001Good evening. Tonight is Thursday, May 22nd, the eve of the long weekend. So, um I hope everyone is looking forward to the extra days off that we have. Um so, um can someone make a motion to return to public session? Motion by Lorine, second by Bill. All this in favor 70. And before we begin, can we please rise for the pledge of 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. So, tonight we're looking forward to reviewing the code of conduct and um getting sort of an update on the student wellness policy and plans for that um for the future. Um that's about it. So, a quick meeting. Also, we're happy to be appointing a
002new position. So, we're looking forward to that. Um does anyone have any board announcements? I I just want to say we had the senior seminar ex interviews this week. Just a tremendous thank you to all of our educators and staff. The comments that came back from all the students were so positive and overwhelming at the educ the quality of their education, their experiences. Um so it's just something to be said that in the students eyes the teachers are doing something right. So that is pretty amazing. And one very interesting comment that I received at our table, Julia, I was with Julia and it's pretty appropriate with the phone issue coming in with the states is that they said um not having technology would help younger kids learn. So it was very interesting where they their
003opinion was of the few that were sitting at the table was that they kind of thought it would be an interesting idea to not have phones available and have less technology and chat GBT and because they they were concerned that their younger siblings were not learning in the same way that they were. So I thought it was an appropriate um timely conversation. But hats off to everybody because it was a it was a great day. Yeah, I second that. Definitely. It was great. Any other board announcements? No. Great. Ian, hopefully you're having a good experience at your internship. Yeah, it's been nice. Good. That's great. Where are you interning? Um, I'm interning at this law firm in Richfield. Oh, very. Excellent. Nice. So, we're going to move on to our first presentation. Great. um which
004is um Melissa Joyce will be joining us for and Lisa you want to start us off and in terms Thank you. Yes. Yes. So Melissa Joyce, my colleague from the business office is here tonight and she's going to discuss u updates and changes to for the 20 recommendations to the board of education for the 2526 code of conduct as well as the trienal review of our wellness policy. So I'll turn it over to Melissa. Good evening everybody. Thank you for having me tonight. Um we're going to start with the code of conduct review. Each year the district Oh, yep. Let's change the slide. Thank you. Each year the district is required to conduct this public hearing on the code of conduct. The board of education will be asked to approve the code of conduct for
005the 2025 2026 school year at the annual reorganizational meeting held in July. By presenting this tonight, this leaves ample time for the required public comment period. This code of conduct applies to all students, school personnel, parents, and guardians and visitors when on school property, which in includes school buses or attending a school sponsored activity. Thank you to all that participated on the committee for their hard work, thoughtfulness, and input. Stakeholders included board members Barbara Williams, Lorraine Gallagher, and Marjorie Skiff. Administrators Lisa Hurle, Dr. Julia Drake, Dr. Neil Leva, Alex Cassabona, Quan Stanbo, and Michael Pompa, as well as high school teacher Steve Delmoro, and high school student James Denoya. The process included recommended changes from our attorney, review and recommendations by the committee, and a final review with the attorney. So, code of conduct additions.
006Thanks to our high school teacher Steven Delmoro and student representative James Denoya, the committee acknowledged the need to add the prohibition of nicotine products as not all nicotine products such as vapes contain tobacco. Volunteers uh volunteer applications are completed in our visitor aware system and are approved by the school business administrator or the assistant superintendent for business. After confirmation that the volunteers agreed to adhere to school policies and is not on the sexual predator list, the committee agreed that visitors should not be allowed to wander around the buildings, but also recognizes that there may be times where it is not feasible for a visitor to be es escorted to and from their destination, but every attempt will be made to do so. These additions have been made to further enhance school safety for students and
007staff. code of conduct changes. Uh we replaced him her with they. Uh there was clarifying language around detentions as different forms of detentions apply depending on the age of the student. Clarifying language regarding the need to wear footwear on all school property including buses. And the attorney review did not require any substantial changes. uh code of conduct deletions. We removed the term response to intervention team and changed to dignity act coordinators. We removed caretakers from the definition of parents as caretakers do not have the same legal rights as parents or guardians. And then there were minor deletions to improve the grammatical read of the document. Any questions? I I have a quick question if it's okay Melissa. So the dignity act coordinators are they now is that a recognized position within the district? Have we
008have we established people who have that title? So I probably missed a map somewhere. No, that's one at each school and then I I'm the over the the supervisor of of that as well. Yeah. And is it the same as the RTI team? It's it's a little bit of a different role. I'm just surprised that we replaced RTI with dignity act. So, it's not replaced. Um like our interventionists are still focusing on providing interventions in terms of the dignity act. It's just people in other buildings that you know understand the parameters of how to investigate, how to look at student conflict. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Right. It actually just aligns better with the law. So the dignity for all students acts requires that there's a dignity act coordinator at every school building which which addresses bullying,
009harassment, and it had been in an RTI role previously and now we're No, it was just old language in the code of conduct that should have been changed and updated that because that's more of their role is I see. So it's not about the role application of the code of conduct. Just correcting the code of conduct. I got it. Thank you so much. You're welcome. We were fully compliant with all DASA law before before the election. Yeah. Yeah, gotcha. Thank you. Updating the code of conduct. Anyone else? I have a I like it. So, this isn't a question. It's more of a statement. Um, and just going back on in on my history. Uh, a a 35page document than to be co-signed by parent and student is daunting. And I know there's a lot of
010legal stuff in that. as looking forward going ahead if there would be any way to try and consolidate sections or try and shrink it some because that's the one thing that stands out is um I I currently have the same issue with my families where it's like the one thing you do is you go to page 35 you sign your name and yeah it's done and then when there's trouble it's like well wait a minute you're scrambling through what I sign if you could condense it some so it's more maybe less is more it's almost like you're a plant with that question or that statement we We really did talk about the organizational structure of the document and we even took time to go out to some other schools comparable districts in the region to
011look at how they're presenting and organizing their um codes of conduct. And while we agreed that this was outside of the scope or the purview of this stakeholder committee for this goround, Lisa and Melissa can tell you what we said about the future. Yes. Yeah. We definitely talked about implementing more changes next year involving more stakeholders to do so and that did come up about the length of the document and having to sign off on it and that people don't generally read all of that. Yes. Yeah. So, we are looking to yeah to revise keeping the language the same but just revising the format, the outline as well as um hopefully having like kind of a plain language summary document for parents more for reference purposes. Yeah. And even with our new website, there might
012be opportunities. Some districts have it laid out with tabs where you can sort of, you know, click on various things and then be required to click on them before you do your signature, etc. So, I like that. Thank you. Great. Would you like to move on to um the wellness student wellness policy? Yes. Oops. Okay. Okay. So, yes, the student wellness policy. So, why are we reviewing this tonight? Our policy calls for a three-year review cycle. Additionally, NISED and the USDA require a three-year review of the child nutrition program. However, it's important to note that in 2024, the New York State Education Department changed its policy to allow for an extension of administrative review to 5 years from three as long as the district is not considered high- risk, which fortunately KLSD is not. Wellness
013there. Okay. Wellness policies such as this one were adopted at a time where the main focus was on nutrition and physical activity. Um, it is now understood that a holistic approach to student wellness is invaluable and will be addressed in future revisions of this policy. The district recognizes the importance of physical activity in addition to healthy foods. Physical activity is encouraged through physical education and apps that can be used in class as well as recreational activities such as recess for our younger students and a large offering of organized sports for older students. This can be seen by looking outside the high school on any given day. Child nutrition program conforms to all USDA and NIAD requirements including offering the proper components of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat or vegetarian protein options with each
014meal. Students are required to se select a fruit or vegetable with each meal. Only USDA approved alle cart items are offered at each serving line. Healthy snack items must be pre-approved by the district and via a USDA smart snack calculator to ensure its ability to be offered. Training of all nutrition staff members is conducted prior to and during the year to ensure the latest regulations are implemented in an effort to maintain the wellness policy and integrity of our child nutrition program. Monitoring and review. New York State Education Department last conducted a review in 2021-22. Additional monitoring is performed internally each year. The self-re ensures USDA and contractual compliance. Monthly food and wellness meetings are conducted to enlist suggestions and share comments with the committee members. This is a direct line of communication to our food
015service director and provides helpful input from all regarding our child nut nutrition program. Organic and locally sourced products are sourced whenever possible. Additionally, surveys have been conducted with students and parents and compiled. The trienally trienal wellness policy assessment. KLC works with a consultant to be sure that our policy is compliant. Additionally, the consultant attends the monthly food and wellness meetings to provide insight and guidance to ensure that we are continuously improving our food service program and advise us on what other districts in the area are doing. So, exciting news that as a district participating in the federal national school breakfast and lunch program, our students will receive free breakfast and lunch next year. Additionally, we will be adding a pre-order option for high school students. The district anticipates that free meals for all and the
016addition of pre-ordering options will increase participation in our food service program. As a district, we have a commitment and obligation to support and nurture a child's health, well-being in all facets so they are empowered to be successful, well-rounded students and community members. For this reason, in the 2025 2026 school year, KLSD will bring stakeholders together to address expanding the student wellness policy to include topics like social, social, emotional, and mental well-being. In conclusion, our students wellness policy is functioning as designed and is benefiting the health and well-being of our students. We look forward to continuing our mission and enhancing our child nutrition and student wellness program. Thank you. Questions on this one? Thank you. Can you please provide a little bit of clarification around the governor's universal free school meals and what that actually looks
017like in our schools? Does this mean I I'll let you clarify that? Absolutely. Thank you. It will look similar actually during um 20 the 2021 2020 2021 school year 2122 school years there was free uh meals for all. So essentially it is any meal that is a complete meal. Mhm. So that is as Melissa had mentioned. So it would be any meal that includes a starch or protein as well as a fruit or a vegetable. So that is a meal. What it is essentially is those meals um are you know we can receive reimbursement from the federal and state government. So what the state is doing is they're going to require us to to um make sure that we qualify as much for federal and state funding as possible. And then the piece that is
018um we normally would um the students would pay for those paid meals. Now the state's going to cover that portion. So there is a a a webinar coming up that we'll be attending. Um for example, there's a program it's a C program where any school district that has 35% free and reduced price lunch um population in their school, they actually currently can do have been doing free breakfast and lunch for all. Um, so the state really wants to make sure everyone is maximizing those lists because then you you uh qualify for additional federal funding. But so essentially we will continue students will continue to have to swipe but they just will not be charged for a complete meal for breakfast or lunch and from a just practical standpoint when families utilize our portal. My recollection
019right now is that you put money in for full meals and separately you put money in for all cart. Am I right about that? Um, no, it's um you put money, you just put like a set number amount of money in there and then so meals are like 375 and that's just deducted from the account. Um, and then all the cart pieces um whatever the cost is for the individual products. So, it's not like a 10 meals or anything like that or No, but no, but I I believe that when you register for or when you put money in your child's account, your child can use certain dollars for full meals and other dollars for let's callate. So, what I'm trying to ask is will families still put money into the full meal account or
020are we no longer having families put aside money for full meals? So they would use them for alle cart he says alle cart but also some there are students who um do utilize a second lunch if you will okay um so that would not be free so it's one per day per student as well as if it is not a complete meal there are students who don't opt for whatever that is the meal of the day so um we are working like for example we want to ensure like in the high school we're going to have a deli and we want to make sure that's a complete meal so our students who want to have a deli sandwich can you know it would be included as a free meal but again they'd have to take
021a make sure they take a fruit and so yeah I just that's really fascinating um and very different and just this is kind of granular but my recollection is that the money rolls over from one year to the next in our school district so there will be families with balances sitting in that account for full meals and what I'm hearing is that like they can't really their kids won't really expend so I don't whether we'll have a plan to roll that money into the allocart line. We'll have to work on that. Yeah, we'll have to work on that. Ask families they want to exactly transfer those funds from um from the meal portion to the alle cart portion or if they want to be refunded and that process is um we'll have to work through.
022Yeah, we'll have to see how did I'm cur I'm curious during co when we were doing this do we have more food waste when we are doing free meal I worry that like just to be prepared for it we have to have maybe have more food prepared and then does it end up or do you start to figure it out Andy will in the beginning he'll prepare more meals um like the first couple weeks of school and then you start to begin to have trends and then you also know which days and which meals tend to have have trending um more participation. Yeah. I just hate the idea of like I love the I think it's a wonderful idea to provide the free meals, but I hate that like the the unintended consequence is like
023we're throwing away more food which feels terrible. Do we donate if are we able to donate food to like the not the food is we can't necessarily donate food but there have been programs like in the elementary schools for example where like they would collect the apples and bring them to orchard or to the um a question like horse farms and things like that. Um and there's been like a couple different programs like that where we've tried to see where we can um you know basically make use of those surplus foods and everything like that. But there's of course the rules of how long something can be has to be kept hot and those types of things, right? But hopefully once there's more data and there's more of an understanding of the trends, they can
024optimize to order and not and minimize that. It might just take some time. Yes. No, they will cuz that's their profitability as well. So yeah, Andy tracks that now too what you know what sells the most and what is not so popular. So he kind of has an idea going into it. Yeah. Um and then additionally with the um pre-order system um it's very customizable. So we're going to try initially to set it up where um a student can go in and select their meal, but they have to pick components to make a complete meal. Mhm. So that's a good idea. Yeah. And also I just realized I keep forgetting we have block scheduling and every student's got to have a lunch. So hopefully we'll have more students actually eating lunch. Eating. Mhm. Mhm. I
025will tell sometimes at 3:00 in one's homes get food before practice. I will say it was interesting in the senior seminar, one of the things that several students at our table, one of the questions is like what would you what recommendations would you make to students? And several said like make sure you take a lunch because so many people schedule through lunch and in the end it's really nice to have a lunch and I was like oh well good have a lunch. Yeah. Um, I'm not sure who can answer this, but in in the policy, the student wellness policy, there is a section that calls for the district to monitor and review the implementation and effectiveness of the policy on a periodic basis. And there are 12 11 steps outlined there. Do we do we
026do do we monitor and maintain any statistics around those steps that are outlined at the end of the policy? And if so, it's really wonderful to get this update on an annual basis or maybe it's every three years because it's mandated, but it would be good to see what we're actually seeing in the classroom. And I wonder if it would be a good agenda item for one of the meetings next year to just take a look at, you know, what what is our experience in this student wellness space? Yeah, if that makes sense. Yeah, it's actually it's our policy that requires us to do this trienal review. It is. And in our policy meetings, and I think perhaps I mentioned this during the update committee updates at the last meeting, this is sort of actually
027not unlike the code of conduct discussion. This is sort of a plan to just comply with our own policy. So we are required tonight to to accomplish this. However, there was also prolonged discussion around the reality that this policy is ripe for some refresh. Okay? And we probably ought to look around at what some other schools are doing because a wellness policy is a requirement for districts. But this policy morphed into something that is more of a conglomeration of a number of different philosophies and ideas that board members had over time trying to portray a vision of wellness. It's kind of outside the scope of what this was intended to be. As Melissa said, when these policies were mandated, it was more about childhood nutrition. Yeah. And now our policy, as you saw, contains things
028about technology use and many other things. So I think you appropriately observe like there are just a couple of questions around what what should happen with this policy and maybe it needs to be broken out into a couple of different policies to do justice to each of the topics. that's for now temporarily held here. Yeah. And I agree with that. I I just think to the extent that we're going to implement a policy like this, it is a good idea to have some self- measurement to to maintain our own accountability and to report out on that periodically. Yeah. So, I agree with you that it probably needs to dive in a little bit, but we probably also need to just report out a little bit on our findings. The other thing we talked about is
029that next year's review is an opportunity for us to start to align things with KLSD 2030. There's a lot in those pillars and and in those um documents that were put together with so much community input for us when we look at something like this, you know, how does it align with with this vision that we've now put together? Um and so hopefully the idea is that, you know, next year we'll be able to accomplish that. Great. There was too little time and too much to do. Yeah. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, Melissa. We appreciate you. I hope you all have a nice long weekend. You too. That takes us to um 8.01 public forum, which is there's no one here for public forum. Um so I move on to the consent agenda. Um, and
030I just did um want to recognize Jessica Kingsbury who's here um who is on the consent agenda. So, welcome. We're looking forward to meeting you. Would someone like to move the consent agenda? Sure. Move by Marjorie, seconded by John. All those in favor? Excellent. I don't have any gifts, so we go to future meetings. So for dialogue and discussion I don't know if there's any more discussion about anything from tonight wellness policy any okay great so future meetings next Friday uh at 9:00 a.m. There is a policy committee meeting in the district office conference room. On Monday, June 2nd, there's a facilities committee meeting at 4 p.m. in the district office conference room. On Thursday, June 5th, we will be joined by our uh tenure recipients and our retirees. I'm going start coughing. I need
031to um on June 12th, uh we will be here in the library for our board of education meeting. On Friday, June 20th, there will be a sustainability committee meeting meeting in the district office at 8:15 a.m. Friday, June 20th, there's a policy committing meeting policy committee meeting at 9:30 in the district office conference room. And on Thursday, June 26, we have a board of education meeting. Time still to be determined here in the library. 16.01 Superintendent's comments. That was a pretty official introduction. I'm used to that. Very good. Um just with obviously the with this weekend being Memorial weekend certainly just a reminder to us all for all those uh who sacrificed and gave you know the ultimate to the value and freedom of for our country and the importance of of community. So um
032to all of our community members who were individually um you know recognized in this uh weekend and to all those who serve. So just want to say thank you. Thanks everybody. Okay. A motion to return. Nope. Executive session. Sorry. Uh so would someone like to make a motion to go back into session? Um so by Rory, seconded by Bill. All in favor? I 70. Sorry. Sorry. Oh. Um for uh it's really board development, board self-evaluation. So for development u and with that we can vote on that. Did we vote? I can't remember. All in favor? Yeah. We're going into exact session and then we give you the time. Yeah. We'll adjourn over there. Go back to public and adjourn. Yes. Perfect. Great. Thank you.