001kick it over to Carl and he's going to provide a couple updates uh update one is our draft budget calendar and update two is our district Reserve plan I just before Carl gets going I want to point out that uh we did have a preliminary look at the draft budget calendar at our last meeting and at that meeting um we did decide and and the board agreed that we would move the Monday May 6th meeting to Wednesday May 8th and that is to be um in compliance with uh our public uh hearing for the budget so it falls between seven and 14 days of the budget vote later in May so I just wanted to make sure I reminded the board of that all right Carl take it away I feel like year after year
002you're getting better at the budget calendar Mr Ganer so I appreciate you sharing that seven to 14 day window because that puts us exactly in compliance and so hence the budget um the the budget hearing had to be moved to May 8th um Mr Grant Ganer did a great job of talking about the draft budget calendar tonight the board is going to approve the final budget calendar that's something every school district has to do before they go into budget season there has to be a minimum of three budget workshops or presentations as they are called which we have our three budget presentations laid out there are also certain timelines and things that have to be submitted to New York state in order to meet the requirements of uh voting day for a School District budget
003and that budget calendar lays out essentially all those dates and critical timelines which our school district just like every other school district needs to adhere to to so once again tonight the board is just going to be approving the final budget calendar as we head into budget season the second piece the district Reserve plan um similar to the audit the regulatory audit that was presented by mangle metsorb bar in October every district has a best practice the comp controller recommends that the districts um the board approve and a district post a reserve plan year-over-year that's something over the last couple years we haven't done but it's something moving forward I want to make sure is a best practice and is a yearly practice as we move forward year-over-year in this District so we've got the
00423 uh 2324 District Reserve plan that after tonight's board approval we'll be posting on the district website for anybody to see as well and prior to finalizing this District Reserve plan something we did was also reach out to our Auditors mangle metzker bar and make sure they signed off on the reserve plan as well so that we had one more layer of scrutiny before bringing it front in front of the board tonight so that's about it Mr ganster thank you all right thanks Carl that does it for the superintendent update okay thank you uh board discussion topics okay so our goals uh we talked a little bit about them at our last Retreat last month um we uh temporarily decided to keep goal two and three so engage with mid Lakes Community to increase awareness
005about Phelps Clifton Springs Board of Education and District efforts uh goal three was ensure resources to support professional development employee retention and career satisfaction of all District staff um and goal four we had talked about um adding the words continue to implement student engagement opportunities and support new proposals to enrich Student Life um and then goal one we didn't get a chance to uh discuss that one too much um does anybody have ideas of uh Keep Change get rid of as far as goal one which was gain a solid knowledge Foundation of student academic performance and strategies being implemented to improve student achievement in our district I know for me I feel like we should keep this um I'll just speak for myself I feel agree I feel like we should keep it I agree
006yeah age okay we will go ahead um and uh we do have it on the agenda for later in the meeting to approve those as our goals for this upcoming year so um as long as there's no major changes uh sounds like there aren't any changes to what's uh being proposed here we'll go ahead and vote on that a little later in the meeting um does anybody else have anything do you have a did the legislative committee meet they did since yes since our last meeting so do you have an update I do so um uh Regent Hal attended this meeting so it was really kind of just a discussion about um how we can best kind of maintain communication with him and really just making sure that we're again advocating for things at the
007legislative level um there was um so I just some good discussion around that in terms of um in terms of the communication with him and just solidifying kind of our as we had talked about the um survey results to to kind of send on so that the position paper can um be submitted in January so kind of finalized all of that and things are moving forward awesome yeah good thank you uh the other committee that met that meets regularly now is our policy committee and you'll hear updates um about that too as we move forward through the meeting does anybody have anything else for board discussion for this evening okay we are moving on to public comment so the Board of Education values the input of the Midlakes community and welcomes public comment on any
008topic related to board work with the exception of matters pertaining to individual personnel and or students all public comments must include appropriate language and observe proper decorum anyone making public comment must identify themselves by name and address the public comment period will be limited to a total of 30 minutes and one comment per person individual comments will be limited to 2 minutes the the board does not respond to items presented or questions raised through public comment however the board may discuss topics of public comment at a later time and or contact the individual who submitted the comment um so first we have Tanya Larson hi my name is Tanya Larsson I live direct to my address 2299 Lester Road and Phelps I'm a mother of a child here I'm I'm here to wanted to bring
009to the board of education's attention to the issues that have been curring for the last two years involving our daughter being bullied physically sexually cyberly and emotionally the facts our daughter has an IEP with a mental learning disability she is according to New York state law entitled to a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination taunting harassment Etc on school property a fact we we have filed over 12 daa dignity for all complaint forms complaints involved a gang assault which the S absolutely did nothing about verbal and physical threats sexual bullying and sadly a traumatic physical assault that occurred on November 17th in a high school cafeteria while being videotaped by students a fact she was struck in the back of the head and face eight times resulting in medical treatment at while now in
010Clifton Springs Ed she had major bruising and swelling to her head her neck her face as well as have broken eye vessel note the girl's mom is a TA in the elementary school neither have apologized fact she only received 5 days in out of school suspension to back up a month prior the school failed us on October 16th when a group of girls threatened Caitlyn SE my daughter's severe bodily harm we immediately ADV formed the school and picked up Caitlyn the next day is advised by starbridge is an agency overlooking her IEP we begged for New York state law mandating the option for home instruction with a tutor due to the constant bullying my daughter's mental health education and grades were deteriorating and she was becoming suicidal that week of October 16th the school denied
011my request twice saying they did not offer this option after a week of emails and zoom calls with the school Caitlyn was forced back in in school susp instruction on that Monday sadly just days prior to that assault after Consulting with Empire Justice out of Albany and the Morgan Law Firm we confirmed that she should have been provided in August this assault could have been prevented a fact the school reiterated Caitlyn's only option in October was a possib possible alternative placement that ended um after an updated IEP evaluation and meeting which was held on December 14th on December 14th that was held alternative placement again was not an option a fact oddly after ret I I retained an attorney last month at home instruction with a tutor after 31 days was finally initiated today it
012wasn't last month though they said they didn't allow it fact I'm filing a lawsuit for this versus the school including the SRO officer the bullies and their parents I will never allow this to stop and happen to another child one last point no child deserves this no parent should ever have to witness a video of their child getting beat while they're screaming stop Mike not speaking I'm sorry okay okay um Adam Eldridge question the button with the person on it all right do I need to State my address and all that too or no please Adam Aldridge from 255 Main Street Phelps so we're doing the budget right what do we got room in there for another Sr officer or no it' be what I'd be asking you because Main Street Phelps we got cars
013just blowing through Reds and then the bossies over here got their buses coming into town and they're blowing through the traffic lights out there and making a mess and then the buses park over over here at the gas station smoking cigarettes by the gas pumps for the bosies not not ours our buses don't run that traffic L it's bothies but they're in our same facility as us so typically I work around the town and when I come into town our guy has headed home and the elementary hasn't dumped out yet so if he's head it home and he's part-time I would assume right we got one and a half uh employees right on SRO anybody answer that contract no okay so what I'm asking is we should upgrade our security and put another SRO on
014and and put another one this is a big facility you've got stuff going on outside that you guys don't see because you're working in here it's not your fault not blaming nobody it's just there's a lot going on these days and if if we as taxpayers are spend the money let's spend it the right way let's let's get another Sr I don't know what it costs but who the heck cares our kids are important so I could I could really give two craps you know I say we just do it so that's what I got to say thank you all right all right on to new business items um so we will start with item a resolution appointing district clerk um Miss man do we have um let me make sure I get some rhyme
015right PES here too where am I oh I'm there okay sorry all right is there a motion to approve Miss man as our new District Clerk and confidential secretary to the superintendent so MO is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of item a as presented say I I I I all those opposed motion carried all right Item B is our Board of Education goals uh is there a motion to approve the board goals as presented so move is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of our Board of Education goals for the 2023 24 school year as presented say I I all those opposed motion carried all right policy manual modifications Mr Ganer is going to give us a little information on all right so we are in
016full swing of our policy manual review and uh we now have three distinct sections to this presentation we're going to do first reads on two policies we're going to do second reads on two additional policies and we're finally at the point with that first batch of policies uh having to do with um instructional materials and student gender identity we're at the point where we can finally adopt and retire the policies that we've been discussing so what we'll do is we'll take the time I'm sorry Carl let me just there we go right there all right and I did move uh from a fall theme to a winter theme however I'm beginning to think winter is not going to come but I don't know apparently there might be snow in the forecast tonight we'll see what
017happens all right so hopefully I didn't just Jinx that so uh here we go members of the policy committee are posted our last meeting was on December 11th our next meeting is on January 8th so we're going to just take a look at our first reads so tonight we are and now it's just not wanting to comply here I don't know why it's not going past let me try the click okay I'm going to Escape out of there and we're going to go like this so there I am all right now let's see if we can do that okay cool I don't know why okay so we're gonna have first reads on two policies uh we're going to take a look at policy 3421 that is Title 9 and sex discrimination that's the title and
018we're going to take a look at a kind of parallel policy entitled non-discrimination in anti-harassment in the district so here's why right now so policy 3421 that's the title line in sex discrimination um so the the federal law that governs this policy or or pushes us to include a policy like this uh goes all the way back to What's called the educational amendments Act of 1972 all right so this has been around for a long long time now the original intent of that Act was to protect employers and and protect the public excuse me protect the public from employers discriminating against human beings based on what sex they were right and in modern times we might say what gender they are okay now what that didn't include overtly was sexual harassment okay and back in
0192020 uh the federal government went back and amended that 1972 act to explicitly contain um and hold sexual harassment within the law so had what happened between 72 and 2020 was that there were guidance documents put out by the federal government um that said and and Court decisions that said you know um sexual harassment was protected by the education Amendment Act of 1972 but they never took the time to actually include it so back in 2020 they went um and vertly included it in the law so our policy update um really has to do with the fact that that law was updated back in 2020 and what we're seeing with some of these policies uh specifically changes that happened throughout the pandemic um some of the policies were not paid attention to those changes weren't
020paid attention to because of A disruption in how we did business so we wanted to make sure that we were including this near uh the beginning of our policy review process and and make sure that we um have a policy that meets the standard of um the amended 1972 education amendments act so some of the specifics that we went through and and had to take a look at um so and I'm just I'm looking on my screen because I don't want to um leave anything out here so this includes a definition of what sexual harassment is based on on the uh amended law it includes the definition of what's called actual knowledge so it's it really dives into technically what it means for an employer to have actual knowledge of sex discrimination or sexual harassment
021happening in the workpl um it includes the title 9 coordinator requirements uh it includes requirements related to reports and formal complaints of sexual harassment the grievance process for complaints of sexual discrimination the grievance process for formal complaints of sexual harassment corresponding time frames for investigations um language surrounding what are called informal resolutions that can happen between an employer and employee in a case like this uh an appeals process uh dismissals of claims uh training for our employees and appropriate recordkeeping so the updated policy is included um in the board packet I'm not going to go over it line by line it would literally take us about 45 minutes but what I would encourage the board to do is take the time to read that policy between now and our next meeting when we have a
022second reading and we'll we'll take some of this time uh to field questions if there are any so then the next first read is policy 3420 which is entitled non-discrimination and anti-harassment in the district so here's how it's corresponding if you look back at Title 9 and education Amendment Act of 1972 it's specifically on sex discrimination okay and it doesn't include other forms of discrimination for example discrimination based on race color religion disability national origin sexual orientation gender identity or expression military status sex age or marital status so this other policy provides language for how the district would respond in instances of alleged discrimination on everything else essentially okay and the basis of that policy there are a few laws here so there is the Americans with Disability Act which is from 1990 there's Section
023504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and then title six of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so those um laws along with some updates in this policy to bring it into what I would say like harmony with the title 9 update that's what this update for 3420 is so again uh it's actually less extensive than the Title Nine policy but again I would encourage you to to read that policy over and we can field questions in our second read um you know I want to fall just short of saying that these are boilerplate policy updates but they're required we have to have these policies by law and everything contained in uh contained within them is Guided by law so there's not a ton of wiggle room within the policies themselves anyway but it's a
024good time um to take a moment read the policy become familiar with it um and ask any questions that you may have so we'll call that our first read on those policies um our second read um going to something a little more light-hearted I would say um we did a first read on what we're calling our animal policies um and it's uh assistance animals and uh animals on school grounds so our assistance animal policy talks about um service animals right so those are animals that are used by uh folks with disabilities that need that service animal um to help them get through their day so you think of things like seeing eye dogs right um and it also curiously and we talked about this last time includes miniature horses and the miniature horses uh for
025some folks who have mobility issues actually can serve as like a very sturdy partner when walking and moving around so in limited cases we could possibly see a miniature horse as a service animal uh and of course uh the dogs that are used for folks um now the reason we review that policy was because there's a lot of energy these days in having th therapy dogs in schools uh and that's something that we wanted to be able to provide for our students here the policy uh articulates all sorts of very specific circumstances that have to be present for a dog like that to be on uh campus and I just want to go over a handful of those really quickly I have it up here here we go so when we take a look specifically
026at therapy dogs um we have to receive a request the request um has to provide General general information about the proposed use of the therapy dog including when and where it has to have personal information about the therapy dog and Handler including name address and phone and then we need a copy of the therapy dog's current lure from the local licensing Authority so whatever town they live in that has to be a registered um dog we have to have its vaccination and immunization records from a licensed veterinarian we have to have a copy of a certif certification from an AKC recognized therapy dog organization so the AKC recognizes uh or a trainer can become AKC recognized and our therapy dogs would have to have been through a training that was recognized by the AKC and
027we would need a copy of that we would need a copy of the insurance policy that provides liability coverage for the work of the therapy dog and Handler while on school grounds and names the district as an additional insured um person or or entity on that policy um a certification from the Handler that while on school grounds a therapy dog will do all of these things be cleaned well groomed free of parasites illness or injury remain under the Handler's control throughout the use of the uh through the use of a leash or other tether unless uh use of a leash or other tether would interfere with the dog service be supervised and accompan IED by the Handler wear a therapy dog ID and or bandana not disrupt the educational process by excessive barking or other
028behavior only go to locations that have been authorized by District admin be fed exercised and cleaned up after the Handler so um all of these things would have to fall into place uh in order for us to have a therapy dog approved and in use here on campus so are there any questions with this particular policy because we are at that second read phase and I want to make sure we pump the brakes and allow the board to ask any questions that they may have okay um our second animal policy to review um are animals on school grounds just generally speaking okay uh we reviewed several policies uh from surrounding districts to take a look at this and I want you to think about you know we're all looking at the springtime it's going to
029get nice out baseball games are going to start happening lacrosse games are going to start happening and we know people sometimes bring their dogs to campus right so this um places some limitations on that uh so let's just read through these bullet points so we can understand what we're looking at here so animals are prohibited uh uh from school grounds from 30 minutes before school through 30 minutes after school ends on days when school is in session except as permitted by a building principal or for instructional or safety purposes so basically what we're saying here is is we don't want folks walking their dogs or other animals on campus when we have a lot of kids here right because the the random dog that someone might be walking on campus we don't know anything about
030that animal we want to keep our kids safe so we would like to keep the campus animal free with the exception of of animals here for safety think drug sniffing dog bomb sniffing dog something like that um animals that are here uh for educational purposes think about our agriculture programs and the cute ducks that they raise last year um and then uh could also at this point include therapy dogs after that um uh policy is approved and of course service animals as well um so then second bullet point dog and other animals capable of wearing a leash must be on a leash and properly restrained at all times all animals must be under the owner's control at all times uh next pet owners are required to be responsible owners by cleaning up and removing animal
031waste from school grounds animals are not allowed on playgrounds athletic fields tracks and courts our facilities team spends a lot of time grooming those um facilities in managing those facilities we don't want them um used for the recreation of animals okay uh and finally assistance animals and animals used for law enforcement purposes would be exempt from the terms of this policy and then a final disclaimer that the animal owner assumes all risk when bringing the animal on school grounds so that would be um that would be the policy that governs animals being on school grounds generally speaking all right any questions on this particular policy okay good all right tried to be comprehensive yeah we're trying all right so then the last thing we'll do is we've spent a lot of time uh we did
032our first read and our second read of these particular policies um these would be uh the recommended actions for these tonight uh four policies to adopt uh 8320 textbooks Library materials and other instruction instructional materials 8340 instructional materials in non-public school students 8330 objection to instructional materials and controversial issues and then we want to uh well let me skip to the next one another adoption um an updated student gender identity uh which was another update that we pushed for because of changes in law and then finally um retiring 8331 because controversial issues um was actually combined with 8330 so we would no longer need 8331 so those are the recommended actions for policy tonight um the policy committee is looking at um tenative first reads of a workplace violence prevention policy which is mandated um
033by uh it's not a new law but an educational entity uh it is new that an educational entity is included in that law so we may be looking at a policy statement there and then we've also uh at the policy committee level started to take a look at policy related to diversity equity and inclusion so that does it for policy updates uh and descriptions tonight so there we are and then I think it would be time to to take action if you so choose so is there a motion to should I break these down into adoption reement should I just do I think you could just do them all in one and say according to the recommended actions okay so is there a motion to approve the policy readings and modifications as presented so moveed
034is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of the policy readings and modifications as presented say I I all of those opposed motion carried all right on to item D contracts and agreements is there a motion to approve the contracts as presented three no moved is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of item D the three contracts as presented say I I I all of those opposed motion carried all right I'd like to block items e through G um so the extra classroom audit extra classroom audit corrective action plan and the single audit is there a motion to approve items e through G as presented Su is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of items e through G as presented say I I I
035all of those opposed motion carried and I would like to block item H through J uh the budget calendar uh which we talked about the district Reserve plan we also talked about and budget transfers um is there a motion to approve items H through J as presented still move is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of items e through G as presented say I H oh sorry H through J is present I all those opposed motion carried cross that one off all right on to K I was wondering why things weren't lining up on here should have been my first clue um item K minim minimum wage increase is there a motion to approve the minimum wage increase as presented so move is there a second second uh any discussion all
036those in favor of item K as presented say I I all those opposed motion carried okay item L field trips uh is there a motion to approve the field trip for the class of 2024 so moved is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of item L as presented say I I all those opposed motion carried on to M athletic mergers is there a motion to approve the two athletic mergers for the spring the boys and girls lacrosse uh so any is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of the athletic mergers as presented say I I all those opposed motion carried and final new business item uh Midlakes fundraisers the three fundraisers is there a oh five oh whoow what happened there okay sorry the five um fundraisers
037is there a motion to approve the fundraisers as presented sove is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of item n say I I all those opposed motion carried all right on to Personnel why does it keep skipping around on me what's going on is that something you're doing all right um I'd like to block items a through c um is there a motion to approve items a through c as presented they're all appointments so move uh is there a second second I'll uh any discussion all those in favor of a through c as presented say I I all those opposed motion carried and item D mentors is there a motion to approve the mentors as presented move uh is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of item
038d as presented say I I all those opposed motion carried and substitute appointments is there a motion to approve the substitute appointments as presented so is there a second second any discussion all those in favor of the substitute appointments as presented say I I I all those opposed motion carried and unto adjournment uh is there a motion to adjourn the meeting for the purpose of entering into executive session for the purpose of discussing matters leading to the appointment employment discipline suspension dismissal or removal of a particular person so is there a second second any discussion all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carried we