GCS BOE Video Archives

001I'll call the meeting to order. All rise for the pledge to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Ok. Our bylaws. If there's any person who wishes to address the board, they may do so by filling out the appropriate form and hand it into the board president. The board president will call upon the person to speak at the appropriate time. Each such person will be permitted to speak for a limited time of three minutes. Please stand in front of the board table. Under discretion of the board, no more than 3 people will be allowed to address the board on a single topic. I will have those sheets in just

002a moment Mark. Mark, you're muted. Okay, sure. So, ok I'm I'm here now. Consideration a motion to accept the agenda. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Community concerns. We have 3 people that have requested to speak with us. First up there's Chrissy Smith. Chrissy, are you there? Alright. Can you see and hear me? I can hear you. Okay. All right. I can't see you but I can hear you. Amy? All right. Thank you. Thank you for bearing with me through that. Um, thank you so much for letting me speak before you guys tonight. I don't know if you all received a letter that I emailed you but I wrote you all a letter. That's what I really wanted to speak to tonight. What I really was hoping to do is just speak

003from my heart about the culture of the board room that I tune into and listen to. I don't get to attend every board meeting. I've attended very few in fact, but I do listen to all the board meetings and I just want to preface this this by saying that, number one, I appreciate all of the volunteers. I know you're all volunteers and I want to recognize that. I also want to recognize that when I tune into the board meetings, what I see and what I hear are very passionate, intelligent individuals who are really just having a difficult time coming together and connecting and we're kind of like creating this culture where we're getting lost and we're not able to solve issues and we're not able to come together and it's very sad to me in

004that we set forth a mission statement for our students. We set forth the 4 Cs, we set forth collaboration, communication, creativity and yet we're falling really short from that in these meetings. So I guess when I'm asking the board members to consider, and I really want to say that there are board members board that come there and I see them really trying to work from that space, um, but there are other other board members that just, you know they're not really getting there. And I just think this would be such a powerful opportunity for our community and for our board to come together and to really tune into that mission statement that we set forth for our students and emulate those standards. Again I worded it more out in the letter that I sent you

005all. I also printed out some copies of different research that's been done on leadership and daring leadership. I don't want to just come down here and sound like I'm talking like a guidance counselor and there's a little tiny you know poster on the wall of a little rabbit saying, "You can do it!" and not back it up with like actions we could actually take. There's all kinds of workshops and trainings that we could we could do as a board. Janet, I often hear you ask the administration, you know, what do you need from us to support you? And so I guess as a community member, I'm asking, what does the board need from us to support you guys so we can create a new culture that's conducive to collaboration, to creativity, to communication, to creative

006thinking? And that's really what I'm just asking. I'm just really down here planting a seed, a possibility of one possible outcome that we could really take this and use this as an opportunity to come together and to learn and to grow. We have differing opinions. We have, you know, diversity is amazing. It's wonderful. It's a catalyst for amazing things. I don't think there's anything that the board wants to talk about that shouldn't be talked about. I think it's the method that we're talking about things where we're falling short. And I guess my concern is, if we just have like a behavior correction, the behavior is a symptom of something much deeper and until we can come from a space of being willing to collaborate with each other, in where we're not alienating each other with

007our with our language, I just fear that we're going to keep repeating this behavior. And lastly, I just have to say this. I want to go on record saying that these are unprecedented times. The whole institution of education that, you know, was full of systems and procedures, was stopped abruptly and teachers, administration, nurses, you know, the lunch staff, everybody has had to kind of like build this plane as we're flying it. And I'm absolutely humbled at the job that they are doing. I'm humbled and I can tell you that I don't think they're working 1-2 hours a day. I think they're probably working much, much more than that. The emotional toll, you know, these teachers know their students, they know you know this kid needs this, this kid lacks this at home and I can

008give this to them in the classroom and they, they can't do that right now. And the emotional toll that this has on our, our teachers and our administration I think, is really not even measurable. And the amount of hours they're working. I don't even think is measurable and I just have mad appreciation for all of them. And I can can tell you that any question I have, I have had answered. The office staff has been amazing. I understand at the last meeting there was an issue, which I would guess is probably an isolated issue because I've never had an issue having my questions answered and answered in a timely manner. And I just think it's really important that when we're talking about issues in the boardroom, that we're doing so in a way that the

009humanity of the people in this building gets honored and remains intact. And so that's all that I'm coming to suggest. Thank you for your comments. You're welcome. If you give me a couple minutes, I will do some shuffling. And then we've got the next speaker coming in is Dan York. While we're waiting, how's everybody doing out there? I'm doing fine. Thank you for asking Mark. Ok. Hanging in there. Good. Hanging in there Mark. Thanks for asking. I had heard a rumor that there's board watching parties out there. Where people get together to watch board meetings. Sounds like a fun time. They got a lot of time on their hands. Hopefully not together. 6 feet apart at least. 6' apart. Hey Dan. Hello, can you hear me? I can hear you. With your permission, I'll jump

010right in. I'd like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to address the board. As many of you know my name is Dan York. I'm a parent of a student who attends Gowanda Central School, a former board member and for a time the board president. I would like start by thanking the board members. I know that you are in positions that are almost always thankless. I also know that your interactions with the public as board members can be limited to hearing people complain. Your positions require a lot of behind the scenes preparation and it can be taxing to put in all that effort for a non-paid position just to have people criticize what you are doing. I understand the stress. I thank you for volunteering to put yourselves in this position. Due to that

011understanding I am reluctant to step forward and add my voice to those who are complaining. However, the conduct, or more appropriately, misconduct, of two Board Members, Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Vogtli has been significant enough to cause me to want to speak out. An effective board needs to have people who are willing to disagree or ask the uncomfortable questions for the betterment of the district. However, there is a difference between doing that and the almost constant accusatory, unprofessional, and at times downright unacceptable behavior displayed by Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Vogtli. I could go on at length and list examples of concerning incidents, such as telling other board members to shut up, belittling the superintendent and administrators, the use of profanity during meetings, or continuing to make unfounded claims to support the point of view, even after

012being corrected. All of these things mentioned were just from a single meeting. I could continue listening concerns from other meetings. But do I need to? You were here during every meeting. You have witnessed everything everything I have and could say. The question is, is this behavior acceptable? Is this the type of board that you want to be leaders of our our district or role models for our children? A continuation of this behavior and the acceptance of it by the rest of board will do nothing but counteract the progress that everyone in the district has been working so hard for. It will discourage the talented professionals that we have working in our district and likely cause them to look for employment elsewhere. I feel that the habitual nature of their behavior warrants more than a simple

013apology, or even a reprimand from from the board. I am asking the board to consider the conduct of these two board members and determine how it measures up to your School Board Officer Employees Ethic policy number 2160. This is your board. Is this behavior acceptable and in line with how you want it to perform? If not, I ask that you take action and make a a motion to remove Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Vogtli from the board. In closing, I have one more request to make specifically for Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Vogtli. Please take a moment to consider why you are on the board. I propose that whatever your reason is, you are more likely to achieve it if you conduct yourselves at all times in a manner that is professional and aligned with the board's

014ethics policy. If that is something you can or will not do, please consider resigning your seat on the board. Thanks for time and I hope you will consider what I have said. Thank you Dan. Have a nice evening. Next up we'll have Jennifer Gredant. I think you're on mute Jen. Mr. Nephew, Cathy just needs a few minutes to sanitize everything. Thank you. Hi good evening can you hear me? I can. Ok. Alright, first of all I want to thank the Board, our administration, and our staff for all your efforts during these critical times. On April 1st my 7th grade daughter and I tuned into listen to the school board of education meeting to learn our district updates during this national pandemic. As I had expressed in my email sent that same night to the administrative

015team and board, I was quickly appalled at the misconduct and disrespectful behavior that went on the entire meeting by two board members David Barnes and Janet Vogtli. This prompted me to go back and listen to further recordings of our Board of Education meetings. Sadly every meeting I listened to there were examples of bullying, suggestions of wrongdoing, dishonesty and incompetency of our district staff. It's my opinion that these two board members main objective is to reduce their own taxes. In fact on October 16th, 2019 Mr. Barnes actually resentfully shared he has to pay $30,000 in taxes. Both individuals have broken confidences they agreed to maintain at public meetings. Multiple examples of demands, hostile interrogations, and violations of Gowanda board policies 2160 and 216OR outlining our code of ethics, occur at nearly every meeting. I have shared

016these examples and more with the board in multiple emails. The effects of these two board members are devastating to our district operation. Board meetings do not not follow appropriate protocol and there is not time to address the goals and stated objectives. Professionals are deemed incompetent and untrustworthy so these two board members step into supervise. In addition, Appendix C positions are criticized by these two individuals. This conduct results in loss of staff morale and potentially talented staff to seek employment elsewhere. As a reminder, your your roles are: Acting as part of an educational team with mutual respect and regard for each other's respective responsibilities and duties. Recognizing that the strength of the school board is acting as a board and not as individuals and the strength of the superintendent is being the educational leader of the

017school district. Adhering to the principles that the board's primary role will be policy making, planning, and appraisal while the superintendent shall implement the board's policies. Upholding the principles of due process and individual dignity and protecting the civil and human rights of all. At a time when our board should be working together, it is disheartening to have to bring this negative attention to our community. However, our community is outraged at the lack of compassion during these unique times. A time in which we should be most considerate in collaborating together. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be on the forefront of these two board members agendas. I am respectfully requesting Janet Vogtli and David Barnes to both step down from this board. I do not believe either of you are here for any other reason than personal

018gain. If you will not step down, I am requesting on behalf of the 675 signatures obtained in our community, that our board not stay silent or let these individuals control the future of our district. Please remove these individuals from the board so that you can do the jobs that we elected you to do. I trust you will do what's right for our students, our staff, and our community because Gowanda deserves better. Thank you for your time and thank you for your service. Okay hold on Jennifer before you leave. Okay. I do have a statement here. On behalf of the Board of Education want to thank you for taking the time to express your interest in the Gowanda Central School District and the Board of Education. We take your efforts and the concerns you are raising

019very seriously. I truly believe that this Board of Education can best serve the district if we act professionally and respectfully when conducting district business, consistent with the best practices for boards of education. We will continue to explore all available approaches to achieving this goal and the board also looks forward to reviewing your petition and the issues that raises with our district's attorney. Thank you. That was prepared by the board or is that your statement? That's a statement that was prepared by our lawyer. Okay. Thank you Mark. Ok. Appreciate your time. Have a good night. Now we're not gonna get into this. We'll be talking later with our attorney. Okay, I think we're down to superintendent's report. Well thank you. Good evening everybody. It's been a while since we last touched base, but lots happened in

0203 weeks at a rapid pace. So let me talk about some updates in terms of academics and budget and I'll rely on my staff to help me fill in some details. But just to remind people this is really unprecedented public health crisis which has caused educational systems and organizational systems that have been in place for years or decades being flipped within weeks not days. Since March 16 our district has completely flipped on how we deliver instruction, care for, and feed our students. And in doing so, as I've said before, I'm proud of our employees for doing everything possible during this unimagined time in the service of students in our community. I want to thank them for all their hard work. I want to thank the community for your continued support and certainly {inaudible} I work

021with as well. Tonight I want to provide a few updates to you. I know there's probably many questions and many of the questions I probably don't have answers to. Like, when will the situation end? What's the plan to open New York state back up? What happens if there's a second wave outbreak? What does our summer and fall look like? We can only really plan with as much guides and available data that allows us to concretely plan. So some of the things that we'll talk about here shortly; we're looking at 2-3 week increments. We could always talk about the summer or fall, but that's unknown. And just reminder, it's a public health crisis. None of us have ever experienced this in our careers, let alone lifetimes. So we're doing the best we can to manage. For

022academics, last week on the 7th it was kind of expected, New York State's Education Department Regents Exams were cancelled and the governor extended school closures til May 15th, until at least May 15th. I'm speculating, but I I don't really know if we'll be back physically this year. So to just let you and the public know that our administrative team and our teacher leaders have been revising our current learning plan to begin preparing for a longer closure. And in doing so we're beginning to focus on the central that are needed to complete by students this school year to do the best we can to prepare for next. We're preparing to send a letter to families and students outlining this plan. It will be mailed later this week, not tomorrow. We're just putting the draft on it

023and our building principals and building leaders are working on fine details those plans. So back in the questions that's going forward. We talked about equity and access issues. I don't know what goes on in everybody's homes; what support levels they have. I don't know if summer school is possible. We can look at bringing people in for limited use of our building. I don't know if that's possible yet. We could be looking at rotations of faculty and staff. I don't know. And we don't even know if we're going to open up yet in time for the fall. So hopefully, but I don't know. So really it's unknown. For smart future plans, when this pandemic slows or when timing of restrictions are pulled back, removed, to what extent restrictions will be in place we don't know. Just

024a lot of unknowns. But bottom line is, we're planning going forward for at least the rest of the school year, as we know it providing instruction around central standards that we've identified as grade levels, buildings, content areas to make sure kids are the best learners as they possibly can be under incredibly trying circumstances for schools let alone families. That's a lot. Little different dynamics I don't know. Building principals or Sander if you'd like to add in or some questions about what that may look like from our board. Well if I could just chip in. As we're thinking about creating a comprehensive plan we have a couple deadlines in place place, because we're looking to what happens if we don't come back at the end of the year, what happens if we do have an opportunity

025for summer school, and what happens if we come back September 1st. How will we fill those gaps that we know are going to exist? But for now, in the immediate future, while we're keeping an an eye on where we're going in September, we're really taking a look at what's absolutely essential for kids to know as a way to complete course, to earn course credit as well as finished the grade level. And we've approached it with a differentiated approach. Kay is going to be using more of a feedback system that is not necessarily a grade, but students getting credit so that we can find out what they're learning and so that we know where students are, who's attempted, who's meeting standards, who's beginning, who's going to need support because we're going to need that specific data

026for each student to know how we're gonna support them moving forward. And then I also just want to add the principles have been outstanding and working towards those aims as well and they can speak to some particularities. But I also want to say that this is an opportunity for Gowanda to collaborate with other school districts. So tomorrow we're going to, I'm working with the assistant super from Lakeshore and Silver Creek. And we're going to meet with Trudy Jackson and folks from the Seneca Nation to talk about how we can better address any of the needs around access to materials in the territory among those shared concerns. And there will be folks from our district who are integral to that effort, Lakeshore, Silver Creek, so that we can have many minds to try to address that

027together and we're looking forward to that meeting with Trudy and our people. I thought, Barb, I thought that was really important to tell you because you've always been especially supportive of those sorts of efforts. So I'll close with that and it's just giving you a brief overview, but now there can be more particularities added or information given. Thank you. To add to that yesterday I spent a lot of time with my leadership team in the building talking about a plan and as we're talking about raising the level of accountability for students and for them to have evidence of of learning that Dr. Anderson and Dr. Simmers were talking about, our biggest concern is how those things will be returned to us. I'm sure that Carrie and Rebecca share that as well. So our plan, you

028know in working with the teacher teams is of course Schoology will be our main framework where students can submit digitally those evidences of learning as we go, as Dr. Anderson said, the pared down standards are the high priority. We're also giving consideration to how students again those evidences of learning keeping them simple. How that a cell phone either student's cell phone parent's cell phone can take a picture at the weekend of those evidences of learning and then email it to a teacher directly. Then they get feedback and offer some suggestions to students. We are also going to establish a Dropbox at the middle school for those parents that might not have cell phone or the internet access. We're using the library's, right outside the library, normal return book box. It would be for a physical

029document where they would insert it in there. Of course it's least favorable with the contact and driving and all those things, but it would be after hours when we make that available. And then the last will be bus pick up. Again, where they complete a task by the end of the week. A bus pickup would pick it on Friday per se. We would get it back from the office organize it, let it sanitize and sit for a while too and then scan it to the teacher for them to offer feedback. So I just want the board to know, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Cimbricz are aware of this, that we're working on some of these approaches strategically to getting, again raising the bar and making sure that are being assessed as to what they're learning moving

030forward. We're looking at multiple mediums for return. Okay? Thank you. You're welcome. For the elementary school we're looking at trying to be consistent with a lot of the ways and means to return work. I worked with my entire team leaders from all of my grade levels over the last two days and then throughout the course of the rest of the week I have meetings that are scheduled with each team and we are refining our plan. It's going to be about a six step plan. For us, it's actually starting with us doing an additional survey of our entire building because when we did our initial survey one of the things that we did not do because our kids don't have devices that go home, was to survey around who has devices already at home and who

031has internet access or WiFi. So that's one of the things that we are soliciting right now. With the means of having that information to possibly move forward with supplying some kids that don't have devices with devices from the elementary school and or looking at supplying some hotspots so that those kinds of online learning videos tapes, teleconferencing kinds of things can happen to supplement the learning packets that are going home. But this movement really is going to be centered around new learning and getting kids through some of those standards, specifically in math for us and I think I can speak even K-8 that we're looking at that because there are really specific standards for math that typically are not covered until the spring. And so we're really going to be centered around making sure that those

032standards are covered. Whereas with ELA, even though we're still going to be reinforcing that, ELA spirals time and time and time again the same standards and so at this point in the year really, most of those standards have been covered, introduced, and now we're just reinforcing to get mastery of them. So that will be our real focus around the new learning that will be taking place and our our hope is that we can connect with all kids in some way, shape, or form. But to raise that expectation, let them know that there will be evidence of learning to come back. Our staff are already working on trying to restructure a ways and a means to provide ongoing formative feedback to parents and kids about their progress and then overall summative feedback. That would be some

033kind of a hybrid marking period 3/marking period 4 report card. So a lot of work being done. I'm real impressed with my staff. It's got some great ideas. I think the hardest part at the elementary level is kind of reconciling ourselves that we may not get 100% of our kids engaged in this. And that's really a challenge to say that we are going to move forward anyway, even knowing that that may not happen because they're little ones and they're reliant solely on adults. That's where we stand at the elementary building. Thank you Carrie. So for the high school for this second sort of phase of our instructional plan like Carrie and Todd, I have been meeting with the High School Department leaders around what this looks like at the high school level. And some of

034the particular challenges and problems that we've been working through are that our courses are sometimes electives and are not necessarily a component of a sequence. Like for example, in elementary school, you have grade one English and then you all move to grade two English. In High school it's a little bit different because there are so many pathways. And so some of the guidance that I gave out originally still applies for instruction. We're adding in the component of the new instruction and new material like Todd and Carrie mentioned. My guidance, and we've discussed in our department meetings, is continue to use Schoology and packets to continue to provide instructional opportunities for students to practice those skills that are essential learning standards that teachers have already determined for the year. Essential through their assessment year at a

035glances and some of the curriculum work that they've done. In some cases they will be providing new material. We need to make sure we're providing written, explicit directions or brief videos that support this new material. What we don't want to happen is for students to learn things incorrectly and then us have to come back and reteach you know, what was learned incorrectly. So as long as we're providing those things as well as answer keys for parents so that they're able to check the work. We are not providing busy work, but we're providing and continuing to provide that meaningful relevant material. One of the things, and I'm very proud of at the high school level is that we are continuing to offer instructional opportunities for every single course. We have not pared it down to what

036sometimes people say the 4 core. We're offering things in technology and music and analyzing artwork and because, in part, we're also navigating what course credit looks like. As Dr. Anderson mentioned, one of the problems and things that we've been looking at as department leaders is determining courses and what students individually will earn credit because as we know were exemptions for regents exams. And once you enter 9th grade, this is all you know, going on to a transcript that students have to earn credit towards in order to earn that diploma. And so it's really important that we get it right and that we have documentation as far as that the students have mastered the standards for that particular course. Like Todd and Carrie mentioned, instructionally, we are moving for the second phase to really encourage students

037to submit assignments back to us so that we aren't necessarily giving it a grade but are giving feedback on whether or not they're on the right track or if they are meeting those standards or not. And so the two ways that we're going to do this is to use our eSchool management system and use our progress report process so that teachers can input those comments for each student, for each course. And then we're looking at hopefully mailing those home every other week. So a parent would get it up a progress report over the closure. It doesn't have a great attached to it, but it would say your student has completed XYZ and is meeting the standards that we've been providing for the last month during the closure or that they're not. The other component is

038that we are using Schoology and like the middle school are adding a section in there to keep track, like Dr. Cimbricz mentioned, the types of assessments that students are turning in and meeting so that we have records for it, at least for next year. So that's a little bit about the high school and what we have been continuing to look at for the instructional component. Can you expand or, I have concerns about, I assume you're in touch with BOCES and how those students are. That there are many of them are much more hands on. Excuse me. Yes, we have been in touch with BOCES. BOCES is actually a little bit behind us from what I understand. They're still trying to work out some of what the exemptions look like, but we have been in touch

039with every single student. We have report card grades from every single student. I have a spreadsheet of about 1800 lines in which we are tracking every single student to make sure that they are on track for success and all of our students are doing very well right now. As far as, Mark, specifics around, you know, like, how does a student complete internship hours for nursing? BOCES is still trying to work that out, especially with social distancing. But I don't think that any students are going to be held, you know, no harm will be done to them. I believe what the regulation state is that there will be exemptions to that. And that's part of the document that Bob mentioned came out from the state. Okay. Thank you. Mark, can I ask a question? Sure. Rebecca

040I'm concerned about BOCES also and now that you're saying they're behind the curve, if a nurse can't go out and do an internship, a welder can't do an internship. Um, how are we going to graduate them without having that experience and what is BOCES telling you? What is the paperwork that they've sent saying that these these kids are going to be ready to graduate? That's such a specific question, I would have to get back to you, but I can tell you that their graduation isn't dependent on internship hours. What is dependent on internship hours are their specific certifications that they leave with. For example, cosmetology. A student would graduate with a high school diploma, but then leave through BOCES with a specific certification. I don't have the answers about the certification at the moment. That's

041something that I would have to get back to you on. The only reason that BOCES is a little bit behind is because, like us they're working through all these instructional pieces in a career and technology setting with hands on things and they're definitely working on it. I actually have a meeting with all of the Chautauqua County principals on Thursday and that's one of the things that we're going to discuss and get information on. So that's something I'll get back to you on. Yes, if you can let us know what's going to happen if they don't get that certification, what happens and you know, where do we go from there? I'd appreciate that. I'm not concerned about them graduating. They will certainly still get diplomas based on those course credits. It'll just come down to whether

042or not the state deems them certified individuals for their particular area. So I'll find out. Shouldn't there be a concern though if they don't have that or not? So if they don't need that why does BOCES require it? I think that's more question on the state level regarding their certification. I mean, the state is waiving a lot of things at this point. Updates on Special Ed? They're one of the, I'm not saying the most neediest group, but they have needs that I worry aren't being met through distance distance learning. So for us, we started right off the bat, because our teachers and providers work with less students on average than a classroom general education teacher works with, we started right off the bat with providing individualized services. So that has been in place going back

043until prior to the last board meeting we'd already started that. It is a little bit dependent again on each student's home accessibility circumstances. But we're providing individualized instruction through this type of method for a percentage of our students. Other students we're providing individualized instruction through phone conversations with them. And then typically more of our older students, it's more of like checking in with them. I know they're feeling a little bit more confident. All students, their progress will be monitored from where they were performing before the school closure. Where they're performing when they get back and the guidance from the state is that we will need to consider each student and where they're at the amount of compensatory services that each student requires. And so what that is, is you know additional services to make up

044for services that were lost. The state is encouraging us to expand our summer school program to provide some of those compensatory services. So the area directors through BOCES have been meeting weekly to plan an expanded summer school and hopefully we'll be able to do that, to provide some of those compensatory services. As the principles all talk about shifting to phase two and how to implement new learning, for us in special education, how to implement that isn't a big lift for us because we're already providing individualized instruction to students. So for us it's more about shifting what type of instruction they're doing from review to new content. Certainly there are students that you know, especially with access or who didn't want to participate in services are missing out. And so each student will be looked at

045for compensatory services upon return. Okay, thank you. Barb Smith? Did you have any updates for us? Bob, are you going to talk about the budget at all? Yeah. Superintendent's report or? Yeah let me talk about some of the highlights and lowlights then I'll let you add in your report. Ok. Yeah. Well, a lot of academic work, you've heard the principles and our curriculum coordinator explain, it's been a heavy lift going into phase two. You know, I mentioned earlier that a lot of systems and organizational structures that have been in place for decades that we don't even think about, we have to reinvent that as well as delivering, you know, the instructional outcomes. Like even as simple as doing scholarships for seniors. We have systems and structures in place, but now we have to redesign. How

046are we going to look at applications? Where is it going to take place? Let alone going through and reviewing all those applications. So just everything from top to bottom needs to be rethought, redone. People have worked tremendously hard trying to think creatively and flexibly to deliver the services that we constantly do. And just thinking last night, all along that there's just so many things you don't even [inaudible] the budget. Let me start with some good news, real quick. As of this point Barb and I looking at budget right now for this school year. She and I are anticipating a reasonable surplus to end our school year. During the shutdown we've been fortunate in some respects to have savings through not paying overtime, no extra pay, extra activities, utilities, substitutes we'd normally be doing this time

047of year and we're not so we're saving in that that sense. But moving forward really into next year for the 20/21 New York State Budget; as we just got word on on April 1 about it we've had three weeks to kind of digest some of the nuances. That for 2021 our state aid was flat, we're getting the same amount of state foundation at that we did from 19/20 which isn't great, but it's good under the circumstances. But then along where we talked about the state remove part of that funding for what they call the pandemic adjustment. The state took back about $500,000 from us, but then State Ed. immediately back filled it with federal care stimulus dollars. So what we were cut back from the state was filled. But what we're really waiting on is

048when the budget passed is, in the document, there's four measurement periods that in the budget document allows the Department of Budget to look at revenues and expenditures and if they don't meet targets they'll begin, perhaps pulling back additional state aid. And as of right now there's a tremendous state budget gap. You've probably read the news and followed the newspapers as much as I have, between $10 to $15 billion which is a considerable amount of money. So right now before I say my next piece that Barb and I are currently, with our administrators, meeting again tomorrow about prioritizing. We're looking at people who have retired or left us, looking at which positions we're not going to replace for next year. We've looked at at seniority lists. We're looking at budget areas that can be further reduced

049without impacting programming and students. We're also going to take a look at a solution for long term. This is not going to be a one month fix where next year everything's good. I think we're in it for some time. But to go back that big state gap, we really are going to require additional federal assistance to do that. Today I sent letters to our US Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and our representative Tom Reed. The 27th district I think, is still vacant. But we need federal dollars to target and support education in New York. Without that moving forward and again I don't know the answers nor does Bard so it's hard to say yes or no, but we can look be looking at a significant reduction in state aid, which would really be devastating to our

050schools. That's worst case scenario. Hopefully that doesn't come to fruition. But those are kind of the parameters we've been talking about, thinking about moving forward. But unfortunately with data it's only, we can only plan to best the guidance that we receive and the data that we have. And we don't really have any long term numbers to really make any really good determinations right now. So to back up. We're looking at the April 30 measurement period and see what happens after that and keep an eye on our federal government. So with that, Barb I'll let you maybe fill in some things I didn't say, but I will ask that our community advocate to our US senators and our local congress people. Tomorrow I'll put the contact information up on our website, give it out to folks

051so you can, if you choose to, advocate for our school district and school districts across New York. I think we're gonna need that help. Barb, did I miss anything? Not explain things correctly? Well, I would probably just add, certainly I think we're looking to ask the Board to not really, we wouldn't anticipate passing a budget until after that April 30 measurement period. In speaking with, I've been on calls with Erie 1 and Erie 2 BOCES districts, that seems to be the consensus of what most people are waiting for. It was kind of interesting because there was definitely a difference between what Erie 1 districts were doing and Erie 2 districts were doing as far as planning for their budgets. Some weren't going to reduce their budgets at all. They were going to use fund balance

052to fund their budgets. Others were making reductions. I think Bob and I are trying to kind of look at it and I look at it really as a two year budget problem that we're probably going to have. So I don't necessarily, I wouldn't necessarily advocate for just reducing costs that we know we may have to increase in the following year. Knowing that if we leave some cushion in there and offset it with fund balance at least that takes away some of the hurt for the following year. So I kind of look at it as a long term approach and trying to make sure that we're utilizing the reserves for the things that we have set them aside for. That's the reason we have them. That's the reason that your district has really thoughtfully kind of

053had some budgeting practices that may have been zealous at times, but right now we're fortunate to have fund balance when other districts may not have that. So I think it's trying to look for a balanced approach going forward. And like I said, kind of just waiting till after April 30th to see what impact we may have. We kind of have our priority list and we'll discuss those with the administrators. There's one question I know that we've had come up about sales tax and Erie county sales tax. We received a letter from the Erie Country comptroller and he kind of gave estimates of what he thought, possibly the reduction could be for this fiscal year. We have typically received more than we budgeted which is good in this, particularly in this year, because I estimate, they

054would have to have a 43% reduction in the last quarter for it to even impact us to be less than what we have budgeted for. And so I when I look at this year, I think we're still okay on sales tax. And I think for next year we'll still be okay because we've never received anything less than what we budgeted for. And I know Mark, you've talked about the impact of changing the budget for sales tax then pushes the property taxes on to the residents and the counties other than Erie. So I would kind of advocate for status quo on the sales tax for next year. There's a reason on the sales tax why we budget, the way we do. Right yes there is. A couple of questions. Sure. Um, I've been getting emails from

055New York State School Board Association and the Erie Country School Board Association saying that we'll be lucky if we get half of the pandemic adjustment. They feel it's the same as the gap whatever it was a couple years ago. And I think we have to be very careful. I don't believe we can count on the federal government coming in and giving us that money because there's a problem right now between the governor and President. So just because somebody says they're gonna fill that, I don't think we can rely on that. And you know both of those associations are saying the same thing. I mean, are we looking at raising classroom sizes? Well the trust the pandemic aid. The state has to, is obligated to have a minimum commitment and that minimum commitment is actually half

056the pandemic aid amount. So there's been speculation that the state would take that federal money, half that amount back in August and have that 2%. So Barb inaudible projections we've kind of figured that out. We were assuming that we would get half that amount, as you do point out that nothings guaranteed. I don't know what's going to happen so we are planning for that. And that would be a long term consideration. It would have to be staffing, because it comes right down to it. Our biggest expense is our employees and the programs that they deliver. But that would be one of the things that we would have to seriously look at is, electives, class sizes, and make ratios that are heavier that what we're used to now. So it's absolutely. Ok, maybe I heard incorrectly

057but I thought you said that pandemic adjustment was going to be filled in by Federal funds. Well it has been right now. We were. Well let me finish. We had an adjustment of $500,000 dollars that was filled in by Federal Cares dollars by the state. So things are dollar for dollar. Nothing has changed, it's up flat aid. Right now you're saying that what they told us in the, whatever they gave us back. April 1st? Yeah that sheet Barb, that I had. So you're telling me that we're going to get all of that money, $19 million? $19 million? No, it's like a foundation aid. I think we're talking about $500,000 dollars. That's the Pandemic Adjustment. Then that was filled in by the Federal Cares dollars. I'm assuming that the speculation is some of that Federal money

058will be pulled back by the State. So that amount won't be full. Right not it's dollar for dollar. What are we going to use as revenue for our budget? Well that would shore us about another $278,000 dollars. Barb can you fill in? Yeah, so our gap before the pandemic adjustment was for 78. So if then they cut another half, they cut half of that 571 our deficit's like $764,000. So that's what we were talking about, kind of a blended approach, to look at prioritizing what expenditures we can cut, and I think we also need to look at what kind of fund balance we want to use long term. I think it's a multiple pronged approach, because it's gonna be a multi year event. I think that's what we need to advise the public of. Is

059that we're being cut. I think we should put it on our website. That they're taking pandemic adjustments out. I mean the Governor yesterday or two days ago said he was taking 5% of our budget. Today he says he's taking 20%. And I think the public needs to hear these things, because I don't want to hide it from them. I want them to know right now we could be close to being a short of a million dollars. I think we will inform the public once we have some firm figures in terms of what's actually happening. But the plan right now is that we're gonna be dealing with the budget on the first meeting in May after the first measurement period by the Governor, and then we'll have a better idea in terms of what we can

060do what we can't do. At that point we'll have some things in terms of lay off lists, see if we need it for next year, and what's essential what's not essential. We'll start making some plans. Don't you feel that we owe the public right now, to tell them what they've sent us is taking out $500,011dollars of pandemic adjustment. I think they need to know that. If we haven't in from a specific office that they're taking that money then yes, we could announce it to the public. It it's something that's anticipated from somewhere but we don't actually know that it's occurring, I'm not sure we need to do that at this point. Let us look at our budget next time. But you don't want to let them know what the Governors thinking and how he's targeting

061schools? I think that's important. In this unprecedented time he's taking money out, he's talking about taking more money, and we're just kind of hiding it and not saying to our public, this could be a problem we want you to know this. So that when our budget comes out, if in fact it's there, you know about it, if it isn't great. But why can't we tell them? It's come out in black and white. Ok. Could be inaudible based on what the Governor has put out there. He's talking about a 20% across the board education cut. Plus the pandemic. Right. And why can't we tell the public that? Just so they're. We just did. Can I say something Mark? Yep. I would like to ask Barb what a 20% cut in education, what does that translate into

062dollars that the state takes 20% of our money? Several million dollars? Whenever he says he's taking 20% it's generally speaking, not across the board and it doesn't every district the same. So it's very hard to take what he says and have any confidence in what that looks like in our budget. If he was going to take 20% it would have to be just on foundation aid. He can't reduce the expense based aids, and he usually hits the districts that have more money with larger cuts. I'll find my foundation Ron and I can tell you what 20% is, but that's not something that I would publish and say that that's what he's taking. I don't have confidence in the numbers when he just puts out these statements. I don't either. I think the number is going

063to hit closer to 10% and if we're getting $29 million from the state. And these are cuts under the times. If we do lose $3 million we're already a million in the hole. That's a huge gap that can't be filled by sales tax or fund balance, over two years. It means a property tax increase of geez, you couldn't even do it. We're limited to 2% on property tax increases. So that gets our budget gap down to about $2 million dollars plus the million we're already, $700,000. We don't have that kind of fund balance. Let's look at the budget next meeting. When we have some more information. We'll have the figures coming out to the board a head of time so that we have some actually in front of us to talk about. Thank you. Ok.

064Mark? May I please say something? We need people to speak one at a time. If comes over garbled for the public when multiple people speak at the same time and the transcript cannot transcribe. So if you can let some finish speaking and then ask to speak so we can get everything documented correctly. It's hard when we're passionate. Who did I speak over Cathy? I'm sorry. I thought I was muting when after I was speaking. I may have spoken over people. Let's move on. Calendar. Our next board of education meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 6th at 6:30. It will be conducted the same way via Zoom. So the community, it will be closed to the community but you can participate, or you can view via Zoom. That's what I have. Ok. Thank you. Board

065of Education communications. I have multiple letters and emails coming in. Normally we don't read them verbatim. And a lot of the topics seem to have already been discussed. We do have a letter coming in from Amanda Parasy. I'll have Cathy put it on. How do you do this with a letter? Handwritten letter? So that the board can see it? We could put it into our Google share file. Ok. We could do that. I just don't want to be the only person that looks at the letters coming in. Everybody should see it. We also have a email coming in from Diana Palzyk regarding board conduct. Rose Mary Bowen also sent us an email. Casey Surak also sent us one. We do have a letter that came in from the community of Gowanda. I'm not sure exactly

066who, I know who the community is, but it would be nice if we actually had names of people. And then we had one that came in from Heather Horth also. She had actually requested to speak tonight but I told her we already had 3 speakers and our policy limits us 3 people to a topic. So she did send in, she sent us an email, actually a couple emails on it. That one from Denise Finnan also. Yes. I apologize, we did get that one from Denise Finnan. And that was in support of Janet, but again we don't read them all in entirety, but I will make sure that that is added to packet here that the board has. Thank you Janet for reminding me. I did read through. In the last two weeks I've been making

067it a point to read through my emails. I used to read them every other week, but trying to do better. Committee reports. This past week, I believe it was Tuesday or Wednesday the Building Committee met to discuss our capital project. Really a brief meeting, we discussed two quick things, the front entrance, the facade at the high school, I don't have the picture but I'll get one and put it on our website, and we talked about the location of the coolers and the restrooms on the side middle school facing the ballfield. So we spent a little bit of time talking about those designs, and I'll put those out what Building Committee chose and talked about. Mrs. Vogtli, Mr. Barnes, any other, did I miss anything? No I think the pictures they put out of the renditions

068look great and if we can get them out to everybody I think they really fit into our school. Ok. Thank you. Now let's go ahead with the roundtable. Why don't you start Ron, you're right in front of me. Ron? Ok can you guys hear me? Alright. I don't really have anything. Ok. Dave Barnes? Hello guys, how are you? The first thing I think I would to commend everybody that's working so hard to get the students fed and just keep the district running at the level that it is allowed to do or whatever. I would like to know, I was wondering if anybody has the percentage an actual number of how many students are not doing their work. And if there's something more that can be done about that. Cause at the end of the day,

069this education is what we're here to provide. I received a letter, Mark I forwarded it to you from one of our parents that lives in district that has two kids in school that teaches. Did you get it? The one that teaches in Lackawanna? Yes. Yes I did. Ok. Are we, we're told today that we're gonna forward with some new learning, new education but last time we were meeting, we were told that we can't provide new instruction unless it's in. I'm trying to figure out what changed that now we can provide new instruction. But we weren't allowed to provide new instruction cause of inequities. And this particular parent was awful upset that Lackawanna is, they're teaching, they're grading, and they're upset that our students aren't getting that. His particular, his kids in general, so he's teaching

070his own kids. I was wondering where the transition went from just doing review work to new work, and when did that come about? This transition happened probably just after our last board meeting. It became pretty clear at that point that although those are those access equity issues, that this is really gonna be for the long haul. Although appropriate for a couple weeks its kind of subsist. If we're gonna be closed long term, then we really have to deliver those standards and instruction that we deem essential. So the shifts happened over the last couple of weeks, and I'm not sure Lackawanna's aren't busy, and our BOCES. Pretty much all of our other Erie 2 BOCES component districts are rolling out in the same timeframe that we are. But really just having information, and we're in for

071the long haul, possibly till the end of the year. I don't think you can just do remedial work. And we'll try to push kids the best we can. And to answer your question I think our principals can chime in, maybe 20-40% of our kids are actually engaged. But moving forward from this point, where people have to demonstrate some sort of commitment, their evidence of learning, earned course credit or advance grade levels. That puts a little accountability on students to the level we can to get them further engaged. We're hopeful those numbers will go up. They're not here, we're not with them, it's a challenge. Are you through Bob? For now. Yes. I understand how a challenge, how much of a challenge it can be when even the parents don't want to get involved or not

072doing their part, but you said 30% of the students are, I mean average, are engaged? I was also told from Lackawanna that the district is going to be, not necessarily graded but they're going to be looked at on how the district provided education in this time, and then they're going to, the states going to look at how they did. Have you heard anything about that? No. The only thing, the guidance from the State Education Department is if you read the regulations they're really encouraging kids not be graded. And given us ways to not grade kids albeit give them feedback. I think their language is showing evidence of learning standards or paraphrase that language. The state we have submitted an early on or rudimentary learning plan, how we're going continue instruction. We'll probably have an opportunity

073to revise that here in a couple weeks. Since everybody, their response has become a lot more developed and robust. But in terms of state coming in and grading us, I have not heard anything like that. Ok. That's just what, I read some other information that said that. So again if we have such low participation or students engaged, maybe we can figure out to get them more engaged. I don't know the answer, but somethings gotta give if only 30% are participating. Because this is going to affect them, our students for years to come. It's hard enough to get the education that they need and get the movement that they need forward, and then this pandemic has really kicked everybody in the pants. So now we don't have, it's gonna be a bigger hole to fill to

074getting these students up to where they need to be to move on to the next grade level or even into college. We have some real holes, and I hope we get a plan to fix it. I guess that's about all I got. Yeah thank you, I know you're on spot. That's pretty accurate, not a good situation. Dana? Anything to add inaudible roundtable? Yep. Everyone can hear me ok? Yep. Alright. I think again everybody is doing quite well given this unfortunate circumstance. It's been very challenging for everyone for sure, and I think that the way the district is handling it is fantastic. I do really like the plan because I know that's very difficult. It's hard because with that 30% participation rate. Just everythings very different. We have a lot of parents that are still working

075and kids are home or not sure the material. So they're doing the best they can with the tools that's given. So I think that the plan of really taking a look at the curriculum and doing, how you all mentioned earlier, pulling out what's essential to learn so that way they can move on to the next level and really focusing on that is huge because they'll need that. So I think that that is a great plan because that will help bridge that gap to get them to the next level. So thank you. And then I think it's really important to recognize that our last 4 meetings did not go well and I would like to apologize to everybody in the district, in the community, from myself and perhaps the rest of the board. I commend all

076of you for your work and thank you very much. Thank you. Janet? Thanks Mark. A couple things, it's been pretty obvious that, it's kind of strange because our community used to say we had one of the, not the best schools, and I guess after our last board meeting maybe everybody's come out in support of our school. Which is great. It's changed the whole climate and dynamic because we used to hear other things. We still have 30% of our kids with no internet. And I don't know where we stand with them. If we only have 30% of our kids reporting then we have 30% with no internet, we're really kind of low on who's reporting in and who is doing what. So I'm still concerned about the internet kids and how we can help them and

077get them doing something better. I think Ben Shields had an excellent article in the paper talking about our school. I think he recapped very well on how well our teachers are doing. Maybe we hear from the minority that things aren't happening. And I was really, I guess glad to see that so many people feel our teachers are doing a great job because it used to be a couple years ago we heard the opposite. And I'd like to know what we're going to do, and I have questions on BOCES and I don't know if I should wait until we get to that portion, the budget, and the action on those or should I talk about it now or on the parking lot list. I don't know where to go with that. What Janet is referring to

078is, she would like to get more information directly from BOCES regarding our budget and interaction. I know BOCES generally asks if we want a presentation every year. Perhaps this year we could do one through Zoom with them. It's in New York State School Board Association on the BOCES faq sheet, and I've talked to a couple of the schools. Local Boards of Education review their district needs every year and make a decision about BOCES services. Because district needs change every year the decisions about BOCES services may also change each year. The decision about whether to participate in each service based on the unique needs of each district. If a district doesn't need a service it doesn't request it and it doesn't pay for it. We have never done that. I would like to see them, maybe

079by Zoom, tell us and prior to that I'd like Barb to give me a break down exactly what we pay them for. Because we are only covered 40% for someone's salary. And everything else, a service agreement is only 21% covered by BOCES aid. When I first got on the board I thought that when everybody goes "oh it's BOCES aidable, great it pays 100%", it does not, it pays only 21%. I would like to see us have BOCES come in but prior to that I would like us to have a board meeting to get all the information from Barb, exactly what we're paying for, what services they offer, just so that we're all on the same page. Because I don't believe its been done in a few years, and I think that's something that we need

080to discuss as a board. And I'd like to get that put on to our parking lot list. We can do that. Cathy, could you add BOCES to our parking lot? What would you like it to say? Basically that we're gonna have a workshop with BOCES and we'll go over services that we do. We can even arrange something with them to Zoom in if necessary. And prior to that to get the information from Barb, like welding, how many kids we have, what it costs us. Exactly what we get from BOCES. I mean a lot of us have no idea. I know we get PR, I know we get a lot of co-op services and whatever, but it would really be good to know exactly what we're getting from them and what they offer too. Because maybe

081there's something that they offer we could us or maybe we're taking something we could get somewhere else. I mean it's just an information thing for us to get more information so we're more informed. Dr. Bob, can you get a copy of the BOCES book that they put together every year? Yeah, when they give us a catalog of services they provide and every year the Superintendent, the business officials, special ed director, director of technology all of us. We actually meet with BOCES, go through their services to figure out what we're going to need for the upcoming school year or inaudible We do have those meetings internally, but we can definitely get maybe John or David to come out and give you a global view of BOCES programming and how it all works. And we can clearly

082give you those costs, we have those, they're complicated, there's a lot of sheets but gladly provide those for you. I spoke with Iroquois and a couple other schools and they do this every year. They sit down and go through. And it's basically NISBA tells us on the BOCES faq sheet that we should be doing it. So I would like to see us start doing it every year that the board sits down and does it not just the administration. We used to do that on a regular basis. Then the board kind of got tired. I mean doesn't change much year to year. But it might, and you know that's the problem. The past boards made these decisions and we have to live by them. And I think we need to make our own decisions. We're getting

083a BOCES presentation this year. Ok. Thank you that's all I have right now. Lynn? Yes. I just want to echo everybody and thank all the staff and teachers and everybody for everything that they've done. Because this is unbelievable circumstances and everybody's really pulled together and it's really nice to see. So I just want to say thanks everybody and keep up the good work. Thank you Lynn. Barb? Hi everybody. Same way, just reiterate what everybody's been says. Everybody's done a great job especially with other staff members jumping in. Maybe not in their usual jobs to help out where they can. And the ability for everyone in the district to kind of shift with the moves that have been happening, the weekly changes. I know it's been a lot. Just as we've gone through in our own

084homes, watching it happen through a district has been pretty amazing. I think everyone's doing a great job. Listening to the administrators presentation, is it safe to say then that we're just focusing on maybe minimizing a regression then? Since we can't do a hard grading of things. And is that the best we can hope for? Yeah. If I could add it's almost 2 point 2 prong. Dave asked when this happened, I think that when we started to move to have to think about course completion. It came from the regents, were cancelled, and we no longer had those as an exit device for our courses. And then there was dicussion of how do we know if students are going to be on track to graduate. So to that point Barb, it's that thing of looking at both,

085what can we do access where they are so that we can say that they finished the course to our satisfaction, and the second part is, especially for the younger kids, are they on par to go to the next grade level. So we had to reframe it thinking about that sort of end point that just again became more elusive with the push out to May 15th. So we want to want to avoid regression and we also want to make sure that students are prepared for the next course in the very basic way so that we can fill some gaps now as much as we possibly can. So it's two fold, I'd say it's regression to prevent regression and also to make sure that they're gonna finish the best way we can knowing that there maybe gaps

086going forward. So what can we provide to students as best we can to prepare them for that. Thank you. That's all I had. Mark can I just ask one more question? Sure. Is it possible for us to get a list of essential and non-essential employees for the school? The New York education website, and you have to have a login and a password, and then they will give it to you. Well and easy definition is, essential people are defined as those people who literally physically have to be present to do their work. You can't drive bus from home, you can't pack food from home, you can't clean from home. Then those "non-essential" people, their job titles aren't necessarily linked physically to the school and they can work remotely. And that pretty much is all your teachers

087and people of that nature. That's the real rough definition. Right, but is it possible to get that list from the New York State Education Department? Because obviously the Superintendent and Administrators can get in, I tried to get in but I couldn't. I'm sorry. How bout I memo this week, we only have so many job titles, I'll just list them out to you. We got TA's, Clerical, Bus Drivers. Yes, I would just like to know who's essential and non-essential. Yeah, by job title. Thank you. Ok I guess it's my turn for the round table. Then only thing, I really like Ben Shields letter to the editor and the Observer. I don't know if there's a way you can actually get it to put it on our website or have them send it to us to put

088it on our website so we're not copyrighting infringement. I think he said it well about all aspects of our education system here. One thing I wanted to bring up is, we have the basic technology to do distance learning, provided kids on the other end can do it. Think about, is there a better way to leverage this technology to our kids. I mean the younger ones don't have computers. I do know that they can use iPads or whatever else if necessary. We do have money left over in the inaudible schools funding. If that's what it's going to take to actually get it to the elementary kids or other things or what can be done for those areas that don't have technology. We're kind of in a down time right now. I mean people are still working

089but we can view it as an opportunity to think about how we would do this better or different if we have to do it again next year. The last estimates I'm seeing, there's not going to be another vaccine for 12-18 months. There's a good chance we may have to go look at distance learning next year, and/or how do we do it with social distancing. We kind of had to think outside the box. Then Janet was with me when they were building the Junior high wing and we had split sessions. That's an ideal way to use the same facility with the students spread out further. I'm not advocating that at this point but it is an option. The district did it when I was in Junior high. The other big area is our budget. We're looking

090at a budget here. We're teaching our kids distance learning, things such as physics, chemistry. We have the science wing setup for distance learning. Maybe we can partner with some of our districts that are close by, and share more through distance learning. It's an idea that could perhaps save us money, perhaps offer opportunity to the smaller schools. I mean Forestville, North Collins, Pine Valley, they're all roughly half our size. And I'm sure that with a graduating class that Pine Valley of 35 students, we might be able to offer more opportunities if we work together on some of our offerings and high school. Like I say it's just a chance, view it not all as a detriment but as an opportunity to what can be done. That's all I had. I think that's a great idea Mark,

091and maybe we should put that on our parking lot list. About distance learning and looking into the science wing and other things. Just so it's there so we can review it. You do realize last time I brought up Forestville I got a huge amount of flak on it. I think that might be part of what Sandra was talking about earlier right? Was connecting with the other schools to see how they can collaborate and bring some of that in. So I think that they already have some of that in the works. And the same with Carrie, with the devices for the elementary school reaching out to see who has them and then who does not, providing them when they can and even hotspots. There definitely, that stuff sounds like it's in the works. So it's great.

092Thanks Dana. If I could just jump in Mark to your point. If we talk about distance learning the way that we talked about distance learning prior to closure. Where a teacher teaches in a classroom to a school full of students and another district, international classroom. I am in contact with the principal at Pine Valley and we are planning on offering physics through a distance learning plan. And I attended meetings with other districts regarding what we can offer to other districts since we do have a nice science wing and specific course offerings and elective. So as long as we are in session the way we normally would be prior to closure those were all in the works and still are planning on doing that. Thank you. Parking lot and to do list. I just have a

093couple changes to add. Next to Trap club, the reason it was on there is because we wanted it to become a sport. Can we just put that on there? You know Trap Club, how to make it a school sport. Sure. We can do that. We can make that change. And then just add the BOCES on there. Meeting with Barb about it and then BOCES. OK. Let's put that on our to do list. Ok. Thanks. Mark what do you want it to say? Was it BOCES review or. BOCES review and presentation. Or presentation review. Moving on. Board member expectations, conduct, policies, procedures. Dr. Anderson is that yours? No that was a request from you and the vice president. I must have been asleep. Sorry. Dana do you want to chime in? Sorry I had a problem

094with my mute. So this is where it was important to lay out the board members expectations, and code of conduct, because obviously we want to speak to each other respectfully and the people that we work with respectfully. The role models for the children, the people in the community, because the reality is that's how we are in our positions of the board, via voters the community. So it's our responsibility to live up to their expectations and be a voice for them. But with that also being respectful of each other and these people that we are put in our positions to support everyday. That's where we had asked for that to be put on there. Just to kind of make that known, and address that. I think we're, mine feelings is we're all adults we should all

095be able to act appropriately. A guy was disappointed last time that the public had to view our behavior. Mark can I add something? Sure. If you listen to the last meeting both Dave, Ron and I had problems getting on to Zoom. We had no idea what we were doing. And if you listen to that meeting there's not beginning of the meeting. The meeting was never called to order. And if they had not put in what Dave had said, because Dave was having problems trying to get on. Right now if you listen to the April 1st meeting there was no call to meeting to order. It was never called to order. So that was part of the problem. If that had been left off we wouldn't have a lot of these problems. So there was a

096problem with Zoom, the 3 of us and the library had no idea what we were doing. So I feel that someone should have taken the bull by the horns and say "hey this isn't even the beginning of the meeting, let's cut this off and solve this problem". I don't understand why someone allowed that to go out when the meeting hadn't even been called to order. Ok. We'll note your opinion. Moving on. BOCES annual meeting notice and call for nominations. Cathy did you have a list of what we got? If you look on leader in the agenda, we have a motion on the agenda for, sorry I'm behind here, the commitment statement for BOCES. And also the cooperative bidding for BOCES, the administrative budget resolution. We have those on the agenda, and we also have the

097at the end of the agenda, we have the voting on the members for the BOCES board. There are 4 seats open, and there are 4 people running for those positions. So we do have that on the agenda tonight for us to vote. Cathy where does the meeting for the budget come in on this part? Is that later one under consensus cause I wanted to talk about. So I'm not sure exactly where. Sorry the vote is actually in consensus but I guess if someone needs to talk about it or ask questions this would probably be the time to do that. I kind of went through their budget and you know that the state cut us back, was it Barb 10% off of BOCES? The aid that they give us, they cut us back by 10%. No

098they reimbursed us based on the actual expenditures, so they didn't change the formula. But I thought you said that we were getting less this year. Based on what we're spending. Ok. So we're getting less. It's based on what we spent the year before, so everything got a year delayed with BOCES. That's one reason I want them to come in because they raise their budget by 3.9%. And with everything that's going on, and I know that if Gowanda votes against it, it doesn't mean anything, but I would just like us to say that's one reason I'd like them to come in and talk with us. Because we can't affording to pay extra for BOCES and then extra contracts. Eventually you run out of money, and that's why I'd like to have BOCES come in. But I

099thought I mean I have no problem with the people that are on the board, because I dealt with some of them. The woman, and I think it's really kind of unfair because we're put into BOCES 3 and I would rather we're in BOCES 2 right? We're in BOCES 2. Ok. Well this, I guess it's NISBA. So the woman that is in BOCES 2, we've never seen or heard from. And I guess I would like to have her come and tell us why we elect them, what they're doing. Because to me it's a big black hole and their budget, they're raising their budget. We don't really know why. I guess I'm not going to vote no on their budget even though I thought about it. Because I'd rather we send them a letter or talk with

100them and say, "look we're concerned, we want to hear from you, we'd like to go through your budget with you, and tell us why you need this money, and why we are having trouble". Ok. Can I say something? Is their budget going to be effected though as well as everybody else is in this state at this point? I don't think so. I mean they put their budget out to vote on and it's a 3.9% increase, but they get it all from us Barb. They don't get it from the state. The schools fund them not the state. So the money, the extra money they're getting will come from all of the school districts. The only part of the BOCES that we actually vote on. The only part of the BOCES that we actually vote on is

101their administrative budget. The other things buy, we send students to them, but we're basically buying services at that point, we've part of their administrative budget. I believe that it might be the administrative, but I mean their whole budget is. That's why I'd like to hear from them. I mean we send students to them. We're sending students out. Do we as a board, does anybody even understand what we're doing with them, and how we're being reimbursed, and all the programs we get from them? I can't answer for all of the programs but I can answer for a majority of the programs. That we're aware of, what we do with it. You see I have no idea. I mean I know we do PR. But that's a service that we're buying, but that's not a program we're

102sending kids to. Right, but there's also services that I'd like to know about. Because those are only, what is it, 21% we're reimbursed. Not the whole inaudible So I would like to know everything we do with them. I don't have a problem with them, I want to know what they do, how we pay them, maybe there's some other program that we could send kids to. We are getting a presentation on BOCES. Ok. I will shut up. I didn't say that. I know you didn't, I did. Ok. Moving on. Approval of consensus agenda items. Consideration a motion to vote and approve agenda item 601 thru 801. So moved. Second. Discussion? Mark? Can I speak? Sure Dave. My only question is, and I know Janet touched on it a little bit, their administration budgets going up 3.9%.

103We're getting funds taken away, can we opt not to pay them? Like they don't care about our budget. If all 27 districts voted down, I'm not even sure it takes all 27, I think it might just take the majority of the district to vote down the administrative budget. At this point we can either vote for it or against it. Alright. Other questions? All in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. Review of Treasurers report. Financial statements from March. Regarding the, I'm assuming this is color coded for me? Is that right Cathy? Color coded for me? Some are in yellow some are in pink. I'm not sure, I did not copy the packet. So I'm not sure it was copied for you. Who did we get a response from or request for? I'm sorry are we talking about.

104BOCES. Oh I'm sorry I thought you were talking about the Treasurers report. No, we're just reviewing it. Oh ok. If you look on your agenda, we have 4 people that are running for a seat, and we have 1 person who reached out to us, and that was Christine Schnarrs. And her information is attached to the motion. She's the one that's in our district, the rest of the other 3 are other districts. So I'm just saying I would suggest that we just vote for all 4 because the other 3 have been approved by their, you know, they've been nominated by their whatever, zone they're in. But I would also like to call her in eventually and talk with her at a later date. Ok. Anybody else? In the past we have gone to the point where

105we only approve those people that actually asked for either our nomination or they send us something asking for our approval. But that's up to whole board, what you want to do with this. I think the reason we didn't hear from the other one's is because they're supported by their group. Christine is our zone. So she's asks from us, like Linda Hofman when she's up. She's not even in our zone. So she doesn't send it to us. So if someone who is running against Christine, I think it would be, then we would have to make a decision. But these 4 are all running unopposed. So I don't have any problem in voting from them. Because only 1 is our rep. Ok. Anybody else? Ok. 1001 consideration a motion to vote and approve Mr. Thomas DeJoe to

106serve as a member of the Erie 2 Chautauqua/Cattaragus BOCES. May I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. Ok. 1002 consideration a motion to vote and approve David Laurie to serve as a member of the Erie 2 Chautauqua/ Cattaragus BOCES. So moved. Mark may I please interject for a moment? Could the people that are offering the motion and seconding it, can they please say their name because I'm not able to view the screen when I'm in board docks. Ok. I move the motion Janet. This is Lynn I'll second it. All in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. 1003 consideration a motion to vote and approve Christine Schnarrs to serve as a member of the Erie 2 Chautauqua Cattaragus BOCES. Janet, so moved. Lynn, second. Discussion? All in favor? I.

107Opposed? Motion carried. 1004 consideration a motion to vote and approve Mr. Richard Vogan to serve as a member of the Erie 2 Chautauqua/Cattaragus BOCES. Janet, so moved. Lynn, second. Discussion? All in favor? I. Opposed. Motion carried. We're recessed to executive session. Actually it's not an executive session, it's a different provisional inaudible where we're going to meet with our lawyer. Ok. Kelly I don't know. Pretty much everybody's off except for the board and Dr. Anderson and Barb. I'll pause the recording. Ok.