all, it would it would offset most of what we get you to the cap. Dr. Z talked about that and it's probably not a good idea to use it all at the same time and kind of spread it out a little bit if we can. So, we're continuing to look at the other areas that we can look at as additional trucks or stream. John, as far as the equipment, I know you had mentioned pickup truck, uh, two tractors, correct? It's a zeroturn lawn mower. Okay.
039Um, mid or midsize tractor and then also a one ton dump with a salt spreader and a 9 foot plot. Um, with the tractor, any guess how many hours are on it in what year? off hand, I don't know the year. Um, we got off the schedule of replacement of equipment a number of years ago. So, right now, we're holding it in. Obviously, it's a big number. It's going to be part of the conversation moving forward, but at some point in in my mind, sooner than later, we need to get back on some kind of cycle. Sure. And the thing with our vehicles is they're not a lot of mileage. It's the use of the vehicles. Correct. Because we're plowing the lots and it's hard use on on the trucks. Correct. Thank you. And Dr.
040Sox, could you address a little bit about the teachers we have retiring and that decision about whether to they need to be replaced or not replaced? Yeah. So, as I mentioned, our our population remains um fairly steady right now and the projections are that it will remain in the in the ballpark of where it is currently. Um we're also really trying to look at, you know, how do we maximize those opportunities for students? How do we ensure that we're providing a strong educational program? Um I've had a chance with Mr. Pashki to look um at the high school um schedule um just out of the gate. There aren't any easy reductions there. Partly because the high school schedule is a lot different per se than the um elementary schedule. There's a lot of moving parts.
041um each course um let's say in a in a science um earth science it could have students from different grades who are part of that course. It's not necessarily that one particular grade of 103 kids need to fit into that class. Um there's also the variability in the high school schedule of different course offerings, different course requests, and just because we necessarily have three sections of a course instead of four, let's say, it doesn't mean that all the students could get to that reduced number of sections. So it's a little bit more complicated than you might think. um for the grade five um replacement. It just so happens this year that the grade four going grade five is 120 students currently. Um it would be hard to make a reduction in grade five right at
042the moment. However, as we said, it's a work in progress. Um we um I feel like the first shoe to fall is really that accurate um foundation age number that seems to be elusive in New York State over the last couple years. Um, for all practical purposes, we should have that number um by April 1st. We typically don't. We don't has have it as of yet. Um, there's been, I think, three or four extensions to the budget currently. Um, that number would be very helpful in um projecting the larger budget, but also indicating where we might need to be with some of the bigger ticket items um which would include teacher salary and benefits. So, we're working through it, taking it one step at a time. We're not trying to get up ahead of ourselves.
043Um, at the same time, we're not um afraid to engage in conversations about whatever the options might be to get us to um a number that we eventually need to be at. They did do an extender through tomorrow, till tomorrow. That's the last one. And from all the things I've seen, it's not education that's holding it up at all. It's some legal stuff. I'm not quite sure exactly with the courts. Do you think we'll have it by April 24th? There's no way to know how that'll roll, but I know that in the articles I've seen they made a big deal about the legislative body wanting to be done before Passover Easter, and that of course is very soon. So, the nice thing about April 24th is that it does give us the most time we
044could possibly have for these things to resolve themselves. So, we're will be up, you know, needing to adopt the budget within a day of that mark. So, we should have the most up-to-date information we can possibly have at that moment. Other questions or Okay. Um, the Can you just talk about the capital fund? So, we're spending the 395 and then that depletes our capital fund. Is that correct? uh in in so many boards. Yes. Yes. Okay. And then we talked about the only way to start building that is from our general. Yeah. You would have to take any surplus that you have in the general fund and designate it through board motion to the capital reserve. Your current one is set up to be 750,000 maximum. If you and you can't if you zero it
045out, you can't start at zero, go back to 750. It's whatever's left. And then if you hit that at some point, then you have to another community approval and budget vote to to create another and and you're not locked into what number that would be. We chose 750 last time. Okay. Confused by the capital reserve fund because isn't that money that we have set aside in a fund but yet you have to treat it as an expense? We have to bring it over to the capital fund which is where all the project expenses do. So it's not a direct transfer. So we have to bring it in to general fund to capital and then we get reimbured next year. Yes. Great building start and it depends on the timing of of when you borrow the
046aid flow. So right municipal solutions is our advisor for that. We had multiple conversations along the way today. had a couple emails going back and forth just to make sure if you were to say, "Let's do something different with the 395. Can we push any of it out, reduce it, start it later?" It's a trickle down through the rest of the the debt in the project. So, you have to be very careful on that. So, because we haven't had a capital project in such a long time, uh I wasn't aware that we had to chalk it up as an expense to get reimbured. And this is a little bit different based upon what we have in reserve and what we're doing. So it's a larger amount than we've had in some time. Right. Other questions.
047John, let me speak to this. We we look at this in a vacuum and can you talk about where we've been over the last five or six years as compared to what's happening in the world around us, the inflation rates, how that affects the bottom line. If you take a look at the comparison slides with the tax levy percentage increases you've had a number of years that you've been at zero or below one and so think about your own budget at home. How many years in a row can you say I'm not changing anything, change anything? And then here you are. And obviously prices have increased dramatically in the last couple years. You have to pay those prices in some form, whether it's through transportation, fuel, natural, gas, electric, all those things go up. Union
048contracts go up, benefits go up and our fund balance went down. So we don't have that cushion necessarily to rely on as much as we could have in the past. where we are now. Yeah, it's a tough spot because we've averaged 1.1% for 10 years, increased taxes and yet you know what do we have inflation and 22 maybe 5% and 8% the next year and co and co and I mean due to co you know I mean that was contributor but I mean you know you can see where there's erosion I guess and this year's each year kind of brings its own personality to it as you go through the process. Okay, that that's up or that that's down and you kind of working through and this year it just seemed like for a period
049of time I was like, oh, I cut 30,000 today. By the end of the day, I got 30,000 for something else. So, it's just like walking back and forth, walking back and forth on that. So, but that's the challenge of it on every year. We're not done yet. So, yep. Other questions? Um, so we put in the 750,000 bond balance, but we don't really want to end up spending that is that uh well if you wherever you put it for fund balance you have to hopefully make up in what's surplus during that year. So obviously the lower the number the better and in a situation like we're in now we're running a little bit tighter on some of the line items. So it goes positively we're good. If it goes negatively now we're eroding that
050a little further. So you get you getting to that point where it becomes a concern. Obviously, if things roll out really good in the next two weeks, I'm gonna try to reduce that and and get to the whatever percentage level the board wants to have. But that would be the ultimate goal is to get that down from where it's been other comments or Okay. Yeah, it's a work in progress. um a lot of unknowns a lot of unknowns at this point and it's not helpful that the state doesn't give us some clarity on foundation data on revenue so the revenue is the big unknown right now so thanks Mr. Forbes we'll keep chipping away Dr. Zilax. Anything else or sum it up? Okay. All right. Well, let's move on. Um, uh, next we need to
051approve a 31-day emergency transportation contract for this bus March for March 26, 2025. Have a motion. So, move a second. Second, Mr. Marshall. Thank you. Dr. Silia or John. All right. So, we had was a a 31-day emergency contract a month and a half or so ago, which was a foster placement. Um, so we did as a 31day to make sure this placement was going to be solid and so that expired. We had two days of what would be our allowable second 31-day emergency contract and the situation did change, but we still need to approve the second contract to get the two days of aid for that. So, that's what we're doing with letter B. Okay, any questions? Uh all in favor and we have one more uh contract here again Corvis Bus but this
052is for April 1st 25. I have a motion to bring that to move a second. Second. Thanks John. All right. So this is the next piece of that situation where they were able to find another placement for the student in a different location. And so because it's a different location, we have to do a different contract. And again, I'm running it as a 31day just to make sure this is the placement before we go with the full out for it. So okay, questions? All in favor? I opposed. And uh last under business is uh to uh approve a contract for Lakeshore Central School District for data privacy and security support at a cost of $7,500 is submitted. Could I have a motion to bring that to the table? Mr. Second, thank you. Dr. Zillios. Um
053yeah, this is an exciting opportunity and represents a really solid bang for our buck um as a district. You probably remember a couple years back we had some transition um in our technology department. Um we were lucky enough to have Ryan Le as well as Andy Willock come on um with the district um in those positions and Andy uh serves as our data protection officer. Now there are a number of nuances to this job and it's one of those the devil is really in the details. um there's a lot to manage and this was not something that was necessary and his skill set coming into the district. So he has done a nice job adapting and adjusting and learning um but especially with recent um events not any fault of the district with um some
054data breaches being in the mix. We wanted to make sure that we were doing everything we possibly can to make sure our data is secure within the district. Uh, Lakeshore does have an employee that I would say is perhaps um the authority at least on this side of the state, if not maybe in New York State in this area. Um, they've been nice enough to offer some support to a few other districts. We are part of this if this is approved. And um this includes um the person working with um Andy to come in and do an audit of all of our current systems and protocols. And then there would be monthly meetings over the next year um to look at um that audit and make necessary adjustments. So again, for a fairly small fee
055in the grand scheme of things, this will be extremely helpful to us and really make sure we were doing everything that we can do to make sure our data um is secure as humanly possible. Any questions? No questions. Okay. Uh yeah, I mean data is increasingly becoming a big issue in our society. So it' be good to have our data secure. All in favor? Opposed. All right. Well, through personnel through new business, back to our second round. Um, anybody would like to speak or Okay. All right. Just want to make sure. Uh, all right. Move on to our superintendent report. Dr. Oh yeah, a couple things for your consideration. Um, again, not for approval tonight, but one of the things you have with you is the um potential draft calendar uh for the 2526 school
056year. Um, there are a few pieces here that um are typically um of interest to the um board of education. I've had a chance to review this with um FTA leadership. also shared this with our administrators through our administrative council. And um just to highlight a couple things here um we really start by just kind of rolling the calendar from last year to this year. Um one of the things that is an ongoing discussion is the twoe break at Easter versus the split break in February and then another week at Easter. Um remember that in our contractual language our proposal eventually to the board of education there's a joint effort um with the FTA their membership is roughly about 70% of individuals who would like to see the two weeks at Easter continue. Um the
057rationale for that uh for most teachers is that in between Christmas and Easter this provides a long period of time of fairly solid um attendance days. There are some interruptions but not nearly as much as if a week was in the middle of it. um when they feel like they really make um progress and um are able to um really get the students locked in and um really focused on their growth during this time. Um questions usually come from the board of education. We had some questions from Mrs. Spartner recently. Um I reached out to Mr. Pashki and Miss Aken in the high school office to try to get a better understanding um of the attendance of Boseies particularly in the first week of our break where Boseis is open. Um we are technically on
058break. We do provide transportation for those students. Um they do have access to transportation and the programs. Both seasons is open during that week. Um but we wanted to get a better sense of what that attendance looks like. U Miss Akin in particular is working with um Bosey's representatives to bring some information forward around that. Um so that is in process right now. Um but in this draft we do have um the the twoe at Easter in place at least for the moment. Um a few years ago we wanted to try to create some additional time for professional development. At that time we added four half days to the calendar. Um this year that was scaled back to two days. Um we do have two half days for professional development in this calendar. One in
059November and one in February. Um I know there is some debate about you know the um effectiveness of instruction on a half day. Um but you know at the end of the the day we are looking to create some additional opportunities um especially for some of those um initiatives that we have going in the district leader and me work around literacy um work around potentially um curriculum review or intervention. Um so we have those in the calendar at this time. If you'd just like to take a minute um to review what you have in front of you, I'd be willing to uh ask or sorry respond to any questions I can. And uh we also have Dr. Wright here as well. So you said we have two fewer half days in this calendar. So that
060was two years ago we had four. This year we reduced to two and for next year at least to this draft the two remain. Okay. or two and two half days. Is that what's in this calendar? Say that again. I see two days that are green. So those are professional development, right? Correct. And then I see two half days that are green. So take me back to the two two So the the two days I was referring to are November 25th and February 13th. November 10th and March 13th are full day professional development. Yes. So November 10th is a full um superintendence conference day and so is the 13th as well and our other conference days are to start the school year in August. Sorry I wasn't with you for a minute. So, I'll ask
061my annual question about the January midterm week, especially with this year with the weather complication. So, I mean, you know, they kids have two weeks off at Christmas, then they come back for two weeks, then they have a week off essentially a week off. Is that still I mean, we're still weighing that and we still teachers still prefer that and that's the bigger value than the than classroom time. Yeah, I think you know this has gone back and forth. I think there was a year that we had students in in session during this time although primarily they were still used for um midterm examinations. I think there is a I I would say Mr. Pashki you a majority of the high school faculty that believes that those midterms are essential to learning that takes place
062over the course of the year. However, um we have been talking about attendance. We have been talking about the importance of students being in school. I think there's definitely room um for um discussion here. Um the way the calendar um is laid out that that is really the genuine January region date. We don't necessarily have to have a decision about what those days look like currently, especially with a new high school principal coming on board um who might help us be able to facilitate a conversation and decision that makes sense for where we are now. So, I don't know, Mr. Pash, anything to add to that? I think it's a good time to have that discussion with a new principal coming and and uh look look at the value of of taking four days off
063uh versus having instructional time. I think that this year with with the extra days off, with the the snow days, um I think some of the staff started to have some second thoughts about those days. I'm not saying everybody changed their mind, but uh I think there were some staff that were like, you know, it's we we had a bunch of days off and and it wasn't great that it happened to occur in conjunction with those days that we already had off, which pushed the exams a little bit further. And so instead of having four days, we ended up having six days without classes, which was considerable. And the Lunar New Year was in there this year. Is that a factor? Correct. So no, if you um It's actually now Lunar New Year is quite
064a range in where it would fall each year. It's actually President's Day, February 17th. So it's President's Day, then Lunar New Year the next day. So they kind of get a February break there a little one 40 weekend. Um circling back the half days I um you know with the uh professional development I I feel like the professional development we're doing here is worthy and uh that's saying something over my years with professional development. Um but And I don't question the you know the instruction on a half day but I would like some data on the attendance. Um I'd like to see what the attendance is because my my thought tells me that there's a it's it's a drop in attendance and we want to encourage attendance only. So you know I again I reiterate
065I think the uh the professional development is valuable but uh somehow look at the attendance on those days. Yep. We can do that. Anything else on the calendar? I don't believe so. Um, this will be kind of out there for consideration. We'll probably bring back um on the April 29th agenda. I think at that point we would we would look to adopt. So, we'll go from there. Um, in consent tonight was uh the approval of the Quest backpacking uh dates again this year. I just felt to um shout out uh to the COBS who continue um to make a huge commitment to the district um for this program. Um they continue to hold parent meetings um provide instruction um a lot of the logistics um that is really incredible that goes into pulling off a
066variety of hikes um culminating with a 4-day hike. Um so um thanks to the COBS for their continued work and also um the student leaders who are part of this um we have students um participating from other schools and adults at those schools who are involved as well. So by no means is it just the COBS but really they are the catalyst that makes this all happen. So thank you to them. Also just wanted to mention in front of you um last week Boseies had their annual meeting. Um there is um agenda that they shared um in the blue handout along with their annual report. Um it's just a really nice evening in which it starts with um all the programs um having tables or areas that you can go and kind of experience um
067what you each of those programs does throughout the years. Hear a little bit from the students, see their projects or their portfolios um and just have a nice time interacting. Um I spent some time with cosmetology as well as culinary while I was there. Um our students seem to be having a great experience. had a lot of positive things to say um about what they've learned and what they plan to do moving forward in those areas. Um and then the uh Bosey's meeting um you know was fairly brief. It was about an hour long. Um David Oorc um kind of reviewed their annual report and just shared um you know some of the trends in their programming and what they're trying to do moving forward. Um, one of the things that they um are doing
068for next school year, which is exciting, is they're expanding the new visions program. Um, and they're going to have a class that will meet on the campus of Sunni Fredonia. Um, and it will be geared towards future teachers. So, um students will go, um spend time on campus, um get involved in coursework and experiences that would prepare them, um and get them thinking about a career in teaching. And uh thought that was a creative way to um get students thinking about um this profession and being part of uh what we all do to uh help students be successful and put students in a great place for success now and beyond. So that was um interesting to hear about. Uh feel free to take a look and uh if you have any questions um I'd be
069more than happy to try to answer them or we could um relay those back to Boseis. Um there's a lot going on and a lot of information that you'll see within this. But it was a a nice evening. Um a couple board members in particular wanted to say thank you to Fredonia. Um we I think are leading the charge on um board members attending the regular Bosey's meetings. Very appreciative and thankful of everybody who's been able to attend and uh just like us, they love for people to attend their meeting and hear about what's going on. So they wanted to say thank you to everybody for making that a priority this year. Great. Nicely done. Great. Great. That's all I have. Unless there's any other questions. Yep. Any other questions or Okay. Uh, all right.
070On to, uh, announcements. Uh, so we we've talked about April 24th. Do we have to formally say yes to that? I guess I don't think we need an official motion. I guess I would like, you know, confirmation that that straw poll acceptable. Is everybody okay with April 24th? You're out of town. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. So, uh we'll have a meeting on April 24th to finalize the budget. Uh we also have a meeting, a regular meeting on Tuesday, April 29th, uh during the high school library at 6. Uh that leads us into any other general comments from the board. I know speaking of kudos for us going to Bosey's meetings was did you attend one a few weeks ago? I did and I I didn't bring the materials from it, but I took a few
071notes. Um they did a really nice special ed presentation that was the big presentation of the night and it actually was really they have some um excellent programs that probably we're uh benefiting from as well. But they talked about mostly that they're including music and art in their programming and it was really uh that's really wellreceived and they were just very excited about that. They talked about um early learning in UPK for special ed and that the need is up and the providers are down. So that was interesting. And they talked about student board members that uh NISBO will be training there will be some training through NISBO for that coming up. Okay. And then the other thing that I thought was interesting that they talked about was that they needed a board retreat and
072they had not done one. And so I thought that was um interesting that we've now done a few and they really talked about how they felt like they needed one. So I thought it was really very very interesting. I'm glad I went. That's great. So thanks for taking the time. Yeah, we appreciate it. So any other general comments from the board have to say I attended the open house, the art open house uh with my six-year-old granddaughter and I failed miserably at origami. Is that what it's called? Origami. Yeah. paper crane. She was rolling her eyes by the paper crane. So, but it was a really good event. A lot of people were going and uh they're doing a great job in the art department. So, that was fantastic. Uh well, maybe I will mention
073the Holocaust assembly. Oh, did you go? Yes. And it was wonderful. That's great. Yeah. It was a woman whose father had been at Awitz. He has passed away, but she beautifully integrated her speaking with video of him addressing school assemblies. And you know, there's a few immature kids in every assembly, but 99.9% were um of it was so wellreceived. She got three ovations and I thought the kids were well behaved. It's great to hear. And that was um that's been going on a while. 20 years. Goodness. Seven, I think. Seven years straight. Well, keep going, Mr. Basky. It's your turn. Oh, okay. Well, Chila, thanks for coming. I hope the new will continue that. And and I mean honestly I got to give credit to the social studies department who have really bolstered this and
074and made sure that they they do the leg work to make this happen every year. So that that's amazing. Dave Dens in particular um was instrumental in in booking this particular speaker. So kudos to him and yeah I hope that this is something that continues. It's it's uh I I I don't know how if all the kids embrace it, but I think that it's valuable to remember this and keep this in the forefront of people's memory is such a an important historic event that uh really I I think is an important message for kids in in really all grade levels. And I know that at some of the younger levels it's not necessarily appropriate, but but the message of of being good humans, I think, is really important. and uh and how we act as
075a society is incredibly important. So I I hope it continues. Um Mr. Johnson, to to your comment about the half day attendance, I just looked up very quickly for the high school the half days versus the day before the half day. So uh two half days that we had this year were November 26 and February 14th. On the 26th we had 140 kids absent um in the high school and the day before that we had 50 kids absent. Um on the 14th we had 136 kids absent. The day before that we had 36 kids absent. Wow. Okay. So there is a significant number of kids who don't attend on a half day in the high school. I didn't look up the others but I wanted to do that quickly since you mentioned it. Um what
076does this say? Oh um over over our break we have our our twoe break coming up. Uh, another thing that I think has been amazing, um, and this will be our last one, at least with me, uh, is the the, uh, the super mega game club over break. Just something for our kids to do who really don't necessarily want to be at home for two weeks. Um, we open up the school, we take a full day, we're playing board games and Dungeons and Dragons, and I buy pizza and wings, and we eat and have fun all day long. Um, Tom Donovan is the the owner of that club. if you will, the originator of that club. And it's just been fantastic. It's a it's a niche group that uh for for kids that that might
077not, you know, play a sport. Some of them are sports, you know, athletes. But, you know, it's it's kind of fun to have have a good group of of kids to come in and just play some some games. And they're playing board games I've never heard of and and they're cool. And so, every year I play a different game. I usually get a little Dungeons and Dragons, eat some pizza. So, it's fun. So, it's a good opportunity for our kids. Um, I just wanted to mention that Kristen Terrari brought in um a Buffalo Philarmonic Orchestra member to work with her kids this week, which was amazing. I was able to take about 12 minutes to catch the end of it. Um, but it she just did phenomenal work with our kids and just to to
078be able to bring someone of that that status, I guess, into our school and work with our kids was tremendous. We did a a leader in me uh workshop with our our leadership team this week. Unfortunately, it was during during the assembly that we had. So, I couldn't be there for it this year, which was heartbreaking, but we got a lot accomplished. Um you know, as we've been working on leader and me, um you know, we've been really anxious to get to the point where like here's what we're doing and having some concrete stuff. So, we developed um throughout the day, our team developed a roadmap and a and a timeline of what we're going to be doing. So, starting on on April 29th, that's where we're going to be informing the staff of our
079our intention to have a student lighthouse team, which is going to be about student student leadership and working with our extracurricular uh groups first. Um on on the 30th, we're going to be sharing all that information with the community and parents and our staff and and start giving them uh invitations to to our students to apply between May 5th and May 12th um to apply to be on this team. And this is not just a team for people that are already leaders. It's a team to that's open to all kids. And there's going to be an application process, an interview process. They're going to have to get letters of recommendation. And it's it's it's exciting that that we're at this point to start actually doing some things with this. Um we'll be selecting team members
080between the 13th of May and the 19th of May. And then we're going to launch the team um between the 28th of May. And through the summer, we're going to do some training with with our team, our team of students and teaching them about the seven habits um of highly effective people and kind of hit the ground running with our our new principal in the fall and uh hopefully take that to new heights. But it's it's exciting uh to to be at a point where we're going to be bringing kids on board and and giving them opportunities to be leaders in our school. So it's it's we're like at that point. So I've just got this excitement for it. I'm sad that I'm not going to be here next year to see the next piece
081of it, but I I'm sure I'll get get updates. So that's exciting. Um sorry, I just have quite a few things tonight. Um AP exams are going to be starting the first week of May when we get back. And so there's two weeks of AP exams. our our senior packets with all the senior information went out today. And if you want to take one and pass these around, these are all of the senior events for this year. Uh the dates and times and any costs associated with them. If you want to have that information, um I I would love if you guys want to come to any of the events, you're all welcome as as usual. Um also, we have two trips coming uh over our our spring break. Um one is going to BISE
082and one is going to France and Spain. and I have the honor of not going, but I get to come in for both trips on two different nights at three o'clock in the morning to see them off. So, it's not it's I don't get the benefits of the trip, but it's always fun to see the kids at 3 in the morning and and get them on on their way. So, I think that's all I have for tonight, but thank you. Great. There's a lot. I apologize. I'm going to get the elbow and the evil eye from Jamie. I was smiling the whole time. Okay. Our la your last one. My last one. Yes. We're graduating together. We are. That's why you know that's I know you don't have to admit that's why I finally made
083it. I knew I'd get out of high school one day. What's the date to that mega day? Oh, the what? The mega day or what? What did you Oh, the mega the mega game day. Um, that's not on there, but hold on. I can tell you. Actually, I just saw it on the pillow here. I can look it up. There's a poster of maybe my tongue sticking out over here. You can look at it. That's that's a great great program, Miss Bald. Yes. So I think I had made mention that um we getting the few last few weeks before break we have been doing pride madness. So every day we recognize different students for demonstrating some pride characteristics. They're given pride tickets throughout their day for demonstrating preparedness, respect, integrity, dedication andor excellence. And then
084we pull names at the end um and recognize them on the announcement. So that's been kind of exciting just to kind of continue to encourage those positive behaviors in these last few days leading up to breaks. Um, we recognize teachers, too. So, that's always fun. They win some prizes also. Um, speaking of Quest, they started their cooking classes uh yesterday, had one again today, and we'll welcome in some students from the other districts tomorrow to do their portion of the cooking classes. So, that is definitely up and running. Um, going very smoothly. Um, speaking of clubs, I happen to see our service learning club today continuing the good work that Kristen Thomaseski's did kids did in the edge organizing it. Um and Lisa Forbes and Shannon Marsh were helping the kids get continue with the
085organization and restocking some of our hygiene products which are always readily used um to support kids you know throughout our district. So that was exciting to see and um we will have our leader and me leadership team meeting tomorrow with our coach. Um not couple of weeks ago our team took a trip to Sweet Home to visit um the good work that they've been doing. They're a bit ahead of us as far as their roll out in the number of years that they have um been implementing some leader in me ideals. Um but it was great to sit in on their leadership team meeting and see the great things that they've been able to put in place and the excitement in the kids. We came back and then had some work time to put together
086a presentation to share with staff which we just did last week. So we're kind of continuing with that momentum too. I think I had shared some time ago that we started some greeters in our building with lanyards and badges. So those were stu or teacher selected rather and now we are expanding to have an application process where um and we have some students that have taken the application and put them in. Um so they're seeing now because they've seen the kids scattered throughout our building you know the excitement in that. So I'm encouraged to see other kids that would like to participate in that way and some of the ones that apply you wouldn't necessarily think. So that's exciting too. That's great. Oh yeah. Yeah. Any type of leadership is great. you know any type
087of way. Oh yes, leadership. Exactly. That's right. Fantastic. Thank you, Miss Mr. Gold. Yeah. So, our journey with leader and me continues this week as well. Um our coach is in town, but next year we are going to start what's called the direct teach. So, every day um every student is going to have a short five to seven minute lesson about the seven habits. Um you know, putting first things first, thinking win-win. And right now our teachers have had some exposure to the curriculum to it's a digital online curriculum. Uh there's a teacher manual and there's also a student workbook that goes along with it. It's full of like um you know social stories and cute videos and little activities that the kids can do. So So our timeline is um a little bit more
088aggressive because we're going to start that in September because that kind of is the foundation that the kids need before they go to the middle school and high school. So our teachers are ready for that. We're excited. Um, and all they asked for from me was a dedicated time in the day. So, we kind of tweaked our schedule a little bit. So, every day from 8:55 to 9:10 is going to be leader me time. It's when every kid in the building in every classroom is doing the little 5 to 7 minute lesson. So, it'll give me an opportunity to no matter where I am, what classroom, we'll all be doing the same thing. And it is kind of aligned grade levels. Um, it's like the same theme, but it hits it harder as you you
089get older. So, we're excited for that. So that's our journey in leader and me. Um and then the only other thing that we have is we're celebrating um our good behavior as well with our Billy program. Uh Friday we have an assembly where we're doing minute to win it games where we throw all the billies in the bucket pulling kids names out for the kind acts that they've done inviting them on stage. They're going to compete against uh their peers and earn some prizes and teachers are going to be involved with that as well. So we're really excited for that. That's what we have going on at the elementary school. Is that on Friday? It's Friday. Yeah, Friday 91. It's that's a great carrot to get them to come in, right? Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
090So, we'll get them in in the last day. They're excited for that. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for the all three of you, the teamwork, the collaboration on leader and me. It's it's exciting. Miss, thanks. Um I wanted to mention that the high school unified club has planned and sponsored an inclusion spirit week which is happening this week. So, there's different themes for things to wear every day. your team are red and pink today. Love and kindness today, showing your love. Um so that's going on and you know there's also some videos being pushed out which I think is really much more powerful and important to um just share with students that are along that theme of inclusion. So good stuff happening there. Um we're in full swing with unified basketball which is always very exciting. Um
091we'll be gearing up for our local Special Olympics event which will be I think it's something around the 29th of May but late in May on the uh Fredonia College campus. And other than that we're continuing um planning for the rest of this year looking at the extended school year program and um continuing to refine our continuing services for next year. Great. Great. Yeah. Yeah. You know things are wrapping up when not wrapping up but getting close to the Special Olympics. So that's how spring happens quickly. So yeah, for sure. Thank you, Miss Dr. Wright. All right. Thank you. Um, I want to give a shout out to Mimi Joint. She's a high school math teacher who's really spearheaded her love of agriculture and bringing here with the garden club. Um, and our students actually,
092she and I apologize, I don't know the names of the other um, faculty that have been really side by side helping with her, but they've actually gone out and tapped trees and collected sap. And back. Yep. Thank you. Kristen's class making and they've been making maple sugar candies and things like that. Um that's just the recent one, but they're slogging out there in the snow and doing all of that and they've got lots of different ideas and projects and things underway and um she's really a self-starter um going to other schools and listing other things. I know they took a trip to East Aurora and she's looks at lots of different farm grants and things like that. So it's been really wonderful just to um you know see the excitement, enthusiasm and bringing something and
093helping all of us to be aware of some of these things that you know is certainly not under my purview. So I just wanted to give a shout out to her and the kids and the adults that have been really doing this and to see the excitement with it. um along the venue of uh leader and me and our our students and leadership and all of that. Um we open it up to a student high uh student committee for our um principal hiring process and um a huge thank you to both Lindseay Moon and Pat Newell. Um we worked together to refine a an in a survey to solicit what do they want in their high school principal. And um thank you to Mr. Pashki. It was um Pat and Lindsay's idea like let's see
094if we can put out in the Ponia forward, make a couple announcements, see if we can have time in that home room block to do that. And 293 students responded to the survey. And um there was a spot in there where they could say if they would like to be on the interview committee if the date and time worked for them. 54 students said they would. And of that, we did have 18 participants and Lindsay facilitated um that particular group. students could also offer their own original question that they would want asked and a hundred students um submitted a question and it was what was really neat too um data wise is that they really fell into five specific themes. So the questions were very much like there was a several questions you know about
095one theme that were very very similar. So it was really kind of neat to see that too from a what do they want to know? Um, so the the students were just so grateful and it was just so fun to have them like reaching out like thank you for this opportunity, you know, and I don't always have a chance to work directly with students. It was really nice to have that as well. So they were, you know, they're ready for this lighthouse team and the leadership role and they're ecstatic about it and invested and they're so very proud of their school. So that was just really a beautiful, wonderful thing to see. Um, we're continuing with the PK3 literacy instructional best practices, the new requirement by New York State. Um they had told us that
096add astation that we need to do um is due September 1st annually. All schools have to do it. Brand new requirement. Um that they would have that rubric out on February 9th. Well, it came out yesterday. So we finally had a chance to look at it, examine it. Um they've added to it. It's a bit more robust than we were originally thinking it might be. So now we will get the addestation team together. And again, we're opening that up to all PK6 because we do believe this literacy requirement will be probably aging up to all grades. So we want to make sure that all of us understand if one of our goals is that horizontal and vertical alignment, we want to make sure that we're having those conversations early and we're including everybody in that.
097So we're collecting ourselves. We've been throwing dates around to make sure we can deal with that. So again, thank you to Mr. Dinger, Mrs. Piper, and Mrs. Marsh because they are um and myself, we are the team working with um those who are our instructional leaders certainly, but also the the future members of the committee yet to be determined. So we're grateful for their efforts. Great. Thank you, doctor. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Forbes. I did Morrison. Um just really a quick reminder on the 29th as well as our meeting there will be um the approval of or the vote to approve the annual post budget as well as their board of education. Um currently they have uh five spots and they have five incumbents. So hopefully it'll be a pretty easy choice. Um but
098all of that will be coming to you informationwise in the packet that'll come for the 29th. Um so just aware when it comes in that's that's what it's all about. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we anticipate the need to enter into executive tonight discuss personnel and collective bargaining agreements. So could I have a motion? Miss Ford. Yep. Second. Second. None. Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Thanks everybody. Thank you Mary for attending. Thank you two students for attending. Uh students you can you can sign and have a good night.