March 10, 2026 - Board of Education Meeting

001Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. It's a very public for where it stands. Under God. Liberty and justice from. Get a motion to approve the minutes of the February 24th board meeting. So moved. All those in favor? Parliament recognition. Tonight, we would like to recognize, um, Jim Stutt, Um, for his many years of service at Onondaga Central as one of our, um, finest bus drivers. Um, there's always a good story. Um, um, uh, Jim, with the kids, not those stories, Jim. And, um, teaching them how to count, or teaching them their colors, or to read road signs on his scripts in school on the way home. And, uh, Jim's gonna be greatly missed, uh, uh, by, uh, the staff into felt like in his retirement, so, um, thank you for all

002the, um, Yeah, that you've done over the years, Jim, it's been much appreciated. I know Matt wants to say a few things, too. Didn't we have to let him? 7 or 8 pages yesterday, and I'll refer to those stories where I was sad. Now, gentleman's been in the district. a little over 12 years, um… This time has been very memorable movie, anyways. I do appreciate its, uh, humor and quick whiff. But the main thing I want to acknowledge about Jim is he has an incredible skill of dealing with the students. Um, I saw him when he was driving the big buses, but once you start driving the speed, especially these buses, it was amazing. he could make you, um, figuring out all the little… fork the children had, things that would ease their rights, um,

003maybe special bus rides for them. It was really amazing to see him pull that off. He committed to share their stories. different ideas you have, different ways you made it work. Um, I will wish I had, you know, I get along good, but not very good one being had, so… Definitely won't miss that skill set and the puzzle he ran, and uh, appreciate all he done for myself and the district. Access, okay, sorry. Um, I just want to say, Mr. Dim, you still, till this day, my favorite bus driver. There's the jokes you would tell, how you connect with everybody on the bus, no matter… how much trouble they caused, or whatever they were doing silly being kids. You'd always find a way to make peace with everybody, and I really appreciated that. Thanks, Max.

004Anyone else? No one wants a roasting. No, it's just… Jim, come on up, I got a token of, um… Uh, the district's appreciation for you. Um, to say thank you and, uh, wish you, uh, wish you well on your next adventure in life, and we have some refreshments for everyone. Thank you, sir. We do take a pause for a couple minutes, and then anyone who wants a cookie or a water, We get up, and then those of you who want to stay for the rest of the board meeting, you can. or those who want to leave after we have, um, pause for refreshments. It's up to you, so… Well, Jim, let's get a cookie. I'll be leaving, so… Don't write this quick! That's stress. All right, we will resume. Um, next item on the agenda

005is budget update, Joe. Okay, so the last two meetings, we've had more of, like, a focus and something coming up on the timeline. This is just kind of, like, update, so anything has been finalized over the last two weeks, or anything has been submitted to get a little bit closer as we work through our numbers. So this one is just an update, as opposed to more new information. So, as a reminder, our aid is still at 1%, no updates until we get the governor's run. Um, I mean, we've had a little bit smaller so far, there's a little bit upgrades. Okay. TRS is now finalized the number that is going to be used for the employee population rate is 8.24. It's no change. CARE Consortium is going to vote to revitalize at 10%, so we

006were in that range of 9.5% to 10.5. I'm happy to use a 10% increase, and without years looking at somewhere between 10 and 11. The recommendation, actually, for this year was 10 and a half to 10, 9.5, 9.5, so by going half glass, the occupation is going to be a bit higher next year. Uh, the district insurance came in at 8%. Workers' Comp was down, our experience rating actually got a little bit better, so it offset higher increases on the liability umbrella coverage side of it. And no changes, again, since we last met on BOCES. One of our items we were going to discuss tonight, but without having a form, it's not something we can vote on, is the proposition, so at the end of this presentation is what the propositions will look like. Um,

007and then we just talked about last time, initially started off with… 5 gas buses and 3 electric buses. We did get confirmation last week that we did receive the NYSERDA funding for the electric buses of $714,000, so that is… It's now there, instead of… so we thought it was going to be. One of the discussions we had had was whether or not to propose the electric buses, and we were leaning in the direction of not proposing the electric buses in this budget. But then we received the grant, And we're like, geez, we're back in that position, we have to put that out there. Um, uh, because the community would have to accept the buses, then that would be us accepting the grant. Um, and then with… with that, um, there's also Um, $65,000 for each

008charging station and infrastructure to put them in. That would also be another expense, but that would be the 65 times 3 would be the other portion of the money. that would come along with that. So with the NISDIV voucher, the $714,000 is point of sale, it actually goes to New York Plus sales. If we did the infrastructure, the district actually needs to front it to bill $200,000 additionally into the budget for the infrastructure, and then we get reimbursed on that volunteer. So, with the propositions that are at the end, Um, we need a majority of the board, not a majority, just to have a meeting. We have a majority, um, to have a meeting tonight. We just don't have a majority to vote on that. We would need five folks, not at the 7. on

009the proposition. So we're going to have to table those later on in the meeting. Unless, um, someone comes in late to the meeting. So, when we say infrastructure, that's just the chargers, but is that, like, the lines that's being upgraded, or something like that? No, no. We should have enough electricity for, I think, 2 or 3… we have enough electricity for 3 buses. We don't have enough electricity for the… for the… full fleet upgrades, so it would just be tagging on to what we have. maxing out what we have power coming in right now, from my understanding of it. Uh, so… We got some feedback back from the state, which was surprising, because they weren't supposed to look at the vouchers until 2027. They kicked it back to us, and the reason for the kickback

010is they wanted it highlighted in the attachment from National Grid that says we don't have enough power, which is in there. So, we resubmitted the application again today. So, but those aren't supposed to be, uh, reviewed until after March 1st of 2027. But we'd already received some feedback, so I'm still working toward that, and if anything changes and we were to get the waiver even sooner, that day Craig and said no. And, you know, it's, uh, I definitely… we don't have to purchase these bushes for at least 2 years. When we do vote on events. Should that, um… proposition be reworded to allow for the deduction or a addition, however you want to call it. for the cost of electricity, it's going to go into this, because it's kind of being blind to the general

011public that Hey, no, we're getting buses, but… It's information I think we would need to share and get those estimates. That is what the… that's the proposition that the Bot Council put together, though. This is the legal… verbiage, which may include cost of gas. No, but that's… It's been the same across the board. And I think one of the selling points was in two years, almost 2 years ago, was we would be saving on fuel costs, but there was, um, I'll say an anecdotal study put out, um, by Naples School District on Facebook and talked about their, um, electricity expenses and how much they went up. that I thought was very interesting. Yeah. And, uh, and it was put out by, I think, the business administrator and the transportation director. Is that correct? Thank you

012for sharing, Jason. Yeah, sure. I think that's where I… Yeah, I'd look it up, it was shared that. So that was an interesting perspective from a small district, um, similar to our size or smaller, and much more rural than we are, so… Um, yeah, it is… it is a… it is a expensive… And like Joe said, the, um, uh, the first part of the grant money goes right to New York bus sales. The rest of the money would come from us buying the buses, and then getting aid back on it, so we still have to fund the money through bonding to do the second part. pay for the $1.3 million. Did the 8 would cover the entire… all three months. Well, that's difficult to figure out the electrical costs, because in addition to the actual

013electrical charging, which part of which we get from our tax base. cost of electricity, part of it going up, is just the general strain on the grid, is my understanding of it right now. So that additional cost that our taxpayers are bearing, but at It also depends on what power metering, so if we're on top of metering, plus garage or not. If we are, I think… It's gonna matter, especially in the winter. And how much electricity we use is going to vary based on what fruits we use for the most important as well. And uh… at the legislative forum that Joe and I attended a couple weeks ago, Um, the electric buses came up again. Um, much to the disappointment or chagrin of the two elected officials out of 8 or 10 that showed up.

014Um, and there was some discussion where they were talking about Um, and publicly said that they didn't think, uh, the electric buses were going to be feasible. In the timeline, but that was the most public comment that I've heard from one of our elected officials. that they said that, but I have not heard any traction in Albany, where they change the timeline. for 2027, or the timeline for 2035. So, um… And like Joe said, the, um… on the waiver piece, the community, um… folding down, um, purchasing of electric buses is only worth 2 points. When we can't purchase any bus without community approval, that should be an automatic We have an extension to the timeline, so… We'll keep pressing forward and, you know, presenting information, um, that we have to the community on electric buses,

015and doing our due diligence. We know that it's not feasible, uh, right now. But we have to put things… bring things forward until… the state changes legislation. So, no changes to… You know, this look-back slide, just of where we are with respect to decline in enrollment, which we know is exacerbated even further if you go back a year or two, that number jumps from, like, 60 to, like, 100. for the tax monthly limit, as a reminder, in the last meeting, we landed on, we're building around, currently, at 2.5, so at the last meeting, that said TBD, so all assumptions are at 2.5 and 650 revisited. Once we have a finalized budget, we need to determine how much reserves and fund balance are going to be used to balance the budget. So still to be determined,

016no real changes here. Um, as of right now, the budget-to-budget increase is $816,000, I believe. $861,000, excuse me. Um, and so what's the difference? The difference is in most codes. So, if you're looking at our contractual obligations, meaning anytime anybody who comes, basically, in the district, doing any type of work, is not an employee of the district, and then even some parts of that, such as travel expenses or in the contractual codes, Salary increases are $375,000 budget. Uh, benefits, uh, $136,000, debt service, $254,000. And then supplies, equipment, and POCES have some offsets, there's some highs and lows, so they kind of net each other. It comes in at $23,000. Currently, as budget stands. Um, in the last meeting, we also talked about where it is right now is the difference between our revenues and expenditures.

017I highlighted the yellow because there was a slight increase, I think about 7%. Last meeting, and this meeting with some new information. So, with everything currently as standing, and all of the current retirement positions in the budget, the budget-to-budget difference, it's $2,063,108. We talked about this in the last meeting, if we were to, um, look at the efficiency and staffing, knowing that we had offered the retirement incentive, and reallocated position and staffing you didn't fill 3 positions. The total budget would go down to $27,804.082, with a potential Salaries, for tomorrow. Uh, TRS… PRS, um… And it's kind of like a… kind of like a… like a… Social Security, hypothesis. Um, if I took out those differences, that would bring down the budget budget difference to $1.6 million from 2, so it's just the difference from

018here at $2.63, and then taking out what the total savings could be on those 3 positions of $420,000. Each position that's filled, this is the savings, this is a lookout, again, just a reminder, we talked about this in the last meeting, if we filled all three positions, it would cost the district $267,000, so over 3 years in total savings to our budget is $834,000, assuming we're hiring a brand new staff member at 71-0 experience. to our propositions, this is what the legal jargon will look for our propositions. Proposition 1 is the budget. Notice there's no dollar amount, because the propositions, actually, the budget isn't submitted until the propositions are printed, so our propositions need to be printed four times within 45 days of the vote, so the first printing of this will be in the

019first week of April, and we're looking to have the budget finalize around that same time period, so there's no dollar amount That actually is the way it looks, and actually, we do put it in the dollar amount that they promote. The second proposition is for the library, for our Honor Free Library. Um, their increase is $1,950 year-to-year, so that goes through us as well. And then the bus propositions, so this is how it currently reads when our bond council put these together. Um, the question was brought up last year, why was electric first? So when we did that vote in December of 2024, it was because that was when the funding was available, and that's what we were trying to push that out, so we could make that timeline. So, based on where we are

020today, the information we know today, the recommendations still, I think, for the fuel buses right now, Um, it just empowers not currently there, and… There's a lot of unknowns still that we're aware of, so the second bustle proposition would read, And this isn't something we'll finalize tonight, Proposition 4 would read, if Proposition 3 does not pass, meaning… If Proposition 3 passes, and Proposition 4 is not employed. So, it wouldn't be possible to pass both could have a proposition for both gas and electric, even if the proposition, say the vote for this one went, like, 12 to 4, it still would automatically fail if the gas… if the gas brought passed. So, when we did it last time in 2024, it was reversed, so we went for the… electric first, and obviously the result was overwhelming

021support of the gas buses and not electric, so we heard that, and we wanted to make sure that that was the way that that was situated. are to do for next steps. Um, still, the budget's still changing every single day. Um, I had different numbers. since I put this together and finalized it at 4 o'clock today. It's just… it's constant. It's… One of those things that's ever-evolving. We had a student who, um, just enrolled who was going to a charter school. So, it's the address is confirmed, those are dollars that need to go into the budget to the charter school that's who is attending. Both these programs, things like that, so… We want the numbers to be as close as we can, knowing that our budget is our guide, but it's also fluid. So it's

022the… it can't exceed what things are going to change, and we know that, so the closer we can get it now, we try to get it as Most things we can during the budget transfers in the future. Bill, when we talked about just the fluctuations in enrollment, Um, Joe mentioned the charter school, then we had two other students. enroll, one goes to a special ed program, the BOCES, and the other one is in the general ed class here. So the charter school and the BOCES Blueprint. Those are all, um, you know, we have to account for those in this year's budget. Um, but then account for them, assuming they stay in next year's budget as well, too. So, you know, when we look at building our budget, and I kind of bring that up and

023emphasize it, is we never want a zero-based budget, because we don't want to run out of money. And we want to, um, always end the year with a fund balance. So, number one, so we are operating, uh, money for the first couple months, or two and a half months of school. And then we always have a budget that's built on to absorb changes in student placements for special education. That's one of our highest costs. And, um, students will begin. And then alternate programs. Uh, they come up that students may need to attend to best serve and meet their needs. So, the superintendent and I checked before this meeting, just trying to get the order of the slides right, and that he had questions, which he was confusing, so I wanted to take it back to

024this one, because I wanted to duplicate that slide. This one right now is currently, as the budget stands, $861,000. So, if we go back over to this number and… and capture this potential savings of that $420 could actually bring to the difference between budgets right now to $400,000 on a $27 million budget. Jenicus, um… much better off than we've been in recent years. We've been bringing it down, but when I first began, you know, I think I've worked with my fourth budget, it was, you know, over a million, and I think we got it down to, like, $600,000, so… We're trending, I think, in the right direction, but that was the intent of our retirement incentive. And, yeah, and last year, Last year's operating budget, when we were putting this budget together, Over the past

0253 years, we had grown our fund balance and reserve plan. Um, we grow… we grew that to right around $1.8 million. And we knew that that wasn't sustainable. So, last year, it was actually 2 years ago, uh, the board and the school district decided to Uh, offer a retirement center for teachers that were past eligibility under TRS rules. And then, um, this year was for teachers that would first become eligible in TRS rules. Um, with… with the… with the caveat that we don't fill those positions, And when we look at the district, and Mr. Mumford has some of his… some reports, then we've been looking at, um, enrollment reports at elementary. Um, with the two elementary principals, with Mr. Swanson and Mrs. Kilmore. You know, overall, we have a general trend in the district, and

026we're trending downward in enrollment. Um, you know, the historical peak was, I think, in… 2009, 2010, with 779 school-age students in the district, but that doesn't mean they were all in the district. Um, we've seen a steady decline since 2013. Um, well, 13. Um, it's right up to 2026. you know, currently this year, we have 739, um, uh, school, um, students, which represents approximately a 20-24% decline in enrollment. Um, uh, from… 2009-2010, Mr. Mumford's report, or one of his reports goes back 14 years. Um, on the 7th… the 7th through 12th grade group has seen the most significant reduction. Um, in 2017-18 as an example, there was 430 students in these grades. However, early in 2026, the numbers are at 2. 25 to 2… or 325 to 330. In grades 3 through 6, Um, uh,

027at Wheeler remains relatively the most stable over the years. Um, but has fluctuated in the downward trend a little bit, with this year with 230… Uh, three students, um, uh… Uh, currently, and then Pre-K to 2 group has seen a decrease. Which, um, unfortunately, it's not surprising in terms of the demographics with younger people not having children. Unless younger people having children. is a trend that we're seeing across the state and across the country, with 229 students at its peak. And then 2000… in 2016, And then to, um, 181 students currently, right now. Um, so population is declining, and we go back several years ago, We had made a commitment, um, to reducing some class sizes in 2007. 17 or 18, and we added some positions, we had some larger grade levels. in, uh, Rockwell

028Elementary, we added some teachers, um, as well as then we added the pre-K program that we currently have today. we dropped the 4410 program a couple years ago, went to a straight, um, UPK type of program, um, to be able to serve more of our students. And we have the UPK program built into the budget for next year as well, too. We have a… we have a commitment to that. If state funding goes as it is, it's going to be a more straightforward funding for EPK next year. Um, much healthier financial picture. All students will be, um, Uh, provided the same amount of aid, but whether you have 40 students, or you had 30 students, it's $10,000 per child. If we remember conversations from last year. the, um, uh, the first number was 10,000 a

029student, and then you got to a certain number, and the rest was, like, 7,000. Don't know how they come up with it. Um, it didn't make any sense, but that's how they were doing the funding. So, you know, this is, you know, when we get to it, Um, you know, in terms of when we're going through it, we're having conversations as an administrative team. The administrative team having conversations with their, um, people in the building, the department chairs, team leaders. um, uh, you know, some hard decisions. We have an opportunity not to fill some positions. Um, uh, and… you know, it's a time to take advantage of it, but there's going to be things that, um, will be impacted, class size. So, um, and you got different scenarios of what those class sizes will look

030like. Um, you know, just as an example, Current class sizes right now in pre-K? are, um… 14.5, you can't divide the kid in half, so it's 14.15. In kindergarten, our 12 and first grade are 12. and second grade are 17. in third grade are 20. Uh, in… 4th grade or 18, 0.7, so really 19. Um, uh, 5th grade, our 23.7, so 24. That's been a class we've been monitoring. If you remember back years ago, we had made a decision to try to keep small class sizes up through fourth grade. Um, uh, we have found this year challenging that, um, Uh, the 5th grade level, because there's basically 24 kids in the class, Um, so that's been on Eric and his staff's radar throughout the school year, and the challenges that that has presented. And then

031at the, um… Uh, the 6th grade level, there's 15 kids per class. If we were to reduce, and this is just a model, We could have it where, at the elementary level, class sizes would range in Rockwell, If we were fully staffed in pre-K, Um, fully staffed and fully, um, full classrooms with 18 kids per class for the TA. If we go above that, we would have to hire an additional TA for whatever group went above that number. And then, um, 16 students at kindergarten. And this… in kindergarten and pre-K, on the attachments are only projections. If I break them down to the actual enrollments, The actual enrollments are less than that right now for pre-K, and then the anticipated, um, numbers. Um, first grade is at 16, second grade would be at 17. Um,

032third grade is at 17, 4th grade would be at 20. 5th grade would be at 18. And then, um, 6th grade would either be at 24 if we move staff around to put a fourth section in there, that would drop back from 24 to 18. So, either of those connotations, you know, in terms of where it looks like at the elementary level, And, um, uh, and then there's impacting on… the science position later on, Mr. Lumford's put together some information that he's going to share with the board. Um, in terms of not filming yet in the science position, and the choices we have to make within the pastor schedule. And then choices for, um, whether students take, um, college biology. at our school, or where they take college biology at OCC, and then… What else

033did they pick up to balance that schedule in the morning or the afternoon for college biology? Any questions on that? Any questions on budget presentation? All right, superintendents report. Uh, we spent a little bit of our day, um, uh, Board Docs was bought out by Diligent, so we're transitioning over to a new platform for our board meetings, our policies, what it's going to look like. It's a modern version of what you're seeing now. Um, some features. Um, so we're going to be doing that. We're working on that timeline, uh, today was, I think, our second meeting of, I think, a half a dozen between now and the end of… before the end of the school year. We'll be having, uh, um, uh, training videos for the board members, so you'll be able to get on

034there if you want a a live, uh, um, uh, version, video version, we can do that, too. But right now, they're offering, um… 2 to 10 minutes, uh, on each. And from a user standpoint outside of the administrative users of the district office, I think it's going to be pretty straightforward. from what it looks like right now on the platform. Uh, I just attached, um, uh, the handout for the board. I will go over that with you. Um, if there's questions you see from that handout from the data-driven decision-making, from, uh, the legislative forum. That's in there, too. It has some of the electric bus information in there. It also has some information in there about… the overall decline in school age population across the, um, Bo season in the Cinebrick area, which is about

03553 districts. I think it was… do you remember the younger Joe? I don't remember. I thought, yeah, somewhere in the 20,000 range of students lost in the greater Central New York area. Um, so the declining enrollment is not just hitting us. It's, um, hitting our neighbors, too, um, as well. And then the school industry series, I attached that, and we're going to be having two of our, um, Uh, staff attend that. And, uh, what they're looking for is a commitment for two people to carry us through those meetings. And bring that information back to, um, uh, the schools, and we're looking forward to seeing what that, uh, looks like. is the portrait of a garage by transforming public STEAM education. And you can see within that attachment, what they're looking at. From there. Today, uh,

036Mr. Lumford and I met with our student board members. Thank you. I know you both need to leave for rehearsal, so… We'll try to, um, keep going as quickly as we can. Uh, conversation we had today was about the selection process from last year. on student board members. Um, if I can, Abby, Abby did say she would like to continue next year, which we weren't… I'm happy… and that was our design and the plan, was to have a senior, and then bring a junior on, um, uh, in their junior year. So there was always someone experienced with a new student coming on board, as if you remember, last year was our first year with the legislative requirement to have at least one student board member. We chose to go with a junior, and a senior.

037So then, um, one would have a two-year… there would always be someone there with some experience. So, looking forward to, uh, between now and, um, the timeline of when we have our budget bulk and our selection, we try to align that last year. And my recommendation is to align right along with the vote for school board members. then we would have the selection of the student, um, completed by that time frame, too. um, students would have a time frame that are current. sophomores that are interested in becoming a board member, Um, seeking out applications from them. And they would become our board members starting, uh, July 1st. When, uh, Maxwell graduate and will be graduated, and Moving on to another nice adventure. Just for your information, um, uh, this is our, uh, agenda. It might

038be tweaked by then. We have a lot of, uh, good workshop options coming out. Um, uh, some AI, AI in two fashions. Um, think tech is an online, um, testing program that's at the high school right now. that provides a platform to assign kids homework assignments on their Chromebook. that, um, we're the state assessments, so when we go, um, kids start taking assessments online, it's not the first time for maybe the sixth time that they've navigated the tools. for the online testing piece, along with… the, um, uh, the tools for teachers that go along with analyzing the assessments and providing feedback. And then, um… We also are having another workshop on for EDU, which is a… Um, um, another AI program. that, um, will, uh, help teachers generate lesson plans. that are aligned with, um,

039pedagogical practices. instructional practices, They're research based by the Thoughtful Classroom. And Harvey Silver and his, um… his associates, and then, um, uh… training for the bus drivers from noon to noon. maintenance and, uh, grounds as a training. From 11 to 1, um… some time for the teachers for building meetings. Um, as well as, uh, some time to collaborate through lunch as well, too. having your questions, that's all I have. Alright, administrative staff reports, business office, go. Uh, for 9 class, the district has earned almost $185,000 of interest, 100 of which is from our reserves, $85,000 from the general fund. Our food service profit for the month of January was $5,354, so year-to-date, we're at about $27,000 in total from the whole program, which is 38% higher than it was last year. So, still going well,

040and looking forward to finishing off our new kitchens in the capital project. That's all I got. Question for Joe? Phoenix team. So, uh, start off Phase 2A, Over there at the IA building, it's going great. It's underway, uh, my wish has been done afterwards have been stopped. That's a great thing. Also… Uh, Auction International is live right now, so anything that we're gonna dispose of, we'd like to auction internationals first. A lot of people were asking me about it. It's live and up and running. It's on there for 2 weeks, but it's all taken care of right now. Uh, for grounds? We're, uh, sports season has started. I wanted to get outside and down outside, so… A workhock, you know, was putting up ratting cages, this, this, that, all that good stuff, put sand in

041the sandbox for the long jump. All that stuff is working on right now. Uh, maintenance, doing work orders, getting ready, we have fire inspections tomorrow, so we want to make sure we're on point with everything. She tried the whole picture, it's your emergency lights, all that good stuff. Um, and then, uh, custodials is doing their thing, as usual, keeping the building clean and safe for the kids, and uh, covering activities on the weekends, so… That's all I got for you guys. Any questions? Transportation. We are definitely enjoying the, uh, break in the weather. much more over the drive on these roads, and once it's snowing ice, so… that's working out very well. Our biggest thing right now is, uh, just the staffing, as everybody knows. garbage shortages, we haven't caught up with us a little

042bit. Um, so I really just want to… thank my crew, um, also the parents in the district, and Teachers Net is… We're constantly rotate, too. Mechanics, sometimes myself, so… Just want to thank everybody for their, uh, understanding sometimes around a little bit late, your different timelines and that, so… I just want to thank everybody. We'll keep bringing them in and out of school. Consuming services to Treasury. So, we've been participating in a skills group facilitated by the Mid-State Partnership to support our special education Performance Plan Indicator 8 for next school year. Um, that indicator is parent and guardian survey that the district has to send out, and it's on a 6-year rotation, unless we don't meet our goal. And it collects data on parent perspective of the IEP process and services. So our team is

043scheduled to engage in that process for next school year, and the targeted skills group is focused on helping us to be our targeted parent number through New York State. Also, Rob and I have heard this week that there's been progress on our pursuit of an on-site mental health clinic. So we have a meeting set up for next week with Anna Dog account at Liberty Resources to talk about the capacity that they might have to work with us and support our students. Giger, what was the percentage? Um, that we needed to participate for the survey from parents. It's over 50% for us, because we're a small school district, so our… I know it was higher, and historically, we've had pretty significant challenges getting that number. I think it was my first year on, um, we worked

044really hard to do that, but we didn't. Um, we've made progress towards that, so I'm excited about kind of formulating our outreach plan and our plan to kind of Get that number. That's been a challenge. They've shortened the survey path, so I'm hoping that with the short survey, that New York State is putting out, there's only 13 questions, as opposed to 25. That may happen, so… A rock wall. Good evening, everybody. Um, our pre-K registration is up to 31 students as of this morning, so we've officially surpassed the current number of students we have enrolled this school year. Um, so at least we can anticipate a larger cohort than we have right now. I don't know how large, but if it keeps trending in this direction. Yeah, a lot of kids, so that's always a

045good thing. We have our state visit for our quality assurance protocol from the state on Thursdays, we're prepared for that and to ask if, um, you know, lingering questions, get some feedback from them about how we can strengthen our program. It was a very good time. pleasant experience when we went through this last year, which is something that we started doing since we received the expansion grant from Steve. requirements. Um, we have our Celebrating Music in Our Schools Month in March, so we have the high school band down here last Friday for a morning program, um, doing a little preview of some of their selections for us, which was great. This is all Disney songs, and so our Rockwell students really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. They also kind of surprised us by learning

046all of our Rockwell songs also, so they were able to play all the accompaniments to the songs that we've seen. Um, and then this Friday, we have some Irish dancers coming, so we're going to be continuing to celebrate music in our schools all month of March. Um, and other things going on at Rockwell is we're in the middle of our data meeting cycle, so I've been meeting individually, one-on-one with teachers, um, to check in on our progress towards the goals that we set at the beginning of the school year, and those are going very productive. We even got to have some outside yesterday. Um, so pending your questions. That's it for now. Thank you. Runner is for sponsoring. Hello! Uh, Wheeler, I have a few things, uh, after a field trip going on. 6th grade's

047going rock climbing. Uh, they want, uh, they're split up three, uh, East Pasadena individually, one once a day, next… 17th and the 24th. Uh, to, uh, downtown. I'm gonna go next week, and… test that out myself. Um, drama this week, gonna be going to the Syracuse Symphony. Um, I believe it's called Mindy Gate, so approximately 80 students have been going there Thursday. Um, all the clubs, uh, mentioned before are still going. Drama, intramurals, Uh, the STEM Club, Character Club… everything's functioning as well, and the kids are excited, I'm excited to report that they are going outside again, so that's… it's been a big… promotion with the weather. Hopefully we keep that going in a positive direction. Other than that, Any questions? Oh, we had two firsts. for Friday, uh, it was great. We had our

048first Parent Friday, so that was awesome. And we had our first teacher visit Friday from some visitors from Ronco, so… There's a couple other things planned as we move forward, so stay tuned for that. Questions? Thank you. High school, Stormford. Good evening. Um, so I have, uh, some information for you. There's a lot of information in here that Mr. Price and I put together, along with the teams. Uh, department chairs, And the teachers as well. Um, I'm not gonna go over all of this information with him. Uh, but it is information for you guys to review, and then obviously, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions once you can do this. Um, there is, like I said, uh, several, um, different packets in here. Um, the first packet, as you can see, is

049just a board report. It's a summary of what I planned on speaking about this evening. Um, to kind of go over, uh, what the impacts are with the, um, Uh, 3-year academic assessment analysis. Mr. Price had asked me, um, to kind of go over all of our assessment data from our 7th and 8th grade, uh, ELA and math. As well as our API and Science, and all of our Regents exams. So we did a 3-year look back. with the information, um, and the information in there is charted in each of the graphs there for you. Uh, so an overview, uh, the strongest area of strength was our math department. OCS consistently outperformed the state in math. Regions 2 algebra achieved 100% proficiency in 2024-25. While Grade 7 has seen a decline from 86% to 71%

050in 2025, it still remains 15 points above the state average. Uh, so our math is our strongest area. Uh, based off of the data analysis, uh, that we did. Uh, English Language Arts, middle school ELA saw an increase in 2025. Um, with Grade 7 reaching 61%, uh, where a state average of 51%. And grade 8 reaching 60% with a state average of 52%. Uh, the science performance, uh, the 8th grade science, uh, experienced a dramatic 25 percentage point increase in 2025. Reaching 68% proficiency, uh, significantly outperforming both the state and BOCES. Uh, the state was at 43%, and BOCES was at 53%. Um, and Mr. Sharpstein is here, so kudos to Mr. Sharpstein, uh, and the science department, uh, for, uh, that dramatic increase. Um, and as he spoke to, uh, last year about the

051things that he was doing in class, Uh, to start to improve that, and he's starting to see the results of that. Um, the Regent Science Proficiency in Earth Science was at 58%, and Living Environment was at 47%. Uh, those were drops in 2025. And this was attributed to the transition to the new state exam. Uh, which caused a similar downward trend throughout the state. So that was, uh, very similar statewide. Uh, teacher-specific data and living environment results varied significantly by instructor, um, and I, uh, used Teacher A and Teacher B here. Teacher A saw recovery to 77% proficiency, and in that graph, you'll see that information. Uh, where teacher B dropped to 34%. Uh, the factors inputted the new standard, and a small core herd size of 24 students, where few students scored heavily impacted

052the percentages based on the information we had. Um, the other thing… Uh, to keep in mind when we're talking about the difference in bio teachers. Uh, the two teachers also rotated Biology B over the past 15 years, uh, we had a BioB class, so you had your living environment class, and you had a Bio B class. Basically, what BioB does is take the lower-level students who are struggling academically and put them in a two-year bio class. Uh, so we rotated those teachers through, uh, so the first year, uh, teacher B, uh, taught in 23 and 25, and teacher A taught in 24. So you're gonna see kind of an up and down. Uh, between the teachers, uh, with the results there. Alright? Um, and BioB has been phased out, uh, this year. This will be

053the last year that we're offering BioV, uh, with the expectation of the retirement of the, uh, bio teacher, because it's a two-year program I had started last year in anticipation of not having a bio teacher next year, uh, second biom teacher. Alright, I know that that's a quick analysis of the item. Again, you have a full report in there, and you have the item analysis in there as well from a 3-year, uh… proportion. So, any questions on that portion? Alright, uh, the next, uh, part of the packet, if you continue to go through, is the science department staffing analysis. And again, I have the summary here, but there's a more detailed analysis in there, uh, along with the information that Mr. Sharpstein and his teachers provided. Um, with the following teacher retirement in the district,

054we are evaluating the difference between a 5-teacher versus a 4-teacher model for the 2026-27 academic year. Um, I mentioned last year when we had a chemistry retirement, Um, that we could fill that, uh, week. We did not have to fill that position, and we would be able to provide instruction, which is true, but we would have lost chemistry, uh, as a program, all right? Um, which I mentioned last year as well. So, uh, with that, Uh, the same is true with the biology. Uh, if we lose that second or that biology teacher, there is an impact in programming. Um, and the impact is, uh, college credit and electives. A four-year teacher model would necessitate the elimination of college bio, SUNY ESF Environmental Science, And forensics or drones. So, it would be that third-year college, or

055that third year science credit for New York State. A lot of our students don't take chemistry. They have a third science. And right now, we offer Forensics, and we offer a drone class. We would only be able to offer one of those, which would increase those class sizes. We have somewhere in here the enrollment numbers for these reports? Yep. Um, these programs currently allow students to graduate, uh, college up to a semester early with the college-level classes. Um, we had several students who have benefited from taking college-level classes, not only in science, but the other college courses that we offer. Uh, a five-teacher model preserves the dedicated 7th grade instructor, ensuring consistency and rigor in the secondary science pipeline. So, by having a dedicated Science 7 teacher that is transitioning those students from 6th grade

056to 7th grade, allowing them a little bit more consistency with the instruction, Um, and allowing the 7th grade teacher to focus in on the biology in seventh grade, and preparing our students to be successful in that first Regents exam. All right? Um, and then strategic hiring, uh, the high competition for biology-certified teachers by advertising. We could potentially hire a dual-certified teacher to allow the district to have more options in the science department. to assist with future requirements. Any questions on the, uh, science staff? analysis. Again, there is a lot more detailed information in there. Um, I don't expect you to Read all of that right now. They do have another meeting in March. We can come back and split them just… We, you know, the science… The Regis exam analysis was planning on just a

057quick summary as it was requested by the board, just to see how we stand across the Regents exams. All right, um, the next, uh, part of the evaluation, uh, with the elimination of the science position, uh, would be the win period. So, basically, right now, we have a 7-period schedule with VIN being one of the classes, which is a dedicated period for the students. Um, to take opportunities to, you know, catch up Uh, enhance enrichment, um, and for, um, any necessary, uh, AIS or instructional needs that they would need. Alright, uh, so the, the… purpose of the wind period was equity of access. The wind period serves as an equity mandate providing essential academic support during the school day for students who Uh, home or work responsibility to prevent them from staying after school. We

058have several students, uh, who are unable to stay after 2.20. Uh, because they have to get home for kids, and they have to go to work, they have to do other jobs. So the man, uh, the mandatory win period allows them to, get a lot of their work either completed and or subsidized in that fourth period, uh, win period. All right? Uh, the rigidality paradox, while providing support, the 7th period model reduces the number of class periods available, leading to a decreased credit-bearing opportunities and reduction in curricular diversity. So, with the win period, We went from 8 periods a day of instruction down to 7 periods of instruction. Uh, because that 7th period is considered, uh, that… win period is considered a dude. So, contractual obligations, uh, only allow teachers to either teach 6 classes

059and 2 duties, one of which was a win. 5 passes and one, uh, duty, which one of them was limited. So, if we eliminated the win period, we'd go back to an 8 period, which would increase Um, the elective opportunities for students to take. Uh, it would give them 8 periods and a much more… flexible schedule in order for students to take not only their core classes and the classes needed foration, but would allow them the opportunity to take, uh, an additional elective. And or a glass that is, um, relatively in their, um, interest zone. Uh, preparing them for future after-school, alright? Uh, the report also, uh, warns that a staff reduction while remaining, uh, maintaining your win period, leads to a loss of instructional period for electives. So, if we weren't going to have

060that win period, uh, or if we reduce staff, we're not going to have that win period. Uh, so we lose that win period, and there is potential for losing instructional classes as well, if you think of a teacher teaching six classes, that 6 classes that, um, will no longer be offered in the high school. Uh, to maintain the district's, uh, lead, uh, over the state averages, and the sources suggest that the district Uh, should align its staffing with allocation in its schedule, protecting advanced science offerings, and… offering the internal support mechanisms of the wind period is needed to ensure student success and equitability and access to graduation paths. So, any questions on VIN? And then the final, um, uh, packet in there is an analysis of, um, as Mr. Price mentioned earlier, a 14-year, uh,

061staff analysis and enrollment trends. Um, and in there is a detailed report on, what we have seen throughout the, uh, the 14 years, um, that we collected the data for, and looking at the Um, decrease in enrollment, uh, while maintaining a relatively, uh, stable staff. Uh, property. So, the report provides a longitudinal analysis of the district's operational trajectory from the 2012-13 academic year through the 2025-26 projections. Over this 14th period, uh, 14-year period, the district has moved into a state of significant structural divergence. Well, the total student population has experienced a 21.3% decline, From 939 students to a projected 739 students, the aggregate staffing levels have remained essentially static, shifting from 139 staff members to 140 staff members. Uh, this data reveals that there's a, uh, there's a, um, um, issue with the district maintaining

062the near-identical workforce to serve an estimated 200 fewer students than it did 14 years ago. Now, there's a wide variety of reasons behind that. Um, academic need and challenges in small class sizes. Um, you know, the, um… Their ability to offer a wide variety of classes for our students, the increase in college-level classes, um, so there's, there's a large majority of reasons, but that's all in that detailed report. The other piece that's in there, I think we mentioned, is we also add… We had several staff that we were on board for three, four years with the ARPA funds, and locally… done in a conscientious decision. We hired those people. And we kept those people on an extra year or two. Until we had retirements and didn't fill the positions. And we didn't have to lay

063anybody off. So that was… that was a strategic decision. 46, about 3 years ago, is when we kept some of those positions on for another year or two. Um, so we didn't have any layoffs. many districts, when that federal funds ran out, those positions were eliminated, and those people were laid off. And in there is a graph, uh, that you'll see, um, that has the information with the staff and enrollment. Um, and on that graph, I apologize, it is a little small. Um, but in order to fit it onto the packets, uh, there. And you'll see, uh, the numbers jump from staffing, um, where Mr. Price was talking, uh, originally about the ARPA and adding, uh, people in there. Um, and then we also add, uh, strategic plan to lower class sizes, but is there,

064so you'll see that jump in. One of the other impacts that I want to mention, Tim, that was Tim were trying… Tim and I were doing some of this together, and then we were doing some of this independently, so we could cross-tabulate our data. to make sure, because we were getting different enrollment numbers, and we wanted to have the best enrollment numbers and staffing numbers to report out. But one of the pieces that's, um, we didn't highlight specifically in that report, but I can give it to you, is the changes in the student distribution. And this kind of goes back from that 14-year period. Um, the growth in homeschool from 2012 to 13 was at a low of 16 students. And then at a high during the pandemic, which we know why that was. you

065know, we were, um, we were one of the few schools, but there was a lot of parents during the pandemic and kept their kids home for one or two years, so we had a high of 45. um, students, and then now in 26, it hasn't gone down that much. We still have 41 students that are school-age within the district. that are homeschooled. And then private and parochial school enrollment is another piece that we look at in the fluctuation. And we're in those charter school students aren't included in that, which we have a handful of charter school students with 10 charter schools, so the private and parochial has fluctuated, and it stayed, um, near about 40 students. It did dip down in 2018-22. Uh, but it's recently backed back up to 24 students, and then we

066have, um… Approximately 28 students there, our students, they're placed out in other programs. An estimated 28 students are out of district programs, whether it's a CTP program, an all-day special ed program, or an alternative ed program. So, just some other pieces when we look at this. Um, you know, we're… we had $73,000 increase in state aid. Um, we have some difficult decisions to make. over this next 3 to 4… 3 weeks, Um, so we really wanted to take a heart… We haven't taken this hard of a look since 2014. When we actually ended up making some cuts, and we reduced the budget by, I think it's $700,000 in there. Um, so we really wanted to be conscientious. about when we bake recommendations, and what people need to. We've been… we've been piling it on, um,

067with lots of hands from department chairs. Team leaders, principals, in terms of getting feedback. And, um, using our most, uh, um, notable tour, is producing AI, then we would need another person or two. Tim and I have been talking about it today. Um, to help us with this stuff. No, it's like having an analyst in her back pocket, and then we have to go through and check the data. And that's why we go back to multiple sources, go back to actually what we have and where the school tool. And double-checking orders. Um, and then each of the packets there, they kind of have a summary at the end, so the kind of critical takeaway, um, from the enrollment data is the high school was subject to a greater personnel reductions over the past 14 years

068to get these reductions, we're still not keeping pace with the 27.3% enrollment decline. Um, this suggests that staffing adjustments across the district are not aligned with the defined enrollment. but were needed to maintain small class sizes and instructional programming across the district. In 2024-25, the district strategically looked at staffing alignments and shifts for the 25-26 school year, making reductions through attrition and offering the retirement incentive Um, budget developments for 26-27 are proposing additional reductions in staff based on the declining enrollment institution. So, any questions on that? Um, I have a question on the sheet that I think is in the public record as well. It's a little confusing, so… When you look at, for example, in teacher, it'll say, like, like, this one says 45, and then the number 4 is 100. So they have

06945 students across 4 extensions, correct? So an average of, like, 11. Yeah, what you buy per section. Yes. So, it depends. You know, you look at, um, the classes, so, for example, in ELA, that first line, there's 105 students in there. There's 21 in 8th grade and 64 in 9th grade. That means they're teaching different classes. Alright? So, the classes are the ones above, uh, on the horizontal line, um, and then the teachers are there, and then the class periods that they're in. So, not necessarily, um, that there's, you know, 4 sections of one class. It could be that, um, for example, English 7, If you remember, we had English 7 class, and then we had Intro to Writing every other day. So, those kids are included in that, so there's one kid, but they're

070getting an hour and a half, uh, or a variant and a half of instruction. And then, is there a tree somewhere for all these courses, what they stand for? I mean, some of them are self-explanatory, but a lot of them aren't, like, CC… 1 and CC2, we should only have 9 students in that. So, are you talking in English? Technology Chemistry. No, I'm looking at science. Science, chemistry? Uh, yeah, so… Yeah, so it's college chemistry and college chemistry lab. Okay. Um, and then you have Forensic Science. Um, you have college physics, and college physics lab. Okay, so CSU's college. Yep, you have, uh, drones. Um, you have College Bio and College Bio 2. Okay. My question, too, is that first semester versus second semester? Correct, yeah. So they might have, for, like, college biom, they

071have four students per semester, and still 3 second semester. That means somebody dropped. Okay, so it's like a Bio 101, Bio 102. Correct. Exactly. Um, and to kind of go off of this, this is, uh, it's kind of… easy to see the numbers, and then the actual glass sizes, um, but… What is very difficult, and anybody who's been in a high school that has anything to do with master scheduling, it is basically putting together a major puzzle. And trying to figure out, do you have to take into all kinds of, uh, different considerations, singletons, Um, having, you know, students have… and Abby actually spoke to this today, you know, having her, uh, band period in there, but that doesn't allow her to take any other electives, um, because band is second period, and if she

072wanted to have, uh, a class that would be college level class, second period. She wouldn't be able to take it, um, and trying to fit those singletons in. Uh, the more singletons we have, the harder it is for it to… do the schedule, and then we gotta, uh, incorporate into Uh, the schedule, AM and PM. Uh, BOCES. So, for example, those junior and senior level classes, we have to offer two sections. So this year, um, we would offer, say, for… and there's only 38 kids in the graduating class, So, we would have to offer economics in the morning, economics in the afternoon, uh, because those BOCES kids would have to be able to take either in the morning, or they're at BOCES, and then the other students would be able to have to take that

073in the afternoon. So, it is pretty much kind of a maze, so there is, um, typically, We are meeting with students now to start scheduling, uh, in about a month, I will meet with the guidance counselors, and we will go through the Um, uh, the numbers. Um, typically, we try to cut classes off at no less than 5. Um, but for example, this year, uh, we had the four students who came to see, uh, that you saw in College Bio. In August, they wanted to know, they wanted to really take College Bio. So, we had, uh, room in the schedule to do it. We made it work, so that's why we offered it for that. So typically, we try not to have class sizes less than 5. Um, but there is going to be occasions

074where there are less than 5. Environmental science, and oftentimes would run anywhere between 4 and 10 kids, um, but sometimes it would be one of those things where we didn't offer it, uh, we didn't have the numbers, and the students come back and say, we really want to take it back. They have enough kids to take it. And if we have the room in the schedule. Sorry, I went back to the two sections, things with BOCES. Some BOC students go to BOCES in the morning, and some go in the afternoon? Yes. So, the juniors go in the, um, afternoon in the, uh, senior can go in the morning. So they're not taking the same courses at the high school. Like, you use economics as an example, but a junior and a senior are going to

075be taking their own? No, junior would not be taking… so the senior would, but I would offer, um, an economics in the morning for our students that are in the building, and then I'd have to offer an extra one in the afternoon so that the students, to make the scheduling fun. Right, because everyone can't… they don't have to do that much. Does everybody have to? They just want to leave that? I think we just don't take the afternoon, but… Yeah, why can't the people who are there in the morning also give down? They could, but again, we're talking about the singletons and having it match up. So, it makes, um… the construction of the schedule makes it difficult to, or impossible. So, like, of the 38 seniors, Half could take it in the afternoon, half

076could take it in the morning. That's… I mean, that's essentially where… correct. But we would like to have 38 kids this year if we had, you know, 60 next year, that's… it's… you're looking at class sizes of 30 to 92. I mean, I hate to say it, but there's things that just aren't gonna work and aren't gonna happen. I say it every year. And I don't know if we pulled everybody's hand and let you… And then, uh, massage at every schedule possible. So that you can do everything your little heart desires. Unfortunately, we're not preparing you for the real world, because that's not life. Trust me, I'd love my kids to be able to pick and choose anything they want to do. That's not life. I got it. But I'm also trying to make sure

077that we are preparing the students to get the best experience in high school so that they are prepared for going on, whether it's career or college. Um, and as many people know, when they were in high school, they may not have known what they wanted to do, But there may have been some interest based off the class that they took in high school, uh, that was beneficial to them. So we have offered a wide variety. Um, we are a small school, um, and I try to compete with West Hill, West Genesee, Liverpool, the bigger schools that offer all kinds of stuff, um, so that students Have a good experience here. So, yes, I agree, but if I can make it work, I try to make it work. But that causes… when you look at this,

078Well, look, yeah, the class size of 4. Well, I had the ability to do it, whether I gave that teacher a study hall or an elective that nobody would say, could I give it to College Bio and have those students who were interested in College Bio take that? that number's full, right? So, is it the… best use of our, uh, resources. I would argue yes, but… Financially? No. But, you know, those students are getting, uh, 8 credits in college bio that they could utilize in college. Not only that they've utilized the knowledge, if they are going into bio, uh, it gives them… they may not take those college-level classes in bio, or they make them take it again. Uh, which is likely going to happen, but at least they have a little base knowledge going

079into that. And also, when we're looking at, um, applying for schools, we have heard from college admissions all across the board. that the more rigorous the schedules are, the more rigorous the kids are taking, classes they're taking. the better they have a chance of getting exactly the… That was kind of my question, is we have the information from what colleges, like, what they're actually accepted, because, I mean, it's one thing to take all these college-level courses when you're in high school, but what colleges are accepting what colleges? Uh, so, I can't give you specifics on whether or not Syracuse is taking this or, uh, Utica College is taking this, or the only thing is taking us, and I will tell you that, um, based off of the information that I've gotten from graduates, um, it's

080a mix. Um, but some students have come back and said, I've graduated a year early, um, from college because of all the college credits I took in high school, which states a year of instruction and cost for the students, allowing them to get a master's in four years instead of five. Um, and a cost savings, so we've had to just talk about that. We've also had students come back and say, well, I went into science as a major, they didn't take my science classes, I had to retake them, but I felt that I was more prepared going into taking the college-level course than I was. other schools, uh, most SUNY schools will take most of these credits, um, and either incorporate them into a major or part of the liberal arts degree. So, they are

081taking preference. Now, if you go into the Ivy League schools, or more prestigious schools, the chances are that they may not take those classes, but then I would argue that if they didn't take those classes, they wouldn't have gotten into those aging suits. Because the admissions would have said, well, you're not taking rigorous content, we're not accepting the language. Can I have your question? Yes, right, bang. So, again, there's a lot of information there. Um, please read it over if you have any questions, uh, let Mr. Price know, or myself know, I'd be more than happy to look at it. Um, the, you know, the scheduling, uh, is a huge component at the junior-senior high school. It is, uh, we spend about 3 weeks trying to fit everything Uh, and make everything work, uh, within

082the contractual limits that we have. So, again, is it perfect? No. Um, do we try to do our best? Yes. And I think if you looked at, um, the, you know, the enrollment and the staffing, you've seen a consistent reduction along with the staff where we've been able to reduce. Um, and again, I know I said last year that we could do without chemistry. I didn't think we would get a chemistry teacher. We did. We could have, uh, adapted the schedule without chemistry. Um, I think this year. Uh, can we do without a bio and go with the, uh, poor science program? Absolutely. Do I think it's the best for the district? I don't. And that's, you know, again, based off of my experience in talking to Mr. Schiffer's division. I'm sorry, what's the progression

083getting? The terminology has changed, I feel like, so 9th grade is biology slash living environment. They come up with a new title pretty much every year, but yeah, Pesar. It's a biology and living environment. Yes, it is. That's the name of the reasons. Yes. And then 10th grade, is that a child? And then he said most students are taking college or taking something else? It's about a half split. Yeah, so it's Earth. And then 11th is Hemetery, or something else? Forensics or… So that's an optimistic, but none of those are reaching. Chemistry is… and Regence Chemistry. But the drones and forensis is out of reach its course. And then seniors visits, just… Yes. And or drones, or forensics, if they didn't get their first chance. And they need 3 sciences total on that. For graduate,

084yep. Wait, sorry, I challenge biology is taken then. Senior year, usually in a dig after having already taken biology at the time of year. That's totally separate, okay. I'm sorry, no physics there? No, uh, college. In 12th grade, senior. Um, and then… we take physics also taking college by, or are those separate? They, they can, um, if they fit in their schedule. We go back to the old paradigm where we go from 7 to 8, most likely they cannot take you because it's a class and a lab, and they have to finish up their requirements. If we went to an 8th grade Period schedule. It is feasible, it just makes your schedule. And that goes back to the advantages of the win period. Like, we take a period out to add the wind. Period. Then

085we lose the flexibility of offering Whether it's electives or, um, agents courses or college-level or AP. we would just reduce that flexibility. schedule. And when it comes to lab courses, when you're talking about student numbers, That's… you can consider those additional students because it's, like, a full, separate contact time. Yeah, it's… How would some of them have labs in some, like, like, for Teacher T, it says 49 students, like, in 9th grade, so I assume 9th grade readings biology, living environment, whatever it's called now. And then it says, buy a lab, and there's only 32 in that. What's that difference? Um, I would have to look at, uh, I did. Um, I have a section on my report. Just to show up to 70 people in, too. Yeah, there we go. So it has to

086do with breaking up the lab periods, there's two teachers that are teaching the Regents Biology course, and they can fit in the schedule. We have to actually switch around who is doing a lab section versus the lecture section. Okay, but you might have one professor for a lab and one professor for, like, their I think that's the overlap for almost trips… Do overlap, so you could have, um, say, one biology teacher is teaching, 70% of the biology students, where they can only… because our class schedule, they offer… lab scheduling with… reasonable-sized labs of maybe 14 students to, um, 40%. So, the overlap, the other students go to the other biology teacher lab. So, we have one lab period for all students that basically period 5 steps, and then there's another lab period conference. So… Again,

087if you have any questions with the numbers, um, you know, if I don't have the answer, I'd be more than happy to get the answer for you. Um, it is… it is confusing to look at. Um, if you don't have experience. Okay, thank you. I feel like it's super… So I only have a couple things for today. Um, spring sports, JV varsity started yesterday. We are up to 96 participants from OCS of just varsity JV, so… That's pretty good, that's pretty on par with the rest of the year so far in terms of, um, not including the modified numbers yet. Um, the window for signing up for JV and Varsity, we will leave it open for the remainder of the week. Um, it's been open for the past month, so typically we do a 30-day

088window before the season starts, and then if there's any kids that sign up late for whatever reason, we usually leave open for that the week of the start of the season. Um, so kids have until Friday to sign up for JV Varsity Sports. Uh, modified sign-ups began yesterday as well. Um, so make sure that if there's anybody interested in playing a modified support, we get signed up. That start date is April 8th, as of now. Um, there is conversations about moving it to April 5th, so it's kind of up in the air as the start date for modified. But I will update that as we get more information. Sorry, any questions? Thank you, thank you. Alright, board members… Putting on the board, got it? There's meant to talk a little bit about how we did

089have that board tweaked system. If you still wanted to take College Biology, it would be, like, a BOCES assessment, we did miss the first step. And it's… hear that. Yeah, that's correct, Gabby. The students would be able to go to VCC in the morning, to take college biology. Currently, this semester, I believe, They're offering college biology 8 o'clock in the morning. Oh, I'm sorry, yes, the OCC? Yeah, so it would be very similar that if a student And students can do that now. We have, uh… We have 3 students that are in concurrent enrollment. It's dual credit programs. Um, two at OCC and one at another college that are taking courses at the campus right now. if that science position is not filled, students would have the opportunity to take college biology, but it would

090be ethics and student. How does it work with the labs, then? where they would be up there for approximately 45 minutes to an hour one day. And then the second day, they would have their plan. So, we'd have to go up there for two periods. two class periods on their schedule, which keep them back about 10… 105. And so, but the issue is, you know, with the college schedule. It may be Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday. So those are filled. But for a high school schedule, it's every day. So they would have to miss 4 days, uh, 4 periods every day of the week, which would allow them to take another course up at OCC if they wanted to. Um, but in talking to Max and Abby and talking to a lot of the students, not

091a lot of students want to give up their junior, senior year, to go on to OCC for half a day, just for a college biom. Now, if they're going into nursing and that's the only offer, then, again, as we go back, that's a choice to Anthony. And that's… that's the choice that students have bought to take a CTE program. That's what they made. That's the decision they make, and over the passive. few years, our enrollment in the CTE programs have gone up. work some of our higher, um, enrollment, uh, Um, CTE programs and BOCES, which sets students up great. to make that transition into one of the trades, and many of them have gone right from there into an apprentice program. Um, which is, we need plumbers and electricians, and, you know… So, but that,

092that's, you know, just kind of, like, has we been… analyzing, you know, the decisions about the three positions now to fill that science has been on the table. for a while, and just getting everything out on the table, so… If that position's not filled, We know what we're getting into next year for one year. Uh, the students who are taking college biology, whether it's at OCC or at OCS, Are they opting not to take physics? Yes, that's right up there. And the college bioc, just for clarification, in order to fit it into the schedule, um, we are not offering a specific lab period, uh, so those students are either doing it during class time, or they're doing the lab during when. Right now, but we do not have a specific lab period for our students.

093Uh, because the teacher only had one free period, so they have instructional classes, but the lab is either in the class or… Anybody else come on board? Great. Um, to speaking to the board. And two, three, forkage. It's amazing how this number includes information. Um, so, each of you gets 4 minutes. No, no, no, I don't have to… Oh yeah, go ahead. Okay, sorry. Thanks, guys. They have rehearsal, so… Sorry. I mean, it's… Thanks, guys. Hi guys! Uh, no, I'm fine. Alright, first on the list, uh, Maragon Featherstone. Uh, first off, I'd just like to say that I've been to board meetings for 20 years, and for Mr. Grace's time here, um, you know, we've had to make some difficult decisions at times with our participants. And in that time, two times, we come to

094try to cut flat sizes at Blackwell to less than four. Um, exception. And… Each time, it's been detrimental. Okay, we end up coming back to the cities that pay to save. I'm a proponent of your learn from history, um, but cuts are never easy, and when you're touching a child, if it's at the high school or at Brock, it's not an easy thing to do. Early intervention, early intervention, early intervention. And what does early intervention mean in small class items, okay? It means… that there's more individual attention going to that taught in the classroom. It means greater student participation. It means stronger student um, relationships. It means fewer distractions and fewer behavior issues. It needs more hands-on learning. It needs more personalized, engaging lessons. When you take a class into 17 or 18th, at 18,

09519, you're talking Western classes. However, size classes. They have TAs. We're not doing that without TAs. So, you need to understand the whole… the whole… gamut of what's being asked. Um, if kids can't read, they can't go to the high school to get in these great college classes. As a community member, my children, both of them, benefited from… great teachers like Mr. Sharpsy walking out of there with over 30 college credits. They might not have been accepted at their schools, However, it got them ready for a more difficult, rigorous classes, so it did pay off. But maybe it's something we have to look at, uh, by partnering with other schools, by, uh, working with OCC, I don't know what that answer is, but I do see declining enrollment for our senior class. I mean, we're

096at 38, and I have David Pearson was telling me the other day, 32. I don't know what the right number is. But you keep going through defining enrollment, broad moments, uh, with that 31 concrete. I mean, that's showing that our numbers are We've got a new development coming into now. I mean, I understand census is going down, but are they taking in all the new developments that are happening around here? tough decisions, but before you touch a teacher, you should be looking at it. different… other… other positions in this district, whether it's a secretary, whether it's an SRO, whether it's a double art teacher, whether it's an administrator, Um, there's different ways to cut and save money, whether it's a machine, for our facilities, whether it's a bus, I don't know what it is, but

097kids need to know how to read. Thank you very much for your time. It's not easy dialogue, and you can hear… you're getting a hit from everybody, but there's 14 people signed on. And a lot of teachers in this room right now that believe in early intervention and small class sizes. So thank you for your time. I had a question. Is your point of clarification. What did you say for the class sizes when you said it's approaching West Jenny sizes? Uh, right now, you can go over to Eagle Hill, and they have 19 kids in a second grade classroom, but they also have a TI in it, too. And I said 21. It depends. Um, you know, Stonehenge might grow a little larger. Look, what I'm saying is, you know, we are not Western Sea,

098we're on a duck, we're not the city of Syracuse. We have small glass sizes for a reason, and we've learned in the past that Not having those small class sizes, 2 to 3 years, we come back and say, wow, we've taken the cuts at Rockwell with the AIS, With the TAs, we don't count the TAs that we used to have. So, it's an impact to children's learning. When you're the only teacher in the room, you can say, well, that number's 17. 17 with one person versus 17 with… Versus 14 is a huge… Huge play in your lawsuit that it could have said, and I've talked to Mr. Price about this the other day. That 6th grade being supported session. It's too many kids. They're too big for those classrooms. That fourth grade, the incoming 4th

099grade, current 3rd grade going to 4th grade, 18 is the fourth section. Whether that means we take AI as resources, and we move them into general ed teachers, I don't know what it is, but when you're talking those 6th graders, well, I don't… I appoint everybody, I'm not even the principal over there. But when in those 5th grade classrooms right now, and see, they don't need that classroom all day. Not a lot of room. I'm just curious, also, as a follow-up of what you think is the ideal class size from your experience. Um, actually, it depends. It actually depends on the entrance testing when they come in. Sure. Um, you know, we can't predict that right now. Research shows 14 to 15 businesses is a small class size, okay? However, you know, we could have

10012, and some of these numbers, and this is what kindergarten doesn't show right now, is… and I'm not a spokesman for the district, I'm a community member, okay? And I want that clear. What I'm saying right now is as a community member, but when you're talking to you at small, you're looking at the numbers of small kindergartens. This is the first time we've ever seen some of these kindergarten kits. Um, you know, that they've never been in a school setting. They've never suited in a line before, they've never seen a site inwards, they don't have parents at home that are working with them. Um, we also get add-ins later in the year that'll come in that are such behavioral issues. that they're too little to go home. And I talked to Mr. Nelson about this.

101It took too little to go home. And if you talk about what's actually going on in the classroom. And it's called Public School Education, is what it's called. And we do the best we can. Well, the staff, the administration, but you know what? We need resources, too, to help do this, and… I don't have all the answers, but I'd love to help solve the problems with you. I'm not leaving you out there to hang to dry. But we need to work together and learn from our mistakes. And in the past, when they cut down from 4 sections to three, we lose the competency skill set of that teacher, those kindergarten teachers, that know how to teach, those first grade teachers First grade teachers are teaching site words, teaching fluency, how to read, and that's the

102backbone. Research says that if they don't know how to read by third grade, they will never be able to read, which is probably why I could make a guess why there's only 32 kids graduating, or 38 kids graduating, because that class, when they were with us, were four sections of 18. So what happened? Thank you. Alright, next one. Doug Annabelle. Alright, thank you again, I appreciate it. Basically, you had a chance to see what parents have said. I've been here 25 years with Premier at least 2324. And, you know, I'm seeing the same thing at an earlier event to get it to the kids early. Um, you know, and I've seen over the last… a handful of years, just at the… developmentally, the kids are no different than when any of us went to school,

103but… Right now, a lot of the kids are coming in, um, In other words, intentions fans are shorter. Um, you know, that's just a lot to do with the technology. That's gonna have a great sprayed on one side, and on the other side, But, as she was just saying about the kids in lines, I mean, I've noticed over the last 10 years that this… A lot of those skills are even tougher. tougher and tougher to, uh… Some kids come in, beautiful, they're off this button. There's more kids than… Like I said, when Max, you know, Abby were here, back when they were here, that… Did you know anybody to have be a lot less mid, now you have a lot more that I would need here at home. And I looked at Rose Load, I

104see that Both, uh, you know, obviously some thoughts down in the elementary, but also… We've written out in one area, and now that's… You know, that's huge, you know, being, like… Oh, the kids, like I said, by the third grade, they wanted to read. Um, and I'm noticing that, given all the class sizes, you know, I'm not saying they're huge right now. But, if they've done it before, I know kids that are in 9th grade, my kids that are in 7th grade, they went from 3 to 4 to 3 to 4. But then… but then those, uh… And that four-year Japan. Went back and forth, back and forth. So, I'm just, again, just wanted to say thank you for everything, but I'm just wowed. This is why everybody remember earlier mention, they have to teach

105them to read before they can go anywhere else. Thank you for listening, appreciate it. Take care. X. Eric Sharpstein. I can actually hold my commas to the next meeting. I wanted to make sure I was addressing that there were questions about the data from Rumford. So, activities, not activated. Tammy Donor. Um, I'm just saying that on the topic of what Tim brought up, I think… science, computers, my kids all would prepare and suggest papers, small class sizes. My daughter was in the class of a student. You know what? Yeah, we don't go into that field. And that brought her love for them. We go over that. And, um… I mean, I… she otherwise probably wouldn't have had that. I will say she took all the science, and she loves the sciences. stump them on the

106cow just to… some of them they did not. So, like he said, you know, It is what it is, but they can use this as a general ledge, so… All right, thank you all. consensus items… We get a motion to approve consensus items. G2 through G6… As presented. Second. So those in favor? Aye. Again, that's good. Superintendent Search Update. Well, I guess since Mike's not here, it's my bro. We have had, uh, two rounds of… Preliminary interviews. One more… Tonight of those, and everyone. We're working forward to try and thin the crowd. We've had some very, very good candidates. Hopeful lesson. We're gonna have a, uh… a really good candidate, or some really good candidates to put out to the… stakeholder groups get to that point. Got some big shoes to fill, but… We've got

107some good possibilities. Any questions on that? Alright, new business. Recommendation to approve the 2026 budget and election poll workers. Can I add one quick thing on that one? Yes. Um, the last line in there, it… Um, it's allowing for the possibility, if there needs to be a change, it should be our change, right? 10 minutes to far left side over here that our tech is not… he said he's not available for all of May, um, so… Initially, he's in and out, he's out, so… I'm starting to list and calling, and we'll have a replacement for that, but I just wanted to just kind of just let you know that that's going to come up as we go. Is that, um, is that the custodian account? Yeah, Mr. Momato, yeah, he's always been our custodian for

108the machines for all of our votes for the last four years, but he's on the bill. So should we just table this for a moment? No, you're good, I'll just update. Motion and a second period? Correct. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Period. Motion to approve the 2026-2027 legal fee schedule for our clearance here. Second. All those in favor? Opposed? So this is the one that we can't do tonight. We need a majority of the whole board, and I think it has to do with the language on the bus proposition. Cliff Hall was likely to be, um… What is there, though, which is a mobile exemption, is all of the propositions, is all the links that's on our website for absentee voters, for military voters. Anybody interested in picking up a board packet? Board packets

109have been available since the beginning of vote. February, um, we've had one packet picked up at this point, and that new member was really helpful in making sure that everything was where it needed to be. So, those are available, those are available until April 20th, Monday night at 5 o'clock, and then the lots for the candidates will be rolled on Monday morning through. Again, that language is also in the, uh, proposition. So we'll need that done, um, for the next meeting, so we can have it in time for that April 2nd. So do I just get out of the promotion to table this week? Yes, until the next meeting? promotion to table. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Alright, so that'll be tabled for… approximately 10. We can go towards round two. I need

110your time to do, you're good. I just have one thing. Um, with the board packets and, um, the signatures required, it communicated that on the Aaron Squaring on the front of our signs in front of our buildings, so that people going by can know that we're We'll take her new board members that, um, they can pick up those packets in the deal, that you can send it out to Humber Parents Square, so that we can raise people's awareness to it. clearly professional. That's just a question. No. And I also believe it's already in the newsletter that's, uh… I think I got the proof to approve today. We'll be in the April 2nd posting, or just for quick reference, for all four of those mostly little hand is on the website, too. But there were no

111other people are not moving to openings. When you do look over that information, I want you to make sure you've seen the increase in fourth grade as well. You probably were here when I presented to their test and what it looked like. The result there is nothing short. percolate that breaks it on Biden. people at Rockwell and be like, Um, it is a massive breathing test. And everything they said is absolutely true, but when you see that, when you see the increase, it's a reflection of the impact of staff. That, um, the one that you came and presented on us, because the grades had gone down a lot, because we weren't prepared for the reading conference, was that 2023? One of the most reading comprehensive list 2024. Okay. Yeah, that was started at the 4th

112grade level, and the 8th grade… I'm sorry, the 5th grade level and the 8th grade level. And this year, there was an increase, because now we know what strategies we can teach our students. Alright, upcoming meetings and trainings. board meeting, Tuesday, March 24th. 6 p.m., junior Senior High School. And Tuesday, April 7th, 6 or 8 today. That moves up because of some news or… Oh, that's okay. Any questions on that? All right, uh, motion to enter into the executive sessions with the tenure review and total service permanent appointment status, and discuss special financial credits and employment history. Corporation, For matters leading to deflating official or removal. Even the first refrigeration. Favor? Aye. Proofed. Very true. Thank you for being with you first.