001Good evening everybody. It's 6 o'clock p.m. We'll call to order a regular meeting of the board of education. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sue, do we have any recent additions or deletions to the agenda? No. Okay. Is there a motion to accept the minutes of both the March 12th uh regular board of education meeting and the March 26th special board meeting? Motion Mel. Second, Jackie. Any discussion? All in favor? I. All right. Okay, I'm going to ask for a motion to enter into executive session to discuss matters relating to the employment of a particular individual. Jenny, thank you. Mike second. All in favor? I.
002Okay. Up next, we have a presentation from the athletic director, Miss Jen Murphy, on the winter sports program. Are we on? Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me this evening to talk about our winter sports uh review. I'm a little under the weather. I apologize. My voice is a little deep tonight, but I'll do my best. I know you received my presentation, but I just wanted to quickly uh remind you that our winter sports article did come out. Um, I wanted to thank Miss Ki and the communications office for helping put that together, as well as our coaches with their input with data to share with our community. So, there are more specific details available for you uh within that article, including some pretty amazing pictures from this winter season. So, thank
003you to Miss Ki for her expertise behind the camera as well. I wanted to just quickly again thank our our coaches for everything that they did with our student athletes uh this winter. Thank our families for their support, our faculty, our staff, our administrative team, and our board of education for their support throughout the season. Um I know it feels a little bit delayed. There's been a quite a bit going on um with spring sports actually in full season. We had uh I believe five home events just today going on. So very busy. So, thank you for the time again for to talk about winter sports. We did have 201 athletes participate this winter season, modified JV and varsity. Just like last year, we offered six sports and we had a total of 17 teams.
004So, again, a very busy season. This photo specifically, I wanted to give a shout out to our sophomore student athlete, uh, Jaden Akim, the 10th grader. This is from day one of the wrestling state championships over at MVP Arena just down the road in Albany. Um, if you ever get a chance to attend this event, it is a magical event. NISva does an amazing job putting together this event and to see all the student athletes representing each section from New York is is really special. So, if you can see in this photo quickly, Jaden is wearing maroon because at the state championships, the wrestlers um day one participate in their section colors. So, you don't see the RCS um wrestling uniform, but you do see section two. So, it's a little bit different, but it's
005pretty special to see all the kids lined up by color, by section. Moving into wrestling, uh our team was the Colonial Council League Champion again this year. Uh same as last year, a good number, 13 student athletes qualified for sectionals. such a team effort. Such a huge amount of students participate in wrestling. Our coaches just really thrive in the environment. The our students really gravitate towards the coaches are really special group. Um I really enjoy watching wrestling. It's such a special sport. So I'm just happy to to be involved with it. So again, just highlighting Jaden as a sophomore. It's really special as a 10th grader to be able to make it to that state championship level. Um specifically the second year in a row for Jaden. Um, and I also wanted to shout out
006Mr. Shapano made sure I knew that we had not had an athlete at the state championship tournament make it to the second day since 2013. So really tremendous accomplishment for such a young man. Um, super great kid, just very dedicated to his sport, to his team. So that was really special to see him compete. too many athlete names to list for um all stars, which is a good thing. But I just wanted to give a quick shout out. Again, these are in the article listed for everyone, but our first team um Colonial Council um Allstars, Aiden Dailyaly, Jaden Aim, Aiden Forester, and Kellen Holting. Second team, an honorable mention for RCS, Carter Castagna, Brock Larson, Aiden Miner, Donovan Taber, Ethan Green, as well as Owen Green. and we had seven seniors on that team this
007winter. Next is boys varsity basketball. This team faced a lot of adversity this winter. I would say they worked really hard. They stuck through it. Uh they ended up finishing out the season with five wins. Um just a quick shout out to our offensive leaders, our defensive leaders. We thought it was special to include those students because they're not always recognized on the all-star list, but they have worked very very hard throughout the season and did contribute to the team in in many different ways. Our Colonial Council Allstars, a third team recognition was JT Foy, an honorable mention, Mason Kartner and Austin Burns. We had two seniors on the team this year. They did travel to Icabad Crane for the first round of sectionals. Played a tremendous game and lost the game 57 to 54.
008So their athletic director was texting me all throughout that game as it was at their place. So it was very competitive uh right till the end. So great season for boys. Girls varsity basketball. Again, I'm very proud of this team. They definitely increased and improved from last year. Just specifically, the coaches let me know not only did they improve their overall record, but they also improved um their statistics, whether it was their two or three point field goals as well as free throws. So, I think that's important to have that data there for the students to show that they have improved from the previous year. They were also seated high enough in postseason to host the first round sectional games, which is difficult to do. So, they were able to do that. Again, another tough
009fought game. Uh they lost the game 47 to 41, but very close and they worked very hard throughout the season. All stars for honorable mention were Hayden Wolf and Ray Nepski, younger students on the team. So we do have a bright future with girls varsity basketball and three seniors. Boys varsity swimming and diving. This was our, as you know, our first season is combined with RCS Greenville. Um, we did want to give a shout out and welcome to the Gunert family who joined us from Greenville, Ashton in 10th grade and Blake in eighth grade. Uh, they were each on the varsity and the modified team. So, we were very pleased to to welcome them to RCS. The kids did an amazing job making them feel welcome. Um, it was a really tremendous season. Again, um
010the team finished second in division 2 at section 2 championships. And I did want to highlight Justin Sulick as he he was recognized as a section two champion in both the 200 individual medley in the 100 breaststroke. Again, a team effort, but just highlighting that he was also qualifying to go to the state championship meet this winter uh in March and he placed 29th in the state in breaststroke. he was able to attend that event. NISPA puts that event on at Ithaca College which has a tremendous aquatics facility. So just a very special moment for Justin and we are very proud of him with all of his accomplishments. Section 2 Division 2 Allstars were Sam Rosen and Justin Sulick. And I do apologize for the typo, but there were three seniors on the swimming and
011diving team. I will make that correction. girls varsity cheer. They participated in two competitions this winter season at Saratoga and Niski Ununa high schools and we're looking to build on that in the future. They also obviously supported our basketball teams both both boys and girls varsity which is a 20ame season obviously 10 home games for boys and girls each. Um so they made sure they were loud and proud supporting our students at those events. They're also trying to think outside the box and try some new events. So, not only this past summer, they had a cheer camp for younger students, uh, but this winter they also had their first cheer expo event where they performed their competition routine that they obviously work very hard on throughout the winter, uh, for their cheer families as well
012as community members. And that event also included other skills challenges or really fun activities for for the younger students to participate in. So, I'm very proud of this group. Um, and they still continue to practice in the offseason. are actually preparing for our winter/spring sports pep rally which is coming up this Friday. Spirit week here at the high school so it's very busy here and we had one senior student. Girls varsity bowling a young and up and cominging group but they're really achieving some great things. They had a very competitive schedule eight and five overall this season placed second at the Roderdam Invitational. We always start our winter season with that event and the kids really love going to that. They placed fourth at class B in the sectional tournament. Again, for a very young
013team, super impressive. Um, we had students recognized for all stars. First team, Kaylee Burnham, second team, both of these young ladies are eighth graders, Mackenzie Eagle and Sydney Bernham. And no students on the team this year. boys varsity bowling. They were led by seniors John Kazaro and Cameron Stanton. It's a really nice group of leaders, group, great group of students. Two middle schoolers on this roster as well. So, we have young athletes up and coming. Again, a very rigorous schedule. Um, it's very demanding to be on the bowling team, constantly on the bus, traveling back and forth to different lanes. Uh, the kids work really hard. It's it's hard to stay organized. 14 regular matches, the invitational, championships, sectionals. Uh the kids did really well. Um gave their best effort. And John Canazaro, one of
014our seniors, was recognized as a section two or I'm sorry, a Colonial Council second team all-star. Boys and girls indoor track and field. This team continued to grow in numbers again this winter. So we had 30 students on the team, an increase from last year. They had five league meets, Colonial Council Championships, as well as sectionals. I didn't want to highlight two uh school records that were broken this winter season. Katie McFaren broke the RCS triple jump record with 33 feet 11.75 in. Very impressive. Mason Brazowski broke the 800 meter record with two minutes and 6.3 seconds. 800 meters is about two laps on the track. So, thinking about how fast that is, it's crazy. So, congratulations to both of those athletes. We love watching them compete. And we had seven seniors on the indoor
015track team this winter. We always like to recognize our scholar athlete teams every season. For winter, the following teams were recognized. RCSG varsity boys swimming and diving, the varsity indoor track and field team, girls varsity bowling team, and the girls varsity basketball team. So again, this is 75% or more of the roster has a 90 or above combined average to qualify as a team. And the students that had a 90-year above average for quarter 2, they are an individual scholar athlete and received the NISFA scholar athlete pin. just a few goals and updates looking to 2526. I wanted to cover just a few topics um that we've been working on in the athletics office and with our PE staff. I know Gan mentioned this already in her budget presentations. Uh we have proposed the unified
016bowling team for next school year for 2526. This is a collaborative effort between our special education students as athletes and our general education students as partners. So our partners would be supporting our special education students um so they can find success within the athletic realm. So unified bowling is still recognized by NISA by section 2. They're official varsity sports and they're treated as such. So the athletes will receive all the same recognition. So we're we're hoping for this opportunity. I've never added a sports team before at a school. So this is first for me. So I'm learning along a lot along the way, reaching out to different colleagues who have um implemented unified programs at their schools. The season, I know Gan mentioned it's sort of sandwiched in between seasons. So this would be next
017school year midFebruary to mid-Marchch. Busy time, but we'll make sure we get that organized. We hope to do that. Next is uh unified physical education. This is an approved high school PE course and it has been for a little bit now. Uh we're continuing to build capacity with this class and get students registered next year for 2526. Uh one strategy that we have tried this spring specifically is our and it's the same model for unified. You have your general education with your special education students. So this is in a physical education classroom. So this would be for example our adapted PE classes which are offered nth period and Miss Shortell teaches them here at the high school this year. We have welcomed and recommended students, our high school PE staff has recommended students that would
018be a good fit. Our general education students to work with our adapted students, maybe students that are looking to work in social services or teaching or things like that. We've tapped those students um that already have that established ninth period sort of in their schedule where they could work. So whether they have a high school gened PE class with Mr. Peters at 9th period, they have been pushing in to adapt it instead. Um, and we've also looked at students that have study halls at that time if they have time to come down and join the classes, which we've had a handful of students be able to do that. Some students have been coming every single day, uh, really loving it, really thriving in it. Um, I was able to see Miss Shortell's unified PE class
019the other day. We have students supporting each other in the weight room, spotting each other with different exercises. It's it's been really great. So, that's working out. So, we're using that strategy to kind of build capacity to get students interested, spread the word, developing relationships. You know, students that may not have known each other in the past are now saying hi to each other in the cafeteria or in the hallway. So, it's really special. It's going well. So, we're just hoping to continue to push that through to get more students registered and unified PE for next school year. So, I wanted to thank our principles that have been helping, Jean and Dr. Bailey with getting ideas going. um our high school PE teachers, everyone that's kind of been spreading the word with that. Just wanted
020to touch again on mergers for girls and boys swimming and diving. As you know, we have the girls swimming and diving proposal for tonight on the agenda. Um again, I just wanted to thank Greenville AD uh Denise Wickham over at Greenville and her partnership. Uh it was the first time both of us had done a merge program application and we just really didn't know what went along with the process. So, thank you for your support for boys for this past winter and we are looking to obviously do that again for the opportunities for our students both here at RCS in Greenville for the fall for uh girls varsity swimming and diving. As you can see, we have the sample uh logo that we put together for swimming and diving. Coach Carney actually put together the
021initial proposal, I guess you want to say, uh, for the logo to try to incorporate the Greenville students, making sure they felt welcome with apparel and and how we advertise for the students. I know we put a lot of this out on our aquatics Facebook page. And our communication specialists, both Michelle Ki and um, the communication specialists at Greenville worked together to kind of tighten it up a little bit, jazz it up a little bit, and that's what they came up with. So, some of the students were able to get sweatshirts and things like that to represent both schools and the team. So, that was really nice. At a play in Bethlehem, a student was wearing that sweatshirt with that. It was nice. It was pretty cool. Yeah. So, Coach Gab Coach Gay gave me
022a shirt as well, so I was able to wear a little swag to the meet. So, um it was just a a really great winter season. Um we learned a lot together and we're looking forward to this partnership, continued partnership in the future. Um, I will also mention that we the same application that we put together for RCS for the merger with with Greenville for girls swimming and diving, we also just received the final approval and signatures from the Greenville school district as well. So, they are in support. Quick update about girls flag football. Um, we obviously have had some youth interest in this activity. Uh we've had youth groups using our facilities in the past. Um it was brought to my attention we still have some community and student interest uh with this up
023and cominging sport specifically in section 2 as you probably heard some about it. Um it's really kind of taking off. I wanted to thank coach Bill Bzowski for coming in to meet with me to talk through some of his ideas that he had around the sport and some ideas about um maybe pursuing this in the future at RCS. Some action steps we're looking to do is to or continue to do or ongoing um to incorporate flag football within our PE curriculum. Starting early with our elementary students. Uh football is typically taught already in the middle school and high school PE curriculums, but more specifically flag and those specific rules that go along with that activity. We're also looking to incorporate it into our intram mural program. So after school, those are the extra physical activity
024time that our students have. Uh right now we offer things for example like volleyball club um during inter mural time. So we're looking to kind of adapt that on another day more specifically geared towards flag football to try to build interest and kind of get the word out for the sport. Uh we're also looking at other districts. I know I'm personally reaching out to other athletic directors that have incorporated girls flag football as a spring sport at their schools. Um also researching how would that impact our current spring sports programs. Um, I know specifically for softball, some people think that may be a competitive activity and we still want to have robust softball programs. Um, so those are all things we're sort of taking into consideration while we look at what does it mean to
025maybe add another team in the spring season for our female athletes? Um, and how has that impacted other schools, other programs in the area? So, I just continue to ask questions, reach out to colleagues, um, and try to see what our next action steps are. So, it is on our radar and we're just going to keep you posted with any progress as we utilize our our PE and intram mural time and in those ideas. Lastly, uh I just wanted to touch on our athletic code of conduct, our review committee. Just an update that of the work that has been done around this topic. I wanted to thank everyone that has participated so far on our committee, including myself, our district administrators, teachers, parents, coaches, board of education members. Um, so thank you for your time
026doing this work. Uh, we have not had a review of this work as far as the the data involved in examining our code of conduct since it was updated in 2023. Um, we've had two meetings so far, so I appreciate the committee's time. Um the committee evaluated and looked at different internal processes uh specifically involving school discipline incidents in attendance and how that impacts students on athletic teams uh academic eligibility as well as students leaving or not completing or quitting a sports season uh or their sports team. So those were sort of our specific targeted areas that we looked at. Um looking at the data around those items, we've never collected all that data before. So that was very helpful for me to kind of put that together and how we want how we wanted
027to have it organized and presented it to the committee where it it made sense and it was quick and easy for everyone to understand. Um just helpful to I think it was helpful for all of us to help spell out and organize our processes. We have the athletic code of conduct but not every single step is necessarily specified with how we uh move forward with you know supporting our students in these certain situations. Our third and I think final committee meeting will be Thursday, April 24th. So the meeting invitations went out um as well as one process we wanted to look at and more finalize streamline a little bit better um was the students quitting or leaving a team. So we do have a draft document that was put together um that was sent out
028to the coaches for their feedback. We hope to get their feedback, any changes or edits or suggestions before our next committee meeting that's coming up. That went to the the draft also went out to the committee as well for their review. I learned a great deal from this process. Um, just reaching out to other schools, it really doesn't seem like they are doing an annual review of their athletic code of conduct um or their data. So, I think we're pretty innovative uh with what we're doing and it's really important because all of these decisions um impact student athletes. Um and we just want them to have the best opportunities and best experiences. And I think all of the folks and the stakeholders that were involved were there to best support our students. So, again, I'm
029thankful for the time. I'm thankful for the section two and colonial council colleagues and my mentors that I've spent a great deal of time reaching out to about this to try to understand what has worked um and suggestions for moving forward with this. So, I'm sorry to be a little long-winded, but I appreciate your time and just wondering if anyone has any questions. No, thank you very much. Thank you everybody. Okay, we have a hearing and petition uh uh request which we'll hear now uh from Miss Lori White Ash. I'll just remind you that uh public comments are limited to 3 minutes in length and please refrain from uh any comments pertaining to particular individuals or personnel matters. Welcome. feel free to come right up to the podium to the microphone. I would like to
030thank the board for allowing me the opportunity to explain my position and actions which led to my receiving the memos of council and ultimately um Mr. Bailey asking the board for my termination. Is that wrong? Fine line there. Right. So just to give you some guidance, anything pertaining to policy process, things of a general nature like that, you can certainly talk about. I would ask that you refrain from any self-identifying information or anything relating to a personnel action by the district. Okay. I apologize. No problem. My name is Lori White Ash and I was hired at the RCS Middle School as a building aid on December 14th, 2023. I was then offered a promotion because I took my test, my TA test, and passed to a teacher's aid assistant assistant on April 3rd, but I
031declined the position so that I could stay with the one-on-one that I was with and we didn't have to interrupt any of the scheduling. It meant more money, but I declined it. I started officially as a TA during the extended school year program with Mr. King as he desperately needed help. Refrain from any individuals. I apologize. I read the district's mission statement. provide a safe and supportive learning environment in which we are valued and challenged to become responsible members of a global society. Your vision statement where passion inspires and individuals succeed and the five pillars of the district's values integrity, collaboration, risktaking, participation, empathy, and community. I can say with confidence that I tried daily to uphold all these ideals. I passionately challenged the students under my care to do their best. I practiced in
032the classrooms and part and appropriate and collaborated with teachers with whom I worked. I know my gifts. My passion is genuine and I've been told infectious. I feel all of my positive attributes and contributations were overlooked or at best not appreciated. However, never once did I receive reward or praise this year from the middle school administration. Instead, I felt like there was a target on my back almost every day. rather than first being pulled aside and asked to do things differently, the administration first course of action. Just interrupt. You're you're heading down a path here relating to personnel matters. Lori, and we're also at 3 minutes. Okay. So, if you could please just wrap up your final thoughts. I would like the board to please look through the folders that I provided for every board
033member that has all of my proof to this being false information and me being terminated just for discrimination. Thank you, Lori. Thank you. Okay. Business considerations. We have 61 through 615. Is there a motion for one or more? Motion for all. Jenny. Second. Dan. Any discussion? Um on 6:15. Are those dates correct? That's for 2024 2025. It was in the fall. Oh, that's a yes. Good question. Seven. I maybe I understood our conversation the last time wrong. I thought we were trying to have more than one meeting in October and November. Was that Did I have that backwards? Just five five weeks with only one meeting seems like it's right at the beginning of the school year seems like it might not be enough, but The conversation kind of went both directions. I I was
034very confused at the end of that conversation. I I think we left it because there's there's two in August and two in September and then in October is also the statewide conference. Statewide conference. November I think we identified as a potential issue because of the holiday right period there as well as December. Mhm. So I think that part of the discussion there was August and September are usually heavy with um personnel considerations. So we have two meetings in those months which will get us uh where we need to be and I believe we're good with October, November and December. I must have had the conversation backwards. Thank you. Yeah, I think we went in a lot of circles conversation. So when I looked at it, I was very confused. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. No, thank
035you. And if an issue comes up, we can always And that was the other point, right? Okay. So, if something came up and we really needed to, right? Anything else? All right. All in favor? I Okay, we have personnel considerations 71 through 719. Is there a motion for one or more? A motion for all. Motion for all. Second, Jackie. Just one thing I'd like to mention. Uh, we have an appointment on the agenda this evening for Mr. Jeffrey Artist as the assistant principal in the high school. Welcome. We're very happy to have you here. Does anybody have anything else? All in favor? I. And next we'll turn to Dr. Bailey. We had our discussion around building security. Jesse uh gave a more detailed explanation of the the equipment that was being installed as part of
036that. There are some outstanding questions. One of them was the emergency buttons that will be placed in public locations. Will they be able to as well as trigger the lock down over the PA and lock the doors? They will also be calling out to 911. So, they will call out to first responders. The ones that are in the office right now currently do not, but all of our upgrades to our system will allow for the one pullbox in the office and the new ones that are being installed to call out to uh first responders. Uh Bill said that um the door jar sensors are expected to be on all exterior doors in our buildings. So, it's not picking and choosing which ones, but all of them. And as far as the blue lights, the idea
037was uh to have them definitively where the hight traffic areas are, fronts of the buildings, playground ends of the buildings where we know that there's a lot of traffic. He wasn't as clear around like whether an obscure entrance um like at the back of the building would have the light or not, but he was going to check into that. The whole purpose is again is so if if members of the public or staff who are traveling or staff who are outside um what we decided is all the staff who are outside have a radio. So in the event of an emergency they would be notified by that. Correct. But the idea is that people who are visiting the building who may not be part of the facility organization can see the light is blinking. There'll
038be a sign that says if this light is on that means that um we are either we're in a practice drill or we can't open the door right now or whatever the right thing is. But um the idea is to for people who don't know our facility um you know when the doors are locked down that means that everybody's badges don't work. So there's no one that will be walking in by accident to something like a medical emergency or something like that. But that's uh that's where the blue lights and I think Bill is going to check specifically where they're going to be. Can you think of any other questions you had about the security installs? So, I was discussing it with Jesse. A bunch of concerns came up, not concerns, questions came up from
039teachers at the high school BLT meeting today. So, I'm assuming probably there's some staff at other buildings and they came up with a great idea to to make a form or something so that Bill can just make a FAQ sheet or something so that all the oneoffs and things like that could be addressed. So, just wanted to give you a heads up that that probably if high school mentioned it, it might be good thing for all four buildings to have uh to prime the pump. We had meetings with all of the union leadership in all the buildings to just talk through this is what we were thinking and we use their questions to do an initial frequently asked questions document. But, you know, there's 425 of us. There's going to be a lot and there's
040unique situations too and you know there's things that are going to happen this need and right where there's a door between these two classrooms that nobody else would need to know about but you know those kinds of things. So oneoffs and whatever we recognize that um you know as far as um you know we see like here on this door they're in a lot of the doors but um because of some will need to have the doors themselves replaced or the hardware isn't the right hardware yet. It's not on all doors, but our plan was to phase in after the vacation u to have uh be able to activate these and then people have time to like this is working right or this isn't working right or it doesn't work on my schedule or it
041doesn't work with my students. So, we are going to be able to collect data from that once it goes into practice. Can I ask I I know that you talked about this and I apologize but for clarification the odd doors like the libraries and things that is already included in the project that we're already doing or is that additional that's what we're approving with this budget that with this yeah this capital project uh proposal that's going to be on the same day as the budget vote that security and safety will include those odd doors the double doors and and some of the other ones that is not included in the current $15 million project. That's what I thought and that's what I told them, but I wanted to make sure that I was correct. Yeah,
042that's correct. Okay, thank you. Um, Jean shared a student exeicio document with the board for your feedback. U, it's complex. We have had some discussion at the board level about what we think our priorities are. We've been working on the policy, draft policy and the policy committee. Uh and I think um you know we're probably 70%. The like uh we were just having a discussion beforehand what grade levels do we want to focus on right now. I think the document says juniors and seniors and the real reason why I think we started with that is that the developmental age the competency of the kiddos the ability to dedicate and wisdom around it. Not that there aren't exceptions to that but there's there's nothing in there that's hard and fast that you know that can't be
043adjusted. Um, so you know, we're open to discussion now if you had a chance to read it. If not, there's um, Jean gave everyone commenting rights, so you're welcome to like jot your thoughts in there. And the benefit of that is if I mean, and we come back and we would talk about it at our next meeting. But the benefit of you can start to see other people's thoughts as it's developing and then uh, we would bring those back here and we could have a, you know, a solid discussion around it. So does anybody have anything that jumped out right now? Only thing is is if we're going to have two alternates, I would love to see a sophomore. I mean, obviously freshmen are just coming in. They won't have the ability to vote prior.
044So, assuming it would be a sophomore, at least a sophomore could give voice to underassmen and then somebody from the upper classes could give voice. I think it would be beneficial to have one from each group of students just to more broadly represent the experience of both underassmen and upper classmen. Yes. 10 and 12 or 10 11 12 I would say 10 10 11 well this year's freshman sophomore and junior would vote right for next year. So I would say 10 11 12 would be my preference. Let's not put that pressure on a ninth grader. No. No. They have to have at least one year. Yeah. Right. Um uh speaking with Ryan today, he has a plan for how to have the students be able to vote on those folks and we were talking around
045equity around that too because every student who's interested needs to have a platform to be able to address and speak on that. So there's a whole other end. you know, the board is is working on what the criteria will be for once they're here and the high school is working on the end of how do we get them to here? Uh because there's some nuances around that. Will the high school be able to accomplish that by June? Is that the intention? Yeah. Since Okay. Your mic's off, Ram. Is I don't know do that. I did put my comments in there. I don't know if anyone So Matt actually um one of the concerns he has is the first reading of that policy tonight. So any it may be premature because any anything changes that made
046are going to have to match that policy. Um but the intent of my concerns was was the intent of letting the students choose. Um my comments were in there where it seems like a committee is was was being proposed where students would put their name in, teachers, faculty, then they would decide on who gets to go forward. And I didn't think that was our intent. I thought it was our intent was to any student who was academically eligible, met those qualifications, would be able to go forth and the students would be able to vote on them. seems like there's a step in between where parents and everything at committee is then deciding what students get to go on and go vote. So is that our intent? Not what I would prefer. That was not what
047I thought either. So besides reviewing, you know, the students that apply to make sure that they're academically eligible. Yeah. I don't see why we're having a committee of parents and everything then weeding through them and determining which can go forth to be elected on or not. I I think Can I just also propose that there be not only academically viable but um attendance viable? Well, eligible is what I meant by that. Okay. Yes. As far I just would like that we look at attendance as well as if if they're if whatever the criteria is if student comes in in academically and attendance that we don't then have other people deciding well this one's going to go forward for the vote and this one's not. I don't think that was our intent. No. So I I
048wanted to make that suggestion clear. Um, as far as the um, uh, DevOce's uh, district superintendent for me that they're actually putting together and working on a a training class for the the student board members. Good. Um, so that can be facilitated by the by the board and and through them hopefully um, before the start. So, yeah, that's a good thing to know. But I guess just before you form a committee and and get parents and all these things in here, I don't think that's was our intent. So this really was just to kind of capture um some of the things that we discussed and some research that I did on how other schools have organized it. I would ask the question when the board takes a look at this. So it doesn't necessarily have
049to be selection criteria, but they've some of the school districts highlighted like what are the aspects of a student leader? Um, and then I put that into a rubric. But if if we could use that to help kids understand what this role entails and if you want to take a look at those criteria just to say, you know, take that off. I don't want it to be overwhelming for kids, but at the same time to have an idea for them to take it seriously and say not just be Yeah. Yeah. flipping about it. Yeah. And then written into that policy and into the stuff too that the board will appoint a member or a volunteer member to that to the student member who they will be able to sit next to at the board meeting
050and that they can correspond with uh directly with a board member if they have any questions be in regards to um meeting material. They should be corresponding with the board and not necessarily with the administration. Not that it's not an open pathway, but that they'll be assigned, you know, a member of the board to correspond with and the follow-up can be then with whoever the board and vice president as well. They should have an open uh avenue of, you know, communication. Anybody else have any? You're saying you want the board to appoint someone to be their quoteunquote mentor, a mentor like who someone hopefully volunteer and that that way they the student can sit next to them and you can help them during meetings and with any, you know, questions they have or I think
051that would be a a good thing to do. Yes, I agree. No, those are my points. Yep. No, thank you. Okay. All right. I um have a couple of updates. One, um our prek registration, air quotes, closes tomorrow. So that's the date that we use by the end of the day. If we don't have our sections full, um we everyone who has applied will be in and then anyone who applies afterward just gets added to the list until we get to a waiting list if if it comes to that. Um, so you can always continue to register. At this point, at the end of the day today, we had 28 registrants at AW Becker and 32 for the Peter B um, catchment area. So, there's still room. Um, but I won't know until the end
052of the day tomorrow if we will have a lottery or need to have a lottery um, the week we return from break on the 24th. Um, I do want to encourage families if they're watching, um, if you do have prek students and kindergarten students to please register now. Um, it's helpful because that will get you into, um, a a schedule for a screening which is required if you haven't been to school with us. Um, and those screening dates are at the elementary schools and those will be shared with families once we get confirmed lists. advertise the state it where we advert it it is on our website Michelle Ki has been pushing out information on our social media weekly the signs outside okay perfect and the PTO has also been sharing a little note out
053there um I just wanted to highlight some of the things that have been happening around academics um back back in March um the uh we had a youth Art Month Summit. Um they did this last year. The elementary and high school art teachers bring the art clubs together for an event at the high school. Um it's studentled. So the students in the high school students in the art club facilitate stations uh for the younger students. Um and it's really really fun to see them in a leadership role and it takes a tremendous amount of organization on behalf of the teachers and then they let the kids go. So, it really it it it was great to see. Um, and one of the stations was working collaboratively on a bigger art piece that they put together.
054Um, we had an author visit at both of the elementaryaries. Dan Mahoney is a local author. Um, I got in to see him. He interacted really well with the kids. They were excited to have an adult um an author, a real author visit. Uh, we had last week uh half-day professional learning day. tried to balance that with a few wellness um events for staff members and some professional learning. We had Alyssa Sabatino who has been a consultant that we're working with um around restorative and trauma-informed practices came back and worked with teachers. Um she'll be coming hopefully back next year if we can contract with her to continue some of that work at a more differentiated level um and have her spend some more time working with our support staff as well. Um and then
055finally upcoming and I you have a copy of it at your table. Um so the folks in the student support office so Colleen and Kate and Tim have worked very hard. They did this this is the uh second annual uh community resource fair. So they have um I think there up to 18 vendors of local organizational groups that will be here in the library for families to come and it's very um informal. The tables are set up. They come they get information. there's some snacks. Um, and it's a great way to connect not only with the organizations and the resources, but also with other families. So, I highly encourage you um to to come and see that if you have the time. Um, and most exciting stuff. So, we had a board of ed CNI
056meeting back on March 13th. The upcoming one is tomorrow afternoon. Um, we are implementing, we're adopting I Ready classroom mathematics for K5 for the 2526 school year. I put a copy of the draft implementation plan in front of you. We walked through this at the last meeting trying to capture what teachers need, what administrators need, communication with the board, communication with the community. Um, so it's mapped out for the year. One of one of the things I wanted to um get feedback from the board on and we talked a little bit about it at the meeting was one of the ways that we want to ensure that we have high quality implementation and support for teachers is to have as much training as we can. So looking at this calendar one of the solutions that
057we came up with to have an introductory uh training the materials can be in teachers hands June 5th was originally scheduled K5 half day for class placements. I am proposing that and Jesse's working on the numbers to make sure that we can do it hours-wise, days wise for um state aid funding. I'm proposing we make that a full day prek5 where students don't come to school. So teachers still have half a day to do class placement and then half a day for uh initial training for the curriculum. Um my question is how is it working out for timing? Like you said Jesse was working on it. he's working on it like numbers wise what I had said when I proposed this to the committee and to the principles um based on feedback from teachers because
058our original plan wasn't going to work um they I said one of the implications of this so because we didn't use all of our snow days students will end up at some point will determine when the students last day is um and what this could mean depending on the minutes is that the 68 students might h end school a half day earlier than the K5 students So, um, and the feedback from the teachers was like, "It's happened before. We didn't have power at one school." So, Peter B is let out because of water main break and stuff. So, I just wanted to make sure that we had enough time to get communication out, update the calendar, let families know just so that they can plan for child care. So, when do you think you'll be
059officially making? As soon as you give me the nod that that's an okay thing to do. Yes. Okay. But that's just me. As long as Jesse says we're good, I think. Go for it. Okay. Um the the other exciting piece about this is I ready classroom has a curriculum which we're adopting. It also has a very robust diagnostic assessment. So we are also going to be implementing that for math. Um and we've been in discussions about what that would look like for reading um and at the middle school level. in right now our decision is to move to the diagnostic K5 math which means that we will not be doing fastbridge. So it's you know a similar type of assessment um far more robust gives us way better data much more actionable information for teachers
060to use for both in-class tier one and tier 2 support and instruction and for our AIS instru. It is computer-based. Yes, it is which Fastbridge was as well. Fastbridge was it well and it's similar in that it responds to kids. Um it is a little bit the assessment will take longer. Um it is it is more thorough. Um but same thing three times a year universal benchmarking and would information from that be sent home to families similar to how it's done with that. Yes. Okay. Y so you said that this was just for math. What happens then with so does that say back at at ready I mean at at fast bridge. So we at we we started the discussion at the last meeting with the content specialists. The middle school content specialists were very
061interested. I just brought it in because I wanted them to know it was coming um and they found it to be far more useful to them and the work that they're doing with teachers department goals intervention support. Um so we are leaning towards that at the on the elementary reading side we have to have a a pretty deep discussion about so what does this assess for us and what might we put aside and put on pause for next year because I don't want to be overly assessing students and we have a lot of um assessments for reading um and we also want to have a a pretty robust discussion around primary um assessments because those oftentimes for our youngest learners are one-on-one one. Um, and this is an it's an online assessment, so we we're
062kind of we have to battle with that a little bit, but um it will be available to us. We just have to decide at to what length we want to use it. The only downfall, unfortunately, is they don't have a curriculum associated with it. So, for reading, for math, they do, but for reading, for reading, they don't. Got it. The other anything else? I would love if they did because it sounds like it's going to be a very great opportunity. So, I don't know if the company they have not indicated that um reading is a little more complicated. Yeah. Um and then the other good thing that came out of that board of ed CNI is that we did approve that fourth grade band lessons will begin um for fourth graders next year in the
063next school year. So we'll have a new staff member who will be part of that whoever that might be. So I encourage you to join us tomorrow. We're going to take a closer look at some of the data that we're looking at to see the impact of really great reading and what that's looked like over time because we're two and a half years almost three years into that implementation. Um, and a little bit about a little deeper dive into some of the progress monitoring tools that we use for students in intervention to monitor how well they are responding to the instruction that they're getting. And that's it. All right. Thank you, Jesse. Uh first off, I'd like to thank the board for the support of the budget tonight. Uh there's a lot of work that
064goes into ball. You see several presentations from it, but there's a lot of work from not only us up here, but everybody throughout the district. So, thank you for supporting that budget. Um so, just a quick couple project updates. Uh still doing some $15 million project. Uh again, majority of the work will be done over the summertime. Uh they are doing some night work at the Peter B uh and AW Becker fire system. Again, this is not active yet. They're setting it all up before they test it and switch it over. Um so there's a few pictures on the presentation we have. Uh over spring break, we are going to continue to do some asbesus work in six classrooms in the middle school. Um there will also be some final work on the alarm in
065the warehouse and the transportation department and they will be switching over to the new system. Uh after those final tests, uh they will also be doing a new roof over the middle school band um room uh weather permitting obviously. Um and I do have some bad news uh about the the univvents replacement in in the um the elementary school music and art rooms. Uh unfortunately uh we do have a a coil uh that it needs to be installed when you install the whole unit vent that is not going to be available uh but for this break. Um so we will not be able to install it over break like we they originally planned to. Um they did confirm with me today uh in our capital project meeting that they will be securing those coils soon
066and we'll be able to do the installation over the summertime. Um, so we're a little discouraged with that, but um, you know, we'll be getting it soon and getting it installed. Um, some of the other, uh, projects that we're that we have going on is the bus lifts. Um, if you remember, we have a a small uh, transportation uh, capital project going on. Uh, so the bus lift ordered. Uh, if you remember, we we ordered these lifts to um, one of our our lifts in one of our bays is uh, deteriorating a little bit and uh, we needed to upgrade that. So, we ordered them and they should be in here early in May and once we've received it, we'll we be doing a uh installation of that. Um, I did want to kind of
067just go over what I'm hearing with the state budget. As most of you know, we do not have a budget yet. Um, and there's we are hearing some good things um from our advocate groups that uh there is no real big discussion on school aid. they they are happy where those numbers are. So that's encouraging for us. Um they're also still talking about some of that CTE aid which is based on for BOSIES. So that would get us some additional aid that is outdated. Um so there would be additional aid for schools. Uh also that retirement uh exemption which allows um the extending the waiver which allows people that are retiring to uh come back and work. Um so there is still discussion. I thought that was going to go down, but there are I'm
068hearing there are still discussions about keeping that around, which is which is good. Uh, zero emission buses is also a big discussion as we heard last month. Um, I'm hearing that there's probably not going to be any movement on any um pushing the uh kind of the deadline in this budget. Uh, but in future budgets that we will hear some possible changes in those. And also the big talk about the the cell phone bell-to-bell. Uh a lot of discussions around that. Um the the biggest discussion and I think um from our state senator that that came last at our last meeting. Um there is increasing concerns around the federal funding uh and how uh some of the decisions that the administration and the federal level some of the decisions that they're making now will have
069effect on um the market and possibly going towards a recession and how the recession has a large effect on uh the state and uh the ability of them to raise revenue. Um, so that is a big concern of one of the the things that they are talking about in the budget. Um, so you know, it's a little concerning, but we're definitely watching it closely. Uh, again, we did get some positive things about school aid, so that is good to see, good to hear. Um, other than that, uh, that's as much as I' I've heard around the budget. We're hoping to hear some them accepting that soon. Um, any questions on that? I can help alleviate some things. Go back to the cell phone bell to bell. Yeah. Um we had a great discussion in BLT
070also about that today and I I know that you know it can be as was witnessed a few weeks ago when we were all discussing it around this table. It can be a little for kids and for parents and our administrators are really working hard to make this a positive. We're going to do one week. We're going to we're going to try it out. There's not going to be any, you know, stiffer penalties or anything like that. In fact, it's quite the opposite. There's going to be a lot of discussion about the positives. what are you going to see kids talking in the cafeteria and you know um maybe they're going to have games to play or things like that in place and and what kind of things will change. So I'm hoping that our
071whole community can make this a really positive week and see what we learn from it so that if it does get imposed by the state we're already prepared and we don't have to look into the more expensive options. Um, so I'm just encouraging everybody to be really positive and to encourage this. We're not taking the cell phones away from the kids. We're just making them put them away, which is to be fair our board policy anyway. What So what week is that, Mel? That is going to be the last week in April. Okay. Yeah. So the for that week it will be a bell to bell bell to bell when you walk in the door in the morning at 7:35 until the 205 or 2:35 whenever you're leaving um bell. So while you're in the
072building it won't be right now they are allowed to use them in study halls and cafeteria and the hallways for that week. We are going to say no cell phones from the beginning of the day to the end of the day and really focus on what positives come out of that and what data is there. Um and so I'd love to get a report on that. Yes, we uh Mr. Funk has promised that he will give us a a detailed report and he is really hoping to come back with all of these surprising positives. Where where are the kids going to put the phones? Just in their bags. Just in their backpacks. Yep. In their backpacks. As long as they stay in there. If they are seen, it'll be the same as the policy is
073now that they'll be taken down to the office and asked to call their parents and the parents and them will choose if they will be going home or not. It's not a mandatory. It's not a suspension. It's not anything stiff. It's there to put it in their bags. So, it should be a good positive thing. and maybe show our kids that we don't need to impose anything stricter on them if they can just, you know, have that that self-control and be able to use them responsibly. So So they're they're actually following the policy. They are following the policy because the current policy, Mike, it's it actually says the students are allowed to have their phone. It doesn't say that they can use their phone at all during the day, right? It's up they they they've
074they've allowed them to use them during study hall in Dorne study hall the cafeteria cafeteria outside of that they're just now actually enforcing it for a week leading up to the possib just get a taste of the possibility of however the state decides to go. So that's they're just following it to a tea for a week. How do the teachers react to becoming the enforcement mechanism? I mean, everybody right now is is just really hoping that it's going to be a really positive week and and great conversations are going to come out of it. So, well, yeah, of course. But I mean, are there teachers that would or have expressed any hesitancy about the enforcers? Nope. It's really their job. They really have to anyway. Yeah. On a daily basis. So, Yep. We We all
075know how somebody Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good test. Yeah, it's a good test. And I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of it. Yeah. And hey, when I went here in the 90s, there was no cell phones. and and those bags that that are being used by a lot of districts are starting to use those bags that Bethlehem uses. Those things we talked about that earlier this year. They're a little bit on the expensive side. Yeah, it's about uh it was $20 a bag, Mike. 20 bucks a bag. I don't remember between 20 and 30, but we estimated in the low 20,000 range to do just the high school. So, it's a significant investment. So, we're trying to avoid that. So, let's get behind our kids as a community and make this a positive week.
076Agreed. And can I go back to your um to the buses? You said I just want to make sure I understand your statement. They're not looking to change the date by which they expect us to have this completed. Is that what you meant by I'm I'm hoping not budget, right? Not in this budget, right? I'm I'm hearing that that I don't that they're not going to speak to that, but we're we're advocating future budgets. Yes, that's what I'm hearing. I just wanted to make sure I understood correctly. Thank you very much. I would like them to do that to discuss changing it. Yeah. Pushing it out because it is a lot of work. Um Well, not feasible to do for an entire state when you don't have enough. Yeah. I mean, we could talk about
077it all night. We really could. I mean, it You're not wrong. They're going to create a mandate that they can't enforce because there's literally going to not be enough product. So, it seems silly to me, but whatever. Yeah. Is there guidance from state in regards to temperatures in classrooms? I haven't heard anything new. No update yet. No update. Any additional guidance? I think they're distracted by too many other balls in the air right now. Yeah, I know. I'm just cuz I mean it's approaching, right? And it is. Okay. Yeah. All right. Is that it for you? All set. Okay. Thank you. Any new business items for anyone? No. Okay. Looking at the old business. We talked about the student board member. Uh stop arm. We obviously approved the agreement tonight. I think we'll keep it
078on here just to see what the implementation looks like for that. Do we have a timeline yet for putting those on? They'll have to work with their contractors, but they they put in the contract um to be determined, right? But they're eager. It's not they'll move as quickly as they can to get it done. Okay. What kind of update would you be looking for? Like number of timeline? Yeah, just periodic on what the timeline is. I can do it into my my reports. Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh there are five policies on tonight for first reading. So usual process, take a look at those. Uh any comments, send back to the policy committee, please. Uh Matt and Jackie and and others. Uh there's no further hearings or petitions. Under upcoming upcoming activities, the big one
079coming up of course is spring recess. And then we have a bunch of dates pertaining to board of ed petitions, budget information, budget vote. Anything else anybody wants to mention? Okay. I'm going to ask for a motion to enter back into executive session to discuss matters pertaining to collective negotiations pursuant to article 14 of the civil service law and matters relating to the employment of particular person. Motion Dan second Melanie all in favor I and the board will be taking no further action after executive. Thank you everybody.