001and we're going to continue. So, we're going to item four, which is public comment period. Adam, how many names do we have? >> Uh, we have five names. >> So, we have five names. We're going to call each of the names one at a time. Uh, each person has three minutes to speak. >> Up to three minutes. And Trisha, you have a timer. And when the timer dings, I'm going to unfortunately interrupt and ask you to to wrap up your last sentence or two. Move on. And I will also remind everybody that during public comment, please do not mention the name of any individuals. This our board rule. So with that in mind, Adam, please. Okay. Uh first up, we have Nicole Joria. >> Hi. Please come up have a seat at the table introduce
002yourself. I don't have trouble getting support other teachers but I feel very nervous about being here. But um I'm here as an IT city taxpayer resident parent of three kids that attend our schools and a newly resigned teacher. Um I taught for 15 years in this district. It has been a true joy teaching, serving, advocating, and creating opportunities for hundreds of children in our community. I've been a fierce advocate for our mediious children. My dedication to bringing my best, embedding joy into learning, thinking critically, growing my skills, commitment to anti-racist, anti-marginalization work, advocating for students with non-traditional learning needs, teaching our struggling readers, building safe, loving learning spaces are all things I'm proud of and I have taught many of your many of your children. Um, and I resigned this past August because I not
003because I didn't want to teach anymore or I didn't love teaching or I was ready to resign, but because my heart couldn't do it given the circumstances with the inequity of pay. Like, I literally couldn't do it. It was making me ill. In 2003 to 2004, I co-taught with a wonderful math teacher who had four years of teaching experience and was just working on his masters. At that time, I had been teaching for 14 years and had my masters in addition to other certifications. And I had just cracked $60,000 for the first time, 14 years. And I'd been teaching for 19 in our community. And then I learned that year that my co-teer, who was wonderful, was making just a few thousand dollars less than me. Like that's that that that's real. And I was
004devastated. Like to my core. And I thought, okay, our contract's up. Surely our district will make this right and embrace an equitable pay structure. Like surely we we preach equity. I teach it. I'm committed to it. Surely our district that preaches equity and a culture of love love will make this right. Surely they care about me and my family and my well-being. And I was really really devastated in June when the only offer that was brought to the table didn't address the inequities at all and was just a blanket race. So that message sent to me was I don't value you. Your level of expertise I don't value. And I I couldn't come to work in this place that I love. Like I've sat with many of you to advocate for children, our children. I
005couldn't do it because it like it it was like a stab in my heart. Um let's see. Uh and it was making me feel resentful and angry and I didn't want to bring that to my job. I didn't want to bring it to our students. I didn't want to feel that way about the organization I worked for. And it was pretty heartbreaking for me to resign. Um, let's see. Uh, oh, I wanted to also point out as an Ithaca City School District teacher, I had two side hustles. And, uh, I was pretty much working all of the time when I wasn't actually in the building. Um, and I just couldn't see that as being sustainable. And I also didn't feel a promise that there would be a change. I understand I'm out of time. Can
006I just finish a few sentences? Last slide, please. >> Um, so I've come tonight to add my voice to the mix and plead with you to install a step in lane system for our teachers to our for our teachers to be paid equitably. My children need high quality teachers and you lost one cuz I left like you lost one and my kids need that. And our new teachers need teachers who can mentor them and teach them. I learned from some of the best in this district who have retired and we're losing people. So, I come to you as a resident and a taxpayer and a former highly invested teacher here to implore you to put a stop and lane system in place. That's the only way to make it equitable. So, I I wrote pages
007and I did you give a copy to Trisha to get that to the record. >> Okay. Written all over the place, but sure. Can I email it to you? >> You can email it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks. Um, thank you. Okay. Next up, we have Lyd Allen. >> Hi. Um, I am happy to see that the district is still using the goals that were created in 2017. I think they're really strong and they're measurable. And so I have a question for the board that is related to goals. Um, do you all conduct a schoolboard self-evaluation and do you do that yearly? And if so, what process do you use? And also what is your process you use for evaluating the person in the superintendent's position? And for
008both of these processes, I'm wondering are there annual goals set as a part of this? And if so, what's your process for setting these goals? And um if if you do that, I'm just wondering if we could know what the goals are and how you're measuring them. other districts in the area do publish the goals set by the board as well as their self-evaluations. I know that a personnel evaluation would not be published. Um, and just wondering if you would consider doing that if that's a process that you all do. >> Okay. Next up, we have Elliot Per. I'm going to stand if that's right. Uh I would like to thank the board for giving me this opportunity to speak. First off, I think it's important that we have uh these public receptions to uh
009representatives. Uh my name is Elliot Perser. I'm a senior at Itha High School and I've been a student at ITSB for four years. Uh you're all probably familiar with the phrase teacher working conditions or student learning conditions. This phrase has been repeated time and time again by teachers and students and it is true. I make no claim to represent my teachers but the fact of the matter is that ICSD working conditions at ICSD have come to a crisis point. Ithaca has a famously low retention rate and it is no secret why Ithaca teachers are routinely paid less than those in surrounding districts. And right now teacher working working conditions are teachers are working without a contract. Our superintendent has his contract renewed despite having promised to resign in the last four years. On top of
010this, teachers in this district have poor working conditions. I've seen this myself. The facilities at the high school where I go to school are unpleasant and sometimes dangerous. Just the other day, I learned that my second period government class had a speestous in the floor tiles after, and this is only discovered after a pipe burst caused the room to flood. The bathrooms that are used by students and uh teachers alike are unhygienic. Such basic amenities as working soap dispensers, working sinks, and paper towels are often lacking. Teachers at ICSD are not supported by their administrators. The relationship between teachers and administrators can best be described that as a couple in the throwers of a nasty divorce. I've heard firsthand from my teachers the grievances that they have with admin. For example, routinely administrators make uh
011announcements in the middle of class disrupting class for everybody. Since I came to IHS in 2022, over 30% of my teachers have left. Of the teachers that I had in freshman year, less than half of them remain. Less than half. I know the impact that each individual teacher can have on the lives of students because I have felt it. My teachers have served as my mentors, my inspirations. They have been people that I can trust and people that I can go to for advice. These relationships are critical for students. If this district wants students to thrive, it needs to start with its teachers and that starts with a fair contract. Thank you to the teachers, faculty, and staff of ICSD for all the hard work you do. Thank you for the board. >> Thank you.
012>> Uh Victor Galla. >> Good evening. I'm Victor. I spoke here uh two weeks ago. My wife's a teacher. Last time you guys got me pretty pretty mad, pretty emotional. I talked about how we're broke. Um, I talked about how I think you guys are all doing a pretty bad job. Um, and I still stand by all that. So, I don't want to bump into one of you in Wegman's and you all start talking about how I was so positive. Uh, but I do want to give some constructive feedback. Um, I'm an attorney or at least I I will be. I'm waiting on my bar results. If you see me in two weeks, happy, you'll know why. If you don't see me at all, you'll also know why. Uh, but I have three points that
013I want you to consider with respect to Stephen Lane. And I want to kind of approach it from your perspective. um not from the perspective of a husband, a teacher, uh but functionally three points that I don't think you're paying attention to enough. For starters, I'm reading your transcripts. I'm looking into the videos that are published. You talk about going back to your legal counsel, getting advice from your legal counsel. As an attorney, I appreciate that. I love it when my clients come to talk to me, but it is my job to clean up their messes. Essentially, it is my job to follow their lead. Attorneys don't get to tell you what to do. your legal counsel, whatever it is, whatever you're paying them or not paying them, it's their job to follow your lead,
014which means if they go back to their break rooms and cuss you out to their colleagues, that's their job. That's what they get paid for. I'm sure they're getting paid well for it. So, make them do their jobs. Give these teachers promises and then make your attorneys figure out how to make that happen. I promise you that's what we go to law school for. Second, you talk about leverage, and I understand that that's an important part of any collective bargaining contract agreement. I did a lot of labor law in law school. That was really my focus. You need to understand that you give up leverage when you don't give a step in lane to your teachers. When I go to my work every day, my contract that I keep in my desk has my raises
015in it for every year that I'm there. I get to make long-term financial decisions about uh how I'm going to be paying off my loans, when I can afford to buy a car, when I can afford to buy a home. I can do that because I know in 10 years they don't give me a better contract. I'm stuck with the same old first year lawyer contract. I will be able to afford X amount. The teachers here don't get that. When they don't have step and lane, they don't have long-term contractual stability. They don't have long-term decision-making, which means that they're more likely to fight you when contract times come around. Give them this basic provision that's in most teachers contracts around the world. It's around the country rather that's universal and they will fight you
016less every single time these contracts come up, you can get to the more important niche issues that are a little bit easier to resolve. And finally, I want to talk about incentives and retention. Uh, you guys need to understand you have a uh 30% approval rating on glass door. I was just looking for a job. That was the first place I checked. Tesla has a higher rating, respectfully, Mr. Superintendent. Elon Musk has a higher approval rating than you do. And I'm not even sure he's still working at Tesla. So, the point here is that people are paying attention to these proceedings. They're paying attention to how you treat your teachers. They're paying attention to how many news articles are published about how long this district has gone without a contract. All of that's very difficult
017to quantify on a monetary basis month by month. I get that. But you probably have already had people who wanted to apply for a job in this district and didn't because they looked online and saw that Ithaca does not take care of its teachers. So it would benefit you. It would reduce your headache if you just gave them secondly. Thank you. Last sign up on our list is Meg B. >> Um, I have I have some uh charts that might help. Um, I'll Okay. Okay. This is homework. This one I like to show myself. So all right. I'm I'm Meg Burke, Northeast Librarian, and I'm here to present retention and hiring data I have found by cultating sessation of employment data from four years of ICSP personnel report. Um, you can cross check this data
018on board docs should you have any concerns about accuracy. This is your data. Uh, through this data analysis, I have found and identified a few notable notable trends in teacher recruitment and retention. My first finding supports that we have a severe retention crisis in ITS. Over the last four years, 53% of our teachers have resigned. 310 out of 586. The turnover rate for the 2425 school year was 18%. Which is significantly higher than state and national average. One could argue that the retention crisis is directly affecting students. When you examine turnover per building, we have an average rate of turnover that's 49%. But in four of the five schools currently identified by New York State by New York State as needing improvement, the average is much higher than 49% with the highest rate being 88%
019in one of those schools. This shows that there is a clear correlation between higher turnover in schools and poor student outcomes. A compelling reason to solve the teacher retention crisis. So why are teachers leaving? Luckily, our personnel reports document why teachers leave the ICD. Each personnel report provides a reason for every personnel shift, including reasons for resignation. Charted out over four years, the number one reason teachers leave ICSD is for other employment at 33%. That is followed by retirement, personal reasons 22, resignation 9%, other various reasons at 11, and the least commonly cited reason is relocation at 2%. which fully refutes the argument by some administrators that our high turnover is due to our transient community and shows that teachers are leaving primarily for other jobs by a long shot. Teachers would be leaving would
020be leaving for other jobs by 38% rather than 33 were it not for a sudden change in February of last year where virtually the only reason you could now leave IPS on a board report is resignative. I didn't know that resignation was a reason for resignation, but I'm also not an HR expert. So, um I'm not sure why that change was made, but if ICS is really interested in understanding and combating the poor retention, it seems like HR would want to keep the only real documentation we have for why teachers lead that board reports used to have and maybe consider conducting exit interviews rather than soliciting teachers and students for video ads unlike another district. Not only are we not retaining teachers, we're also not attracting them. I analyzed a year's worth of hiring on
021board reports and found that between A2024 and A12.5, we hired 93 teachers out of 586. And of those 93 teachers, 58% were not certified on the date of hire. Hired under MLA or long-term SCS, we hire more uncertified teachers than we do certify. caveat is that it does not mean that uh some will not become certified. For example, I was hired with my certification pending, but it does show that ICSD struggles to hire certified teachers. Knowing the number one reason teachers leave is other employment, it appears that certified teachers are finding greener path elsewhere. Lancing has zero openings. Dryen has one. North Syracuse with over 8,000 students has only six openings. ICSD with almost 6,000 students, about 20,000 left. 2000 left has 24 current openings on recruitment. Clearly, we are having a problem not only
022with retaining teachers, but also tracking them. I'll wrap up. Please look closely at the data. Draw your own conclusions about our retention and recruitment. We also ask that you request accuracy and documentation on board reports to assist in objectively working towards a solution. In closing, I hope the data I've painstakingly put together can assist in understanding and finding solutions to the escalating problem and that you can work with HR on effectively documenting, understanding, and combating turnover. Thank you for your time. I guess I'd ask all the speakers if you could submit electronic uh versions of your comments to Trisha. They will be distributed to the board electronically. a very thorough document. We couldn't get a PDF to push us. That said, uh response by the board. >> Yeah. I I did you want to say
023something? No, I just figured it would be >> um it's a complicated issue and it's it's very nuance and it's not as simple as just like having the money not wanting to pay. It's just where do we find the money? That's that's the reality. And you know, it's easy to say, hey, we could we could pay this in year one. Then how do we pay it in year five? And what does that mean to the district? And year five rolls around, you hit a financial cliff. we don't have the money to pay the budget that we have. Um, so like that's part of like what we're tasked with is is trying to like create financial viability not just in the short term but the long term. Um, and there's there's there's a lot of moving
024parts. And again, you know, we've said this before, you know, we're we've hired Cornell to do an RFP to kind of analyze a district, understand enrollment trends, to understand like, you know, we're potentially doing consolidation, which we're looking at, which is a way to actually save money for the district. Um, so we're try we're doing things that hasn't haven't been done before, you know, because we're recognizing that this this this is a serious problem and we're trying to find like actual solutions to that. And um you know I I don't want to speak for Dr. Brown, but Dr. Brown, believe it or not, wants to pay teachers more. I know everyone wants to you know, he's the one that gets thrown under the bus. Um I to me it doesn't feel I don't feel comfortable.
025I'm always taking on the heat. So um you know, I I just everyone on this board is trying to figure out like how do we solve the problem? And it's it's not as simple as just, you know, paying people more. So there there's there's so many moving parts. We're trying to analyze all those. We're trying to come up with solutions. They're trying to, you know, not just in the short term, but how do we make sure that 10 years from now, the district is going to be, you know, viable. So, um, it's something that I know everyone on this board cares about. I know everyone on this board wants to pay more. I know Dr. Brown wants to pay more. I know staff wants to pay more. Um, I know that they are constantly working
026behind the scenes to like pull different levers to figure out how to actually do that. And, you know, not everyone sees that. Um, you know, but I I I appreciate everyone coming out because um, you know, I feel like every time I I get a a new piece of information that helps kind of guide me, gives me different perspective. So, I value everyone comes out and speaks. Um, you know, I appreciate everyone coming out and speaking and helping to give us, you know, give give us a better understanding of your perspective. Um, and yeah, I mean, we're we're we're doing the best we can and you know, we're going to continue to try to like turn over every rock and look at things from different angles to try to find solutions and um, you know,
027we're cautiously optimistic. So, >> well, thank you, Meg. Um, and thank you everyone for speaking and I'm just pointing going back to respond to your question about why um, personnel reports change. is always changes with different different reports over time but do bring that to our HR committee next month. But what I can what I can tell you is that resignation is sometimes the safest reason to put down because we will get in too much into details of individuals why they were departed. So to just protect the confidentiality because quite honestly I wouldn't want the world to know when I'm relocated and where am I going to. So um we we really have to protect the confidentiality of individuals. So there was some some information on the personnel report that you requested to change the
028terminology. So thank you. And as um Derek had asked um if you could just provide anyone that sent in any documents provided to our board clerk who will get it to all board members. Thank you. >> Um thank you to everyone for coming in. Nicole um well I'll just say out loud thank for her for her extended service in the district. um I didn't have the opportunity to work with her directly, but she sounds like a wonderful teacher. Um so I appreciate her sharing. Maybe you can along. Um Elliot, I just want to say partially thank you for sharing about the physical conditions at at the high school. I think that is helpful to hear and something I just look into and want to learn more about. Um, and also just to say that I
029think that that's really sad that half of your teachers that you've had over the last couple years have now left and I'm sorry for you that you're having that experience. Um, no matter what the reason is for them having deployed. So um, I hope that overall your experience at the high school has been a positive one. Um, Meg, as always, your uh research and data is uh impeccable and I appreciate you sharing everything and definitely look forward to looking through it uh much more. I am >> Yeah, you're um I I'm chairing the HR committee. I would love to chat with you more about some of your ideas and I do agree with um Karen that there are some um some reasons that were that were actually right there like very thoughtful choices and how
030things are listed in the personnel report. Um, but we also have gained a lot of ideas from questions that have come up in the negotiations about more information that um I look forward to talking to Zoom about being able to collect and know more about and um if there are opportunities to um explore ways to make things more informative. I look forward to doing that. I just I can't say right now I'm still learning as well. But definitely appreciate um all of the feedback and and information. Um and and just thank you everybody for coming. It's good to see you. Um I I feel like I'm gonna put my foot in my mouth answering your question. So, I just want to um acknowledge that you asked it and as I say that I I have
031not been on the board all that long and don't want to give a historical perspective that um that I don't have um firsthand knowledge of um but would love for one of us would be I would be happy to learn more and connect with you in whatever way that I can guidelines. Any other responses? Just add to Elliot, great to see students support board. Thank you, uh, Victor. We looking for your Wegman's bar results. And, uh, Meg, I, you know, I think this is the heftiest submission we've had for public comment. So, uh, I think you found your calling in the library. And with that, we will move on to uh there's nothing else to do for us. >> Oh, amazing. Okay, guys. Um I'm really happy to see you guys all back here again.
032I know I was here last year, but sadly tennis season held me off from seeing you guys. So, now I'm back. But I have two um three main reports actually. So, the first thing is that um I know I talked about this last year, but I was launching a club called Vocalis. And now we have um 10 chapters all over the world, and we're projected to impact 100,000 people by the end of the school year. And basically, just to reiterate on what it is again, it's the world's first youth pipeline project. So, we're letting middle schoolers explore any topic of interest. So, that could be anything from culinary arts to stem cell research. And then we pair them up with high schoolers and they get paired up with a professional and they all worked on
033this project throughout the school year. And um that's just something that I wanted to talk to you guys about and give you guys an update because I know we mentioned it last year. And then secondly, we have code red. So we just attended our offseason um comp um competition and we won spirit award with 14 members. So that's saying something I'm guessing. And then also we just did our um tier team volunteering at Square Park and we comp complet competed over uh 200 $2,000 worth of like work that we did. And then the last thing that I can say is that um there is the PSATs on Wednesday and Thursday for juniors. And since we're all juniors, we're not going to see you guys after 8:30 today because we will have to get some good
034nights rest for the PSAT. My name is Lily. I just want to say science Olympia on Saturday competed in their Georgia satellite competition or scrimmage. Um we held that at Tom County Public Library. That went pretty well. Um and on Friday, I think High School recently had their first ever schoolwide assembly at our stadium to celebrate student achievement. Um before the assembly began, there was an unexpected school evacuation, but everyone handled it safely. um any of that went on as planned after that was all settled. Um the assembly recognized a compliment in sports, highlighted club updates, and featured a fun student versus teacher competition that included tugof-war and new school chairs that brought a lot of energy and school spirit. Um this was brought on by our students as a feedback from last year with
035more school spirit. Um and it was mainly organized by students. Um and we plan to continue pep rallies a few times a year. Um, I would also just like to reiterate my thoughts about the ICA. I understand that I am a student. Yes, I may not pay taxes or have a full-time job. However, I'm not too naive to understand the magnitude of what's been going on. And neither are my peers. We notice the teacher turnover. We notice the lack of feedback we get on assignments now. And we notice that our teachers have been overworked in our district. My brother works as a teacher in New State. And I see the merit in Stephan Lane. he really like it's provides such a security in his job um that I noticed personally and like versus whenever he's
036um worked in this district. Uh if there's no security in a job, there's not really as much of a reason to stay, which is difficult. Um as I've said previously, student value students value not just a good teacher, but a consistent one. Um, and I just implore you all to think about every aspect of this and everyone who's speaking to you on this topic because it's not just teachers who are being affected by this. And I understand it's a lot more in depth and difficult than just like implementing that quickly. Um, and I cannot stress enough uh the importance of teacher working conditions or student learning conditions. Um, also responding to something that someone said on the board, someone mentioned about how in 10 years, how viable would a Stephen lane be? And I just
037like to ask, how do we know students education will be viable? Probably not teachers. Um, thank you. >> Good evening everyone everyone. Um, I'll stop you. I promise. Our juniors and seniors had their two to three college trip today. And I know of our sport team at their senior night last week where we recognized graduation athlete for their hard work and dedication. On the athlete side, our Washington cross country team went on the Manhattan University innovation where girls team play on the Eastern Championship and boys finish on varsity girls soccer will play their stat semi-final on Wednesday where boys JB soccer team had advanced to the stats tournament with an onde. Additionally, our varsity volleyball team took first play on the on the horse side tournament. Looking ahead, our varsity linker sport registration will open
038this Saturday. Thank you. Uh so I want to bring up a concern that a student brought to me um about accessibility in the high schools. So, there have recently been some problems um not only with physical accessibility with um doors, but also with um the with IEPS and 504s and how those are being accommodated. And I think part of this goes to the low teacher retention and the missing teachers um that a lot of IEPs and 504s can't actually be met because we have a low student teacher ratio. Um, but also I wanted to talk about some issues um with the actual building itself. I don't expect these issues to be fixed short term, but this is something that should be on the board's mind. There are students that go to our school that um
039have mobility issues that have wheelchairs or that have um crutches or some other type of mobility disability. And it's very hard for some of our students to navigate the school. Now, our school does follow state law and it follows um federal laws on accessibility, but those laws are very bare minimum. And it it's hard for me to walk through the school and see people not be able to get to their classes and they're not able to get their classes on time and they're not being educated the same as other students. I had to I've had to open the door for um students in wheelchairs multiple times this year. And it they shouldn't have to be forced to go around the entire school to get in the building. So in the future, if there's some way
040that we could add more um accessible doors around the entire building, I think that would be something valuable. I'm going to the or IHS's disability justice club uh one of their meetings next week and then I'll bring back some findings um from there and try to represent them as well. Um but I'll have that stuff next week. Okay. So I know we've been kind of hammering you guys past but we got a lighter load tonight. It's only B night. Tonight Emily has a personal matter to attend to. Um, so be a bit short. I'm just going to start by again reiterating our support as the student body for the ITA and for the district and the ITA to reach an agreement. We know negotiations happen a little bit. We know the negotiations are happening again
041on Thursday. We look forward to seeing the results of that. Um, but again, I want to reiterate as I have been, we want to see our teachers with the new contracts. We want to see their concerns addressed in new contract including step and lane system, better paid family leave and supplemental Medicare. Those are all some we just do embody we stand behind the teachers and their their need for those. Along with that uh seeing the the wage discrepancies addressed we know there have been some meetings happening for that. We I know teachers who have had who are affected by this personally. uh we're like we know the meetings are happening but again it we believe it should be a top work priority to make sure those are addressed timely and like that teaches our main
042to this extent. Um, and I also want you now, you heard this from us a lot last year, but the bus situation at LACS, we're back on that, so forgive me for bringing this up again, but we believe it's still an issue. Again, I want to shout out the bus garage transportation department. They do incredible amount of work there every morning, every afternoon, getting student 6,000 students, 5,000 students, 4,000 students from home to school and back. That is a incredibly difficult job. And of course, shout out to them. That being said, we still have kids getting in pretty late. We we start out the year much worse at this point. It's about 15 kids arriving about 20 minutes late every single day consistently from the IHS shuttle bus. That that's the bus that's t that's
043I guess IHS is the hub. That's the final mile from IHS to LAS cross town. So again, first period ends at 9:45. So they miss about half of half of their first period of class every day. That could be your gym class, that could be your Spanish class, that's your English, your math, but that is still half a period every single day. Uh it's better compared to the 45 minutes late we experienced early on in the year, which was completely unacceptable. You just missed the class outright. that it's not conducive to any learning. Uh but it's but it doesn't just negatively impact period attendance but uh being chronically late like this like through the busing system but also social emotional learning and mental health. One of our social workers asked me to talk about how
044difficult it can be to ground a kid in their day when the buses are so late. And they likened it to like missing your morning call or having like something go wrong in the morning. When a bus is this late, it just throws off your day and it can mess and it kind of just like the flow of your day is gone. For a lot of kids, they rely on having that flow, that consistency throughout the day. When that's gone, the day is almost null at that point. Um, it also impacts physical health. Some we we're very proud of our breakfast system. We've had free breakfast and lunch lacs for several years at this point beyond the the district-wide free breakfast and lunch system. Uh some kids though are unable to take advantage of this
045because they are so late. We've moved our breakfast system out to the main lobby and we've seen hu many more kids take advantage of that breakfast about three times as many compared to last year. But when they get there there's no breakfast. it's either limited, there's only like a couple things left, there's so they they have to hurry to eat it up and they get to class or they have to eat in class or they just don't eat and that's unacceptable. We have some ideas on how to address this. Uh we we we know the bus garage again works super hard, but with all the buses being GPS tracked this year, we believe that's there's defin somewhere in that data, we can figure out where what what's happening, what's the where is the bus like
046going too long of a route here? Where is it stopping for too long? We know uh Lisa G in our main office, she's wonderful. She knows exactly when the bus gets in, which kids are on that, which kids consistently are lately to track that data every day since the start of the year. We are very familiar with this issue. And again, they've been working again, Lisa, in the main office with the bus garage on this, but we'd love to bring it to the attention of the board to to hopefully apply like work with bus garage, work with everybody and find a solution to this. Chronic lateness helps nobody in this situation. mental health, physical health, chronic absenteeism. These are all effects of this. I get we'd love and we we'd love to have some board
047health recognal bonding experience. So we we stay there Thursday uh into Friday. Uh with the high schoolers, they stay overnight in cabins with their family groups and uh middle schoolers, they leave at the end of the day and return in the morning with the next. And so uh and this past week, uh like this past Thursday and Friday, we had our fall retreat. Um on Thursday night, we had our yearly talent show, which I myself and Emily, who is not here, performed in. We saw a slew of amazing performances from pretty much like every demographic of the school. It was like pretty it was a pretty >> two and a half hours of >> but it was really awesome and I like and so and there's all this kind like this it's just really like
048you feel like part of the LACs community going into this experience. So it's just kind of nice. Um after that we retired to their cabins for the night and some of us nearly froze our toes off. Half of us got heated cabins. Well, half of us didn't. Whatever. Um the entire retreat was an incredible experience for really everyone involved and we're I would say much together as a community uh who are doing it and before I pass off I want to really hit home what Julian said on the ITA. It is so important to our students and to us that we see teachers get a contract and further so that the contract is Steph and lane supplemental Medicare and paid family leave. But pardon my bluntness, but if we don't reward teachers for having higher
049degrees, we won't get teachers with higher degrees. It's plain and simple. And I know you might be sick of us saying it every meeting, but it only grows more important. Teachers aren't getting paid as much as we would like them to be. And and we need to say that we it needs to be heard. I guess jump in a little bit. >> You want to? >> Sure. >> Uh, no. I think I was just gonna just uh follow up on what Bo was saying just a second ago. I think um I don't think as board members, anybody's sick of hearing students advocating for teachers. I think um we're happy to hear people advocating for teachers um community support teachers themselves, everybody who's coming out, spouses and teachers. Um, so I think that's great. I think
050um, so thank you for that first of all. Um, and like Todd was saying before, I think all all board members um, you know, are interested in paying teachers more. I could say personally like I'm interested in paying teachers more. The question that, you know, that I'm struggling with as a board member is just sort of like how high can we go in terms of how much we can offer teachers um without causing you know problems uh to financial viability to the school district or having to make you know some difficult choices and you know what if those choices are closing a school or cutting a program or doing something like that. So I think I think we're trying to figure out exactly how to do that and we're learning more about that and that's
051that's sort of the question. So I think um just want everyone to sort of appreciate the heaviness of that and I think it is a good question about the the viability of students. That's a great question you know like what is going to have um you know how much impact will that have on student learning and where does that come in? And so so I think that's kind of where everybody's at right now like we're all thinking about all of these different topics. um you know with the desire and premise to pay teachers as much as we possibly can. So just just to give a sense I think I just wanted to say that to say like what what am I thinking about as one board member that's what I'm thinking about. Um you know
052as somebody who ran for the school board because I wanted to support teachers and I do want to support teachers. So um so I think I just wanted to say that. Um, also I think uh going back to Judah's comment, um, I appreciate you bringing up the issue of accessibility. Um, looking forward to that data that you can bring back to us. And, um, you know, that also might be a question that we can raise at the facilities committee. So, that might be might be something to talk about once we have that information if there are certain things that needs to be changed or fixed kind of kind of do that. Um, so I appreciate everybody's comments. I'll jump in uh really just to echo a lot of what Adam said about valuing perspective. Lily,
053you said uh that you are and I lose and most certainly don't think that you are and are really really grateful for the perspective of all of you which is why you are here and unlike a lot of districts as we've talked about before we've made an effort to have students at this table for decades now which is we recognize how important that is and how important students is. So, I I hope that you never hesitate to share um your perspective, regardless of if it's here um or in another capacity. I do feel like I need to call out that this is the second time in the last two weeks that a student has made a comment about their teachers not working as hard for them. The comment tonight was, "This is why we're not
054we're getting a lack of feedback on our assignments." There was a comment last week about um teachers being less engaged or or this is why, you know, my teachers aren't engaging with me as much in in the classroom. And I just have to say like these are these are two very different issues. I feel like I know so many teachers in this district and I have no doubt that they are putting in or I would like to think that they are putting in their everything every single day in the classroom. Um, and so just want to call out that I hope that within this district we there is an ability to separate the negotiations that are happening right now and the teaching and learning that is happening in classrooms. Um, and to thank teachers for
055being able to kind of balance those two things of feeling a lot of frustration and also being able to show up every day all day and engaging with their um with their students and giving them the best opportunities that they have every day um to learn and engage. Um, and otherwise just again I it seems like a lot of things have come up about facilities. It's like really entertaining to have Dan Breman sitting right center in front of us because I feel like we have so many conversations we can have with him after after the presentations today and opportunities to learn more. So, um, feel free. >> No, I I'd like to interrupt, but yeah, feel free because this is now student and student comments, board responses. I don't think we're having dialogue now because
056I see two hands raised because um last meeting we went on a bit too long and we need to have that discussion about student reps when it comes time to your involvement and I know that we have a new policy around student reps and all but during this time it's student reps reporting out and board response. It's not conversation. We can make comments, but I don't think we should be answering questions now. >> I didn't have a question. >> Oh, I thought I saw your hand raised. Julia, >> well, let's should we go through the the responses and >> um yeah, I mean, since we keep talking about the teacher negotiations, um you know, I'm going to keep circling back to that. Um it it it is very complicated and it's complicated because our budget
057majority of our budget comes from taxes and we are one of the most expensive places to live in New York State and it's it makes it if most teachers can't afford to own a house in Ithaca. Most people can't afford to own a house in IPA. You know, the the number one reason that I joined a board is because I came to a board meeting. And there was a guy that got up. He was in his late 70s. He's a grown man. He, you know, was alumni Cornell. I think he was a veteran. And the guy was in tears. He started crying. He said, you know, I wanted to live and die in my home. I wanted to retire here. And I'm on fixed income and I I can't live here. A grown man in
058his 70s started crying because he couldn't afford the taxes. So the money that goes to pay the teachers comes from somewhere and there was a vote that went out and the community voted no. You know Dr. Brown proposed I forget what the percentage increase was for teachers 7%. The community said no we can't afford that because we're overt taxed. It is and it's unfortunate like we we it's unfortunate that we live in Ithaca because we don't get the same subsidies that we get from the state because we're considered a high net worth area. So the majority of our budget comes from paying taxes and people can't afford to live here. You look at you know what it costs to own a house in Syracuse or Almyra or Bingmpington. Um you know then for taxes all
059that stuff like so those are all things that that that are taken into consideration. And you know we talk about financial cliff and what happens in 10 years if you don't have money to pay your bills it's a problem. And you know I I we we hear things where it's like you know teachers are overworked. You know one of the reasons teachers are overworked too is because you know the district had to cut you know people in order to make the budget just work for this year. So the reality is like there's there's consequences like when if if we're paying more something needs to give right there needs to be some sort of concession. That means like you guys are lo losing certain classes, right? Certain programs have to get cut. You're having more students
060per classroom because you know we have to consolidate teachers in order to make the budget work. So you're having maybe less teachers with more students. Um so that's why I say like when it it is nuance it is nuance and there's there's money in the fund the fund balance. We all know there's money in fund balance, but that only goes for so long. And once that fund balance is depleted, then how do we how do we take care of that delta? How do we cover that delta? And like eventually like you run out of things to cut. So like when we talk about like um you know fiscal responsibility and and you know the district being viable, it it has to take those things into account like so it's it really is difficult and there
061there's so many things that go into it. Um, and again like every everyone wants to pay more. Um, you know, we're just we're trying to figure out how to do that and sometimes it takes a little bit longer than we all want. You know, another challenge that we we faced months ago that I don't know if it's necessarily as big of a concern. It's like federal funding. You know, we had a president was talking about pulling federal funding from all the schools and that that makes up part of our budget. Um, I think that's less of a concern. I, you know, but like, so it's like, hey, if that happens, what do we do? How do we make up $2 million or $3 million or whatever it could potentially be? Who who who do we
062have to cut or what programs have to be cut? Um, so like there's a lot of moving parts to this and, you know, I think it's it's unfortunate. It's unfortunate that teachers don't have a contract yet and it's it's not it doesn't feel fair. Um, but this this does feel like one of those things that it's taking a little bit longer, but I'm hoping that the the time that it's taking is also giving us more information that's allowing us to make a better decision for everyone, better decision for the district in the long run, better decision for the teachers. Um, and I think when it's all said and done, um, you know, I think the extra time is going to have benefited. Um, and it's hard it's hard to like realize that now. And I'm
063cautiously optimistic. take that for, you know, take it with a grain of salt. Um, but yeah, I mean, we're we're doing a lot. This RFP is going to make a huge difference. Um, it's we don't know what that difference is. We haven't been able to quantify it yet. We're hoping that, you know, consolidation is going to help. Um, but yeah, I I I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you guys advocating for teachers. Um, you know, it's just know that we're we we are trying to be objective and we're we're trying to to pay as much as we possibly can, but then still have a district that's financially viable and can actually pay its bills and can actually pay its teachers. Um, so that's part of it. Like you can promise someone something and you could,
064you know, give him a raise, but then if you can't pay him, what is that? So, um, we need to balance those things and that's what we're trying to do. >> I just want to drop in one thing. I'm aware it's a little it's left like the Robert's rules a bit more. Uh >> I'll leave it to our vice president to comment about that. >> I mean what what is I I just want to say regarding like the cuts uh LACS experienced a big cut last year uh to with our guidance staff and that was for some I think between difficult and detrimental. So >> So let's Yeah. So yeah, I think I I want to stand by uh parents point. I think you don't want to have a it's not a dialogue. So I
065think clarifications we'll take and and that's something you guys should take into consideration because there's going to be more cuts in order to pay teachers more. There's going to be more cuts. >> Yeah. I want and you know something to think about. >> I wow. All right, I'll move on to my comfort my >> just to say thank you all and um any facilities bus department issue and all please make sure you bring it to your principal's attention so that they can in turn bring it to the relevant individuals. Yes, Dan is here but after this meeting it's not his responsibility to take all that details because the um the building leader knows what to do to move it along. And with regard to chronic lateness or if there's breakfast, I was at LACS last
066year a long time when I saw bag breakfast. So they've done that where if students were late for whatever reason, they were never denied any breakfast. So we may need to um revisit that if that's the case or bring it up to Lisa and anyone else involved in all. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other board sponsors? Okay. So, um, see here, yeah, we have a consent. So, all of them are. All right. So, uh, we're going to move on to >> Yeah, >> we're move on to the consent agenda, but I'm just going to ask what what is Emily's talent before we move on. I curiosity. >> Sorry. >> Emily and both had a talent talent show with >> unicycle. >> All right. >> Maybe we could make some I think that would
067be something unicycling. All right. So, let's move on to the consent agenda. So, item five, >> Adam, >> I move to approve all consent agenda items listed in the consent agenda. Consideration of the council personnel report and minutes of previous meetings or meeting as presented. >> I second. >> Oh, okay. So, Adam moves, Maline seconds. Any discussions on that? All the question yeses unanimous in favor. Move it on to item six. >> Oh because that that just >> oh right count seven eight then we move to nine. Okay that's why I was >> uh so Dr. Brown >> yeah thank you for the opportunity Dr. I wish to defer however uh my time until the next meeting. Uh Mr. Gro and I have prepared a student achievement results update that is pretty exciting and encouraging
068but we will defer because we have some friends that we invited um to speak at seven who who has someplace else to be. So I'm if I can I just will uh move to the law and have our friend CS Bose fellow next and I will talk about that. Mr. I was going to announce that this week is homecoming week on the uh board of education. Got some attorneys. >> Oh, I'm Brad. >> I like it. I like it. Anyway, uh Mr. Granger, a long time board member here in our district and Miss Tal who the district superintendent for PS here to talk with us and we have some friends from our team here in a little bit later than we're anticipated. Thank you. Good evening. >> Hey, thank to see everybody tonight. Thank you
069so much for having us. I'm Lily Talcet. I get to serve as the district superintendent for Tomkins Senica Tyogga Post. >> I'm Brad Granger. I had the uh pleasure of serving in your seat for a dozen years a few years back and now I represent the city school district on the TST board. >> Aaron Arnold, I high school principal. >> Uh Dan Bryman, assistant superintendent of operations. >> And we're really excited this evening to get to talk a little bit about regionalization and what that means here in this area. >> And I'm going to start off um with it. We've had some meetings about regionalization. I think you're aware that the uh the state commissioner uh has required these conversations and Karen and Dan and uh and Karen attended some uh of those conversations and
070we're going to be getting report on that today. I mean, one of the things that I think was settled very quickly in the conversations was the idea that regionalization was all about merging and the nervousness over that and that is not what it was about. Regionalization's about opportunity and our what we've had conversations about is to increase opportunities for all of our students. And by all I mean among Ithaca and all of our surrounding districts who are part of TST. And you know what I what I'd say to you is that um that many ICSD students are served very well in this district but some are not. And the the objective here is to see if there are ways where we can create newer opportunities to us to Ithaca, but opportunities that currently exist in
071our neighboring school districts and how do we share that and what are the opportunities here in Ithaca that some of our neighbors might like to be able to access and use. And so that's the idea that we'll be talk that Lily will be giving you the report on and where we're headed on that. I want you to think something like PEK and PEK has what about 80 90 students now at TC3. It's a complete high school. It's a 9 through 12 program. Number of students participated in it. Students from other districts in in the area. want you to think in that kind of realm of a shared service where students from all over the region are participating in doesn't necessarily mean all day like BJ but where it's being shared uh among all of the
072districts here. I want to say it's not all about saving money but that's an opportunity as part of it. uh if there are on the operations side potentially a way to save money if there are ways other ways in sharing that we can save money that's there and that we speak to that in the report but I want you to understand it's not our first but it's something we're looking at and how can that happen and I know all of our neighboring districts are no different than you are struggling with the same issues of budget it and want to figure out if there are ways to at least do it as efficiently as they're doing it now and maybe more efficiently uh as they go forward. So, that's kind of a framing of where we've
073been and we've had a number of conversations among all of the districts. Uh Lily has hosted those at TST. Um Karen, I know you were in one I mean in the gymnasium with what a 100red people present 80 to 100. I don't want to say it's 80. All right. 80 some people. Um so a lot of people in the region who are interested in this who want to know about how we may share uh more things and it's going to take time. I don't want you to think it's going to happen tomorrow and everybody's got to agree to play in the sandbox together. All the different districts have to uh play in the sandbox together and that's going to take time and coordination. And I get you there to walk us through the the presentation.
074>> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> So Brad's correct in the spring we had a number of convenings and Trisha am I exceptionally love it. Thank you. Fabulous. So here are some photographs from from some of our sessions that we held up at TFT. We had folks from all nine component school districts that are in our regions. We had teachers. We had administrators, board members, community members, community partners, >> union representatives, etc. Um, and it was and yes, I did have 80 people stand in a circle and introduce themselves. But right we we do say um that the means must be representative of the ends just like Dorothy Cotton says if we are going to be in community with each other then the way that we gather actually matters. So it was great to get to
075know folks from Grten and Cander and George Jr. and Epica all together in Would you agree? >> Yeah. Um, at the heart of all of this is, uh, is the work from the Blue Ribbon Commission that you may remember from precoid, the pre-COVID days. Um, and New York State is taking a pretty, I would say, um, transformational look at how to shift teaching and learning for young people in the state. And at the heart of all of it is the culturally responsive sustaining education framework. And so you may be familiar with the portrait of a graduate which was recently proposed to the board of regents in Janu uh June July at their meeting. Um and this is pretty rare for the board of regents but they instantly adopted it. So this was based on lots
076of feedback and lots of work from the field. Um, and I will also share that um, Regent or I'm sorry, Chancellor Lester Young says over and over that your zip code, you're a child in New York State, your zip code must not dictate your opportunity. That's what Portrait of the Graduate Regionalization and the work that the New York State Education Department is doing. That's that's what we're going for. Shouldn't matter where you live, right? Every kid deserves great opportunity. The regionalization conversation, I think these materials have been in board talk, so you've had an opportunity to get to know some of the why behind it. Uh Dr. Jeff Madison, who was the district superintendent at TST both seats for many years. Big shoes to Phil. Um he is now the senior deputy commissioner, but number
077two at the New York State Education Department. he has really put forward a lot of the work around regionalization. Um, and it's been wonderful to have that connection, frankly, at at the data education department. And he's talked with our school boards association that Karen um and Emily are a part of and Erin was a part of for many years as well. So, we've been having lots of conversations about this along the way. Um, you can see the timeline. October 1, we submitted a plan. Um, it's really rolling. This is intended to be a document that is fluid in a lot of ways, right? It's really about implementation. And in our regionalization conversations, we landed on three big buckets. career pathways, operations and inclusive special education based on all of this. Some of the examples that
078are literally happen happening right right this very moment are brand new machining and manufacturing career and technical education program that's at cander shared transportation directors between cander newfield and indistrict special education programming that is operated started today in so these are examples of regionalization that are happening in real time Here is our manufacturing our machining and manufacturing um building. So I am I'm a pointer like I need to stand for my apologies. All right. Um so there was all of this incredible equipment that was in Cander, right? There's it's uh hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but only kids in Cander could have access. Now, machining and manufacturing, if you look at some of the statewide data um from um from all the labor statistics, these jobs are super ignorant, right?
079So, why not based on these regional conversations, Jeff is one of our CTE teachers and now he teaches away in Cander and kids from all over our region and from burn can now attend. So, we have 13 kids. Yes, they're still around. Sending our cats, Karen, we chat that out later. Um, and it's a it's a great example of taking what we already have and simply expanding it out so more kids have more access to academic opportunities. Um, the special education class in a component district, I took one of our students photos from earlier in the year, but literally it opened today. Um, which was very, very exciting. We have somewhat of a continuum that started at an um that's open to students from Ithaca, Athenica, Rotten, Ryden, etc. So, we're welcoming students into uh
080program. We don't have any more space in the call east campus, right, for more programming. And this allows students with disabilities and students without disabilities to have more opportunities to function together. And then another example that's happening literally right now is early college access. So we have opened a coser what's called a cooperative service agreement to essentially create a catalog that instead a dual enrollment course catalog that may be bisp is now. So, kids from all over our region now have access to to dual enrollment courses to earn credit while they are in high school with a catalog that just multiplied. Right? So, Newfield may have may not have the opportunity to offer chemistry 101, but Truman Spark went up. Right? So, now suddenly that's open. I want to give Karen a little bit of
081a moment to talk a little bit about how this could be powerful in the future in relationship to AP classes and some of the challenges that you all see here at Itha High School and kind of what may be possible moving forward. Not happening yet, but the possibilities ahead. >> Yeah, it was exciting just to take it together people throughout the region and start talking about things that were happening throughout. So, one of the things that just came about um for me that when people were questioning me was about AP courses. So, it'll be something definitely to look into and see and just as we are exploring other possibilities around the table of what that could look like um and just it again was really great to network and see. So then the following slides
082are um some of the actual items that our region has come up with to just begin with a regional transportation task force. This would really be about solving solving issues throughout our tri county area. Um did you want to say anything more about that one? >> Uh just no. I think it's interesting about the uh transport transportation task force and looking at it more closely and seeing how we could um possibly look at staff shortages um civil service barriers um and and other things. So I appreciate you bring this conversation to us in the region >> having an inventory of programming that's offered throughout the region. So I know um when I when I was here in Ithaca worked here for for 19 years fabulous place uh to be there were no uh there were
083no a programs there were no consistent agricultural programs um and um for those of you who know me I live on a large dairy farm uh my my uh my husband's a third generation dairy farmer and he he was like what's up with FFA, right? There's no FFA. There's never been FFA. Um that kind of programming then within the region could potentially be offered up for other kids, right? So rather than creating another position and trying to fund that long term, the possibility then becomes how do you access somebody else's FFA for those kids who are excited about that. I'm kind of all set. I kind of like heels and I'm probably not going to be wearing heels to any farms today, but um we've already started down this path and expanding inclusive special education
084program offerings. Um we've already started down this path as well, really opening up for all of our committee on special education chair people to have access within just that group of all of the openings throughout our whole region. So we might have a student who is a South Senica student and yet there may be room in Trumansburg at a particular for a particular student profile that may make sense and they can easily coordinate transportation with them. We want to do our region said that we want to do a lot more professional development around inclusive and specialized instruction. Um we're welcoming more students who are neuron divergent. We're excited about that. that makes our world a better place and we need more professional development and support in that. Um and then we get into some of
085the career academy work. So we want to understand the current status of where career development um and workforce development lies. What are people already doing right now? Um and then how can we expand that to ultimately create potentially careermies? PEK is a great example of this. And huge shout out to Karen because when we were preparing this, you reminded everybody, we already have one of these that it's pretty extraordinary. It's the first one in the state to be moved to a college campus. Um, and there are number there are seven pathways that that are already within PEC already. >> Board members haven't visited PEC yet. I recommend you do. I'd be happy. >> Yeah, you should see it. >> Number of classrooms at right at TC3 interaction with the college students. Uh it's it's a
086wonderful program. >> Okay, great. Um we're already working on a communication strategy regarding regional innovation. And um the last thing that I think was really interesting and Karen maybe you want to talk a little bit about this that something that was elevated was that folks want to do regional board of education sessions one time at least one time a year. >> Yeah. because um on a monthly basis Emily and I participated at TSC Boseman's SBA school board association and um prior to that it was Erin and I and there school districts all across TST Bose. So there was recommendation that some of the board training that we can have here across the board to include more than just reps going to ts OC's on a monthly basis but board members coming together and having the
087necessary training that unfortunately was always usually just new board members that had the um mandatory training for their first year but this is an opportunity for continuous training the board members So again, I'll end with um you know, my job as a district superintendent uh for the New York State Education Department is uh our mission is to be vigorous agents of change for greater equity and excellence for all children in New York State. I see regionalization as a possible actual actionable way forward to possible kids and we wanted to make sure that you all had some more information. We'd be happy to talk a little bit more about it. >> I'll jump in. Um I on the PTA council like two years ago, one of the main topics uh that we spoke about was the
088lack of like offramps at IHS who weren't planning to go to college and weren't kind of, you know, trying to follow that pathway and other opportunities to move into dual enrollment opportunities or um other uh career and tech opportunities. So can you talk a little bit about what I mean is already I think I like wasn't following totally about which things like IHS is already involved in or or what the like central like his add like one of the things that are you're most interested in like what what ideas come up >> we don't have an ad like said and though we have animal science it's a CTE which my daughter went to when she was FFA president um at the So that was I would say all of them are um BoseCTE. We have
089new visions of B tech. Um so they're they're housed at Boseies and I hear you know you saying your campus is up. So as you explore and grow and you don't have a place to do that you know that's when I look at Cander and think wow that's pretty cool now that TST builds these teachers there and kids that want to explore that program. I don't know if that helps like how do you share that information with them? >> I would be cautious because with Dion and I we have to worry about transportation. Our hours at the high school are different than other hours. So to commit to something that would be really difficult. There's a lot of domino effects that have to be explored and um a lot of it is to we operate
090in different hours as other high school students and we have a really large area um mileage area. So, >> I mean, that's one of the things we we talked about at one of the convenings was >> everybody's on a different schedule. And to do more of this, >> we're going to have to be a little better aligned one with the other. Um, and you know, that has scheduling issues for transportation, but it also has union issues as to hours and so forth. So that's part of why I said this isn't going to happen overnight, >> but we know the we know what the issues are and need to work on in order to provide that opportunity because that that manufacturing program at Cander might fit two, three, four, five, I don't know how many students
091from here who might really enjoy that and uh and want to be there. But there are programs currently at Boseies like criminal justice, culinary arts, cosmetology, exercise science which was previously exercise science now with new vision where students wanted to participate. It's usually 11th and 12th grade and there's an open house usually in the coral time where it's offered at the high school by the open house that they can connect and bring their families and go to the open house. Yes, we do do an assembly in the fall too and when the program studies comes out >> to talk about the programs at Boseis. So yes, I didn't answer that part of the question. Sorry about that. We now have a beautiful mural of our Boseies outside of our student services too. Um that is
092painted on the wall and advertising u not all but many of the programs so that kids know that there are other pathways other than um if they're if they don't want to go collegebound. And I would say many of our OC students are collegebound, right? >> Yeah. >> And and we've done some of this already uh when we had our German teachers talk about the um German trip and we have partnered with other school districts where they've come over here to do German lessons and we do it a lot with our athletics. just say that I think it's on your board report tonight that's regionalization where think I read that >> it's statewide athletics is the top item that's regionalized >> but in the future and in the near future there might be challenges around
093um transportation right or if we if all school districts go the route of EV buses right where are we going to go and charge up, you know, so that >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> So, thank you for that. before the further discussion on regional and moves us to uh item should be 10.2 uh policy 1500 public use of school facilities for second reading adoption. We have a motion. Anyone like to move that? >> Yeah, I move to approve policy 1500 public use of school facilities for second reading. yourself. >> Actually, it's first reading new. >> Um, but we are going to recommend that if we can get a um enough votes that we would like to do a first reading and adoption. We just need um what's the word? >>
094It must work. Yeah, >> super mature. But we have uh seven people. So like six folks. >> Yeah, we've talked about this >> very very very many times and there's only been pretty >> minor updates. So >> happy we can move this past the second reading with majority. Is that what we're saying? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I doubt that. if do you want to share a little bit about >> Sure. Sure. Uh I mean first and foremost we're really excited that our stadium is open Saturdays and Sundays to the public. We want to make I just want to say that our tennis courts are open. We're really working hard to make sure our resources are available to the community u for educational activities but to also serve the public good. Um, some of the
095other things we've looked at is a wave of costs uh for nonprofits if they are using our spaces uh during during the school day and during contract hours. Um, we're also looking at um in the policy uh we have a 10-day period, but we're also looking to be flexible with that and not always hold to those 10 days. Um, the other things we added, one of the things we added, and thanks Emily, uh, was we added an open space use section that's at the very bottom. Um, but we want to acknowledge that our open outdoor spaces, athletic fields, playgrounds, courts, tracks, and open green areas are essential extension of district facilities. Um, so we just wanted uh to share those new uh sections with you all. Yes, we have been working on this for a
096long time. We probably brought it to you all maybe five times. So, any questions at all? >> Just having trouble with the agenda tonight is so 112 and 113 are one and the same that we do. >> That's a regulation. Uh >> two different >> They're two different policies. >> Two different parts of the policy. >> Yes. >> But same policy. No. >> Well, you are. Okay. Sorry. So, so we're just talking about the first one. >> First one. Okay. So, follow the question on that then. Is it >> Well, I said one question. There was one uh item that was I don't have it open right now. Sorry about that. But it it was talking about that the superintendent could make decisions or could appoint somebody to like speak his behalf. I forgot the
097exact language, but I was just wondering about that part like who who can who can do that or >> it's yeah I I I am over a lot of the building use for the district. >> So I work with um athletics. I work with uh fine arts. I work to provide advisement on nonprofit profits. I consult with the superintendent, but uh yeah, I'm his design for for a lot of the building use functions. >> Okay. I just wanted to know who who the design was. >> Understand that more. That was my question. >> No worries. Yeah. >> Okay. So, I understand that we're going to >> I'll move it again, I think, and the other way. Then we can move on. >> Uh we have to do one. I think we have to >> You
098already moved it, >> but nobody second moved it and we changed the language. So, I'll move it one more time. I'll just say uh so I'm going to move to approve policy 1500 um public use of school facilities um for for potentially for adoption >> second. So Adam moves seconds >> discussion >> please. So we we had this policy out before. It was never we never voted for first meeting. >> It was just going back and forth. That's correct. Discussion. >> Uh I was I was asked to just uh create a lot of different revisions. So I think this is the first time we're coming to board with this. >> But there was a presentation for this. I think that the issue is that we were we kept getting caught up on the piece about
099using the track um and for a while we were talking about the um tennis courts. Yes. >> But then like that um kind of resolved itself because the district has to go and open up the track. So because of that we haven't made dramatic changes from before we just you know like which is why we thought that it was just adopt it because there actually hasn't been >> so we're just moving it for adoption now. >> Yeah. So we can do it on a first reading of the law terms. >> So shouldn't the motion be So Adam, did you say the motion is first reading? >> Uh well, I just kind of said for adoption, >> right? Because if we're looking for a super majority, then the motion should the wording should state first reading
100and adoption. I I'm asking clarifying questions. >> Oh, I mean that sounds right. You said we can we can approve it on the first reading with the super majority. So that motion should be appropriating. >> I'll move it again. >> I'm getting a lot of practice. >> I'm sorry. With a modification >> with a modification meaning I'll just say I modify to first meeting and adoption. Is that sufficient? >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. >> Second. >> So moved by Adam, second by Emily. Any further comments? All right, raise the question. All in favor? >> That passes with super majority wish now. >> Having trouble agenda's troubling tonight. Now we're moving on to policy 1500-R. Not to be confused with policy 1500. >> No. >> Okay. So now I'm going to move to approve policy 1500-R
101public use of school facilities for >> First reading and adoption. >> Second. >> So moved. Seconded by Emily. Any discussion on this? >> Call the question. All in favor? Okay. So be moved to 114. Uh and I think Dan, we come right back to you. >> Conveniently located. Yeah. Uh, safety plan. I'll I'll try to be brief as brief. I know this has been a long meeting. Try to be as brief as possible. Um, Trisha, do you want to put this up really quick for me? Okay. Um, I know you all heard a lot about the safety plan. Uh, so I'll try to be quick, but um, every year we're required to update the safety plan. This year, you go to the next slide, please. Oh, I can go to the next slide. Okay. Um,
102New York State uh Board of Regents has adopted two amendments. Um requires all school districts to update their safety plan. We're focusing on drills, emergency planning, terminology, communication procedures, and one of the big focuses for the state um this year is trauma-informed drills. Uh we want to make sure we carry out our drills in manners that uh create don't create stress. And the way we do that is we create advanced notification to families. Uh principles do that through newsletters um and many different other ways. But when we're doing our drills, we also tell the students that this is a drill and it's it's not a real emergency. This makes of course students panic less. Um and it creates a better educational environment for a drill. Um all right. This is some of the language that
103the state has changed from the typical shell. um that we will be adopting to our um shelter hold in place uh evacuation lockdown and hold in hold in place plan and also we'll be uh I'll be working closely with Carrie Burke and Shane Taylor um with athletics also working with ath uh afterchool programs about uh safety procedures um providing training to coaches and advisors and program directors and also uh making sure we have proper signage and memos. Another thing that we put in uh the safety plan this year was uh to be in line with uh Governor Hokll's extreme heat and emergency response. Um so we have in here is when uh we have language of when it's 82 degrees. Uh we want to make sure um that we take proactive measures like turning off
104overhead lights, lowering shades, operating fans, opening doors. Um we have already trained our all of our custodians with how to do this. We've also taken a year historical temperature data in all of our classrooms to find out where all of our hot spots are in all of our buildings, too. So that helps. And the ma the main hot spots are usually of course in September and in uh June. When it's 88° um we will relocate to cooler areas whenever whenever it's practical. This really impacts most of our buildings that have second floors. Most of our elementarymentaries uh that have se second floors like uh Fall Creek, South Hill, Bell Sherman, and Northeast. Um it does not impact of course um uh our middle schools would have have air conditioning the jam which has air conditioning
105and the high school which now has uh increased capacity to cool. Uh we'll provide some training around that as well. Okay, that's about as that's about as fast as I can go through all the updates for the safety. Any questions at all from anyone? And I know you've heard it multiple times. Should be clear there's no action item on this. So, right. So, u question. >> It's because I'm sharing it now because we have to we have to set up a safety plan hearing and we have to post it 45 days in advance. So, I'm showing you the changes that we met and the final safety plan before we work to post it publicly and create our um uh safety hearing. And does that mean that the piece that you said you were still working
106with Carrie on is going to be done before you post it by guard groups? >> Uh that that yes, I I'm working with Carrie on that. Yeah, I would like to um I would like to incorporate Carrie's feedback um before I post. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So I there's no further questions. I think we're done with that and we move on to >> athletic mergers. You've been so good. Uh >> um so I move to approve the athletic merger with Corning School District for the girls ice hockey for the 2025 2026 school year. Moved by Adam, seconded by Emily. Discussion on hockey. All those in favor. Okay. Regionalization is here. So then we move on to 10.6. I believe we have it. We don't have >> We have a >> We do. Yeah.
107Yeah, this one. >> For the record, >> we'll do Liy, assistant superintendent for business and finance and I will please introduce Mr. Dwayne Shunk from Inseroing Company. uh on a yearly basis by matter of policy practice and law we uh conduct an external audit by better known as a financial audit and fish is here to provide you with a review and I I have to say an audit review at the end of a meeting like this I'm sure it's welcome so yeah >> welcome I I apologize if I can stand in the hall that's okay we we need to get a better waiting room going here >> not a problem okay again so my name's Dwayne showing um audit partner with INSO. Uh happy to be here uh and and briefly review sorry review the
108results of the audit uh with you. Um overall the audit is uh a good strong a good strong result um on the audit and I believe you have in your board docs uh a copy of this executive summary um which I'm going to talk mostly from this evening um which kind of gives you the highlights of um of the audit overall. Uh so we're issuing an unmodified opinion is the technical term. It's a clean opinion means that we believe the financial statements are fairly stated, don't require any modifications uh to be fairly stated in accordance with uh accounting standards. We're also issuing the clean opinion on the district's internal control and compliance in accordance with government auditing standards. Um normally at this meeting, we would also be giving you what's commonly called the single audit.
109It's officially called the audit under uniform guidance which is an audit of the federal programs that the district administers. Um there are some delays at the federal level. Uh office of management and budget annually comes out with what's called the compliance supplement which is what we use uh to determine the audit testing the rules and regulations that we need to do as part of that audit testing. Uh that compliance supplement was due to come out in May. it's not come out yet. Um, so we're not issuing uh those reports yet. Uh, once that compliance supplement is issued, we'll take a look at it, make sure that it matches the draft uh versions of the supplement that they the federal government had given us. Uh, and then and then we can go ahead and issue those.
110Those reports are not actually due until the end of March. So, we've got some time. It's these reports that um that you're receiving this evening are the ones that are due uh to New York State Education Department. Um in addition to the um financial statement reports, you also will be receiving a management comment letter uh which doesn't have any findings in this year's audit and also notes the resolution of a comment from the last couple of years. So something that we had recommended uh was was resolved. And then there's also two documents with respect to the um extraclassroom activity funds. There is a report which shows all the balances of the various clubs. And there is also a comment letter which has some comments uh in it with respect to those clubs and with respect
111to the audit u procedures that we did in in there. Uh we're also providing you with what's what we commonly call a communication letter. Um auditing standards require that we communicate certain aspects of the audit with you at the conclusion. That's what that letter does. It's pretty much boiler boilerplate language. Uh nothing in there to be um too concerned about. Um page five and six of that executive summary has a couple of nice pie charts uh that I wanted to refer you to. Uh these charts are not based on any particular fund. These are district as a whole. Uh and they show uh the chart on page five shows uh generally speaking where the money comes from that comes into the district. Um and you know these numbers are probably not uh surprising to you,
112but the the district roughly twothirds of the district's revenues are from property taxes and tax items. a little bit less than one quarter of the revenues come from state sources and then the rest of the revenues come from operating grants, other sources like interest, refunds, things like that. Uh and then page six shows a similar pie chart for uh for expenses where the money goes. Roughly three quarters of the expenses of the district uh go to instruction. Um another roughly 13 14% uh go to general support uh and then the remainder uh goes to transportation um other which is things like interest on debt, school lunch program, things like that. Um also in that executive summary are several pages of uh trend information uh specific to the general fund. Uh I'll just mention a couple
113of the highlights in here. So the assets in the general fund at the end of the year uh were almost $53 million uh between cash investments uh and receivables and then interfund uh receivable as well. Uh that was an increase of about $3.4 million from June of 2024. Uh liabilities declined a little bit in the general fund about $1.1 million less uh than they were uh a year prior. And so as a result of that fund balance in the general fund increased by about $4.4 million. Most of that increase is um added to reserve funds is included in the restricted fund balance. Uh the assigned fund balance which includes the amounts that are appropriated for the 2526 budget. Uh as well as incumbrances. Uh that assigned fund balance declined a little bit. Uh and the
114unassigned fund balance increased a little about $200,000 from $6,311,000 to 6,55,000. Um revenues in the general fund in total increased about $4.8 million from 156 million to 160.8 million. Uh that increase um is mostly in property taxes about $4.1 million. uh of increased property tax revenue. Uh state sources in the general fund actually went down a little bit from 38.8 to 38.5 million. Uh expenditures in the general fund increased about 1.2 million from 155.1 uh to 156.3. And so again, you had about a 4 and a half almost $4.5 million increase uh in fund balance in the general fund. uh districts had capital outlay of 19.8 uh million dollars during 2425 and in the last couple of years um over $40 million uh in capital outlay for project uh was spent. Uh the special aid
115fund which is uh grant funded um had $9.2 million both in revenues and in expenditures. Pretty much the special aid fund generally speaking has zero fund balance because it's all related to grants. So the revenue isn't earned until the expenditures are are spent. Uh there is information in the executive summary about the reserve funds about the restricted bond. Uh I will mention on page 11 of the executive summary uh is a calculation showing the district's compliance with real property tax law. uh you're limited to uh your unassigned fund balance is limited to 4% of next year's budget and the district is at 3.85. So you're within that limit. Um and then finally, page 13 of the executive summary shows a condensed uh budget comparison uh schedule. Uh in total, the district had revenues that exceeded
116the final budget by about $6.3 million, which was uh 4% of the total revenue budget. Uh and on the expenditure side, the district had uh underspent the final budget by almost $9 million, about 5.3% less than the final budget. Uh and those are the highlights I want to pass along. I'd be happy to entertain any questions. Thank you. questions in the chart inside joke. I'm so happy to see you read that. >> That is hilarious. I I have no questions. All right. >> Uh in so much as there are no questions, uh we do have a resolution. >> Well, I don't I don't have it on my paper. >> Let me decision. >> I I move um motion to recommend acceptance of the independent audit report for the fiscal year end of June 30th, 2025.
117>> Second. >> Thank you. >> Well, there's been a little discrepancy on printed and which is throwing me off a couple times tonight. uh >> which >> uh so I think we're good then. So, >> well, I have a question that discussion >> um because I just wanted to I went back up at the um on page three and I know that in the past when the audit committee reviewed it and everything that there was some guidance on the extra classroom activities, the clubs and if a club is dormant for some time, >> right? All so I just wanted to follow up that we have followed it we follow through that if a club is dormant what happens to the funds >> right in in some cases yes that was resolved there are some cases
118where it's still not resolved. >> Yep. And and just for the community to know that um we do have community members on our audit committee and we have three community members and there might be a board member who participates on the audit committee today. >> So there there are unclaimed $48 there. Is that your question? There are there are inactive um clubs and what do you do with the funds >> from the inactive clubs if they've been connected for a couple of years? >> Okay. >> Hidden club reserve. >> I think has a question. >> Yeah. Be real. I promise. But I'm just working at the uh extracurriculars for LACS and I'm realizing I don't recognize any of the clubs that are reported on here and >> quite a few >> or and there are
119several duplicates for just the same club reported twice but with different balances. So >> I know I know LS is very difficult to track and we have no formal clubs but >> right >> I just thought I I felt that was good. I thought I should bring that up. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So noted. So I think we're ready to call the questions or no. Okay. We good? I all those? >> No, we're not. >> I just want to ask you what page are you looking at? >> Um the primary draft of the full report page eight. I mean two. >> So Dom has no >> got it. >> You bet. >> Okay then. Uh I think we're ready to raise the call the question. All those in favor that passes unanimously. >> Thank
120you very much. >> Okay. You're welcome. >> Yes. Section 11. Other discussion items. We do have dates. The 21st is facilities and finance. The 28th we have curriculum work session and a voting session when eight. >> Any other items board members like to add? Just as a note um for uh you Trisha for the curriculum committee work session we're going to change the start time to 4:45. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thanks so much. If there's nothing else to item 12. Thank you everyone.