GCSD Board of Education Meeting - March 5th, 2024

001Board of Education meeting if I could have everyone rise for the Pledge of Allegiance which will be led by board member Farah and yeah we were supposed to move the flag um and in a moment of silence if we could recognize Jeremiah dobs the son of Joanna dobs she's a bus attendant who works for Greece Central her 13-year-old son passed away last week so if we could keep the do family or thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time it would be much appreciated thank you I PL plge 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 all right where's my agenda I'm having a moment M here all right can I ass

002move the agenda tail please move by vice president Laur second by Miss Flores any additions Corrections additions to the agenda seeing none all in faar of the agenda that passes 8 to zero seven oh I'm sorry oh seven to zero that's right thank you I appreciate that my fingers were messed up all right GTA comments Chris Capello welcome good evening my name is Kristen capiello and I'm a member of the GTA executive counc Council as the senior high school rep and a teacher at Odyssey Academy the GTA has been Gathering food for the Greece AC acumenical food shelf for over two decades since 2000 we've collected over 127,000 pounds of food even during the pandemic when we were unable to collect food during a time of really incredible need we were able to donate over

003$5,000 because of that success we now collect both food and monetary donations yearly and the generosity of our members along with the Greece Central School District Community uh we were able to over the past two years not only send um provide the food but we also uh gave ,000 each year for the past two years towards that as well Greece Teachers Association wants to sincerely thank everyone who helped support the food shelf and as we're moving towards Spring many exciting events are on the horizon we like uh we will be sharing GTA scholarship winners soon uh traditionally one student from each of the four high schools will receive a scholarship to be applied towards a major in education we will also announce our GTA golden apple apple winner so beond the lookout and thank you

004for your time tonight and as always thank you for your support and have a great weekend thank you CH shaa you're up welcome hello hi everyone my name is Shauna swe and I'm the director of multilingual education and I'm happy to provide some updates on behalf of gasa this evening um I'll be talking about our department initiatives especially as we collaborate with other departments and also our District's events for black history month so I'll First share some updates um from our department and I'm going to line them to the reach strategic plan um so for IGN IGN learning um our KL teachers have been hard at work discovering how to ignite learning for our L's or English language Learners with the artcore curriculum we partnered with American reading company for a full day training on

005using eara with multilingual Learners and AR core coaching tips uh as we prepare for next year we will work on aligning enl instruction with the linguistic demands for the Next Generation Ela standards and the advanced literacies which includes classroom discussion to support language and literacy development so one thing we know is that oral language or listening and speaking serves as the foundation for reading and writing so we want to make sure our multilingual Learners are talking um for our bilingual program at English Village we're working with American reading company to begin planning our instructional Frameworks for the fall and of course we can't forget our 7 through 12 teachers of Italian Spanish and ASL been participating in a lot of professional learning um and we're in the research recommendation phase to align our curriculum to

006the revised standards and we're really excited to hopefully roll out new curriculum next year um that's more relevant and engaging for our students so cultivate trust um we have been working hard on this with our multilingual parents and families um our department has grown to include by lingual parent coordinators to support families across the district in Spanish Arabic Vietnamese Russian and Ukrainian we continue to offer our enl family program where we welcome families to learn more about a variety of topics related to school in the United States such as supporting their child with literacy and academic skills connecting them to community and District resources such as English classes and public libraries our Latino family program has just kicked off where we're working with Spanish-speaking families to promote vocabulary and literacy development for parents in their

007Pres school aid children most importantly we're providing an opportunity for them to have a positive relationship with the school district and we're grateful to our community schools team and English Village administrators for their support with the program then finally we have a multi-lingual parent advisory committee that's looking towards um supporting language access across the district and we've been able to have many of our documents translated such as vaccination letters attendance letters Food Service documents and even the parent perception survey um and then for expanding opportunities we're working on this in a lot of ways uh we're proud to share that we're on track to exceed our goals for exceeding seale of biliteracy earners in the district uh we current have 550 57 applicants um so that's 10 more than our goal we're hoping to uh

008achieve that um our newcomer program at Olympia is bustling and doing a great job helping newly arrived students from all across the district adjust to school in the US so I want you to look at the photo um on the bottom right of the students looking out the window so that shows that special moment um where our newcomers are seeing snow for the very first time as an enl teacher it's an exciting Day always um our Scythe program at Athena for high school students with limited or interrupted education is thriving thanks to the dedication of the enl teachers and principal Flagler the program uses State resources is specially designed to provide foundation for academic learning math and literacy skills as measured by the eara and our youngest multilingual Learners this year we've been able to

009collaborate with Julie Parsons to provide direct support for preschool students who speak other languages at home and um working with the staff at the Early Learning Center um and then I just wanted to recognize that we're proud of our fourth grade student Gita from Buckman Heights who won a Statewide writing contest for L's that's thanks to administrators Reeves and Juliano for their very strong support of our enl program model um then just want to highlight a few ways that we celebrated um Black History Month in our schools um so one point of Pride was the celebrations for our 135 early recognition black scholars in our high schools um each campus organized a school event um for this achievement with students and their families um also Long Ridge and Olympia host Ed a combined Black History

010Month celebration with sanova African dance and our little ones at the Early Learning Center had a lively drumming assembly with mayuka from building Families First this part gets really exciting uh we're excited to Welcome adasa to the Greece Central School District um adasa is a bilingual afro Latino actress and singer who plays Dolores in Disney's hit movie Encanto she started her day at Arcadia High High School speaking to theater students from the award-winning musical The Adams Family after that adasa visited visited English village where she answered questions from the students and entertained them by singing we don't talk about Bruno um here she is in a picture with the famous bilingual book vending machine um and she ended with a visit to Patty Hill to learn more about their students leadership habits in recognition of

011the school's Leader in Me lighthous status um so that evening um the district uh was thrilled to have adasa as our keynote speaker at the celebration of black Excellence where she shared personal stories of persevering through challenges and saying waiting on a miracle from Encanto um this event was hosted by principal Jones and Dr Simmons and it showcased a variety of talent from across the district including Athena High School ASL students performing Lift Every Voice which was sung by o Odyssey scholar Silas Alvarez um The Long Ridge kidscare dance team the Arcadia High School band and um director of Arts Mario B cafini put together an amazing display of Visual Arts from our students of all ages um this event was really a source of Pride and we love to see our students shine and

012in the end I just wanted to share some words um from P principal Mike Ferris um reflecting on this week this month of activities um he said that we believe diversity brings us strength during Black History Month we shine the light on how wonderfully diverse this community is in doing so our children and families feel pride and a sense of belonging which is the ultimate goal so with that on behalf of gasa thank you for your time and it was a pleasure to share thank you all right I don't believe I have anybody here from Gus acept or Teamsters all right moving into residence Forum Mrs Ley welcome this evening part four of four parts the final example of standards and assessments I will cite comes from a Greece High School teacher with over 25

013years of experience I was incredulous to learn that students could not be given a grade under 55% for the first two marking periods regardless of their attendance or quality of work these are high school students who should understand the consequences of their actions and choices what message are we sending why are assessments important they measure what students should know and be able to do good assessments are critical and every bit as important as curriculum content they provide accountability for each person involved from the student and parent to the teacher and superintendent there should be an independent Department answerable only to the school board tasked with evaluating assessments and determining how well they measure student achievement and predict success beyond graduation even if the State education department decides to eliminate or make regent exams optional District

014should develop their own rigorous assessments expectations for academic success and acceptable behavior should be crystal clear to all parties and consistent and fair consequences for infractions applied to everyone learning cannot take place without a safe orderly environment the best we can provide students is the wisdom of the ages at least a basic understanding of all disciplines and the real history of our country and Constitution required behaviors must command respect for all and civil discourse at all times on buses as well as in school in Halls and bathrooms as well as in classrooms and cafeteria we must allow all students to compete for the best our country has to offer thank you thank you Mrs Ley Mrs Kelly lesle Kelly good evening welcome okay I wish I could say it's a pleasure to speak with you

015this evening but I find no pleasure in what I felt led to say it saddens me and disheartens me and it breaks my heart for our children and the confidence I once had in the district it has come to my attention students engagement surveys for first grade Traders are being asked if they are a boy a girl or they don't know children as young as six are being indoctrinated with confusion as a start this is not okay it's not okay with me it's not okay with a lot of us Dei no longer stands for diversity Equity inclusion in my mind stands for divide everyone involved surveys I um these surveys I have come to understand are given during ESL and only able to be taken during this time what's being hidden from the parents that

016they can't take these home for the kids to be able or the parents to be able to see 2 Thessalonians 211 tells us and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions and they should that they should not believe so what I think is happening here let me paraphrase Canadian resident Liv galin metaanalysis release f findings that Professor David hasell has been able to cite numerous studies concluding that Dei instruction leads to Greater Prejudice and harm specifically programs based in identity Le CRT queer Theory and critical postcolonial theory this neo-marxist oppressor worldview is not supported by empirical evidence and the flags told you I talk about this last time they surrounding Olympia um of all the countries in the world that includes But it includes a transgender flag there was is there a new

017country that I'm not aware of black lives matter Pride flags and blue VI matter shouldn't be at all wrap up thank you m BS you're up welcome back try to talk fast I know we only have two minutes now okay some of you already know but I pulled both of my kids from school in January and it wasn't because I had the Urgent urge to homeschool two teenagers while working two jobs it was because I didn't have a choice you can no longer keep my kids safe physically or mentally you have prioritized feelings over learning daily seal lessons and restorative C circles which arguably I know made everything worse the fighting issue was no ISS is no surprise and there's fights daily which led to hold in places I had my daughter keep track and

018on average you're losing about two hours of precious learning instruction every week due to these holds in places the second B biggest issue is the vaping and drug use and let's be clear C these kids run the Schools Administration has no control whatsoever everyone is either vaping or has their weed pens there's some students with their own Instagram pages that sell that that tell you what they sell at school I've seen them uh pregnancy test and plan B's are the normal find in the girls garbages um it's disgusting but that's what both my kids think is normal that's not normal when I used to pick my kids up after schol scho as soon as I stepped on premise I would think I just arrived on set to a kitty porn with sixth and seventh graders

019wearing croptops and half shirts and or nothing but a br to school but yet again my totters think that that's normal when I question the quote of conduct I was told you're trying to be Equitable for all love that word I promise you half shirts and full shorts and full shirts they cost the same there's no difference and I would have hoped we as adults would have won want to make our children stride for more than looking to be in the next cardi B music video changing directions my 10th grade daughter who was an AP English has no idea how to write an essay what your time is up my 10th grader has no idea how to write an essay and that's absolutely terrifying to me because all of these kids are going to graduate

020with an eighth grade education thank you Mr no so the fact that she doesn't know how to write an essay in a sophomore she I had a teacher with a noun verb and I'm gonna ask you to stops all right I'm trying to be nice I'm trying to learn from my experiences thank you you you're welcome to come back any other time Andes that's not thank you Mr lockart welcome cin how are you I'm a gree Athena 2010 alumni this the school I'll start your clock over Mr lockart I apologize no we're not worries we're good I'm sorry I'm sorry no worries we're good I thought it was a great speech all right I'm AA alumni from 2010 and the school obviously seems to think that the money is the solution to everything here we

021heard tonight about the divisiveness of Dei programs the need for an office of public Integrity possibly and we heard about what the Teachers Association needs and is doing um but what the topic that I'm addressing tonight is the topic of overspending and it occurred to me that this District may be overspending uh when the Evolve contract was hly pushed through I talked to evolve I talked to the regional supervisor for evolve and got a better sense of how much the program costs for a single Lane system it's around like 22,000 and then it's built out annually over foure licensing contract so it's turns into what is potentially a million doll contract and so I just wanted to challenge the process a little bit of how this uh this sort of contract is being approved because

022it's not clear to me whether it's involved in the annual budget or not that the residents voted on um and uh you know already many districts are phasing out the use of the Evolve program because it's not particularly effective and this is something that they share when you call them and I encourage you all to call um I don't want to guess his name and fumble it right now but you can call and they'll tell you all about it it's very expensive um it sounds good though to I mean potentially it's may be a good idea but um it seems like maybe sorry one second I'm really I'm uh not granted these speeches and evolve is also involved in lawsuits they also cannot recognize knives so um some people think that maybe it might be

023better to invest instead of in the costly surveillance programs to invest in some type of program that might address the root cause of the divisiveness or um just more residency people more feedback I think it's sad it's unfortunate that more people don't come to these meetings more residents don't come to the meetings I enjoy all the speeches very much I have a great time up thank you all right moving on item 2.01 Staffing can I saw you move the Staffing to the table please move by Miss Flores seconded by Mr Butler any comments questions or concerns on Staffing seeing none all in favor that passes 7 to Z Item 2.01 GTA moa's additional FTE can I have Sony move that to the table please move by vice president M second by Dr trewick any comments

024questions concerns on those sing and all in favor that passes 7 to Z moving on on 4.01 recruitment hiring and retention presentation superintendent grman yes um I will begin just by referencing the fact I got back from Albany today after being there for um our state conference with superintendent from around New York um and this is a a really significant topic on the minds across the state um and really Across the Nation in terms of all Educators um the point I want to make in terms of starting this presentation and introducing um Gina and Jen to come on up is that I sat through a presentation um particularly around this topic because obviously the state is really working on this they're trying to V Pres presentations and strategies to make sure that we're sharing and

025helping others do better um I will say the work that you have done in this department both of you surpasses everything that I saw in the presentation that I experienced yesterday um and I'm really really proud of the really significant work that you all have been doing um and I know that it is um as difficult as everything is we are making great progress so thanks for your work and um we'll have Mrs Hendrickson and Mrs Larson start the presentation thank you no pressure I like that I like that well good evening everybody thank you for having us back um I'm Gina Larsson and this is Jennifer Hendrickson our executive director of uh Human Resources so we are back to present tonight on recruit recruitment hiring and retention um so as you know um this

026is one of our strategic Plan Focus key areas this year um and it's going to remain um the focus of the Department of Human res resources so our Focus area states that we will attract develop and retain a highly qualified culturally culturally responsive Workforce that reflects and appreciates the diversity of our community so tonight I wanted to share some of the progress that we've made since the presentation in October um in the areas of recruitment hiring and retention so um in October um I shared a little bit of Doom and Gloom um some pretty daunting data from across the state regarding current teacher shortage and the pending hiring crisis that is coming over the next 10 years um Human Resources is really focused daily on these issues and looking at multiple Solutions uh to address

027our struggles in Rec recruitment hiring and retention um so as a reminder these are some of our key Focus areas um for each of the areas so we're going to provide some examples in um uh in the next few slides as updates for each of these areas so we've got recruitment um we're working really hard on being creative and timely um in hiring working on efficiencies and working on uh being as welcoming as we possibly can and in retention um providing Choice voice and growth to our employees so early intervention recruitment so early intervention recruitment is a term that we coined meaning that we're going to find creative ways to engage potential employees as early as possible um including uh High School age students and whenever possible even all the way back to middle school

028so Jen Hendrickson is going to share some updates in the areas that you see listed here these four bullet points um regarding our student teachers and interns our teacher Cadets our high school students and our local College Partnerships perfect so student teachers and interns are the future of our profession and when we get them into our school buildings we don't ever want to see them leave so this fall we began hosting a welcome reception we wanted them to know from the onset of their time in Greece that they were valued and when when you see the superintendent and members of her cabinet coming to an event for people that aren't even yet employees and putting that time and investment in it shows the value that we have for them within our system it also was

029an opportunity for them to learn a little bit about gree Central and to hopefully fall in love with Greece and never want to leave before the student teachers and interns finish their experience with us we are also inviting them to events where we reconnect with them listen to feed back about their time that they spent in Greece Provide support as they're preparing to enter the workforce and it's an opportunity for us to conduct screening interviews in hopes of building a candidate pool for us when we're doing our hiring while we invest in the student teachers and interns that are nearly ready to be hired we also invest in our high school students that are interested in pursuing the education field after they graduate we had the privilege of speaking at Mrs rela's teacher Cadet students

030with with them last month we covered many topics with the students including interview tips to help prepare them for the workforce in the future the students asked amazing questions they were so inquisitive and it was wonderful to be able to be there to help ignite their excitement for joining the field of Education we told them and we mean it we can't wait to hire them back someday while we've started to track these students we are now going to work on reaching out to them throughout their college experience to maintain that connection as they're going through we're trying to work with getting them to come back and do their field experience and observation hours and ultimately student teaching here within Greece so that eventually as soon as they're ready we're ready to give them a job

031we jump at any opportunity we get to promote our school district and we are fortunate to have so many stakeholders throughout our organization attending Career Fairs and engaging and spreading the word throughout our community in a variety of ways about working in Greece the image on this slide is from a flyer that was intended to highlight that there are so many entry points to working in Greece most of the time people think school district and teacher and it is so much more than that we would be lost without all of the other positions this flyer was used a lot it was posted in our buildings it was posted in businesses around the the community it was posted on social media in the Chamber of Commerce newsletter we understand that we are competing for hiring people

032there's lots of jobs available um and not a lot of humans and so we're trying to do everything we can to make it easy for people to get direct access right to our website um so that they hopefully apply and end up working in Greece in the fall Gina she already alluded to sharing the gloomy statistics about the teacher declining enrollment in teacher prep programs um and while there's a smaller number of students coming out of those teacher prep programs that makes us realize that we we have a we need a to do a lot to give back to our profession so we have worked with over 18 colleges in mostly in local and Western New York area and have also partnered with GTA to revamp our student teacher placement process and offer an incentive

033for GTA members to do there's it's a lot of extra work to host a student teacher and an intern um and so offering them an incentive to be able to take one of those stud teachers are interns on and I'm excited to say that we have 52 people which is awesome hosting this spring um but we've gone from 52 people hosting to almost 230 GTA members that are willing to host this fall um so the colleges are incredibly excited it's kind of reignited our part our partnership with them and as I said those are our future employees so we want them to come here first and fall in love with Greece instead of ending up in another school district you um in the area of screening and hiring we're continuing to work on our efficient

034and welcoming practices uh specifically we've created several screening tools for our hiring events um they're all aligned with our strategic framework and the positions that we're interviewing for um since the last presentation we've held a recruitment and hiring event in January and we have two other others planned for April that I will share a little bit more about in the next few slides um additionally we have several administrators outside of human resources that are going to be attending events this spring at Roberts Nazareth Brockport and the Syracuse area for recruitment um as we've shared before um to have a chance to be truly effective in hiring especially during this this um crisis that we're in and for a district our size this needs to be more than just human resources we really need to partner

035with our entire um field of Administrators and we're really very very fortunate to have a great administrative team to share share the load of work with so um in January we held the student Support Services recruitment event it was right here in this room and we looked to hire onetoone AIDS teaching assistants and other building based student support positions um at the event we had the support of district and building administrators parents and Human Resources um this is a flyer that we shared at the event to highlight the opportunities for growth that exist within Greece and our Rich contracts um especially uh with the use of tuition reimbursement like Jen said before we always like to highlight that there are many different entry points now only into Greece but then once you're here there's lots

036of opportunities to grow within um and once you're in a position those opportunities to grow um don't necessarily have to come at a huge cost to you while you're working um there are lots of benefits under the contracts that we have negotiated for you so um lots of great opportunities here um one other thing that we like to do at all of our hiring events um is we like to have additional flyers on hand um no matter what we do do we always have people show up to events that are there and they come and they say yep I am here for a food service job and we say well that's great we are hiring teaching assistants today but we like to have flyers on hand because we still want to hire them and we

037always have positions available so um we like to have multiple opportunities so that anybody that walks through the door has an opportunity to get a job right so um we always have lots of stuff on hand so that there is a fit for everyone so this is just an example of one of the things that we had on hand for our student Support Services recruitment event even though this is not student Support Services right so um that's one example and then this was another example um of something that we had on hand again showing the multiple opportunities within facilities and operations within the district and you can see there's you know like 25 different opportunities there again multiple entry points into um the district depending on what your background is um and I just want

038to point out we have shown several different Flyers tonight um I did not create any of them every single one of those has been created either by Jen or by Julie Riley um our assistant director in Human Resources so two very talented individuals who have really helped um just Propel us forward um in the area of promoting the department so I I give them a ton of credit for um a lot of the work that has occurred this year um and another event that is coming up in April that we are super excited about is our GTA hiring event so this uh flyer is from last year um we have a new one coming up very soon so our event this year is uh Thursday April 18th it will occur right here in this room

039and again we will um have parents on hand we'll have District administrators building administrators um and as many hands on deck as we possibly can because we hope to fill the room with prospective employees last year um we are fortunate enough to have 88 certified and 24 uncertified or almost certified folks join us for that event it was the most humans that we had seen the entire year and it really set us up um to be prepared for hiring season and um to really hire for this year so it was a very successful event we hope to um have that happen again this year um we'll also be attending the Western New York recruitment fair in nager Falls this April this is the first time since covid that it's in person which is amazing so

040um Jen and I will be attending that and we're very excited to hopefully recruit some people that are willing to relocate to the area um Rochester has not quite caught up they're taking this year off um but hopefully next year um we'll have one here that's in person as well sorry um and in the area of Staff retention um I noted this last time as well um this um top portion comes right from LinkedIn so research shows that employees who are good culture fit have greater job satisfaction Superior job performance and are more likely to stay with the company so this is something that we really try to work really hard on um we want to make sure that we are keeping the good employees that we have we want to make sure that we

041are listening to them we are giving them Choice um and that we show growth opportunities for them within our system so that they want to stick around they want to stay with us so um we um the work of reviewing and assessing our hiring practices and support structures will always be a focus area of ours um the first impression that we have for prospective employees so we want to make sure we do that we use the voice of our current employees to help us with those practices um the stay interview process is growing and we're actually looking now to expand it to the non-instructional side so that we're including the leaders um that aren't necessarily that didn't grow up with us through the leadership process um to make sure that we're expanding it to all

042of our employees um and then we've also added the house assistant principles as a new step on the um career ladder and an an opportunity for some internal candidates to grow within our system and as uh you folks all know we've already had three that were promoted within this year so it's been successful so far um and we as you know we offer mentoring opportunities and career L opportunities to our employees who are interested in growing um within the district so this is an area that is really important to us near and dear to me especially um in making sure that we again hold on to those really important folks within our system um and this is a slide that I wanted to include as well I know that we did our midyear strategic Plan

043update last week um I was absent from it because all of my data is at the end of the year this is something that we will update at the end of the year um as well this is the end of the year data from last year but as you can see um we have excellent retention we're this is something that we're really really proud of um you know in almost every single area our retention has gone up this is something we hope to hold on to um and something that we work really hard towards that is it for us can go ahead I just want to add something before we take questions um a lot of the Flyers and and promotional documents that you shared I will also just say um are really helpful for

044our events here but also very easy for me when I'm traveling to Albany um I was able to take not only many of the individual ones with me but they also have been synth ized into a QR code into a card um so at two um sort of mixer networking events that I was able to attend I was able to hand that QR code out to people and hopefully funnel them um to some of the great things and offerings that we have available so thank you for that work makes it very easy vice president La um thank you for your presentation I do want to say I absolutely do love the graphics of the hiring they're fabulous and I now know from Todd that people can track me ret tweet or retweeting or something like

045that it's always me that's wonderful we appreciate it thank you thank you Dr shck thank you I I too um enjoyed the the presentation and the hard work that you guys are putting into this um hiring is hard everywhere uh so all the efforts um I'm glad that they're paying off I did want to say one thing about about the QR code I actually stole stole this idea from you when I first saw it for my day job and we are now using that for the various positions but I also wanted to share with you I was traveling and I saw a QR code on a T-shirt and there was a guy he was doing some grounds work and it said on the back um do you like my would you like my job and

046it had a QR code so just just throwing that out there you can have that I still you can I give you a little something back um so something to think about but I did have a a real question and that is um so I love the idea of growing our own and I see that there are Pathways to many of the openings but I didn't see anything regarding um the ones where there's you know quote unquote no education required so like you know because we know some of our students aren't ready to go to college but maybe they do want to stay in the education field or around the school so like the custodial work or Food Service are there Pathways currently that if a student you know wants to go into those things

047they can Shadow while they're in school or you know do something so that they stay connected and maybe get hired when they graduate so one of the things that is still a goal of ours that we haven't quite put together yet is to work with the Career Centers at the high schools to put together a job and career fair for the second semester at the schools to have students visit who are looking for summer jobs and or future careers and that would fit right into that category so give it a try over the summer come and work grounds come and work so some of the truly entry level or even substitute type roles where you can get in and kind of get your feet wet where you have no experience and no education and whatever

048that role is just to give it a try so that's something that we're looking to um kind of partner with our facilities and transportation and Food Service Groups to do um but high schools are are tight with their schedules and so it's just a matter of putting that together but that is one of our goals Mr bar thank you I'll agree the the graphics are great great job Jennifer I especially like this one this is that one there those are really good numbers they're great numbers and it's been a really tough environment for teachers for the administrators for everyone so congratulations um and especially gosh teachers hanging in there through a lot of challenging times uh I do have a question um i' I've heard of situations where we've had a really tough time keeping

049uh classes staffed with full-time teachers I've I heard of an in where we've got I I forget what which class it is but that we haven't had a full-time teacher assigned for over a year I don't know if that's accurate but it's seems that there's a lot of it's just challenging to to do that so we're competing with other districts locally and Beyond what if we can't do that what if we aren't able to to staff adequately what then do we do to make sure that we're still providing high quality instruction to our students so I think one of the things that we're really fortunate in is that our teaching staff is huge right so we have 1150 GTA members we have had so many GTA members step up and into those roles so while

050we do have situations where we have a GTA member who might be on an Extended Medical Leave right and maybe because of one reason or another we haven't been able to fill that position with a um permanent person we have had other GTA members who are qualified teachers step into that role on a temporary basis so they're people who know the content know the students know the grade level have you know have the ability to stop in and take that role we've had a lot of teachers do that um and it's because we have so many teachers right now we're still um from week to week running at about 3% of our classroom rooms being um on paper unstaffed but not empty so from a staffing perspective that's the percentage of classrooms that don't have

051a teacher assigned however they do have a GTA member in there so and again I will give credit to our GTA members who are stepping up and doing that extra work and being in the classrooms to be there for our students to make sure that they have a highly qualified teacher in there now it it does make us concerned for the extra hour hours and extra work that they're putting in which is why we're doing all these extra events and making sure that we're working extra hard to get you know to get people in more permanently but um we are fortunate that we have such a huge staff that we can call on for that support so those stories do exist there are places where we have gaps but our teachers have stepped up and

052made sure that those those gaps don't exist for more than a day or so thank you you're welcome m thank you Gina this is kind of a follow-up to Mark I mean could we could we get to the point I know we we kind of hit on this could we get to the point where our teachers are looking more like instructors in a room with these students versus teaching their core subjects I mean I know that we're trying to use these teachers in other classes and you kind of hit on this um I just don't want to see us and I don't know I mean I know we're working on it but I would hate to see that you know a lot we've seen a lot of resignations we've seen a lot of retirements um

053I just don't want to see us get into the fact that that the Prof profession was to teach teach your kids it's it's an art form this is some of these teachers when they teach I mean I can recall a teacher he dressed up as a carrot we're looking all learning all about horiculture I don't want to lose the teaching aspect so I just want to make that as a comment versus going into instruct instructors um and I can see that that's kind of where we're headed and I I just don't know if that's going to be working well for for that so I just want to leave that there but thank you for this superintendent grman I do want to point out so I appreciate the the your answer and the point around the

054size of our staff um I I want to point out that there are really significant concerns in my mind around future because at some point when we look at the way we've been able to do this with people stepping up and teaching an additional section of science for example that's very helpful um my concerns there are still around burnout um because it's an additional class that a teacher is now having to teach um and then I at some point that well will dry up um and when you look at that combined with the research and the data coming out of the local universities in terms of who's graduating with what certifications and then our New York States um very sort of arrogant um stance around teacher certification and reciprocity um there are some significant issues

055that require and will require advocacy and not necessarily lowering the bar in terms of who can be a teacher but looking at some ways of getting highly qualified people um and I would encourage our board and I would encourage our community to really start to understand that because this is a long-term issue um that is very concerning Dr freck just one other question uh so we're talking a lot about um you know the incoming growing from within and you know student teachers and you know making them um reinforcing our Workforce that way but have we done anything around and I don't even know if that's what the logistics would be around retired teachers you know I'm just thinking like my mother-in-law worked for the city school district for over 40 years and there was a

056time where and she took a buyout um but there was a time where they brought her back you know and she taught a few classes I don't know what you know how that worked with you know but I was just wondering have we had we thought about that you know if it gets to that point you know like to Kathy's point you know the future right how do we sh that up and um also the second thought which is way out there but you know AI what does that look like for us you know as we rise to some of these challenges so just asking I think in regards to our our retirees you know of course we would love to have them back you know um I think that there is the there there's

057one there's there's one piece that is is a little bit of a struggle and that's the you know that's the cap which we never know from year to year if it's going to be extended if it's not going to be extended so we're always in this kind of holding period um but that is certainly something that we have considered as an opportunity and something that we that we will look into with with the teachers union so um that that is certainly a consideration as far as AI goes I know that Tom Mariano and his team that's something that they are looking into every single day and and what we can possibly do with that looking forward in the future um and I just want to comment to Cathy's point I think that um you know

058in in preparing for my presentation in October I think I shared when I was looking at my data that I was really disappointed in where New York's stats fell as as compared to the other states and as New York has rolled out all of these residency programs which sounded great on paper to begin with I I truly believe that they have fallen short so in terms of advocacy from from this board and from boards across the state um I think you're going to hear districts begging for more advocacy because to say that theyve fallen short is is is an extreme understatement um we need help we need help when we need if there are people who want to become teachers um as a first career or second career career and they want to find a

059creative way to do it we need to be able to partner with the state to to get that done and what they have come out with is just not going to do it um so we we need their help so Mr uh well I think your point about advocacy is made stronger with a presentation like you just gave here I mean no one can say that you were not doing everything you can to to plug every hole in the funnel uh of of people from whether it's students that have expressed some interest or and keeping in touch with them over the uh over their college careers I mean those are really impressive things that we're able to find the resource to do and so to hear that we're doing all that and it's still not

060enough gives Credence to the idea that that there's some structural change that's needed so we appreciate that yeah Mr B I just want to make a comment regarding um AI as as a possible solution there may be instances where it can be used effectively but teachers Inspire teachers care and teachers are heroes so a machine is never going to do that certainly certainly AI would never replace the human but but I do believe that there are efficiencies and I think even teachers who have um chosen to utilize even bits and pieces they would say the same thing um but there's there's responsibility with it there there's so so much it's it's such a large world that most people including myself haven't even dipped a toe in yet um but but I agree they're they're never

061going to replace the the wonderful people we have in our classrooms and nor should they I just to have two quick things um regarding Dr traywick's comment on the cap isn't as part of the governor's budget to extend it again one year like in this year's budget correct if I'm yeah I think maybe it's going to be in the legislative budget that I saw it that it's coming all right yeah that's one of the things great thank you and then just in the retention rate slide does this include like retirements or do you retirements don't count for or against they're they're taken out cuz I was going to say that could re retirements promotions and um that was my followup thank you very much thank you all right moving on to the Athletics update superintendent

062grman yes so I'm gonna have Mr istus and Mr leani come on up um and give us an update we've had just ending a pretty successful winter season um but I would also just say so we look forward to those updates um but I guess I would also just um provide that larger frame around the work that we're doing around engagement um creating welcoming environment trying to get kids connected into school and how much we know Athletics really helps with that so we appreciate the work that you've been doing and again um when we look at this presentation there's some really great news in terms of um engagement that we can celebrate so thanks for being here well thank you it's always an honor and pleasure nice to see everybody and uh this is my

063colleague Ray istus I'm Anthony leani and uh we're going to go through a few slides give you an update on Athletics today so we're really excited because uh we we've received a tremendous amount of support in Greece Ray and I walked in the door together three years ago and uh we've just had so many I would say initiatives and opportunities to expand our programming starting from our new fitness centers at all three schools to the 14 teams that we've added between the three schools in the course of three years and the the primary uh reason for the addition of those teams is the feedback that we receiv received from the student bodies basically saying to us these are the things that we'd like to do and it it is a lot of work to add

064teams there's a lot of resources to add teams but Ry and I are extremely proud of where we started and where we are currently and the direction we're headed in addition to that one of the keys to the success is the modified program and the majority of those teams have been added at that level which is really good for future years because we want participation we want students engaged in opportunities in grades seven eight and nine as quickly as possible and once we get the students hooked on an extracurricular activity whether it's the Arts music Athletics we have an opportunity to really do some outstanding work with the students and it's you know we've all been there as student athletes ourselves or whatever passion you have in education whatever it is you have those moments

065in your career where you you really enjoy being around a certain coach or you enjoy being around a certain teacher in the music department or you enjoy being around uh a certain teacher in the art department and you know that's our job that's our duty as Educators so we're really proud of the opportunities we provided our students over the past three years um a couple of of interesting uh challenges that we've experienced this year one in particular that I know caught the board's attention on a random Thursday night when we had sectionals uh but ticket prices in section five have uh increased and there are reasons for that specifically the overhead uh that that is goes along with running sectional events um we we really did a nice job advocating for our community and because

066of our advocacy and this was I would say immediately after the fall because of gree's advocacy and some other school district districts around the county uh section five is taking a really hard look at potentially providing an alternative opportunity for families to afford sectional events and come up with some sort of uh price reduction we don't know what that would be yet um I will say that we just competed in um I'm looking at my notes Here we just competed in four different sectional um events we hosted three of those and we did a nice job of communicating to our public our coaches did and we didn't run into any issues with the $730 that we asked people to pay when they came in the door um but we didn't feel good about it so

067um that that's one of the challenges that we've navigated through uh this year and looking ahead uh Ray and I are going to continue to listen not only to our students but our our teachers our Educators members of the community um and and once we feel that an activity an opportunity in the in Scholastic world is starting to grab some traction we we listen we see if it's feasible we do our homework and we're going to continue to try to add because the more kids that are doing things the more kids that are doing things and that's better for their academic performance and that's better for their overall welfare so as Tony mentioned we're we're responding to a lot of student interests and we're we're listening we're learning um and we're constantly evaluating what makes

068the most sense as we move forward um this year we're very proud at Olympian Odyssey to be adding a new varsity girls flag football team very exciting um we modeled what we saw at Athena Arcadia last year with their varsity teams was very successful we evaluated this year and we saw a lot of kids knocking on our door for that same opportunity which is fantastic um arcade and the are both starting modified teams for girls flag football as well seventh grade through nth grade um great opportunity um within our youth organizations um our girls basketball program is really kicking off we had a lot a couple of merged teams with Athena and odyssey and Arcadia and Olympia uh two years ago and it's slowly evolved into GB um which is Greece youth basketball started by

069Curtis Birthright and Kendra Damon this year they started a brand new third through sixth grade league in addition to the clinics that they were running on a weekly basis um out of Brookside which is fantastic um we've started new fishing clubs uh thanks to Tony lani's expertise in the fishing World um Lakes Shore Buckman Heights Arcadia High School in Athena High School is in progress as well um very big success um Tony's got a lot of great videos and goes over and he helps uh with the youth at each at each school and it's fantastic Rowing Club um is also recently started as well and uh we're like I mentioned we're constantly evaluate evaluating future potential clubs listening to the school Community boys volleyball potentially is on the horiz and a lot of interest with

070that and girls golf is also uh piqued some interest as well so before before we go into hiring coaches I will say um Greece arcade Amy Zona is the fishing club adviser she's a science teacher at grece Arcadia and she currently has with the support of Christina thank you so much uh we have students competing in a April 1st uh trout tournament which is awesome uh personally inviting the Board of Education to join us and we're also have uh five different field trips planned to take the students's fishing uh the last time we did it we got kicked off of somebody's property we were inadvertently on it trying to work this Mo that over with the neighbors but we're in a good spot there um so hiring coaches this is probably this is probably the

071most important work that we do and um humbling work when I say humbling work um we have very very strong leadership in in the GTA world and um our teachers you know with our new contract that that negotiated several years ago one of the things that Ry and I noticed when we came in many of our coaches were actually coaching in other districts because the Greece coaching contract you know wasn't keeping up with inflation and where Society was going with just how how much money you make um you know the hard work that we did uh I would say you know Jeremy was a part of that Gina our whole team was a part of that here the hard work that we did just give you an example uh We've most recently we had nine

072applicants for one position um so we're really really um in a really good position to have our current individuals that are walking through our hallways working with our kids on a daily basis leading our students out on the athletic fields and it's no secret you know there are coaches who who are Educators and there are coaches who all coaches are Educators but there are coaches who teach and there are coaches who don't teach um if we have an opportunity to hire a GTA member who is an expert in leading kids and communicating and managing students and thinking quickly on their feet and all that goes into being a coach in the year 2024 um that's a really good position to be in so we're fortunate currently um that we're we're able to to really get

073some competitive people for the positions that we have the one other piece I'd like to share about that as athletic directors we strive and we work really hard uh to create continuity and sustainability in our coaching staffs one of the worst things that can happen is to have turnover on a continual basis um this this particular plan that we have in place and what we're doing we're doing a better job of retaining in our teachers and it's you know some sports lend themselves to turn over often um however some sports do not and the more we can have consistency and success and kids can feel warmed and welcome and welcoming firing environment the better off we're going to be when we compete um we're always working on sportsmanship we're always working on character we have

074a long way to go with that we've come a long way but we have a long way to go and that's something that our coaches take seriously we send students students to multiple sportsmanship opportunities that the county or the section offers throughout uh each year and you know one of the things that we're really working with our students and our students are really embracing this in in certain areas having some of our student athletes work with our youth organizations whether it be volunteering in a booster club evening or going to a youth uh basketball practice or a youth football practice to help out and assist many of our varsity coaches do that and it's really helps in building that overall community so one of the things that was adopted this year as a pilot uh

075within the mundro county league is the new modified Athletics format um this only applies to uh soccer volleyball in basketball but it was a new model that we tried as a league that was very successful instead of being the traditional modb program which is seventh and eighth grade and and having a separate mod a program which is 7eventh through 9th grade they tried just modified Athletics which is 7 through n across the board but allows schools to be able to choose what division that they wanted to be at division one division two or division three based on the skill level and experience of the student athletes um this was very successful from from our standpoint which allowed us to kind of pick and choose where we belong um as I mentioned there was only a

076few sports soccer volleyball and basketball in the spring they're not piloting this just yet the league wants to gather some data see if it works see how well it works for different sports uh before they offer potentially to Spring Sports in the future I'm just gonna I'm going to go back to that one slide for a second the really the really cool part about this for the kids is we've essentially almost completely of eliminated Cuts so what I mean by that is of the 14 teams that we added the majority of them were at the modified level and those are students who may may have never picked up up a basketball before or may have never you know kicked a soccer ball before or whatever sport it is um so we're really trying hard not

077to put kids in that position and you know there's a philosophical difference with that I'm sure that's out there but at the same time when when your number one goal is to increase participation numbers your number one goal is to increase participation numbers and we feel like we've accomplished that we both both my colleague Ray and I really advocated for this around the Monro County League last year um it really worked out well for like our basketball programming and our soccer programming for our students so I just want to give a little more context on that in terms of uh sectional ticket prices I talked a little bit about that the overhead you know obviously comes from the software programming and the $7 of 30 costly for our families it is being addressed by section

078five and when I say that um section five has an executive Council and that executive Council has representation throughout the entire section on it so School super superintendant from around section five who feel the same way or the communities feel the same way our community feels is they are also advocating um for those lower ticket prices so looking ahead um hard to believe but spring sports for JV Varsity start on Monday so it's less than a week away modified Sports start on the 25th right before spring break fall St fall Sports have a little bit of a later start this year they start on August 26th as approved by New York State um we're going to continue to offer free camps this summer which is a fantastic opportunity for our kindergarteners all the way up

079through our juniors in high school to really participate try something new um come out work with our coaches and work with our community to really help build that participation and we're really excited about that we're contining to partner with youth groups um and develop different youth groups as I mentioned gyb earlier with girls basketball that's just a microcosm there's so many different things happening in our community right now um and we're really happy about Signing Day uh ceremonies coming up on June 6th in uh in the gpac which um basically is all of our student athletes who are competing at the Collegiate level um from uh junior college all the way up through division one they'll have an opportunity to sign a national letter of intent and have a nice picture and a nice ceremony

080and our athlete of the Year ceremony um and Greece uh Odyssey Hall of Fame is on June 12th at Odyssey this year so a lot of great exciting things on the near Horizon question Mr Butler um I really appreciate uh the presentation thank you very much to both of you and um I uh remember when I was in high school uh went to school with Mr leani there and I played I joined the football team my senior year and what that did for I didn't see very much playing time but being included gave me a new group of people that I had a connection to and felt a sense of belonging with which I think so my question um Beyond bragging about my High School athletic performance which was not much to brag about um

081is what would it take at the modified level to you said we're nearly we've nearly eliminated cuts and I think about how awkward it can be to be a middle schooler but to be able to try something out that you haven't tried before and to be part of a group it could be such a transformative experience in the life of a young person what would it take for us to actually eliminate cuts at the modified level so so we're first of all first of all you an outstanding player you don't have to lie to him he's a wide receiver so um we're essentially there um you know part of it is teaching our coaches who've been doing things a certain way for a very long time you know you referenced 1988 so in 1988 you

082know many of us experienced this if you were getting cut from a team there was a list put there was a list on the wall and you had to go you had to be that person like oh no you know and you know that that was the 80s right so now we we make sure that our coaches are making a phone call and pulling students in quietly um if if we have to go there so I'll give you a perfect example so this modified football situation we're really we approved everybody approved one team for for the schools like that which is which is phenomenal if 65 kids come to the door okay I got a reputation of knocking on Janine's um but but if 65 kids come to the because only seven kids play m

083flag football at a time it's not 11 V 11 it's seven versus seven we we might be doing that we might so anytime we and we try to get ahead of the numbers Todd as as you know as much as we can but the X Factor is we don't know how many kids are going to come out we're trying to assess and we'll do our very best to add a team before we have to go down the road of of making a cut thank you vice president La um I'm not talking about flag football but thank you um I also was bothered by the section five costs and um I also want to share with you that it took my daughter and I over an hour and a half on Saturday through Ticket Master where

084we both had accounts to get tickets to go to the basketball game so then I thought about the fact that what about families that don't have an account or can't get to it and I'm laughing as I'm thinking here because one of the things I did was call the Blue Cross Arena to find out if you could buy tickets there and they still haven't called me back so I take it that's a no I'm guessing but anyway I'm glad you're addressing that because I was bothered by the cost and the process thank you Mr Farah thank you guys for doing this so I just wanted to put a little plug out there I happen to read my board packets out loud when I'm at home and my son overheard this where it said they were

085doing a new girls youth basketball for third to sixth grade so I just want to put a little plug in there I can actually field half a team on my own so boys basketball it is yeah M fls so for the modified I have a question and I apologize if I just don't know this answer but what about the sixth graders why are the sixth graders not able to participate within the modified teams yeah it's a great question we ask that all the time and I think the biggest opportunity is with our sixth graders to be honest and that's why we've tried to do a lot of clubs in camps to incorporate sixth grade um the New York State Public High School Athletic Association is only 7th through 12th grade um we did hear word

086last year maybe it was two years ago now that potentially in the future they might be looking to expand to sixth graders um and it would be probably about a fiveyear process before that actually happened Insurance there's a lot of dominoes that need to take place um you know before that actually happens but something that we're looking towards we just want to create more opportunities for kids to participate but 100% agree and and wanted wanted one additional piece to that a perfect example so our Our Girls uh volleyball program at Greece Athena last year which was another beautiful thing about the contract um we had six coaches run a youth an introductory youth volleyball clinic and over the course of six weeks in the spring at Greece Athena we had our participation numbers were significant

087in the 50 range and that helped us add another team for modified volleyball this past year so so there's the opportunity is there for coaches to to run um you know a A fifth or sixth grade club/ extra mural opportunity um and we're we're we're starting to Trend in that direction it's just a matter of getting more momentum but it does it is a confusion here in Greece when we get we get calls all the time about sixth graders wanting to com you know play middle school and the confusing part is because it's 68 so parents think why hey my kids going to sixth grade so and then we had to tell them no I'm sorry so it's always a tougher it's a tough conversation to have but once we tell them it's basically the

088rules we have to follow it works out so Dr herck um so first the comment you know I appreciate you guys doing the presentation and you know I'm grateful for the program that we have here grateful for the energy that both of you brought um if it wasn't for sports sports kept my two kids connected and I hope that it will keep my um the third child connected as well so two points we've talked about this before and this is the merch on the weekend I'm a walking billboard for things that I love I love Grease Grease Sports I want to wear merch I want a store where I can go and get all things gree Sports not tops not Wegman's I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this not Target but where

089we are reaping the benefits and I can go I know you guys had identified some online resources thank you for sharing those um but I'd like to you know if there are any updates on a centralized location the second thing I brought up um and I'd like just an update if you have it is uh where can parents where parents who may not have the money for their kids to have equipment for certain sports but then you have other parents whose kid tried something they bought all this stuff and you know they've just got it so where are we and I think we had talked about kind of like a a loan program or gently used type program for sports equipment has there been any movement on those things yeah regarding the merch good question

090you know um we're working on revamping our booster clubs we're in the process of creating our all sports booster club so we really want a lot of the merch have run through the booster clubs the nonprofit organization um so we're still working on that the structure of that with a lot of um we just put in the board officers for the um for the booster club so that that's pretty new um regarding the um equipment that is something that we're still working on as well with that a lot of coaches do have items on hand but once again if you know the coach you can go right to him and say Hey listen what equipment do you have that we can borrow um but if you're a younger student you know if you're in kindergarten

091or first grade you might not have that opportunity some fiz Ed teachers do have stuff on hand as well where they could potentially borrow certain items as well so so the answer because I told Ray today I said Sharita is going to ask us about the boot about the merch so I was like my answer is right you ready so we we've been working on it and uh what the company that we've been targeting is BSN and we had BSN we've had two meetings with BSN um be everybody everybody that's a vendor out there wants to wants to be you know they want to work with Greece because we're so big um so we're pretty close with BSN it's just we have to work out a few I would say business items and in addition

092to that um there's an initiative at one of the high schools right now that is uh forg had potentially creating their own internal merch so that would be a conflict so so we're we're getting closer like basically the websites are built Sharita it's just a matter of getting over the finish line and once we do it'll be very beneficial because we also if we were if we were to work with BSN you're talking Under Armour Nike Adidas all the all the tough all the great Brands and you can customize it so you would have so each school would have their own site and it would be you know Odyssey everybody would have their own site Olympia everybody and then the storm so if if you wanted to go on and buy a kids's hoodie uh

093for Athena and then you can customize actually what you put on there as well so that's why it's taking a little longer because that's the one that we really think would benefit and help brand our community and we just have to figure out it's taking some time so we're almost there Mr Bron thank you um Mr lean you you mentioned in the you know the the character U instruction um um sportsmanship opportunities can you give me just like one or two quick examples of what yeah sure so um and so one of the one of the pieces that came out of Co was I would say everybody wearing masks and last two years during the basketball season we had um you know our our crowds were challenging it was it was the first two years

094it was just a challenge um certain things would happen and you know we had to navigate through that um things have improved significantly since Co but one of the themes that we we struggled with um across the county and across the section was sportsmanship of Spectators so uh superintendent group and multiple superintendant put together a symposium in the fall I want to say we had how many we have like 16 go from our schools to the yeah like 16 students across representation of all the schools went and learned about you know leadership in the proper behavior and sportsmanship at contests those students came back and turn keyed that you know that that was I talked about the crowds initially but also sportsmanship on the field okay um we've solicited um our mindfulness coaches this year

095and like Andrea antonetti who's not here tonight but she just got done working with our Athena basketball team on you know working on making sure that they are when I say that the students are on the court and controlling themselves and their emotions and and she worked with multiple teams this year to try to teach them mindfulness to get you know the mental capacity where it needs to be um we we have that's another example that we're doing internally um Monroe County in section five regularly has offerings mark across across section five um and we have full right to send kids to these opportunities and we do we do take advantage of those so um but the topics change B based on current events as well so it really it's a year-to-year change I other

096was one today actually um so great thank you yep couple things um flag football I'm impressed I remember when we talked about this years ago to see how far you guys have brought this program and the schools have brought this program it's truly an accomplishment you two should be very proud of it I know I am is a board member very proud of that fishing club I'm a big outdoors guy you guys know that I love the fishing club I love getting our kids in the outdoors experience something that you know is just a different skill set um you know if you're looking for a not tired Athena I always had my wife timee my knot she's really good at it because I can't see anymore so she ties my knot so she might be

097able to help you out and then I'm going to get now I'm going to get my vent in on the tickets M um do we have any members of our school district on on the executive committee of section five um hold on I'm I'm processing sure we're not um no there's four there's four representatives from our league that are on the committee so I have some concerns with that um I think the digital ticketing is very difficult I mean if you don't have Wi-Fi access you don't have a cell phone elderly people struggle with it I mean I think it's sorry Terry I didn't mean you um so they struggle with it and it's a you know I think we need to make it easier I mean the cost is prohibitive for a family I

098mean you know you look at the price of everything groceries everything went up $730 what does that 730 cover I guess is my question I know we pay league fees you know I know obviously there's extra fees in the playoffs for officials and things like that but what does that 730 cover per ticket it's it's a lot of different things the there's a130 that covers the digital ticket convenience fee um so the tickets us I don't necess agree with that yep I know I know where you're going um you know and um the rest of it goes to a lot of administrative costs um I don't have it in front of me unfortunately right now so so the so at the event the basketball games the other day Awards presentations so all the trophy the

099overhead for running the events um the officials for the events um that's what as as much as we know in terms of like where all that money goes like you know that's that's a question that I don't really have a definitive answer on but I know some of the cost goes to running those events themselves and as a followup I saw several school districts across section five absorb the cost so like I guess my question is if you invited all your fans to come to your school and you had students and parents and everybody show up how how were the numbers kept I guess so with the gate receipts the gate receipts it's a mathematical we do it you know internally weekly here um anytime we we charge an event we have a head count

100and but for Section Five it's the same so procedurally they do the same thing um the one thing that came up after the fall when we didn't charge our fans for the Athena Arcadia soccer game cuz I made that executive decision quickly and um we were we were worried about potential sanctions or any kind of punitive measure that can happen which technically may be not be any allowed to compete in sectionals which that's like on the far end of it but we didn't want to we didn't want to push the envelope too hard this time around because we know that section 5 hurt not only us but other people around section five um so you know we we just don't want to take a chance because we had four teams that were competing in the

101finals this week and or states and we just didn't want to put ourselves in that position and I understand that but I mean obviously the school districts that funded it if you had 500 people at the event and you only paid section five for 100 I mean you know it's got to be I I don't know how you can circumvent it I guess is my question and I mean I think the process is bad as a whole and needs to be addressed before we start Sports in the fall this currently is unacceptable I mean as far as I'm concerned and I'd be happy to go and have section five have a conversation with them okay because I would love to see them sanction a school district when you have things that are cost prohibitive to

102our families and our community right and I do think we need to address that in some capacity and with that thank you both very much thank I just before we wrap it up I just wanted to just I want to give everybody updates quickly on the sectional thing because I didn't do that yet and I just wanted to I'm sorry I have to do it um Arcadia girls bowling one sectionals this year nice Arcadia girls cheer one sectionals took third in State this weekend so that's too bad it's the first time in school history we've had two back-to-back State opportunities and Coach Pike did a great job uh Thea's boys Hoops undefeated regular season uh they were 2 and0 in postseason lost a tough one on Saturday night which we all know and the one

103that really stood out um the hard work from all the work that we've done girls lightning so that's the Olympia Arcadia merger uh girls basketball um made it to the finals and lost by eight points um so just just if you see those coaches in the community you know the kids they did a great job so thank you thanks guys thank you item 5.0 one the bus replacement resolution you had before you can ask move it to the table please Mr Butler moves it seconded by Dr trewick any comments questions or concerns sing that all in favor oh you have a question Mr bagorio thank you U Roman I know I know you you presented on this last time I think um so just just a question I know we've got the Mandate on the

104electric buses uh our hands are tied in there and we do this up date on the buses I probably should have asked didn't think of it last time but do we do we have we thought about extending our Fleet given that this is I mean we're we're just going to run out of time with these things or does is that not even an issue well I think how no no extending the age I guess is Poss depending okay and so because in the process of this we're also selling off tring buy TR the so it's a traded traded keep the cost out or we sell them option okay okay extend useful useful life of a bus they will go in naturally do it in the interim if we had to we could I think after

105this purchase everything we will have is going to be basically or so we had to run those for or four more years we could do it but we generally trade them in either 10 years or when they start to get around 12,000 miles okay they start to become main issue yeah okay thank you other questions Mr F uh thank you just one quick question uh it looks as if according to this resolution the proposed proposition this is going to cost a little bit over 1 million and we're looking to take about 500,000 out of the reserve funds but a little bit later it says but shall be raised by the levy of the tax to be collected in annual installments so are we looking to raise the levy in order to get the US the

106rest of that the proposition is written that way so it's broad enough that if something occurred we didn't have to come back to the board for another resolution so although it's an option in there that you can authed it we done we won't because we will use the reserve withdrawal to offset the local sh that would have gone to the tax done it every year but we're also we're just putting that in there just in case so it's a general resolution that most districts use in order to fit circumstances should they change it allow it gives the authority to do it okay thank you do any other questions seeing that all in favor that passes 7 to zero moving on to 6.01 anticipated bids it's written information only does anybody have any questions Mr Farah

107uh yes I had actually followed up with this I was just looking if you can give us some a little bit more information regarding the intercol actic sports supplies that we're looking to do kind of what they are yes what they look into this uh they're literally supplies for football soccer volleyball they're NS basketballs um mouth guards tennis balls score books literally supplies to run those sports for each season perfect thank you it's an any other questions all right moving on to consent Jen I have so move that to the tail please move by Miss Flora second by Miss Farah any comments questions or concerns on this Miss Farah uh yes on the consent agenda we're we're at budget transfer 7.02 can you I give us a little bit more information regarding you're looking to

108take $100,000 from the one account for health insurance and you're looking put it into a different account for materials in maintenance building can you provide more information on that sure so I guess I'll start at healthare by come out of healthare so we budget contingency funds within healthare for a couple different reasons so when we kind of estimate what our health cost is going to be we also have to take into account that the rates will change in January for Mid for us as well as an open enrollment happens change um there could be a shift in the type of insurance we build in some contingency within the healthare budget to account for that so some in most cases by the end of the year there is room to move some funds out should we

109need to do it the code that they're going to is maintenance of plant within buildings and grounds that takes for things such as uh fencing hdac electrical work structural work and we've done a lot of that this year um that has come out of the general fund budget b& G will always have a host of open purchase orders um blanket purchase orders that they have with VAR vors out there so thats to be we don't have to wait on purchase to be since there's more work to be done through the end of the year B I'm going to back up five seconds this is the second year we made that transfer the two options we got is b& has to go through and try to estimate what they're going to spend in those open POS

110by the end of the year and then they releas the money to put into a different code but what has happened in past years is when they do that then there's administrative work to get the money back in so what we've done for the second year is we take 100, 000 out of a code put it into the b& code so they can leave all their POS Open deal with price increases and extra work that comes through at the end of the year all the balances left on those POs are liquidated and generally come back to the general fund for more than $100,000 so it's a mechanism that causes less administrative work by opening and closing and changing thank you any other questions I would just like to thank the extra classroom funds at Odyssey

111Athena and Olympia for the donations they made to their various dances and to the musical Greece and I would like to thank the Greece Teachers Association for Their donation to the uh retirement celebration we have at the end of the year moving on all those in favor any opposed that passes 7 to Zer we R8 8.01 a 2425 school calendar can I move that to the table please moved by Dr trck seconded by m Flor comments questions concerns sing that all in favor that passes 8 to 7 to zero excuse me moving on to board member comments does anybody have any board member comments Mr bagorio I'm going to just start with um I I want to say thank you to Residents who come and share concerns and do it in a manner that is

112respectful to all of us um it's helpful for us to receive every kind of criticism uh but we need to do that in a in a manner that is is respectful and I would be very happy to sit down with anyone who has complaints of any sort and um I have my own um and I'll go on to that the Board of Education was made aware in recent weeks of two particularly violent acts by students on other students um um in both cases we were given video recordings by parents it it troubles me that the only time we get information of the nature of the violent acts that occasionally occur in our in our schools come from outside come from parents come from teachers but it's not information that's just generally shared with the board

113and the board has oversight responsibilities um I having seen these they're deeply troubling we do get General statistical data it's clean and it's emotionless it doesn't it doesn't convey the seriousness of some of the incidents that we see that we've learned about imagine if we never saw the George Floyd video imagine if that were merely a statistical data point I'm calling on the board to request timely notification of such events with sufficient information to make us more keenly aware of the environment that our students and teachers live or learn and work in I am appreciate that we're going to have some discussions about those things uh and I intend to follow up on it thank you Dr so I wasn't going to make a comment but I'm glad that Mr Bonar bagorio made his comment

114because I also would like to say something so so um yes the board is made aware um sometimes by parents of things that happen and I would like to say to parents um generally you know when you send an email to the board our policy is you know you send it to all of us we all get it but we have a policy where we have one spokesperson and what happens is when people send emails to all of us um and I won't speak for everyone but I know for me I have been approached on several occasions and asked why didn't you respond to my email so what I would like to put out there is to explain to parents how our process works we have one spokes person and that is sha mccab our

115president that doesn't mean that we don't talk about it that we don't have we have intense discussions about the things that we receive and it is very hard times not to respond again speaking for myself um but because of the you know because we have an order because we have rules and this is what we agreed to when we signed up to be board members he is our spokesperson um so I want parents to know it's not that they're being ignored but this is the way the policy works much like when you come for residence Forum many people would like to engage us in a dialogue and probably many of us up here would love to talk back and have a dialogue but we have respect we have order and we have a procedure and

116that is residents have their say we then you know have the opportunity to talk about it in our different executive sessions our Retreats emails um you know meetings afterwards so your voices don't go unheard there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes you have no idea about um but because of the way that the system is set up and we all agreed that we would abide by this um I think sometimes it looks like we're not doing anything we don't hear uh the things that come to us and so I just wanted to put that out there since Mr bagorio opened the door not to comment on you know what you said particularly but um I often think to myself I wish parents knew how it worked and the reason they get

117one response from the president is because this is the way the board is set up and the reason we don't engage in Residence forum is because these are the rules that we've all agreed to abide by but we work we P it out we we you know we have conversations we send emails we send textes we talk on Saturdays Sundays um maybe not as much as some would like but just know that your concerns don't fall on deaf ears so that's it thanks M Flores I want to give a shout out there for all of the students who are currently participating in all the musicals that you guys are seeing in all the schools they're putting in a tremendous amount of hard work with all the teachers and the cast and the crew and the

118parents that are volunteering and everything that goes into making these Productions a success so I'd like to say congratulations to all of those people who are involved and it's one more thing that brings our kids to school every day so I'm excited about that um March 9th is our spring family fest I do want to give a shout out there um a community schools group continues to work really hard um as you all can see you live in this community just like the rest of us do our community is constantly changing and it constantly needs different things and things constantly need to be re-evaluated um it is things like the spring family fest where people can get together and share which is wonderful one of the schools that I represent English Village one of their

119parents are they had a parent Forum recently and one of the things that the parent Forum came out with is the parents asked to have picnic tables put outside so that they could meet and talk and be able to share different things that are going on with their experiences with their kids things like the spring family fest give us that opportunity and all the different things that we are trying to do to come together as a community to share all the ideas that we have are so beneficial because we are constantly changing I would also like to make a comment in regards to what Dr tryck and Mr Mr bagorio have spoken to it's important for me sometimes to remember as the things that are brought before us that I am a volunteer and I

120am a elected official and there are times when things are brought forward that I would like more information on on however I have to remind myself to take a step back because I am not an educator and I don't have the background and the years of experience that the people in the school district do and I am not equipped to answer the questions that some of the parents come forward with as Dr TR trewick has said I do hear from parents and I do the same thing that Dr trewick does and the same thing that I have to do in the own company that I work for during the day I have a chain of command that I have to follow and every comment that is made I do share it forward and I do

121ask the people who are trained and educated and have seen what is going on day in and day out with our students and I will agree with Mr bagorio as a parent I don't like everything that goes on in this District either and that may surprise some people but I do entrust people who have given their life's work to work with our students to try to find the best possible outcome I don't agree with what everybody says my morals and values come from a different place and it is important for us to hear people as Mark said in our community Forum to hear the different thing places that people are coming from but at the end of the day we do have to educate our kids and we do have to keep them safe so

122at any given moment as Dr Trey Wick said we talk as a board const ly and we are nine very different members We Are One nth of one vote and we all approach this sport differently we have some of us have kids some of us have older students that are no longer in the district but the one important thing that brings us all together is everybody that sits on the board and everybody that works for the school Community cares about the students and families that are in this community and we do the best job that we can with what we have to work with and again as I've already said things are constantly changing nothing in this district will ever be perfect but I have to say I look at the effort that is made

123day in and day out in all of these school buildings and the things that the people who actually work for this District have to deal with day in and day out and I'm really thankful and I do think that my kids are getting a good education and something that Dr said at another meeting I don't know if it was a year or two ago is sometimes it's what you put into it sometimes I recognize when I don't necessarily like something I think to myself you know what as a parent I need to put something more into that I need to make a phone call to my school or say something or do something different to voice my opinion on that we do have a lot of families as a majority because we don't hear from

124a lot of them we give millions of different ways for people to come and give give information to the district there's a lot of people we don't hear from and we do the best job that we can to represent them and I got to tell you it's hard because I don't think like everybody else and I have to put my morals in my values aside to make sure that we do the best job that we can to represent the over 10,000 students that go to this District I want to thank the people who work for the school district and do the best job that they can every day that they have in I'm so thankful for all the resources that this district has we are in a district that has more resources than most of

125the districts around us and the people that work for this District know those resources like the back of their hand when someone calls me and asks for my help I don't know those answers but I do know enough to send it up my chain of command to give it to somebody who does so please know please keep talking to us please keep sending us emails if you wish to please keep reaching out to the district because overall this district has a lot of capabilities but it is big and it is diverse thank you thank you Mr Flores anybody else vice president M thank you for allowing the elderly to speak afraid what you might say hope I can get through um I want to we have such great Partnerships in our community I want to

126thank the Greece rotary who uh donated 80 family literacy bags to our school district you know it's it's support like that from the community groups that really make things wonderful uh as Miss Flores says and as most of you know I'm a music person it brings happiness to my heart The Wizard of Oz at o or The Wizard of Oz at Odyssey was fantastic next two weekends is Pippen at Arcadia and we go right into hairspray at Olympia so please go support the children their shows are wonderful thank you thank you vice president M um couple things I appreciate the passion of all my colleagues on the board what wherever we stand on an issue I do I do agree with what Dr TR said Mr baroro Miss Flores um we do we all come

127from a different place we all look at things a little bit differently but I do think at the end of the day every all nine of us care about this community we care about our students we care about we may have different ideas how to get there but I respect everybody's passion I respect our people that come and speak before us during the public comment period I mean but there are rules and I'm a rule follower we have rules we have and you have two minutes to speak and I'm sorry that you don't like the two minutes but everybody wants us to hold everybody accountable I'm holding people accountable you have your two minutes if you don't like it that's the rule reach out to the board and have us change the rule but until

128the rule changes we're going to follow the rules on another note um I was really happy to see the Jazz 90.1 got recognized for their years of service by County Executive Adam Bellow and the monor County Legislature a couple weeks back it's pretty neat that a little radio station that started at Gino High School way back in the day has come to the place it is and it's great seeing people I mean I grew up with Derek Lucas who's you know one of the guys that runs the radio station he's an amazing guy I've known him almost my entire life and it's good to see what they've done with that radio station so I truly appreciate that on another note today I got to spend uh some time with fourth graders at Lakeshore Elementary School

129in Miss Bruins class learning about planting strawberries it was a um it was a fabulous time I mean it's it's one of the things I most enjoy about being on the board is interacting with our students and it was just I mean it was it was a great day I mean it's you know it was I got a couple hugs before I left it was a good day so I just want to thank Miss Bru for hosting me I want to thank Cornell Cooperative Extension for the program they run in regards they do this every year in schools they open it up at every school not every school participates but we're lucky enough that Lakes Shore participates with their garden and some other things and Miss bruan does a great job there so I want

130to thank her for that opportunity today and superintendent grman thank you um I have a bunch of things I want to just um because um Miss Kelly you're here still Mrs Kelly um the survey piece that you mentioned in the we do not give surveys in K2 um that students take so I no I don't I just want to be clear because they're not given we do perception surveys with students they actually begin doing them themselves in third grade um otherwise it's a teacher um filled out form so I just want to clarify that um I wanted to start today by saying happy women's History Month um we have some really amazing women that serve on this board um from Terry as our uh vice president to our first African-American um woman Dr trewick um

131to Tammy to um um Megan I'm sorry and then um Debbie oh and Tracy who's not here yes um and certainly Debbie who supports us but I think it's just really important because we have a lot of great women in leadership positions and it is a month for us to pause and recognize the accomplishments um and really um continue to celebrate so um I think that's important like I mentioned before I was in Albany for our nisus conference over the weekend um so what superintendents do for conferences is they go on Sunday um and work um from all day on Sunday so we don't miss school um the things that were most notable about this conference is the concern around the state related to this this is also an opportunity where there's a lot of

132political action going on but um there's over 300 districts in the state that are seeing a decrease in Foundation Aid so that is a big topic we are not one of them um luckily um there was a lot of talk about the EV bus mandate there was a lot of talk about the teacher shortage um um and then I think the piece that I wanted to to talk a little bit about and and make a thank you is there was advocacy going on in terms of people meeting with politicians um one thing that I'm really grateful for is we have a good relationship with a lot of the folks right here that represent us um our president um Sean mccab and I were able to meet with Jeremy Cooney particularly about our concerns related to

133to the EV bus mandate so rather than March in Albany I can actually call him and he will will meet with us which is very appreciated and I we were able to provide him a great deal of information around around the concerns and barriers that we are facing um so that's just continued work um outside of that there are educational sessions and again what was reinforcing to me is the great work that's happening here in Greece um in our ranks so whether it be hiring and retention whether it be a really amazing implementation of our reading program um those are things that we really should be proud of there's a lot of um incredible work and when I see sort of what's being shared there um it's it's said by a lot of people we're

134really ahead of the game so thanks to our folks for that work I wanted to um make sure that I recognized I was able to attend um a Junior Achievement uh Grand Opening last week so I'm not sure how aware people are of this but right up at the old Kodak Building there is a beautiful Center that has been created where um different employers and different um businesses have actually created this space for students to come and learn about financial literacy and career opportunities every one of our sixth graders will have an opportunity to go there between now um and the end of the year and that's because of a lot of great work by Corey Skinner and and different instructional folks like Todd and our team so thank you for that because across the

135area um I think there's only 12 districts that are that are participating and on the front end of that all of our kids will get that which is really wonderful um want to say thank you to Arcadia so shout out to in general Arcadia they um were able to help us with a study session today where we were learning about some of our programming that's supporting restorative work here in our district so everything from our Mentor program to to key things that they do with their Titan TV and our Pure accountability that um we appreciated the kids being there but also the really um strategic work that they're doing in their school um to ensure a positive experience for kids um but also just to make sure that it's coherent and it makes sense um

136and they're seeing great progress but it was really wonderful to see the kids and have them with us tonight um and lastly I would say congratulations to our athletic teams um like Tony mentioned we've we've had some really nice success between bowling um the Arcadia Olympia girls basketball team our boys at Athena basketball team and Arcadia chair here um really incredible um and I would just encourage people to go to the musicals because the musicals are really their sectionals so if I can say any other way there's lots of opportunities to get to basketball games throughout the season these kids work so hard to actually put together a pres like a musical that they get to show off generally for only a couple of showings over two week weekend um so they're really talented they're

137really ex um entertaining so just would encourage people to go to those and with that I hope everybody has a great rest of the week thank you superintendent grman can I get a motion to adjourn Mr baroro second by m Flores all those in favor that passes 7 to zero thank you everyone have a good evening