001To 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. [snorts] >> Thank you. [snorts] If I could ask someone move the agenda table please. Moved by Vice President Stencil, seconded by Mr. Butler. Is there anybody have any additions, deletions, corrections to the agenda? I just have two. Um on 9.01, it should be the 2627 course offering guide as opposed to 2526. And I would like to move 1.08 firetruck donation up to 1.05. and move 1.05, 1.06, and 1.07 down. With that, all those in favor of the agenda is amended. That passes 8 to zero. And here we have some special guests here this evening. Um, members of our responding to emergencies program and members of the Rididge
002Road Fire District. At this time, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Rididge Road Fire District team, Chief Shawn McGary, Deputy Chief Joel Munz, Battalion Chief Brian Jibo, and members of the Ridge Road Fire District who are here with us this evening. On behalf of the Board of Education, and the entire Gree Central School Districts, our students, our teachers, staff, and community, please accept our sincere appreciation for your department's donation of the American Lefrance Fire Engine to our responding to emergencies program. Your incredibly generous donation of this firetruck is a gift that goes far beyond a piece of equipment. It is a powerful tool for learning and a symbol of your dedication to our students successes. You are showing our students in the most tangible way that our community believes in them.
003You are giving them resources that will spark curiosity and provide unparalleled opportunities for learning and community service. Not only has the Ridge Road Fire District continue to support our students and our community through continued donations, your team spends countless hours working hands-on with our responding to emergency students and teacher Chris Moras. Your contribution to this program will continue to inspire future first responders, mechanics, engineers, and firefighters. Thank you for your service, your partnership, and your vision. We look forward to the continued growth of the responding to emergencies program. Please join me in a round of applause for the Ridge Fire District. [applause] [applause] And before we do a picture, I just want to say um Chief Jibo and I, this is coming from the heart a little bit. Lieutenant Chief Jibo and I way back
004in the day, long time ago, thought about responding to emergencies long before it ever existed. What an amazing program it could be for our students and for our community. I mean, it's not quite where Battalian Chief Jibo and I dreamed it would be, but it's in a great position. It's so much further ahead than I ever thought. I mean, it's probably as board president and being on this board. It's one of my um most cherished accomplishments is this responding to emergencies program. Some of you know I retired from the Ridge Road Fire District as a firefighter, spending most of my adult life there, growing up with most of these guys that are in the room tonight that work at the Ridge Road Fire District. So, I just want to thank them from the bottom of
005my heart for our students and our community. I truly appreciate this donation. I don't think you know how much it means to our students and to our families. in this community and hopefully a whole bunch of future firefighters in the back of the room. So, if you guys could all come up and we do a big picture again inside where it's a little bit lighter we that we can get everybody smile faces. Let's do this. Thank you. ride to school on my birthday. >> Can we get you guys down? Maybe in the center. Pull it in the center. Yeah. All you big guys, you're too tall. You make us look short. Ryan, you're going to have to move out cuz he's still taller than you kneeling. [laughter] >> Flagler, get in the picture. [laughter] >>
006She knew better. Thank you. [applause] We'll just have to switch between this one's done. I can't I can't remove this right now. >> Okay. >> So, this is >> Do you just close the PD one or so? after they're done. Bring up that one. >> Okay. >> All right. Moving on. We're moving to our students from Greece Athena. Welcome this evening. >> Hello, I'm Marley Standing. >> I'm Lissa Clifford. Uh we are senior representatives of the student government at Greece Athena and we're here to show you some of the stuff that's been going on this fall. Um so first we started a new way of giving morning announcements. Uh we live streamed them uh via YouTube and students such as Bailey Catina, Addison Chapoto and Ariana Malone are featured as uh regular speakers and we
007have some guests as well. >> Um in September we had spirit week and our pep rally. On Monday we had Toga and PJ day. Tuesday was cartoon day. Wednesday we had color for cause. Thursday was decades day. And Friday was our signature black and gold day. We also had our homecoming game in dance. The fall fling homecoming dance had almost 400 students in attendance and the game itself was a hit. We lost unfortunately, but it was still a great atmosphere and everybody was really excited. >> Um some fall sports that have been going on, we've had uh football, women's soccer, and boys soccer. Uh football went two to six, women's won 14 of their games, and men's soccer went seven to 10. Uh some more sports are the girlstorm tennis and the cross country team.
008Uh tennis went 9 to6 and they had their pinkout tournament and Webster for breast cancer awareness. Uh students such as Lily Mson and Lariva Hart uh won in their division. uh cross country. They had their senior night at Basil Mela and senior Nick Langden was featured on prime time for finishing second at the Bob Goodell Invitational. Um recently we had a Halloween spooktacular concert in the music department. We had over 320 student musicians on stage including the seventh and eighth grade band, seventh and eighth grade orchestra, high school concert band, high school orchestra, and high school symphonic band. Each group prepared an individual piece and then at the end everybody performed thriller together and everybody dressed up in their costumes to celebrate Halloween. Um the Greece marching band competed at the New York State FBC
009Championship at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse. They put on a great performance and placed third in their division. Uh for the music department at Athena, we recently had our show Nonsense, which was um a comedic m musical featuring nine nuns. Uh they had their last show this previous Sunday. Um but moreover, in the music department, we have the Sound of Music coming up. Uh shows start in January and February and auditions will be starting soon. Uh music students are preparing for their winter and uh concerts on December 15th and 17th. Uh [snorts] furthermore, the music department would like to thank the BOE and cabinet for their support for their spring concert uh their spring music trip to Cleveland for the music festival at Cedar Point. Recently, there was a photography field trip. They went
010to Mend Ponds. Students were immersed in the natural environment and each student worked on developing skills in visual editing. They learned to capture the essence of place and moment through their work. Um also we have art curator club. They are a collective of student artists that collaborate with peers from our school and other Greece high schools. The art show exhibition will be displayed in a storefront at the Greece Ridge Mall. We also have yearbook club. Um this year the theme has been decided and we are learning the ropes of our new partnership with Justins and their magnificent program Yearbook Avenue. Uh furthermore, our newspaper uh is going to be released soon for the fall of 2025. Uh this will be the first quarter and there will be three more later on in the year. Athena
011is above the influence. We have ATI club. Um and every year they have their schoolwide prevention campaigns such as the reasons to rise, the facts, who's got your back and gain and loss. Um this past week, a week ago, they had um red ribbon week activities and these are some photos of that. Um we also have renovations going on in our library. It's set to be finished and ready for January of 2026. It will be a modernized space for staff and students to work. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> You're not going to get away without a picture. We have to do a picture. But I first I think I got to put Bailey on the spot. What was the joke of the day today, Bailey? >> Oh no. [laughter] >> Am
012I putting you on the spot? I'm I'm sorry. I apologize. >> Oh, wait. It was something about a turkey. I'll next meeting I'll have it. >> You better have it for the next meeting. All right. The rest of the year at our meetings that you're here, you're going to have a joke at a meeting. All right. So, if we can come up and do a picture, that'd be great. Bailey, why don't you join us since it's your school? Mr. or Dr. Zafitz, the board, >> Mr. Fulkerson, Mr. Clifford, I'm sure they look like you. [laughter] Thank you. All >> [clears throat] >> right, moving into our union comments. Mr. Mach, you're up. GTA. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. My name is Eric Mock. I am a teacher at Athena High School and I also
013am serving as the vice president of financial uh records for the Greece teachers association. So I'm here to just give you a little bit of updates about what we've been working on. So first thing uh we're going to say thank you to Captain Michelle Black for all her walkers and their amazing work in this year's Making Strides event and support of the American Cancer Society. We also want to thank everyone who donated to the GTA making strides team. Your generosity made a real difference and together the GTA proudly contributed over $1,500 to support this incredible cause. Coming up is school related professionals day on November 18th. Um SRP recognition day is a time to celebrate the dedication and expertise of the staff who help make our schools run smoothly every day. We especially take this
014time to recognize our niced friends in ASX but also all of our colleagues in our district. This day offers a well-deserved opportunity to say thank you to the professionals who are truly the backbone of our school communities. The GTA will be sending a special treat for ACEP members in all buildings and we'll also be working with building reps to provide financial support through our GTCP grant process for any additional treats that help amplify our gratitude. We will also be distributing pins, stickers, and signs to recognize all of our SRPs. We are also proud to share that the Greece teachers community programs, the GTA's nonprofit organization, has once again partnered with Operation Warm to provide brand new coats for students in need across the district. This marks our 10th consecutive year supporting this initiative. Uh helping
015to ensure that every child feels warm, cared for, and ready to learn as winter approaches. Distribution of this year's coats will take place soon and we extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped make this effort possible through your continued generosity and commitment to our community. Especially to our honorary GTA member Brent Cridgeley who without his work over the last several years, a lot of our things wouldn't have gotten off the ground. He's been absolutely instrumental um in a lot of the work that we've been doing. Additionally, I would like to take a moment to mention a new grant that the GT GTCP is funding this year focused on supporting elementary schools. The GTCP recognizes that buildings have projects, celebrations, and activities that oftentimes cannot be met through the building budget or fundraising efforts. In
016attempt to help, the GTCP would like to provide $500 grants to buildings to offset the cost of such endeavors. Examples of such projects would be schoolwide celebrations for meeting wildly important goals, activities that encourage parent engagement in the schools, and the funding for materials for such events. Grants will be awarded to projects that benefit the whole school, not just individual grades, classrooms, or teachers. So, we're hoping that more schools will be able to take advantage of this. So, thank you very much. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. Mark. Guess Shauna and Ashley, [laughter] sorry. >> Hi, we're here for GASSA updates. My name is Shauna. >> Hi everybody. I'm Ashley Darino. So tonight we're going to be talking about DCIA also known as the department of curriculum instruction and assessment and how we
017have partnerships for academic growth. So the question that we asked was how have DCIA and schools collaborated to bur boost learning for every student. So we wanted to start with highlighting um the leadership meetings that we are having focusing on the literacy strategies and look force for leaders. So in October curriculum curriculum leaders and TOSAs led station activities to model the extended learning portion of vocabulary routines for K12 leaders. In December there's going to be a focus on strategies for complex text and academic discourse in that same station learning format. On the screen you can see the different breakout sessions that were offered. And of course, please note the picture where we have our favorite district leaders engaging in a Plato based activity. And speaking of vocabulary, I'm excited to talk about Pine Brook. Um,
018so Pinbrook has already been steadily receiving support from DCIMA members this fall to support their SEP goal lead measures. Uh, PPS has supported the behavior goals. um decreasing disruptions of with therapeutis crisis intervention trainings um and monthly offerings of those TCI verbal trainings. We also had instructional supports from Todd, Julie, and Shauna's offices to teach and model vocabulary practices at Pine Brook. So, we actually went to Pinebrook and modeled some of those activities with the Pine Brook staff. Um, and many people even joined their first annual vocabulary parade last week. And, uh, those are some of the delightful pictures that you see on your screens of the vocabulary parade. At English Village, the bilingual bilingual program staff have been working with the bilingual art coach, Liz Shaheen, to support curriculum implementation. The ARC coach demonstrated
019a a kindergarten classroom lesson um with some strategies to develop Spanish oral language using phrases with high utility and function. The team reviewed the biiteracy planning guide and the ERA anal matrix. The anal is the Spanish version of the ERA reading assessment. And we discussed the importance of referring to the matrix as the true dual language data wall as it portrays biiteracy, one of the core goals of the Greece dual language program. Okay. So, uh, from Buckman Heights, our DCIA team continues to play a key role in supporting our set work. Major shout out to Michelle Barton who helped Buckman craft our goals. Uh at Buckman Heights, uh they've intentionally centered efforts around reading lab, teaching reading with purpose and clarity. So students are working on um rigorous instruction with their Earl Power goals every
020day. Um leaning into accountable talk and using evidence from text. Um teachers have been focusing on designing lessons that are not only highly intentional but also highly engaging and joyful. So you can see the picture. Um it shows an example of collaboration. um they're trying to um inspire instruction that's rigorous and fun. So in this case, students are learning about blends and diagraphs through a structured literacy game with small groupoup instruction. This these kinds of lessons show how we can embed play, strategy, repetition, and conversation into literacy instruction in ways that deepen skills and reading engagement. Don't worry, we're not doing all the buildings, but [laughter] [gasps] Arcadia Middle School is working closely with DCIA members to incorporate strong instructional practices in the classroom. The primary instructional goal is for teachers to differentiate instruction and
021use data to adjust in real time, ultimately aiming for a 10% increase in student reading proficiency as measured by I Ready by June 2026. A specific schoolwide effort involves implementing a shared vocabulary and morphology protocol so that all grade level teams focus on academic words across the curriculum. Okay. At Athena High, we're really happy we were able to do a full staff presentation. So Athena is the site of our SCY program or it's a special program for English language learners who have interrupted formal education. So we had a full staff presentation and some choice breakout sessions where we focused on best practices for SCY and creating a welcoming and affirming environment for English language learners. Uh we also did a review of communication dual tools to be able to support those homeschool connections. All KA
022elementary and ELA teachers have participated in grade level release days for ARC professional learning. Topics of those days included working on literacy goals with sentence expansion, vocabulary routines, and unpacking upcoming ARC units across the district in grade level teams. Uh from PPS, uh Stacy and Melanie, they've been collaborating with ELA and ENL um team leaders around professional learning for special education teachers with art core. Uh the PPS department leaders recently participated in a training with an art coach to build capacity around supporting teachers with their implementation and scaffolding art core for students with disabilities. Um, and something that's neat that's really happened is the PPS uh, directors, TOSAs along with ELA and ENL have been having monthly meetings to be able to support curriculum implementation throughout. And my personal favorite department, um, last but certainly
023not least, um, the Department of Multilingual Education, specifically ENL, um, did an ARC training for KNL teachers focusing on scaffolding ARC units to meet the academic and linguistic demands of the ELA standards. So, we had one day in October and we have another one coming up in January and we're looking forward to that collaboration um, across the district with our team. So, that's it. Hopefully it was just a little glimpse of all the collaboration we're doing and we just want to thank you to the board and to cabinet for supporting all of these initiatives. So, thank you. >> I have no report from Gus, no report from ACET. Karen, >> I'm good. Thanks. >> All right. No report from Teamsters. Welcome, Karen. Um 1.07 residence forum. I have no one signed up for residence forum.
024So, we're going to roll into the pre-budget hearing. I'm going to call a pre-budget hearing to order. Superintendent Smalline. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to call up Romeo Koli and Janine Kushman. Good evening everyone. Uh so for tonight's uh preparation for the 2627 uh upcoming budget process, we'd like to share some information uh with everyone uh that we know as of now and uh will be applicable as we move forward over the next uh several months during the budget development process. So, one of our uh core uh anchors for the budget dep development process is our strategic plan goal or reach uh 2027 um strategic plan commitments to igniting learning, cultivating trust and expanding opportunities for all students in the Greece Central School District. We will use this whenever decisions need to
025be made. uh this will be our anchor and our discussion point around how we can do it and what we should be doing. Sharing some information regarding what we currently know based on just different readings that the department does just on some good news side. Um as of about October uh the state is in a little bit better shape um than they had projected uh projected about a year ago. So mid-year tax receipts are up a little bit about $700 million. Um midyear spending is down primarily. They're not doing as many capital projects as they had uh planned to do. So their spending is down. Receipts are up a little bit. And their general fund balance uh is about $4 billion higher um than they had originally projected and about two 5.2 billion dollars higher
026than it was last year. So on a current year basis for the New York state budget at midyear they're in fairly good shape. Okay. Now some not so good news. However um they are also projecting about a $34 billion deficit over the next uh three years. So, as you can see on the bottom of the screen, the executive budget uh had a projection back in January of 2025. Um they had projected three-year deficits that you see there on the screen. Total of about 27 billion that has now been updated based on the enacted budget that was passed in March, April to the tune of about $ 34.2 billion is what they're working on at this point. Hopefully uh with some of the increased revenues and the decreased spending at midyear, some of that will be
027able to be shored up u at least for the current year and then they can continue working on a rolling three-year uh basis and see what they can do. >> So looking at what we know at this point, the state is in the process of developing their budget. Their budget call went out to all departments. um dictating to those departments that they are to present a flat budget, also to identify efficiencies within their operations. And a new twist this year was that the governor directed departments to identify potential reforms to regulations that would have favorable impact to costs uh on cost to the public. A significant unknown for us is that current projections at the state level do not factor in any of the impacts of revenue shortages uh coming as a result of the
028federal loss of funding. The priority coming from the state is going to be to align the outyear spending to growth with available resources. Um in January, the governor will present her budget January 20th uh with a plan to include a balanced budget. And then at that at that point uh we will see where we stand. Um in the past the governor has incorporated a number of modest changes to the way in which she has presented the budget. Uh last year there was a change in the way um CPI was calculated. There were uh changes in other years that reflected um eliminating hold harmless. So, it's really difficult to project what that will look like. Uh, again, for our purposes, uh, state aid revenues represent about 53% of our total budget. Again, looking at what we
029know and recapping from where we were last year, the foundation aid formula is running. Um there were some modest changes incorporated into the formula primarily updating some of the the metrics that underly the formula with more current and um appropriate measures. So um the the census poverty factor was replaced with a three-year local average um income the small area income and poverty estimates that are more applicable to uh each individual area. uh furple was re red replaced with the economically disadvantaged count. Uh some of the other factors were also modified. Um in the enacted budget there was a 2% minimum increase but that is not legislatively incorporated. So we don't know what that if there will be a minimum or if there will be a hold harmless. So again there are a number of changes
030that we um number of uncertainties that we're trying to deal with. Um we do not believe at this point that there should be any changes anticipated to the formula from its basic structure. So what do we currently know for our budget? the foundation aid formula will run. Um, we anticipate that we do anticipate the 2% minimum, but that's not guaranteed. As I said, that's not legislatively not incorporated into the legislation. We do expect our expense-based aids to be pretty predictable. Uh those include our Boseies aid, transportation aid, building aid that is based on the debt and capital projects that our voters have approved over the years and then instructional material aid for textbooks, library materials, software and computer hardware. Again, no changes anticipated to the rates that apply to those. For sales tax, we have
031always budgeted conservatively and we'll continue to maintain that approach to developing the budget uh for 2627 and we do not anticipate any changes to pilots at this point in time. Pilots are payments in lie of taxes, properties that are not on the tax role and then pay their taxes directly. Looking also at the property tax levy, the uh allowable growth factor uh is based on CPI or a maximum of 2%. CPI has ranged from 2.6% to 3.1% over the last 12 months. So we do expect that the cap will be at that 2%. Our taxbased growth factor is another critical item within that calculation. That's the amount of growth [snorts] of real tangible assets in the district, brickandmortar assessments, if you will. Um over the past five years our taxbased growth factor has uh averaged
032about 0.3%. So it's very very modest. Um we do predict that grant funding will be stable but that is not a certainty at this point and we're preparing that uh preparing for that as we develop the budget. And then we don't expect many other changes to other revenues. Those are the revenue side uh of the budget. On the expense side, uh there's some things we do know here we'd like to review with everyone. Uh payroll and salaries, our initial estimate will be inclusive of all our current positions adjusted uh for as we go through the process. We've got about $45 million in um er employee retirement system salaries and about $115 million worth of certified salaries uh in the district and those will be uh increased by the corresponding uh contracts that each member currently
033sits with. Healthc care um increases as of January 6. So we have two plans where the district is in a consortium uh called the rash one and rash two. Rash one is our uh retirey plan. Rash two is our active employees uh currently with the district. The active employees rash two the rate increase effective January 1st will be uh 9.9 to 10%. Um voted on by the board of directors of the rash. However, the rash one for retirees increase will be significantly more. Um, as you can see here, uh, it's going to be somewhere between 35 and 45%. On average, it's about 40, uh, percent. Um, the primary driver behind that has been the in uh, inflationary reduction act. So with some legal changes that took place at the federal level, um the retiree benefits
034are a little bit better, but the cost shift of subsidies that were at the federal level have now shifted to the providers who have shifted it to the premiums that everyone is paying. So there are also uh script uh prescription increases that are very significant. more people are utilizing uh healthcare than they did back three or four or five years ago. Um but the primary driver was this inflationary reduction act which shifted subsidies away um from the federal government to the providers and they're just passing that along. Um I will make one other point um and and retirees would have received the letter on this. uh we moved everybody to to to our Etna plans. Um so those premiums uh will increase by these amounts. But as we've looked at those across the Monroe County,
035even at a 40% increase, the Etna premiums for corresponding plans compared to Excelis are still 50% less than what Excelis is currently charging. So although you're going to see a 40% increase in that premium, it's still less than half of the premium charge for the same plan through Excelis. And that just needs to be something we need to make everybody aware of. Um employee retirement system contribution uh current rate is about 16.5% for this year's salaries. Um we're estimating it's going to be about 17.6% for next year's salaries. So we take that hundred and or those salaries and multiply it by those percentages. TRS teacher retirement system, we're currently paying 9.59% on this year's salaries. Um at the time this was written, we didn't know, but we've just been informed that the rate for TRS
036will be between 8 and a quarter and 8.75. So a little bit lower than what it was uh for the current year. This is just a graphic of the employee retirement system and the TRS system showing you where the rates uh have gone. TRS has come down uh more significantly than ERS uh which is a good thing. Um but again these are both on lags so we we're not really sure where this will go uh in the future. Contract negotiations uh we settled our accept contract in 2024. So that contract is in place for a three or four year period. In 2025, um we're looking at Teamsters FOP and central office and Teamsters Food Service as well as GUS. And then the contract coming up in June, expiring in June of 26 are GTA, GASA,
037and Teamsters Transportation. And those contracts will uh be negotiated this year and hopefully settled before uh way before June 30th of 2026 comes around so we can incorporate that into the uh upcoming budget. Minimum wage is currently at 1550 an hour. We're anticipating that's going to increase to $16 come January 1. For utility costs, as we know, we're going to project about 5% increase um on our utility costs for charter schools. Again, there still are a significant cost. We had about 320 full-time equivalents, 320 students in 2526. We're expecting that to increase in 2627. Um we've got students who enrolled in a variety about 15 different charter schools with four of those charter schools being here within district boundaries. So that continues to be an item we keep our eye on and we need to
038plan for transportation private contracts. Um although we have our own st uh fleet of buses uh we still will are anticipating a bus driver shortage. Therefore, uh we will continue with our transportation contract with Ontario bus and other providers and we're making every effort we can in order to um decrease the number of routes that we're contracting as we take on more drivers, but that has been a challenge. So again, as Romeo indicated at the beginning of the presentation, we draw from the strategic plan uh for all our um decisions and initiatives. So our first initiative, our strategic initiative is investments in students. We're looking to focus on providing students with opportunities that meet their needs uh in the areas of uh college and career uh opportunities and partnerships. We're looking to provide uh opportunities
039for enrichment and support in academics focusing on early intervention and then behavioral and mental health supports. We're also looking at portrait of a graduate and that and the way in which that will impact budgets going forward. When we look at strategic initiatives with respect to investments in staff, we're looking at building professional capacity um looking to support evidence-based instruction, recruitment and retention of high quality staff and then building of career ladders and then strategic innovation as another investment area. We're looking at the areas of 4DX u four disciplines of execution. teacher leadership, recognizing that leadership is not tied to a title, but more tied to the work that individuals do and their capacity to be leaders in their roles. Focusing on shared decision-making and innovative leadership initiatives and building capacity for instructional and operational areas
040for leaders. So again to recap, we're looking for a 2% increase in foundation aid, but we're prepared for less. We plan for CPI to increase for the tax cap to be only 2%. We will stay within the maximum allowable levy. We will win appropriate use strategic reserve strategic use of reserves. We're going to maintain our focus on appropriate reserve fund levels and maximize all expense-based aids including Boseies. Our objective is to maintain a reasonable budget-to-budget increase given all of the parameters that we must incorporate. Continue to match staffing with current enrollments. We budget for contract or percentage [clears throat] increase factors for all salaries based on what we know and what we believe contracts will settle at when they're not currently settled. Uh budget for increased payroll taxes, ERS and TRS based on allocations and
041FICA. We will aggressively review line items for contingency adjustments as in the past and we continue to review all operations for efficiency and redirect resources where possible. our timeline. Um, as you see here, in October at the October 7th meeting, the board adopted the budget calendar. We're presenting to you tonight uh parameters and goals as part of our pre-budget hearing. In January, we will and at that budget meeting do a preliminary budget development process update. Similarly, uh a process update and um sharing of the governor's budget for February 3rd. uh in February on February 24th again update and then at that meeting including our debt service presentation, our tax cap update uh with our allowable growth factor and a bus replacement proposal uh continue for uh March 10th with updates and a bus replacement resolution.
042Um again another update March 24th and then on April 3rd we'll start providing legal notices as we're required. April 7th will be presentation of the superintendent's proposed budget and uh seeking public input. At the April 21st meeting we will ask for board adoption of the budget and adoption of the property tax report card. And then on the 23rd of April absentee ballots will be mailed. The 24th budget will be available to the public on May 5th where there'll be a public budget hearing as we're required by law. Uh May 6th after the public hearing uh budget notices are mailed final legal notice on the 16th of May and finalizing with the budget vote on May 19th at which all residents in the district are eligible to vote. questions. >> Anybody have any questions? >> Mr.
043Farmer. >> Thank you. So on on page 17, the last bullet, um continue to review all operations for efficiencies and then redirect resources where possible. Does that um play into possibly the loss of grant money? and we would shift things around to fulfill those >> missing or if you could tell me a little bit more about and I'm curious to know how much of our budget is dependent on grant money. >> So um I'll start >> your first comment is not specifically tied to that bullet. >> Thank you. >> Right. So when we're talking about the the budget this budget it's the general fund budget not the special aid budget. All the grants are in a special a budget. >> Okay. >> Right. So that's a different piece. If there are changes in the in
044a grant, to your point, if there's a loss of a grant, then there's discussion. It doesn't automatically impact the general fund, this budget. There's a loss of a grant, there's discussion around what was that grant funding, what was the purpose of it, and if it's something that we need to continue, then the decision is made to put it into the G, find another grant or put it into the general fund. it now becomes a base portion of the general fund budget. Or if it's something that we can do without, then we don't do anything. The grant just goes away and we don't pick up those expenditures. But the operational efficiencies looked at in here more referring to operations. How can we do things better for less less money? Is there other ways to do it
045and find those efficiencies within the budget? Okay. The general fund budget, not the grant fund. >> Okay. But it sounds like we would kind of do the same thing. We would look at those grants and determine whether it was something we wanted to continue and then find other ways to fund that. >> All the grants are looked at during the budget process to see if there is anything that is in jeopardy that may need to come over. So Janine and her team do that and if there is something that is subject to an adjustment, it goes to cabinet. >> Okay. To >> be able to bring it there and say what do we want to do with this? And then it's either an ad to the to the general fund budget or not. The one
046that may be more impacting for us would be, you know, federal >> of the federal funded grants that we have of, you know, any any adjustments to child nutrition or title one or IDA. I mean, special any of those type of hits will be something that would >> we would need to really >> All right, that makes sense. >> Probably consider adding to the general fund budget. >> All right. Thank you, >> Janine. Anything? So to that point, that last bullet really is part of our ongoing process where we don't necessarily keep a line item budget at its prior level if the need is no longer there. >> Right? >> So we will look at needs on a a line by line basis, department by department basis, uh particularly in areas that are cyclical. Um,
047so we will re-evaluate whether that budget line should be maintained, increased or decreased. And when decreasing, we're looking to is is there an area where we need to reallocate? Um, when we're looking for increases, can we fund that from another department budget that no longer needs those funds? Uh, we do that on an ongoing basis and it's part of our regular review. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. >> First, I want to say Romeo, Janine, and Megan. Uh, what a and your whole team. What a fantastic u job of of presenting the financial situation you you've done for us. And that includes the work in the study sessions and and what we have here. Really appreciate it. U I've said it before, I don't see this kind of uh this level of reporting anywhere
048else. So it's it's really excellent. Um [clears throat] based on some some of the uh uh information we got uh earlier, I'm wondering a apart from the current state of operations, what we want to deliver and given all of the uncertainties that are out there regarding um state funding, which is more than half of our of our revenue source. Can you give us a breakdown? And I don't mean now, but can you provide us a breakdown of where we truly have no no discretion at parts of the budget where there there is a contractual obligations, debt servicing, things like that where we can't we can't cut it even if we even if we had to uh just just to have a sense of of >> magnitude. >> Yeah. >> So as we shared in the
049um study session, the vast majority of our budget is non-discretionary at a point in time. Certainly, as we look at uh needs going forward, we always have the opportunity to look at doing things in different ways and delivering um best services for our kids um in another me with another mechanism. But 95% of our budget is nondiscretionary. When you look at salaries and current contracts, current enrollment in health, our debt service, our critical um contract services including security and boseies and um health and welfare that we're obligated to other uh districts for. 95% of our $318 million budget is there. And on the in the study session that we shared there was five and a half% or 5%. I would even venture to say that there's some of that that really is almost non-discretionary as
050well. Uh so what we truly have control over without looking at changing how we do things is very limited at a point in time. Certainly when there's a need, we have the ability to go in and look at doing anything differently. >> And that's that's where my my question really is. >> Yeah, we could get that to the board. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> That'd be great. Thank you. And thank you for all your hard work with that. >> Any other questions? Thank you both. >> Thank you. >> And I have no one signed up for the public budget hearing, so I'm going to declare the public budget hearing closed. Moving on, item 3.01, staffing. Can I move that to the table, please? Moved by Vice President Stencil, second by board member [snorts] Seaman. Any
051comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all in favor? That passes 8 to zero. Moving on to tenure. Can I move the tenure to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Butler, seconded by Mr. Farmer. Any comments, questions, concerns on tenure? Seeing none, those in favor that passes 8 to zero. Moving on to the GTA MOAS additional FTEEs. Can I sign move that to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Maly, second by Mr. Seaman. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing the in favor that passes 8 to zero. Moving on to the 5.01 course offering guide. Superintendent [clears throat] Smalline. >> All right. I'd like to call up Dr. Zapitz. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Um before I get into the actual presentation itself, we have a lot of people from the course offering guide
052committee here tonight. I want to recognize them. Um this document, if you've read through it, is extremely detailed. We try to get as much information as possible into um into it for our uh school and learning community and families so that they uh that they have a good idea of what's offered in our um in our high schools and it's been a ton of work for everybody here. So, um I appreciate you all being here and thanks for your work on the project. So, we're going to start this year's presentation kind of where we left off last year's presentation. And the feedback that we got from the board uh after last year was a hope to make the tool uh excuse me, make the guide more of a tool than just anformational guide book and
053that's what we set out to do. Um so, if you start on page 11, you'll see uh our best efforts to do that. And if you hear any groans coming from the audience um for when I mentioned page 11, we spent a lot of time on page 11 and 12 trying to come up with um a useful tool for families to look at that will give them an idea of um a pathway to graduation for both a region's diploma and a region's diploma with advanced designation. Um, so hopefully that's an easyto- read tool. Um, and it will make the guide more pract more practical for families as we uh as we get it out to the community here shortly. Another piece of feedback that we got from u from the board and community was a
054desire to focus on post-secary preparation which is something that's really extremely timely um because we have um we're in the midst of a graduation measures initiative coming from New York State which I'm going to be back up here next month telling you a little bit more about uh in detail. But a big focus of that, one of kind of the pillars that those grad measures are based on is the New York State portrait of a graduate, which is similar in some respects, not all, but similar to our profile of a graduate, which is contained in our um reach strategic plan. And what this uh how this is reflected in our um in our course offerings guide is that we really have uh a lot of offerings throughout our um 912 continuum that align very well
055with both the New York State portrait of a graduate and our local Greece profile of a graduate that's in our strategic plan. So for example um here are the core traits for our strategic or for our profile of a graduate um and the New York State portrait of a graduate. So you can see if you look across the different skills they are pretty similar. Um but again there's some nuance differences between the two of those. So, what I'm going to take you through um is just show you how a broad overview of how our course offerings are designed to build these core traits and attributes in our students. So, academic rigor and intellectual curiosity. We have things uh in our course offerings guide like AP courses, dual enrollment classes with uh different universities in the
056area, um smart transfer early college program at Olympia, independent study, and then we have offerings uh career offerings through Woko which align with some of those graduate traits included in both of the profile and the portrait. As far as CTE goes, this is a big focus of ours. Obviously, we celebrated one of our most successful pathways tonight with our responding to emergencies, but that's not where it ends. We have a lot of different CTE offerings. Um, largely due to the work of Corey Skinner and and his team and partnerships in the community that you can see here align a lot with some of the traits of the portrait of a graduate and the profile of a graduate. All told, we have 89 courses um in a district right now that are eligible for um college
057credit. 78 of those are local here in the district and there's also 11 offerings at Wokco and you can see the colleges that we have partnerships with um listed there on the left. As far as social and emotional competence, this is feedback that we hear all the time from families when we talk um to them um during the course of day-to-day business or at events. How are we preparing students with some of those life skills uh that are going to be necessary once they graduate and leave us and go on to college or career or um whatever awaits them after after high school. So, we have things like uh the leader in me that we have with our with our elementary schools and growing into our secondary schools. We have um robust counseling services transition
058program for our our students with disabilities that focuses on preparing them for life after after Greece. And then we have a course called strategies for success which focuses on um you know a lot of those life skills including some personal finance management and capacity um that we expect all of our seniors to take or all of our students I should say to take before they graduate. As far as creativity and critical thinking goes, again, we have a ton of offerings that are aligned to those, uh, whether they're in the arts or other electives, some of which you can see there. Um and one thing that we really um are proud of this year that we should highlight is our computer AED design solid modeling classes that are really it's an interdep department interdep departmental um
059endeavor I guess you could say where students uh in these CAD classes they design products based on feedback or requests from the school community and then um the business the business classes market them um and can actually sell them in this and raise money for the schools. I think some of the the um treats that you got for Board of Education Week actually came from this uh from this partnership, from this program. Um some of the the blankets or I forget exactly what the chachki was that you got, but something came from this program and they've supplied other things to uh different groups in the district um this year and last year as well. um civic readiness and leadership. We have a lot of different opportunities for that as well. Um all aligned with like
060I said those portrait of a graduate and profile of a graduate skills that we want to see when students leave us. Um a lot of community partnerships that we have through our different pathways opportunities. Um we have uh leadership courses that we offer. Um they're hosted at three of our high schools, Athena, Phoenix, and Arcadia, but they're open to all of the different high schools in the district for students to enroll in, and they're offered as travel courses. And the idea is that we'll hopefully grow those um to to um all of our schools eventually. [snorts] We also have our senior project, which a lot of you uh participated in in one way or another on the panel. Um senior project is uh an ongoing uh ongoing work for us but uh the purpose of
061it is to celebrate students journeys um and prepare them for life after high school. So uh 25% of English 12 fourth quarter grade is based on a portfolio and a presentation um that answers uh these questions here essential questions. Who are you? What have you learned during your time in Greece? What's the next chapter in your life? Those are some examples of those. And what we're hoping to do uh is to continue to work to ensure that um the presentations are an opportunity for students to get productive panelist feedback um that contributes to the grade of the project. Um and then that they'll have multiple opportunities to practice those presentations in class. And for those of you who have sat on the panel, um being in front of students that are able to tell those
062stories is a really uh it's a really great experience to hear about their time in Greece and then their personal story and how um we've prepared them for whatever lies ahead uh for them. So, uh, it's a work in progress and we're working to continue to calibrate across the different schools to ensure that the students have a rigorous experience that's the same essentially across all of the the four schools and thanks to um several board members who've given us feedback to help us continue to work on doing that across the system. So, I know that Jamie and her team um are continuing to calibrate around um balancing teacher input in the grade and then having that authentic experience in front of a panel. um doing things like developing training, uh calibrating along the rubric and
063making sure that the facilitators in each of the rooms where the presentations are being held really are grounded in the same expectations so that like I said students have the same experience um and are held to the same standards across all four of our high schools. And then of course we have you know your standard um updates from New York State and from WACokco that got incorporated into the document with some of the language revisions for this year. Um so for 2627 there were um new visions program u revisions. They had they reduced some of their offerings for us. So we adjusted the course catalog accordingly. You'll see that on page five. uh in the arts. We adjusted the grade levels and prere pre prerequisites for our design and illustration course and then we revised
064the course description for studio art to better align with uh the current curriculum there. For science, there was a bunch of updates that came from New York State, including course titles uh and some course codes that we altered in there to make sure that we had um the right titles aligning with the courses from New York State. And then we also adjusted several course numbers um across the system because we're building a singular uh GE central course master uh which will feed into our student management system infinite campus but that will really make things more efficient from the scheduling lens including how to navigate students that are traveling from campus different campuses to um enroll in um courses that aren't necessarily offered at their home school. having a singular course uh master as opposed to
065four different course masters behind the scenes um in each of our high schools will really help with those uh efficiency. So we adjusted some course numbers accordingly there. And as far as next steps go um this is really the first step in kicking off the course selection process. Um so coming up next week, each school is going to have um career fairs or assemblies to promote the different course offerings that are both elective and then the next um steps for the core content areas in their classes. Uh we have a CTE night next Thursday evening at the GPAC which Corey is going to host. Uh which gives families an opportunity to come in and experience all the different um different uh pathway opportunities, career-based opportunities, work-based learning opportunities that we have in the district for
066them. Um, and then we have what's called passport day for students where students go from uh the regular class schedule, but teachers intentionally carve out a little bit of time to tell students options for the next step in whatever their content area is. Um, so if you're currently taking um, you know, uh, whatever particular course, the teacher will take a couple minutes to explain what are the different courses that are options for next steps. You fill that out on your passport and then it kicks off individual meetings with students and counselors um from the end of next week all the way up until the Friday after the Martin Luther King holiday and that's when we kick off staffing based on those numbers. Um so we really try to put an effort into uh ensuring students
067have gotten those course selections in and that we have accurate information to uh start the staffing process. And that is all we got. Thanks, Mike. >> Questions later, right? >> Yep. >> Okay. >> All right. Moving on. 6.01. Change orders. Can I move the change orders to the table, please? Moved by Vice President Stencil, second by Miss Lake. Any comments, questions, or concerns on the change orders? Seeing none, I just want to comment that the change orders amount to $74,558. With that, all those in favor, that passes 8 to zero. 6.02, the extra classroom activities fund uh report. Can I have so many quarterly reports? So I move that to the table please. Moved by Mr. Butler, second by Miss Seaman. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Oh, Mr. Maloney. I can't find Ire checks
068that haven't cleared yet. That would be the discrepancy. >> Is that what it is? Yeah, I >> that's it. Yes. >> Yes, that's it. >> So, the out is 10,000. >> These are all checks that had cleared the >> Okay, >> questions. Thank you. >> Yep. You're welcome. Any other questions? >> All right. Seeing none, all those in favor, >> Mr. Farmer? >> No. We're voting. Mary, >> pay attention. Quit talking. Pay attention. Passes 8 nothing. Anticipated bids. Does anybody have any questions on those? They're written information only. All right. Budget status and revenue status report. Anybody have any questions on that? It's written information only. All right. The consent agenda. Can I sign move the consent agenda to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Butler, second by Vice President Stencil. Any comments, questions, or
069concerns on that? I would just like to thank uh donations uh Joe Prejmo for his new teacher induction sponsorship of $877.50 um the Pinterest um impact fund for digital innovation and well-being of the amount of $1,63782 and again the Ridge Fire District for their donation of a fire truck this evening. With that, all those in favor that passes 8 to zero. Moving on to 9.01 course offering guide approval. Can I sign move that to the table please? Moved by Vice President Sencil, second by Mr. Maloney. Any comments, questions, or concerns on this? >> Mr. Maloney, I have a question for Mr. Zapins. Dr. Zavins, excuse me. >> Um, no problem. [laughter] >> How many students does this all encounter on a on a on a great year? These are the all the course offerings for
070our all of our high schools. >> No, but how many students actually will take advantage of this that you've offered all these courses? >> All of them to some degree. Yeah. I [snorts] mean, every course that we have is in is in here. So, um, everybody will. And then for those who want to take advantage of some of our pathways and stuff, it's all depends on which program. So, it's hard to say total. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, >> Mr. Buro. >> Uh, Dr. Zafitz, you you mentioned I think it was it was on page 13. Um, you're talking about social emotional learning and life skills. A lot of us think of social emotional learning in terms of u managing behavior and responses to challenging situations and things like that. Is that what you mean
071by life skills or is there a bigger um component to that? I'm asking that because I had a conversation with uh someone from this the CTE side earlier and it sounded like that was that not to feed into your answer but um is there more to it than than that kind of emotional side of social emotional learning? Um yeah, I I mean more to it than than just >> like so so let let me just >> Yeah, please. >> Um going out into the business world and how we conduct ourselves. Is that part of what is in it sounded like that's part of what you were including in social emotional learning. Is that is that an accurate representation of what what we're trying to accomplish with all of that? >> Yeah, absolutely. There's so Corey's
072done a lot of work. We actually have been preparing for this uh roll out of the New York State portrait of a graduate for quite a while. And a lot of the work that we started out doing was to look at the New York State employability profile. um that is really integrated into our strategies for success course that has a lot of the different skills that employers look for that we consider social and emotional skills. So things like critical thinking but also things like responsible decision- making and social awareness and things um that will lead to success in the workplace based on feedback that we've gotten from actual employers in the community. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. That's that's that's good to know because it's always it's always been a little >> it hasn't been
073as concrete as that in my mind and that's that's all I know. >> I appreciate you bringing that up because I think that there's you know without that concretness there's ambiguity that leads to confusion, right? And I think over time you'll see especially with the grad measures initiative that it's going to hopefully become much more concrete. Um but this is you know a start for us. Thanks, Mr. >> Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question because I do think that, you know, what you just stated is something that we need to clear up with the public because when you think of social emotional competencies, which is what our goal is teaching, uh that's what we look to teach when we say social emotional learning. And I think for some reason that has gotten a there's
074a misunderstanding the public. But when you think of our competencies, that's exactly what Dr. Zeph is talking about. It's self-awareness, um, self-awareness, >> social awareness, um, decision making, all of those core competencies that we know when we, I use Bob Johnson as the example, those are exactly the skills that he is trying to teach our interns when they come in. So, so somewhere along the line the term seal has been attached to something that it's not social emotional learning is the competencies. So, you could call them life skills. In fact, that's what I called them when I was in the the classroom teaching at Long. They were called life skills or character education. But they're all the comedies that we're hearing from public, you know, uh employers, parents that are saying when is this being
075taught? So you know for whatever reason the term seal has um taken on I think some misunderstandings but that to your point that is exactly our goal is to teach those competencies which are life skills. So sometimes it's maybe we have to rebrand the wording with that because those the competencies are life skills that [laughter] we're trying to teach. I just think somewhere along the line it's been misunderstood and it's been seen as just for behavior when really it's life skills. And if I can just respond to that, there are organizations and Castle is one >> that has expanded that into a different arena. So there >> it's it's broader than you know we're just talking about here. >> Yeah. >> And maybe rebranding would be helpful. >> I think so. I agree with you
076on that. Yeah. But thank you. >> Thank you, >> Vice President Stencil. Um Dr. Zafitz and and to your team, this is amazing. Thank you for all the work. And I know it's probably taken you countless hours to do it. And I also wanted to acknowledge too, we were having that discussion a year ago and suggestions were thrown at you and I see that you incorporated that in there. I was thinking of one more that I'd like to throw out there for probably the next round. Um, looking at it's like in the I don't know maroon color here. It says uh may be eligible for college credit. I would love to see built into here for each of these classes what that college credit is. So, for instance, this page I'm on, 33, there's health
077education. I teach health at at three different colleges. So, and all of those different uh classes all have a different name, a different course number, and whatnot, it would be interesting to see if you could marry those two. So, if if I'm a student in 11th grade and I want to take health education, what does that equal at say MCC? Because if I'm a parent and I want to have an informed decision about, you know, how I'm going to build my classes or what I'm going to select, I want to make sure that the things I'm picking are going to transfer to all the other schools I want to end up going down the road. And what you end up finding is that a lot of the classes you take, yes, they're worth college credit,
078but they don't directly transfer the way you want them to. So then you just end up with an elective credit. >> Yep. >> So with that said, that's all I got. Thank you for everything. Again, this is it is very impressive. any parent would be very proud. I would just like to think just a word of caution. Sorry. um as we go to 21st century skills and we go to different kinds of skills I think and we move away from facts you know is kind of a bad thing um we we have to remember I think that there's bodies of knowledge with each of the disciplines scientific mathematical um history um and that these critical thinking skills are incorporated when you have a knowledge base and that knowledge base is part of your long-term memory.
079You know, you've been learning these facts um for years, facts about our country's government, for example, and finally you get like a schema in your head. And so then when you hear something, you go, "That doesn't really fit." or yeah, that's exactly what makes sense to me. So, just that we don't lose that. And then I was somebody was just saying that when they're look Oh, it was the the founder of Wikipedia. He said when he goes back to his 11th grade um class and he thinks how would my time have been best spent and it was he mentioned a bunch of things that had to do with computers or US history. He said the US history is what hasn't changed. Everything else has changed and based on the job I have um it I
080will get training in that job and if I have that knowledge and that ability to learn and to take in other things then I'm much better positioned. So it's not at all critical of of this course these courses. It's just I think something important that we don't lose. >> Yeah. Just to comment on your the the last piece there. That's exactly what we hear from the employers that we partner with too is that if students come in with a foundational set of skills, they can learn that that content um of whatever trade that is. And just to your early point, there's no intention at all of compromising the the content. It's just rather complementing it and using it to to augment and teach those um kind of more life or softer skills. >> I I'm
081not as um confident as the state as I am in you. So I think sometimes um their intentions are, you know, just to um make things easier for kids and that's not always the best thing for them. >> Thank you, Mr. Butler. Uh thank you and uh good work to the team uh putting this guide together. This is uh um something that I think I'm trying to remember when my kids were in high school and this guide would come home. It was always fun for me to look through it and look at all the different courses that were available. But after probably freshman or sophomore year, they were kind of on a path going and and so the the actual number of options that was available to them was much much smaller and it took
082more work for me to figure out in this book like what was actually an option for them. So, I wonder if it might be worth it for us to explore potentially with the use of AI a way for parents to say what's actually available to my student. Uh, and what within this guide, what is actually, uh, an option because there's a lot of stuff that isn't. Uh, and so, uh, I think all the stuff that isn't has to be in there because it is for somebody, but I think that that we could probably use a tool like that to help, uh, parents navigate it and more quickly and and not miss some of the things that maybe they're missing now. >> Yeah, that's a great idea. >> Okay, >> anybody else? Mr. Mr. Bagora, >>
083kind of in in keeping with the theme of the portrait or profile of a of a graduate, um on on page 10, you you've provided some u some programs and targets maybe or things that are our students and throughout throughout the the presentation, students who who are uh moving towards a regions diploma, things like that. wondering if you could provide kind of a a profile of our district with regard to how our students, maybe our recent graduates, how they fill some of those boxes. What does our district look like? You know, um what percentage of our students finish with a region's diploma? What percentage uh take advantage of of AP courses and dual enrollment, things like that. And so we so we have uh kind of a a picture of what is actually emerging. These
084[clears throat] are these are what we're providing as opportunities, but what are our students actually taking advantage of? >> Sure. Yeah. I would I would just offer if there's specific things like that that that the board would want to know if you just you put them together and a request we can turn something around and you know produce whatever whatever that is you know for our graduates. We have all that data we can just need to make sure we're giving you what you need. >> That would be great. Thank you. I'll follow up with that. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Thanks guys. With that all those in faire to students course offering guide approval that passes 8 to zero 9.02 02 student trip Olympia. Can I sign move that to the table
085please? Move by Vice President Stencil, second by Miss Farmer. Any comments, questions, concerns on a student trip? Seeing all those in favor? Passes 8 to zero. Getting in the board of education committee reports. Uh bilingual program advisory council. There's going to be no report for the board of education code of conduct committee. Mr. Bonagorio >> district >> I um you may you may mean the district code. >> Oh the district I'm sorry >> then and I'm ready to to do that. Uh so on on that point uh there there is a distinction between uh the board code of conduct committee and the district code of conduct committee but there's also a large uh an important uh layer of level of overlap. Um and and that's really important because it helps to keep those two committees
086um apprised of each other's work and uh not working in silos but actually ultimately u I hope working together. Uh the uh district code of conduct committee met uh on October 21st I believe it was and and uh um covered a number of things initially um u some of the same ground that we covered at our prior uh board committee meeting that being uh some of the uh legal requirements u in the in the code of conduct and uh Dr. Baker and uh Miss Toronto reviewed uh with us uh the 15 items that uh are required in the committee in in the uh code of conduct including I'll just mention a few of them students rights and responsibilities roles of district personnel acceptable and unacceptable conduct asset compliance and uh and uh about uh 10
087or 11 more. Um, in addition, um, uh, and as I mentioned, she's not even here. Uh, board member Falzerano, uh, had shared some of that information with the board committee, and the main reason I say that is because I've been mispronouncing her name at the last couple of meetings and wanted to say it correctly on the for the record. So, there you have that. Um the u in addition um I provided uh the district committee with an update on the work of of the board committee and some of the things that uh we have been looking at. Um um Mr. Toronto provided a recap of the 2024 uh 25 uh code of conduct and and guided group discussions um regarding current trends um giving uh the committee some opportunity to um unpack their own insights
088and uh noticings from from uh from that data. Uh the meeting uh concluded with an activity to gather input and actionable items, things to start doing, things to stop doing, and things to continue doing. Uh this allowed for a further sharing of a broad range of ideas uh to more effectively support a safe, positive learning environment. Some of the common themes uh that were noted were for the need for improved clarity, consistency, and uh balance between restorative practices and traditional consequences. Um, it was a it was a good uh good conversation. A lot of uh a lot of uh good input from from everyone there. And I'll just add a a final note. Uh board uh code of conduct meeting uh dates uh have been set for the next uh uh two months uh this
089month, November 12th and 18th and in December the 2nd and 17th. and we'll continue to uh correspond with with our work with the uh the district committee. >> Very good. Thank you, Mr. Montgoro. District [snorts] Curriculum Council board member like >> Yes, we met um Thursday and uh it was a dark, windy, rainy day and uh um Audra took us through some of the math briefs um that are based on the standards. Are there 13? >> Yeah, >> we did number Right. We did one and spent a lot of time on that and and that dealt with um using high lever strategies to teach um and to um kind of correct a an idea that the curriculum was a mile wide and an inch deep to bring it in and then provide depth to it.
090um having two former roommates who were elementary teachers um who didn't like math at all. Um we talked about the fact that this burden is falling on people who may have become teachers who possibly hated math. Um so that um we also talked about the PLC work and the um the training and the inservice and the support that teachers will need to to have this kind of impact. Um, and then the reason the weather was so important is Brad who talked about the um, Ignite and how they're using Ignite in connection with math. Um, he had just flown in, whizzed over from the airport and then delivered this presentation on Ignite. So, we all appreciated him being there. Um, so it's about teachers needing a specialized understanding of math in order to be able to
091transfer that to to students. And um, then we all engaged in a little activity, a group activity of building a um, what was it? We built >> a roller coaster. Yes. Um, our group by far had the best one, but um, and that's because I'm doing the update. So, um, [laughter] might as well, right? Okay. But it was it was an excellent, um, meeting. So, >> thank you, Audra. >> Thank you, Miss Lake. >> District chair, decision-making team, there's going to be no report for grading policy committee. Um, we met, we realize that there's going to be a lot of work for this committee. It's going to be not just a one-year type of thing. There's going to be a lot of work that's going to carry over year to year. But some of the
092things we talked about with standard based grading, the 55 rule, common formative assessments, homework, and the 4.0 versus 100 points um grading scale. So, we talked about a lot. We're going to chip away at it, see where it goes. Um we also did a um I don't know, whatever you call them that I hate. Um >> welcoming ritual. >> Yeah, welcoming ritual. Thanks. This isn't super flaggler. those will be done on that committee soon. Um but with that, um I'll leave it at that. We're meeting again later this month, so hopefully we'll be knocking off a little bit more on something. And graduation measures committee report. There's no report for that. Getting a superintendent comment. Superintendent Smalline. >> By the way, I love going first, by the way. >> No, we can change that. >>
093No, I love it. [laughter] [clears throat] Uh I just have a few things. Um, I just wanted to start um by also recognizing uh the Ridge Road Fire District for their generous donation of the fire engine to our responding to emergencies program. Um, as uh our board president mentioned earlier, this truck represents um their dedication to our students success and it's also a symbol of um their partnership with the Gree Central School District. So we are deeply grateful for their service uh for their partnership and for the unwavering support of our students. Um on Monday I had the privilege uh of attending the Urban League of Rochester's sixth an annual interrupt race racism impact summit. Um several of our students from all four of our high schools participated along with staff and board of education
094member Tracy Farmer. Our students engaged in powerful uh panel discussions and workshops f focused on equity and community leadership. And I would also like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Corey Hepburn, principal of Odyssey Academy, who is honored as one of Urban League's uh Urban League's 2025 Legacy Award recipients. This recognition celebrates leaders who embody the Urban League's mission of advancing equity, justice, and empowerment. And it was also inspiring to see Odyssey scholars that were there at the event um to celebrate Dr. Heepard's well-deserved recognition. So, congratulations to Dr. Heepard. And finally, as we approach Veterans Day um next Tuesday, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize and thank all who have served our country. Uh the freedoms we enjoy each day are possible because of the dedication and sacrifice of our
095service members and their families. Uh we're especially proud to have uh members of our own Greece community who have answered the call to serve, including board member Bill Maloney and board president Shawn McCabe's son, Connor, who is currently serving on active duty. To them and to all veterans, we extend our deepest gratitude. We are truly grateful for your courage, your commitment, and the example you set for our students and our community. Thank you, Bill. Thank you to Super Molen. Uh, student board representative Bailey. >> Mr. McCabe, I remembered my joke. >> Oh, very good. [laughter] Very good. You've been spending a whole meeting thinking about >> Yeah, I was thinking about it. Um, what do you call a runaway turkey? >> No idea. >> Fast food. [laughter] We're going into the Thanksgiving jokes. We're transitioning
096a little. We did some Halloween jokes. >> Start. you're going to have a joke. [laughter] >> I just want to start off by saying thank you to the um two presenters from Athena, Lissa and Marley. Um they are such influential students in our community and two people I'm really lucky to call some of my best friends. So it was great to see them. Um last week was Red Ribbon Week. So um that's a drug prevention campaign that is observed every October. Um all four high schools participate in in this um by doing spirit weeks and um talking about it on their morning announcements. Some of the spirit week days included wearing red and I one that I thought was very interesting was say boo to drugs and everybody wore their Halloween costumes. Um elementary middle
097schools also celebrated with a spirit week and Brookside held their annual wellness fair um that did activities to encourage students um to do healthy habits. Um also all throughout our community there's local food drives happening. I know last Saturday at Arcadia Middle School and the Center for Youth Services, um there was a drop off donation and I know that all of the high schools right now have clubs that are doing food drives. So students and families, make sure that you are bringing in non-p perishable food items for that. Um kind of piggybacking off of what Mr. Smolene said about the Urban League 6th annual interrupt racism summit. Um that happened this past Monday. I got to talk to Silas Alvarez about his experience and he talked that about that it was a day full of
098workshops, discussions and an amazing keynote speaker who talked about the importance of having true hope for our community and for our future. Uh students said that they learned a lot and appreciated the Urban League for their commitment to breaking system cycles. Also today I just came from rehearsals for um Artist Unlimited's upcoming production of Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Um, this is a production that's in our Greece community and it works with people with intellectual, physical, and developmental disabilities. Um, I am a proud volunteer for this program and along with a bunch of other Gree Central students. Um, the performances are this weekend and next weekend and if you can make it out to see it, it is the best production you will ever see. It just makes your heart so happy. Um,
099also just to wrap it up, this Friday ends the first quarter. I know that our teachers do a really good job with reminding us when the first quarter is coming to an end. Um so that students can get in, get their work finished, um complete any missing assignments, make up any test grades. So this week is a really positive week for growth and learning to make sure that everything's looking good. So great first quarter and I'm looking forward to the next one. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bailey. Board member comments, Mr. Butler. >> Thank you. Uh just a couple things I want to echo. I uh got to the interrupt racism summit just as uh just before Corey Heper was recognized as well. So I want to add my congratulations to him on that. Also
100my uh thanks to uh those currently serving and our veterans uh for their service with upcoming Veterans Day. Um I want to say a special thanks to the staff and students at Pine Brook. I had a a visit at the school uh a week or two ago and uh they put me on the morning show uh right away which was a lot of fun which made me an instant celebrity ac throughout the building after that. Um and uh I'm dying to find out if they figure out who stole the mascot because that was the mystery that was uh looking to be solved. So um I I'm I'm hopeful that maybe a Pine Brook uh student could reach out to me and let me know what the resolution of that was. but had a great visit
101there and got to see students all the way from kindergarten all the way up to uh to fifth grade uh at that school and uh the kindergarteners were great and got hugs from them right away and one of the fifth graders was taller than me. So quite quite a quite a scope of of of um students there. Um, I I want to add uh um to what Bailey said uh about the importance of the food donations uh in in light of the uh withholding of SNAP benefits from uh members of our community. Want to encourage people to keep supporting the food pantry, keep supporting food link uh because uh that that need continues. And so I'm I'm very proud to be in a district that has stepped up so uh strongly for that and in
102a community that is really showing out so uh strongly uh to support our neighbors uh as well. Um I want to um highlight something that I just learned about today which is uh an event that's happening just this Thursday night at uh Arcadia Middle School uh called Digital Dangers. Uh it's a uh session for uh parents and guardians uh to help them understand uh what happens when online chats turn into manipulation or violence against their youth. So uh that's actually being put on by the FBI and uh folks uh should uh register for that in advance. Uh but it happens Thursday night 5:45 to 8:00 p.m. And uh it's really important as a parent to to stay educated on these things. And so I hope that many parents will uh make make the time for
103that. And uh lastly, I'll just say go Bills. >> Go Bills. >> Any other board member comments? Mr. Maloney. >> Um just a reminder of Veterans Day. It's uh November 11th and also at November 10th at Homes Road School at 9:30 a.m. and they are honoring veterans and all veterans are welcome. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. this like >> last week [clears throat] I attended the Monroe County Community Schools um organizational meeting um with Kelly and when I signed in, Kelly Spiruto was there and said, "Would you like to sit with the um Bob Jensen Chevrolet table?" And I said, "Absolutely." So, um, Kelly and I sat with them and wasn't that exciting to sit there and hear them talk about how much they love our kids and how much the I don't remember
104the gentleman's name, but he's the this was his brainchild, but I mean, he got teared teared up when he talked about it and how great these kids are. And also we had a young man at the table who had graduated a year ago who was another um of my best f my son's best friend's kids who call him Uncle Paul. And so it was really I hadn't seen him since since he was two years old. So it was ex it was so nice to connect to him and I guess he was a helien growing up. I just heard all these stories and he's just such a nice young man now. and uh very popular Bob Johnson. So it's such a great partnership and uh so I'm pleased to be involved as I am. >> Thank
105you, Miss Lake. Miss Farmer >> a lot going on in this past couple of weeks. Um there was a group of us who went to the New York State School Boards Association conference. Uh Mary and I spent a lot of time together. We spent a lot of time breaking things down, clarifying, discussing. So, it was great to have a um a special time to come together and and get to know each other a little bit more in terms of where we what we think and what we do. One of the things that um one of the presentations was given by um Tim Shrivever. It was called dignity for all and he talked um about dignity and what that might look like. It sounded similar to uh Steven Covey's work leader and me for the um
106young kids but through up through grades up through adults after he presented there was a um smaller group session where we were able to interact with each other and look at what it might be based on something that might have gone wrong and there were different options that you could choose to how to react. So I think that's a big part of Steven Cvy's work. How do we respond instead of reacting? Um, we went to um I've attended the community schools uh uh presentation. Kelly Spurdudo was there giving that along with Joseph Interrossce who is uh the head of all of this. Something that was interesting to me was many years ago there's a a man named Jeffrey Canada who started a program in uh Harlem. It was called the Harlem Children's Zone. And it
107sounds like this work kind of branched off from what that work initially was. Uh I want to say maybe 20 years ago. So we have a beautiful beautiful opportunity here in our our district. And um I was at the food bank uh at Arcadium Middle on Saturday. I went to drop off some food and asked if they needed work. Boy, do those people work over there. We were there for probably I was there for about three hours. They were there longer and it was just constant people just, you know, and it was a great opportunity for us to uh get to know each other to work together. It it was beautiful. They're very excited about the sidewalk that is about to be put in through through the side door so people can come directly to
108the food cover instead of having to go through the front uh the front entrance. Um, we had community volunteers who came to help. We had the husband of Kelly there, Danny, who was uh great, great, great opportunity to spend some time doing some uh really good work. What was really special, I thought, was that Greece not only collected for us, but they collected food for other districts as well. So, I like the idea that we're taking care of ourselves while we're in this great need. and we're extending that to other districts. We know that food banks typically are used during the last week before the SNAP recipients get their uh next amount of money. So, we know that food banks cannot hold. So, we are hopeful that we continue to get lots of donations and
109and when this all gets sorted out. Um I was also at the Urban League conference. Um sat next to Jer Dr. Uh, Mr. uh, Superintendent Smallen, [laughter] >> she didn't call you late for dinner. >> And, um, I attended a a presentation about artificial intelligence that was actually presented by our fellow board member Todd Butler. And we talked about what that might look like in our schools and how would that affect critical thinking skills. And many years a affectingly. >> Thank you. >> Greatly. Yes. Yes. So to your point um there is a school called the Waldarf School that is in different uh areas of the country. Specifically, I'm speaking about the one that is in um South Silicon Valley where we have a lot of uh parents who participate in the um the school.
110And in this school, not only do they not have cell phones, they do not use any technology at all. And they will begin to use this a little tiny bit as they get into high school. So part of what this presentation was about, how do we maintain equity? So if our children are um uh not using critical ski critical thinking skills as often as say these kids at Waldorf schools, we will begin to see more of a um discrepancy in terms of critical thinking skills. So I I hear you 100%. Um and basically that's it for the past couple uh months. I think I got everything in here. And um thank you. I thank you, Bill. Veterans Day, Sean, your son. I've been thinking about him a lot. And I hope that um everybody has
111a time to sit back, reflect, and think about what our service people do for our country. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Farmer. Mr. B, >> it will be quick. Uh starting off with uh Shauna and Ashley. Uh really appreciate uh the comments uh that you made uh with your uh your GSA presentation. In particular, I was I was just really happy to see the emphasis on uh on on the literacy efforts that that we're making um including the the emphasis on vocabulary development. That's um something that people We we really need to we need the whole scope of the science of learning being applied and and I see that happening here. The the uh the work that uh our all our staff is doing to to get up to speed with the the uh
112the art core u uh curriculum and and the professional learning that's going on. That's really great to hear. Um want to thank the veterans as well. Uh, one of my liaison schools, Bill, you mentioned one one of the schools, Buckman Heights, is doing a uh, veterans breakfast on Thursday. Uh, I think that's that's really nice. Thank you to you guys u, and your family members. Um, and uh, along with that, it's election day. Uh, we wouldn't have election days without our veterans. There's still, if I stop talking now, about 45 minutes for for some of you might maybe to get out and vote still. So, uh, thank you all. appreciate uh everyone. >> Thank you, Mr. Vice President Stansel. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um I'll be very brief with my comments, but I just
113wanted to reflect on two things I got to go to uh in the past month and and both ironically were on the same day. Um the first one was I got invited to go to Bob Johnson and I just wanted to say what an amazing opportunity for our students. Um to echo Mary's comments, it's nothing short of a miracle what they're doing there. I think the man's name is John Love. Guy has a heart of gold. Truly. And my challenge to the community that may watch is we need more of you to do what he's doing and their organization. Step up to the plate and um connect with us, connect with our students, give them an opportunity because our students here are the future. I truly believe that. So, I I can't say any more
114than already has been said other than that they're fantastic. Later on that night, I went to the um Phoenix Academy open house. It was a great turnout. I have stepped in Phoenix maybe once before that for a mini graduation earlier in the year. So, it was kind of neat to go around and actually see what goes on there and just the diverse viewpoints and whatnot. Um and and all of the different students there. It was really wonderful and I'm looking forward to learning more about Phoenix and and what they do uh for our district. I think we kind of covered um Veterans Day, but I do want to give you guys a thanks for for the service and and everything that um goes on there. It's an important thing to acknowledge Rididge Road Fire District
115for their donation. Thank you for that. And then lastly, and I haven't heard it yet, but I'm going to be the first to say it, I guess. Um since we don't have a board meeting later this month, happy Thanksgiving to everybody. I hope it's a good one. Cheers. >> Thanks, Vice President Stencil. Um, couple things. I'll be brief so people can go vote like board member Bonagoro said if they haven't. Um, I can't believe our fall sports are ending. Our winter sports are starting. We're 10 weeks in. It's where's the first 10 weeks went? 30 weeks to go, right, Bailey? [laughter] Um, so I just want to it's I want to thank our veterans. um the service that they give this country and sometimes they're they're probably one of our most forgotten segments of society
116as our veterans, our homeless veterans. So keep our veterans in mind. I want to thank Mr. Maloney for his service. Um Mr. Butler for his daughter's service for you know everybody's family members or you know whether it's grandparents, spouses, children that serve. Being in the being in the armed services is a commitment for your family. There's a lot of stress. So, I want to thank our families as well for supporting their service members. Um, I want to thank Ridge Road again. I know I said some things earlier, but Ridge Road has been a long-term community partner of the school district. They they were initially with GTA doing coach for kids. We did that for several years. Um, obviously the amazing RT program and way back about 10 years ago, they taught CPR to every student
117in our secondary schools. So, they've had a long-term commitment to this school district and I just want to appreciate them. They continued that with that donation this evening. So, I want to thank them again for that. And I would be remissed because the number of people that have told me about Sister Mary Amnesia and the amazing job she did, I would be remissed. I hear you did a great job, Bailey. I appreciate what you did and everybody says you did a fabulous job and uh nonsense was outstanding. So, thank you and I appreciate that. And as Vice President Stencil said, happy Thanksgiving. Remember what the holidays for. Um, you know, it's been a it's been a long year and, you know, appreciate the time you have with your family and friends and what the day
118is for. It's not just about football, Mr. Butler. [laughter] And with that, Mr. Maloney, >> I'd like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting. Second. Second by Vice President Stutzel. Everybody's in favor, I assume. Have a good evening.