Board of Education Meeting 10-1-2025

001E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. I'd like to call the workshop to order. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Make a consideration motion to accept the agenda? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: All in favor? Aye. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's right into our external audit presentation. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, this is Charles Troutier. Are you a partner now, Charles? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Director. Director. He's the director for our external audit firm, Drescher Malecki, to report on the financial statements that they've finished auditing last week. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So… Yes, thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We did finish the fieldwork, we're still in our, what we call our quality control. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, anytime a draft is issued, we let management review it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We

002like to have the opportunity to discuss the draft and the presentation with school boards, and then internally we go through a two-week review process where E2 Gowanda HS Library: Myself as director, and another partner at our firm. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hasn't… E2 Gowanda HS Library: who come here just puts their set of eyes on this document to make sure nothing's been missed, in accordance with law enforcement tying, obviously, but also in accordance with accounting standards that we have to follow and New York State compliance and federal compliance requirements, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: they're in draft form, they're being reviewed, but we will have them issued. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the October 15th deadline. So, any questions here afterwards, throughout the next couple weeks, my information is at the back of this presentation, so

003feel free to reach out. It doesn't just stop October 15th. We're available throughout the year. We do have the ability to audit E2 Gowanda HS Library: 20-some count… or… E2 Gowanda HS Library: districts, in New York State. So what we see other places, we can compare here as well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You guys are a little unique, with the type of aid you receive, but, still, it's always good to compare. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So just going… you have two documents in the agenda, the financial statement draft that takes taxes about 80 pages. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then you have this presentation. I'll go through the presentation, but I'm more than happy to answer any questions on the financial statements if anyone has taken it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Look at them, today.

004E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, products for our audit, what you receive every year, no change this year as opposed to last year. You get, obviously, the basic financial statements. It's this, 80-page document that I talked about. In this document, there's 3 opinions that belong to us. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Everything else that's in there is the property of the district itself. So, we do help district compile the financial statements. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have the ability to do so, we have the documents, the spreadsheets, the… E2 Gowanda HS Library: the layout to do it. But everything else is sourced from the accounting software district. We just put it together. We don't manipulate the numbers, we don't change the numbers. We only have those three. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The first opinion that's at the

005front of the financial statement is on the numbers themselves. Can this document be relied upon by the outside users? Are the numbers that are being reported in there that come from your financial system fair and accurate, and represent the district's financial statements as a whole? And based on our opinion, the answer is yes, so you're receiving a clean, unmodified opinion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Essentially saying that we believe, through our testing, that your financial statements are free of the tone statement, and credit agencies, banks. E2 Gowanda HS Library: residents, everyone can rely on those numbers. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Second opinion, second and third opinion are at the back of financial statements. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The first one of those two is on government auditing standards. As a governmental entity, you're required to have

006your auditors review your internal controls and assess the effectiveness of those controls. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We don't threaten opinion, but we do dig into your controls, we look at your policies, your procedures, make sure you follow them. If there were to be any control deficiencies that would be significant enough. E2 Gowanda HS Library: to merit the attention of this group, we'd have to disclose it in there. There are no deficiencies that we believe in your controls that need to be discussed, so there are no significant deficiencies, and there are no material weaknesses. E2 Gowanda HS Library: When we do control testing, we look at your journal entry to make sure that your policies are being followed. E2 Gowanda HS Library: They're being done in a timely manner, they're being reviewed the way they're supposed

007to be reviewed. We look at your purchasing policy, your bidding policy, we look at your… the way you disperse cash, the way monies are collected, and we did not even identify any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Last opinion is on your uniform guidance, which is… that's… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Governing your federal spending. So every year, we look at your federal awards. E2 Gowanda HS Library: going out the door. And on a rotational basis, we select certain programs, and we test for compliance with the Federal Office of Management Budget Compliance requirements. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This year, we tested Impact Aid as a federal program, and in this case, we don't do an audit. E2 Gowanda HS Library: A financial statement audit, we do a compliance audit. So, again, we look

008at eligibility requirements, we look at allowability of cost, we look at cash management of those funds, and if there were to be any deficiencies there, we'd have to disclose a compliance… what we call a question cost, and there are no such findings. So, a clean audit all around. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So you get the stamp of approval from third-party independent auditors. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The second bullet is your management letter. The management letter It's another opportunity to, disclose, E2 Gowanda HS Library: any potential best practices that are out there. We also communicate future accounting announcements that are coming due that might impact the way these financial statements are gonna look. E2 Gowanda HS Library: one new… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Announcements that's coming in next year is on your budgetary schedules, so right

009now, your budgetary schedule is just one page E2 Gowanda HS Library: in the middle back, your financial statements that compares how you've done revenues and expenditures, compares them with your general fund budget. New requirements are now going to have to disclose E2 Gowanda HS Library: explanation for bearances that are occurring in that budgetary schedule. So, things that you talk about on an annual basis when you follow your budget now is going to be added financially next year. So, one to keep a look at. The one thing I didn't discuss, not a significant deficiency in controls. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Not a material weakness, but again, this year, we had a significant deficiency in compliance that we have to communicate for exceeding the 4%. I was going to talk about it later on. E2 Gowanda HS

010Library: I know that this group is aware of it, and I know that school districts across E2 Gowanda HS Library: The state and the county have different opinions on, E2 Gowanda HS Library: their fund balance, some have exceeded 4%, some continue to exceed 4%, stay right at 4%. I don't see many school districts that try to go below the 4%, but because it exceeds, Real Property Tax Law Section 1318, that comment remains in the financial statement again this year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The auditor communications letter, we'll talk on the next slide, the Extra Classroom Activity Report, that's another audit that we do every year. We test the compliance, for New York State Extra Classroom Activity Guide. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Similar to the compliance audit with the federal government, this we test in accordance

011with state guidelines, we look at all the clubs that are run, we look at the students are maintaining their ledger. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We looked at the… Money's coming in for… E2 Gowanda HS Library: student clubs and the payment process is being followed. There's always a little bit more challenge in auditing those clubs. Obviously, we're talking about students handling money. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And so, it is a clean audit. There are certain little minor things that we recommend in our audit that we talk with management on, kind of, cleaning out some outstanding checks in extra classroom clubs, and making sure that all the approvals are there, when we're getting money, students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, going on to the next slide. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Those are, again, the first part of

012this presentation is a little bit more, E2 Gowanda HS Library: qualitative in nature, then I'll go into some numbers, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Just bear with me just for this last slide here. So, the required documentation that we have to have with your group every year, is what our responsibility is. Our responsibility is obviously to provide that independent third-party opinion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: when we do our audit, we use reasonable assurance, as opposed to absolute assurance, where we look at your account balances, and then we select samples based on the risk that we assess and the controls, and then we extrapolate to the overall population. So, we're not there testing every single transaction for account balance, we'll be here all year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You have claims audited that… E2 Gowanda HS

013Library: does more of that kind of job, and you have your internal lot that can be here for longer periods of time. So we come in for 2-3 weeks of field work, we make some sample selections, obviously we look at the large dollar transactions, and that's what we call reasonable assurance. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Another thing that I discussed there is our responsibility is not to find fraud. Fraud is obviously a critical part of how we design our tests, especially surrounding journal entries. We'll look at miscellaneous revenue accounts that are being used. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We will look at credits to cash when we do journal entry testing, but just a disclaimer there, we're not here to find fraud if fraud were to exists. We believe that our testing would find it, and then

014we'd communicate it to this group appropriately. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Both in identifying these sorts of frauds. E2 Gowanda HS Library: significant accounting policies, I'll refer to note… put note 1 to the financial statements, but really, just for highlight this year, nothing's really changed from last year except one new standard that was required to be implemented, that new standard, according to E2 Gowanda HS Library: Governmental Accounting Standards Board, was the way you value your compensated absences, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Your employees, teachers, sick time, vacation time, personnel time that they've… E2 Gowanda HS Library: accumulated, earned over the years, changed the way it's accounted for this year as opposed to the prior year. That resulted in a restatement in your financial statements. E2 Gowanda HS Library: most school districts, result in a restatement. Essentially,

015what it says is. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The way the previous standard read was that an employee, a district will value sick time, for example, based on the amounts that E2 Gowanda HS Library: is going to be paid out at retirement. So what's been earned and paid out at retirement. Now they want it accounted for as what's been earned and will either be paid out or will be used in the future. So it's a whole study that district treasurers and business officials had to go through to determine what that liability was. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So it certainly bumped up, your compensated absence liability. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's a long-term liability. It doesn't affect your budget or your general fund. The only thing that it could have impacted is that, certain school districts have

016E2 Gowanda HS Library: Elected to increase their, Employee benefits reserve to pay for those costs in the future. E2 Gowanda HS Library: A lot of our other types of municipalities, counties, cities, towns have employee benefits reserves that aren't capped at certain dollar amounts every year, so they raised their compensated house and liability, for example, and it allowed them to E2 Gowanda HS Library: Kind of put some money aside from their unassigned fund balance to that type of reserve. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Didn't happen here, here, but that's just how we could have impacted. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Your, your general fund. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What's the advantage of doing it tolly? E2 Gowanda HS Library: the new governmental accounting standard? No, I'm saying putting it into a… reserved there's… E2 Gowanda HS Library: So,

017again, most… Other than cash flow, I mean… E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's just planning for the future. It's just for those entities that have excess E2 Gowanda HS Library: fund balance. I'm talking mostly about governmental entities where E2 Gowanda HS Library: Their best practice is to maintain about 17% of fund balance in unassigned. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have counties out there that have over 70%. E2 Gowanda HS Library: of fund balance and unassigned, and that just gave them the ability to move some of that 70% out, reduce their unassigned fund balance, and place it into reserve. And now they have a basis to say, well, our employee benefits is going to be $10 million now, because we have $10 million in compensated absences that now the standard says we're going to owe E2 Gowanda

018HS Library: In 30 years, 35 years. So, no direct… Current short-term advantage. E2 Gowanda HS Library: To be clear to the general public on that, though. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We don't have that ability to do that at that 17%, correct? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Correct. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Sorry, I just wanted that restated, like, we can't do that as a school district. E2 Gowanda HS Library: School District, Section 1318, Rural Property Tax Law, 4% of unassigned Fund Balance is… It's a lot. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The only type municipality that has this requirement. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I had the budget voted on. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're unique in a lot of ways. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, significant accounting estimates, we have disclosed it, E2 Gowanda HS Library: you have certain

019estimates that are out there that are harder for us to audit. It's not a transaction where we get to look at an invoice, or a receipt where we get to look at deposit slip and money coming in. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But accounting estimates are just a disclosure in that we rely a lot on third-party actuaries, or third-party specialists in determining what your estimates are, and in your case, you have E2 Gowanda HS Library: Your pension liability, again, long-term. That's determined at the state level by their auditors. Your other post-employment benefits, you hire a third-party actuary to do that. That's another long-term liability. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Those types of estimates. E2 Gowanda HS Library: can change. E2 Gowanda HS Library: drastically, just at the discount rate that's used by the factory rate changes by

0201%. It could affect the liability by a million dollars. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So what… we disclose those estimates, and all we say is that we look at what assumptions the actuaries use, whether it's mortality rates, salary scale, inflation, discount rates, and we compare it to all the other actuaries for this time frame in the area to make sure it's reasonable, and it is… E2 Gowanda HS Library: The fourth bullet, independence, the only way that your financial statements can mean something is that your auditors are independent. Myself, anyone on this engagement, anyone in our audit firm at Joshua isn't, and of Wanda Central Schools. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Other matters, in the letter, there's a section for other matters. Essentially. E2 Gowanda HS Library: In the event that we go to… E2 Gowanda HS Library:

021The client, and we have some disagreements with the client in the event that our scope would be limited, where we wanted to look at one transaction, we were told, no, look at this one instead, that's where we disclose it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We got what we requested. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I'm just going into some trends here, or numbers. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's no numbers on the lines, but the blue line is your revenues, the red line is your expenditures. Your revenues were $39.2 million. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Far right for 2024-25. So $39.2 million revenues coming in, $34.7 million of expenditures, which represents your red line here. So the change between revenues and expenditures was $4.5 billion. That's your increase in fund balance. E2 Gowanda HS Library: When we look at

022the year prior, your revenues were $39.1 million, so just a $100,000 increase in revenues, and I… E2 Gowanda HS Library: looking ahead, I think that's a consistent view of where revenues might be in the future. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Especially with the years that we've seen in the past. And your expenditures. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're $31.6 million, as opposed to this year, again, $34.7. So, $3.1 million increase in expenditures. E2 Gowanda HS Library: a $100,000 increase in your revenues. The big change in your revenues occurred, lottery aid, so your state aid for lottery, went up $627,000. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Interest earnings, again, another good year this year, a $206,000 increase. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then that was offset by Native American tuition went down $600,000 from the state. E2 Gowanda HS Library:

023And impact pay went down $500,000 along with Medicaid. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You have a budget that's funded E2 Gowanda HS Library: about 72% by state and federal aid, so there's a lot of unknowns out there with state and federal money post-pandemic, and I think that's what we see with 20… from 2020 all the way to 2024, 2025. This trend is what we're seeing E2 Gowanda HS Library: Across the board for August values. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Specialty school district, where pandemic aid came in. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Interest earnings went up. Sales tax, obviously in 2020, we were told, by Government Finance Officers Association that sales tax was going to drop 20… E2 Gowanda HS Library: In 2021, so as we budgeted for those years. E2 Gowanda HS Library: accounted for that discount, that

024sales tax just continued to go up and up and up every few years, so this year, sales tax actually stabilized for the first time. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Unfortunately, E2 Gowanda HS Library: But it was bound to happen. Who knows what the future has in store, but again, with a budget that's funded 72% by state and federal aid, not knowing what the impact's gonna be in the future, certainly be cautious on the revenue side. E2 Gowanda HS Library: September, just as a point of reference, because I knew that we were talking about the border transactions and people coming over, so I did look at the September sales tax, and it was less than the E2 Gowanda HS Library: prior September sales tax. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Because they're saying that there's a large impact from

025in Erie County, this is where sales tax comes from, that people aren't crossing the border as much and purchasing things along the border on any county. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So again, your expenditures went up $3.1 million. The bulk of that was, the transfer of capital projects for $1.6 million. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Other than that, you had teaching, salaries going up, and benefits… benefit costs also went up $800,000. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Another trend that we're seeing, health insurance. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And it's been kind of out of control the last couple years. E2 Gowanda HS Library: retirement costs, your pension for New York State, retirement for teachers' retirement system, and your employees' retirement system. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This is one where, as interest earnings have been so good, the market's been

026doing good. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We always expect at some point the state's gonna reduce the contribution rate, but the state doesn't. The state vouches and advertises being the best. E2 Gowanda HS Library: State-run pension plan in the country, and the state is probably the best in the country. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We continually raise contribution rates, even though the market is favorable. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So again, you look at this chart, you see 5 years of revenues exceeding your expenditures. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But a lot of those years are, are… E2 Gowanda HS Library: cards project out in the future with the impact that the pandemic has done, so when you have those types of years, it's always good to E2 Gowanda HS Library: Get those monies, fund the reserves, plan for

027some one-time cost, whether it's cattle projects or others. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then let's see what the future has in store in the next year or two, to make some, E2 Gowanda HS Library: Some bigger spending decision that would affect that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This slide here is your compliance with that real property tax law that we talked about, 4%. E2 Gowanda HS Library: As you can see… E2 Gowanda HS Library: At the end of this year, you're at 9.6%, and I know that the state came in and audited, did their audit on… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Fund balance and the compliance requirement. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So certainly there's an effort to go back down. E2 Gowanda HS Library: a closer level to 4%, so at the end of the year, you've

028dropped your unassigned fund balance by $1.7 million to 3.7. You're still at 9.6% of appropriation. So again, you're exceeding that 4%. We have to include a common significant deficiency in compliance with financial statements. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But that's where you stand. So, obviously, on the previous slide, we talked about generating fund balance during the year, in total. So, unassigned going went down this year, where'd the rest go? E2 Gowanda HS Library: This breaks down your total fund balance. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So at the end of June 30, 2025, total fund balance was $32.4 million. 28.6 of that is restricted fund balance, as far as what approval to spend, so that's your… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Repairs, your capital projects, your employee benefits, E2 Gowanda HS Library: Retirement costs, or retirement reserves. So, $28.6

029million, an increase of $6.2 million. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That portion also includes what we call assigned fund balance, so in next year's budget. E2 Gowanda HS Library: you plan for it, you have appropriated fund balance, and you have outstanding POs, your encumbrances, that also account for that red portion. So the total restricted reserves are $25 million, and your assigned fund balance that's been appropriated in the budget is $3.6 million, including your encumbrances. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This year, our encumbrance's outstanding at year-end was $2.5 million, which is, like, the largest it's ever been. We have 2 years of pluses we have not received. So the POs are still encumbered, so they're sitting there waiting. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's when we get buses. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The peels are just sitting there open.

030E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, normally, that we don't have that high of an assigned fund balance, E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's why that rose so much this year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Everybody's trying to get their non-electric buses before the requirements change. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you so that's really it for the… E2 Gowanda HS Library: The presentation itself. Again, these are in draft form. I'm happy to field any questions now, so on the 15th or thereafter, whenever you have the chance to go through these financials. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yep. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I do need a copy with the milk cytta. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Question. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I don't… my copy doesn't have… Footnotes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Page 20. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's where it starts.

031It's a long set of, belong 7 notes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, page 22, page… 44 are what we call the footnotes. Those are gonna… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Ty and vouch and explain every number that's in the basic financial statements. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was interested. The really… the bulk, the most important pages to review, really. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Are your fund statements, page 14 and 16? You're making notes on it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then you have, your budgetary schedules, which, again, are going to come with additional disclosures next year for a new standard. Budgetary schedules, page 50 and 51, are always interesting to… E2 Gowanda HS Library: to read, E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, the footnotes that are between page 20 and 44 really tie everything in, and they'll

032give you explanation for what account balances. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Excellent. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This is the standard for, the on-site accounts that come in here and do the field work. E2 Gowanda HS Library: to swap them out. How… what is the normal standard? Do they… is it two, three years, 3 years? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, that's a good question. When we first started here, I think we had one partner. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Typically, we like to rotate. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's no requirement. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But typically, we like to rotate partners every 5 years. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then for our staff, we always like to bring in a new set of eyes every year. So we'll have 3 staff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: on the engagement

033on an annual basis. E2 Gowanda HS Library: One of our pre-staff will always be a new set of eyes, so we can E2 Gowanda HS Library: Kind of advertise and do our due diligence that we're not just getting complacent. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the district. So we, we like the continuity of knowing what the process is, the people. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And answering to their demands, but we also E2 Gowanda HS Library: Always need that new set of eyes, so every year there will always be a new staff member assigned to an authentic engagement. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, thank you all. Thanks, Cheryl. Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So there's nothing further on this, I'd make a consideration motion to adhere in the workshop. E2 Gowanda HS Library: All in favor? Aye.

034E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, we'll take a… You might recess, and get ready for the regular game. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'd like to call the meeting order, if we could stand for the opposing vote. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I want you to start. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Consideration motion to accept the agenda. E2 Gowanda HS Library: All in favor? Aye. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That'll be missing. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Education bylaws? E2 Gowanda HS Library: The Board remains committed to providing opportunities for the public to address the Board on items of public interest. With that in mind, the Board

035wishes to remind the public that it's adopted Policy 1510, which sets forth reasonable guidelines in terms of ensuring an orderly discussion and exchange of information during public meetings. In exceptional circumstances. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Board Mayus and faculty. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The slides provide a written or verbal response to issues… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Anyone who wishes to address the board may do so at the E2 Gowanda HS Library: form and handing the form to the board president. The board president will call upon the person to speak at the appropriate time, and each such person will be permitted to speak for a time limited to 3 minutes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Please stand in front of the board table and address the board directly. Under discretion of the board, no more than 3 people

036will be allowed to address the board. E2 Gowanda HS Library: On a single topic. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. Next, we have our calendar. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our next… E2 Gowanda HS Library: We will have a special meeting of the Board of Education on Wednesday, October 15th at 5 p.m. in the high school library. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We'll have a policy committee meeting on, so virtual. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Next regular Board of Education workshop, and then meeting will take place on Wednesday, November 12th, starting at 5.30. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I also have the building committee meeting. E2 Gowanda HS Library: on the agenda. Is it scheduled for… E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's supposed to be. Supposed to be at that time. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Are we going to potentially

037be scheduling that? I had asked for a delay. I had to… I'm attending a funeral on Friday, the same time, and choose between the folks. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Family friend. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Would you like to try and reschedule now? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Do you guys want to try that, or do you want to… I'm good with that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Should be another Friday. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Friday, it's free. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Or Thursday. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Either works for me. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's Friday morning. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What about Thursdays? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Nothing? I could do that, too. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Anything after 9 He went tonight? E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's covering. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You're coming Thursday

038to May? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I said, we're saying Thursday the 9th. The 9th is the prayer, please don't do it then. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. Well, it's just… it's the three of us, right? So… Yeah, but… We're busy at the 2. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Go to the next week, the 16th? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Let's take another 13? Yeah. Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So it's 16. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Does that work for you? E2 Gowanda HS Library: This is expensive, but 9 would… E2 Gowanda HS Library: What day of what month? Sorry. July! I don't know. It works for me, yes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: 2… Very good. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, it's only about the naming, right? Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: When is it, 1 o'clock? Could

039you do 1 o'clock on the 16th? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. Yeah, I just don't know. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, there will be a building committee meeting on Thursday, October 16th, at 1pm. E2 Gowanda HS Library: No, you're okay, don't. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alright, so up next on the agenda, we have our 2020 Senior Trip Presentation. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, let me inter… yeah, let me introduce, Mrs. Newell. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You introduce me, I'll introduce them? Yes, this is how it goes. Perfect. Max will introduce… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Great, thank you! I want to commend our senior class advisor, so let me introduce her. You can come up here, please. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Who are you presenting to? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Do you guys want the mouse

040to move through the presentation? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. Yes, yes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I just want to commend our senior class advisor, so this is Mrs. Randy D. We call her D because it's difficult to pronounce her last name. And they really put together, options and present them to the class to vote on, and are excited to present to you tonight, their senior trip proposal. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hello, hello, everybody. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm Isabel Grand, this is Helena Walker, and we're just… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Presenting to our idea for our senior trip this year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So our senior trip this year, we're looking to go to Lake George. E2 Gowanda HS Library: In New York. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Obviously, right? So… Daylight. E2 Gowanda HS

041Library: So, we'll depart on May 1st. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Which… it's about… Yeah, that's about 5ish hours. Five and a half hours away. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And… obviously the meals and rest stops, individuals' expense. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then we'll make a stop at the caverns, and we'll do all that stuff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then we head to our hotel, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Have dinner, and then that's the night. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alright, that's the first day. The second day is the most filled day, like, with all the activities and such. Breakfast is at the hotel. The main activity for this day is we're looking to go to the Adirondack Extreme. That has, like, a lot. There's so much for kids and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: the

042chaperones to do there, like, everybody should be getting along, hopefully. And actually, it's come to my attention that this is, like, one of the very few, or one of the very first, senior trips that has been, like, outside and outdoorsy and adventure-y that we've had, at least in a while. Anyways, after lunch, we're looking to go to E2 Gowanda HS Library: Mega Challenge course with a lot of things, and then the finish out the night, a chartered boat cruise. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And after that, a ghost tour of Fort William Henry. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Let me see if you… let me know if you see any ghosts. Oh, of course. We'll report that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then our last day, May 3rd, we'll have breakfast, and we'll check out, and then

043we'll enjoy the nice touristy shops on the main street, and have lunch, and then get on the bus and be back. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And so, these are our estimated costs on the right-hand side here. So, as of right now, we're looking more towards the 20 to 24 and the 25 to 29 students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That'll be the cost per person, not the cost. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That we are paying for us. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And… This is everything that's included. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Can I hear it? E2 Gowanda HS Library: So your… all your meals will be included, and security guard at the hotel, round trip, your accommodations for the two nights, and the sightseeing, of course. What's not included is the meals that will be take… like,

044we'll be stopping with the bus on the way there during travel. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And all your personal purchases, obviously. Along with the gratuity to the bus driver. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our fundraising efforts we are looking to do is the wreath and poinsettias that we do every year. Seems to be a big hit for the senior class. Senior clothing apparel, so we're looking to sell, like, so we have the Powder Puff shirts, right? E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're not gonna be able to do that one anymore. But, I mean… Never mind about that. I guess we could talk about that afterwards if we wanted to, but… E2 Gowanda HS Library: One thing I kind of mentioned to a couple of you is… E2 Gowanda HS Library: they're gonna have their… to get their

045senior shirts a little bit earlier this year, that was a thought. So… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Side note, some of you… I'm selling shirts right now for my niece. My niece is going… I'm doing a little fundraiser for her right now. E2 Gowanda HS Library: He's going through some medical things. And, I'm like, it just clicked with me that that's a really good fundraiser, so I said we should do the senior shirts earlier, and then we might have the option where they could drop, like, parents of a senior, or things like that, and then, you know, or just regular gonda, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's where that comes from. And then the other possible fundraiser is Widener's Chicken Barbecue. I know there's a lot of those that happen throughout the school year. E2 Gowanda

046HS Library: Salsa sales again, I know we did that last year as juniors. Yes, yes. Yes, okay. Yes! Definitely. Alright, and then the local restaurant donations, of course. Any donations, actually. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, that concludes our presentation. That is all we have. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Good afternoon, thank you for listening. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Soap, before you go. Before you go. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What is it that you guys look forward to the most with this trip? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Like, me personally, or as a class as a whole? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Cool. So, for the class as a whole, they actually… E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I asked them ideas before I presented, like, okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: realistic options. They were like, oh, we should have

047a big class camping trip, and I was like, oh, actually, I'll see what I can do. So this was the closest I could get to a camping, outdoorsy, adventure-y trip for us. Me, personally, what I'm looking forward to the most is probably the dinner cruise. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Just cause it should be pretty. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think the Adirondack Extreme is gonna be super fun. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's what I'm looking forward to. I know you don't like stuff like that. I'm very curious about the… echo 8, the echo… Oh, yeah. You can hear it? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Sounds like… Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, actually, I'm sorry, I brought this too, and I completely forgot. There is more detail in this. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It does talk

048about it in here. This is what I got from the travel company, but it tells you that where you have to stand at a very particular stop, and wherever you stand. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Only you, if you say something, and only you can hear it echoed back. I can share it. Okay, thank you. I am sorry, I didn't realize I needed someone. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I might have more. So, but yeah, you stand, like I said, you stand in a particular spot, which I guess I do at the E2 Gowanda HS Library: And… E2 Gowanda HS Library: But yeah, so you stand in one spot, and you hear your voice echo back, but only you can hear it, so I thought that was pretty neat. No one else can hear it. I'm just

049interested to know how much insurance we have on the chaperones that are going through the ninja course in the street, because I know I would end up broken, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: She'll adhere. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's so weird. Okay, gotcha. E2 Gowanda HS Library: How many students… There are 56? Yep, 56 students in life. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's fault. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yes, Mr. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh my god. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There might be a problem with us getting chaperones, though. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There has been really no one who has said they would be willing to volunteer at Chevron for us, because they will not be getting paid. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's right. And you have to want Tarzan. That is… so that's kind

050of a problem right now, but… E2 Gowanda HS Library: That they'll not be getting paid. We understand that their expenses are paid, like, as the trip, like, they are going on the trip, cost-free. However, that leaves them with finding childcare. What are they doing with their kids on this weekend? They're babysitting us the entire… Yeah, when they're babysitting 20 other kids that are not their own. How many chevroms do you need? Four. Four. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And, and that depends on the size of the… Four chaperones. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Who's eligible to be chaperones? Well, before we jump there, we're working out behind the scenes, we're aware of the chaperone issues, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: That won't be an issue. Yeah, I'm sure it won't be. Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I

051don't know why parents can't go. Yeah, are parents able to go? Because that was the question. So I guess I'm not sure why it was thought that parents can't go. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, they are able to chaperone them? E2 Gowanda HS Library: My mom and dad culture? Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, okay, that's all the staff members. Yeah, I don't think there's any prohibition for parents going. I mean, that'd be nice for them to come. If, you know, seniors want their parents to come. I mean, that's probably the biggest rub. I mean, they go to Europe and everything. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Just because it's a senior following experience. You know, I've had parents ask before, and I really try to encourage, it's our seniors' last E2 Gowanda HS Library: time together,

052and, you know, let your, you know, baby bird fly free. So I would just encourage our parents to, you know, maybe find, you know, go on the Europe trip this year, and they certainly want a chaperone, that's cool, but that's just my little principal message. E2 Gowanda HS Library: On behalf of Mercy Nurse. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Preferably would like to have a professional staff go. No, that makes sense. 100%. Thank you for bringing those up, because, I mean, parents, they're not our employees, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know, when the lights go off, I don't have any control on what moms and dads do, not they would, you know, do anything terrible, but… E2 Gowanda HS Library: You know, that's… to her point, that's our property. Yeah, that makes sense. E2 Gowanda HS

053Library: So it looks native. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Excuse me? Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Superintendents. Yeah, I have a lot of trouble. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any other questions? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thanks, sweetie. Nice job. I'll take all the salsa. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Sure. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So up next, we have consensus item, said to make a consideration a motion to vote and approve Agenda Items 3.01 to 6.02. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Bye. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Is there any discussion? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'd like. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the agreement between Lakeshore and Swanda. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Commute. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Another district has… People that we can meet. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What would that utilize? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hired outside. Oh, yeah, thank you.

054E2 Gowanda HS Library: Do you have any other discussion? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Some interviews, or… E2 Gowanda HS Library: leaving employees? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Who's gonna be covered tonight? E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's what exit interviews. Accident interviews? Of any type? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I can't hear you. No exit interviews? Of employees? Of any… Are we gonna have those? Yeah. And just so you know, they haven't been done for very long. They all started the process. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm getting them from dogs on maternity leave. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But, yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm not sure if there's something particular you're looking for, or a particular person, but she doesn't… they're given in confidentiality. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So the names would not be provided. E2 Gowanda HS

055Library: And does that cover… So… I say termination. E2 Gowanda HS Library: on there. I guess that was my question, so… And… E2 Gowanda HS Library: personnel on the agenda. Do you cover all of those employees? No, termination of substitute employees, generally, yearly, we go through and clean up our supplies. So, the people you see on the termination substitute employees are substitutes who, for whatever reason, are no longer available. You know, they didn't take any employment elsewhere, we haven't gotten in touch with them, they just… E2 Gowanda HS Library: So just keep basic. We generally do that in August, like our… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Just keep it tight. But that's… they're not really exiting in the traditional sense of exiting. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So they're… essentially, they've been trying to reach out… we've

056tried to reach out to them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. Yeah. Like, I just saw a couple on, I think they're long-retired, doing retiree stuff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: that we reach out twice, and then the third time, we send them a letter letting them know that we're going to be terminating them, in the hopes that they will still reach out to us, but not coming to us. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's no further discussion, all in favor? Aye. Aye. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alright, so, next action item, 701, appointment of 2025.6, and exceed position. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Consideration motion to vote approved upon recommendation of Superintendent following NXC position for 2025-2026 school year at a contractual rate. Had Modified Athletics Cross Country, Jamie Hughes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Cool. Second. E2 Gowanda HS

057Library: There's no discussion. All in favor? Aye. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Opposed? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Next, we have action item 702. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Michelle York. Consideration motion to vote approved on recommendation of the Superintendent, except for recognition of Michelle York as Cook, effective October 17, 2025, at 11.59 PM. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So moved. Second. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any discussion? E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have no discussion. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? E2 Gowanda HS Library: For public discussion, comment on agenda and non-agenda items. We have none this evening. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'll get us into our superintendent's report. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, some thank yous are in order, as usual. We have some very generous community organizations and people who support our

058programs. Thank you to the Kawana Sports Boosters, and the parents and guardians and football team for their generous donations. Over to my left is David Lowery. Welcome, David. E2 Gowanda HS Library: He's the Executive Director of the Erie County School Board Association. It's with our local districts, and all the different… Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Appreciate you being here. Some announcements. On October 22nd, I'm gonna go on and do a Facebook Live at 6. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I didn't do this last year, and I kind of missed public forum. It's kind of a nice way to connect with folks. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Look at Facebook, there'll be links and stuff there, and please join me in the virtual world. Kind of what I'll talk about briefly the Port of a Graduate, which

059I'll talk more about at this table here this fall. E2 Gowanda HS Library: our pending capital project, our PLC work, and just general business, and answer questions that people have some things that are, you know, burning on their mind. If it's really an in-depth question, you might want to ask beforehand. I might not know off the top of my head, but, looking forward to engaging the public that night. E2 Gowanda HS Library: As the board knows, next week, Education Commissioner Rose is visiting our area. I think Kathy's probably shared information we need to join. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Joint Erie County and Town County School Board there on the 7th. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Then, on October 8th, she'll be meeting with students from Lakeshore. E2 Gowanda HS Library: faculty from Gawanda, Silver Creek, and

060the superintendents that day, so look forward to meeting, seeing the commissioner. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You've heard Spirit Week and Homecomings next week. Pretty exciting. You saw the hallways are decorated, but your lady… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Isabelle can share more about that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're down to one meeting a month, so I'd be in this to share that, October 13th through October 17th is School Board Recognition Week, so I just wanted to give you an early shout-out. Thank you for all your hard work as community members and volunteers to our organization, they're very much appreciated. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Capital updates, not much at the pool. Can't really see much going on there. It's all encapsulated with, I guess, plastic. They're taking all the tile off, so, we're making some progress. Some

061recent news, if you're 2 minutes, 6 o'clock, and you saw the audit report, and E2 Gowanda HS Library: people hopefully realize that about 72% of our budget is through the state, funded by the state and federal government. With the federal government shutting down last night at midnight, E2 Gowanda HS Library: The only thing we're impacted right now is for our impact aid, but the actual impact of it is unknown, and we're only, what. E2 Gowanda HS Library: 12 hours into that shutdown, so it really depends upon how long that goes before it may reach us. Generally, the payments of that aren't regular, have not received any money for this school year, and we did budget $1 million. So, if it was prolonged for a long time, I think that may be significant. E2 Gowanda HS

062Library: So we'll keep monitoring that situation, but to let you know. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then… So, not a surprise, Barbara got on the website today to check out some stuff, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: it's not accessible, doesn't work, so no surprise there, I guess. So, we'll keep hoping things get solved quickly, and we'll let the board know. With that, that's all I have for right now. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So next, we have our student board members report. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Open house was… Success, and they had over 200 students Show up. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And… come… Oh, can I add a little bit too quickly? E2 Gowanda HS Library: You too. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hosted their first event, the party at a

063playground. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And a lot of families attended. There was a scavenger hunt. E2 Gowanda HS Library: For, like, Panther gear apparel stuff? E2 Gowanda HS Library: And, Clay Scanlon showed up to the school. Most kids got their first autograph. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And they were really happy about that, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: The students were able to make E2 Gowanda HS Library: Orange bracelet, beaded bracelets for every child matter. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Scenario for that? E2 Gowanda HS Library: And that's basically everything for the elementary. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alrighty, and for the high school? E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have quite a lot going on this month. This month is a really busy month. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This Friday, we have the district-wide student call-home early drill,

064just to remind you around that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Next Tuesday, the Erie County DA is coming in. E2 Gowanda HS Library: To the high school, the next Thursday is the Spirit Parade and Potterpuff Game. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Next Friday is the pep rally and the homecoming football game, and following that, the 11th is the Homecoming Dance. Coordination is at 6.30, the dance starts at 7 and goes until 9.30. On the 15th, no school for honoring Indigenous Peoples Day. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The 15th is the PSAT for the juniors, the 16th is the high school picture retakes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: 17th is Snack Snap Days for the seniors, where they'll be in the lunch pad room over there, filling out college applications and just eating snacks. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The 22nd

065is the SAT for the seniors. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And… the 31st meeting is the Student Council Blood Drive. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's all we have for the high school. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What a step. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Excellent. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Say that's all, but that sounds like a bit, so… It sure is. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alright, so up next, we have our external audit review. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm just gonna give the highlights of… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Kind of what the auditor machine? E2 Gowanda HS Library: And again, the financial statements are in draft form currently, so once they get audited and are issued by the 15th, we'll have them on the website. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, if somebody wants a hard copy, just let

066me know. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So really, they went over our financial statements, we have the best opinion that you can get, so that it's a clean, E2 Gowanda HS Library: opinion. We also don't have any deficiencies or internal tools concerns, so that's always good. There were no management letter comments, there's one… E2 Gowanda HS Library: comment on the fund balance, which is a typical fund balance comment. But the good news is, when I kind of come down to here, is that we did decrease our unassigned fund balance. We did that in a couple different ways. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, if you recall, we used some unassigned fund balance to pay for the pool repairs. We were able to use unassigned fund balance to also help, do the parking lot, which then freed up

067money for the capital project. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then we did the rubber surface at the elementary school playground. So it really is the reason that we do have unassigned fund balance, and kind of why we've built them, is for unplanned things. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Or things that we really need, that are out of the ordinary. Then we also then refunded the repair reserve. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And we put, another $4.5 million into the capital projects reserve, which has kind of included in this $28 million. And that, again, was really so that we could then have enough in the capital reserve for the next project. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And we will continue to add to that capital project reserve. We can continue to do that, and we'll probably then create another

068one also for the next project. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Unique in this $28 million is E2 Gowanda HS Library: $2.8 million of open POs, because we're waiting on 2 years' worth of buses that we've ordered, so that's kind of an anomaly this year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And that was really… that's kind of the highlights, quick and dirty. If you wanted to watch the whole presentation, on the audit presentation, you can. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I know, somebody, somebody will. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, any questions? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, you're gonna get a hand slapped again? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, when they come back, when the State Comptroller's Office comes back, they'll probably comment that we were above the 4%. I mean, you know my… my thought is, so right now, we're

069kind of between, so the limit is 4, we're at 9.6. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I tend to like to be closer to 10%, 11%, I look at it as a 2… if I look at 2 months. E2 Gowanda HS Library: worth of expenditures, of operating expenditures. We would have about $6 billion in the reserves. We have $3.8… unassigned fund balance, I'm sorry, not reserves. So I kind of look that we're in the middle of, kind of, where the state wants us, and where… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I feel comfortable being. So, I think we have kind of a good… and like I said, growing the reserves, we really can't go wrong there, either, because we know we're gonna have to use them for the new buses. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have to change, over

070to, like, the electric buses, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think we're at a good spot, and I anticipate that we'll probably continue to kind of grow back up this year again. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, yeah, I mean, the state comptroller is always gonna comment if it's over 4, I don't care if it's 4.5%, they're still gonna comment on it, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's not unusual, unfortunately. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any other questions? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Barbara, kind of get into my question about the fund balance being at… what was this year, 9.6? Yeah. In the upcoming fiscal year, you see it… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Staying the same, increasing a little bit? I could see it going up a little bit again. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Probably, yeah. E2 Gowanda

071HS Library: I mean, it's kind of… it's tough to… because I've… especially with impact aid, and I think I've shared this before, is it fluctuates, because there's no set timeline. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then our Native American tuition can fluctuate, so some of the things that we have fluctuate, and especially on the timing, so it's like we can project… I can kind of project E2 Gowanda HS Library: with certain… you have certain things that we're going to receive, but those and the timing kind of get it off. So that's why, like, you'll see kind of the fluctuations between the revenues and expenditures. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But I would anticipate that we would probably have a minor… some kind of surplus. I mean, we don't operate to have a deficit. E2 Gowanda HS Library:

072We just don't. And especially because we… and then with the interest this year, I keep kind of in… E2 Gowanda HS Library: thinking that eventually it's gonna go back down, and it really hasn't yet, it hasn't affected us, but I would think within the next year or two, we're gonna see a drop back down in interest. The sales tax, I'm curious what my next payment is, because I am… I think we are seeing a decline, based on the sales in Erie County going down. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But I think overall, we should still have a small surplus, at least. E2 Gowanda HS Library: just so you know, Brittany, if you want further explanations on some of this stuff, I mean, Park is more than willing to sit down with you on it. E2 Gowanda

073HS Library: Hit it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You're the newest member, so you're not expected to know everything. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Did you tell her about the clips? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Now, is there federal recommendations to how much we should have? E2 Gowanda HS Library: No. No, the GFOA is the guidance that I use for that 2 months, with the federal government. And I like, I think what, E2 Gowanda HS Library: Charles was getting to. So, I mean, school budgets are the only ones voted on. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And we are the only ones with fund balance requirements that are established by a real property tax law. So, we're unique in that sense, but all the other towns, every other governmental entity doesn't have those restrictions in New York State alone. So

074the federal government doesn't touch that stuff. I look for the National Government Finance Association E2 Gowanda HS Library: Is the one who gives that guideline. Yeah, it's the GFOA, Government Finance Officers Association, and they're national. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's interesting to note that, I mean, the village. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And towns actually have a contingency line. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That they can put money in. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Of course. Right. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We don't have one. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It'd be nice. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Future preposition. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Anything more on the external audit? E2 Gowanda HS Library: If everybody's good, then I'll get us into our… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'll review the 2025-2026 Blueprint for Success. Thank you very much, and

075again, I just wanted to share our final document for our 25-26 Blueprint for Success. It's our strategic planning document that guides our district's work. It's a tool that E2 Gowanda HS Library: It keeps us transparent to our school community, so people are like, you know, what's the school up to? E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know, this kind of serves a reference to what we're doing. And in conjunction with the PLC discussion we had last month, it really captures, again, our mission, our vision. E2 Gowanda HS Library: our core values that we have as a district. And this one emphasized really high expectations and personalized education for students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Within that, as… This coming school year, well, next school year… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Maybe I'll do that, I don't know. E2 Gowanda

076HS Library: 26, 27, we want to try to start reimagining our blueprint a little bit. We're really getting to drum up some new interest, and to stay in the process, which is kind of wait a little bit, because I think E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know, I don't say complacency, but people are kind of satisfied with it. But, we have a portrait of a graduate, new changes to graduation requirements, what a graduate will look like in New York, state in the future, so there's things I think we need to probably start incorporating into our document, to bring it E2 Gowanda HS Library: bring it more to life for the future. So, anyway, the plan, though, identifies, again, our four priority areas, which haven't changed, student growth and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Talked about that last,

077last meeting, more in depth. Social-emotional learning for students, trying to increase E2 Gowanda HS Library: Encourage family and parent engagement. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And really have a supportive culture and climate for all the stakeholders and folks that touch this district. So, this particular document, without going through 18 total pages, shares the strategies, the responsible parties, and the timelines for stuff to happen this year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And Ashley, in conjunction with me, will share some real-time updates throughout the year about where we are at meeting some of these priorities, and then, you know, share some of our E2 Gowanda HS Library: real-time data with you as we collect it. So, this is kind of a new discussion point for the board, so I want to take a lot of time going through this,

078but are there any questions about this document, or… E2 Gowanda HS Library: As you're thinking, let's get our website as today, share it out with our faculty, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I don't have a question about the document itself. My question is about driving parent engagement, and how you plan to, cultivate that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, that's a tough one. He… If you look at… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Some of the research, this is my own personal opinion topic, but all I can really work with, and we can work with, is students sitting before. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I would like to want to focus our attention on, one, make sure students attend school. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then while they're sitting in their seats, get really good, high-quality instruction by teachers,

079which would engage them and obviously encourage their learning. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Family and parents, I always think it's a tough one, because, you know, moms and dads show their support in many, many different ways. You go to a musical area, you run out of the parking for them. See, I go to games or musical things, moms and dads are here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: what goes on at home in terms of homework support and stuff? I don't know, probably depends on individual families. Engage in just different ways. I don't really know E2 Gowanda HS Library: how I can easily quantify that, although we… Hello? E2 Gowanda HS Library: But then you look to the room for success, we invite everybody, and, you know, we could have some debate about the time of day it

080happens, but, you know, not a lot of people show up, so… I don't know, so it just depends, it looks different. And at the end of the day, I'd really rather, if I… of the four strains, personally speaking, I think this is probably the fourth for my priority. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Because I can't control what families and stuff do to engage with us outside. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Important? Absolutely, but I'd really rather focus on the kids that we have before us. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Then, to measure it, I think we've done surveys, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I mean, but look at social media, I mean, we get a lot of engagement there, so, I mean, that's other… E2 Gowanda HS Library: move. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thoughts about that? E2 Gowanda

081HS Library: No, I was just gonna say, I mean, you said it, we talk a lot about how to define parent and family engagement, and the things that we really want our families to show up to, so our parent-teacher conferences, and open houses, and school events, and things like that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our families are there. Our attendance is wonderful at those events. We have families that are responsive when we reach out for support, or we need to connect about their child. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So… E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know, a family member not being able to attend when we're doing our strategic planning. I mean, I can understand that as a mom. I've never been able to attend my own children's school strategic planning, but also, in my defense, I don't

082know that I've actually been invited to it, so I'm happy going to invite our families. I don't know that I've actually been invited, but if I had, I think you sometimes have to pick and choose, especially when you're a busy parent, right? What can I attend, and what can I? And I'm always going to attend my kids' events. E2 Gowanda HS Library: but sometimes I can't come, and I rely on the district staff members who are employed there to really generate their strategic planning and trust the process that they've used to come up with their areas that they're prioritizing, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I mean, I think our families show up to the things that we really want them to be at, and that their kids really want them to be at. E2 Gowanda

083HS Library: Do we have a hierarchy or data to that, I guess? Like, do we have a ticket counter of… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Who's showing up to musicals? Who's showing up to baseball games? I mean, we can look at ticket sales, you know, for certain events. I mean, we take attendance at certain events. I don't know that anybody's actually E2 Gowanda HS Library: And for classrooms, open house, at least in the high school, you could probably get an idea how many parents showed up. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm not really sure if we're doing it at the other buildings, but that's one method. Ticket sales at musicals, I mean, that's quantifiable, but then you go out to football, you don't necessarily collect tickets and stuff, so it's really hard to quantify, other than just

084kind of a eyesight, but, you know, people are there. You said we are trying to survey at those, or no? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, at the end of the year, we do our community survey, you know, kind of judge parent local engagement that way. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So the opinions there are about the thoughts and feelings about the district. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Not saying that we get all that many, but is there a way that we could actually engage them at those events? E2 Gowanda HS Library: To take… get them to take surveys? Even if it was just a possible link at all. E2 Gowanda HS Library: A little kiosk for people to sit there, yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: IP. E2 Gowanda HS Library: My question will be, I'm looking at

085the action plans on… Attendance. E2 Gowanda HS Library: He's a boss bullet. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Kind of circle back to that. How we're doing in attendance, or… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think that's an area that we E2 Gowanda HS Library: Good point. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're gonna miss. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yes, sir. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'd like to hear more about the grading system. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I just want to comment, too, and this is kind of showing my ignorance a little bit here, but for anybody who is not… The acronyms. Yes, the acronyms. Like, I don't know what TOSAs are. You know, I don't know… E2 Gowanda HS Library: like, this RTIMTSS. Like, I don't know what that means. I have a problem with it! No, that's fine,

086yeah. Unfortunately, our professions… E2 Gowanda HS Library: rife with acronyms. I know. To answer questions, TOAST is a teacher on Special Assignment. Okay, I… Well, it would probably be helpful to have an acronym… Even, like, a little key. Just a little, not a big overhaul, just a little bit, so people know what we're talking about here, so I know what we're talking about. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yes, it's very reasonable requests. We have tons of stuff. I'm impressed that you knew that off the top of your head, too. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So many heck here. Those are easy ones, so long as I'm not sure. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: in attendance, I'm also interested in attendance. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You kind of brought it up already that

087we monitor our social media for engagement as well, but is there still any way that we can quantify that, or get them to give us some sort of E2 Gowanda HS Library: kind of report to that? Other than what… I can't have a quick answer off the top of my head. Other than what I've shared with you, which comes from Erica. E2 Gowanda HS Library: who's our PR person, who can monitor that. She's not really versed at actually… E2 Gowanda HS Library: any more in-depth what those are, and I don't know, so it'd be someone I have to find out. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I can talk about achievement data, we can pull out the data we get from our state reports, I can walk you through that pretty easily, but in terms of social

088media, I'm gonna have to find someone who'll dig deeper. If that's what the board wants, I mean, I don't know if that's what you want to know. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I would just be interested for that purpose of knowing what programming that our parents are interested in online. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Right? So… Are they interested in the… E2 Gowanda HS Library: CTE stuff, are they interested in the musical stuff? Like, is it… E2 Gowanda HS Library: program-related, or is it external, or, extracurricular stuff that they're… Yeah, anecdotally, I think our social media's driven… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Interesting their own child. E2 Gowanda HS Library: People might go to the webpage for informational stuff, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: when budget to time comes up, people… and I can't really track this piece,

089but they might be interested in what's coming from the business office. In terms of our social media thing, most people are just interested in what their kids are up to. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You know, that's just my take, so… Are you talking about Facebook specifically? E2 Gowanda HS Library: So one of the challenges with Facebook is views are generated every time you open up E2 Gowanda HS Library: Right? Or scroll past something that's posted, so sometimes when it looks like our board meetings have been watched by 107 participants, it's really… it could be… it's usually, like, Kathy… no, Ed Buchenhagen's one of our repeat viewers, right? But any time you scroll through it, it's registering that it's gotten a view, so it could… there's really no way to know, if you break down views,

090whether it was… E2 Gowanda HS Library: one or two people that scrolled through it several times, or if it was truly 107 views. And even if I had a breakdown of all 107 people that it was counting, without knowing who every person is, I don't have a way to tell you E2 Gowanda HS Library: 30 of those are students, 40 of them are parents, you know, 50 of them are community members. I don't know who the people are, necessarily. Yeah, so I guess that would be my question, and I don't know this if… E2 Gowanda HS Library: If we're allowed to do that as a school, I know you can do that as a business, you can find out who's analytically E2 Gowanda HS Library: looking at your page, and who's clicking, and who's engaging.

091Like, I can do that as a business owner, but I don't know if a school can do that. So I guess that would be my question, and that would be my… E2 Gowanda HS Library: So then we could… I don't know. Hypothetically determined. I'd be curious, what's your why? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, well, I are curious, what do we gain from E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, we're… we're… not to take away from anything, you're very tech-savvy and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Know a lot more about any of this than probably the rest of us in this room, but… E2 Gowanda HS Library: You know, if we want to give the administration a directive, hey, find all this information out, what are we trying to do with it, and is it really… does it fit

092our purpose as a board? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Right now, I don't think, personally. E2 Gowanda HS Library: that it does. Now, there might be other people that do and agree with you, but I would have to say social media is a great thing, it's a great tool, it's a good way to push information out, but as far as which member of the community, I don't see a benefit in tasking admin with that, as opposed to having them focus on what's going on in the building. E2 Gowanda HS Library: One thing that we've tried to establish as a norm for a board here is that we… E2 Gowanda HS Library: You could ask a question, but if it's not a simple answer. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And it kind of turns into a project you

093need E2 Gowanda HS Library: The majority of the board does support you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Otherwise, it's something that you can say, I came with you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I've got other priorities. Understood. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I mean, I ask a lot. He's free to ignore them. And sometimes, yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. Are they more for Blueprint? E2 Gowanda HS Library: What we're talking about Sorry, there's nothing further there, that'll get us into our NISTLA resolutions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Very quickly. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, Zach, so I have the resolution kit, and then the proposed resolution booklet. E2 Gowanda HS Library: want me to open any one of them, or you just want to talk? Well, so I just wanted them to be available to everybody in this

094platform, so that way, if there was any sort of E2 Gowanda HS Library: feedback, feel free to let me know that… and Brittany, because are we going to that dinner, and then we can kind of ask those questions. The sooner, the better, so that way we can kind of get the questions out there to people just as quick as possible. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then hopefully we can get your feedback, too. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What can it be? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Two-way conversation instead of just a one-and-done. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I, I read the first. E2 Gowanda HS Library: proposed resolution, and I said, what does New York State School Boards have against marital control? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Let's go, watch. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's a joke. E2 Gowanda

095HS Library: But, that would be my only concern, I guess. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Question? Just… Let me know just as soon as possible. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Will do. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, did you want to get into any of these any further this evening? Nope, I figured I'd let everybody do that at their own discretion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. Okay, well, I got to that one. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I did find it interesting, I guess, that milk was on there. What milk could be served. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, are you compiling a list of ones that you're gonna talk about for… Yes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Anything further for resolutions? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Right? E2 Gowanda HS Library: A lot of moments to our Board of Education and

096Communications. We have none. Let me move this to our committee. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any updates? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Doesn't think that makes sense. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Policy committee met. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That was after the birth of cancer. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm used to Mark giving the updates, so I'm… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm sorry, no, building usage, or facility usage. Yes. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: candy was there. Right. Well, I feel like there was, like, a… E2 Gowanda HS Library: like, a concern, but there was no, like, solution. No. There was no real… She was… weren't we supposed to look at some numbers of… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, I'm working on those. Okay, yeah, yeah, that's what it was. Nonetheless. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Potential costs and

097whatnot for facilities use. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Usage of the turf fields, primarily. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The concerns we just get a lot of use, which is good, I guess, to get a lot of use on our fields, and some of it's been accounted for, and some… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Things just show up, so… trying to get a handle on that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: One slide. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Good morning. E2 Gowanda HS Library: advice, I guess, would be… E2 Gowanda HS Library: When you're looking at use of the fields and so forth, always remember who paid for them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Wow. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We move the public gate for them, and you start restricting usage down to certain groups, or… E2 Gowanda HS Library: You're running

098the Congress. E2 Gowanda HS Library: They have no other committee reports, I don't think that seems to report an admin roundtable. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Mark, would you like to start us off? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was approached on the streets here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Regarding… Sports fields and maintenance of sports fields. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And the question came up. E2 Gowanda HS Library: How does that improve our scores? E2 Gowanda HS Library: a gas courts. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you very much, thanks so much, hon. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Sports. Sports field, sports. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Specifically, like, lining the Taylor's field. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I think… Give me that, I can give him an answer, but… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think it's an important question.

099E2 Gowanda HS Library: Kind of phrase when you're looking at any new capital project. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Why? E2 Gowanda HS Library: How does that happen? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Not just sports, and how does it help? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Climate. E2 Gowanda HS Library: environment. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the grades. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You only have to do that if you want it passed. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, next thing, I sent you a cartoon. E2 Gowanda HS Library: clients in math, premium sports. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's an article in the paper, same thing of September. E2 Gowanda HS Library: On that Friday, declines in math and reading skills E2 Gowanda HS Library: Are a threat to the workforce and college readiness. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Sometimes, on our blueprints,

100on our things, we measure incremental changes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: How did we do based on what we did last year? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Basic 2 years ago. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Based on the rest of the state. E2 Gowanda HS Library: My question is… are… Preparing our kids. E2 Gowanda HS Library: future. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's a different question than… Really good against the state tests. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's a concern out there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: another story I can share with you regarding that cartoon story. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, the last item I had was I, I do notar it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What is more that, E2 Gowanda HS Library: The city of Dunkirk canceled their Halloween parade due to safety concerns they were worried about.

101E2 Gowanda HS Library: Safety and what's going on. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think it's important for the community E2 Gowanda HS Library: To show support for parades, our spirit parade coming up. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and things, it's, if you huddle it, Scared in your cave. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Refused to come out. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Because of the world outside and what's happening. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The terrorist someone. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's a lie. E2 Gowanda HS Library: How do I follow all that? Doom and gloom here! E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, the community cheerleader here, Matt Rasis Mumba. Next week is Spirit Week, so y'all better be there for the parade. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Classes are working real hard on their floats and all that, and… E2 Gowanda

102HS Library: The Powerpuff game, that's always fun, and the homecoming game, and all the things, that's, like, my favorite week of the year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Not all parents are so excited, I know. E2 Gowanda HS Library: No, no, no bad intentions, Max. Anyway! E2 Gowanda HS Library: So there's that going on. All the fall sports are in full swing, they're fun. Volleyball, football, all the things, they're all doing well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm not very prepared for this tonight, so, E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our mayor here, to kind of speak and expand a little bit on what he had to say, included a very nice message in the program of our community production of, E2 Gowanda HS Library: Little Shop of Horrors at the go on to Hollywood theater a couple weeks

103ago, which we had some of our students were, in that on the cast. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And, the mayor included a very nice message that I happened to put out on Facebook, much to your dismay, probably. But, just… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Promoting positivity in the community, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Things like Mark said, you know. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That don't, don't let the negativity keep you down and hold you back. That, you know, all gotta rally together and keep things moving in a good direction, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: So come out and support Spear Week. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's all. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm gonna remind everybody here about the open invitation to please be at Spirit Week, or the Spirit Parade. We would love for you to

104be involved in the parade, and riding in a vehicle, or whatever we're gonna have. If you can reach out to me and let me know who's going to be attending, so I can make sure there's space for you somewhere. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We do have the wagon for one last year. The cooks have actually sold the wagon, but they will be… the new owners are letting them keep it for the spirit parade, so… and I'm not gonna say their ages, but I'm so impressed that they're still involved. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And that, so definitely look out for the red wagon, because this is the last time it's gonna be… that's been in our parade. We couldn't remember, I think it's 7 years out of the… this is gonna be the 11th. 11th year.

105And they were in 6 or 7 of them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, it's been pretty amazing. I do want to, E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm not going to completely bounce off of what the question that Mark presented about the athletics, but I do want to go back to Clay Scanlon. That's what happens when you have sports in your school. You have people like Clay Scanlon that still come back to their school. E2 Gowanda HS Library: with the cup to show the students, and it's a life for him, and I think that athletics should be involved in all students growing up. I think for educational purposes, for athletics, for all of that, I think it's very important to have sports in your students' lives. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And the last thing, I know it's

106always commented about the Gwanda Sports Boosters. When it's noted as dollars coming in from us, it's the Gwanda Boosters. We support arts, music, academics, and sports. So I just, at some point, if we can get that changed, I don't know why it still says Skwanda Sports Boosters, but it's Gwanda Boosters Club. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Because they support every… we support everything. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, I don't know why it's always written that way, but I just wanted to make a comment on that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But yes, very excited for Spirit Week. It's always a great time. Can't wait to see the floats. We just reached out to judges today, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'll be formally asking if we can do the parade tomorrow. Mr. Mayor said… Yeah, because Mr.

107Mayor said we have to do that, and I didn't know that that's gonna go on the checklist that I'm building, so… No pressure! No pressure! Right, right. But that's all I have to say. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. Me too. Again, I'm super excited, especially for the wagon. I was very sad to hear that they sold it, but he called me back a couple days later and said that he was keeping it for this year, that it'll be in the parade again. Yeah, it is. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Gotta get a wagon. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, we might need them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There you go, and I'm sure you guys can decorate one for administration. That's alright. No, I don't like… it was very hard to say… You never know when

108the last time, you know? They're such wonderful people. They are, they're great. And the kids love it. They do. E2 Gowanda HS Library: They do, and they travel all over. It's amazing how many miles they've put on that vehicle, just to be involved in parades and these kind of local events, so… We're all gonna have to ride with Tom Partridge down there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, sorry, just two things I wanted to highlight. Last week, a few of us, including Dr. Anderson and myself, we attended the Castellani Art Museum exhibit on Niagara University's campus. They were highlighting E2 Gowanda HS Library: Indigenous history, so learning from the past, teaching for the future, so there was a lot of work on culturally responsive teaching practices, and a huge spotlight on the, Thomas Indian School, the

109Indigenous boarding school that was in, you know, which was right here on the, Seneca Cataragas territory. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And so that was just a very powerful day for our staff. We had some kids that went to the exhibit, and actually one of the presenters is going to be presenting to our staff on Superintendent's Conference Day in November on culturally Relevant Teaching Practices. Our staff's very excited about that. Those that went to the presentation said this would be a great speaker to come and bring on campus, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're really excited to bring, it's gonna be Dr. Lori Quigley, who's coming on campus, to work with us, so we're really excited about that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then, thank you for your support with the contract with Lakeshore. So, one

110of the reasons I advocated for that partnership was their data protection officer, which is one of three sole DPOs in the state, really well-versed in data privacy and security. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But State Ed has been reaching out to districts directly to schedule just a review of their policies and procedures around, E2 Gowanda HS Library: data security and student privacy, and I'm really proud of what we do here, but she just looks at it from a different lens, and the day that we E2 Gowanda HS Library: looked at the contract and I gave it to Bob for the review, State had scheduled our review, so I'm like, well, it was fate, we're meant to, we're meant to work with her. So, we'll be reviewing our policies and procedures as a tech team with the

111state. So, I'm not nervous about it. I think our district does a great job with that, but it's always good to have that second set of eyes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: asking you those great questions, so I'm excited about that partnership with their district. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What's on your turn? E2 Gowanda HS Library: She's sitting there very quietly. I don't want to leave her out. For high school, thank you, we've gone through all the exciting events for high school. Our school year has been really excellent. We have excellent students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think, it… I enjoy seeing all of the students socializing, instead of E2 Gowanda HS Library: glued to their phones. Although I know they have them, they're not in classes, they're engaging in lessons, so that's really cool to

112see. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our high school staff, specifically, has been really leading the charge in understanding the… what's coming up, which is called New York Forward. This is coming in several years, and there's a slow E2 Gowanda HS Library: semi-slow rollout plan of what our graduation measures are going to look like. You know, Mark said, are we preparing students for the future? And that, I think, really is the question of New York Forward. So, our high school teachers have been, every Tuesday during collaborative team time, talking about students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Talking about data, and then talking about, hey, what are these, these things, components, characteristics of New York Forward? So that's some of the work that we're doing at Body School. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That

113was my turn. I still have nothing. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We do have an event, it is in Board Docs, the Dinner with Rick Timms, E2 Gowanda HS Library: take a look at that on board docs, and let me know by the 9th if you're interested in that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Think that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, I have just Dr. Anderson and Zach. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Signed up for the dinner with, CD Commissioner. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Excellent win against Allegheny Limestone with the football team. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Excited for… I know we're excited for the game against CLV tomorrow. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Other than that… Or anything else. So there's Ben. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hopefully. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the fall sports out

114to finish out October and move into November a little bit, hopefully, for football. Including with that, going to High School Musical has been putting in quite a lot of work, I know there's a rehearsal going on right now. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our show dates are November 5th and 6th. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And the musical this year is actually High School Musical Musical. That's all I have. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, member engagement, like… E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's a great opportunity to go to the Rick Sims thing. I guess that would be my advocacy for that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: If you can, look at your calendars and try to attend type stuff like that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I've attended stuff in the past. The rally, I believe, is a good

115opportunity, too, to meet other board members across. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The area? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I haven't attended that one yet. I'm gonna try to this year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And… the athletics piece, and the… E2 Gowanda HS Library: I hate to be the person to keep bringing something up, but I guess… More directly to the… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Surveying of faculty and students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Is there a way we could survey the students to prove that the athletics actually assist and aid and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: to our educating of our students. So… E2 Gowanda HS Library: If we had the information from them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Saying, like, that's why I attend school. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Dad up to it.

116E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, I know, as an athlete myself, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: a majority of my fellow athletes, mostly the football team. E2 Gowanda HS Library: One of our biggest motivators is to come to school so we can play. Like, our biggest motivation is to be able to play all other sports, not just fall sports, but throughout the different seasons. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And we are quite on top of it, I know there's a few stragglers, but… E2 Gowanda HS Library: If you don't have the grids, you're not playing. Candace Phillips has made that very clear, the whole administration has made that very clear, and we want to play. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So… Cool. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Let's your correlation for ya. So, thanks, Ms. Graham and Ms. Malschlager

117for that presentation. I think that trip was fantastic. E2 Gowanda HS Library: support it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you to the boosters and the family of the football players for their generous donations. It's always a, nice and seated support for the kids. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And lastly, welcome to Mr. Lowry for coming and spending time with us. I know he does his tour, and it's late to have him with us, so… E2 Gowanda HS Library: 15. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Go ahead. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think we should switch up the order from time to time. Because I always feel like a broken record, just kind of reminding everybody. Spirit Week has become one of my favorite weeks, E2 Gowanda HS Library: I don't know if it was last year or two

118years ago, the Shrek… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Flo, I still remember that thing. It was phenomenal, and I feel like each year they get, like, better and better. I don't even know… E2 Gowanda HS Library: who's putting these things together, but, like, very impressive, so I always look forward to that. Thank you, to the boosters for your generous donations. I know I am a booster, but I am new, and I'm just amazed by you ladies and all you do for all the students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Congrats to all our new hires. Carrie Tomczak, I'm super excited for you. Musical. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We love the musical in the Olszewski household. We actually did High School Musical when I was in high school, so I'm looking forward to seeing that. E2 Gowanda HS Library:

119And then I just have a shameless plug. Gwanda Area Youth Football League, they'll have their last home game this Saturday at Hillis Field. Our freshman team is 6-0. I think they've only lost one game in the last three seasons. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And we have a cash bash going on. It's a fundraiser. It's our biggest fundraiser. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, come support them, buy a cash-pash ticket, our youth. E2 Gowanda HS Library: sports feeds our high school teams. So, E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hopefully those will just continue to… E2 Gowanda HS Library: grow and get better and better each year, but other than that, that's all I got. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Can I just bounce a quick comment off of that with, the floats? It's amazing to see all these E2 Gowanda

120HS Library: crazy floats that these kids are putting together, and one of the rules is it's gotta be student-done only. There are parents only there to supervise. Any of the floats that you see are done all by students. They put them all together. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm very impressed. It's amazing to see what they come up with. I mean, and again, I joke and I say it all the time, that the first year, they didn't want to do it. Our class officers were like, you want us to do a float, and what? And… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, and now, I mean, 11 years later, these kids start doing it weeks in advance, and they're talking about it over the summer, and they're planning for it, so it's really amazing to see. E2 Gowanda

121HS Library: It's a very good learning experience. It is, like, with my daughter's group, you know, the… E2 Gowanda HS Library: they're learning construction, and working together, and communicating, and planning when to get together and do this, and whatever, and… E2 Gowanda HS Library: Why are you laughing as well? Maybe the junior class is a little more organized than the senior classes. Stay in your lane. Anyway, it is really cool. It's really cool. I know it's a lot of time and effort, but… E2 Gowanda HS Library: But… I don't want to see it go away. I don't either. I'm hoping that it, like, goes on for years, and the Pottermuff game. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Go seniors? Yeah, go seniors. I don't know. Seniors. I don't know the high school students. I'm still in elementary

122and middle. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alrighty. Well, I have nothing to add to it around, so that'll get us into our parking lot for the evening. In other words, man spots us just yet. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Or weed. E2 Gowanda HS Library: move to our parking lot. I don't want to forget. Mr. Lowry, do you have anything that you wish to add? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I do not, thank you, I'm terrible. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Maybe because we need to… to the parking lot. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was just… That's funny. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Contract, if we have any changes, we'll see. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The last thing for the evening would be Executive Session. Make a consideration motion to assess direct executive session. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Discussing, collective

123negotiations. E2 Gowanda HS Library: All in favor? E2 Gowanda HS Library: No. Anthony, we're not going back on.