Board of Education Meeting 2-12-2025

001E2 Gowanda HS Library: through that process. And then there's textbook, hardware and software and library aid based on people counts that we receive from the State. E2 Gowanda HS Library: State the impact. Again, the State gets its revenue from general revenues. There's taxes and other income. E2 Gowanda HS Library: While they've developed new categories devoted to fund education. These do not necessarily increase aid to schools. They seem to just plant the State's general obligations. So it's not more. It's basically supplanting these aids and amounts received this year are lottery aid. 1.9 million E2 Gowanda HS Library: dlt lottery aid, 847,000 E2 Gowanda HS Library: mobile sports, wagering 847,000 E2 Gowanda HS Library: cannabis ate 94,000, and so E2 Gowanda HS Library: can be more than a shame to deceive. But that's E2 Gowanda HS Library:

002where we get some of our State funds. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The impact is Federal aid we receive significantly less Federal aid than we do State aid. But there would be a significant impact that was halted, reduced, or ended. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Federal funds are counted our special aid funds. E2 Gowanda HS Library: which is really a separate legal fund of equal revenues and expenditures, probably about 1.1 million and fund approximately 10 full-time equivalent staff positions and other services, and within that other grants that are funded by Federal dollars include title, I idea, which are special education services, title 2. A E2 Gowanda HS Library: petal. 4. Title, 6, American Services, and we have a social worker from our recovers grant in there. So any reduction reduction. E2 Gowanda HS Library: by the way,

003Federally was reportedly reduced E2 Gowanda HS Library: or alter. Any way, we would feel an impact of our programs here in the district. And then the general fund includes also about 1.1 million dollars from impact aid which is aid generated from E2 Gowanda HS Library: our adjacent position against this. Without E2 Gowanda HS Library: nations, Cataranus territory. It's federal territory. Consider that. So we have no taxing jurisdiction. So the Federal Government makes up for that loss of revenue by providing impact aid. And that's really important. A lot of States that have large military bases and Indian Territories in or on their their school property. E2 Gowanda HS Library: then about point 0 9. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So Medicaid reimbursement for services to students. That's what does that make sense per dollar. E2 Gowanda HS

004Library: 90,000 90,000. Okay, and we'll certainly be watching Federal government happenings now until E2 Gowanda HS Library: impacts us around those funding sources. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's really important for us. Fund balance E2 Gowanda HS Library: concern for future years. Funding and unplanned expenditures was why our district, we have strategically build up our fund balance reserves. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We knew full well that 2324 is the last year full funding for foundation aid and Covid funding was ending. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The 2526 budget will be using reserves which have been explicitly, explicitly identified. But I really think it's we collectively would E2 Gowanda HS Library: board, feel it's very important for us to have a way of Healthy Fund balance E2 Gowanda HS Library: for us to maintain programs in the future

005instead of a rainy day approach. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, did you want to talk about something else? Sure. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, as you can see, as we as we mentioned, we have strategically built up our reserves over time kind of planning for the future. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There was something that happened back in 2019 20 that basically, you can see there. We had an additional 3 million dollars in revenue that did not have a matching expense, because the State changed the way that they were paying for our native American tuition. So because we are, we're pretty diligent and strategic with how we spend our funds. So it's not like, because we got an extra 3 million dollars in revenue. We're just going to go out and spend 3 million dollars of

006expenses on something E2 Gowanda HS Library: that may not have any value. We're very strategic, and how we fund our schools and make sure that anything that we're purchasing for our students has value. So that kind of started our upward trend of growing the fund balance E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then beginning in 2021 is when we started to see the 6.4 million dollars of additional Federal revenues and same thing, I think we would have been criticized if we had taken full advantage of all of those grants, but we again had to be strategic and thoughtful on how we spent those. So that's kind of how we built up the general fund balances and reserves over that time E2 Gowanda HS Library: if you look at 2024 when we ended. So we had 5.4 million

007of unassigned fund balance. The red is all of the reserves, and yellow is assigned fund balance, but focusing on the 5.4, we are recommending to use the point 4. So 400,000 to help fund the pool E2 Gowanda HS Library: repairs E2 Gowanda HS Library: and the State Controllers level would or state controllers recommends that only 4% of your next year's budget be in that green category. If that was the case, we would only have a 1.5 million dollars of extra money that we basically we could freely spend. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I would say today in inflation terms and with everything else going on 1.5 million dollars, and by no means enough money to be able to be prepared for something unforeseen, especially school. It could be the roofs. It could be anything that could

008happen that you're not prepared for. So that's why we have that 5.4 million there. And we also use the Gfoa. The Government Finance Officers Association Recommendation, which says you should really have 2 months of your operating expenditures E2 Gowanda HS Library: assigned in your fund, balance or unassigned. So that would be 5.8 million dollars. So you can see we're a little closer to what that amount really is recommended to be. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So. Factors impacting property taxes. I'll turn it back with Barb a lot of times. We get questions about tax bills, why, they are what they are, and a lot of individual homeowners, property owners, tax bills are really somewhat independent of what the school district does with tax law, because there's maybe 4 factors that Bob will discuss here in a

009second that really drive what someone's tax bill would be E2 Gowanda HS Library: so. The main factors are your assessment, your equalization rate. So your assessment would be set by the town assessors, and then your equalization rates are set by the New York State Department of taxation. Exemptions are really also kind of established by your taxing entity and or the State depending on what they are. And then, really, the last amount is what the school district is saying that we're going to E2 Gowanda HS Library: to levy. But really any factors of those changing can change your tax bill, regardless of whether the district raised taxes or not. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So 5 do I go to the next one. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We'll go to the next slide, and our district covers

0106 different townships and 3 counties collect schools, taxes. So it's kind of complicated. And E2 Gowanda HS Library: there's a lot going on when these are. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So there's a lot of numbers going on here. But really, I just kind of want to focus on what's happening. So the bottom was the 2324 tax levy, and then the top. The yellow boxes are the 2425. So the current year levy. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So what you kind of see happening. If you look at Perrysburg and Persia, I just kind of want to focus on the changes in assessments. You can see that they went up like 9 million dollars. They went up 11 million dollars, 10 million dollars between those 2, each different town, even though their equalization rate was still 100 basically

011properties had been reassessed. So their assessments went up. E2 Gowanda HS Library: which, then, has made their proportion of the total levy change. And then, when you multiply that by the full value, and what's valued in each township for what's being levied? You can see that the total levy went up, but the tax rate went down because overall, the total assessment went up. So the taxes are being spread out over a bigger area so that decreases your tax rate. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yep. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And so this just focuses kind of on those changes. Perrysburg, the assessed value went up 9.4 million. Perrysburg went up 8.2 million. Their tax rate per 1,000 went down. Both went down 0 point 5 1 cents per 1,000, but the total amount raised is higher per

012town, because they're part of the bigger pie. There's more of their their township is a bigger portion of the total levy. So that's why the amount raised goes up. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But the tax rate goes down. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then just kind of showing what happens. And if I took 2 town, 2 homes, what's happened over the last 3 years? Because I've kind of been talking about this for several years, but it's because there's been large fluctuations between townships and the levy changing and people's tax bills changing. But it really wasn't because the district raised their taxes like we've had townships go up E2 Gowanda HS Library: in total tax levy more than the total levy had changed. So there's so many things happening at once. So just kind of looking

013at the top house. So their assessed valuation went from 75, 5 all the way to 135, 2 E2 Gowanda HS Library: over 2 years. So in the last year their valuation went up 10,000, but their bill only went up $51. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So and that's because the total tax levy per 1,000 went down. Because we're spreading that tax levy over taking the total taxes is being spread over a larger amount of assessment. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You look at home. B. They had a lot more things going on so same thing. Their assessed valuation jumped from 130,000 to 2223, E2 Gowanda HS Library: and when you get to 2425, it's 436,600. So they had a huge increase in their assessed valuation. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But they also, if you look at the

014exemptions line went from 28,800 to almost 142,000 in exemptions. So they were able to actually see a decrease in that last year $365 on their tax bill. So that's probably the best example of seeing. Like all the fluctuations E2 Gowanda HS Library: and so many things happening right, their assessed valuation changed, their utilization rate changed, and then their tax amount changed. So it's so many things happening at once. So I just that's kind of the bottom line of learning about the tax bills is mostly it's not dependent on what the school is doing at all. But if you have questions I encourage you to ask me, because I could probably talk about this for all day. E2 Gowanda HS Library: please contact the business office. We'll walk you through it. Yeah. The only thing we

015can't help you with is how your assessment was arrived at, because the town assessors do that, but we can certainly explain to you your changes in tax bills E2 Gowanda HS Library: for closing remarks for tonight's presentation. I just want to share the Budget calendar, and what's to expect next? Generally the same things we do every year. But the next public board workshop regarding the development of 2526 school year budget is tonight at 6 o'clock, right after nearly right after this particular meeting. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then again on February 26, th everybody is encouraged to tune in everything is broadcast, live, recorded, and certainly people are welcome to come in person for information to witness the discussion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This presentation, this budget presentation and updates will be posted on the

016website on the business office page, where you can find all these documents. And if there's questions, please ask, the full budget should be presented to the Board early March and adopted in early April. E2 Gowanda HS Library: on April 29.th Budget statement available like school building documents included, are based on law. A lot of this is driven by law. May 7, th is our budget. Hearing at 6 pm. Here in the High School library, we'll present 2526 budget that was approved by the Board to go for public approval. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our budget, newsletter, and Budget notice is sent after this budget. Hearing people should expect their homes between May 8th and May 13, th then May 20, th which E2 Gowanda HS Library: come quicker. We know it is statewide budget. Vote and

017school board election day, and again, please visit the direct website and budget page for additional updates. We'd love to hear your input and answer your questions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So again, questions. I shared. Budget documents are on district web page. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Please visit. They'll be updated in real time. If you have any questions, please. Email me at [email protected] or [email protected], or simply just give us a call. Glad to talk to you in person, so I do on behalf of Barb and myself appreciate those who've turned in here in person, and those folks who are watching on their own devices at their own time, thankful for your participation. So have a great evening and enjoy the rest of it. Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Nope, now we can speak freely. E2

018Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, you're done, requested. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: sure. E2 Gowanda HS Library: perfect goodness. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I do we good posters all right, like to go ahead and call the meeting to order E2 Gowanda HS Library: any consideration motion to accept the agenda so moved. Second, all in favor. Aye. E2 Gowanda HS Library: that will turn us over to our budget discussion for the question of 2026. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. So I'll just go through the reports that I had attached. Usually I just try to, for I think we haven't been through this process before. So the memo that I send with all them I just try to kind of give you a sense of what we've included, maybe, and the things that

019we need to cover kind of at the workshop. So you'll see for the expenditures and revenues. I have summary pages, and then I have the detail that's in Wincap. I do try to put notes in where there's significant changes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Certainly. If there's other questions, just let me know. Revenues this year I included both actuals for 2223, and 2324, because I want to kind of show you on some of the key accounts, fluctuations that we get. And they're not quite because of us. I mean, they're determined by either the State or Federal Government. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the State aid is that, you'll see, is based on the governor's budget. With the exception of boces. Their projection was really low, so I added 200,000 to make it what I think it will

020be. Once they see what our expenditures are for this year, and then the last thing that we'll have to talk about was really the property taxes and the proposed levy E2 Gowanda HS Library: that you'd like to have for next year. We do have to file with the State Controller's office the tax gap calculation. It's due by the end of the month, so we could push it off to the 28th or 26th workshop if you want. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But as we're talking through webinars, we could talk about the tax potential tax. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I'm actually going to start with expenditures tonight. So we can kind of just save the the taxes discussion for last. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So this is the summary sheet. So it has. So general support

021is really all the functions that support the district. It's the Board of Education, the superintendent's office finance E2 Gowanda HS Library: and riches crew. So that's basically again, the support function. And some of the the it functions that support the system. So really, any increases in salary are just based upon contract in this case. E2 Gowanda HS Library: when we get to instructional budgets, as you know, the Gta contract expires the end of this year. So we're going to have to project those. These are really just based on what we anticipate. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The biggest increase. Here is the treasurer. We did have the discussion, as we know Jackie keeps claiming she's retiring, so I kind of anticipated a crossover between her leaving a new treasurer and maybe additional salary, and then I

022also anticipated that there would be training. So that's kind of the biggest increase there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: legal, just based on the historical trend of what we've spent there. I decreased some of that. But then we do. On the Boces side the personnel that's we use boces to negotiate our contracts. So based on anticipating the projected gta may run into next year I don't know, but then the next contracts that are expiring. So I did increase that E2 Gowanda HS Library: the public relations is all the person that we use through boces. So those those increases are set by them E2 Gowanda HS Library: central services. This is mostly Rich's crew. This is the 1st 2 lines, and again, in the detailed sheets. We can look at the different lines. So there's a couple

023things that are different. Utilities are increasing. In most cases the replacement for some Aeds that are. They're not going to be E2 Gowanda HS Library: supported anymore. Right? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yep. And then we have been so we can get safe act building aid. It's building aid that you get the subsequent year of put in something related to safe act, which would be the internal locks that we've been kind of putting in piecemeal. So we've been trying to do a few every year, so you'll see those in his budget. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's nicer to do it that way than try to put it into a project, a big capital project, because we really have other needs in a big capital project. If you get building aid every year, it kind of makes

024sense to do it that way. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then this central data processing line. I have not updated that we just had our meeting with Moses this morning. So I'll update that later and then tell you kind of where we're at with that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: this is our unallocated insurance. Some of it we do. We're allowed transportation insurance, related transportation. I put in the transportation department because we'll get aid on it. So this is just our general insurances, and I think everybody at home has probably seen the insurances go up between automobile and home. Everything's kind of increased, and then those last 2, those are required payments that we make to bothies E2 Gowanda HS Library: the other 2 categories we were talking about tonight. Again. These are kind of just

025straightforward. These are the annual debt payments for construction on previous projects, and then the transfer to the other funds. So the 100,000 is what we do every year for the capital outlay. There's a local share that we have to send to our Grants primarily for the summer handicap program. And then the Food Service Fund. We've always kind of budgeted an amount in there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There were years that the Food Service Department was having a loss. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But since Covid we've been getting additional revenues. So Nicole has been doing a good job, so I haven't used that transfer. I'm hesitant to get rid of it just in case we never really know what's going to happen, and she does have some equipment needs. So if she were to overspend on

026in the in the Food Service Department, which is really all State and federally funded, then we would look to the general fund to give a send a transfer to that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So that's the summary. So this is the detail. But basically of accounts so kind of every I mean for every one of these blue lines. That's the amount that you saw on the summary page. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So these are really the details between them, I can tell you. Just kind of shortcut. So anything that's a 1 50 is considered like an instructional staff. So like Bob and I are both instructional because we're certified. Your 160 s. Is going to be your clerical staff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: 400 s. Are contractual, and 4 50 S are supplies. So these

027are just the items that we have, line by line increased a lot of them. I really didn't put notes, because I don't think that they're necessarily E2 Gowanda HS Library: worthy of it. But again, if you have a question like, there's my note on the treasurer's salary, and then assuming additional training. So those are kind of the detail behind what you saw on that other sheet. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and there's the decrease, the increase. And again, the notes E2 Gowanda HS Library: can stop me. If you have any questions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the summer labor custodial. I did increase that based on what we we spent E2 Gowanda HS Library: last year, and I know that we have. We did with the minimum wage increases, and then there is 2, it 2 to

0283. It staff, that is, in this line, even though it's riches line. We just kind of pay them all together in case they cross over the equipment custodial. He is asking for 2 new floor scrubbers that are at the end of their life, and a new washer and dryer at the elementary school. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This is one of the items that usually when we're talking about his budget. If we know we're going to have additional funds to spend this fiscal year. Then sometimes we purchase these with this year's funds, and then we can decrease this budget. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So there's these are as equipment and custodial. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then he's got. This is the E2 Gowanda HS Library: the additional access cards. You had additional equipment somewhere, didn't

029you? E2 Gowanda HS Library: There was a down in 1621 for the the fields. Yep. So then, here's the additional access to card readers. This doesn't really help us to pre spend, because we can. We're capped at the amount of what we can submit for E2 Gowanda HS Library: the building aid for those categories of doors and stuff. So that's 1 where, as long as we just keep doing it every single year we'll get the aid the following year. But when it comes to his actual equipment that we're not really. We're not getting any aid on. That's where we look to kind of prepay some of those things. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So here's his other. The field striping machine is something that he needs as well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I don't know

030if you want to have the discussion. Now, if you would be okay with us, purchasing those with the shears funds if available. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, okay, anybody else. Any clicks. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Everybody. Right with it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's what we usually do. So, okay, thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's the 12 Aeds E2 Gowanda HS Library: improvements to buildings. This is kind of where we put, you can see, like, last year, we spent 274,000. Everything we that may come up that we need we did the bleachers for the softball. We've done sidewalks, so it's kind of a big E2 Gowanda HS Library: kind of catch all of things that come up that we need to do outside and inside the building E2 Gowanda HS Library: postage is increasing.

031E2 Gowanda HS Library: This is the the one I haven't. I haven't adjusted. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Here is insurance same notes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Those are required. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Here's your principal and interest payments. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then the transfers to the other funds. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So that's the detail on the expenditures. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So we're taking taking on 2 E2 Gowanda HS Library: additional summer labors. No, that's just they're already in there between the increase in the E2 Gowanda HS Library: wage. That was what the increase was and the hours that we spent last summer. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I increase that for those for that. Yeah, just saying, the 2 of the 3 of them are. They do it work, but they're in

032riches lines. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I don't keep track of minimum wage. What's it? E2 Gowanda HS Library: 1550, 1550. And then we gave. So we actually in our last, when the Board adopted the wait wages, we said if a laborer had been here like 2 years, we were going to give them like an extra 50 cents an hour, was trying to keep E2 Gowanda HS Library: the kids coming back. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I saw other districts do that. I was trying to make sense people to come back. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then the increase for the Treasury, you said is E2 Gowanda HS Library: for training. And is it a salary? If E2 Gowanda HS Library: yeah. So, I think we figured there has to be some

033overlap for Jackie to train whoever comes in salary, and I assume we might have to pay a little bit more than what Jackie gets. It just budgeted that way. It is definitely an overlap of some time, but we haven't heard from her E2 Gowanda HS Library: positively. Well, I'm trying to get her to stay, and we decided to wait to post for the replacement a little closer to maybe like March, only because I didn't want to post for something that's going to start in September too early and have people who might be interested not apply because it's too early. So we're trying to find that balance in there of the right timing. Well, if you haven't gotten a formal. E2 Gowanda HS Library: she's going to Medicare tomorrow. I think she's going to social security

034tomorrow. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm trying to talk her into to stay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What does the training for the new treasurer look like? Can you give a couple examples of what that would be. Yeah. So as all the associate school business officials, they always have put out trainings. So I would envision that that person would go to like, there's a school management workshop every November that has like a treasure strain. So I would imagine that that person should really probably go to that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I mean, if we got an experienced person. They may not need that training, but if it's someone newer, I would certainly recommend that they go to some official training. Does that training come with a certification? E2 Gowanda HS Library: And not really. No. E2

035Gowanda HS Library: there's there's things that you can do to become certified like a financial management in asmo. They have certain certifications. Gfoa has its own certifications, but just going to that. Training itself doesn't give you a certification. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We help them with that getting certified. We help them with that getting certified, was it on their own? E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's not. They would just really have to go to the trainings. So if they wanted to go to the trainings. We've always supported people trainings. So sure, yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: yeah, it's not like, E2 Gowanda HS Library: I mean, like, I'm a Cpa, so that's different. Obviously so. And I have to take the test. People test those. Those are different certifications that are really run by those organizations.

036E2 Gowanda HS Library: I have an unrelated question about the Aeds. What's the life cycle of an aed machine? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I would say. There, there really isn't like a an Aed is good for 7 years. The batteries are good for 4, so that every 4 years we change them out. There isn't a E2 Gowanda HS Library: this one's gonna be good for 7, and you gotta change it. I got a call from the company that we purchased them from, and they just said that zool is not. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh. E2 Gowanda HS Library: they're not supporting that. So if one of them broke or wasn't working, they won't support it. We have to change it out anyways. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So that's why E2 Gowanda HS Library: we put

037or I put in to trade them out so that they were supported. Is there an annual inspection of those done by the Zolve? E2 Gowanda HS Library: We do a monthly? There is no oh, yearly, like preventive maintenance. E2 Gowanda HS Library: we change out the pads. We change out the batteries when they're due. Then there's a green light that tells you that they're that they're good. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hopefully, you never have to use it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any other questions on expenses. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Revenue. So this is the revenue summary. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I try to group it into the bigger categories. And like I said, taxes we can talk about in a little bit. I always put this kind of the 1% levy increase. If the home

038was full value of 100,000, it would increase the tax bill, $9 and 26, assuming everything else was equal. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We know that's never the case, but that's just you know what we have the reserves and fund balance we always revisit at the end, when we had to have a full expenditure budget this year. I know that we are going. I am planning on proposing that we use some of those reserve funds for specific things. I'm waiting on the retirements for this year to kind of know who might be then retiring next year to use that Eblar reserve E2 Gowanda HS Library: Erie County sales tax that did not increase it. That does E2 Gowanda HS Library: kind of move the the tax levy around some. I guess I'm just always hesitant to

039keep increasing it, not knowing what's gonna happen. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Native American tuition again, I think when you see the detail you'll see why I'm keeping it flat. The rates change every year, and then there's always like a prior year. Take back after we've submitted all of our expenses and they recalculate the rates. The tuition rates State aid will go into the Federal. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Obviously, we're a little concerned going forward with the new administration. I don't know if they would take impact aid away if they would change the formula. I think this year we're going to have less way less than we had last year because of the timing that last year we got all of it ahead of time. And then there's our State building aid. So the State building

040aid goes to pay the debt. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So here's the detailed accounts again. This is kind of why I showed I just wanted to show you on some of these E2 Gowanda HS Library: the 2223, actual, and then the 2324. So insurance was obviously huge. Last year this year it has gone back down some, so I'm not increasing it for next year. Kept it the same, but that was obviously one of our big fluctuations. Why, we had a big surplus last year, and then, when you look at E2 Gowanda HS Library: the native American tuition was another one that was goofy. That's up here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You know, the one year is 2 million. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This is in the charges charges for services, but it's mostly the tuition.

041Then it goes to almost 3 million. So this year we had 2, 3, and that's probably about where we're going to land. So I'm I'm keeping that flat. But you can see I mean, it fluctuates, you know, 950,000. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So and again, that's based on the tuition rates and what's going on? I mean, our E2 Gowanda HS Library: our enrollment is about the same. It's just the rates that keep kind of changing. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then the other thing that really hit us last year was same thing, this impact aid. You know what from. We got an extra 800 some 1,000 in one year from the previous year, and this year we're going to be less because they gave us all that money last year. So those are the fluctuations

042that we're dealing with on revenues that kind of can lead to the big surpluses. E2 Gowanda HS Library: any questions on those E2 Gowanda HS Library: what's the reason for the fluctuations? So on the native American tuition. The rates are set based on our actual expenditures. So what I found is our tuition rate for people that we're receiving because we spent less because we had all the Federal revenues, we all those Federal grants. Our expenditures went down for people. So our tuition rate goes down for people. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So that's the reason for those on the impact aid. The impact aid is driven by timing of the Federal government on what percentage of funding they're given the impact impact Aid office. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So they typically didn't get fully funded till

043March. Well, this year they got funded early or last year. They got funded early. So they sent us like 90% of our revenues. And we're always getting payments from the previous year. So like, I'd gone back. And like, usually, we were getting 3 different years of revenues, but never fully funded. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Last year we got basically fully funded and 2 years of previous revenue. So it just was a timing issue from the Federal Government's portion. It's not like, I said. We submit anything. We just submit our one application, and then they fund it when they can. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Something that we do is that the fund, then, that they take back to? That's the native American tuition. So the native American tuition is based. They give you an estimated rate

044based on your budget, and then when you file your actual expenditures for the previous year, they'll adjust that rate. So then they go back and they'll take back. So if my rate decreased for the previous year, they take back money. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So it's kind of this ongoing. Every once in a while we get an increase. But the rate typically has been going down, the special ed rate goes up. The regular tuition has been going down. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Anything else on those. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alright. So here's our tax cap calculation. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So this is the legal calculation that we have to go through and file with the State. So you can see the shares. Levy was the 5, 3, 5,

0459. Then we multiply it by again. These are set by the state, the tax base growth factor. We do have a small. We have one pilot E2 Gowanda HS Library: that's a payment in lieu of taxes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And so this is kind of a calculation that gets us what to what the levy would be. There's this allowable carryover. And the one thing I wanted so that gets added to our levy limit. But it's less than what we E2 Gowanda HS Library: could have raised. So I just want people to understand that. So the difference in what we could have raised so we could have raised like an additional 135,000 right? So that was our total levy limit. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So when we talk about lost revenues, it's really that 135,000

046that we didn't levy, that we'll never be able to add back to the base. So that's when we talk about the levy limit. And what kind of the lost tax revenues? That's really what we're talking about there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so if I do, the legal calculation, the levy limit before the adjustments which we don't have any is an additional 208,000. So our levy limit is 3.9%. Obviously, we're not what we're raising. But I just that's the calculation. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So that's the maximum go to without correct. Yep, E2 Gowanda HS Library: So you can see. So what we levied. We had a 1% increase the current year. This was the prior levy and the percentage. And then I tried to put these just down here for discussion of what you know,

0471% levy increase looks like point 8 5.5 1.2. I just threw those out there. And that's really kind of for your discussion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Then open open for open for discussion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So a question about the electric bus mandate, at what point in time do we start to factor in these things. When we look at you know our projections moving forward. What is the exact year that E2 Gowanda HS Library: that is supposed to go into effect? E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have to stop buying the Diesels by E2 Gowanda HS Library: 2020, 35, we have to start replacing. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And basically, so at the March 12th meeting, the the transfer, Wendell is, gonna do the presentation, too? E2 Gowanda HS Library: They'll talk about the money.

048E2 Gowanda HS Library: And we started to talk about. I mean, basically, it's almost like a capital project. E2 Gowanda HS Library: because you have to again. You have to build all of the the infrastructure and the and put in the electric stuff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so they're gonna they're gonna give us a proposal on kind of starting the plan for all of that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But ultimately it may end up being. I think it'll be like a capital project to build all of that. I think we'd like to maybe talk about doing a pilot E2 Gowanda HS Library: But we have to 1st figure out if we even have enough power to do a pilot. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So that's kind of step one. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then

049we do have the reserves for the transportation reserves to help pay for the the buses themselves, but we don't necessarily have the funding for some of the other things, so is the power requirement, like a 3 phase electrical setup that has to be put into the bus garage E2 Gowanda HS Library: we were. We were gonna put that would have to be that would feed. E2 Gowanda HS Library: do service. New generator. E2 Gowanda HS Library: a new fire pump, new building to house that there's a lot of. There's more infrastructure than what I would have ever even thought about E2 Gowanda HS Library: to start this, or to have it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's overwhelming at times, just trying to figure out. Yeah. And by, were there any grants that are available? I

050know that other districts have been, you know, Lakeshore, and a few years. I don't capitalize on that. Once we're able to get our transition plan, we can use that to generate E2 Gowanda HS Library: those grants subsidies for our person. So we're we're in the pipeline. We're eligible, for E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was like when the clock E2 Gowanda HS Library: quicker. Yeah, we lost a lot of our costs E2 Gowanda HS Library: comes in the 12.th Obviously talk about our infrastructure needs layout kind of plan. They may touch on what's available, what we're eligible for. But E2 Gowanda HS Library: we're right where we're supposed to be right now to be eligible. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. Purpose of not trying to leave money on the table? No, they they can assist us

051with those as well trying to. E2 Gowanda HS Library: because you. They said some things you have to kind of purchase 1st to get the grants. So it's kind of like, which is, it's kind of messy, to say the least. I don't know what the demand is going to look like moving forward. Yeah, you know, tricks being, you know, competitive for the grants and for those materials. Yeah, yep. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And even I. Still, we've talked about really converting some of our buses. You know, we, I mean, we take good care of our buses, I mean, we obviously have salt, snow, and weather, and all that, but E2 Gowanda HS Library: otherwise we take pretty good care of them. So that's when we talked about within that, when we're looking at how many

052purchases to have this year, you know, I know we have to start thinking about the lifespan of those buses and the mandate. We're up against the mandate, but if replacing the motors on those buses is an option converting them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know it may be worth it. It's it's a lot cheaper to convert now than it is to buy a whole brand new bus. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: that's also something kind of we've talked talked about E2 Gowanda HS Library: the Price Point comparison from a Diesel bus or traditional bus compared to the electric as well. Yeah, it's a lot. I don't have it off the top of my head for a new one. A new Diesel, yeah, about that $450,000 for one electric. Yeah, it's quite a bit of price

053difference, almost 3 to 4. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Never got any estimates from the Power Company what it's going to cost through the lines out to us. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Wendell did not. Wendell talked with Nice to see if we had enough power, which they said we do, or they do is what they told them. They would have to have another service. But, it hasn't gone as far as getting a quote for what that is, it was all just a study that was done E2 Gowanda HS Library: to make sure that there was enough power within 96 system to handle it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, pulled back the infrastructure in Wisconsin E2 Gowanda HS Library: electric vehicles yeah, think the green bus is on that, yeah, E2 Gowanda HS Library: stay tuned,

054right yeah, stay tuned right? Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But there's I guess there would still be potential that the New York State would enforce that right. All of the money from the State comes from the Feds E2 Gowanda HS Library: through. EPA, E2 Gowanda HS Library: yeah. And Wendell's telling us, really, the issues between being able to get the buses and the power E2 Gowanda HS Library: is really an issue. And the State gets all of their reports that they're doing and and all the studies. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I mean, I still hope that they push push it out. I mean, I just don't see where statewide it's it's gonna happen. I don't think it can happen based on what their studies are telling them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: that it won't.

055In 2 years it won't be, it won't be ready. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But we're we're planning as if it is, but keep hoping that it gets pushed out some E2 Gowanda HS Library: wasn't there an issue, even with the buses being able to hold the charge for the whole group or something. So we have like 8. I think we have 8 routes that don't have a replacement bus right now that could do the whole run. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's nothing out there on the market that will do that long right, and we're not the only one. That's what they're telling the state. It's like this isn't feasible. Right. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Zack, we're at a meeting. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We gotta share one. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This school boards. So

056this book branch. But we sat with the people E2 Gowanda HS Library: Lackawana, and they said that they were running into problems with some of their bridges and culverts, and that the weight of the bus. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, she did the week. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's something. Electric buses are heavier. Yes, no, I haven't thought of that, either. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: we had to release ellipse. Oh, jeez E2 Gowanda HS Library: so! And to that expanding upon that. So not only do we have the capital project for the infrastructure that we're going to be required to house these buses. But then residual capital projects and improvements that need to be made to our district. Right? I guess I'm just trying to build build the groundwork for why taxes might, or

057why we may advocate for taxes to be what they E2 Gowanda HS Library: 3rd party E2 Gowanda HS Library: for proper planning, you know, use our reserves appropriately to fund the person buses take advantage of. I'll say, quote unquote free money. It's not free. I get that. But other source of funding as opposed to E2 Gowanda HS Library: local sources. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hello! E2 Gowanda HS Library: So when do you need a decision from us as far as what we want the cap to be? E2 Gowanda HS Library: It would have to be by the next workshop. The 26.th E2 Gowanda HS Library: You guys want to make a decision tonight, or do you want to? What we want? The text E2 Gowanda HS Library: agreed to be? Or, yeah, it's funny. E2

058Gowanda HS Library: And the Max we could go is the 3.9 crap. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, it is the Max that we could use. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: you can be burned in effigies tomorrow, I mean, realized, the Controller basically E2 Gowanda HS Library: came down on this really hard. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The fact that we're collecting taxes when we've got reserves here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yes, I wouldn't want it to drop lower than 1% E2 Gowanda HS Library: paper reporting much more than that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I mean, like, I say, it'd be different if we didn't have reserves E2 Gowanda HS Library: your fund balance sitting out here, and we will be using some of the reserves this year for sure. I want to use some of the

059Trs and the ars reserves part of the budget. So we will start to use them with the pool. If we're using those for the pool, we're we're going to use those. So I've been trying to make sure that people are aware of that, too. I mean. E2 Gowanda HS Library: that's why they're there to use. They're not there to use when you're having good years, they're there to use when you need them. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: in the 2 month operation number that advisement comes from where again Government Finance Officers Association. So they're a national E2 Gowanda HS Library: finance officers of government. So obviously, schools are in a unique position in New York State because of the tax levy limit, but they look at all. They look at all different counties, you know

060E2 Gowanda HS Library: towns, villages, everything. So the Gfoa kind of looks at all governments, and just recognizes the fluctuations when you're heavily relying, especially on Federal and State aids, they recognize that you have to have fund balance when some of those dry up or something else happens, or you have. You need them to repair something emergency. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I guess I always I'm a member of Gfoa, but I've always looked to them because they have a bigger picture of things. It's not just New York State and not just school districts. It's kind of the recognition of what government finances and what we're supporting with our tax dollars. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And we're below their advisement. Currently, we're below it by 0 point 4. And then we are going to take

061from that fund in addition for the pool and other potential projects. Yeah, so right now, we're at 5.4 of unassigned fund balance. If we use the 0 point 4, we'll be at 5 million. E2 Gowanda HS Library: In the past. We we have gone. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have projected it higher and then backed down. When we actually set the tax rate in August. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We've done that a couple of times. You never want to go the other way. Tell the public E2 Gowanda HS Library: alright, flow again. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What the government so so that is an option that E2 Gowanda HS Library: you could go to like 1.2, and then, if everything fell into place it back down E2 Gowanda HS Library: in August. E2 Gowanda HS

062Library: I'm in favor of that. I think that's a good idea, too. If it's not a lot of you know, legwork, or whatever E2 Gowanda HS Library: sure E2 Gowanda HS Library: any other suggestions, or everybody in agreement with the 1.2 E2 Gowanda HS Library: potential to reduce it to one. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, perfect. Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's all I have want to show them now you'll now good E2 Gowanda HS Library: hope we have nothing more for the what's the workshop? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Taking consideration of motion workshop? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Second, all in favor E2 Gowanda HS Library: you want to. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We need a couple minutes. We do to switch everything over. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: 7

063E2 Gowanda HS Library: back here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The intersection works, please. E2 Gowanda HS Library: 25. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, does he? E2 Gowanda HS Library: I can go ahead and call the meeting to order E2 Gowanda HS Library: and make a consideration motion to accept the agenda. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Second, all in favor. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So E2 Gowanda HS Library: yeah, thank you. Good evening. Everybody. Welcome to our 3rd of 4 meetings that we're conducting this evening. This one is our public hearing for the use of funds from our repair reserve. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and I just want to go through and talk about the repair reserve and what we plan using with that that money that's located in the reserve. So the repair reserve well. The

064purpose is to E2 Gowanda HS Library: capital improvements E2 Gowanda HS Library: that do not occur annually or at short intervals, non-emergency situations. A public hearing is required prior to expending these funds, which that's what this is. Tonight. We're looking to use those funds to repair the pool E2 Gowanda HS Library: which is considered a local emergency as sed capital project. But the funding is not. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We'll have this hearing to use funds to repair the pool which has been discussed the last several meetings. E2 Gowanda HS Library: the Repair Reserve. It was good financial management by by the board was created in December 20th 2023 E2 Gowanda HS Library: voters approved funding reserve in the amount of 1.5 million. On May 21, st 2024, and since that time we've used well,

065we've used $145,420 to repair the track which it's been about half this new. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and the account itself has been earning monthly interest between 3,800 to $4,800. So that's been generating some additional revenue for us. The balance in the account, as of January 31st was $1,389,233 sitting there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Pool repair. It's been. Obviously the pool has been a spot of discovery for many years at this particular point in time. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We know that pool, deck, and drains were repaired. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The heat shack humidity humidifies the pool area, and more bed beneath the tile is failing. E2 Gowanda HS Library: When the pool was refilled, filled the mortar and the base of really collective tile was, it's E2 Gowanda HS Library: no longer functional,

066doesn't hold water, and the tiles are cracked and they need replaced feature, leaking E2 Gowanda HS Library: the Hvac units. That services and the human E2 Gowanda HS Library: appropriately dehumidifies the area failed upon restart up this fall. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Mechanical engineers, technicians from train responded to the failure and recommended full replacement. And this is a 22,001 unit. So it's really reached this. It's not the use of life, but I don't think sometimes I think 2,000. One's really not that long ago, but it's been what 25 years E2 Gowanda HS Library: kind of crazy things. But it's a to you. That's it's lifespan. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The towel replacement as we've E2 Gowanda HS Library: shared with board. We've discussed here multiple times since the fall. The interior pool tile has failed.

067The water loss in the pool was observed at approximately 1,000 gallons a day. After refilling E2 Gowanda HS Library: that was based on observed conditions, the one that's compromised. It needs to be replaced. There's some photos there. Well, you can see from where you're sitting, maybe better on TV. You can see the cracked tile, the leakage down below in the basement, where the water's seeping through the mortar bed. It's just kind of a complete E2 Gowanda HS Library: failure. E2 Gowanda HS Library: costs and funding is discussed back in December. We're looking at replacing the Hvac unit for $970,000 E2 Gowanda HS Library: a full tile replacement for $730,000 E2 Gowanda HS Library: for total project costs of 1.7 billion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's replacement. Just like, I'm clear that includes a membrane going

068around it, too. Or is it pure tile? For sure. E2 Gowanda HS Library: it's everything. So with this, it's going to be functionally dehumidified as appropriate. And the tile should, with this repair should last E2 Gowanda HS Library: well another 50 years. Well, beyond. E2 Gowanda HS Library: let's say, our lifespans. But our district. Let's put it that way. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so with this, the cost, we're proposing to take 1.3 million from our current repair reserve which I mentioned about probably in there and then, 0 point 4 million, or nearly half a million dollars for a general fund. Unassigned fund balance right now. We said 5.9 or 5.4 5.4 million there. So to reduce our unassigned fund balance to 5 million. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then in May or of this year

069or May. Next year, we plan to add excess funds the end of the budget year back into the repair reserve E2 Gowanda HS Library: for future quote, approval for future periodic repairs that we need to come up E2 Gowanda HS Library: questions or comments from anybody here on board. Or. E2 Gowanda HS Library: sure, yeah, this is to the public is no additional tax dollars. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's no additional tax dollars. This is all funded through appropriate use of our funds, our reserve funds, which that's why, they're here to fund the stuff, and then our unassigned fund balance. We'll use some of that balance. So it's no additional cost to anybody in the district. It's our money already there saved appropriately for emergencies or situations like this. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and it

070should last at least 25 more years. Yeah, personally, I don't know if I guarantee I'll say at least 25 years. It's gonna last longer than you know. At least we're all working. The last one lasted almost 50, didn't they guarantee that it's gonna last longer than that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: barring on any unforeseen circumstances? E2 Gowanda HS Library: And this is going for like a propositional vote? Right? No. So tonight you were doing our required hearing. We're proposing E2 Gowanda HS Library: for that repair reserve tonight on your regular agenda. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Who's gonna so approve a resolution to yeah London E2 Gowanda HS Library: to repair this and declare emergency repair, and then the environmental declarations. E2 Gowanda HS Library: all the procedural things that you need to do. E2 Gowanda

071HS Library: Our school attorneys have crafted up the resolutions for you, or E2 Gowanda HS Library: since appropriately smaller funds, we scrap the project. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was going to add, so I don't know if everybody remembers but we did that exit poll after the budget. So of the 94 people that responded, we asked the question, do you support the district preparing the pool? Even if the pairs are only short term. Obviously, we didn't know the time we're going to have to go back and do them but 91 of 94 people said, yes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so that was our age, I think, at that time of you know, whether people know would be very cool E2 Gowanda HS Library: community members that couldn't make it. Is this still an opportunity to

072provide comments to Dr. Anderson or Barb. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. If you refer to Washington, if there's comments, questions, I mean myself, Barb, always available. Just via email, call us E2 Gowanda HS Library: if you find us out. And about E2 Gowanda HS Library: yeah, I thought the last meeting that we had talked about it being like the funding being used that had to be put up for public projects you could have used. But then, you know, looking at your available E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then look at your unassigned fund balance talking to our financial advisors, and that was the recommended best, most cost, effective, smartest way to use our existing funds, and you get it done quickly, Project, and then I think the lead time to get that going is a little bit longer.

073I declare an emergency project. We have funding, but we can get it to sed pretty quickly and get things rolling. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We had our fiscal advisor that we work with for borrowings, and the capital project the bigger capital projects. She felt that we should really save that land building technology, that old capital reserve fund. Because she, I think we'll probably need it for the bigger project just by trying to love. And it's you get better leverage if you use it for a capital project where our repair reserve. Then we can just kind of refund. So that was the overall recommendation of the team when we when we had the meetings. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And when was that survey from that. You just were referencing last May 2024. So just a year

074ago, not even a year ago. Yeah, we did the exit survey from the votes when people voted. Oh, good. Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What? You recall little things in the Controllers. E2 Gowanda HS Library: was it having these different reserves? And we're never using them? So you know. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Fine with their recommendations as well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hmm. E2 Gowanda HS Library: okay, alright. Thank thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We have nothing more for a public hearing. Make a consideration of motion to adjourn, said Public, hearing second E2 Gowanda HS Library: one favor. Aye, I just wanna E2 Gowanda HS Library: cut it and then start it right back. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'd like to go ahead and call the meeting to order. If we could stand for

075the pledge to the flag. E2 Gowanda HS Library: pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America E2 Gowanda HS Library: and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I think the consideration motion to accept the agenda. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's okay, all in favor. Okay? E2 Gowanda HS Library: And for our Board of Education violence E2 Gowanda HS Library: off at the moment. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Sorry. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The Board remains committed to providing opportunities for the public to address the Board on items of public interest. E2 Gowanda HS Library: With that in mind, the Board wishes to remind the public of its adopted policy, 1510, which sets forth

076reasonable guidelines in terms of ensuring an orderly discussion and exchange of information during public meetings. In exceptional circumstances, the Board may, as an entity, decide to provide a written or verbal response to issues or questions raised during public session. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any person who wishes to address the Board may do so by filling out the appropriate 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 min. Please stand in front of the board table and address the board directly, under discretion of the board. No more than 3 people will be allowed to address the board on a single E2 Gowanda HS Library: thank you. E2

077Gowanda HS Library: What was sent to our calendar E2 Gowanda HS Library: on Wednesday, February 26.th There will be a budget workshop at 5 30. Here in the High School library. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our next regular Board of Education meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 12.th It will start at 5 30 with a workshop and immediately following, and then immediately following E2 Gowanda HS Library: the rest of our meeting E2 Gowanda HS Library: to make a consideration motion to approve agenda items 2.0 1 to 5 point. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So look, have any discussion. E2 Gowanda HS Library: little retirement center. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, I'll be very knowledge and skill there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, not. Will some, not all, not all. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Try to downsize

078some of the stuff through attrition. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Take the appropriate staff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So something. E2 Gowanda HS Library: any other discussion? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, we have none. All in favor. Aye, aye, aye. E2 Gowanda HS Library: for public discussion, comment on agenda items and non-agenda items. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hopefully, they have anybody here tonight. No, I don't think so. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. Good evening, everybody and happy middle of February, hard to believe to say that, as Mr. Nephew said, I want to start off with a couple of congratulations to our several retiree. E2 Gowanda HS Library: except this evening, want to congratulate and wish the following well, and thank them for numerous years of great service to students in our district. That's Wendy Nagel, Georgian

079Strawbridge, Michelle Hayneso wish them all the best. They're great teachers don't be missed, but I would certainly wish them well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Some other congratulations New York State E2 Gowanda HS Library: High School Athletic Association announced fall, senior scholar, athletes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: scholar, athlete teams, which means that all athletes earn at least 90% average being considered. All, all scholar athletes, 4 teams recognized football volleyball girls cross country and cheerleading so E2 Gowanda HS Library: student athletes for their academic achievement and and well work on the field, and all that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: If you haven't heard, it's my pleasure to kind of share the information. That class 2020 five's top 10 was announced. Today I want to congratulate. I want to be the 1st person to congratulate that class. We're

080getting into that season of celebration. Awesome. But our valedictorian is Julian. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What's the code. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Old spot is Demetrius Skyer. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Number 4 is Gracie Hatty. Number 5 is Cindy Smith, our very own Student Board Member E2 Gowanda HS Library: and Number 6, Claude Bowers, number 7, Danielle Zewski. E2 Gowanda HS Library: number 8, Nina, Valentine, number 9, Holland, Browning, number 10, Connor Wilson. So congratulations, ladies, and everybody in your class really impressive. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I've always been really impressed over the years, because, you know, obviously, I've been looking through some of my old stuff my mother had saved like my old report cards, and if you looked at like my elementary school report cards sitting here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But, anyway,

081so, as a high schooler, I was really impressed that for 7 consecutive semesters just excellence in the classroom. You'll see these ladies playing sports, and you'll see them all in musicals and plays, and just all working just all around. Just great kids. E2 Gowanda HS Library: young people so really proud of you, and congratulations for that. Some other great announcements and updates is certainly thank you for those organizations that have donated to our school and their activities. Greatly appreciate it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: If you didn't, you missed a charmer. The High School musical mamma mia was done last weekend Friday, and Saturday city. Great job done. It was just a great, great performance, kudos to the cast crew and production staff really thoroughly enjoyed. It was great also a shout out to the facilities.

082Last week Rich and his crew worked diligently on that crazy morning when we had a flash freeze within E2 Gowanda HS Library: hour. Maybe I don't know. They dumped 3 tons of salt on our parking lot and sidewalks, keeping people safe. So you know, we just want to shout out to his department and him for all that work. Not easy, but they did it next week. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's no school in honor of Presence Day Monday, the 17.th But then we're also on our 1st spring break for the full week with students coming back on Monday, February 24, th E2 Gowanda HS Library: towards the end of January, the Empire State winter games. Torch relay came through. Wanda came through the hallways of campus, ended up at Community Bank. I certainly get a

083lot of thank Mr. Boland E2 Gowanda HS Library: in the Cross Country team members. It's pretty pretty cool event for us E2 Gowanda HS Library: school news. All things go on to please visit our website and social media. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I have here a stop arm camera update. Last meeting. Mr. Nephew leader brought up the issue, putting stop arm camera. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's some procedural things and things we have to pursue. I think I shared the information I had. Officer Shields kind of dig up for me. I don't know if it's appropriate time to put on a future agenda or talk about now something the Board would like us to pursue as a discussion topic. Just so we can get more information in the future, but E2 Gowanda HS Library:

084on steel surprise you to stop our cameras. But E2 Gowanda HS Library: before you go no, I mean E2 Gowanda HS Library: so think about it, and bring it up in this meeting next meeting, and we'll E2 Gowanda HS Library: go into it a little bit more. I mean, there is a there is a cost there, but it's a safety concern. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I see the number of people that school buses. It's E2 Gowanda HS Library: take it on the future with Dmv. And maybe there's more information we can hash it first.st Thank you. That's all I have. Right now E2 Gowanda HS Library: we'll move this into our student board members report. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So today they announced the top 10. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our valedictatorianism. E2 Gowanda HS

085Library: Good morning. How's up? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Couldn't be doing a lot. E2 Gowanda HS Library: they announced. Boys, state and girls state delegates, Noel Lauer and Brendan Diebel for boys State and Isabel Graham and ultimate Maggie SIM Smith E2 Gowanda HS Library: so congrats to them. They did. National read aloud, day at Ges, February 5.th E2 Gowanda HS Library: We did the Empire. I know this is January, but we did the Empire State winter games for freeway E2 Gowanda HS Library: and basketball on basketball cheer. Senior night was recently. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and we have the blood drive coming up Friday, which hopefully both me and Sydney will be hopefully. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, yeah, vegetables got a lot of irons in these. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So it is cte

086month. I just wanted to acknowledge that it's also black history month. So I thought that was really cool to share. There were a ton of gratitude activities in our school like we did. Thank you, cards, the guidance counselors, a lot of teacher appreciation. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The honor roll came out. We were both on high honor roll. I thought that was really exciting. I've recently noticed a lot more kids are getting higher up, which is really nice. I'm seeing a trend with that which is really exciting. Spring sports are soon, which is really nice. Personally, I'll be doing track, and it'll be my 1st time doing track since 9th grade. So I'm really excited. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The blood drive just a little bit of news about student Council. We are now recognized

087as a national club. So we are going. Seniors are going to be able to wear stoles as long as they are members in good standing, and an officer or a chairperson E2 Gowanda HS Library: and seniors are currently designing T-shirt ideas, and we are making more fundraiser plans for our trip to New York City. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And that's it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Excellent cheers, thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: All right. So next up we have our state of the departments. Presentation beautiful. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So just that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: yeah. Oh, there you go. She's our special education director. But Steven, to start off our space department kind of same thing. We've shared building shared E2 Gowanda HS Library: with the board, the public, and the vast departments

088E2 Gowanda HS Library: very similar in conjunction. Really kind of, I think, kind of reports in conjunction with our E2 Gowanda HS Library: if there's any questions and really give you the opportunity to spotlight on the department. Good stuff. And yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: great. So yeah, I'm the director of special education. Bob asked us to do kind of a bird's eye overview of what our department is. So there's a lot more that could go into this, and if you have any, follow up questions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: if you top point E2 Gowanda HS Library: all right. So, as was presented in the principal's presentation, we have student enrollment for special education. Did it by building E2 Gowanda HS Library: through school services. We are responsible for over the implementation of those services.

089But we're not currently a evaluator or a service provider. But we are still responsible for those students. So although you see 41, you know, there's not 41 students in our Uk, this is 41 students that are ages 3 or 4 that receive some type of special education services. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Then we have the numbers for each of our buildings, and then the last one is our students, K. 12, who attend an out of district placement that might be something like boces or Randolph Academy, or fall in a more intensive program E2 Gowanda HS Library: just did a basic overview of our continuum of services. So those are the services we provide in our district for being a relatively small district. We do provide a lot of different services. We have integrated co-teaching, which

090is a general education classroom taught by a special Ed and Gen. Ed. Teacher, where no more than 50% of the students have an IP, we have that in grades K to 6, and then switches more to a consultant teacher model in grades 7, 12. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We do have a variety of special education classes. It varies by grade level. We have some 6, 1, 1, 6, 1, 1, 1, a couple, 8, 1 ones and 12, one ones and 15 1, E2 Gowanda HS Library: and those all change each year a little bit based on the needs of our kids. I had a student this past year that transferred to a much larger district than us, and they were like, so we want to put them in a 1211. And I was like, Okay,

091that sounds good. And they're like, we have 5 different 1211 s. In this grade level. And I was like, Oh, wow! That is very nice. Us, we have to add and flow every year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: based on the needs of the kids. What number of kids which kids go together. All of our self-contained classes are also multi grade, and we also have resource room. We provide speech Ot and Pt. Services with our own staff. We also provide vision services and Tmd. Services using Boce staff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We also have a variety of adaptive specials ape, and at the high School we have adaptive music and art. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then a variety that changes every year of different Gen. Ed sections with Ta support. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So

092for data reporting, since Bob wanted us to really kind of focus on that. I have 2 different sources of what we're kind of rated on by the State. So one source that we're rated on is Ida State reporting idea is the Federal law. That is why special education exists. It stands for the individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These are some of the indicators that we report on. There's always a bit of a lag. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So the 1st one is graduation rate. Most recently we've met that goal. The second one is dropout rate which we missed by 0 point 5%. In the most recent data, the goal was less than 19%, and we were at 19.0 5. Keeping in mind. Of course, when you're talking about special education, we're talking a small number

093of students. So every student is multiple percent. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The next one is suspension rate, which is how much we suspend our students. We've met that goal consistently. We've consistently met the goal of discrepancy for a suspension rate, I'll jump down. We've consistently met the separate setting goal, which is how many students attend out of district and disproportionality in identification. The one that has been a struggle for us is students in a least restrictive environment. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So they have 2 goals for us. One is the percentage of students with disabilities who are in Gen. Ed, more than 80% of the time. And the other data point is the percentage of students with disabilities who are in Gen. Ed, less than 40% of the time we usually hover right around the

094goal for more than 80. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's the less than 40 is where we struggle. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I'll touch on this later, but I can do it now. Because of that. We were identified for a targeted support group, which is the lowest level of intervention from the State. So a team has been participating with Bosis this school year and identifying the root causes for our least restrictive environment needs. We're with a group of other districts, and our next meeting is on February 25, th where we'll create the action plan to address. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So those are none of those are really purely academic data that is, on this slide. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So there's 2 different groups that assess us on that. So again, Ida, those different

095indicators and Essa, which is the other Federal law that applies to the school in general. So they use different methodology to evaluate us. So for idea, we get rated on 3 different things. One is our participation rate. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and the reason you see 6 groups there is because they only care about English and math in 4, 8 and high school. If you remember, before Sm. Many years ago, when I was in high school, there was No. 3 through 8 testing. It was 4, 8, and high school. And so Ida still only cares about those grades not full spectrum. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and some of those say less groups met, because again, when you're talking with a small number of cohort. And there's not enough kids in that cohort that took that

096exam. They don't count it in reporting the data. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So participation rate is, did 95% of our kids in that grade participate? That's been an area of struggle, probably going back since there started to be people not participating. The State doesn't seem to care too much about that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The next one is proficiency rate, which is. E2 Gowanda HS Library: they have different rates based on the grade level in the subject, and how many students scored proficient. So we got one out of 5 out of that, which, of course, isn't great. But then, below that is proficiency gap. So what that is is, they look at how our special education students did on a test, and how their Gen. Ed peers did on a test, and they do expect

097there is to be a gap. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and it's of concern if the gap is too big. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And so in 4 out of our 5 categories. Yes, our students with disabilities are going lower, but not significantly lower than their Gen. Ed peers. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Now, conversely, Asa rates us differently, academically. E2 Gowanda HS Library: what they do is they take their performance. They look at all 3 creative exams. They look at the performance, and they basically rate the district statewide number one to number whatever it goes down to. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then rate us from that. So in that sense, same data E2 Gowanda HS Library: might be slightly different years. But here elementary, we scored a level 4, which is the highest level. E2

098Gowanda HS Library: So my guess is E2 Gowanda HS Library: compared to our peers. We're doing well, which probably means everyone in New York state isn't doing great E2 Gowanda HS Library: by this measure. So just 2 different ways to look at that data. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so recent accomplishments. I always like to point out our attendance rate. It's brought up a lot in our district about parent participation in events and not always coming to like academic presentations. But I do have a 74% attendance rate. Last year of parents coming to their meetings. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We did remodel our speech therapy department this year, and our dual services more through a 5 0, 4 plan than an IP, which just gives us more flexibility. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and also lets us

099have a lower classification rate. I also like to point out these 2 points in concert, which is that 96% of our teaching assistants and Tas reside in Guanda, and only 2% of our students go out of district. To me this is always important, because when I recommend a student out of district. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm also recommending a job out of district because typically a student that needs to be out of district needs a lot of support. So they might be going to boces and having a 1-on-one ta, that one-on-one ta might live in Gwenda and works in Fredonia. But here, if they stayed in district and had a 1-on-one, there's a very high percentage chance that we'd be employing our own staff with our tax dollars instead of sending it to E2 Gowanda

100HS Library: focus what I already touched on with the targeted support group that we're participating in, and then the other is just vacancies. We are currently understaffed with what we wanted to have for this school year, or needed to have for special education as of the other day. There were 66 postings on Winnie Rick for special Ed teachers, and some of those are one posting, but it's for numerous positions. And so, relatively speaking, that is a high number E2 Gowanda HS Library: of need for special education teachers. It's become an area, a very big struggle. We have one of our retirements was a special education teacher. So we're hopeful that we can maintain enough staff to still provide all of our services. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any questions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's a lot

101of. I just applaud the presentation because it does seem like there's a lot of facets to this when you're presenting a desk when you're presenting all those different features. So, yeah, it could go for hours. I just tried to do. Yeah, when you speak about the proficiency deck, I mean. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I understand the difference between Gen. Ed and special Ed. But E2 Gowanda HS Library: the State doesn't really care whether you're E2 Gowanda HS Library: Gen. Ed. Is at the high level. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The the gap doesn't tell you where E2 Gowanda HS Library: where the kids are on the scale. So what was presented to me is that proficiency gap data? If you are not meeting the target for Proficiency Gap. Then, as a district, we should be looking

102at the specialized instruction we're doing because something isn't working in special, Ed. But if we are meeting the gap, and our students are still struggling, we should be looking across the board at why it is that our students, on a whole, would be performing that as well. Does that make sense? But it is just 2 different ways to evaluate us. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Keep talking. Yeah, very good, awesome rich. E2 Gowanda HS Library: They want me to go next week. She had all the numbers. So this afternoon. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, think so. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Good evening. My name is Rick Smith. I'm the director of facilities for Dual Honda here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: this is a slide that was on every other ones that

103you have seen, so I won't go through that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh. E2 Gowanda HS Library: but the goals for buildings and grounds. Our goal is to provide a clean, safe, comfortable, inviting atmosphere that helps achieve all the items that are in the priorities. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Ours is sort of a behind the scenes make you feel good when you come in. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Some things that we're doing well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, with Staff retiring over this E2 Gowanda HS Library: past year. It gave me a chance to E2 Gowanda HS Library: adjust the way our department was staffed, and to give us a more customer base where you guys are our customers. The staff are, the community is, and the students are. And we're really here to to

104please everyone that comes in. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We continually assess the needs of the district and then plan to meet those needs while working within the budget for each year. I've been here for almost 10 years now Mark has been E2 Gowanda HS Library: forever. But he was here when I was here. I have not gone over budget or our department has not, but I feel that we always do meet the needs of the district. One thing that I don't have up here from July first, st through February 5.th When I looked at it for this school year the Buildings and Grounds department had completed 97% of our work orders that came in and that number was 1,183 work orders E2 Gowanda HS Library: that 3%. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It could be really

105just those that came in that day or that had come in. We have some that are on hold that could be painting my office painting Ashley's office. That would be on hold. So that would be in that 3% that we aren't completing or haven't completed. Does that mean you're prioritizing things that are coming in? E2 Gowanda HS Library: If you said yours are on hold or like. E2 Gowanda HS Library: when we look at those we try to get them within that day E2 Gowanda HS Library: someone that calls and says that my room is cold. That's something that we take care of. Right then E2 Gowanda HS Library: something that comes in like painting Ashley's office. That would be okay. We're going to do that over the next break, or we're gonna look at,

106you know, a break after that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, yes, we do. Every day we do when they come in. When they come in the work. Orders assigned to either a custodian or custodians. In that building, or a head custodian or myself, the mechanics. And then we take care of those E2 Gowanda HS Library: points of pride. 73% of the buildings and ground staff is either graduated and or are go on to residents and or graduated from the school we hired, or we try to hire a lot of residents E2 Gowanda HS Library: each school year. We assist students in completing their internships for the voces program this year we have 2 that are going to E2 Gowanda HS Library: be with the mechanics in the department. I have at least one for probably

107the last 3 years that we've had. Some students have trouble finding somewhere to go or don't have transportation. We had one last year that didn't have transportation to get to another business. So we were able to help them out to get their hours in for the internships. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We also give students the opportunity to work over the summer, those summer labors that were in the budget, probably half to 3 quarters, our students, and E2 Gowanda HS Library: we also have students that are E2 Gowanda HS Library: subs for us during the school year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We could use or they could do like the volunteering work as well do we have? I would assume we have some programs that where they have to do like volunteer hours. And there's some

108clubs and some classes. Yeah, that'd be a good place for them to E2 Gowanda HS Library: we've had in the past. We've had special Ed students that have worked with us during the school day. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our blueprint this year, while the blueprint is geared more towards the student teacher, outcomes the buildings and ground staff plays an integral role in the learning environment by our daily efforts to maintain the environment, while students, staff, and the public feel welcome. E2 Gowanda HS Library: safe and comfortable while learning and attending school activities on a daily basis. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our hopes and dreams that we fill the pool in the next year, and it stays full, would really be mine, but that our daily efforts will make a positive impact on the future success

109of all the Gowanus Central students and staff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh. E2 Gowanda HS Library: one other thing that we've done really well this year, and that's like Doc had said, is the snow removal we have put E2 Gowanda HS Library: between 27 to 29 tons of salt in the parking lots. I also figured out as I was on my way up here. We put approximately 24,500 pounds of sidewalk salt down. We haven't done that in E2 Gowanda HS Library: the last 3 winners total. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So my staff has been here in the evening. They've been here at 4 in the morning, and they've done it all day, and we haven't had a winter like this in quite a while. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So have you had any issue with

110the rock salt shortage? So all our salt goes to the state.by the prison, and we've seen there. They've been low. E2 Gowanda HS Library: but we haven't had an issue getting it from them, and I just ordered 36 ton E2 Gowanda HS Library: that we're getting tomorrow. So they were getting it from E2 Gowanda HS Library: somewhere down South North Carolina or E2 Gowanda HS Library: somewhere. They were getting it from an odd place, but E2 Gowanda HS Library: ours normally comes from American rock salt, which is Rochester Syracuse area. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So hopefully, that'll be more than enough to get through the rest of this year. Yes, all of us are hoping that winter ends really soon, but somehow I doubt it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So any questions that hasn't ballooned

111in price, then it's been no, and we we actually our price is locked in. Come, this May. E2 Gowanda HS Library: when I put an order in for how many tons we want for the next school year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so we may see it come, this may it may go up, but E2 Gowanda HS Library: it was locked in before there was that short, that shortage. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: anything else? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thanks. Rich, thanks to all your staff. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Tell us real. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yes. So we were. We just looked at it today again. It has not moved E2 Gowanda HS Library: even with the wind that we had. It's stuck in. There's a it's a y, so it's

112stuck right in, even if it did break from the other end. It'll drop. It won't drop to the fence, and as soon as soon as you can get rid of the snow E2 Gowanda HS Library: cool. We're gonna get the lift down there to to take that down. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thanks. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hi, everyone. I am Nicole Jenvees. I'm the food service director. So I run food service in all 3 of our schools. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I'm going to skip stuff just like Rich did. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Our goal is to create a safe environment where all the children can enjoy a nutritious meal. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's hard to do in this district. Well, in any district E2 Gowanda HS Library: there are a lot of

113different tastes. You all know how hard it is to please everyone. But what we're doing well is we're continuously evolving our menu to try and accommodate the wants and needs of our children. So if we try something new and they don't like it, we don't bring it back. If they do like it, we try to put it into our rotation, so that E2 Gowanda HS Library: so they get it again. One of the things we did was, we make homemade meatballs now, and they love them. They go crazy over our meatballs. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This year is E2 Gowanda HS Library: had some challenges with the snow days in our department. It's pretty hard when we can't get our deliveries because the school is closed, or because they're not delivering, because the weather E2

114Gowanda HS Library: or we have stuff that's pulled, and that now we have 2 snow days in a row. We can't use that stuff, and we come in, and our stuff is frozen. But they've done a really good job of pivoting and figuring out what we're going to eat and not just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're also working hard to fill some staffing holes. We lost a pretty important person in our district this just this past month, and E2 Gowanda HS Library: we're we're trying to fill those holes with E2 Gowanda HS Library: people that won't just work well in our department, but make great connections with the kids, and that's pretty difficult. But we actually approved someone tonight that, I think, is going to be a very good addition.

115E2 Gowanda HS Library: points of pride. We brought breakfast back to the serving lines. That's a huge deal to me. That's something I have fought for since I started here. We used to have the breakfast cart, which was great. Great participation. Kids would grab the stuff, but it was all cold and prepackaged, and we couldn't do things like breakfast, burritos, or pancakes or waffles, and now we can't. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Their breakfast. Pizza isn't wrapped in tinfoil, so when they pull the tinfoil off everything comes off with the tinfoil E2 Gowanda HS Library: working on. We're working on the elementary school, but that one's posing a little bit more of a challenge. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I've hired some subs that are college students. I have E2 Gowanda HS Library: forced my daughter and

116her friends while they're home in school. One of them actually is going to school for teaching, and she was E2 Gowanda HS Library: like E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm doing social studies. High school. And she filled in over at the elementary school. I told Ashley this now she's like, Oh, you know, maybe maybe I'm going to minor in elementary education, and I really do like working with the special Ed and my daughter, who's going to school for nursing has no interest whatsoever in teaching is now E2 Gowanda HS Library: looking into how she can double major. So thanks. Apparently you are speaking of the volunteer work. We use the kids all the time when we have any sort of function, honor, society. Every year we use, we grab the younger kids and say, Hey, like,

117Come in and work these parties for us. That's how we keep our costs down. E2 Gowanda HS Library: because we have volunteers who do it, and they're getting their volunteer hours at the same time. So we do that all the time, and we're continuously changing the menu we're from scratch E2 Gowanda HS Library: our blueprint this year. It's very, very different from like special Ed department. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But our goals are all the same. To ensure everyone is welcome and safe and E2 Gowanda HS Library: they have the fuel that they need to succeed in their daily activities. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We don't want to see anyone hungry in their classes. You can't focus. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and our hopes and our dreams are that we can succeed without worrying whether

118what E2 Gowanda HS Library: that everyone can succeed without worrying, whether they're going to have their next meal where it's going to come from. If they're going to have the energy to make it through the day. We want them all to come in something to eat in the morning, get to lunch, have something to eat, and not worry about. Am I going to be hungry? Am I going to be able to afford this? That's 1 of our E2 Gowanda HS Library: biggest worry is with Cep right now everyone has free, free breakfast, free lunch, and we recertify for that next year, and hopefully, that will still be a program. And E2 Gowanda HS Library: everyone can still enjoy having food without worrying about how they're going to pay for it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any

119questions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I guess that was that touched on my question was that program. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We foresee anything changing in that, I imagine. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I mean, I've right now, right now, everyone's just scared, but hopefully nothing changes, and next year, when we recertify, we continue to, we will qualify. I'm pretty confident that we're going to qualify. As long as the program's still available E2 Gowanda HS Library: we should be able to get it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then there was an additional program that was going on before, right the grown like the farm to table type, the farm to table. It's totally different. It's not free. We're just. It's we still have to pay for it. But yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: we actually have. I

120just put in a request to be able to use a new farm that makes potato chips, because apparently potato chips are hard to get these days. You can't get like sour cream and onion, potato chips or salt and vinegar, potato chips. But this local farm makes them so we're going to try it out. See how it goes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Gingerbread muffins. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, yeah, we make thousands of them at a time when we make our meatballs. But the gingerbread muffin she's talking about. Well, I brought the cookies Valentine's Day cookies. Every kid is getting a cookie on Friday. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But we always use Ashley as a taste test. This all really depends on our student body, and our students drive and direction of where they're going. But

121do we have anybody interested in that occupation as far as E2 Gowanda HS Library: food services like I know Rich talked about. So we do have. We didn't last year, but it seems to be about every other year. We have mostly students intern with us, and that are going to school to become chefs. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I mean cheese. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's sort of a stretch to go from a food service helper to a chef, but working in a kitchen is working in the kitchen. They come and they learn a lot there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. Chairman E2 Gowanda HS Library: Evening. My name is Annette Holsher. I'm the transportation Supervisor here for Golinda Central E2 Gowanda HS Library: for those of you who don't already know me. E2

122Gowanda HS Library: So the goals we've had some really difficult difficult weather days, and I'm out at 3 o'clock in the morning driving around, wondering whether or not we're going to have school, so I can definitely relate to what is going on out there. I know the snowmobilers are very heavy, especially in my house. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We've had some really good days with bullying incidents. The amount of them has actually dropped the other day. But anyway, we're working on that, trying to get that under control so that we can keep those kids behaving themselves. We continue to strive for the goal to keep the fleet E2 Gowanda HS Library: at the highest possible level for safety, cleaning, comfort for our students and our drivers. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So Doc asked me this

123year for a few. E2 Gowanda HS Library: little statistics. Statistics are not my thing. So I'm going to try to get through. It took me a long time to data mine. I'm just saying, Okay, we have about a hundred at this. On that day there was a thousand 15 students that E2 Gowanda HS Library: are in our district, and 31 of them that go out of District 758 of those students actually ride on the full-size buses. 59 of those students are going to p-tech 56 students going to E2 Gowanda HS Library: let me see, I can't see it gtes 22 on minibuses going to the sped department, and 2 riding on the wheelchair. Van E2 Gowanda HS Library: and I have a 1 and then another one out of district placements. This is kind of

124weird to try to explain what I'm talking about here, but if you go to the number of routes that I have. We have 20 buses altogether in the fleet. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and we have 24 roots altogether, so the numbers don't quite match, do they? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Basically what this is is that I have 16 full size buses that are 44, 66 passengers. Basically. What that means is, you've got 44 adults that can fit on there. And when you're looking at your student size, we're going from 7 E2 Gowanda HS Library: to 12 or 6 down to kindergarten. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: the 44 is the adult size. That's 7 and up. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I can only get 44 kids on there E2 Gowanda HS Library: when you're

125talking about the little guys, sometimes E2 Gowanda HS Library: 6 6th graders, 5th graders. They could sit 3 in a seat, but not very often. That's what I mean. When I'm talking about the children. You can put 66 of them on a school bus. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay? So we really try not to max out our buses as much as we possibly can, but we have 8 full size in in the district full size district runs, and maybe 4 trips. E2 Gowanda HS Library: 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Does that make sense any questions so far? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, one full size district run that actually does 4 trips to p-tech E2 Gowanda HS Library: 2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and it's not just p-tech

126that they're going to. They're also doing an in-district run. On top of that. I have one full size district run that goes to Laguest 3 times a day. E2 Gowanda HS Library: One over in the morning to drop off E2 Gowanda HS Library: one back and then back empty. Then it goes over with kids picks up the ones that were there drops off the ones that they brought and back. If if you understand any questions on that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: okay, one sped in district sped Run. That does 4 trips a day, 2 in the morning, 2 or 2 morning ones and 2 afternoon ones. The sped one sped out of district is also combined with an in-district run, because they have a student that is, a wheelchair user and needs to be accessible

127to a wheelchair vehicle. E2 Gowanda HS Library: One out of district Run that goes from Baker Road to Angola cte. Monday through Friday. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and picks that picks the student up E2 Gowanda HS Library: at Baker Road and takes them to a cte in Angola during the midday for their afternoon cte class. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And that same vehicle that minivan also does a Monday and Friday pick up and drop off at New York State School for the wine. So that's what they're doing in the district. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The the rest of them are contracted out. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and what I managed to do when I 1st came to the district was put E2 Gowanda HS Library: schools, locations of students together. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So

128I have 3 different schools that ride in one vehicle, and they all ride together. That's a contract. E2 Gowanda HS Library: If we weren't able to do that, that would be 3 cab trucks, 3 different buses that you have to have. So I try to make sure that I'm doing that workaround, as far as that's concerned, to see what works. We have a minivan that's going back and forth with displaced students from Jamestown to Gwanda, right now E2 Gowanda HS Library: out of district, another out of district that's done again. This is a double upper Maple Avenue, and then to P. Tech and Dunkirk. That's a 2 trip a day as well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The district going to St. Mary's School for the deaf. This is a special needs run Baker Hall, and

129it also goes to one of the Falk schools. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's a lot of fox schools out of district placement for sped to laguitas. That's a full full bus, and all of those students are picked up here in the district, and they're transported to Laguitis and back E2 Gowanda HS Library: 2 days or 2 times a day E2 Gowanda HS Library: out of the district, another out of the district from Hamburg, Randolph into Baker Road, which has 3 students on it, and one of the students is the one that comes back for Cte. At Egola E2 Gowanda HS Library: we have Mckinney Vinto, or a displaced student run that goes from Salamanca to here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and since yesterday has now got 5 more kids on it. So it's E2 Gowanda

130HS Library: getting, you know, we're still managing to get it done. But it's it's a lock. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and the last one that I do out of district to Falk on Syracuse. And it's also with E2 Gowanda HS Library: the summit program. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So true. E2 Gowanda HS Library: how'd that go, Doc? Great is that what you were looking for? Some data for you? Well, a lot of mining E2 Gowanda HS Library: postcards works hard. There's a lot of moving parts, a lot going on, you know. Just give people perspective. What you deal with. You do a really wonderful job doing it. And we have people going all over the place. Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. Next, Kathy. E2 Gowanda HS Library: all right. The capital project in

131our area is finally completed. The generator is working. Yes, so and the building really does look really good. We're proud of every improvement in communication that we've been able to E2 Gowanda HS Library: get with all the other departments, the other schools, when we're having an issue with something we're responsive and attentive when we support our students and their needs for transportation. And we want to maintain a positive working environment that values, our staff and their well-being. Another thing we're proud of is, we are most proud of the great staff that we have, and their dedication to their job, their students and their safety. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I hate our blueprint. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We looked at the project for electrification. And E2 Gowanda HS Library: I just it's hair raising. It's absolutely

132hair-raising. I really do hope we get the pilot program, because that'll give us an idea of what we're going to be able to do, because at this point it doesn't look like a lot E2 Gowanda HS Library: that we're going to be able to accomplish. But who knows? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Maybe we'll get hydrogen. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Maybe we'll go hybrid like, you know, we can use electric in town, and then Diesel to get up the big hill. That E2 Gowanda HS Library: yeah, because everywhere you go outside of Guana I don't know if anybody's ever noticed is all uphill. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So okay, we got another new driver trained successfully, and she's become a wonderful part of the team, and we are still looking for more. So anybody that knows

133anybody that wants to be a bus driver come and see me. We can make it happen. Okay, we have continuous driver training and safety protocols, and we own those continuously 2 times a year or whenever needed. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm doing training with drivers. There is not another road E2 Gowanda HS Library: company out there, or like truckers, truck drivers, or whatever they don't have to do. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The kind of training that we have to do E2 Gowanda HS Library: to make sure that our guys know exactly what's going on. New things come down the pike. I make sure that they have the new information that they have to have E2 Gowanda HS Library: things that they maybe haven't thought about in a while. We call them refresher courses. It's just

134a little, hey, you remember? And sometimes, if I get one person to walk up to me and say, You know what I never thought of that. That's a great idea. I did it. I did the job today E2 Gowanda HS Library: alright, and our communication or our commitment to compliance with industry, safety regulations. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, they roll it up here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay? And our hopes and our dreams. We hope or we dream to continued cooperation with parents and students. Sometimes it can be difficult, especially when E2 Gowanda HS Library: ears are hot. We missed the kid. Well, they were still inside the house. Sorry we try if we can, to come back, but we always. We can't always do that. We hope you for understanding of the job that

135we do, and how important it is to us, and what we do. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and we hope every day every day for an excellent safety record, with low accidents every day. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's what we're hoping for any questions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We'll talk all day. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's past your bedtime, though it is past my bedtime. I'm just saying we're almost an hour past it. But I'll be okay if I'm a parent. And I'm normally taking my 3 kids to the elementary school E2 Gowanda HS Library: and drive myself like our bridge dog. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What happens in that case call me 90% of the time I can get the drivers to pick that student up. They know about the student at 1 point in

136time. They're on list today. They're not today. They need a ride. All you have to do is call me. I have. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I have instant connection to the buses with Motorola. You can't outrun me. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so I get a hold of them, and I let them know. A student needs arrived to school today, such and such a student at this location. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hopefully, the driver already knows where that location is, but because they know their routes really well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: They got a pretty good idea where they are. Just have them standing out there. The driver will find them E2 Gowanda HS Library: some things that we've had to do, especially this year, because of the snow and the dark and everything else, you

137know. Driver didn't even see him. They're wearing a black hoodie black pants. They've got a black backpack, and they're standing behind a tree. We miss them. I'm so sorry that we missed them. Here's an idea. Have them standing out there. They don't have to be right on top of the road, but have them standing there somewhere and turn their phone on. E2 Gowanda HS Library: How many guys have you ever seen anybody doing this. It lights up, doesn't it? It helps the bus drivers to be able to find them E2 Gowanda HS Library: when they have a light. E2 Gowanda HS Library: especially when you're talking about. You know the other side of Harrysburg, where it's so dark down on County Line Road you can't see where you're going. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so any

138little bit that they can do. I know parents get really mad. Well, it's 40 degrees outside. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I didn't want to put them out there. I understand they get angry about that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's why the driver missed them because they weren't outside. So I try to remind them that as best I can without getting yelled at. But that doesn't always happen either. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So any other questions. E2 Gowanda HS Library: sure, if it's for you, so just for clarification. So the students that we go to Salamaca and Jamestown to pick up E2 Gowanda HS Library: like they were Wanda students that are displaced. Or, yeah, they're Mckinney-vento, I mean, they're homeless. They don't fix regular adequate housing. So they do have school choice because of that,

139and Janine's our Mckinney-vento liaison. So she, although their temporary residences, St. Jamestown, they do have the choice still to stay in their home district. One is so responsible. Sometimes we work out. Sometimes we work out transportation arrangements. Sometimes we have kids E2 Gowanda HS Library: from neighboring districts coming here vice versa. We can make you know, some more possible. E2 Gowanda HS Library: but I know we have a few homeless families living in Jamestown. We did try to get you to bring them in. But I go by there all night. But yeah, we're required to do that. It's a 50 mile radius. So we've been in the city multiple times, just, you know, whatever kids can get all the time. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The idea behind that is, you want to be consistent here

140at school. They've already suffered some disruption in their life right one off, that it was challenging. It is being able to bring them in E2 Gowanda HS Library: it, you know it E2 Gowanda HS Library: have to understand how they must feel having to be on that ride for an hour and a half to 2 h, you know, depending. So it's tough for them to. You know. We try to make as many accommodations as we can. You know the the 49.9 miles within the district E2 Gowanda HS Library: really irritating? Really so, but for the most part, you know, I would say the farthest we've ever done was all the way out to Buffalo, General and back. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That was almost a year. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: it's tough, but we

141want to get it done for them. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then my other question was, what E2 Gowanda HS Library: sort of safety supplies or other ancillary supplies are normally kept on the bus buses like I went on a field trip. I know I mentioned this to Bob, that E2 Gowanda HS Library: to shaves with the middle school back in December, and we had one student slip and skin both of her knees, and were bleeding down her legs, and another one got carsick on the bus. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and there was like the trash can. There was a a 1st aid kit that was zip tied shut. So we have to break that. Yeah, we had trouble doing that, though, like, and then in there it was very sparse, the supplies E2 Gowanda

142HS Library: so there were no paper towels anywhere. No, I mean, I just didn't know if that was like standard, or usually it is, the less we put on the buses the better, because things can become a projectile in case of an incident. True. So the boxes are not very big to put a lot of stuff in. There's gauze pads. There's wraps in case you need to hurry up and do a sling for something. This is bare bones, emergency type of situation. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's Band-aids in there, but we don't have a ready pack for everything that can come up. A lot of the drivers have kleenex E2 Gowanda HS Library: that can also be a projectile. So we try to be careful where we're putting those. But you know, here's a handful,

143right? You know that kind of thing. We were looking in all the compartments, and there's like empty, empty, empty, empty. What are these for the smoke? The emergency E2 Gowanda HS Library: kits are there for just quick. So sorry if we don't. Well, no, that's okay. I just wondered if that was how it cause we were like scrambling like finding tissues. Yeah, I understand that anybody else. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Thank you. Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. You probably should have seriously enough for real. All right, guys. Thank you. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Both times E2 Gowanda HS Library: we learn at high levels. That's what we're here. But you know, without transportation, students being safely transported here each day, kids being fed appropriately or facilities being top

144notch. I mean, that stuff wouldn't happen. So I give folks in their departments tremendous amount of credit because they actually helped drive our mission. So thank you very much for your hard work and hopefully showcase to show you. And I know, you know that. But the public what goes on? You know. What's, you know, a little snapshot of what we experience and the good things that are going on. So thank you very much for your E2 Gowanda HS Library: all right. So up next, we have our discussion on board and consumer. Evaluation agreement 425, E2 Gowanda HS Library: with this. I know you had brought up last meeting kind of E2 Gowanda HS Library: the metrics that we use and that sort of thing, and we had discussion about it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Everybody

145had the opportunity to get into super email and take a look at that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'll openly admit I got into E2 Gowanda HS Library: Super Eval, but it looked differently than I expected it to. So I didn't. I didn't have the time to contact gathy about that. It looked different than I expected it last year to look. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, yeah, I think right now, it doesn't have it opened up to where you can actually start doing the evaluation process one as talking about the annual goals and then selecting professional practices. I think it was 3 years ago. We kind of E2 Gowanda HS Library: dwindled down the list and voted on. Hey? What practices for what metrics do we want to look at the last 2 years, though we've

146just done all of them. So I don't know if we want to make that decision? Do we want to kind of pick E2 Gowanda HS Library: some of them? Or do we want to just continue with doing using all the metrics that are available there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: He hasn't really looked them over E2 Gowanda HS Library: it. Well, it's kind of a question what we do with the information once we're done with it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: If we don't really do anything other than go through the list E2 Gowanda HS Library: and send it to Dr. Bob at the end. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It doesn't matter which which we do. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'm in favor of doing a shorter list and actually E2 Gowanda HS Library: looking at it

147and making more comments on any more meaningful. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, so there's there's your professional practice standards. E2 Gowanda HS Library: some standards. I guess what you're asking. You're probably we'll have to decide which of those professional practices you want to focus on. I think their governance ethical leadership. E2 Gowanda HS Library: finance. I don't remember off top. So I'm okay to do all. But you know, if you just want to focus on one that's fine, too. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, cause I, yeah, like, you're saying there was multiple domains. And I remember that they were similar. From last year I was. They were the same objectives under that I was gonna say, but then there was objectives that we could E2 Gowanda HS Library: task in and out right like, wasn't

148that way you can pick which ones we actually want to look at. Okay? So there's 5 different standards. And within that there's a total of 29 different E2 Gowanda HS Library: once that we can evaluate it. So we can choose as little or as many as we want E2 Gowanda HS Library: back. Couple of years ago we had ended up picking like 18 out of the 29, E2 Gowanda HS Library: but, like the last 2 years. We've just measured. All of them E2 Gowanda HS Library: go through the process of deciding as a board, you know. Do we want standard 1, 1, 4, 1, 6. So I guess my question is, do we want to take the time? We don't have to do it now. I would implore everybody to do some homework and figure

149out which standards if you want to make a smaller list. E2 Gowanda HS Library: or if we just want to measure everything as we've done in the past 2 years. Then we can E2 Gowanda HS Library: measure everything. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But to your point, I think maybe after we do the evaluation, maybe we should have a separate meeting or a separate discussion to kind of E2 Gowanda HS Library: and talk about, haven't done the past. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The other question I would have is the list. Do you have an idea in terms of E2 Gowanda HS Library: what is most important in your job. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We're all kind of equal. They're all I mean. Everything is important, but some are well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: those are equal,

150but some are more. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: if we discuss again which ones, I would think are probably E2 Gowanda HS Library: because the other thing is, I think it's unfair or have to agree and say, that's E2 Gowanda HS Library: think which ones we're doing. That's true. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You got 3 months E2 Gowanda HS Library: can provide them at least satisfactory work. Maybe we have a couple of goals that we. E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know, that are tied to a blueprint. So I'm okay with that, I think it's like a gotcha or anything E2 Gowanda HS Library: too much left wanting to work on this. But you have any folks now, I don't think that's the case. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So if you want it, better focus on

151what he thinks he's more supportive. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You can actually make comments and then have a conversation afterwards. So so E2 Gowanda HS Library: I would say in the meantime, in the interim for the next month. Right? Get into Super Eval, because you can look at what the different standards are. You can't actually create them. But if you go under. E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know the annual goal is select professional practices. You can look at what they are in the description, and then we can kind of bounce that off of what Dr. Anderson. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So it's just E2 Gowanda HS Library: come up with a decision. Because I mean with the evaluation that really is step one defining what the standards and metrics are that we're gonna use right?

152And that will be coming E2 Gowanda HS Library: here sooner than later. We're already into February. So you know, we need to. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I would like us to try and have that ironed out by, you know the next meeting or 2. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I'll provide my my preferences, and then do a little time, which I think. E2 Gowanda HS Library: piggyback. We've got some budget workshops, and we're E2 Gowanda HS Library: anybody have anything further questions on the evaluation? E2 Gowanda HS Library: So that'll move us into our 2425 economic calendar. Yeah, thanks E2 Gowanda HS Library: up there. So if you kind of got the the gist from Rich and Annette, and you've probably experienced yourself that we've had a pretty rough winter to date, probably the more E2

153Gowanda HS Library: the roughest and probably more traditional winter. We've had several winters so E2 Gowanda HS Library: this year, and then we've had the chicken and rice incident that trashed our plumbing, too, out of the mix. So, but really want to get a share with the board and the public. We're going to have to make some modifications to our academic calendar for this year, and kind of give you a rational why, I don't know if people really think about the academic calendar when we put it out, and what it means and what goes into it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: but just kind of some background in education law. The district has to meet a minimum of 180 days. That's the law. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then there's a requirement for hours. It's 900,

154many instructional hours at the secondary level, and 900 at the elementary level, to find like 7, 12 k. 6. So our calendar when we built this last year. Just so you know you may not think about it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So these green days are super tense conference days. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There's 4 of them built into the calendar. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and whether they're there or not, they still count as student attendance day, so they're counting 188. So if we ever remove those, it doesn't really help us one way or the other for 108 days. It's already built into the the system. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and then some of the nuance that people probably don't know is these round days here. These are called rating days. So although the high

155school kids are not in attendance, they're not because there's special regions of grading. Those do count as tennis days for 9, 12, but these do not count as tennis days, for K. 8 do not have regents going there. So when you look at the calendar. E2 Gowanda HS Library: there was really E2 Gowanda HS Library: doing math in my head kind of gets a little confusing. So we're creating instructional hours in this calendar E2 Gowanda HS Library: course. Noting is built in here for the elementary grades and 6 for E2 Gowanda HS Library: the rating dates in there. And traditionally, that's just held up. We've only needed more than a couple really over time. But E2 Gowanda HS Library: with that in mind this year we've exceeded that number of days built in. We've taken

1567 emergency snow days. And so we're at a deficit now of hours in days. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So just to kind of quote the law, though educational, I set set the minimum requirements. But there's a couple exceptions that districts can do that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: that we may get credit for meeting those days and hours without actually meeting those days and hours, and the 2 exceptions are this, that scheduled session days with Superintendent I quote, was required to close school, due to a properly executed declaration of a state of emergency. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So like in Covid, we had, I think, declarations that required us to close school. The recent declarations from the Governor. They're traditionally are typically written very generically and broad over a span of time. They're not going to

157pinpoint each day for Western New York or whatever, so they are really broad. They don't necessarily require superintendents to close anything. They probably never would, because it's really kind of a local decision. So in that sense, we have to tie our closure, maybe to that nexus. Is it really that bad? Here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: then, the other opportunity is through the Commissioner's regs. E2 Gowanda HS Library: that the person would. The Commission would give up to 5 E2 Gowanda HS Library: extraordinary conditions days back. If we're exhaust all our vacation days. So let's say the roof blew off. E2 Gowanda HS Library: We'd be required to probably to the extent we can go through our vacation days, and then Commissioner then would forgive E2 Gowanda HS Library: those days up to 5. E2 Gowanda

158HS Library: How people know is we send an instructional calendar to the office of State Aid management at the end of the school year. That shows that literally documents all our time and days. But there's no police that are going to come down here and look at that. You know, it's kind of stuff. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So a couple things I want people to consider. There is also a mechanism, though E2 Gowanda HS Library: in State aid management that is called form 8 or 8 8 E2 Gowanda HS Library: schedule a 8. Application for State emergency days under education law. 36, 0, 4, 7. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So 5 of our vacations, snow days fell under the executive orders, and I can tie E2 Gowanda HS Library: pretty clearly tie closing school to

159that executive order. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I plan on submitting this application. Those 5 days should be waived for these extraordinary conditions. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: 5 days come back. So now we're at 2 days in views. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The catch for me is E2 Gowanda HS Library: that's there's nothing in regulation or law that actually says that can happen. It's through. It's a form through the office stating management. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and I've been assured, through very reputable sources. They have accepted that and done that for years, and things are good. E2 Gowanda HS Library: but we don't. We don't submit our instructional calendar for the end of the school year, and we don't actually get aids later in the year. So if they were not to accept those days

160at all, or someone's days. For whatever reason, we have no mechanism to reclaim those days, and the possible fine for us is we lose 1 180th of our age funding. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I'm just this approximately quick math. It's about $107,000 a day, which you know, is pretty significant. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, looking at this calendar, I want to do my due diligence to protect the district and show the Commissioner whoever that we are modifying our calendar to meet new requirements. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So what I'm what I'm going to do and share with the board and the faculty tomorrow is, I think, some pretty minor changes that are. It's not going to impact people's vacation schedules. But it's going to get back 3 days, the number of instruction hours. And

161then I figure if anything happens between now and then the year, possibly still back and get those days back. And if we really know something bad's happening in advance. You know we can go remote E2 Gowanda HS Library: for those days, or even use delay, which I don't like doing delays because they're a mess. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Everybody. I can't imagine parents trying to go to work and find care for their student in 2 h. It's just E2 Gowanda HS Library: we absolutely have to. I'm not. So. What I like to do is this, and I've consulted with gta and stuff, and they've been very helpful. So. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Kathy, can you scroll down to march or find March on there for me. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So, March, we have a

162superintendent's conference day here. I'm going to move that here to April 21, st so that will give us one session day back here E2 Gowanda HS Library: they'll make the 21st Superintendent Conference day. So students still don't have to come to school. So people have family vacation or whatever. Don't worry about it, and then our faculty would, and staff would have to come, but I promised them then they have vacation plans, too, so I would honor E2 Gowanda HS Library: they'd have to use a cruel day. But I would honor those planes. So that's 1 day back in hours. So we're good. There you can go to June, please. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The next proposal is the 26th and 27th half days, so those give us 2 more days back to our session, bringing

163us up to 180 days. It does not impact high School at all. It really impacts K-eight. They're going to run a half day schedule. But on the 27.th We're going to look some these days may not be. E2 Gowanda HS Library: The catch is I have to get credit for the days, but does doesn't necessarily say how long a day has to be as long as we meet the hours, so as we get closer to here, we may abridge the hours, so these may not be typical half days, or maybe a little different. I'm just looking for credit, so to speak. So that's my plan. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's not awesome. I don't think people like, you know. I know the elementary school folks like some time here to pack up, but they will

164have 5 half days here to take care of that. So I do appreciate their cooperation. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: we get a lot back by doing minimal changes. And that's my calendar going forward. I want to show the Board and the district tomorrow, and that's my rationale. I don't want us to get pinched for aid. I want to make sure we've done some due diligence to modify our calendar best possible, and then we'll see how the rest of your goes away. We're good shape. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so there's a lot of nuances in the calendar. I don't think just a person thinks about when we put it together next year. I'm anticipating the Great Lakes not really freezing over appreciably severe weather. So I'm actually building in 7 days into our calendar next

165year, and then a couple of considerations that we've never had in the past, besides chicken destroying the plumbing. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so Juneteenth has never been a holiday. It's the last couple of years. So that's 1 day of session has been taken out of the possibility. And then Asian, new to the 29th of Asian Lunar, New Year's new this year, so that took another possible day out. And we can really only run school between September 1st and June 30.th So we're the number of days keeps getting compact a little bit. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I guess. Another alternative. We could come to school on the 30th of June. But I don't think that very popular. So that's that's if there's any question about calendar building or anything. Please ask. That's something to go forward

166tomorrow with the rest of the district. And you know, let people know. So again, I think there's minimum change in place life, but it gets, I think it accomplishes my immediate goal. E2 Gowanda HS Library: What day is graduation? But the half days are for you said, you're selling okay for middle school. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: High school. This is the 1st time touched, you know, just just to make sure that that grade level. It's really impacts the lower grades E2 Gowanda HS Library: for next year, I guess. Is there any consideration for the remote? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. I haven't. It's been in our emergency plan. We have a remote option that we could do last couple of years since. Covid. My philosophy is, we really haven't used many snow days, and

167you know, when snow days come up. I think I'd really just have kids enjoy the snow and just that experience. But that will have to be on the table for next year, really, as a consideration of something close, really have our plans in place for that. So so yes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and even maybe even use the delay as much as they don't like it, and still give us credit for the days and hours. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So we're thinking about 2 blocks next next year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Hate to be the guy to bring that up. Well, average daily attendance affects our state too, so we have to be cognizant of that. So I think, like the 2 h delay. I don't know if we lose kids in the attendance. So

168you kind of got to that, all factors into it. Decisions, too. Yeah. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So attendance actually isn't. E2 Gowanda HS Library: When remote days we don't get the attendance, we get the hours. Well, if you had a remote day it would count for X number of hours depends how we schedule it, and you get credit for a day E2 Gowanda HS Library: as long as they logged in. That's how we. That's how we kept track of it before. It's really, really minimal. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so the other issue that you've run into with remote is, it's not like during Covid, where everybody was made sure to be connected. Right? Yeah, right? Everybody has chromebooks or devices. But there's no E2 Gowanda HS Library: programs to

169make sure people have Internet at home. So our initial plan, sorry to interrupt. But it wouldn't be quite as E2 Gowanda HS Library: intense, maybe, as we did instruction over Covid. We have to know in advance. I mean, I have to know. Tomorrow we got a big storm coming, so people can be prepared to do that. But the lower grades would probably be packed to work out home. Come back to school the next day. If they've completed teachers go back. Mark present, you know, get credit that way. High school, middle school, maybe a little more robust. They just check in at 10 o'clock. Bigger teachers available. Nothing really super fancy. E2 Gowanda HS Library: was it? Would there be an opportunity to build those in? No, I mean, it's just an option if we have

170go to, but it wouldn't be building the calendar, I mean face to face, and a lot of people here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's just an option instead of not meeting tomorrow. We can go remote. E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know. That's people prepared to do that. That's what we'd have to do. But I wouldn't actually schedule them in there E2 Gowanda HS Library: unless we know something's happening. Yeah, I think if you knew, like a week worth of storms or something terrible is coming, then you could work on it. But day by day it's kind of difficult. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So thank thank you. So I'll be about how Kathy modify this E2 Gowanda HS Library: post on our website. I'll try to communicate with everybody, and we'll send some of the fans.

171Yeah to a letter. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, it gives like, the half day, like, you know, I think they're out of school on that Wednesday, the 25.th But E2 Gowanda HS Library: to be a few more hours the rest of the week. E2 Gowanda HS Library: See how that goes. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Excellent. E2 Gowanda HS Library: All right. They'll move us into our Board of Education Communications. We have none. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Any committee reports. E2 Gowanda HS Library: so we have no committee reports and move us to our board and administration round to the wall. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Mark congratulations to the retirees. E2 Gowanda HS Library: They won't be missed. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Not all of them are leaving right now. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay, I

172did notice that the Ruskin team made the paper had a very good year. E2 Gowanda HS Library: which is really nice. E2 Gowanda HS Library: There was an issue on hiring back in Gordon. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Do we want to talk about hiring at some point, and what the boards is? E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's a future date in top. R. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Sure, if you want to put on a future discussion we can talk about. You know how it goes. Rather kind of see that than something. E2 Gowanda HS Library: This is Howard, not the person but process. Yeah, it's really top of that. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I did find an article recently regarding a joint meeting of the play and boards facilitated by Dr. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Name

173Tucker. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And it was not on a merger, but a more cooperation, and so forth. I'd like to share that with the board, if if at all possible, and E2 Gowanda HS Library: maybe think about it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: If we could do something like with Pine Valley, or that in terms of what we can do to E2 Gowanda HS Library: help each other, I mean, they don't have that many students, and for them E2 Gowanda HS Library: sorry we were just talking. I can copy it and share it out to all the board members. Sure E2 Gowanda HS Library: there'll be more decks. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And and last one is, at what point E2 Gowanda HS Library: can I bring up the idea how E2 Gowanda HS

174Library: keeping up our interaction with both these and technology? I mean, not all. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was worried that not all our students are heading towards college. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and what we can do to help them with their work skills and so forth. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Your question. You want to know what we do for vocation. How can we can beef up our like? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Not yes, on vocational Ed, these or technology get students more interested in alternatives to college. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I don't know how you express it, but E2 Gowanda HS Library: my my mechanic is much more computer savvy than I will ever be E2 Gowanda HS Library: the changing world that we're kind of developing students into. I would imagine problems, the

175problem solvers and the E2 Gowanda HS Library: individuals already included. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Do you want to just say a little bit about the regionalization meeting and how we were kind of talking with our neighbors about how we can. We can do that through that. Yeah, with the seats Limited at both seats. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: well, I will say, we've been involved using regionalization conversations with our our neighbors. Just there's there's common issues that we all have. E2 Gowanda HS Library: But I think one thing that's coming up is we've shared before about the Blue Ribbon Commission support from graduate. And then New York inspires, which is kind of the department. Taking over that work, I think, really gives us an opportunity to kind of reimagine what at

176least secondary education looks like, and I've only seen regulations, or like foundational pieces yet come from state. Ed. But that may be a good jumping point for our district to think about what our students should look like when they leave here. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I mean, I think some of the because right now, in old days, you know, automation got rid of a lot of manufacturing jobs. But now, like AI is going to get rid of a lot of the other end jobs. So there really needs to be a different way to retool teaching experience for students to be. E2 Gowanda HS Library: They don't call them soft skills, but they're soft skills. Be able to collaborate with friends, be able to critical, think, be able to problem, solve teamwork, using those available

177tools. So that's just my quick thinking. So maybe we can leverage that thought and those thoughts to that document, and maybe make a different experience for our secondary students. E2 Gowanda HS Library: because, quite honestly, I mean, our teachers are phenomenal. They work really hard. But I'm not really sure. Our our general instruction. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It matches the needs of today's learners. E2 Gowanda HS Library: you know, kids can look up. They can write a report on using E2 Gowanda HS Library: Chat Gpt, you can look up good causes in World War 2 like that. But you can't really, critically think about it with the help of a teacher and E2 Gowanda HS Library: just 4 things. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I don't know if they answer your question. That's just my jumped

178in my brain. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Good! That started point. I mean, school will not be as it is today, 10 years from now. But, more importantly, I think the workplace won't be right. And, like that's E2 Gowanda HS Library: frankly, that's why I'm such a proponent of remote and why I would push, that is, having come from an industry that had a substantial portion of their E2 Gowanda HS Library: staff were bold. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Granted like you said, a lot of them are getting replaced by AI at some point, but there is still a lot of faculty or a lot of staff at remote places, too. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, I mean, I think we need. I mean, people keep talking about 21st century skills for the year 2025, you know,

179almost 20 second century. So you know, it's time that we catch up with. You know, the current needs of the workforce, and that's it. We do people. The programs are great teachers do. Well, it's not what I'm saying, but I think we just need to think about E2 Gowanda HS Library: got that in favor of going check. But I have a flip. Phone E2 Gowanda HS Library: news I have is my daughter had twins on January 19, th so now me and Barbara don't have to fight over. Who holds the meeting. E2 Gowanda HS Library: girls or boys, or both, one of each. Oh, nice! E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's fun! E2 Gowanda HS Library: How can we top that now? E2 Gowanda HS Library: Well, I can't talk. I'm not having twins. Nobody's having

180twins in my family, no babies E2 Gowanda HS Library: but and he stole my thunder with the wrestling team. I was going to congratulate the wrestling team, too. So there was that top 10. That's cool. That was news. Oh, yes, if you missed the musical, the High school musical. I'm sorry anybody who missed it, because it was very entertaining. That was a lot of fun. Lots of effort and hours put in, and it was awesome. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And, Sydney, you did great, too. The laughs. Sydney brought the laughs. Auntie Tanya. It was really surprising. I wasn't technically supposed to be the common, really. E2 Gowanda HS Library: but you were. You bring it every time. So it was good. Yeah. So there's that bowling team went to sectionals. I saw that congrats to

181the bowling team. They were doing good this year, too. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I don't know. I don't know what else I have to say. I do appreciate the good communication from Dr. Bob about different community things. You know the robocalls and stuff. And when things are happening, and E2 Gowanda HS Library: it all happens at once. Well, right? Why, in a range, of course. So right? But yeah, that's good, too. So that's all I got. I guess E2 Gowanda HS Library: no twins. E2 Gowanda HS Library: And I think if I could just add about the Robocall, especially with today's, I think it's just important to acknowledge how helpful our school resource officers are. I mean, just today, having both of them, and I thank the Board for their support, and adding the

182one at the elementary school, because it was just really nice having 2 folks to kind of talk through things with. And you know, yeah, they were really great support. So we're so lucky to have them both. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's agreed public service announcement. I'm going to make on behalf of athletics. E2 Gowanda HS Library: they've added shot clocks to lacrosse. So I know she's Candy's worried that we're going to be short on staff to do the spring sports and all the clocks. So if anyone's interested current employees subs, or if parents or friends and anybody's interested, please contact Val in our office or contact candy directly, because we could get people fingerprinted and board approved E2 Gowanda HS Library: to be able to do it. $17 an hour. But you get to watch

183the sports while you're doing it. So we're definitely she's definitely concerned. She's not gonna have E2 Gowanda HS Library: awesome. Thank you. That's it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Alright. I was gonna say something about the musical because I missed it. Unfortunately, I saw the preview, and then I didn't get to see the rest. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I did see pictures of it. The outfits looked amazing. I also heard Alyssa and Mallory. E2 Gowanda HS Library: great singers that actually okay. E2 Gowanda HS Library: and my turn. Oh, I won't lie. I did take my super trooper outfit you should have. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Be careful. Your mom doesn't steal it, though. Come, see, our chorus and band concert tomorrow. Modern band has been growing, which is great E2

184Gowanda HS Library: cabaret is I don't know if anybody heard, but cabaret is turned to fully modern band and soloist now. So cabaret used to be for the chorus, and then anybody inside a chorus who wanted to do it. But now it's fully being taken over by modern band, it's gotten so big that it's going to be strictly to highlight them. And then it's going to be for like soloists, duetists stuff like that. So it's like more space. For like E2 Gowanda HS Library: where people who like want to do like certain bands, or like certain songs because we were having issues where, like. E2 Gowanda HS Library: we weren't having enough like slots. And this would be like 4 h long performance. So E2 Gowanda HS Library: no. It's it, E2 Gowanda HS Library:

185looking at the list and echoing, some of the stuff that was already kind of mentioned from everybody, definitely appreciate all the retirees in this years of service that they gave to the district. I can only imagine what they're feeling like right now. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So again, I appreciate them achievements from the students that was awesome to hear all the different achievements that we have out there. And E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was gonna touch on the regionalization as well. Meeting. That was great. It was a great experience. To that point, though I seems like what Mark alluded to or presented in that article. Maybe that would be a revenue that would be more appropriate to like the conversation or facilitate conversation is maybe the E2 Gowanda HS Library: the districts locally that we

186share the borders with maybe Lakeshore and Pi Valley. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I don't know. That's up to you guys, obviously E2 Gowanda HS Library: And then thank you all for presenting tonight the individuals presenting tonight. And then last, but not least, mamma mia, that was an awesome experience, I know that was already said, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned it as well. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's all. I got. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Okay. Same way. Best of luck to the retirees. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I was a student. Well, a ta when I 1st started with the Education Department, so I did work with a couple of those ladies. They've had quite a E2 Gowanda HS Library: quite a time here. So that's many years of appreciative service, I'm going to

187say. Congrats to our honor roll and merit roll recipients, and to our own student board members and our other top 10. E2 Gowanda HS Library: So I'm not excellent. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Oh, like everybody has said E2 Gowanda HS Library: what there is to be said. So thank you all, for that'll move us into our Board of Education parking lot E2 Gowanda HS Library: already talked about the idea for the superintendent evaluation looking at those metrics. So we'll try and get that E2 Gowanda HS Library: sorted out on the next month or so, do we have anything else? That we want added to the E2 Gowanda HS Library: you mentioned discussion on the hiring process that we just want that E2 Gowanda HS Library: next meeting or 2, or do we want to put

188that on the parking lot? Never. It's yeah. Well, Kathy, just put notes around the next meeting. I don't think we'll take long. Just don't lose sight of it. E2 Gowanda HS Library: That's fair. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Anybody else have any anything they want to add. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Can we do a picnic E2 Gowanda HS Library: with other districts like our retreat. What do they call it? What do we do once a year? Yeah. Can we do a retreat with the other board sounds good to me. It's not bad, because I know when my wife with the nation E2 Gowanda HS Library: food was an enticement to actually get people to come. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You know, colleagues from neighboring districts? Just yeah. Yeah. No. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You want that

189on the parking lot as a discussion. Well, that's what I'm wondering. Would it be appropriate to do that, or maybe we had a E2 Gowanda HS Library: reach out to him first, st I can reach out to the fellow board. President. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Yeah, I think it's appropriate. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It was 20 years ago, like, imagine merging with. E2 Gowanda HS Library: weren't you? We're trying to take them over. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's benefit, increase everybody's capacity and benefit everybody right now. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Nhs is holding a bake sale Friday at the bank, I heard. Oh, that's right. There will be sweeter side, 716 cookies if you would like Julian Granock's amazing cookies. E2 Gowanda HS Library: Really good. They will be there. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You

190know what time that is on Friday. I think it's during the day. Yeah, it starts during the day. I think it ends at 5 o'clock, I know, just like during normal bank hours. Yeah. E2 Gowanda HS Library: I know kids are leaving early, and then they take like shifts E2 Gowanda HS Library: for those of us who have to work. E2 Gowanda HS Library: It's definitely getting late. All right. So with that being said, we're not done. Make a consideration motion to access the executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment history of a particular person. You can't put your. E2 Gowanda HS Library: You can go ahead and shut down.