GCSD Board of Education Meeting - April 1st, 2025

001meeting. Could I have everyone rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence? Board member Bonagoriel will lead us in the pledge this evening. 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. Thank you. Can I Sony move the agenda to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Stzle, second by Miss Farah. Any additions, corrections, add deletions to the agenda? I'd like to delete 5.02. With that, all those in favor of the agenda as amended, that passes seven to zero. Uh, we're GTA comments. Karen Schindler, welcome this evening. Good evening, everyone. My name is Karen Schindler. I'm a proud teacher of the Greece Central School District for the last 22 years

002and am a Rochester Regional Women's Network Committee chair and NISA committee chair uh uh participant, excuse me. Um, but I also represent the GTA women's network, which just hosted an event this past week. And I'd like to address the question of what is a women's committee and why is it needed? But it's best explained through the HERS story event that just occurred this past Monday. Her story is a virtual event where co-workers can nominate a colleague to be rec recognized in a virtual call with board members, superintendent, GASA, GTA, and NIST guest speakers. This event happens during women's history month as a celebration of all the women do but might not always get thanked for. On the call leaders welcome and thank the participants especially the honores. Then the honores get to hear from those

003that nominated her about why she was being recognized. This portion can end up in tears of love and gratitude because it's not every day that you get your colleagues to say why they think you're great. We've been doing this event for 5 years. That's 56 people who have nominated 55 honores who in then turn also recognize women who have inspired them. Sometimes family, sometimes colleagues, totaling over 160 women that have been honored in the last 5 years. Every year I hear participants how honored they were to be nominated, that they feel tremendous love and support from their peers. Paying it forward is what we are trying to do and it's working. It means so much to the participants that we as a whole district, a very large district, show up in their moment of recognition

004to truly see them for the qualities that they possess, not just the number or category that they represent. This year, we heard so many stories of extraordinary women. Women who inspire both staff and students with her passion for reading. Women who are dedicated to serving their country and their colleagues in their day-today. Women who volunteer on state committees so they can share with their colleagues. Women who work long hours in the musicals and choirs. Women who believe in their students no matter what. Women who overcome extraordinary obstacles in their personal lives and still go above and beyond. Women who create safe spaces and always ask, "How can I help?" Women who love their students so much that they feel seen and valued enough to in turn recognize their teacher. Women who attend their students events

005just to get to know their families, women who take leadership roles and deal with difficult situations with grace, and so much more. These ladies along with many many others in Greece demonstrate what is good about our district. They truly reflect the ideals and envision reach on a dayto-day basis. On Friday, her story culminates at a local restaurant to celebrate in person. family, friends, co-workers, executive cabinet, regular GTA folks, everybody shows up and mingles to congratulate the her story recipients. And you know what the most beautiful thing of the whole event really is? We, the members of Greece Central, we're all functioning as one. one united on core fundamental values that we all share that no matter the position in the district or the power that one has, we were accepting, we were open-minded, we were

006kind, and we were united. We heard each other's stories and we saw ourselves in them. It didn't even have to be stated. We just knew that everyone who participated feels deeply for our community. That we all want what's best for our kids. We were not divided but interconnected. We were and do function under the basic understanding that we all have a role to play, but that we roll up our sleeves together, problem solve together, come to consensus together because we can and do respect each other for the people that we are, not the numbers or the categories that we represent. That is what a women's committee does and why it is needed. Thank you. [Applause] How are you? It's no joke I brought Kelly here, too. April Fools. Um, good evening everybody and thanks for

007having us tonight. I'm Andrea Gileia. I'm the proud principal of Pine Brook Elementary. Hi everyone. Kelly Lampman. I'm the proud principal of Longidge. Um, we wanted to highlight the rigor in our schools this month for our GASA celebrations. Um, again, it's no joke that there's a lot of rigor that's happening on a day-to-day basis and our principles highlighted that for us this evening. So, we're starting with Pine Brook. Um, Pinbrook, we're hard at work researching. We're using multiple sources. We're compiling information into written and published reports. Um, the reports look very different. Some of them are traditional um, written reports and some of them um, are published books. Um, but as you've heard from probably a lot of other administrators in the district that the amount and quality of the writing has increased significantly since

008our art core curriculum adoption. so excited to share about Longidge. Our fourth grade students became experts on animal adaptations um by reading and researching and writing informational books and then they had the opportunity to share as authors with each other in the grade level and they were really excited to share just what they learned and how much they could write and how much they um became experts in that field. So at Arcadia, they're focusing on building student stamina in writing. Again, um supporting their ability to demonstrate their understanding of grade level standards. Um the work especially is targeting the PTSI identified areas to ensure that the students are prepared for our assessments, our New York State assessments, which are happening next week. Um and through intentional practice and support, they're helping students develop all the

009skills needed for success. Autumn Lane. The scholars are focusing on efforts for improving math fluency um throughout the school. They're using their wig to measure their lead to use their lead measure, sorry. Um each week to earn a glow party celebration. How fun is that? And they're tracking those lead measures on private tracking sheets and a public scoreboard to keep everyone in the school engaged. Olympia represent Excuse me. At Olympia, they're continuing to pursue instructional approaches that engage students in learning both during and after the school day. So, one example is the ELNA9 students are working on research projects and they did onetoone mini updates on the research to their peers and students were able to ask questions of one another. Um, also after school, they have 50 students in grades six through eight engaged

010in ELA and math intervention services via their extended day program. The students are working in small groups with a teacher and productively struggling in that learning pit with the essential standards of the content. There you go, Olympia. Love that. Oh, Brookside. The Bobcats in first grade are working collaboratively to hone in on those math skills in small groups. They're focusing on telling time, counting money, understanding fractions, measurement, and patterning. And um each group was facilitated by a student who demonstrated what they do and answered any questions um that the other students had. Okay. Buckman Heights. So the third grade students have opportunities every day for vertical learning. So the students have roles within the groups um with each other and they make sense of math problems together and they're individually responsible to share and demonstrate

011their preferred mathematical strategies which um is a common theme actually across the schools is showing your work and your understanding um using multiple modes of um demonstrating learning at Lakeshore. fourth graders very similar to Longidge worked on practicing their research skills withformational text. Um they were able to synthesize their research and create their ownformational books complete with sophisticated text features, chapters, resource citation and visuals. Their project culminated in an author celebration where students were able to share their work with other students, family members, community members. They were so proud of all of their hard work and accomplishments. And lastly, we have Dome also representing tonight um at Athena High School. Um they welcome staff from districts across Western New York to see the exemplary ways that the district is supporting students with interrupted education by

012providing them with highquality targeted instruction in ELA, math, science, social studies, and foundation literacy. And students from a variety of language backgrounds volunteered to share their experiences and what helped them to learn. Thank you so much for having us tonight. We appreciate all the work you do on behalf of our Greece students. Thanks. Thank you. [Applause] I have no one signed up to speak from Gus Teamsters or ASAP. Moving into residence forum, Kylie Stewart. Miss Stewart here. Welcome. My name is Kylie Stewart and my son has been a member of the Greece Blue Knights marching band going on six years now and a member of the Greece indoor percussion team since its creation three years ago. I am here tonight along with other parents of GMBB students and some of the students themselves. Um, sorry.

013We're here to talk about one of the best drumline instructors these students have had, Mr. Terrell Carver. Mr. Carver is both well-loved and respected by not only the students, but the parents as well. He puts his heart and soul into teaching them, and it has shown in their growth as musicians, and their confidence they have gained as performers. He is kind and patient, caring and encouraging. And when needed, he pushes them to do better because he has faith in their abilities to learn and grow. He has given extra lessons and spent extra time with any student who has asked, my son being one of them. I believe Mr. Carver played a large part in my son giving in giving my son the confidence to move from bass drumm to tenor. The GMBB program as a

014whole fall and winter sessions have huge potential to grow and become a force to be reckoned with in the marching arts if they are given the chance. I believe consistency is one of the keys to creating a winning team. Miss Kristen Costa has been the Winterguard instructor since its creation and the Wintergard teams of which my daughter has been a part of for two years now have excelled and grown under her continuous leadership. I have no doubt that the marching band will do the same with her as director. More than just a team, though, the GMBB is also a family, and Mr. Carver has more than earned his place as a member by showing up time and time again for the students. I have no doubt he will take the drum line to new heights

015for the marching band and will continue to grow the Greece indoor percussion team. It is our sincere hope for Mr. Carver to become a permanent part of the GMBB family for years to come. [Applause] Thank you. My next speaker for resident forum and I'm going to butcher this last name. Bob Lucasitz. Bob L. Going once, going twice. All right. Corine Demora. Um, good evening everybody. My name is Karine Deora. I am a alumni of Greece Arcadia High School. I am an employee at Greece Arcadia High School and a parent of two daughters that attend school at Arcadia. Um we would like to take a moment to appreciate the good in our school and the sense of security that we feel there. Both of my daughters are involved in their school community. My seventh grade daughter,

016Laya, participated in fall and winter cheer teams this year. the kids in the entire cheer program support and encourage each other. It was so impressive to see even seniors, juniors, varsity level kids making connections with the younger kids, making them feel like they belonged, encouraging them. It just it was awesome. My ninth grade daughter, Sienna, has told me when I asked her about how she felt about freshman year, she said it is her best year yet. and she has found a home with the Titan TV crew, Titan Times school newspaper. She also participates in the school band and her love for music um goes even further when she participates for the Greece Bruns marching BL band and the indoor drum line. Um speaking of drum line, I know it's a district team and it um

017has kids from all four secondary schools. Um, but Arcadia has totaled just about half of the 115 kids that we had in the band last year. That just shows Arcadia support. Um, all of the adviserss, directors, and staff that have supported these programs have made um, my shy daughter really feel part of a group. Um, as an employee, I see many opportunities for kids to be involved in their school pathways, programs, clubs, groups, sports, theater. Um, being a part of something just creates a school environment that is vibrant and exciting. Just last week, Arcadia put on a staff vers staff basketball game um that I participated in as a cheerleader and the students um could you could gain access by um using their Titan tickets that they earned. The energy in that gym was electric.

018like the kids were just cheering on teacher staff that I don't even think they had as a teacher, but it was just awesome and it really showed that the Titan community is better together. Um, the other thing we really wanted to bring up is that our school is a safe space, a place where kindness is encouraged, respect is expected, and everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Every year, I see more and more supports added for our kids. dealing with teenagers, it's hard and I live and breathe it every day as a mom and at work. But I know people are listening and people really care about our kids. And I just think it's really important for everybody to support each other, work together, look out for each other, be in it together because we can

019be better than good. We can be great. What's up? Thank you. All right, moving on to staffing. Can I move the staffing to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Stencil, seconded by Mr. Bonagorio. Any comments, questions, concerns on staffing? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes seven to zero. Moving on to tenure 2.02. Can I move that to the table, please? Moved by Miss Moore, second by Miss. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes seven to zero. Moving on to 2.03, the GTA MOA counselor summer. Can I have somebody move that to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Butler, second by Mr. Stencil. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes seven to zero. I'm moving on a gas MOA payout

020of vacation. Can I sign move that to the table, please? Move by Miss Like, second by Miss Farah. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes. 7 to zero and the GTA MOA for additional FTS. Can I have somebody move that to the table, please? Moved by Miss Moore, seconded by Mr. Butler. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes seven to zero. Moving on to 4.01 2025 2026 Superintendent proposed budget recommendation. Superintendent Smallen with his first budget presentation. I'm so excited. Good. You didn't let Romeo do the slides, did [Laughter] you? All right. All right. So, good evening. Um, tonight Romeo and I will guide you all through u our budget development pro process, highlighting how this budget supports academic growth and

021responds to students evolving needs. Um, we'll also break down key financial details, outline two propositions on the ballot, and explain um important changes to the voting process. Our goal is to give the board and community members a clear comprehensive understanding of what we are proposing, why it matters, and how the budget proposal balances student needs and fiscal with fiscal responsibility. Before we begin, I just want to take a moment to recognize Romeo and the entire um finance department team for their hard work through this process. School budgeting is complex with constantly shifting factors and variables. Despite these challenges, they remain focused on what matters most, our students and the voices from our schools. So, thank you, Romeo, Janine, Megan, and the rest of the team for your dedication. So, for 10 years or more, Gree

022Central has followed a clear year-long process for developing and implementing our annual budget as shown here. At the very start of the process, uh, under assess funding, Romeo and the team begin by creating a rollover and a draft budget. His team reviews revenues including reserve funds, fund balance, tax levy, and state aid, which allows them to determine whether there is a surplus or a gap. With that in mind, we also begin the budget development process by identifying our priorities. Our goal is to uh not only maintain but to enhance our current programs, provide this the support necessary to close achievement gaps that include high quality effective professional learning and remain within the tax levy cap. We also know that schools need to be safe both physically and emotionally, a place where students want to come

023every day to learn. Our students and families have repeatedly cited the importance of um extended learning experiences or extracurricular activities including athletic programs as well. These student engagement programs promote regular attendance at school and often lead to higher achievement. So, I stand before you um tonight, three months into my new role as superintendent and also um in the middle of u my entry process, which as you can see is centered on listening, learning, and leading. And as part uh as part of that work, the cabinet and myself have been gathering feedback from stakeholders about our district strengths and our areas for growth. That input along with data on our student population andu and community needs help shape the budget proposal we're sharing with you tonight. So through a blend of surveys, site visits, interviews, community

024conversations, we have gathered fe feedback from close to thousands of Greece Central School District parents, students, staff, staff members, and community leaders and residents. And here are some of the reoccurring themes that we heard. Students needs have changed in our district. Student behavior affects learning. Staffing shortages impact everyone. We need to prioritize prioritize rigor and achievement. We need to ensure students are ready for life after graduation and that families want to be engaged in as partners. This was clear uh at our partners in progress focus meetings that uh took place last week where the had tremendously positive feedback and hope to see the same results tomorrow as well. More to come on that. So I we share this slide um because we hear often enrollment is decreasing in Greece which it is and you can

025see uh in 20067 close to a little over 13,000 and now we're sitting just under 10,000. You can see that that is similar to the decrease that we're seeing in the county and that orange line represents um our westside schools. So, it's true our enrollment is declined. It has plateaued and we're seeing a a small increase this past year from prior years. However, while we may have fewer students than in previous years, the needs of our population have suddenly steadily increased. More students require specialized services, academic interventions, and social emotional support than ever before. Understanding these shifts is critical as we plan for the future, ensuring that our resources align with the evolving needs of our students and our community. Once we've identified our priorities and and our needs, we also go and take a

026deeper look um at our economies. So, we continuously examine ways to maximize efficiency and align our resource with student needs. So that in the first area as noted on the slide is capturing what we save in retirements and attrition. Additionally, we examine vacancies to determine why those vacancies exist. Is that a critical position that needs to be filled or can that uh position possibly be redesigned to be more effective, attractive for recruiting purposes? The second area of staffing. The second area is staffing to actuals which is significant. The staffing process has improved so much thanks to our human resource department and GINA. This process is where we go through several meetings with secondary and elementary principles where we look at enrollment in specific courses and ensure that those classes fit a criteria that we then

027that we will go ahead and staff. and that is reviewed multiple times throughout the year to ensure that we are staffing appropriately to the actual numbers. In addition, during that time, this is time for principles, directors, executive directors to come in and ask for additional academic inter intervention services and supports within the buildings. That could also mean mental health support and related service uh providers like PT, OT, and speech, which are required for our special education students. The third area is looking to how we can supplement with grants and partnerships. For example, center for youth gen mental health grants like the stronger connections grants, arts and education is now Bosey's adable and so is community schools. And finally, we always go back and we review closely our contracted services and our software. So this evening,

028this budget proposal that we're presenting here tonight aligns with our REACH 2027 strategic plan and its core commitments to ignite learning, cultivate trust, and expand opportunity. Now, three years into our five-year strategic plan, these commitments guide our daily work as educators. However, for for those outside the district, their application and impact may not always be clear. My goal with this presentation is to illustrate what these commitments truly mean in the context of our budget and how we are actively working to improve our schools and community in meaningful ways. So in the area of commitment one, ignite learning. This budget supports student success and improved academic outcomes by investing close to $135 million in the following selected initiatives and priorities. I want to be clear that this is not does this is not encompass everything that

029goes into in commitment one. Our hope is to show with these selected initiatives that you get an understanding of some of the dollars that are connected to our different commitments. So going into this year, we will continue to focus highquality instruction for students and professional learning for staff. We want to target have targeted support to close the achievement gaps in ELA and math. our focus on early childhood education and college and career readiness programs and also a focus on mental health and student support teams working to provide the resources students need to thrive in and out of the classroom. So what does this mean? Here are just some examples that fit under those different categories. When we say highquality instruction and professional learning, we're talking about curriculum implementation and support not just in our core

030but all of our curriculum. We're talking about release time for professional development in the areas of professional learning communities. Our guiding coalitions to lead school improvement work initiatives in every building. We talk about targeted support to close the achievement gaps. We have reallocated district tossas to then shift them into the buildings so that they could be ELA and math interventious that work directly with students in meeting their needs. In early education, we have expanded, we're looking to expand leader and me K through eight and expand our UPK program um specifically with our community- based organizations to um allow or to look for increasing classrooms to reduce the amount of students that are on uh on our weight list. We continue to expand course offerings and work-based learning pro options. And we focus on mental health

031and student support, which means specialized staff deployed in schools to address to address behavioral challenges, foster engagement, and support students with disabilities. I also want to share a snapshot of special education. In pe in recent years, we are now at 78 self-contained classrooms across the district. Significant increase from just five years ago. 162 of our students require one to one aids. The number of students requiring support services like occupational therapy, physical therapy, and and speech has increased by 42% since 201920 school year. The number of students with behavior interventions on their IEP has increased by 25% in the past 5 years. In addition with that, there are fewer and fewer outofd district placement options available for our students which results in very lengthy weight lists. All of this information, all of this staffing is embedded

032in what in commitment one when it comes to staffing. Commitment two, cultivate trust. The budget supports strong relationships and improved learning environments by investing $9.3 million in the following selected initiatives and priorities. Number one, the expansion of student and staff safety initiatives and intervention strategies. Two, two-way communication and shared decision making. strong emphasis on employee recruitment and retention and addressing identified needs as we go through the school year. So, what does that mean? So, with student uh and safety uh initiatives and interventions, our weapons detection systems in every secondary school by the fall of 2005. Now, these are covered through a grant, but what's not covered is the staffing and the training that continually need to ensure that our students are safe as they walk into the building. We have programs and positions to promote

033student accountability, for example, peer accountability, looking beyond social learning specialist, restorative TOAs to work with students when they're in conflict cycle. We also have uh money set aside for technology infrastructure improvements for added data security. That means an emphasis on cyber security that is constantly changing growing that needs to be addressed on a regular basis. Two-way communication and shared decision-m our shar shared decision-making teams at we have ones at every single school. This required a significant training outside of the building where we consulted with the teacher union reform network that actually will not only to build the shared decision-m at each of the schools, but to ensure that it's sustainable and that we're continually coming back and revisiting to make sure that it's setting out to do the purpose that it is set out to

034do. And we're constantly um looking to improve opportunities for stakeholder feedback and engagement with employee recruitment and retention. We have targeted engagement opportunities for student teachers and inureds to limit staffing shortages. Just recently, the board approved um an um an MOA that allows for um our stu our host teachers to receive a stipen. That has completely shot up um our our student teachers um our host being willing to take on that additional work um and then in turn be able to increase uh their recruiting when those uh student teachers are done with their placement. We also are constantly um negotiate or coming into negotiating for our different contracts. Our goal is to provide a robust competitive employee contracts to not only recruit but to retain in addition to needs throughout um my entry process. Um

035we just we determined to try to attempt two different pilots at um Olympia and Odyssey that will help excuse me Arcadia um that will help support the goals of their school improvement plans which is academic focus, professional learning as well as student behavior. These are the principles now are in the process of designing. I'm looking forward to sharing what those pilots will look like in those two schools. In addition to that, the finance team has increased the funding for each building to allow for more opportunity for professional development to fund work that takes place outside of the school day. And some feedback from my entry just to tie into to to show that there's connection from feedback of surveys tied into this uh to our budget presentation. Um, we had over close to 9,000 students,

036teachers, and parents and guardians completed a perception survey. That feedback was taken in consideration as we designed this. Over 1,200 uh completed the progress and priority survey that's tied to my entry. So, this budget proposal incorporates funds to address some of the most cited challenges including student behavior, special education programming, academic achievement, life skills instruction, and classroom support. And finally, uh, commitment three, expand opportunity. So, this budget support student engagement and community connections by investing 11.6 million in the following selective initiatives and priorities. our community school strategy and community partnership programs, extracurricular and athletic opportunities at at all grade levels, work-based learning and college of career aware awareness programs and instructional technology and digital literacy. So, in the areas of community schools, we're adding two new community schools like Autumn Lane and Odyssey for the

0372526 school year. adding programs linked to academic uh achievement and behavioral support and maintaining and increasing a number of lead innovators in community school partners. So that includes uh partnerships with Unity that provides internships where kids are exploring careers in healthcare. Our students are volunteering and participating in work-based learning experiences. Roler Regional uh CNA program. Bob Johnson's Big Brother Big Sisters where there's mentors connected um connect and work on employability skills and career exploration along with work-based learning tosses that support student uh students during work study. We have school stores that are connected to to technology and business as well. some pieces that this budget is maintaining and enhancing going into next year. And as you can see from the snapshot on student engagement, we had 3,500 registrations were received for our free district provided

038summer programs in 2024. So we're hoping that that maintains or even grows going into this year. Registration opens for this for this summer 2025 opens April 7th. We have more than 700 students participated in RBTL's arts partner program. And we have students have organized and led dozens of school-based and community events including the first Greece to change summit for secondary students and the leadership day for elementary students. And I believe this is you. All right. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Jeremy. Good evening, everyone. Um, so as we most of us may know, or at least the board is aware, state budget was due today. And, uh, needless to maybe say, uh, we don't have a state budget yet. Um it sounds as if it's going to be another week or two probably uh hopefully

039we'll have it in our hands or at least the state aid runs to us before we come back to the board on April 22nd but at this point uh we don't have it. Um there's some promising news in that uh in that on the Senate side at least from the Senate one house budget there are some promising things that we're looking to get some verification on. One is the uh expansion some additional funds to expand universal prek. Um we've heard a number about 680700 million more in foundation aid uh potentially for to be distributed among school districts and some uh confirmation on universal school meals um out there. So what we haven't heard really anything more about it, but once we get that back, we'll come back and before we do the adoption on April

04022nd, we'll do a budget update, a short brief update on what has come in and what has changed and and the bottom line number will likely be the same. Some of the buckets may have changed and then we'll go into the board adoption for the budget for next year. Oops, sorry. Sorry about that. So, looking at state aid, we've looked at this a number of times. Uh just a refresher, we did get our executive uh budget from the governor. Uh it had originally given us about 167.2 million in state aid. We came to the board last time and updated that we wanted to update and revise our building aid number, which is highlighted in green, from 10 million to 11.2 million. We're still very confident on that number and we're sticking with the number that

041is circled in green below at $168.4 million in state aid for next year. As we look at our revenues, again, this is very similar to what we've seen uh before. Our state aid is the number we just looked at. Our tax levy is at $128 million roughly. that is the uh calculated tax cap number. That is the number um if we have 50% plus one vote um the budget passes. Um and then the other item just to note is the appropriated fund balance. I just to remind everybody that in the 2425 budget, we had $2 million appropriated for playgrounds and pavilions to be constructed. That work will take place this summer. um that is no longer in the budget and that's why you see a decrease of $2 million. We are not appropriating any funds

042going into next year. Looking at the expense size, we we do this a couple different ways. Uh one is by function um that we may not have shared with the board in the past. Uh general support includes those things like the superintendent's office, the finance functions, buildings and grounds, legal, uh human resources, all utilities, all those general support functions. Uh you can see the changes there. Instruction, uh all the instructional uh functions, curriculum development, supervision, planning, evaluation, OTP, athletic, all those things that uh Jeremy had previously spoken to. pupil transportation. Again, uh pretty self-evident. And uh undistributed is all those items that don't fit into one of the other buckets. Those include ERS, TRS, Social Security, workers comp, health care, dental care, and all those other businesses are wrapped up in undistributed. Um we have

043an increase budget to budget of $10.7 million or about three and a half uh just under three and a half%. We also do this by object uh which breaks it down by salaries and equipment. We've looked at this a couple different ways. Um but just a different look at it. Salaries are primarily contract driven. Um contracted services primarily what's in those those uh that category is uh transportation contracts that we we kind of referenced. uh the warehouse, utilities, buildings and grounds contracts, all those things that we have to have vendors uh come in and help us out with. On a summary level, our budget is proposed at 318,529,556. It's a 10 point 10 million $10.7 million increase from the current year budget. That's about a 3 point just under 3.5% increase. Um just as a

044reminder CPI increase for 2024 was roughly 3 to 3.1% depending on uh the timing. So we're we're right around the CPI which I thought was good. We've calculated our tax levy for next year at million72,028. Uh that is the calculated maximum cap. um we need 50% plus one vote um to pass that levy. If we go over this amount, we'd have to go to a supermajority vote. That number represents an increase of $2,590,000 from the previous year or again just over 2% uh increase year-to-year. There's also a proposition as we usually have on uh on on budget vote day. Um this is for bus replacements. Uh we are asking residents to approve uh the replacement of 35 buses. These would be gas and diesel buses, not electric buses. Uh you can see the breakdown here

045on how we would uh what sizes we would purchase. The total aggregate cost there should not will not exceed $5,647,000. Um we're going to use approximately 1.8 $1.9 million of the reserve to apply towards this purchase and that will allow us to have that be a no additional cost to the levy for our residents. So the buses between state aid coming in and the amount that we take in out of the reserve, there's no additional cost to the tax levy we just reviewed. And then we finance those over five years and those sort of pay for themselves. And then second proposition that will be on the ballot will be for uh the creation of a capital reserve fund. Um, our previous two capital reserve funds have expired. Uh, one we had for re-imagining Greece and

046we used it to fund that project. Our second one that was still open was the uh capital reserve for Level Up and those funds are going to be used to finance that project. So, we would like to uh create another a new capital reserve uh that would be capped at $50 million um for deposits going in. Okay. And then it would be uh a 15-year period where we could make deposits into the account. So $50 million over a 15-year period to put money into it and then we would use it with voter approval anytime we wanted to spend money, but that spending would could go past the 15 years of deposit. So it would be 15 years of put money in kind of unlimited or whenever we use it um and need it to spend

047it. But again it would also be a proposition on any budget that we put out there. This is the easier part of the presentation. So where to vote? So, we have one c centralized voting location really to limit confusion about where to vote. That's right here at the transportation center. Uh polls open at uh 6:00 a.m. and close at 900 p.m. And to be eligible, voters must register with the Monroe County Board of Elections. And to add to the fund, um there's new voting systems um this year. So, New York State has purchased a new uh secure electronic voting system. These are touchscreen machines um that will be used uh by Greece voters for the first time on May 20th. Um so, instead of filling in the bubbles, you select and review your choices on

048the machine before casting your vote. I will say I had an opportunity to uh observe this um at a Monroe County School Board meeting a couple weeks ago and I did have a sigh of relief when I saw just how easy the process is. We're expecting that there'll be some learning going on, but I felt relatively positive after seeing the simplicity of doing that. We will also have um videos and um directions kind of posted all throughout our building here to help support voters as they come in. And we did ask for um more than enough voting machines to just ensure it's a smooth, timely uh process for everybody. Early voting by mail. So, all registered um voters are eligible to vote by mail. Those who wish to vote uh by mail must complete an

049application first. Applications will be available um on the district website beginning April 24th. I do think that we may look to to open that up about a week earlier. Just allow people time to do that, but knowing that until the process is finalized, we can't mail out the ballot. So that date may back up just a little bit. And once the applications are verified, the voter the voter will be mailed an official ballot or they can pick one up um in person at district office. So what's next with our proposal? So um next board meeting, April 22nd, the board will vote on the proposed budget. On April uh 25th 25th, there'll be a budget book available to the public. On April 28th, there will be a board candidates night for the three uh board members

050that are up for election. Um that is at 6 PM um right here in this room at 170 and will also be livereamed. May 6th uh board meeting will have an official budget public hearing. And in addition to that, we selected two evening events um for a public uh a public budget information session. We tried to differentiate the time to accommodate u work schedules for people. So on May 14th, it'll be at 400 p.m. right here um at TSSF room 170. And on the 15th we went a little bit later 6 p.m. again right here in the building um room 170. Any questions? Malor. I think the board candidates tonight was moved to district office. No, it got moved back. We moved it back. I was just I had seen that. I appreciate Jeremy in

051your uh review that you talk about career readiness. Um you know I was a career educator and it always um I always check the data and last time I looked 34% of the population had a bachelor's degree in the United States. We're kind of always involved with college educated people as our profession but the real world is out there. So anytime we can spend time on that life after graduation is very important to me. So thank you. Yeah. And we agree and I I think that Corey Skinner has done a phenomenal uh work in that area to just make a robust program with many more opportunities. Mr. Buller. Uh thank you and thanks for the presentation. Um, one thing I wanted to ask about, I saw that you mentioned on uh, slide 12 around uh,

052the new and expanded strategies included in the budget to address commitment one around the around UPK. And uh, I know we've got hundred a little over a hundred families on the wait list after our lottery for um, prechool pre preK, excuse me. And uh um I wonder if the this budget expects to increase capacity and then I also heard Romeo mention the potential for some maybe some incremental dollars uh from the state for for UPK. So wonder if we expect that because I it's I hate to see a family that wants to have put give their kids a a strong kindergarten readiness start and not have access to it in our community. Um, I appreciate the question and I will say we um have that same deep concern about the weight list um with you

053wi with our uh prek students. Uh that's a major part of our discussion on a regular basis. Um I will say that um part of the issue that we're dealing with uh started when we went from half day to full day which is a good thing. So I'm not blaming that. But that when you went to full day um we that took away about half of those v that space for students. Um we have a space issue in our district which is part of the what Romeo when he talked about the proposition to begin the capital reserve. We don't have space. Um I think our numbers when I give that snapshot of our special education um we have increased uh number of students coming to our district that require um self-contained classrooms which take up

054our which space which we welcome all of our students um but we are running out of space for additional classrooms. We do partner with two communitybased organizations. We just did an RFP hoping to get more that came back. I think our number was still is it two or is it four? two uh we currently have four CBO partnerships. Uh two the two that you're referring to are the ones we've been interested in expanding. So our team shares Jeremy's sense of urgency around ensuring that that number of 150 continues to reduce as fast as possible uh without certainly without compromising the quality of the programming. So our current uh CBO partnerships are also um very interested in expanding while maintaining a high quality program. Um, not to spill any good news, but we are looking we're

055currently looking at um a a projected weight list for next year that's less than we're currently seeing. Uh, with two potential scenarios that will continue to remove people on the current weight list for next year. So, um, again, the space is the primary issue, but we share your sense of urgency. Thanks. You're welcome, Mr. Bonario. Thank you both. appreciate I appreciate the uh the presentation. Um Superintendent Smolen, you note about $135 million dedicated to commitment one. Um Romeo's a little higher number to total instruction. All in, we're talking about roughly half the budget going to this really critical element of of student achievement and instruction. I really appreciate seeing that. Um items one and two on still on page 12 um refer to support for high quality instruction and professional learning. We heard a little

056bit about some of that u in our study session. Um and item two talks about u closing achievement gaps. Um, we know that there are some disparities between different student groups or student demographics maybe. Um, and across different schools too. Uh, but we also know that overall our students aren't where we want them to be. By the state's measures, more than half of our students are not at grade level. So when you talk about closing gaps, are we talking about closing the disparities between students who are all struggling or are we looking at closing the gap between where our students are at 100%. If if that makes sense to you. Uh, in other words, if we've got 40% of our students at proficiency, are we looking at closing a gap between a subgroup that might

057be at 30% and and the rest at 40% or are we looking at that gap between 40 and 100? Well, we it's all gaps. I I if I'm understanding all students. So of course we when we look at any type of data we identify you know subgroup data and see where they are but we look at all the students and our goal is to have all of our students at proficiency or higher. I mean that's ultimately why what our goal is exactly um the I believe the the bullet point that you're talking about specifically was ensuring that we have um the interventions and specialists that help close that gap which in turn allows more opportunity for enrichment and excelling um back in the classroom or in different areas. So the the specific area you're talking

058about with interventionists, yes, it's to close the gap, but it's to close the gap that we see with all of our students. Um, no matter the subgroup. Okay, great. I don't know if that answers your question specifically. Okay, thank you. Sure, Mr. I I will follow up with uh related question uh for the bullet point one. um are we going to have I know we've made this move with uh literacy to uh what is generally called the science of reading there's the broader concept of science of learning heavy emphasis on evidence evidence-based strategies I know we talk about that uh but are we are we implementing that in in all of our in all of our disciplines are we using those strategies and rolling them out maybe making changes in in anything beyond our core.

059Um the literacy what we've done with our core just to clarify are you are you just the so with our literacy we're obviously K through eight we're looking at our core right science of of reading um are you referring to just researchbased best practices outside of our literacy component across all of our subject areas? Yes 100%. Um as we go through um some of our work with school improvement um when you're looking at you'll see um more and more in our school improvement plans not only um smart goals tied to achievement but also lead measures that are um calling out researchbased practices that will be used to reach that goal. Assistant Fleer. Yep. Thank you. I would love to elaborate a little bit on some of the work that we're is currently going on in

060addition to the school improvement planning processes from our study sessions and what superintendent Smalling just referenced where all of the 18 campuses will be prioritizing a literacy goal using evidence-based strategies. Um, one area in particular that I can speak to that just occurred this past Friday, uh, it was led by Julie Parsons, um, and all of our K5, uh, teachers participated in professional learning session focused around, uh, the literacy briefs that were released by the New York State Department of Education this past December with an emphasis on the science of reading, in particular, that distinction between research-based practices, which we know are still in practice in theory, um, versus evidence-based practices which we know have high um impact and um efficacy on on student learning. So, as a system, we're currently examining a lot of

061that work to make sure that our we're building collective capacity so that our literacy instruction is really refined. Great. Thank you, Mr. Bar. One more. One more. Keep going until you're done. So, uh, we're we're going to be proposing a budget of $318 million. Third of roughly a third of a billion dollars. It's a lot of money and roughly comes out to around $32,000 per student. So, we are spending a lot of money. Uh but that's worth it if in the end we've we're actually accomplishing our goals. Um increasing our student achievement, creating good young citizens, residents of our community. That's all that's all really valuable. I want to bring it back to the accountability piece. How do are you planning to have anything built into this process going forward that that holds us as

062a district accountable for for what we're setting out to accomplish with all of this? And I know that's you did address some of that in our in our conversation uh in our study session earlier. I already had that question written down, but I so I want to I want to put that out to you. Is there is there thought for uh providing accountability in this process? Absolutely. Um that is continually a part of our school improvement process, right? Because that's where the work's being done. Um, as we mentioned earlier in our study session, that's an area that I think we believe that we could be tighter where there's clear um where we're using smart goals and and getting into a system of setting um expectations through goals, measuring it throughout the year, which we're doing

063with our lead measures that are built in now to our school improvement process. We're in the process of doing that's very new um to our school improvement process. But the theory behind that, the thought behind that and what our systems allow is that we have measurable, we have timelines of to measure and to make mid uh year adjustments if needed. If the data is showing we're not adjusting. But more importantly, when we set an expectation of of this percentage of growth that we're looking for, let's say in literacy, the idea of accountability means okay, we set this goal. This was the work that we try that we did to get to that place. Did we meet our goal? Did we not? And if we didn't, we have then a plan to go back and say,

064"Okay, what are we going to do differently versus years in the past where if we didn't meet our goal, maybe then it was redesigning everything, a completely different plan." When you have accountability, what that really means is this is what we set out to achieve. we had a clear plan to get there and if we missed our goal, we could go back through that action plan and fix what would may have been caused that um us not reaching that goal and address that differently. So, this doesn't work without having clear measures of accountability, but accountability with the idea of that we attempted something, we looked what went wrong and what we we could do better. I think we have to make people uh have people comfortable with the term accountability uh versus that it's it's

065a positive piece when we're using it to learn and grow and get better. Um, and that's what we have been kind of going through with our leaders, uh, for the past two years now to get to that place of comfort, what we call psychological safety, that you're willing to take those chances, set some high goals because you know that we're going to re come back, look at that, reassess, and learn and get better as we go into future years. It's all So, yes. Okay. All part of the process of being lifelong learners for all of us. 100%. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. Anything else? Just a couple. Um, and these are going to be I guess more towards you, Romeo. Perfect. With with the budget at the state level, do you have a better

066un I mean, because all of the issues now are non-budgetary. I mean, what they're fighting over now are all non-budgetary items. So, do you have a rough idea of where we are going to be from an aid standpoint? Is it better? I mean, sign I mean, you were you mentioned the Senate budget that you talked about where to increase some things. I mean, is that where you think we're going to end up at the end of the day because of the the issues now are all non-budgetary. It's not really money issues. Yeah, I don't see this changing much. Okay. Um we might see a little bit more here or there, but um we're not going to see millions. We may see a 100red or 200,000 difference in there, which we'll just make adjustments with. I

067don't see any big swings coming out of this. um partly because the foundation aid formula was changed. They're trying to stick to that. They changed some levers in there. They're probably going to stick to that. Um in the past, the governor did a foundation aid increase and then the legislature kind of added it on it. Everybody was complaining you need a formula to run. While they've run it, we're not really expecting anything major to change. Um whether that be foundation aid or expense driven aids at this point. I think we're pretty much locked in. And remind us what happens if because I mean my understanding is these non-budgetary items that they're fighting about, they're pretty much night and day at opposite ends of the spectrum. Neither side's really willing to give. What happens if we

068don't have a state adopted budget when we go to adopt our budget on April 22nd? I believe we still need to adopt a budget which would be what we have here. Um we've talked about this in house. Um we think even though the issues are not maybe not as much budgetarily. We think we may get state aid runs prior to the budget being actually fully implemented which will help us kind of shed a little bit of light on this. Uh but if we don't have anything at all by then, we will just adopt what we have and if something changes materially, we'll have to amend the budget with the board at a future date. Very good. Thank you. And I just want to take a moment to I mean, Romeo, you do an amazing job

069every year throughout the budget process. You and your team, you guys do a great job. You make the budget easy for lay people to understand, and that's much appreciated. And Superintendent Small, I want to congratulate you on your first budget presentation. I was pleasantly surprised. [Applause] Well, he can't let it go to his head. You know, you got to keep him in place a little bit. Um, moving on to 5.01, the contractor award for the transportation warehouse floor reconstruction. Can I somebody move that to the table, please? Moved by Miss Moore, second by Mr. Stetszel. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes seven to zero. Anticipated bids is written information only. Does anybody have any questions? The budget and revenue status report. Again, written information only. Anybody have

070any questions? And the property property tax refund summary. Anybody have any questions on that? All right. Moving on the consent agenda. Can I move the consent agenda to table, please? Moved by Mr. Stencil, second by Mr. Butler. Any comments, questions, concerns on the consent agenda? Seeing none all those in favor that passes seven to zero. Moving on to 8.01 a resolution to approve the grade configuration change for Arcadia Middle School. Can I move that to the table please? Moved by Miss Fra second by Missike. Any comments, questions, concerns on this miss. Can we just hit a point of clarification here? Um we were talking and it looks as far as the the resolution. Um, I know that we were talking about moving fifth grade and this had to do with the 811. Now, it doesn't

071say here on here. I didn't know if we needed to make an amendment to this or clarify um because it just says reconfiguration of our PDA school to move grades five through eight by adding grade five. So, if you read that, it doesn't really say the 811 program. I'll let Dr. Baker answer that. for purposes of what the state is looking for. It's just allowing they look at it just for the whole school. So, we're approving it that we can allow the fifth grade. So, you know, it's for that purpose is what we're putting that it won't be um outside of that 811, but in terms of the state, the span has to be including fifth grade in order for us to do that. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Seeing no other questions, all those

072in favor? That passes seven to zero. Moving on to the data data privacy agreement with Boseies. Can I so move that to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Stencil, second by Mr. Butler. Any comments, questions, concerns on this? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes seven to zero. Moving on to 10.01. Second read of policies. I'd like to make a motion to combine all the policies. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Butler. I'm just going to amend that. If you're okay with the friendly amendment that we pull 8273. So we'll do all the ones except 8273. Is everybody good with my friendly amendment? All right. All those in favor of adopting all the policies but 8273. That passes 7 to zero. Now on to 8273. Can I move that to the table please?

073Moved by Mr. Stencil. Seconded by Mr. Bonagorio. Comments, questions, concerns. Miss Lake, thank you. I thought it would be a good idea to add a warning about the dangers of social media um to alert parents um and to ask them to maybe discuss that with their children um that it can lead to some really unsavory kinds of things. Um, so that was my thought about this policy. This for a second. Um, so I guess do you have an amendment that you would like to add into this policy somewhere? I did jot something down, but that would be wonderful quickly. So it might it is not cast in stone. We caution parents to the possible dangers to your children while engaging in messaging on social media. It is not uncommon for messages to be used to

074humiliate children and make them objects of bullying and even abuse. We encourage discussing these issues with your children and monitoring their online activity. As a point of information, where in the policy do you want that to go? Wherever you'd like to put it. I would say at the beginning or the end and it's more likely to be read. I don't care. I just like it in there. Okay. I'm fine with that. I just didn't know if you had a specific location you thought it fit better. You're more the English teacher than I am. Well, I I thought it might get turned down, so I was too tired to worry about all Come on. Put a little more effort in. I guess I'm I did. I wrote it. All right. So, is there a second on

075Miss Lik's amendment and then we'll open up for discussion. There's a second for Mr. Stetszel. So, now it's discussion on in regards to the amendment. Miss Lake has added to this policy and I guess she's given us leeway where we want to put it. Miss, I'd like to hear it again, please. Okay. We caution parents to the possible dangers to your children while engaging in messaging on social media. It is not uncommon for messages to be used to humiliate children and make them objects of bullying and even abuse. We encourage discussing these issues with your children and monitoring their online activity. Mr. Butler, uh, I for one would like to go on the record saying that I wish social media had never been invented. Um, however, I'm not sure. I wonder if there's other places

076in the district's communications uh purview where we could make such an encouragement to parents. I just think the number of parents that read the the board policies is exceedingly small and I don't know that there's that I remember ever seeing anything in our policies that are like a statement to parents. Um so it feels like it doesn't really I don't disagree with your with the uh with what's behind your suggestion. Uh, Mary, I just doesn't feel like it's appropriate for a board policy. That's that's my reaction. I guess I'm gonna if I can from a point of information standpoint, does anybody else have a comment they want to make on it? Mark. Yes. Go ahead, Mark. Mr. I I guess I'd like to just suggest the possibility that part of the policy be to state

077that as policy we suggest that the district u engage in this kind of messaging to parents. So it's it is actually a policy recommendation from the board that may resolve both issues. So hold it together there. Yeah. No, I'm just trying to do the mental gymnastics here. So you're you want to amend her policy. So as an amendment to the amendment, you want to include that language. Yeah. as as policy that the board encourages the district to express her message her her con stated concern there. Is there a second on Mr. Bonagorio's amendment to the amendment? Mr. Stzel on discussion now we're just discussing Mr. Bonagorio's amendment to the amendment. Does anybody have any comments they want to make on that? You're a superintendent of schools. You can say whatever you want to say, but

078turn your microphone on. Still trying to figure out the rules. Um if with a statement that similar to what you said that um with a policy statement that encourages school personnel to communicate with families about the the um dangers of social media. Um if that's a statement I could see then a regulation that follows process that then would outline the process for administrators and schools throughout to ensure that that process is then followed through when laptops are given to families and different times throughout the year. So by keeping it a broader that way that will allow for I think a regulation that we could put in place that will then push that through this the system at different points um throughout the year when kids are getting the devices or whatever that may be. So

079by loosening that with not the direct language I think will allow for regulation to that makes sense. Go for it. Oh boy, you made that clear as mud. Um, so I guess I'm going to ask Pardon. I felt good about it. I'm sure you did. So I guess my I'm at a point of information something first before we delve into what's going on. Um, I guess I'm going to throw out the cabinet or any of the other esteemed educators in the room. Um, what do we currently do districtwide when it comes to the issue we're discussing? Somebody want to jump on this grenade or Oh, Dr. Baker, look at you. Dean player. I love it. Um well so I the scope of this policy is actually the um the use of district devices and how

080so um just to clarify the intent of this policy is how we use our device in our network in order to monitor what students are going on. Uh so that's one point. The second point is that we do um we are interested in looking at social media usage and educating students on social media. That's um part of the program that you were exposed to at one of the study sessions when at social um and so I actually think that that's more of an instructional tool that we're looking for in order to help monitor and we do want parent involvement with that and we're currently offering some parent information sessions during the lunch hour. Lindra Alamo has been offering that. So u for anyone listening um that is being promoted currently and so hopefully people can

081join. So I do think that there is a lot of action steps that we could take as a district around this. I just question if this is the correct policy for that to live within. And so I wonder about exploring places where that can live because I um we as a district um and and me personally really do support building on that more and more. It's very needed to your point. That makes perfect sense. I would just like it um like to be assured that nothing's going to fall through the cracks that that everyone will be very clear about it and it won't be a matter of if people come to school um to sign up for something or not. Yeah. So, we're we're still on the amendment to the amendment. Um and I'm going

082to offer and see if it takes shape or not. I agree. I don't think the amendment to the amendment or the original amendment belong in this policy. However, I do think there is room to create a policy with what you're saying that does this is a district-wide position that we want to adopt, you know, moving forward to dangers of social media, social media usage, whatever. And there may be examples of from either boerosis or other organizations that we can adopt a policy. I'm going to ask um if the parties the amendment to the amendment and yourself are okay with removing the amendment, adopting this policy and the policy committee looking into a policy in with what you basically spoke of. I think I would prefer that actually. Okay. So, as long as Are you good

083with that? I'm very All right. So, we're going to withdraw the policy everybody or withdraw the amendment and the amendment to the amendment. Can I get a show of hands? All in favor of doing that. All right, that passes 70 to zero. We're back on the original. Is there any other questions on the original? Mr. Bio, just for clarification, following up to your suggestion, uh will that be put on an agenda for say the next review of policy or something like that? How will that um we will do some research and figure out what's out there. So I mean I don't know if it'll be before the you know before the end of the school year. I mean it won't be this month but maybe before the end of the school year we can have

084something that we can bring back cuz in I'll just need a copy of what you wrote because I didn't write it down fast enough. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So with that on the original policy, any other questions? Seeing none, all is in favor. That passes seven to zero. All right, moving on. Superintendent comments. Superintendent Smolen. All right, so I just I have a few thank yous. Um, I just want to begin by extending my sincere gratitude to Romeo, um, Janine, um, Megan Bradshaw, and the entire finance team for your dedication and support throughout the budget development process. This the presentation that was shared with you this evening is the result of countless hours of analysis, collaboration, and hard work. So, thank you. I also wanted to recognize Laurel for her efforts in uh

085preparing for tonight's presentation and for all her behind thescenes work that ensures our budget process remains transparent and accessible to our stakeholders. So, thank you Laurel. Additionally, a heartfelt thank you to uh Gina Larson, uh Jen Hendrickson, Julie Riley, and the entire department of of human resources for their commitment to the staffing process. This work begins in January with three formal staffing meetings with secondary principles along with separate meetings with elementary principles. And lastly, I appreciate uh the contributions of our building leaders, our executive directors, our assistant directors who play both a direct and indirect roles in the process. Uh staffing is an extensive endeavor. uh but it reflects our unwavering commitment to a fiscally responsible budget that meets the needs of both our students and staff. So, thank you all for your dedication and

086hard work. I also wanted to recognize um Jim Gardner uh for winning the Rochester Regional Health Tom Riley Gold Award. Um Jim Gardner is our district social social worker and I've had the privilege of working with um Jim since I was a principal at Longidge. The Tom Riley Award recognizes community members who make a difference beyond the Rochester Regional Health's extensive reach. Um, this award seeks to honor partners who make a difference or make a significant contribution to the community and further the award honors those who consistently seek out partnerships uh share their perspectives, knowledge and resources and work to reduce the stigma associated with behavioral health needs. I will say that the Gree Central School District is extremely fortunate to have Jim Gardner in our system and I could personally attest to the positive

087impact he has had on our students, families, and staff. And in closing, I just wanted to recognize the parents, community members, and staff who attended last week's partners for progress focus focus groups. Your engagement and insights were invaluable and the overwhelmingly positive feedback along with detailed notes from each of the breakout sessions will help guide our work moving forward. And just a reminder that the second partners in progress event is tomorrow evening. Um it's in the Odyssey cafeteria. It's not here. It begins at 5:00 with some pizza and salad and and chitchat. Um and then um our focus group discussions uh begin at 5:30, run till about 7:00, and we just look forward to another evening of meaningful conversations and collaboration. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Molly. Mr. Alvarez, you're up. Thank you. Um so

088my first comments today I want to thank the students at Phoenix Academy um advised by Jennifer Solomon for inviting me to be a part of their podcast and an engaging discussion that um gave me opportunity to reflect on my leadership and offer advice for students who may be looking to go in the same direction. Um, it was great just seeing how thoughtful the questions were, um, and how much time was and still is being spent into producing a remarkable video. Um, last week about hundred or 90 to 100 students from across the district went on the H.B.CU trip with doc with director of equity and inclusion Dr. Michael Dr. Cedric Michael Simmons and his team of adult leaders. And I can 100% say that the trip was not only just fun and impactful, but it

089was also educational, such as visiting Ithaca College, Howard University, and Bu University, learning about the context behind historical landmarks around Washington DC, and as well as um learning valuable information about the National African-American History and Culture Museum. The activities that we did, the history that we learned and the laughter that we shared left a mark on many other on many people and many quotes from students have said or many my bad two quotes that students have said was trips like this deserve to continue in our district and as well as we should continue to keep ensuring that students have opportunities like this that meet their needs and keep ensuring equitable access and equitable access to fund. And then lastly, I would like to take the moment to just um say that the presentation given by

090superintendent Smallen's budget proposal for the upcoming year was amazing and eye openening. And I'd also like to take the moment to explain the superintendent advisory council also known as TAC portion to the budget. Our idea of providing a startup budget and supplies budget for extracurricular activities that the district has to offer came from data that was collected from focus group discussions facilitated by students from each of the high schools including Phoenix. And the goals of focus groups was to hear from one from other students both known and unknown students about the different things that our district does well and works for students and the things that we could always improve on. And one of the main themes that we found from those focus groups was to increase funding for extracurricular activities and increase to increase

091engagement. Um this then led to myself and the chair of TAC to highlight this theme and turn it into this turn it into an idea that goes right into the third commitment as stated in our strategic plan of 2027 and in Superintendent Small's presentation of expanding opportunities. Um I then gave this presentation to the superintendent's cabinet that further explained the idea that we had and started up it started to spark up great conversations about how the idea can move forward and the solutions that we could look forward to that could be a win-win for all of us. So I want to thank the board for obviously considering obviously considering this budget approval and then given that given that the student body had contributed to the budget development and conversations starts to show the increase of

092student voice and ensuring that students have a seat at the table. My comments Mr. Alvarez any other board member comments? Oh let's start with Missike. Thank you Silus. It's always good to hear from you. Um, and for anyone who did not attend last Wednesday's um, meeting, it was it was really wonderful. And the four issues that were discussed came from parent concerns, student concerns. Um, and I would just I would like to thank the administration um for the kind of listening you've done to us for us. Um, several of us attended a workshop about three months ago. We came back very excited about um possibilities um and talked to everybody we could and they they just um sent a team of their top leaders um to attend the workshop and we had an hour to

093talk about the school improvement plans last year. It was unfortunate that some of us voted those down um having received them at four o'clock on Friday and voted on Tuesday. Um this year we're involved in the process as it goes along. um very informative and what was amazing is that questions we asked informed what they did this year. Um so it's just it's so exciting for me to be on the board at this time and have the collaboration between the board and the administration and the parents. So um please come. Um it's a great time for you to be involved too. I think all of the parents who came were happy they did and um and so were the the district people. So um if you ca if you didn't come and you can tomorrow

094night, please do. Thank you, M. Mr. Far. Thank you. I just want to thank our two guest speakers today, Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Deora. uh regarding your great uh positivity regarding our GMBB instructor. Um words like that is is great to hear that you have a great instructor doing great things for our school. Um and regarding Mrs. Demora regarding her positive experience with her kids, it was great to hear. Again, we don't care. We love to hear you guys come to resident forum. Whether we like it, whether we don't, or whether it's indifferent, we still love hearing from you guys. I do want to also um thank our retirees. We had two of them, 28 years and 24. And I'm probably gonna get this wrong, so I apologize. It's Lisa Hascot. I said that right.

095And Francis Polarmo. Um, I also was able to attend the 32 annual district strings festival. I cannot believe how many people you can fit in one room. That was amazing. All the students, things were going on in that room all over the place. You were absolutely engaged the whole entire time. I then was able to take my kids to the staff first staff basketball game at Olympia. That was very interesting to see the staff go after each other. Uh and there was a lot of interesting things going on in there. Although my kids did want to talk about the pie that was going on at Longidge. I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to talk about that. Um it was great to see the color guard. There was there at halftime. Again, we've mentioned

096a couple times here tonight regarding the district partners in progress. It was great. We've been asking to do these kinds of things to kind of get everybody together. Um, it was nice to see that you were listening to the board. We can collaborate on those things. So, please, those that got to attend last week, if you didn't get to to be in one of the groups, pick another one tomorrow. Um, it'll be great to see you. And last but not least, I want to thank Karen from the GTA and her stories. She did a phenomenal job trying to get everybody together as well. Her vision on this women's group was amazing. It was nice to hear all the peers talk about um their other colleagues in the way and they were gleaming. It was great

097to see that. She did a great job and I can't thank her enough for actually and I want to thank the board and the cabinet as well. You guys were all there pretty much all of us. Um it was great to see that we could come together and collaborate. So appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fair. More I also did GTA women's her story and it was fabulous. So nicely organized and so great to celebrate each other. Um I got an opportunity to read at the Longidge school, Let's Glow Longidge. And my I have to tell this story because I brought my favorite book, Alexander and the Terrible, awful, no good, very bad day that I even read to high school students. And that morning, I went to the wrong school, pulled right into

098English village, got out of the car, and luckily I saw it before I actually went in and embarrassed myself. So I started with a bad day. The kids were fabulous, and I loved it. Um, music, of course. I went to the Winter Guard show at Athena. It was amazing and so well organized and these groups come in and out and play. It was fabulous. um finished off the musical season with Into the Woods in the musical Matilda at Olympia. And I have to say Olympia had sign language interpreters there and that really impressed me. And I actually talked to the family whose um daughter was in the play and mom is hearing impaired and I thought what a nice gesture. I know it's expensive, but I'd love to see that at more events in the

099school district. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mo. Mr. Buller. Thank you. Um I want to start off by uh thanking uh um our student board member, Mr. Alvarez, for the work that you did putting together the cultural showcase uh that happened a couple weeks ago. I was uh able to be there for part of that and really uh appreciated the opportunity to to see firsthand the the diverse cultural representation that we have in this district. and it's a great reflection of the of the world that our students will soon be living in. And so, thank you for your work to pull that together. It seemed like it was a great evening. Um, I want to say thanks to the budget team for all of the work that that you all do all year long that

100uh comes to a head this time of year. Um, uh, it's I know how much work it is and and just want you to know how appreciated it is. And, uh, related to that, I want to encourage everyone to take a look at the budget book. It's, I think, an amazing translation of the budget into something that really makes can make sense to anyone who cares to look at it. It's not you don't have to be an accountant to understand it thanks to the work uh the collaboration between the finance team and the communications team. So, um I think that's great and people should look out for it if you want to understand uh the budget and uh just want to encourage folks to uh see the uh um the sporting events that are getting

101started with spring sports. There's lots of great stuff to see and uh um and I hope we all make time for it. So, thank you, Mr. Baro. Thank you. I'm going to sound like a broken record up here, but uh you know about a month month and a half ago, I attended a vaping seminar at Arcadia and uh the principal there, Miss Wariniac, hope I said that right, um had a few parents who expressed some concerns beyond the the the realm of vaping. Um concerns about behavior. She held a community event uh for Arcadia families. Uh I think that was about maybe three, four weeks ago. Uh it it was uh reasonably well attended. Parents showed up. They had an opportunity to express concerns. Uh staff listened. Uh last week a number of us attended

102the partners in progress event. Uh, and again, a lot of I think a lot of parents uh showed up. I have to say uh thank you to Superintendent Smolene and to the staff for making all of that possible. Superintendent Smolen, when you when you talked about your listening tour and things that have been recurring themes, three things jumped out at me. Student behavior affects learning. Prioritizing rigor and achievement is important and families want to be engaged partners. That really does say that you and your staff are listening. I also want to encourage parents because there were I'll say a lot of parents, but it should be a lot more. Parents really do need to be involved. Come out. I I said to some parents at the table that I was with, if you know people

103who aren't involved, give them a personal invitation. It's so important for all of us to be involved in this. And but I do think I I heard a lot of very positive uh feedback from that and it basically was I think they're listening. I really think they're listening. So, thank you. Thank all of you who who who contributed to that on an ongoing basis and uh to Miss Warziniac for her efforts as well. Uh all of that's really really good. Really it it's a it's a process and acknowledging where we have challenges. That's part of of overcoming those challenges. So again, thank you. Uh you did put we've all put in plugs. The next one is tomorrow night. Will there be culinary treats? That's an important question because those were fantastic last week as well.

104So, thank you, Mr. Stutz. Thank you. I I'll make this really short. I just wanted to thank uh Principal Keon and the entire team over at Holms Road. I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to go to their literacy night which I I had never attended before and I was surprised to see how many families, children, students were in attendance. It was a full house and um a big kudos uh to the team over at Homes Road, the community schools team. Um I even believe the a member of the public library was there as well representing. It was a huge turnout. It was such a success. It was great to see these families getting together with their students, you know, their children and whatnot, and going to these different classrooms and really unpacking um

105the magic that is within reading and writing. And I I just thought it was a great great event, a great turnout, and it really complements the work that we're doing with our core and and everything. So, um you know, go Greece, you know, and that's all I got. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Settle. Um, I'm gonna be a little repetitive on a couple things. The Her story thing, um, the event Karen Schindler put on was amazing to see how many amazing female educators we have in Greece central that do amazing things every day. That was great to see. Um, I also want to remind everybody, Super Molen hit it in his budget report. April 28th will be board candidates night. It'll be your opportunity to hear from any any people that are interested in becoming

106candidates for the board of education and what they're looking to bring to Greece central. That'll be April 28th here. I'm going to give a shout out to Mr. Alvarez. Um because of you and the work you've done this year, I've had districts from across Monroe County reach out to me about our student board member um and what you do, what you bring to the board of education. I've had districts downstate reach out to me. So, it's commendable of you and what you've done as a student board member on the board of education and I want to thank you for that because you've brought Gree Central. We were one of the first districts to have a student board member and the work you've done and the effort you've put in is noticed across the state. So,

107I just want to take a moment to thank you. Uh what else do I got? End of year for my board colleagues. Several of you have started to get invitations for events. We have the tenure, we have the retirement celebration, we have graduations. you're going to have individual events in your buildings. I encourage you all to get signed up to attend any of those events that you possibly can. They're a great way to recognize our students, our staff, um, and so many other people across Greece Central. And the last one's going to be a little bit of a personal note for me. I want to thank my Greece central family for all the people um that have sent cards from our students from um care packages to my son and his soldiers in the Middle

108East. It is greatly appreciated those guys. I mean, I don't get an opportunity to speak to him much. I think I've spoken to him on the phone twice since he's been gone, but it's much appreciated. He sent me um a letter the other day that was um very nice and appreciative of everything you guys have all done for him. The care packages soldiers love it. You know, it's um it's a challenge to be away from home and away from your families. So, they're in your, you know, when you get something in the mail, especially if you don't get much in the mail, it's nice. It brings a lot of joy to the soldiers. So, I just want to thank everybody in the Greece Central family for that. And with that, Miss Malori, you're the veteran

109board member. It's your time to shine. Okay, let me see if I can do this right. Can I have a motion to uh what? I don't know. You messed it up. You messed it up. I'm so No wonder you got lost. I know. Adjourn the meeting, please. Is there a second, Mr. Stencil? All those in favor? Thank you, everyone.