001welcome to the fedon Central School Board of Education meeting for Tuesday August 6 2004 um we start every meeting with a pledge of the flag so if you please join me the pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all so uh we uh start with a proposed agenda uh for tonight's meeting with a cons consent agenda excluding Personnel B 11-13 c1a and F1 is there anything that anybody would like to P from consent all good I have a motion this for second skull thank you um all in favor I I opposed thank you next we need to approve the uh minutes of the regular meeting from July 19th no 16th sorry uh can I have a
002motion to approve those minutes so mov Mr Marshall thank you second Miss H thanks any comments or questions on the minutes or say stand okay all in favor opposed thanks uh so we have a big turnout tonight which is great uh and I'm sure people are here for the uh to hear uh speak on our special presentation of our proposed Capital project uh as you know we've been holding workshops throughout the winter and spring and we're now uh closing in on finalizing our plans uh tonight is another opportunity to hear from uh District residents uh coaches and parents uh before we hold the public common uh we have an update on the capital project from Dr Zilo and Alyssa and Maggie from uh young and white so Dr so yeah as Mr Johnson said thanks
003for being here we really appreciate it um we've been working on this project for a while um and the overriding theme has been um you know trying to gauge where the community is what the community believes we need and what we need to offer our students um and then trying to build a project around that that um and now we're at the uh the point where we've developed some propositions we've put that back out in the survey and we're going to share some of the results and also review basically roughly the same presentation uh that we gave at our last board meeting um one of the interesting parts of the survey was the comments and the questions um that also came in so we've built in some of the themes um within that um part
004of the survey as well and we'll get more information there but really our goal tonight again is to review the current thinking around proposition one two and three um talk about the results of the survey um get into those questions um that seem to be common um throughout the survey um and then again get your feedback and then outline next steps and for the most part um we are looking to hear from the community kind of one last time tonight and we're looking at um taking the next two weeks as a board of education district office and business office and um hopefully finalize those propositions on August 20th which is our next meeting and then move forward uh with some of the environmental work that needs to be done um in preparation for a potential
005vote in December so um again the the idea behind this was to get input and allow people to share some some information um we started uh by bringing in young wri to do our building condition survey which again is required of school districts every five years um it provides a lot of information about our facilities from top to bottom um and we really got a sense of from an architectural point of view what is really needed what are the maintenance items that need to be updated um and again we had a variety of workshops and public forums um then we did again our survey in March and then the other one that just concluded this past July or this yes this past July sorry I I'm still shocked we in August um we also talked
006a little bit um with um our staff um engaged a lot of people directly in a conversation with young and Wright about from their perception um what is needed what do our students need um how can we really make good on our mission vision and core beliefs um that drive the work in our district we also didn't forget and remembered and processed what we've heard really over the last two years in moments um during our regular meetings during the regular public comment people have U come to the board and chimed in um a a variety of things um but a theme definitely in there was our facilities our Sports Fields um and we just want to know uh people to know that um that is still in our mind and that is still recognized and
007just because it was a time ago we haven't forgot about um that input as well so all of those things gave us a pretty nice feel of what the community was thinking what the input was and what people believe um our students need to be successful so initially through the building condition survey and again there are team of people that come to Young And W and really break down our facility at the um most most basic level initially um just that warm safe and dry work um that proposition one work so to speak um was about $50 million our current proposition is around 20 uh million so we really prioritized we really thought about what really needs to happen now and what could um be spaced out over the next several years or the next
008project as well um part of the reason for that is if you look back historically um back to um the last 25 years we've done only two projects um in that time and as we were talking earlier um in our Workshop typically districts are on a five six seven year cycle um with debt falling off then replacing that debt debt and really thinking um over time how do we improve and how do we enhance our our facilities and that hasn't played out exactly as it has in some other districts um here in pronia so that's why that work initially seemed like a lot but if you think about us um not doing as many projects um it kind of makes sense um just as an example um really thinking back to the larger project we
009did in 2000 um which was great if we just think about roofs you look at um the amount of um Roofing that was done in 2000 um again we appreciate everything that went in to creating facilitating um approving that project U but now in 24 into 25 um that project is now you know a quarter of a century year old so yes we're going to need to um reinvest um and protect our investment in our buildings so um the original uh discrict form and survey we did there were definitely some themes that came out of that and one of them was this idea of give our students what they need and what they deserve that might be a big ask but let's not shy away from that this is what um is needed to really
010enhance what we're doing um athletic fields again was a big part of that feedback along with the larger music spaces um District playgrounds were of a concern Heating and Cooling and also a variety of Maintenance items roofs HVAC electrical mechanical so on so out of that initial March survey those were the themes um that came to this group um again through a variety of District interviews um that was with our information technology staff custodial maintenance principles and directors um our athletic director and also coaches and also our music department um and again we really tried to review the building condition survey developed some prioritization around those things that were laced as part of that information laced into that information um and eventually got to some recommendations that we've now translated into propositions um the areas
011of focus are definitely that warm safe and dry or that maintenance which is now turned into proposition number two um the music instructional spaces proposition two and athletic fields proposition three and as we were talking earlier in the workshop um as it stands right now that proposition one which is really about a protecting our investment is right in that 222 uh 22.1 million figure um and again those are all the things we're looking to keep everyone warm safe and dry um proposition two which enlarges music spaces is about $10 million and yes um proposition two is depend on proposition one same thing with investing in our athletic our student athletes and our athletic facilities um about $19.6 million in proposition three and yes that is dependent on Prop one and prop two so as we
012start to think a little bit about proposition number one just want to review quickly um basic pieces um that are here and we'll turn it over to Young right yeah I can do a quick run through of warm safe and dry packages at each building uh so the list is nearly ID at it's h uh roofs electrical upgrades and minor Plumbing work uh at the main campus um so that includes a pool unit uh some rooftops on the Pod new controls um a generator some a grinder pump for your sewage ejector very exciting things um but necessary to kind of keep the building from a maintenance standpoint um some of the roof areas that will be done are shown here on the screen um they've exceeded their warranty life and their useful life we had
013the district had a scan done that further indicated which areas to focus on since such a large portion of it was from the 2000 era um moving into the building you can see some of the photos of the hbac equipment there that we're talking about a track that will resurface um some of the plumbing work and the electrical improvements electrical side will include distribution uh fire alarm and Generator wheel lock the list is identical again roof hvc electrical and pluming work if we look inside the building there uh you can see the roof areas so this building has a smaller chunk that was done in 2000 that roof will be replaced and then looking inside the building here you can see some photos of the plumbing phb work that we're looking at and then the
014electrical improvements there which also includes clocks fire alarm n PA of this building this building also includes placement of the uh at whe and then also some work to the maintenance building uh replacing a roof on a small chunk of the building a piece of the wall at the exterior of that building that has been deteriorated and some minor electrical work inside the building I can talk about the financial impacts of the proposition one um and we'll cover a little bit more on this further in the presentation but um we were looking at a total proposition cost of 22.1 million uh we're expecting State a to cover about 77% of those total project costs with the district's um local share being 23% we're expecting that local share to be covered through various funding sources for
015this proposition the first one being the application of capital reserve funds we're also looking at timing the new impacts on this project to align with the drop off of some Debt Service from prior projects and then we would be looking at a uh anticipated 1.9% tax increase um that would start in the 2526 fiscal year over a total 17year period um this tax increase does not compound it would be a onetime increase that then levels off after um the impacts are built into the levy after that 25 26 fiscal year so like iess said we uh talked a little bit about um alluding to the um survey that just concluded and one of the things that we just wanted to make sure is that people who were participating were eligible voters and um almost everybody
016who participated was um I know there's some students who were on the edge who you know had reached out to me and said should I fill one out or not I said well one to welcome to fill it out just if you won't be an eligible voter um by December um just check that you want be and your feedback will still be counted um in um on the next slide there it talks a little bit about um you know the percentage of parents at about 50% um residents roughly 43 and our employees roughly 7% and uh we did get a small number of students um who did uh participate in the survey again the question was um would you vote Yes would you support prop position one and out of the 600 people who um
017participated in the survey and again for us that's a pretty strong number um about 82% said that they um would support that project um one of the questions um that came up in the question portion of the survey was uh do the taxes increase by these percentages every year or is it a onetime increase and again we'll let Maggie address that answer is that this is a one-time increase so once that uh increase is built into again the 2526 tax levy and the tax rates and the bills um it levels off after that from that point forward that's the amount of the levy and your bills um that's dedicated to repaying the project over that total anticipated 17e period another question where there seem to be kids some confusion about and mainly um during our
018presentations we've been talking about assessed value of property and I think that in some way was confused um between assess value and market value um Maggie if you could just offer some clarification so probably the easiest way of knowing what your assess value is or or finding it out if you don't know is pulling the last tax bill um that you've received from the school for so for going back to the 23 24 school year um on your bill it will clearly show you know this is your taxable assessed value so that is what you'd be able to utilize to then determine what the impacts are based on the tax rate um impact that we're showing for each individual town the other thing I'd like to highlight too is while you've got that tax bill
019handy what you could also do is look at the tax uh the percentage of the tax increase that would be necessary for each proposition and then simply apply that percentage to your current tax Bild to determine what the impact would be that way as well so a couple different ways that you can go about it you'll get this should get the same answer there the other thing we were asking Maggie to clarify a little bit there was a lot of questions about well if we're talking about assessed value what does that look like what's the average value and then how does that impact um the taxes as well so it's important distinction to know that we're talking about assessed values here not full market value so a market value is roughly what you would expect
020to be able to sell your house for um each of the towns within the district has various levels of assessment and none of them are equal to market value okay so um they're they're quite a bit lower than than what market value actually is so we go from you know dunker and Sheridan are on either side of 50% meaning your assessed value if you live in one of those towns is about half of what your home um's market value is and then it goes down from there um so when we are determining what the average assessed value is uh for each of the towns it is going to differ but when we focus on pmit since pomr is the largest portion of the tax base um that average assessed value in pomr is somewhere between
02124,000 and 25,000 um you know based on the current roles so so when we look at a home that's assessed at 24,000 in PMR that's going to be worth about 185,000 market value okay if we were to pick up that house out of pomr and put it into arcr arr's level of assessment is getting a little closer to the True full market value there so the assessment levels are going to be a little bit higher so for that $185,000 full market value home that was assessed at 24,000 pomate it's going to be closer to 63,000 in AR great we picked it up and put it into Portland it's going to be closer to 70,000 so you know as we move closer and closer to um the level of assessment being closer to the full market
022value the assessed values increase but as the assessed values increase the tax rates actually come down for those towns so it all balances out um but again I think the key takeaway here is that the average assessment for the majority um of the tax base um within pom is that $24,000 valuation level and so when we put that together um looking at the tax rate impacts per thousand of assessed value and then utilizing this chart as kind of like a little handy cheat sheet to kind of align well you know a home based on this value would have this anticipated tax impact what we really want to focus on again is you know that average impact for most homes across the board is going to be 3 we want to focus on that $25,000 assessment
023level with imp conference since that really is closer to the uh the average valuation there and then we' just highlighted here on the on this chart you know where um that equivalent home would fall in terms of assess valuations among the other towns for anyone that does live outside of pomr um so really just knowing that across the board we're looking at somewhere in the $60 range for that first proposition on average so um as we start to talk about proposition two one of the other questions that was definitely a theme in this most recent survey was um some people feeling like so you have prop one and then prop two is dependent on Prop one and you have music second and then Athletics or the athletic facilities third and are you prioritizing in music
024over Sports um and is that fair and how did that come to be if that is the case and at least from a a board of education district office business office point of view um that is not how we were looking at it um again what we're trying to do is go back to that mindset of get our students what they deserve or what they need to be successful to become the greatest selves really make good on that mission and vision um however why it's Pro why proposition two is is second is because a good portion of that work is aidable um when you get into proposition three and we'll talk about it when we get there because of a maximal allowance amount that we exceed a good chunk of the work becomes unable so
025in our minds we felt it was difficult to put uned work before aided work um which is how we got to proposition two being first which just then happens to be the music work if it was reversed and the music work was somehow not aided and the athletic fields were then the athletic fields would be second so that was really the litness test of how we built one to two to three um but we're excited about the um idea um of increased um music spaces and um again probably the one figure that makes the most sense to me is that um you know there are some music courses students have to take and then there's some that they choose to be part of and that's most of our ensembles um and currently we have about
026604 students who are participating again in a non-mandatory um curricular performing emble in grades 4 through 12 so they're electing they're choosing to be part of these groups and that is about 218 more um than roughly 15 years ago when our overall population was higher than it is now um so we're happy to see these kinds of numbers um we think it's a reflection of our music department really doing a nice job really engaging the students um really developing a program that students want to be part of um and also a lot of hard work and dedication on behalf of our students that they continue um to sign up for the courses be part of these ensembles and then be part of the events and the concerts and the other things that happened um throughout
027the school year so we're at the point now where um all of our rooms are attached to some type of fire code about how many people you can reasonably fit in the room and we also take into account what equipment might be in the room um and for um band chorus um and Orchestra we're just having a difficult time fitting in the current spaces so this is why we're looking to expand based on the increased numbers based on the limitations of the space um you can just see a couple pictures of our groups um during instruction and just the amount um of congestion there is um currently as our numbers continue to increase so I thought young and Wright could run us through sort of the the thinking in the details behind some of the
028moves here yeah so in order to increase some of that space uh while still working within the width of length of your building basically the state will Aid this work as long as it's in your current footprint we've looked at the current footprint of your building in said how can we increase the size of the space um while also still maintaining that so one of the ideas for this was to expand into the print shop uh and then also to infill the floor in the forest room and raise the roof and add Windows to expand into the offices so on The Print Shop side basically that whole chunk of space where your current band room is Orchestra room is all the practices rooms and offices will basically dut that out and repurpose it to be
029suited most uh be suited to the size of the assembles that you have and provide the exact space that you need to support those and then in the chorus area we will maximize the space you have by raising the roof there adding Windows to that space and infilling the floor to maximize the amount of students that you can have in that area those spaces uh we've talked with the music departments will look a little bit more like this and a little bit less like what you've got uh currently so modernizing them as well as increasing the size of them um is part of the goal of this as well so in terms of the impacts for the music component of the project uh we would be looking at a 1.1% tax increase which translates to
030approximately $37 uh for the average home within the district because this work is um contingent on Prop proposition one passing we want to look at the combined impacts of proposition one and two so when we add those together we're looking at around $99 for the average home so in terms of the survey uh the responses um from the 600 um people who participated uh was right at 62% um so again we saw that as being encouraging and um that we could move forward with this proposition um again proposition three really about investing in our um Athletics and you know a couple considerations in all this um we really um have heard over time the idea that our current facilities are not safe or at least questioning the safety of our current facilities so so the
031thought here and the end goal here is really to provide the safest possible environment um for our student athletes um we're looking at providing turf fields um with lights to increase safety and usability um and this also addresses um the drainage issues that we have out back here um on our campus which really go back to the type of soil which is canida soil um which has a high content of clay which drain well um and we asked ourselves at one point can we build really nice natural grass fields out back here and feel comfortable that the drainage um is not going to be an issue as it has been for years and really the answer was no um and we might still have the same problems of being able to get on the fields
032in the spring or being able to play on those fields late in the fall um and we just felt like if we're looking to address the problem fix the problem then we need to just step up to the plate um with tur fields and the reason that that guarantees um the drainage issue will not be a problem is that underneath those tur fields and a big part of the work and um honestly a big part of the expense is drainage um that would support those fields and um would eliminate um the problem the soil um as people have mentioned and you've probably seen you know on our Fields um especially early on the spring we have um ponding of water um our bleacher areas are not um as nice as they could be um often
033times we have limited amount time that we can get on our Fields again especially in the spring there are times that our softball or baseball teams um might be on a Surface a couple times before a game possibly even not not before their first game um if you've been out to our tennis courts again giant cracks that just are not repairable at this point in time and I'll let young and right talk a little bit about the the multi-purpose field with lights would also address the tennis cours y so this proposition like Brad just said includes installing a multi-purpose tur field with two adjacent parking lots as well as addressing your four tennis Sports um zooming in specifically on the multi multi-purpose field it would have softball baseball soccer and football so allowing all four
034of those Sports and and softball and baseball to be played at the same time so that was a high priority of the board shockingly you can build multi-purpose Fields where you cannot actually play both of those Sports at the same time um grandstand bleachers so that the viewers have a great you know experience when attending this Press Box and system as well as dugouts with storage rooms attached to them on either Fields Back stops and portable bleachers uh and portable Outfield fencing would all come along with this as well as additional parking for 150 cards out in this area uh and scoreboards for each of the fields as well um in terms of the orange bow we certainly want to recognize the tradition um that is in play when we talked about the orange bow
035um as a former social studies teacher I absolutely appreciate that I think I said as somebody who actually played a game at the Orange Bowl uh in 1981 um I I like the idea of more historic site like that however um again we kept going back to the safety component here can we build a safe field at the orange bow um could we invest grass there could we invest a turfield um and basically the expense of doing something at the orange B would be massive um it is also right up against basically right along the creek is a flood plane um the field itself is not on a flood plane but we're talking about you know a couple yards either way um we would also to meet the requirement of the space that would be
036needed around the field to meet code we would really have to dig into the bank or the CL Cliff whatever you want to call it to to create that space and it just all of that work comes at a number that just would not be feasible at this point so um I don't want anyone to think that there wasn't a lot of thought um time and energy that went into really considering whether or not we could continue to be at the Orange Bowl um but if safety is our number one priority we felt like a multi-purpose field up on the main campus would be our best bet and you just want to talk about the equipment and removable yeah so that would basically at the orange B we'd be removing all the equipment that could
037from a safety perspective be further harmful if climbed or play on so removing the bleachers removing the scoreboards the sound system and some of the lighting that's down there uh just to make safe the area so in terms of the financial impact for this proposed scope of work um as Brad had mentioned um the amount of state aid that's anticipated to cover the athletic field is lower than the other propositions because of the um the way that the state formula works with the building Aid so um more of a greater percentage of this Project's cost would fall on the district to cover Through the tax increase so um this scope of work would be a 6.9% increase um in taxes which translates to roughly $220 per year for the average assessed home here um and
038then again you know if proposition three were to pass that would be contingent on Prop one and two passing so uh the combined impacts of all three would be approximately 33 say $20 per year for the average home yep getting back to the survey again 600 people chimed in um we hovered right around 50/50 we ended at 47% yes 53% no um so a little bit lower than the other propositions um and part of the reason why we wanted another opportunity to hear from the community tonight um on any further thoughts about the project as a whole or about prop three um in particular so again just taking a step back looking um over the three propositions that are proposed right now um 82 6247 were the results of the survey um and then again
039if you look at it from um a tax impact point of view um we're looking in terms of dollars roughly in that 63 is range 37 is 220 is that gets us to about 39 so on so forth looking at it from a percentage you can see that we're virging at 10% um if we're looking at the the project as a whole um so we've covered a couple of our our goals here we've reviewed the current thinking you have the survey results um we've answered um definitely the questions that were repeated throughout the um survey at this point and now we have an opportunity to hear a little bit more from our community and I think we'll go right into com well thank you Dr zil Maggie and you're jumping the gun there oh I
040don't know am I I'm not I'm not ready for you just got a little little piece a little Spiel to you um I thank you the three of you for giving us a a a review of our Capital project and also the survey results uh we had healthy turnout for uh public comment the last our last meeting I'm anticipating some healthy uh comments tonight so and this is what we want as a board I mean we really need a lot of input uh it's great that almost people um filled out took the time to fill out the survey it really helps our our our thought process um so um without further Ado we will will start the public comment uh but um a lot of you may be new to our open meetings and and
041we do have a few ground rules right so I'm just going to read them off to you so um the board has reserved this time to hear comments from the audience those wishing to address the board or ask to stand give their name and address and limit their comments to five minutes or less per group um so um you know because of the a large number I I would like to re Force they have five minute rule uh to be fair to everybody everybody get a turn it's not like the airport you have to pile on the plane uh but we will start with Mr beers because he knows the process thank you Mr beers no thank you um my name is Jesse beers I live at 63 Newton Street um first part you Sor
042I just kind of want to you know go through and thank the board thank the administration thank everybody from right young for going through and putting all these things together I've served on a few committees and uh study groups of things like this I know the amount of time and effort that goes into this so uh you know I thank you for that um I've been an employee here uh for 25 years I've been a resident of Fredonia for 20 years I've had two kids go through the school um and you know there's been a lot of great things that have happened in these 25 years that I've been here and a lot of great experiences that my kids have shared uh but one of the things that that we I can't seem to get
043around is and that I'm really sort of ashamed of is how past boards and past administrations have ignored our athletic facilities um it's you know they're outdated uh they put our kids at a competitive disadvantage and they're just unsafe um they've been the exact same facilities now for as long as I've been here and even more uh the only real updates that we've done is I think we put a few new scoreboards in uh we've tried to do some drainage in the back which you know Dr Zelo you know alluded to earlier that really didn't help at all a matter of fact I think it just made things worse we have ruts out there now where they put those they put that drainage in three or four years ago um you know in terms of
044you know putting our kids at a competitive disadvantage uh like you had mentioned before there have been many years where I know as the softball coach here we haven't been able to get outside and practice at all before our first game um and schools and teams that have tur facilities are out there practicing for weeks before we get out there not to mention when you get to playoffs playoffs all playoffs nowadays are on Turf you know whether it's I shouldn't say that once you get to a certain level uh you know semi-finals and Final beyond that it's on Turf and it's a different game whether you're playing soccer whether you're playing football baseball softball it's a different game so if you don't have a lot of experience playing on Turf um you're at a disadvantage
045uh but primarily just from the safety issue um you know we have uneven uneven fields we have ruts uh we have uh things that just are I've seen injuries happen because of these things I've seen coaches have to go around uh before the games and fill in holes fill in gopher holes down with the Orange Bowl I've had umpires come to me before games and tell me that we can't play on this field until you do X Y and Z I know there have been soccer officials that don't want to come to our Fields um because for their own personal safety because running up and down the field they they're afraid of injury um I've had opposing coaches refuse to come play um when I'm trying to schedule non- League games they've you know some
046of the words that I've heard have been godforsaken Fields um I've heard trash I've heard you know and and to be honest with you I can't argue with them um and it's you know I know I've stood up here before and I've mentioned a lot of these things before but I just want to be clear that you know this is an ancient history um even this past year before our very first playoff game uh myself and three or four dads were out at the field working for three or four hours the night before the game and then we were out there at 6:00 am the next morning with my own shop V vacuuming water off Fields uh we had run out of diamond dry so I had to run to Walmart and buy six or
047seven bags of cat litter to put down on our infield uh so yeah I mean that's that's not an exaggeration our kids are literally playing catl because if we didn't put that down then we wouldn't be playing or we would lose our home field advantage and we have to go play it some other place um which I mean I don't even know how you get around that um we still have a football field where there's no handicap access to uh how many parents grandparents aunts and uncles have not been able to go um to watch their kids or their grandkids play because they just simply can't get to the field um you know and you know just a few of the other questions that that I've had to say I understand the idea of the
048proposals being stacked the way they are due to the amount of Aid that we get uh but a lot of the questions and a lot of the things that people have asked me in the communities well okay fine I we understand that you know proposition two would be more aidable than proposition three I get that but what if we feel that proposition three is way more pertinent than necessarily proposition two and I think that should have been something that might have been included in the survey that you should have been asked okay of these three things I think everybody agreement proposition one keep our kids safe and warm all those things that would definitely be you know everybody's top of list and I think the the survey reflected that but as far as proposition two
049and proposition three I think it should have been asked which of these two do you find most pertinent and see what what the survey results would have given there um I thank everybody for uh clarifying A lot of the information that was out there because a lot of people that I've spoken to in the community weren't really clear about the amount of money that their taxes were going to go up um and I still think that the best way and I think Mrs Gullo you know alluded to this earlier is um even if you don't have your old tax receipt you can go on online everything is there you go to ca.gov and every single person in Fon school districts school taxes are are right there available so all you got to do is take
05010% slide as a teacher math teacher Slide the decimal spot one spot to the left and that's going to show you then how much your taxes are going to go up because a lot of the people that I've spoken to I can't afford my taxes going up$ two or $3,000 that's not going to happen for for the vast majority of people like I said the average is about 300 bucks so you're talking about 3 and that it's not compounded because I had people asking me that same thing too well it's going to go up 10% every year no that's not what's going to happen um and just a few of the other public comments that I've heard and I know I'm running out of time so I'll try and make this quick um I've heard
051people tell you know one of the comments here now's not the time now's not the time you're right now's not the time 20 years ago would have been the time you know we've already you I Dr Zilla alluded to this before that we've only had two uh projects done in the last 25 years or so we should have had more but this has been ignored it's been kicked down the can the can's been kicked down the road now for you know quarter of a century it's time now it's time um you know fields are good enough the fields are not good enough um you had mentioned before about how you know there's clay out there well the problem with the clay is it doesn't drain so obviously we get puddles which is a problem in
052of itself but then when it dries it becomes incredibly hard okay so again that that you know just gives you a whole another issue of safety in terms of sliding falling uh I don't know if anybody's try to feel the ground ball that's coming at you 70 miles an hour on uneven surface that's not a lot of fun okay um and finally you know and I guess this is near here know there but people have tell me well it's personal for you because you're going to be a coach you you want you want a field well I only got four years left here so by the time that this all gets said and done I might have one year on that field if it gets done so this isn't for me this is for the
053kids this is for the investment of our community for our future and now is the time and for those of you who says Now isn't the time then if not now then when okay thank you thank you Mr beus uh anybody else have public comment you name is oh name is John hertlin uh 20 Aaron Street uh fonia New York okay I've been a resident for about 43 years now and I've been in publication public education for 45 years okay um I think some of you know me some of you don't okay uh I can't say a thing about what the coach just said uh that's what coaches do and he better say that or he shouldn't be a coach okay simply was that uh right now I'm retired my taxes on 20 eron Street
054and I move from a large house to a small house uh and I live in a two-bedroom condo house with 16 other homes you know all on the same boat we are on Aaron Street and my taxes are $3,300 last year I don't know what they'll be next year uh and I wish I was the average assessment value I am not the average assessment value and I got a small house two-bedroom okay uh so uh my concern is it is expensive it really is Proposition number one absolutely not we have to do it okay and I applaud you for doing it uh the Board of Education I've gone through more capital projects than I want to think of uh and the last one I was a superintendent of uh but we had two things one
055is to make sure that the facilities and the school was in great condition that's our job as a board and that's our job as administrators parents teachers and community members the second job of the school board and the superintendent and everybody else is to make sure we can afford to do that right and it's not the right time and I know you said I shouldn't say that but I have to I live in the village okay our future of Village you know uh finances is pretty strange and I don't know what to expect right but I know it's not going to go down right and then when I go get a drink of water I'm just Hing it's there tomorrow because I have no idea what the water system in you know the fedonas uh
056area is going to be and I know that's going to happen too and that water bill is going to come to your school district as well well you guys don't generate money other than taxes so we're going to have to pay that bill on top of that so your school taxes are going to our school tax are going to go up because the water bill went up uh this proposition obviously you say it doesn't compound but year two I don't lose 300 bucks do I no no they it just stays there that adds up well every year uh you guys have to run a school okay and taxes have to go up I mean my taxes will go up in September I don't know exactly the the number but I know it will go up
057and so you add that you know $300 you say which is more than that I'm sure for me and then I'm going to have to add your your uh uh yearly just making sure that the school runs and that has to do with you know salaries that has to do with utilities uh that has to do with the maintenance and uh everything else that the school runs okay so that'll go up every year your taxes are going to go up they're not going to go down all right uh so basically the timing is is really tough for the people in the village I don't know about the people out of the village but for the people in the village the timing is very difficult There are 16 homes in the little Community I live in
058it's just a CAC all right and I bought the house about five years ago and all 16 people are retired we do have one person still working all right two of them are totally absolutely dependent on Social Security right I don't know how they're going to afford if they're taxes I think if my my assessed value is above average so are theirs because their household are identical I mean it's not just going to be 300 bucks for them it's going to be it's going to be difficult right so the timing for at least the people in the village is is very very difficult um I think that's about what I have to say oh a little bit on AstroTurf and I mean I'm not against it by any means please understand it I happen to
059I was in five different districts in my 45 years uh I was fortunate enough to be an emerged District that got tons of money from the state and so somebody decided let's AstroTurf everything and it was gorgeous it looked like Ireland land it really did and the business manager who was smarter than heck and now he lives in fonia actually a very elderly man he's in his 90s he said don't do that and he why why not he said in 15 years you're going to have to replace it and you won't have the state aid so sure enough that happened and they're thank goodness they're back to dirt okay but astr doesn't stay forever and the state a lot of times uh the state did not pay any of the extra equipment I had to
060have for the AstroTurf all right they said oh no we're not paying for the vacuum cleaners that wasn't part of the capital project so all of a sudden I'm paying for a lot of additional stuff that I didn't anticipate paying for and even the last Capital project I did it in Brockton uh I thought I had $108,000 coming from the state and they said oh no no no no you misunderstood us and I said what do you mean he said you know we built the facility you have to put the equipment in it and was $108,000 I had to figure out how we're going to come up with so you got to be careful of a lot of those other instrumental things that you don't count on okay but I thank you so much and
061honest to God your work is hard it really truly is and I supported education I had two kids in this school system both of them are excellent they both played in the music and they both played Sports okay so I I do applaud you for your hard work and you know good luck with running a school district thank you thank thank you Mr her um is there anybody else who would like to speak tonight sure my name is Mark hunningham I live at 190 Gardener Street this okay there we go yeah you got thanks a that's better uh I I have many different roles RS in I shouldn't say role interest in this uh project I'm a taxpayer uh while I do not have kids in the district my kids compete in the district so
062they attend the facilities here and I think the way proposition three was rolled out I think it could have been done better uh the and not the Border uh the administration's fault The Observer did you no favors with the reporting of the tax increase because me along with many other people thought that was 10% a year for 10 years resulting in a 100% uh increase and at first I saw that and I'm like absolutely not uh 100% but I called the office and I spoke I don't remember the lady's name but she was very nice she was very polite and she broke it down I'm like okay that makes a lot more sense but where I think the ball was kind of dropped was in that there was no correction made to that publicly that
063I'm I'm aware of I didn't see anything in the paper that detailed that uh what I want to say erroneous reporting uh and looking at the survey it was 5347 no if I'm not mistaken I have to question what would that percentage have been had it been reported accurately because I've talked to a bunch of people about this and most of the people are still of the opinion that it is a 10% per year compound I've corrected those I've talked to but I'm certainly don't talk to everyone um and I think if that was properly communicated publicly that may change some of the public opinion about it uh but some people thought well the proposition three is it was put out to design to fail to so we can say we put it out there
064they voted no now using Jesse as an example shut up you know we put it out there it was voted down um but they Wonder a $19 million Athletic Facility and I can't go pee not a restroom a parent can't change an infant a $19 million facility and I got to go to find the Porta poot I mean I would I think that might have something to do with it too and people wonder1 million and I can't go with the bathroom I think it would have been nice had two and three been somewhat merged I understand the state aid uh component of it and I understand that but it's almost pitting band versus Sports and I don't think that's fair and I mean there was public comments from Administration and the board uh you know
065band does a fantastic job you know they they deserve it I don't disagree I was in band think it's fantastic and the fonia band does do an amazing job Dr Zilo you said they deserve what they want to get something close to that but what's that Benchmark what do you have to do to deserve that what does Mr betr have to do to get something for sports what does Mr beers have to do what is that Benchmark of where do where do you get to the line where you deserve something I mean I would like to know what that is personally um and watching or bootstrapping off of what Mr Beer said and the other gentleman Mr oh okay Mr hurtling is this time now I say yes and the reason because I say that
066is I'm well familiar with uh building projects and uh costs and things like that in 5 years this project is not going to be $19 million it's going to be 26 27 maybe even 30 depending on how things go building materials if if it has I don't know if these can be twe if the proposition can be tweaked if it can in the opinion still staying low why can't it be uh spread out I mean does it have to be everything at once could it be done in phases I know other school districts do multi multi-year projects so if it if it can't be done now can it be done in increments but can that plan be in place so if and I hope it doesn't proposition three fail okay here's our next plan we're
067going to we're going to roll out this you know this next project and hopefully in steps maybe softball field one year track the next but my when my daughter comes here to run track I say a prayer for every athlete when they when they step out there I've never even dealt with the uh softball fields uh but as a parent who of an athlete that competes here I also have serious concerns thank you thank you Mr H Cunningham um is there any other public comment tonight yeah I'm Greg Sherlock I live at 411 Water Street Going on 30 years uh I want to thank the board too they've done an outstanding job um uh my sons have come listened and actually know this a lot better than I do numbers wise and I was a
068math teacher for 32 years but I have four children that went through Fredonia um I have grandchildren many in the district who you know I've I want the same for them as I had you know my own kids and everybody in this District I taught in Jamestown we went through the same thing many many years ago um I think there's got to be a lot of brainstorming going on because I James sound did a nice job of getting the correct information to people in the community um they went to churches had groups they you know they got the message out in various ways many ways and I know it was one year we were worried about one passing and it was the big project that they added three gyms uh baseball fields softball fields and
069all that but I thought they did an outstanding job of coming up with ways to speak to as many people in the community as possible a lot of people don't read the paper a lot of people don't get online myself I'm not very techsavvy I taught many years ago retired in 2017 and I was very I'm not very good in computers so we're talking about a big population that doesn't do this stuff um Randol they had theirs voted down years ago they put it back up this year it passed beautiful facility but what I'm saying is randol's complaining now about how much they're paying and what it would have been seven eight years ago and it's gone up that much just from the football part of this you can go down that field any day
070you want and you live in the community you understand what I'm saying when you said you know we're housing many many animals on that field there are many holes in that field these kids are going through games where they're being tackled they're pressing on fields that's been defecated all over the place go down there and walk that field sometime it's disgusting our kids are on this you think of Lyme disease you think of all these other um uh medically you know what these kids are getting and how sick they can get having kids come back and uh being a big part of the team and on first day of practice they tear their ACL because they step in a hole these are the facilities we have and I think insurance-wise sooner or later it's going
071to catch up I know that you know money's a my wife and I my wife taught for 39 years retired we're going to be on a fixed income too I mean and I know my taxes when I look at that I'm nowhere near those numbers I'm a lot higher than that a lot higher and I have no problem paying it knowing I have grandchildren in District and I've coached here but I just wish we could get this information because same thing I've talked to probably about 50 to 100 people that thought the same thing when they thought they were going to pay 10% for the next years and you know I'll thank God I have my son that knows these and I could come back and explain it but if I'm talking to that many
072people that don't understand it I mean we have many in this District that really don't and they're going to vote no just by seeing it and and thinking that so I just wish we could come up with a plan to get the message out not just here not just in the newspaper but you know whatever Avenues we have to do I would even help so thank you thank you Mr Sherlock um does anybody else would like to speak tonight okay oh right there yeah thank you hi again I'm Cheryl Tbone I'm s16 Ventura Circle and most of you know I am the girls varsity coach for soccer um what everybody said is exactly what I'm thinking also we need to get it out there so that it's has a positive impact for not only our
073school district but for everybody in the community including Jamestown Etc because they come into our community but the one thing I really want to focus on is the fact that we need to think about safety of the kids and I know not everybody wants to talk about that but our kids are not safe on these fields that's why people don't want to come here and play and we need to focus on um keeping them safe we talk about ACL tears okay we have them on grass we have them on Turf but how can we prevent that some of our kids want to go to college to play sports well if they're having injuries during their high school years can they get to college to play sports Maybe not maybe the injur is so severe that
074we know kids who've had their entire senior year taken away from them playing a sport because of an injury and I think that we need to think about that but when we put it out to the community sometimes what I'm hearing is in my neighborhood um I have no skin in the game I don't have kids there I don't care my kids have graduated my kids have graduated both of my kids graduated from here my son was uh three sport sport athlete here it's not about what it can do for you personally and I think a lot of people want something to go through to benefit themselves but we have to start thinking about how it's going to benefit everybody and especially the kids that come here now CU if we don't do this now
075we know it's not going to be taken care of clearly it's been 25 years so it might be another 25 years before this comes back on the board and then increase in prices Etc at that time we have to let people know that it's not always what can benefit them but what's going to benefit the entire district and the community and these kids because that's what's important um as a coach I want my kids safe and we have had it where we didn't have home field advantage because we couldn't plan our fields for soccer we had to go to Dunkirk and play well that's not home field advantage then so these are some of the issues that we have that we do need to um keep in the back of our minds and let the
076community know the importance of three because I feel the same way how do you distinguish which one's more important they're both important right music and sports and I know we went by the what the state can give us however when you look at the amount 10 million in my eyes is a lot of money to expand a room when you can build many houses $10 million um so even if we tried to get that number down because are all these numbers at the top I guess would be a question for your company are all these numbers at the top or are these numbers that are just figured what it could be so what these numbers are would be the maximum that the public would be has to approve for those okay so it may be
077a little bit less potentially okay potentially could be less okay um so I think it's important though that Athletics is part of this project and put out to the community and maybe putting that aspect out again in a survey saying you're not going to increase 10% per year it's a baseline this is what it is it's not changing and then get people's opinions on what they really want to do thank you thank you thank you Mrs T yes is there anybody else would like to speak to uh Justin Sherlock six Castiel Drive um I just wanted to offer my support for the capital project and whole but especially proposition three um I do think music and Athletics should have been combined because it should be based on need not necessarily what the state is going
078to give us so I was a little bit disappointed with that but this is 30 40 years overdue um I understand anybody that has um hesitation due to the tax increase um but I mean this is what's really needed to keep our kids safe um I can't tell you how many injuries we've seen on the football field um and that's just going to continue because the fields keep getting worse nothing's being done about it and eventually we're going to be at the mercy of another school district allowing us to use their facilities um on a more regular basis than we already are um so again I thank the board for all the work that they've done to this and I think it's also important to the public to know that with inflation running rampid over
079the last decade we've averaged about a 1% tax increase a year for the school district when we've had years of about 9% inflation so this school board has done a fantastic job over the last decade of managing the taxpayers money and I think that needs to be taken into consideration as well so I thank you again and I'm hoping that we can revisit music and Athletics being combined thank you thank you Mr shat um is there anybody else would like to speak tonight Dr ZX any comments or uh no I just you know in terms of um the communication the the thought was that once we get the proposition settled that's when we will really reach out to the community with more information presentations going to individual groups to have conversations um so I can
080appreciate what you're saying um technically we're still in this proposal phase um and we'll get there with with information regardless of what that project might look like in the end um there'll be more information coming and uh you know I do want to say um in terms of the comments about the Observer by and large the information and brenon I I know you're right here um you know we um by and large were was very accurate might have been a couple pieces in there that may have caused some confusion but I don't want you to feel like um from from our point of view um you've supported what we've been trying to do and I I think when you get into the sea of numbers um by and large you're right on so I just
081want to acknowledge that piece in resp I'd like to Echo that piece you know there's a lot of stuff you have to get in there and it's it's difficult to first run um but we just you know there's that one little issue there um so you know thank you um we've had a really healthy turnout tonight we had a really healthy turnout the previous night we've had almost 600 responses to the survey we have a lot of feedback it's great and uh we thank you for coming out tonight and taking part of your evening to come up to the school uh having said that uh you know we'll move on to the other pieces we do have something a presentation coming up that's actually quite interesting and possibly tied in a little bit with this
082yes I just want to make sure that people understand because some of the comments made me wonder that we in order for us to proceed it's not dependent on the survey results being 50% or over in favor of a certain proposition like that's not no how we are basing a decision of whether to move forward to a vote no that's correct that's correct um we are we're we're analyzing the numbers and um trying to make the best decision possible but we and and the straw it was a straw poll that's what it was it was a straw PLL that's all it was um mron if I could also say you know offense to any other board member but I'm the banker on the board and I get confused with the terminology of the 10% increase
083and that that's not compounded and and I'm still I I don't feel that I'm even comfortable with the language that's being used in that and I can imagine it's very confusing for the public so if if I could try to help with the marketing right now and that's you know if if a household has an average sized house they're paying about $3,190 in school tax every year with this proposition with all three propositions your tax is going to go up $319 to the 359 and it will stay at that 359 theoretically for the next s years you will have your 2% tax increase every year for uh our our ongoing operations but it will not go from that 359 up to the 38 but it will not go back down to the 3190 correct from
084that point forward that's the amount that's built into that bill that you know over that 17e period to pay back this project that is aside from any other increases or decreas that may take place as a result of the annual budget V from that point Thank you and if I could just at taking that $319 average taxpayer if you're currently paying on your mortgage you're paying into escrow about $18.30 a month that's what we're talking about here if that helps thank you thanks for both comments any other comments from the board okay well um yeah we are moving on to another uh another presentation actually which is a longterm uh planning uh project um again you're welcome to stay uh you want to HT our feelings if if you you leave at this point it's
085been a long night and thank you for your time again we do have some elements of this tied into the longterm Pro so having said that uh let's move into the uh long-term plan something that's been going on behind the scenes a little bit a little bit not quite in the public view as much as the capital project but uh Dr Zilo along with a long-term planning committee which Mr Marshall and Mr Al part of along with other stakeholders have been doing a a lot of work over the last six months of the cells on uh developing a plan uh for the next three years so kind of a futuristic view of uh where is our district heading so I really excited because I I don't know much about this myself until tonight so tonight's
086kind of the great roll out and uh Dr zil I'll pass it on to you thanks guys appreciate your time for thanks for managing our you know you know the drill well so so yeah one of the things we've been working on is is thinking a bit a little bit about more long-term planning for the district and we brought together a group of people to do this um I won't read everybody here but Kate Hines Morrison who's our district clerk who's here tonight um was part of this group so was Kim madowski um from Wheelock who's here as I already mentioned Mr Marshall Mr Aldridge uh were on board we also had Christin Garris Johnson um one of our parents um on board as well U Mr Forbes myself um and you can see the
087other people that were part of our group and again when we were thinking about planning it wasn't so much about hey let's bring 15 16 17 people together and have them determine what it is the district should be doing or where we should be going this group really volunteered to process information to think about what is the community what is our schools telling us um about where we should go and as a group we're going to process that information and put some frames around it um to hopefully get to a point where we can move forward um so a couple things we're going to do tonight is again just acknowledge that everything is connected back to our mission vision and core beliefs and that's at the the heart of what we're doing um talk a
088little bit about how we learned more about our district um how did we process information from our long-term planning survey um how did we arrive at the focus areas that we're going to show you tonight um what does this look like in terms of a conceptual model um what process will be used to seek to understand for each Focus areas and what can we expect is going to happen over the next year in these areas so that kind of outlines what we're trying to accomplish um tonight again we've talked several times at the end of the day Why We believe We Exist is that we're trying to create a scenario in which students and adults attached to the district can become their greatest selves we're also thinking about what we what we aspire to be
089um how can we be Innovative how can we be dynamic how can we be Global in what we're doing um to really open up Pathways um for students and adults um we've talked a lot about our core beliefs over time but all of these are connected especially right now um and a lot of the conversation was really student focused um what can we do to really enhance the student experience how can we get our students to the best possible place to be successful whether that's academically socially emotionally or physically in their development um he also talked a lot about um excellence and communication and um having some resistance um especially over this last several years where there's been some tough moments and we really had to uh you know keep moving forward keep staying positive
090and keep working hard for our students um so we did take a little bit of time as uh a group to learn more about our district and I um when Dr wri is able to attend in purpose in person I will have her walk her through us a little bit because she really LED this effort um but we did do some comparisons um with other school districts we did look at curriculum instruction programs stent data um we did try to get a sense um what does Fredonia look like compared to other local districts and also to other similar districts in the state um and also looking at some districts that are considered high performing and where do we fit in um to all that and we did go through um from total population to economic
091factors to all kinds of demographic information um that academic um variables around high school around our 3 through eight testing um we looked at grade eight in particular thinking that those students are going to enter High School um and are they prepared to be successful we also looked at some rankings that are out there on different um sites um and then we also did some work and Mr Forbes helped us understand a little bit more about our um annual budget um that is in play right now and also looking historically at our total budget our percentage increase and our tax levy over time and again we'll come back to that but I just wanted you to know there was an effort here to to think more broadly about our school dist District um then we
092got into a community survey and we really um wanted to get some feedback about what do people perceive as our strengths our weaknesses our opportunities and our threats that's called a SWAT analysis but it's really a nice way to gauge um some of the thoughts feelings perceptions um around the district and we reached out um with a quick survey didn't take more than 10 minutes to complete um and we had 300 participants um for that so in that moment that was a good number for us that was more than some of our other surveys um not quite where we ended with our Capital project survey but um still a good sample size so again the SWAT analysis again strengths weaknesses opportunities threats and really using as a tool about determining what your organization does best
093now and hopefully devise some plan for where we go in the future um for each of those categories in the survey we included some prompts that just get people thinking more about just other than like what are our strengths you know framing it around what do we do well um where have our students and staff told us um they like about our district um and what areas do we outpace other districts things along those lines and we eventually got a bunch of responses to to that right so if 300 people responded many of them responded with 3 four five six seven things um that they might have considered a strength so we used a little qualitative data review and ask people to take the portion of the data that applied to them um so if
094it was Mr Aldridge and um Mr Marshall they looked at the responses that came from the Board of Education if it was Kim she was looking at responses from our teachers if it was Kristen she was looking at responses from the parent and we really asked them to try to identify Trends or commonalities um in that information and I didn't really plan on sharing these but I thought it made sense after we had it together um so these were the results and this is my handwriting so sorry about that um of all the feedback we got around the strengths and you can see they're Cod um by color so the red is the board and the blue is the faculty and um the or that's actually more orange is from students um so on and
095so forth so the reason for showing you this is not so much to dig into like well what did this group say or that group say but just to demonstrate that we were taking this information and trying to synthesize it into some usable pieces as a group um same thing for weaknesses and again we gave some props for weaknesses and then each group took that those survey results and broke it down into what they viewed as Trends and themes and that particular um group's data same thing with opportunities and again more information and same thing with threats prompts along with the feedback from the survey and then we processed that information so once we had all of these we said okay so here's what everyone said in these areas um then we asked ourselves in
096those individual pieces so let's use the threats for example now that we have this information what trends do we see in the breakdown of everybody's responses um and we asked ourselves like what caught our eye when we're just looking at the threat component or the strength component um what do we see in common what words or phrases were reoccurring um what phrases um yeah reoccurring what themes do you see and eventually we were able to really distill it down to a group of concern con um confirmed strengths and again it's not so much to dwell on what they ended up being but just to demonstrate that this was a collaborative process using the feedback from the community same thing we were able to confirm weaknesses we were able to confirm opportunities and we were able
097to confirmed threats so again we're distilling information down to smaller and smaller components and then trying to say to ourselves so if we're thinking about a long-term plan and the premises of a long-term plan is that you don't want to take on too much it's easy for a long-term plan to become hey we're focusing on 19 things 13 things 10 10 things re research shows that if you focus on three four five things there's a higher likelihood that you'll actually accomplish what you're trying to do in those areas so we had an individual activity where each Community each Committee Member then said okay if I'm focusing on for six initiatives based on those confirmed Trends in each of these areas which ones are worthy of our time and effort in those four to six initiatives
098so again I didn't think we'd actually show this but what this is is each person's response here's the things that I think we should focus on and this is where the the committee probably had the most um input into where we really dug down a little bit deeper um and as we included this in the information and in the eventual result we checked off people's list so this is again showing that this was collaborative that were using information from uh the people who were around the table at the time and this isn't something that came from myself the board or a smaller group um that um was not what we were trying to do again each individual's uh response and we're checking off things as we got there so here is what it all really
099distilled down to in our overall Focus areas um a lot of comments about reading or or literacy assisting struggling students um thinking about students needs and skills um efficiencies um behavior and choices um students are making curriculum review Community Partnerships communication facilities mental health or social emotional learning and diversity equity and inclusion and you can see that um each one of them has an Associated number of the amount of committee members that agreed that that was a focus area so ranging there from early 1 to 10: so we thought about what might this look like in a model and we really looked at it as three goals or three Focus areas um curriculum and learning support and accountability and facilities and stewardship and this is where our Capital project ties in to that feedback that
100we got from the school community and working it into a plan we also try to make this a little more um of a graphic and again you see those three areas curriculum support and accountability facilities and stewardship then that breaks out into Focus areas within those three areas so literacy and curriculum definitely connected to curriculum and learning um intervention and our cubby habits that we've been working on our leader and me is in that support and accountability and then we have the capital project so as we start to unpack this this year it's really those five areas in the middle colum that will be our Focus area literacy curriculum intervention Cy habits or leader and me and our Capital project so we also thought about what would this look like in year one and where
101do we start um because each of these Focus areas are big topics um there's a lot of different thoughts across the district let's just take one for example reading um what is best practice in Reading what would be um the most effective reading program um what does this look like over the course of a school year at kindergarten at grade one at grade two so on and so forth so these are Big topics um that we're trying to get a handle on and we really tried to think about those seven cuby cvy habits and how can our process mirrors those habits and we can kind of demonstrate that um with this work that we're doing it's not just lip service it's not just things we're talking about in a workshop um but it's actually um
102part of our practice so really this entire planning process is proactive so we feel like we're being proactive in the moment um we're beginning with the end in mind we've processed what is our desired State what would um success look like in each each of these areas at the end of three years um we're trying to put first things first and work on goals and action steps that would take us from the current state to the desired State and that would be over three years year one year two year three um how will we measure success and also recognizing that we may need to Monitor and adjust as we move forward we're thinking when whenn and we tried to identify all the stakeholders that would benefit from these certain areas and usually there's three four
103five groups of stakeholders that would benefit this will be a lot of the work in this coming year in which we're seeking to understand in these areas um and again let's just use reading or literacy as an example so so what is our current state and this is the work we're going to need to explore over the course of this year um what is in place right now in terms of our reading instruction and part this will be um some of our teachers are engaging with a pilot of um our reading program this year to get um some different perspective and to potentially look at what the future could look like um what is the relevant history what has been the work that we've done around reading in the past who did that when was
104that what grades or buildings were we were talking about what was the rationale behind it um and how was that implemented um we certainly want to honor the past recognize the good work that's been done to get us to this point uh by no mean is that meant to be a criticism of the prior work um if it's anything we want to show respect um and part of that respect is understanding what has happened um is what is in place now actually being done and done with Fidelity sometimes we find that there's a gap between what we believe is happening and what actually is happening kind of the theory and reality pieces um if not what is exactly happening um what are the best practices in this field what does research suggest who has expertise
105within the district in this field we have a variety of instructors who are fantastic reading instructors we want to certainly tap into that um at the same time we don't want to be closed off to expertise that might be um outside of the district at this point um what districts are models to be followed we might be able to get out visit talk with people other districts who have implemented things recently and might be able to help us um understand some of what they've done and how the results that that's produced um definitely part of this is that Synergy piece of being collaborative um utilizing the expertise that we have either internally or externally um and seeking input and ideas so this will continue to be a collaborative process this is not something that'll be
106done in isolation and we also recognize that the seventh habit around sharpen the saw there definitely need professional development um to bolster whatever it is um that we do moving forward as we work through really that seek to understand part in year one um at the end of this year we'll evaluate what took place and then really think about in year two what are those action steps what are the benchmarks what are the implementation um and how will we evaluate um to process what will happen in year two and also the same for uh year three evaluate year two um then consider next steps there so this is where we are in this process um in one way we're sort of at the end of this initial phase but really the work begins um in
107that year one and really thinking about how we stand where we are and eventually get to how to we pass move forward um anybody who is part of the committee I didn't mean to dominate the conversation but I just want to get this information out if you'd like to chime in with any thoughts reactions to either what we shared here tonight or just the process in general feel free to uh jump in no I'll just say a little I think when we first started out it was very daunting because we didn't know where we wanted to go we knew what our general goal was but it's been a really interesting process to go through the SWAT analysis and find that um especially as I went through the staff information that we had some similar concerns
108but we also had a lot of similar strengths too and everybody was going towards the common good of what can we do to support our students from the day that they start with us in kindergarten until they graduate and we're looking forward to seeing where we can go from here and I'll share as a parent um I thought that the process was very professional and um well-managed from a variety of stakeholders I have experiened evaluating strategic plant of school districts in other states uh North Dakota and I'm a transplant to New York and and I will say that this process is very commendable in the way it was handled from the beginning to the end through the process and as we go forward I really think we have a strong plan in place and I
109look forward for my children to benefit from it so thank you any other comments yeah I will also say is as uh as a board member going through this process I didn't want to uh influence a decision too much of where we were going in this uh really wanted the group to decide what was the most important thing however I was pleasingly surprised when literacy came up as one of the things that was really something that we could help Implement to further the best of the students uh and and I'm looking forward to that I I just see so much good coming from increased literacy in our students so was pleasingly surpris and I didn't even push that so any other comments now I just touch on what you just said uh you know two
110weeks ago I was at a conference in Albany and uh New York State Ed is their it's in it's on their their radar uh the reading and they starting to roll out some initiatives so we're we're ahead of the curve on it because reading is very important um I've been on the sidelines for this uh really exciting to see this stuff uh you know I thank the committee that's a lot of work I'm equally excited on this as the capital project so thank you to everybody that's worked on that and really looking forward to seeing seeing the plan move forward the only thing I just wanted to touch on is that that doesn't mean we're not working on other things as a district like one of the things we've been processing as an administrative team
111is attendance and really trying to um come up with some clean communication at this beginning this year about the value of attendance and kind of setting the goal for where we hope students will be um and um that's just one example it's not technically part of the the long-term plan but other things are happening in the district it's not that just is the sole work um but for this part of the process and again trying to keep the initiatives at a relatively small number um these are these are the parts of the long-term plan for the moment great thank you Dr zilos um so now we have a bit of a well where we have to do a few award bids things like that but we're going to finish off strong with some exciting Personnel
112hires you may want to stick around um stay tuned do on TV right so next we have a contract renewal with Johnson Controls fire protection for the main street in we campuses uh could I have a motion to bring this to the table so thank you Miss skull second second miss forner you said okay thank you um so Dr ZX and Mr forbs can you uh provide us a background this um yeah you know this is a annual uh resolution it obviously connects with the the safety of both campuses and um typically Mr forb you could summarize the board is typically interested on plus minus from the year before this is actually a good one some minus uh we've done some additional work on the panel last year at Wheelock which caused us to then
113be more linked with the panels here so it's actually about $1,500 less than last year great any other comments questions uh all those in favor opposed thank you uh next we have a award bits for musical instruments to approve could I have a motion to bring this to the table Mr Marshall second second Miss um again Dr Zilo Mr Forbes is this in line with last year um yes yes and no um because uh part of the bid and I'll let John explain is just the annual budget that we usually set aside um for music um but we were also through um ARP funds um able to include the purchase of additional instruments um so that's the bulk of the money that you're seeing here and typically yearly we do not spend um this amount
114John I don't if you yes Dr right on under the arp3 amendment two which took about three months for the state to approve uh we put in up to not to exceed $200,000 for additional musical instruments and music storage items the storage items are not reflected here um because of what they are you can't really bid them because they're individual and there's not a lot of companies that have exactly what they're looking for so we can just purchase those following the quote process the balance of it is uh those items that were bid on and one of the concerns that we have is New York state in May came out with an ARP uh notification that said we will not accept any amendments for any ARP funds after August 1st so we got this in
115it was approved we got this going now so the question becomes we have to spend the money by September 30th what if a bid award company can't get us the product by September 30th so right now the guy says do the best you can there's Rumblings that they may offer some type of extension Beyond September 3th but we're not there yet so that's that part second part is uh gosh a number of years ago now the board agreed that music needed support and they agreed to fund in the budget up to 15,000 of musical instruments Andy Bennett does a pretty good job of getting pretty close to the 15,000 annual basis but again there were certain items that either companies didn't have in stock or couldn't bid so that's why you don't see a full
11615,000 we may come back uh with the secondary bid or we may just individually purchase if we can't find another company that we can bid again so that's what you have thank you Mr Forbes any comments or questions um so basically we're using up the ARP money and trying to trying to use it up before sunsets okay thank you uh all those in favor hi opposed all right and last we need to approve our annual R Supply bids um to have a motion to bring this to the table so that Mr Kenny yes sir thank you and a second second uh M thanks um again uh I guess same question is this in line with last year yep okay it's an expansive answer thank you all right uh all those in favor opposed my apologies
117Mr Forbes for saying it was a wall you know this was a wall I didn't I've learned all right but now on the Personnel so first we have uh the appointment of kersek to a probationary teaching position in the elementary tenure area and I have a motion to bring this to the table thank you Miss fora second second skull thanks um Dr yeah Courtney is here tonight we're excited to have her um I know that Courtney uh did her undergraduate and graduate work at UH Veronia State um she also student taught here under Jen Smith at Willock and also Julie pass it um at the elementary school so that's a nice uh connection to have I'll throw it over to uh Mr Dinger for anything else you want to chime in from courney did a
118great job we have a our interview process starts with a video so she had to make a video then interviewed with a small panel and then taught a lesson in our with our summer school kids and she was a standout so I'm happy to introduce courney so do you want to do you want to say a few things we need we need to approve you first first and then uh any any uh comments from the board before we vote all those in favor I opposed uh you can come yeah feel free now sorry um I've had really great experiences both in student teaching and being able to substitute teach this last year while I was getting um my Master's Degree so after these last five years I'm really excited to take all that and start
119putting it into my career and I love the opportunity that I get to continue working here with some of the teachers and faculty that I've love the last two years and mostly I'm really just excited for my very first year teaching but thank you thank you welome and you're in very good hands are under the direction of Mr jingers so thank you um our next hire is the appointment of Stacy Wallace to a probationary teaching position in the special education area uh can have a motion to bring that to the table someone skull a second sorry I need to say that uh miss m for thanks Dr Z yeah so we've only met by Zoom but I think I see Stacy back there correct all right good to see you statey in person um you
120know we were um excited you know each year we have that mix of newer teachers like Courtney and then some teachers with experience um like Stacy so um it's always nice to have that b um she is a district resident again undergraduate and graduate from uh right here fonia State um spent several years in our whe loock Early Childhood Center although she was working for a community- based organization but she obviously was in the flow of what is happening here at fonia and at Wheelock so that's a nice connection um she also um coach girls high school track and field for four years um also High School indoor track field as well modified cross country so you're right in with the Olympics here making it um happen uh Mr P can you have anything else
121you want to add about Stacy yeah we're excited to have Stacy um her her experience hasn't been uh high school but we we have a fantastic team of of special ed teachers in the high school several of which uh kind of haven't started off in the high school but have found that this is their place and they they love it they wouldn't change it for the world and we're excited to have you as part of our team looking forward to starting September excellent I appreciate it I'm excited for the opportunity as I have felt like I've been part of the team for a while now we'll vote in first all those in favor oppos sorry if you continue much I'm I'm short on words just I'm sorry to interrupt but uh but yeah welcome aboard
122welcome you're in great hands with Mr paski and miss phoh so that's a great specialized uh education department um all right next uh we have the appointment of Sarah koseski uh to a probationary uh position as an assistant principal and I have a motion to bring that to the table so moved missan thank you and a second second Mr Marshall thanks it's nice uh to see somebody returning to the district after yeah we're excited to see Sarah hi Sarah um good to see you tonight and uh you know going through an interview process with some people that have been on staff you learned things like undergraduate at Mount St Mary College I was not aware of that um and also graduate from New York Institute of Technology so and then uh certifications at College at
123St Rose um so many of you know Sarah's been been part of our teaching staff here for um many years um she recently took a job at Randol Academy and one of the things that I think really spoke to people in the interview was her saying that um Randolph's a great place um but there's something about fonia feeling like home and her wanting to return to Fredonia and feel like she's in home uh along with um her her children attending here and uh did great job as our Mentor coordinator um in previous role and also did our internship here so a lot of connections and we're happy to have her return Mr Pash anything else yeah I mean Sarah we're just really confident in your leadership and what it's going to bring to our students
124and our staff I look forward to working together with you uh I think the collaborative process that we're going to have is going to be fantastic I think it's a great decision to come back to pronia um I I'm sorry that you only got to spend a short time Randolph Academy but we we actually had some discussion when she was going into Administration about Randolph and giving it a shot and that there's an opportunity for growth in every administrative uh Arena anything you can get into and she took that I think she brought back already some fantastic ideas I'm looking forward H in the ground running as soon as possible so welcome great any comments from the board um all those in favor I opposed welcome back I I just really want I'll I'll a
125little emotional but just a heartfelt thank you because this is my home and it means the world to me to serve and Lead here amongst people that I I just truly do love and respect so many of the colleagues that I have from my time spent here I'm looking forward to working with the administrative team on a deeper level because I just want to give everything I can to the students and and the staff of ponia so thank you thank three gate Great hires tonight um we do have one more it's uh Amanda Kent to a full-time long-term substitute Middle School teaching position in the special education tenure area have a motion Miss Gull thank you second second Mr Kenny thanks Dr zil any comments yes so um you might notice the name is familiar
126Amanda was here uh last year here and um as is sometimes the case uh certifications and the wheels turning at State Ed don't always happen as quickly as um we would like so she was a long-term sub last year awaiting certification um and that process continues um and everything this isn't in any way a concern there's just been some odd um issues that have come up that have now been resolved but technically we'll still waiting on um the final finalization of her certification so when that does happen she will become a probationary teacher um and we're still in the longterm sub mode at the moment so all is well um but this is the way the resolution needs to be in the moment so we're all good we look forward to working with her again
127she had a a great year uh at the middle school last year and uh Miss frell I don't know if anything you want to um Amanda's did a wonderful job this past school year I'm happy to have her back and I know what her skill set is and I'm really thrilled that she's continuing with us and I didn't mean to Omit earlier anything uh regarding Stacy that you want to well Stacy and I have known each other for years so I've known her professionally for a lot of years and I'm really excited that she's coming on board so is Miss K here tonight or she is not okay uh all those in favor opposed um all right so now that moves us on to a policy item we have one policy item uh tonight and
128that is the second reading of a revised policy on timeout and physical restraint I have a motion to bring that to the table thanks Miss g a second second thank you uh any comments Dr zil on this policy um not a whole lot of changes from uh the discussion we had last time again this replaces what used to be called the corpal punishment um policy so a little bit different terminology and a lot about um the factors that would go into um somebody within the district um needing to restrain um a student and also about how we're documenting um those events and then debriefing afterwards and using those occasions as a a learning tool to adjust and adapt and improve what we do Mrs Pharaoh was involved in processing this information along with uh Steve
129for Strait um who's our school psychologist the high school and we appreciate their insights in working out some of the district specific pieces but I feel like this is solid in in a good place and will require us to do some communicating after tonight great good any comments from the board all those in favor I I opposed all right um let's see we're moving through uh so that leads us to our second round of public comment uh based on the twinville crowd may not have any but is there anybody anybody no okay uh so we'll move on um so that brings us tonight to the superintendent reports so we've we got Capital project we have uh long-term planning uh anything else going on Dr ziloox uh just one quick thing in uh the weekly update
130to the board um I did send um some small revisions within our code of conduct um Mr pashy has always done a nice nice job each year leading um a review of our code of conduct you probably remember last year we made several changes as there was a little bit of low in um some of the updating from year to year um but I think we corrected a number of things last year or at least updated things last year and um this year what's being proposed is very minimal there's a a small line in the our electronic device um process um about really not um having students bring their own devices to school and the reason for that is that gets in um to different filtering issues and um meeting the regulations um that are
131outlined in um at law 2B um so it just opens up the door to a variety of things and since we are one to one with devices there's really no need for a student to bring their own device um so that's really the the only adjustment um other than a few small wording pieces but the idea would be for you guys to be able to take a look at that um over the next few days if there's any questions comments um we can certainly adjust and adapt um but we would like to then um approve any changes um at the meeting on the 20th and then uh share those with students as we open the school good any any questions on that okay um all right well wow okay so the next board meeting will
132uh be held in two weeks time on Tuesday August 20th uh here in the high school library uh it's been a long night uh so I'm just going to open it up to any board member that would like any general discussion tonight before we move to our princi a long night okay even Mr pash's abandoned us so um so Mr drol and's your how's your summer going it's been great so we're fully staffed and that's always a good feeling going to the year so that's good we good no other comments oh no I don't have anymore you're okay give me two we he's still not back so I was trying to bleed it out a little bit but missell um things are going well we've got a couple more weeks of our special summer school
133well this week and next week then we'll be done with our summer program um the special department is not pully staff yet so we're still working on some hiring and hopefully we'll get those things locked up soon so great great Mr for you haven't had much tonight to I'm G enjoy that you're G stay that way missis I'm I'm good with make a motion you're good okay all right well we don't have a need to enter an executive session tonight so therefore we can close tonight's meeting um thank you to everybody that attended that has now left but uh it was a good night uh could I have a motion to close tonight's meeting thank you Miss skull a second thank you Miss in favor opposed thank you the meeting is now closed at whatever
134that says up there that was close thank you thank thanks coach apprciate it [Music]