SCCSD Board of Education Meeting - March 24, 2026

001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The Salem City Central School District acknowledges the homeland of the Anandaka, the Senica people, the people of the great hill, the people whose ancestral and modern-day land Salem school district now stands and whose water we enjoy. We stand with all indigenous peoples in their resolve to remain connected to their land. While we cannot undo what has been done, it is the goal of the Santaga City Central School District to recognize the history and make improvements that will benefit the next seven generations of indigenous students. >> Thank you all for coming out tonight. Um, once a month we have our one of our our board meetings

002set aside for for presentations and looks like we have quite a few going on today. Um, first things first. Um, Mark, do we have any uh let's see, agenda changes. We do. Uh, we have a couple items. Um, we added the legal council approved resolution um and exhibit A to section five. Um, we are a little bit ahead of schedule, so we added uh item B to section five, which is the capital project phase 4 construction lighting bid. Um, we added the IBC meeting minutes from March 11th. And just recently, because the Odyssey of the Mind team took second place in their competition, um, we have added their approval for their travel to the world competition, um, scheduled in late April. Thank you. Okay, with that, um, I approve for, uh, a motion to the

003agenda. Thank you very all in favor. >> Oppos. Okay. Next, um we have a budget uh budget presentation meeting or uh presentation. Thanks, Karen. Right. Thank you again. Um, last but not least is benefits and vet service on the 26 27 budget. Um, again what we know retirements is still at eight. I don't know why. tax levy is at $250,000 and will remain there regardless of where we end up unknown still state aid we hope to have a budget by April 1st and if we do I will be shocked because I don't think there's going to be one on April 1 um also CSU and STA are still in negotiations and we don't know the outcome of those so benefits based on existing salaries um without again without those two contracts being uh resolved yet.

004So last year we had $12.6 million in salaries and I'm sorry not in salaries in benefits and in 2627 projected right now we're at $13.6 million. So it's about a 7% increase without um those two unions being um taken into account. insurance itself went up 8%. Um, retirement looks like it took this huge dive and that's is sort of because we didn't have as many retirees this year. So, when people retire, it's a three-year look back um on their payments for unused time in their uh retirement awards. So, um we have fewer retiring last year and this year. So, that's why it looks like it's a minus income. unemployment looks like it's a huge increase of if you just look at the percentage of 400% but it's going from 5,000 to 25,000. We have a

005few more unemployment claims than we've had in the past. Um and we pay based on actual so we don't pay on a lot of um companies not not public utilities or um sorry municipalities. Um but they will pay a specific rate on unemployment. We pay based on actual unemployment. So actually what's going out the door to maybe reimburse the state for that. Next is so right now our contract is at $9.6 million. Next year it looks like we're at 10.366. There's a couple numbers that I'm still waiting on, so it might be a little bit more. It's about an 8% increase overall. Uh majority of it is just like last year in special ed student increase costs for that. Um there's several other costs that are increased as well like athletics went up 20%. Um

006put my glasses on. Their admin and capital are up 8 and 4%. Personnel is up 10%. Those are the things that they uh administer our health plan and our workers comp plan. So we have to pay for that service. Part of it we are reimbured for aid u but part of it we are not um on the personnel end. So there's really just increases across the board like anything costs are going up and that service. So for 2627 we'll pay out $2 million in debt service. Our current outstanding debt is just over $6 million. Um and inter transfers. Last year we had 935,000. I'm looking at a million this year. Uh partially the increase is um the special aid fund transfer. We have to cover 20% of the cost of tuition for the New York

007State School for the Deaf in the uh No, that's the St. Mary school for that one in uh Buffalo that we have to pay for a student to go to. So that cost is increased as well as transportation costs for that student. So our share of that obviously goes up as well. And then for food services, even at 850,000, I think that's going to cover us for all the stuff that we do within food services. Next time we'll have an overview of the entire budget and um you'll hopefully adopt that budget then. Otherwise, we'll have another board meeting between then and the 24th because the 24th is the last day to adopt it. And then on the 12th is the full budget hearing and on the 19th is >> questions. Okay, our next presentation is

008in front of you. Uh, you should have a form that looks like this. I'm gonna scoot down to this end. go line by line over the sheet that I've given you, but on the front part you'll see grants that we have applied for to successfully receive and then on the back you'll see works in progress I like to call it what we've submitted what we're considering and what we're working on as well as grants um that don't really show their money, but they're the non-cash awards. Okay. So, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present here this evening. I'm Sandy Brown if you don't know me. So, there are reasons why we're applying for grants. That's okay. um to highlight all the good work that's going on at the district. And you hear about

009this and you're going to hear about this tonight with all the wonderful students and staff and good things that we have going on here at the district. That's a goal is to highlight what we're doing to comply with New York State and federal grant requirements to pursue additional funding streams and most importantly to cover the salary of make. Okay. So, how does that align with district goals? How do these grants that we're applying for aligning with district goals? So, when we're considering them, we look at the different goals and match up try to match up to make students smarter. You're going to see here uh in Kayla Hager's classroom, Sheldon's kind of going to be doing uh agricultural education in classroom smarter, educating them. In this situation, they're learning about eggs and actually uh hatching

010them in class. creating a culture of trust. So you recall that we had the DCJS workforce grant last summer and uh had a number of students who participated in that uh and got to know staff better in a more intimate understanding of all the function functions of the school attendance. So, how does nail lines get this picture? I see Karen and Timsky. Attendance attendance is related to indoor air quality. This is part of the indoor air quality grant. This is one of the monitors. Uh students who are sick and or struggling with things like asthma don't have as good attendance and therefore our goal to keep the building safer and healthier. And we're diversifying funding streams as much as we can. Always look, I get probably at least once a week someone that reaches out

011to me and says, "Hey, what about this? Can you apply for this?" I think it just happened today. Um, what do you think about that? Um, and always looking for ways to improve our district, which is hard to do because be the premier school district, which is another goal of mine personally and personally. So, here's some examples. So this is a New York agriculture and market. So you'll see you'll recall the food truck was a grant funded program New York foods for New York office where we handed out New York produce and and uh veggies to kids and adults. And then uh John's crew uh learned about composting education and working um working in the garden. That's one of the new funding streams. EPA go green initiative initiative is the second. Again, this is uh

012indoor air quality monitors. Um, and that grant again the school received as one of 10 in the nation. And the next slide is referring to the magnet award that you as a board have won and that is one of five in the nation and that is because of the work that's been done behind the scenes by Louis Rich and his crew and others. um them, myself, Karen, uh Nikki. Yes, Nikki, Kim, the folks at Prospect to improve the endwater quality. So, congratulations. Uh the USDA grants uh again is uh related to gardening. Uh and here you see a photo of the garden in progress and we have our plans for the day. And then of course all the New York State education department grants and those are ever changing and moving. Um, uh, Kayla's going

013to talk about the fresh fruit and vegetable program, but the, um, summer food service program, what we, uh, offered again this summer. That's SFSP, uh, starting on July 6th, and we're expanding that again. Um, looking to do, uh, non- congregate meal distribution at four different locations throughout the school district, including the ACC, the youth center, high playground, and gas station. uh DEEC grants. So, um composting again. So, here's a picture of our pumpkin smash that we did, John and myself, last fall. Um and we just got a DEC grant uh for 87,000 and some change to look at food scrap recycling so that we're not the foods that we are preparing in the kitchen, the scraps can be weighed, measured, and recycled. instead of making more garbage. And then we also have access private foundations.

014So, Nokin Hungry um we met with them again and they hopefully will ask us to apply again for some non- congregate meal fundings for the summer. Rob Wilson Jr. Foundation, you will see Rich Chad and I are going to go and look at the space around the tread. We've got some outdoor adult exercise equipment that will be going in there. the Chef Anne Foundation, uh, Stepping Stone, Stepping Stones, and the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities grant, which has been a really good funer and provided us with a lot of stuff that we need. And so, here's just for those who like pie charts, here's a picture of grant funds. the numbers a little outdated because we just added the nice sort of on-site energy manager grant that we were just awarded. So, there's 110,000 there

015that's not in there yet, but you can see kind of the breakdown of we still have the bulk of our grants are federal um with some New York State and then private funds as well. Again, just looking at new funding streams and just for the group, I put in a picture of myself going up on the roof of Prospect because I'm that guy looking at the air filters and making sure that they're clean and there's a system. And of course, Rich and his guys are well on top of it. Uh future potential. So, there's lots of again funding streams that I probably again get asked for on a daily basis, if not a weekly basis. um ideas that are generated that are really good ideas uh think that we want to pursue. So here's one.

016Oh no, not yet. Okay. Um and again looking at the academy growth, we're currently fleshing out um the farm to school academy and looking at creating an FFA uh group, a farm to school coordinator, expanding the garden space. Um, and that one just seems to be coming together organically. It seems like what we're applying for is well funded by New York State. There's an idea right there. Who wants it? We go. Never too late. Okay. Question. I appreciate the opportunity to give information and I hope to provide you with a monthly update. >> Thank you very much. >> This ring on their way in >> I will do that. That's Okay. Well, um it's good to see you all here today. Um today we're going to here to talk about all the cool stuff the

017Mac team has been up to. Um we got all kinds of cool stuff to share. So we're I kind of feel like Ace Venture a little bit when he has to breathe it >> so I can get it all out. Um, and we're going to we're going to do that here in just a second and kind of share those things with you. Um, we do apologize for our attire. We have been starting our maple project today, building a fire pit and things like that. So, we've been kind of in and out of the building. Um, and also I got a baseball game to get to real soon. Okay. Um, so I'm gonna hand it over to Andrew who's gonna be on slide. Sorry. Hang on, guys. I think it was on a timer. >> Well,

018I'll start to it. >> Yeah. Um, in October of uh 2025, we had um honoring our roots student conference and uh we had a contest for the um logo, the design, and one of our students from our school was there. It was really nice and it started from the original NAR Native American Regional Forum which we changed to the Western New York Indigenous Education Advocacy Network where uh about eight school districts that serve as indigenous students um from the contracting schools got together and from NAR or Winnian the awesome staff and all the school districts decided that this is something that we heard the kids been talking about. It took about two years and it happened this past October and through it they had uh many contemporary and traditional uh workshops that the students could

019attend and then accumulated with a nice social dance and we had a wonderful uh free raffles for the students and it was really exciting. But Daryl Toner was there who is a Tuscora uh psychologist and he really did some awesome things there. All right. So, it's it's on a timer, so we're just gonna talk. All right. >> The pictures at your leisure. >> I got I got my ears. >> So, this one is uh some of our images that we took from our visit with the fourth grade leaders to go. So, if you're unaware, that's the Senica Ganian farm located in Collins, New York. And um typically our process if someone reaches out and asks for something, we want to be a part of it. And so we went with them and we got to

020enjoy a late season berry harvest. They took a tour of the farm. Um they saw the honey harvest. They have uh bees on site and so that was really cool thing. They got to observe. They checked out the maple equipment that they have. We are real beginner level when it comes to maple. So it was really cool that they were able to do that. And then they finished their day um braiding some of the white corn that had been harvested. And they were corn graders braiding little um braids of corn. So that was really cool. Yeah. Uh and then next is okay. So next we would also talk about our garden. Um so our garden this year was the first year that we actually were successfully able to grow the white corn on campus and

021our team if you have not figured it out. We work pretty frequently with white corn. And so we really wanted to grow on campus and we wanted to um develop that seed tot uh curriculum and so we grew white corn out back. We're really lucky to have some awesome helpers. Taylor Kager was one of our biggest helpers there. Um and then the farm district grant I think also helped support that. >> So it was really exciting for us. We were dealing with a little bit of um maybe not the most fertile soil but I think just with a lot of love and water we had a really great harvest. And so we're hoping to grow a little bit better, a little more corn this year. And throughout the presentation, we'll talk about the different ways

022that we use the white corn. But we just wanted to give a little credit to our >> garden. That's awesome. >> Yeah. So the next thing we wanted to share about and we um before I continue I just want you all to know that a lot of the things that are featured in today's presentation has to do with classroom integration and working directly with teachers and students because we also do in addition to that a lot of presentations and things like that um and collaboration with outside um like we like a group will come and they want to see what we're all about and so we'll present to them um We're on April 1st, I don't know if you know this, but on April 1st, we're also going to be presenting um uh to administrators

023um and just on cultural things. And so we we have other things that we are doing, but what you're seeing today is really about the integration that we're actually doing in the classroom with students and teachers. Um which brings me to the next thing I want to talk about, which is the um the fourth grade. Uh we did some collaboration with the fourth grade teachers to integrate uh the creation story our creation story in with um with their geography lesson. Uh we talked about like you know we we really used the the cultural connection with the two um you know concepts like where does the term mother earth come from and the things that are on the earth. Uh and so we created this um and we are going to be having it available for

024other people to use in the area. Um I've loan not loaned it I've given it out to some uh teachers in the local area in particular the faithkeeper school who was able to use that information uh and tie in geography in with what they are already culturally doing. Um, so those are some kind of just some kind of things that we've been doing as far as the curriculum work. Um, so the next thing we're going to talk about, uh, Andrew is going to talk about is the nimalization of our corn and that stuff, all of that that's in in with that. So shout out goes out to Mrs. Johnson when I came here in 2017 and we've always been niximalizing corn in the Pina area in the North and South Americas. And when I wanted

025to know what we were doing and seeing, she helped us scientifically go through that process and learnization with the eighth graders. And so from then on, it's been filtering in through in and out. And our new high school sent language teacher that took Rachel's place, Miss Gillson, wanted to have this with her son language to students. And soization is something that's really connecting us and integrating uh science with uh traditional. And so we started with uh shelling and sorting and then miximalizing and drying and grinding and mixing that flour into a loaf if you will. And the basis of it was that it's our traditional farm bread and it is not um the fried bread which is our survival food that was given to us through commodities. So this is the message that we're trying

026to get that it's one of our main staples. And so now hopefully um my goal is why I retire in June is that the indigenous studies and Miss Gilson's class will have a lot of indigenous students learn the process because sometimes we can just taste the food but if we don't know how we got it from the beginning. So we're been So they're going to be learning mush and cornbread and corn silo which is three different uh styles of cooking and processing it from the ground that the ind indigenous studies students are going to be planting and then they'll harvest it in the fall and making it from these sites. Oops. These are just some more pictures of the of the process, the students in their process. So, one of the cool things that we

027get to do is uh it really work with a teacher who has a really awesome idea. Um and so it has to look different. Uh none of the the big projects that we doing is really kind of like um uh it's a lot of it's new. And so what we'll do is we'll come up with the lesson, we'll bring in um you know people to enhance the lesson and then we have it set and so then that teacher can in essence proceed with that for years to come. So one of the projects that we were really proud about this year was this suspense unit. Uh we had the eighth grade teacher who is teaching a unit on suspense and wanted to know if there was any culturally relevant stories to that they could bring in

028to kind of you know um satisfy that that unit on suspense. And so what we did is uh we thought of a uh of a traditional story. Uh this story that that we thought of is the is the flying head. And so basically in essence what it is, it's a story of this flying head creature that is chasing a girl through the woods. And she, you know, takes off articles of clothes and and different items to try to get uh to uh like um to distract, I guess, this flying head beast. And so does he get her? I don't know. That's the suspense part of it. Um so that was really cool. The kids got to learn that traditional story. We had a local artist do the artwork for it because that's a story that's

029not you're not going to find illustrated in books. Um, so we had a local artist do the illustrations for that and also do the senica language for it as well. And so now the senica language classes also now have that as a tool that they can use for more of a a reading um cical language immersion type style of resource. So then to amp that up, to bring that home, we had a local puppeteer come in and she did a the story of the flying had using the Korea the Japanese um shadow puppets. So it was really cool. Uh all the eighth grade students got to be a part of that. Um and they, you know, used that in their understanding of suspense. Um so it just was a really awesome way to tie that

030in. So we were pretty happy and proud about that one. Um, so next we have the Buffalo Museum of Science. And this one wasn't specifically for the kids. This was for us. Um, we always have to continue our learning. And as Rachel said, this stuff doesn't always exist. And so it comes with a lot of research and finding people and making connections. And so we were asked a few different we had a few requests early in the year. And so we decided to take a field trip to the Buffalo Museum of Science. and we had a chance to look at their collection of um indigenous objects and materials, but uh they had a lot more Hoduni materials than they I think realized and they had exactly what we were looking for. We were um there

031for some bone tools and they had so much more than that. So, it was really great. We were able to build a nice relationship with them. We're able to bring students to to observe their collection and work with it in the future. and they actually had um classroom materials that weren't appropriate for them to have on display in their museum. And so we're working with them on something in the future to see if we can um get those here and in other parts of the community. So, we're really proud of that relationship we started to build. And through this, we've actually um been given other uh science or museums in the area of Buffalo that we can work with and that they have collections and to not be afraid of working with native communities, even

032if they have material they shouldn't. Um we're not typical for the nation. They have a whole department. Uh and it wasn't our intention to try to take anything. And so it was really cool that they were open to it and good relationship. >> I was going to ask you a pit there. So maybe working with them on that. >> We didn't have to actually doing their own um much larger scale repatriation. What we're doing is nothing like ceremonial. So these are just classroom objects that would make more sense for us to have as material culture. Um so then the next one, I'm sorry if you have a queasy belly. get over it because this is where our food comes from. So, this was a really exciting project. If you haven't seen already, we do a

033lot with food. Not because it's all that matters, but we know there's so many aspects of food that we can learn from. Whether it's the science behind processing the corn or building that relationship with the natural world, but we also wanted to take it a little further. And so, we try to do um for each season a really big food project. We try to incorporate as many students as we can in a meaningful way and I just really wanted to bring deer here and so we're really lucky the steam room they were willing to share their space with us and again we collaborated with Gio um they were able to harvest two deer and we only asked for one so we're really grateful for that. We worked with Mr. Frasier uh his life science and

034then his anatomy and physiology class. So the students were able to observe the deer being process learn about the traditional practices and and tactics for hunting and then um and then the anatomy and physiology class is where Jackos they were a little hesitant but I think they they were okay. They kept the guts for us and froze them and then um and then we explored and so some students had a little bit stronger stomach and some didn't. But it was a really great opportunity to work with um food and to see our food in that way. Um and not just the McDonald's drive through. >> Can we give a shout out to >> Mr. Paskki? I mean what teamwork that we have. >> He sees us coming down to the >> Yeah, exactly. So, the

035next um integration that we did, and we just did this relatively recently, so if you have any 11th graders in here, hopefully you were part of this and got to do this. We work with uh Jen Hoffman's 11th grade English class. She was doing a lesson on transcendentalis and transcendentalism. And um so she wanted to bring in like enhance more of a connection to it. And so what we done is we were able to create four different vestibules that were seasonably seasonally yes seasonally appropriate based on like things that they would see happening culturally things that they would see happening in you know in in each season. What they would hear, what they would feel, um what they would smell. uh they you know the the taste even because we had some traditional foods that

036the kids got to sample from what would have been seasonally appropriate. So, we created this and then the students, the 11th grade students came to each vestibule on a passport and they kind of like um they filled out the passport that was like observations and what they could what they coulder observe in there and then they were able to take that information back and use their observations to create uh poetry uh based on their um experiences in these little vestibules. So, we we did ask them to use their imagination a little bit. you know, it's it's not nec it's not re at that time it definitely was not 70 degrees um or even hotter, but we created these different zones and we we adjusted the the temperature in them. Uh so really it was kind

037of all all five senses were really engaged and they were able to use that in their observations and then in their writing. So we hope that this is one of those that we uh can continue to do each year. These are just some more pictures of the different festivals and the kids doing up doing the work. And all right. And so then uh from that we also presented for the 11th and 12th grade environmental science and basically was just making that connection really uh to the different ways that indigenous people take care of the earth and have um you know taking care of the earth for many years. And so it was really just kind of building that connection to the students and letting them know that that still is an important part um you

038know of of of our human world. Um so that was that was a a good presentation that we did as well. >> And then the third grade maple uh tree tapping at Prospect uh is exciting. It's the start of our journey of the boiling of the sat. And so um over there we have a relationship with Senica Nation Conservation Department and Mr. Jefferson comes over and does a beautiful presentation of when how do we identify a tree? How do we know when it's time to tap and how do we know when it's time to stop? So the students are learning those things. We put the cultural piece in there and work with that. So it's starting with the third, but the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh continue on into that story. Um this happened this

039integration happened like last week was pretty awesome. Um opportunity as well. Once again the eighth grade English teacher wanted to know if we had any contemporary indigenous poets uh that we could introduce that she could bring in the works for. And so through our research we found this poet named Seria Taylor. and uh we had no idea about each other at all. And so we tried looking for a website. We tried looking for a phone number. And what happened was I Facebookked her. I went on Facebook Messenger and just thought I'd try give it a try. And so I of course in that I had explained who I was. No, I'm not a creeper. Um but here's who and what what we do or you know our work. Um, I even sent her our page,

040our Facebook page, uh, to kind of check out the kind of stuff that we do and that, you know, that we do have the best interest, uh, of incorporating indigenous culture in with our curriculum. And from that, she got back to me. So, I was like a little star struck a little bit. I'm like, okay. Um, so we had worked uh back and forth quite a bit. Um but really what happened is uh she we selected a poem and the reason why we chose her to begin with she wrote a poem called I'm thinking of strawberries and this poem is very closely connected um to the way that uh we teach about you know the earth and things from the earth and then considering your families and considering you know things in your life and

041showing gratitude really that's what her poem is about and so we took that poem and uh we gave it um Miss Roser who who did this project with us. She created a way for the students to interact with the poem. Um and uh the students, you know, were able to study the poem, take it apart and analyze it. And then we were able to zoom with her. She zoomed into all the eighth grade classes. Um she did a reading of her poem and had a a Q&A session with the with the classes. And what came from that is some really beautiful poems that the students made based on her like kind of her structure inspired by her structure that she that she talked about in her poem I'm thinking of strawberries. >> She zoomed with

042us at at first class was 8:00 8:10 and it was only like five there. Um so we were pretty thankful that she was able to get out of bed and do this. Um we so we got to see at every stage probably about the 10 o'clock time she was like a little more energized had dinner in her so it was good. And then um last but not least is so tomorrow we will start our annual maple boil. And this is a project that we've been um growing each year. And so we the first year learned a lot about boiling maple syrup. And so we've kind of stepped up our game and this is a project that we work with tap with third grade and then grades four through seven are the chance to come out

043and learn different aspects of the process. they learn a lot about the traditional process and then we also share um some science and math. We worked with the other instructional coaches. Bill Johnson was a really big help to us in that. And so last year we we put the curriculum outside and we learned that it's really important that they do those. But we also learned that we didn't want to take away from the cultural aspect of it. And so we kind of rebuilt it a little bit this year. and we're going to ask the school classroom teachers. We believe they're confident and educated enough um for sure. And so we're hoping that they're going to complete the packets in their classroom without us, but if they need us, we're here. Um and we feel that

044what we share with the culture and and get them the science out that they'll be able to succeed with that. So we invite anyone to join us. We do have a pretty strict schedule out there um for the classes, but if you are wanting to observe, we welcome anyone from the community to just come and observe. If you've never been a part of it, it smells amazing and it just brings good medicine. >> And hats off to John who allows our students to taste some turkey dogs that go into the set because it does need some fat in there. So, kids love it. >> Tell them where it is. >> Nice job. Go ahead. >> Tell them where it is. Ra where it is. >> Oh, um I don't know how to explain that. >>

045So, the parking lot >> right here. You just you go to that fence and there's one door that's entry and you go in >> and if you really need to know email us and I'll email you a map. >> Okay. Next on the agenda, >> this is youth council and youth. >> While she's bringing it up, I'd like to introduce us Um, I'm Mich, the Native American program coordinator, but I'm also the Indigenous Youth Council um, co-advisor. Jake Kagger is a co-advisor with me, but he is working the baseball game. Um, so I'd like to introduce my four indigenous Youth Council officers. I'm a junior and I'm Hi, I'm Charlie. Um, I'm vice president. I'm eighth. Um I'm I'm a secretary and I'm in eighth grade. >> I'm Noella. I'm a junior and I'm >>

046scar everybody. Um so of course you've heard us talk about so the last few board meetings and I education meetings and parent committee meetings can't talk about enough discussion this year. So we'll let them introduce themselves again. Aaron Miller. I'm Shana Johnny. I'm the president of my name. My name is Mary and I'm the treasure. So, um, as many of you may know, we were able to take this group, plus a couple other I had to tell you, so my little Tanner is an SD, but y'all can't compete with a baseball game and lacrosse team going on. He did not come, but I do have something to share with him. We took a group of students to Las Vegas for the impact aid conference and our group was able to present. I did try to

047get a video on here, but um sending it from my phone to my email and getting on here just did not work in time. So, I apologize, but feel free to check out the school's Facebook page all the way back to December and you will see some cool videos and pictures from um our last trip. But um we were asked to present at or to submit um a proposal to present at the impact youth conference in Las Vegas and it the students did an amazing job. Um our indigenous youth council was able to share a little bit about Salamea and then the SYD group was able to um do a little dance show. So we're going to let the students share about you know their experience in Las Vegas. There's a few students um that

048again they're busy sports all kind of stuff. So this is the group the group that we could get here but not everyone here in >> um overall I thought it was a great opportunity to go to Las Vegas conference was great. Um, the coolest thing I saw there was probably the sphere had really cool optics and you got to see a movie. Um, was it? >> Uh, I think it was al it's a great opportunity. It was um really cool to share like our culture with people who might not be as knowledgeable. Um, and it was just really cool. Um, I thought it was cool to speak in front of like every like different tribe and like different like um yeah, different school. Um, and like other tribes like when I saw them, they came

049up to me and asked like asked about >> um I'm very grateful for both the teams of DC and Vegas just being able to um represent our school and our culture everything and being our dances and being able to share our culture with anybody out west being able to go that far and showing everything that we can do. >> Um I thought it was like a pretty experience like growing up like in such a sound city was pretty right massive cities was pretty cool and um also talking and seeing different uh different tribes there getting uh different knowledge from other people even sharing some of my knowledge about like articulture and everything was pretty cool. I think it was a great idea to go out Vegas and represent the school and nation and and the

050the great thing that I like the biggest trip was was the show and the sphere and it was fun. being a being in a small city like my sister said, >> I think it was a great opportunity to show everybody our culture and smoke dancing. >> Yes. come out. So, we were the last presentation before I think it was before they they had a break to go explore and and rest and stuff. And it was awesome because um when they saw us there and everyone had their regalia on and um some folks came back in, they said afterwards that they were about to leave and then they saw our group and they wanted to come back in and check it out and so many of them were recording and asking so many questions afterwards. So

051the presentation, you know, was fabulous. Who doesn't want to sit in here about how awesome Salamanca is? But once we were able to share some of the cool things that we have and the great opportunities we have for um not just our indigenous students, but stuff that we offer for the whole district and community, uh our center dancers were able to share um our social dancing. And um some folks did know what snow fans was because it has made its way out west of POW house, but for the most part it was it was pretty new to them. >> Yeah, I mean we like truly like activated that room as we came in and you could tell people were truly interested and I think I can see for all of us that we like blew

052the roof off that there was not something that we were really expecting. Oh, here's a school coming up. I'm going to go to one. and they all see us and everyone was, you know, at attention to like they were everyone's on like right now, you know, they're a little shy. They got the border here. Um, but they're full of life, full of energy representing the nations, their families, um, school. Um, and SYD and IC of course very well. um two title six programs. Um and then any opportunities um because we have seniors, we have eighth graders or officers working together, collaborating and as much opportunities like this as we can get. Please send them our way. We're ready. We're prepared. We're always um you know working in in the war room pretty much whether that's

053in the library with YC or SY at our sessions. um always always doing something and looking for the next new opportunity. Right now the Rochester Nighthawks want us at their heritage. They're talking at the bit to try to get us at their heritage month um next month day um at the lacrosse game for the NL. Um so we're going to try to work that out. I think I've been talking to a couple people about that. We have MMIW or MMIP senior indigenous people's assembly coming up for both Senica and the high school on uh May 8th. Unfortunately, we're not able to do it on May 5th, which is Evan Nike day, but that'll you'll really see you try to get there. Um, even if you have a day off coming for the assemblies, you'll see

054these guys in action, and that's when they really that's that's their true self. So, you got to see it. >> So, recently, uh, uh, recently, we were able to take the indigenous youth council student, uh, Senica history class and native class down to Carile. um which is now it is an active um army barracks but it was a carile Indian industrial Indian school Indian industrial school either way it was a boarding school um we originally had about 40 students that we were ready to take down um IYC has done a ton of fundraising. We were able to seek donations. Um a lot of grant money has made this happen and um we ended up going with 29 students. We had some that stayed back due to sports or, you know, some other obligations. Um, but

055this was the largest group that we traveled with. So, if you don't know, we were able to take students to DC last year and then the year before we went to New York City. Um, so this group has really been working hard to travel. Um, Rachel Wolf is co-ees Senica History with Brook Canal and they were two of our chaprons. So, um, it just worked out that she covers Indian boarding schools. Right before we went down, we were able to set up the visit at Carile. We had someone from the historical society give us a tour and we were able to see the spaces that indigenous um children lived in. We were able to see some buildings. We weren't allowed to go inside any, but they gave a very good um tour. It was interesting

056because it sparked a lot of conversation. So, some of the students were like, well, they almost um seemed like it they were trying to make it sound like it was a great place, but one of the things that Rachel explained to the group was think about who's talking to you, who's presenting to you, where are they coming from, you know, and if they're if they're a government employee, maybe they cannot use um language to explain it in a in a negative way. Um because one of the things that they talked about and I'll give the students a chance to share their experience too, but one of the things they talked about was um how the documentation they had was all federal documentation. It was from the perspective of the staff at the board. Um so

057if you guys want to take a second to talk about that and then we'll move on to the the DC part. >> All right. Um I think it was very fascinating to be there um like school ever. Um, and I agree with you sad like how they kind of made it seem wasn't as bad as it really was. But, you know, I still learned a lot going there. Um, that was a great opportunity. It was it was sad, but you know, I still learned a lot. Um, I want to talk about how when we were in DC, we got to meet with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and we really got to talk to them about the legal side of um, everything that has to do with like reservation and just like Native Americans

058in general and just hear like their perspective on everything legally and getting discussed. I like Okay. Oh, yeah. I agree with what about Carone. And then um in DC I talking to the lobby. We met with the lobbyist and then some senior staffers that um they're they work with the Senate Commission um the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. >> Yeah. Um, again, I'm just grateful that um so if anyone is interested on any any literature, any movies or any information on Indian boarding schools, reach out to that. Um, I will say that in my experience, if you watch 1923, it is powerful. Um, I had a grandfather that went to Thomas Indian School. He passed away a few years ago at the age of 98 and he didn't share as much as I would hope.

059But thinking about what um what that impact is on our students and our community is my mom was raised by a parent who went to an Indian boarding school um and was stripped of his culture and language. When he passed he was a fluent speaker but he lost his um culture. He no longer attended block house. He started to go to church. So there's so much that was taken and there was love but the affection um wasn't there and that was stricken of him at the boarding school. So to think about how my mom was raised and then how she raised me and um because sometimes people might think you know I didn't need boarding school that was so long ago but that trauma is passed down. It trickles down and it shows in our

060family. So the students that you guys have in in the school today um a lot of them are coming from that and and maybe their parents or grandparents did you know find a way to stop that cycle um but so much was lost and and there was a lot of love and affection that wasn't quite there that you would normally I guess expect or or hope for for children. Um, but again, there's tons of stuff that the curriculum team can share with you if any of you want more information on that. Um, so I did meet with OD Porter quite a bit, who's the Senate Foundation um, tribal counselor and she set up with us to meet with a lobbyist um, Allison Vinnie in Washington DC. She got us a tour of the capital. She

061also set up with us to meet with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. We met with about six senior staffers and they had a chance to sit down and talk with our students. Um, we only had a half an hour, but it went to almost an hour because they just had a great time with our group and shared a lot about how legislation works and what they do um on behalf of the Senate Foundation and why is it important to understand how we're represented at the the federal level, the state level, the local level. Um, when we need things done as a tribal nation, um we have to have these relationships with um all different levels of government. So, it it really was an awesome experience and um they want us to come back sometime.

062You know, it it's a pricey trip, so we'll have to definitely fund raise and and figure some stuff out to go in maybe another two years. Um but I it's something I would love to do. And what was so cool was that Justin Hubard was just down there um a few days before us. So, uh McKenzie Cross, who was in our group, um decided not to go because she was there with him and then she didn't want to miss more school. these opportunities for students to have that firsthand experience talking to the folks down there um asking questions, walking around, seeing what, you know, what happens down there was so important. And then um we went to the Museum of American Indian and we had a visit there which was so awesome. They were able

063to share with students about what the um jobs are like in a space like that, what kind of education and training and things you need. And what was really cool was the one um gentleman that talked to us, he kind of takes care of the exhibit. And one of the biggest issues was the bugs and critters that can get in there and somehow there was moth that got into some old wool material. Um understanding how the HVAC works and all this stuff. So, you go into all the Smithsonian museums down there, which we did later on, it was so cool to um um have that idea of what it takes for a place like that to function on a daily basis. Yeah. Um you're fine. Um so, that was pretty much our trip. Anything else

064that you guys want to share about DC real quick? >> Um covered everything. >> Okay. Yeah, they especially that Senate room they was actually there too. Started off >> on fire with a great question. Couple of them had a stumpers on them looking at each other. You know the classic but no it was awesome. >> They did great. Keep these programs going. We only do it because of the interest. >> Any questions for us? I don't have any questions, but I just want to commend each and every one of you, even though those that could not be here today. Um, I know it could be a lot, you know, growing up in a small town like Salt Lake or the Alageney territory and getting out of our bubbles and going out there and challenging yourselves

065and um and stepping out there and meeting new people, different nations and different tribes across the United States, whether it's in Vegas or if you're down representing us. Um, I got a ton of notes here. I'm just really proud of you guys for representing the s of state central school district but also business people and of course the senation and you guys should all be very proud of yourselves and I know I am and I'm sure for a lot of my colleagues here I support this program going forward and keep keep doing the work you guys doing take a group to so the national Indian education association conference that we go to every October is in Buffalo hoping to take students and a lot more >> staff Thank you. Thank you. >> Hold on. I'm

066just going to introduce myself for those of you who do not know me. My name is Kayla Hager and I am the health teacher at Sima Intermediate School. Um, so today I'm here to talk to you about our fresh fruit vegetable program which Miss Sandy Brundage can talk about a grant program that is provided to our so overview. The fresh fruits vegetable program as I stated is a grant funded program. is awarded to our school to provide fresh fruits and vegetables free of charge to all students prek through sixth grade. Um so the fresh fruits and vegetables are served twice a week. This is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are served at in the classroom during snack time. And at Prospect and Cynica, this looks a little different. At Prospect, we have our wonderful food

067service staff who make sure that everything is pre-portioned, sliced, diced, cut up perfectly for our younger students and delivered to the classroom. So that way, teachers have their snacks available at the snack time whenever they're ready to take it throughout the day. At Senica School, we have a refrigerator, which I added some photos in today, but I forgot to send you the updated PowerPoint, so you can't see them. And the kids are so excited to be in the pictures, so maybe I'll forward those out in a little bit. But we have a refrigerator at our NPR area. Um, if you are familiar with Senica School, the NPR area is kind of like the hub of Senica School. So, we have our book vending machine, our snack refrigerator, Mrs. Butler's office, our cafeteria. Um, and so

068students, what they do, a teacher will send a student down, they will go to the snack refrigerator, look in the bins. Our food service team, again, they're wonderful and have everything organized so well for us. So they have fourth, fifth, sixth grade. They'll open up the bin, grab their classroom snack bag, take it back, and they're ready to go for snack. And again, this is on just Tuesdays and Thursdays. And it's funded through New York State Department of Education Child Nutrition Program. You want to go to the next slide, please? Um, so just a little bit about the grant for this school year 2526, we were awarded $43,800. And that's to provide two times per week, as I've said, it's a fresh fruit and a vegetable. 721 of our students, um, they benefit from this

069program that I think we're going to look at enrollment numbers later, and that's about half of our students, which is wonderful. All of these grant funds go just to fresh fruits and vegetables. Um, myself and food service team, we kind of handle everything in house and all of that money goes just straight to the kids and the nutrition. Down here, we have a little bit more about the grant. I'm not going to read that to you. word for word, but basically what it's saying is that this is free of charge. We receive it um the money for our students as long as we provide nutrition education that is related to the fresh fruit or vegetable that is being served that day. So, if you want to go to the next slide, please. So the goals

070of this program, we want to create a healthier school environment, which we already have a wonderful food service that provides beautiful meals for us every day, but we wanted to expand the variety of fruits and vegetables that our children experience. So instead of just getting broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, they're experiencing new fruits or vegetables. Um, for example, like mangoes, we've had um different varieties of apples the children really enjoy. Um, we want to increase the fruit and vegetable consumption. So instead of reaching for that bag of Takis that they tend to bring in for breakfast in the morning, um we want them to be eating fruits and vegetables instead. Um and we want to make a difference in their diet, right? So we want them to have lifelong sustainable nutritious choices, right? So they're starting now

071and then hopefully as they go throughout their future and into adulthood, they're getting better with this. And then again, encourage that nutrition snacking. And then of course all of our snacks need to be accompanied by nutrition education which I take care of and I will get to that on the next slide. So how do we implement this? Everything is procured through botas which John has helped with tremendously. Um the storage and distribution is at prospect and the senica kitchens as well as in our basement and our freezers and refrigerators. Our food service staff, they manage the ordering and the portioning of the snacks. And sometimes podas will do that for us, too. Um, for example, I'm going to show you a a mango video in just a second. And there is a bag. Everything is

072pre-portioned, sliced, and diced and ready for the kids to eat. But sometimes it might be an orange that's difficult for prospect students to peel. So, food service staff make sure that that's taken care of and makes it a little bit easier to consume. Every month a snack calendar is posted on SharePoint. So, for those of you who do not check SharePoint every day like us district employees do, um, as soon as you open up your laptop, when you go to the homepage, our SharePoint page pulls up and you can see all the things that are going on throughout the district. And teachers can go to our food um page and then the snack calendar's there. I'll show you that in just a second. At Senica School, I lead the nutrition education lessons. I integrated my

073health class because I teach classes fourth through 7th grade. So any fruit or vegetable that they'll be consuming that day, I will just give them a quick little rundown of, you know, nutrition and why would we need it, how the fruit or vegetable grows. Then at prospect, I create Canva presentations for the students. Um, so if you want to go to the next slide or actually I'm sorry, go to the SharePoint page, I will show you. All right. So, this is the SharePoint page that I was talking about. If you just want to scroll down for me, this just explains everything to the teachers, what's going on with our grant, the fresh fruit vegetable program. They know all of this. We've been doing it since the beginning of the school year. Um, and then what

074they do is they'll scroll down and find the fruit or vegetable that we're eating that day underneath nutrition education videos. Everything is outlined there. When we first started this, um, I put the date just so that teachers knew, hey, this date we're having this snack. Now, sometimes these fruits or vegetables are um they we have them have had them multiple times throughout the year. Um, so now they can just go back and click on that video that was created. Um if you want to click on the lingo one. So this is just an example of what I do for prospect. Um so I created a prospect uh video presentation. Um and in the video I just go over nutrition facts. I have a video of myself showing them what the fruit or vegetable looks like,

075talking about nutrition, why we should eat it. I make sure to show different types of um growing stages of the fruit or vegetable and just so that they know like hey this is how it grows what tropical what climate does it grow in tropical climate for mangoes just so that they have a full picture of what they're eating and the nutritional value. Um I'm going to go back to the front. So, while that's pulling up, that's the gist of our fresh fruit and vegetable program. Basically, it's a grant funed program provided by New York State. And students pre-K through sixth grade are offered fresh fruits and vegetables twice a week. And whenever this pulls up, um you'll see that our next steps are to grow this program. We hope next year that we will be

076able to provide fresh fruits and vegetables three days a week. So, instead of Tuesday, Thursdays, we're aiming for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks. >> Youall have any questions for me? >> So, how do you go about growing them for next year? You're applying for a grant and trying to get more grant funding. How would that work? >> Yes. Yes. So, uh Sandy will work at that with the fresh fruit and vegetable program grant and hopefully grow the amount of money that we get so we can provide more vegetables for the kids. Excellent. >> Would you want to mention the book now too when you were up there? >> I love your t-shirt, too, by the way. >> Oh, thank you. Well, I have to I have to plug my husband here. I was like, I'm

077presenting to the board. Do I need to wear like, you know, a collared button-down shirt? He's like, no, wear your vegetable shirt. Yes, Jake. So, um, in front of you, you have a book called The Wild Robot, and we, um, Nikki actually presented this, um, program called Read to Them over the summer. And Read to Them, if you don't know about it, Read to Them is a literacy program that helps promote literacy within schools, buildings, districts, and in communities. So, we are partner partnering with Read to Them for the One District, one book initiative. And what it is is basically everyone in our entire district from prek all the way through 12th grade, our food service, our maintenance department, all of our teachers, all of our staff, our board members, we're all going to be

078reading the same book. And the goal behind it is to promote literacy within the district and within the community. We just want to celebrate reading and we want to give our kids and our parents and all of our community members something to collaborate and celebrate literacy together with. So the goal is to um get the reading done in May when we are done with our testing, have something to celebrate at the end of the year and then hopefully once everyone has read the book, we will celebrate at the movie night under the lights. We um do plan to incorporate the local library, the Alagany State Park, and some other community. Yep. So I hope everyone enjoys it. It's a really cute book and there's a movie so perfect. Spotify. >> Hey, next on our list

079and business over here. >> All right. >> Hi there. I'm Cheryl Johnson. This is Xander Ed. We are running the high school steam room. As most you probably know, all students prek through seventh grade go to steam as a special. But when they come up to the high school, the hope is that they will have had some experiences and now they want to get into the steam room. And we have found that our high school teachers have fully embraced utilizing that room. So our goal tonight is to show you progress from last year to this year. How many more teachers are using it? And then just to give you a bunch of projects that have happened and are happening this year. So Xander's going to talk to you about the first three slides and I'll

080hand it over to you. >> All right. My name is Alexander Estram. Um I'm a TA in the steam room. Um so last year I was actually hired as a TA to take over for some of the steam stuff. Um to kind of take that bearing off of Miss Johnson. Um so last year I did some stats on who used the steam room. Um and we had 12 teachers that utilizes steam room last year and actually this year we actually doubled our teachers in groups that have used it. Um so those teachers that that were using it have either began to use the same projects or new projects um through this school year and it seems like a lot of the teachers are always coming back to do something new. Um and we love to

081see something new every time it comes in. Um so the next slide is some of the projects that they do. Um this is just kind of a grouping of everything that teachers have done with us. Um whether it's a VR headsets, um doing breakout boxes that has become a big hit lately. um CNC machines, engraving, sandbox, augmented realities, um welding, all the things that is in the steam room is being utilized um on a weekly basis. Um if you can go to the next slide for me. So the next slide shows that this year the room usage per month by percentages um has actually probably doubled since last year. Um for September and January, the numbers are low because those are the months that we come back to school from either breaks are summer. Um

082actually March this year has been utilized 96% >> like double booked though. >> Yes. So even teachers that have the room signed out, other teachers are signing the room out on the periods that are free. So we are double booking. Um, and even the times that we don't have anybody in there, it is us breaking down the stuff and getting the next things prepped up for the next teacher to come in. Um, so yeah, that is kind of how busy the steam room has gotten. Um, with just a year difference and I am in love that we have had the opportunity and everybody that has used it as teachers in the high school. Um, we want to show recognition to you. um because without that then students don't get that steam technology based on their

083their side. Um so yeah, Miss Johnson will go over some of the activities that we've gone through um and everything that teachers have done. >> Yeah. So thank you Xander. Um we find that when the kids come in they get so excited they're like how long are we in here? So even though last year we only had 12 teachers sign out the room, a lot of times those teachers were in there for two weeks, they were like, "Oh, my kids love it in here. We're going to stay in here to do as much as we can." Um, so yeah, so this year we found that a lot of teachers are double booking. But so I just want to show you that projects that were new this year. I showed you I think I did a

084presentation last year with Fort Canali on what had happened last year. So this year, this was such a fun and exciting um project that we did with eighth grade math and Debielle. We put a massive, it was a 40 foot by 40 foot grid down on the floor in the steam room. Ma uh Debiel's kids came in, they plotted different buildings for a city. They were given slopes and they had to plot using using the coordinates in the slope. They put a river in there and they put roads in there. They were told create another road that's parallel to this one or perpendicular to this one. And so you can see in the bottom right hand corner that was the end of their city and they had this big open area in the bottom left

085corner and they were like we're putting in a park. So they put in a big lake down there. This took about a week to build this city. And then on the last day, they met with Labella engineering firm and the city planners and they learned about careers in urban development and they they learned that UB has a program and and what an urban planner can make. They also were given input by the urban planners. They're like, "Well, let's take a look at where your sewage treatment plant and your water uh treatment plant is." They're like, "Which one do you want down river and which do you want up river?" The kids are like, "Okay, this." So, it it was a great life experience for them. Next slide. Uh, eighth grade steam camp. So, during regent

086week, eighth graders don't need to really be out of school, but it's tough if they're in school and there's regent exams. So, the eighth grade team created a steam camp and the kids came in and you can see in the upper right hand corner that's a lock box. It had a a history theme to it. And the kids had to work out five different puzzles to open these locks. And when they got inside the box, you can see in the bottom left corner, they had a little sign, we broke out. It took them probably two days. >> Two days. two days to get through all of those and it was a couple hours each day and of course there was candy outside. It was fun and all that. Um some of the other things that

087they did while they were there is they in the upper left hand corner they used a little robot and the different colored mats are left, right, certain angles and they navigated through that puzzle. And I think the next page has a few other things that they were doing that week. They played around with augmented reality. You see this student was manipulating something on a computer. They flew drones. They programmed. They built a little robot and then they coded it. So they got a little taste of steamp. Next slide. Well, Mac already talked about this one. I like got some uplose pictures. Um I really thought more kids would leave the room when this was happening. And no, the entire crew of biology, every kid taking biology, they were in there. They wanted pictures with it.

088They wanted their hands in it. So, this was fascinating. Um, thankfully, the steam room was built with an amazing ventilation system. So, we fired that thing up and it just kind of got the smell out of there. Um, so that probably helped. But good integration with that. Our next slide, Brook Canali and her 10th grade history students. This is a new project that Brooke developed this year. When she started World War II, she had her students read the book Code Talking. And the first half of the book talks about boarding school. second half of the book talks about um and it's fictional but about one of the Navajo code talkers. So she brought her kids into the steam room and we taught them all kinds of code. They learned how to code in binary with

089ones and zeros. They learned how to use cipher wheels. That's in the bottom right hand corner. They had to pull quotes out of the book and they had to code it with one of the different types of codes. um hand it over to another student who had to decode it. The big project was they had to write their own type of code, like come up with their own secret code. And one day they invited teachers and students from all different classes to come and work on decoding. And I couldn't believe how many teachers came in that day. They wanted to try and decode them. And then we also had a lot of fun in the bottom leftand corner of that picture. We used Raspberry Pies, which are just tiny little computers, and you can plug

090in your code and it would digitally send it to another person across the room to their computer. That person would get the coded message and they have to decode it. So, that was that was an amazing project and that was a brand new one that she came up with. She still is doing 3D printing and her atrocity museum and and merge cubes and all that kind of stuff. Our next one, another new project from this year, virtual reality. So, the school purchased 15 virtual reality headsets. And Owen's over here like holding his stomach. He gets a little sick when he gets into them. Um, but our Spanish teacher latched on to it. She's like, I want to take my kids on a tour. And so, they went to Barcelona. There were nine different tourist attractions

091that the kids sat there and I mean it was all the way around them saved every family like >> and history and I'll talk a little bit about um that maybe in a live a later slide but history is using it to also uh tour all these different places that they're talking about. Next slide. There's only like 50 more. Don't over >> animation still is a favorite. Lots of people are still using animation. We had a few science teachers latch on to it this year. And you can see the kids were creating animations with plate tectonic. This was one of those we were double booked. So we just put it on a cart and brought it to the teachers room. Next slide. So, medieval days, ninth grade students when they were learning about medieval days,

092they came down to the steam room. They could use a VR headset to take a tour of some ruins, different castles. They also they made water wheels, so water mills. We had just piles of junk and they built they had so much fun. There was so much hot hot glue going on down there. They also created battering rams and then we tested them. We built a little wall they had to knock them down and they also built catapults and so lots of things were launched. Marshmallows and pop balls. Next one. >> They also did a 3D printing on that as well using um >> siege siege tower. >> Yeah, they designed their own siege tower. They tested it out for something and allowing their bridge to come down. very bright. >> And then uh just

093here at the end, I wanted to touch on what Sean Howard is doing. He's our high school technology teacher. Sean, when he was hired a few years ago, he's looking at all this different equipment that we had in the steam room and he's like, "Who knows how to use this?" And we were like, "You will." and he has so he has taken it on and each year he has really learned a new big piece of equipment and he's got his classes in there all the time. So even though classes are in there doing projects, you can come in and his kids are in and out of the room the entire time. And what I love is that his students will stop what they're doing and help another class with their project. So his group of

094kids, they're getting pretty proficient with the CNC machine, which it mills out metal, primarily aluminum. Uh you can see the middle picture on the top. They were laser engraving. So laser cutting less engraving. We got a new an enormous laser engraver uh this year. His kids have just been pivotal in helping students. You can see Sean sitting there with his students. They're looking at a picture. I know it's far away. You're looking at a picture of a project. They cut out parts of a sunflower on the plasma cutter and then they taught the kids how to weld and now they're welding it together. And I hope I'm not spoiling any Mother's Day gifts that they're giving. But um and then you can see on the bottom students were learning how to use the sand blaster.

095So his kids are doing a lot of work in the steam room. And our last slide, I think our last slide is kind of looking towards the future. Um, the school, we're going to, we still are teaching drones. We're going to take a little bit of a different look at it. We're hopefully purchasing a drone soccer arena and it's five drones on each team and it looks like Quidditch. It's there's all these soccer balls flying around in the air and they have to score on each other. It's a ton of fun. And we're also going to be offering a new robotics class next year. Um, playing around with our VEX robotics and all of our wad bed stuff. And tomorrow we're actually going to go take a look. We're hoping to get a CNC um

096like a milling machine, a table milling machine. We do have a handheld one. Um, but that's kind of happening in the steam room that I hopefully keep at my table. >> Any questions? Any questions? I just wanted to note that if my math is correct and I know I have all of the teachers assigned correctly, of the 24 teachers that were there this year, 13 are not science, technology, art, or math teachers, which I think is terrific. >> Yeah, I can't believe how much they're latching on to it. Some of the teachers are asking like so we have on SharePoint we have a spot where teachers can go in and sign up on the calendar and they can check up you know do they need assistance do they need a teacher there uh to help

097them and they oftent times they'll come down consult with us I want to do a project with this what do we have what could we do and Xander and I will brainstorm with them and then just it grows from there um lock boxes math kids we're in doing lock boxes Just today they were hysterical running around the room trying to find out. >> Yep. She's been working on a lot of the >> That's what that meant by the box. >> Yep. It's just an escape room but as a box itself and we utilize the steam room by allowing kids to find out how to decode and solve the keys to unlock their box. And a lot of collaboration goes on in there. I love when a student learns how to use a piece of equipment,

098they want to be the one who teaches everybody else how to use it. >> Okay, next a business. I'm sorry. >> Thank you. Hi. Um, my name is Brazil. I am one of the teachers here at the high school. >> Matt, >> that's us. Um, I did add Sean and um, John to it because even though they're tech, we work together like um, as the business department, they're with us. So, even though they're tech, like I they're on there. So I will touch base a little bit not as um in detail a little bit. So the classes I teach right now are introduction to computer art and design computer graphics 2 sporting to marketing and career and financial management. I teach entrepreneurship. Um I teach computer application software which is the Microsoft Office suite. I

099teach computer applications one and two. One is a JCC course um new for next year. We're going to be teaching some AI incorporated into that course. Um and then the second course is just a followup to the first course. Um we also added a Microsoft Word and Excel course this year which is focusing just on those two pieces of Microsoft Office week for the science department. Um career and financial management which we all teach. and introduction to business which is also a JCC course and I also I don't know if you have it on there oh um college and career portfolio which we work alongside NIC which is the Niagara Frontier Industry and Education Council um to provide students with ECC college credit for general studies as well as a portfolio and they go to

100a competition which will be coming up soon to students are going to move on to be interviewed for scholarship um of up to $5,000. >> And I teach a couple classes uh career and financial management. I do teach two units of those in a day. I teach an internship class which is a great class where kids get some hands-on work experience in the school whether it's in food services or um what you know in the gym room and just taking what they might want to do as a career and then trying to align them with teachers here and get some good experience. I teach an accounting class which is an ECC course, a college credit course, a personal finance class which is a high level financial course. A lot of the juniors juniors and seniors

101take that uh taught through JCC and then a hospitality and tourism course which is also offered through JCC. >> Um John McCauley teaches the eighth grade technology and um separate technology course. right now he wanted to just kind of mention he is working on the use of hand tools, power tools and machines and he will be coming up soon they'll be making their CO2 cars which a great technology um Sean teaches design and drawing electricity transportation systems auto solid modeling principles of engineering uh and those last three are all JC credits right now students can earn 10 college credits through JC courses through his class and he also wanted to point out I know Cheryl mentioned it that um he is working with the CNC machines right now as well. >> Um so one of

102the things we really kind of wanted to touch base on as um the business department is the um personal finance requirement that is coming up. it is um it's an instructional requirement and um the state implementing they're just saying we have to do it and we can choose how we implement it um and I actually just had a there was like a zoom meeting today that kind of got into some details sort of there's a lot more information rolling out there's a lot of resources coming out that will help any any New state school with this process because it's K through 12. So right now at the high school 9 through 12, the imp implementation needs to begin with the uh 2026 and 2027 school year that we did implement it this year with our

103career and financial management. >> We have a preemptive strike. So we a few years ago when we were working on our um CTE u reertification >> reertification. Yeah. Thank you. Um we were trying to figure out how to do this because we heard you know this is coming maybe we should try to figure something out. So we actually decided to combine financial management career planning and keyboarding into one full year course instead of um three one semester courses. And we started that this year. So we're already ahead of that curve. we started it this year instead of implementing it next year. And then the good thing about that is even though it's financial management that that has that requirement in it, they're going to take it and they're going to get the career plan um

104planning and they're going to get the keyboarding and reinforcing of the other program. So if they don't take something like MLS with Sue, they are getting some basic Microsoft Word and Excel lessons in there and we need all three of us to teach that class. And I think one of the important things too is because we have almost every freshman in the role between our five classes, what it's already allowing us to do is then present future classes that they can take. So it's helping it's helping our counselors out a bunch because now like instead of trying to convince them, hey, what is personal finance? Like even an accounting class that might make sense to us, it doesn't necessarily make sense to the students like what they're going to get into. So, it's just a

105great launching pad to be able to get all these kids in at an early age because it helps build out the business department later. So, I think we're already seeing the benefits of that for this year and then even for next year, which a lot of our courses are getting. >> And we use Dave Ramsey. I don't know how many of you know Dave Ramsey, but we use the Dave Ramsey curriculum for that. Um, right now my class is talking about insurance. And so students are really getting a full-blown uh finance program where they're talking about everything from college loans, scholarships to when they grow up, what kind of insurance do they need? Um it's been very eye openening for a lot of the kids. So we do have ninth graders to 12th graders in

106that class. Um but Matt brought that day curriculum to us and I think we'll think that's been very beneficial for kids. And I don't have a photo, but I was actually down in Nashville a couple weeks ago. So, I spent the entire day with the Nashville the MP team and uh they were really impressed just hearing from a school that's starting to implement a lot of these state regulations that are coming down because a lot of the schools like Sue said, they're not putting it in the 26th 27th calendar. They're just kind of like slow rolling it. So, for us to jump into that as one of the first schools to actually do it districtwide. So, it was just great to spend a day with those guys. They're building out a ton of stuff which

107I think in the coming years for future courses we can even offer. But it's a great curriculum. They're they're excited about what we're doing as a school. So it was great to spend a day with those guys and naturally >> um the print shop we have down there always evolving. It's currently ran through Deca right now. And I just really quick want to say thank you to Jen um who has been helping and teaching me um just kind of the process that they're going that they do now through the DECA program for any like prints that need to go out. Um but what we're looking forward to also is um this next year coming up it's we're working on it being its own entity. Um it's we're working on the process funding plans and etc.

108There's a lot to do. Um, I've uh just recently started the meeting with Josie a little bit so we can start like asking the questions and kind of seeing where we want it to go and then you know come up with some more meetings and more questions later. Um, and we're always evolving to mirror the industry for getting students ready for college or career. Um, that's the goal for the print shop also. But as a jump start today, I think all three of us have been taking classes down to the print shop. We've been doing laser engraving, did t-shirt printing, um just trying to get our business students down or get their hands in on what's happening a little bit. >> Um so the ultimate goal like in my mind for the print shop is

109we want to put out quality and quantity. I would really love to see your purchase of a new um transfer printer, which I did put in for my wish list for the budget coming up. Um I put in also to start a print shop class for the 2026 school year. Um and as far as I know, I do have a couple of students signed up for that already. And um ultimately would like it to be a student rayon print shop. >> And I just really also wanted to touch base a little bit um on our CTE endorsements. Right now we do have computer application software that um Sue like the CTE like is like there's the lead teacher on and so she teaches the computer application software class that the kids get that and we

110all teach like um this career and financial management which is part of the the credit they'd have to take in order to get the seeking endorsement. Um Matt teaches accounting and like Matt said earlier, we always are pushing um for student enrollment not only with CT endorse pathways but all business courses um all the time. And I'm telling the truth about other courses that they could take if they really like what we did here today with Sue because you'll really get into the details of what Word and Excel can do because it is so much and I'm as much as I'm teaching you. It really just is nothing compared to what the programs really can do. The CTE path has to be approved by New York State. a vigorous approval process. We have to put

111together around four courses ahead of classes that um students would take that would lead up to um college and career portfolio which is their capstone. And then when they finish that pathway, they do get a nice seal on their diploma um from New York State as well as some type of certifications. Um Matt has the knocky exam. So if they're taking the accounting pathway, they can get certified accounting. For me, they get a certified in Word, PowerPoint, Excel. Um, in the first section, they get their specialist exam and then if they go on the second part, which is part of the pathway too, they can get their advanced certifications in Word um and Excel. So, when they're going out to the business world or even to college, you know, they have a certification to take

112out with them. So, it's a pretty powerful program for our students. Um, and we really would love to see more students take advantage of that, whether you're going into the business world or not. Having those um, endorsements show that you can complete a program of study, that you can be dedicated and that you can excel. Um, so they're pretty powerful um, statements when students are moving on into any career and Microsoft is a staple in all in the offices. So I I I really push that program a lot. Any questions? >> Will the print shop be open similar to the same room before they be open classes if they want to do some sort of inventory thing? Is that available? >> Um I'm hoping yes. That ultimately yes. Um that is the goal. So if

113um other professors wanted just like with the 3D machine, do they wanted to do something with that and they wanted to do like you said machine for something like that? I would really like to get open as much as we can. >> Another question after your final goal has been it's open it's being done student run will students be will students be getting paid or will they be volunteering their time like they do fundraisers? Even right now there are students that are um staff may get paid to work in the print shop. So I would like to continue that. I don't have the power to approve it, but I would hope that we can continue something like that and that. So, yeah. So, if like an order came in and they were working on it

114during the print shop class or whatever the case may be, but we had to work after hours, then the student workers would come in and be able to work on this project as well. >> Thank you. How many low college approximately like how many college credits see you guys offer a lot of different classes like that how many senior students have left you guys so they're essentially cutting out a lot of time credit so I mean there's a lot that could be in their sophomore year >> it's yeah because I mean I just went back to school you know went back you know last couple of years and you know had because of whatever I had to start all over at Microsoft one of these classes and you know that would have you know just

115thinking of any person that's going back recommending high school and going on to college you know you're going to graduate these credits already you're already cutting your time down right there other things >> unfortunately kids don't a lot of kids don't see the value in out of the way and you know hindsight's 2020 >> right >> so I want I want to just talk about my voice for a second that They took a lot of their JCC classes when they were here and they went into music. So, a lot of their courses didn't necessarily fall into their program of study, not necessarily even cutting off time where some students at will. What it did do for them was it promoted them at college. They're technically seniors. This is their second year of college because of

116the credits that they took from here. It gives them some benefits. It gives them additional financial aid. It gives them priority and scheduling. Um, and it just builds their transcript for other things that they might do in the future. So, benefits for both might cut off time, might teach you skills like right now when they use the Microsoft Office suite, you know, they know what they're doing, but this the registering and the access to additional financial aid because you get 5,500 your first two years, 6,500 your junior year, 7,500 your senior year. So you get additional you get access to additional money quicker when you take more college classes. >> I think you said the good like employers like the senior you you started something you seen it through and you finished it got that

117whatever it might be life skill >> building a resume is super important. A lot of students don't realize when they're leaving here to have a resume with some skills with some experience on it can help them even just getting a part-time job when you're in college. So, there's a lot of benefits to >> another question. When do these when do these classes become available to students? >> Usually in 10th grade. >> 10th grade. >> Most of them. Some of them have some prerequisites that may not be done for their junior year, but a lot of them like my entered business class, I have 10th graders taking it. It may they they may be that they have to be able to take um uh co co- uh what do they call that when they registered co-requisite,

118right? They may have to be able to take an English at the same time or something like that or they may have had a certain math previously um like the Microsoft Office suite because of Excel. They have to have certain math requirements. So, it really just depends on the student, but usually around 10th grade, usually by 11th grade for sure. >> Would it be feasible to get a vast majority of the college credits given by these courses? >> Well, anytime you're getting anything for free, it's a benefit, right? >> Um whether you're >> schedule Yeah. Uh, you know, it then depends really on the student, you know, on what they're what they're also taking. You know, if they're going off to Boseies, it's a little bit harder. Um, if they're in music, sometimes it's a

119little more difficult. It's really an elective class, so it depends on like 10th grade. Um, sometimes is a tough year to get a little bit extra. And it just depends on the student schedule. But yeah, I mean, instead of sitting in a study hall, why not take Microsoft Office and get college close, right? Any other questions? >> Thanks. Thank you guys. >> Oh presentation. I'm gonna go down. My room is like walking out at us. Um, first of all, I just want to thank you guys for the opportunity to work with a great group of kids I get to work with. Um, really this is just a small picture. This is the competition team minus Morgan. Morgan's an eighth grader. she stepped in. One of our competition team members is um in [ __ ] Falls who's

120the military office. So, I'm going to let M actually take this and run with it. I may jump in off and on because I know there's a few things that the business department spoke about and I just wanted to get back on path. So, Ron, take us away. >> So, my name is Ron Swanson. I'm a member of DECA. This is my second year going to competition and that's unusual but due to thank you Miss Hawkins for giving me the opportunity. I want to say that before our presentation. So what is DECA? DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance and hospitality as well as management and high schools and colleges around the globe. It connects classroom learning to real world business through competitive events, leadership development, and networking for over 300,000

121members. >> I do want to stop in and say um one thing we did at the school this year, Daka paid for the business students to have um access to competition you which is a business computer program and what it did was allow us to come as a group of one and so that could pay for that. We also paid for every student's membership. That was a different class minus the eighth graders. All right. So that's why we had that huge grow. >> So last year we had only nine members. This year we have 83. The change is due to combining business classes with DECA membership. our our DECA paid for that too because you have to pay it. What the big plus to every student in our business courses being a DECA member is

122it's used in the classroom. You could DECA plus can be used any time. Our active members who are coming to meetings average between 3 to 12 students at each meeting. We have meetings fairly often. We have 18 active members who have come to meetings or respond often to emails. >> We also have a presence in schooly. So every student that is a member of DECA also has a schooly class where they can access any of our DECA material. >> Um my name is Nor Clayson. I am the vice president of our DECA club and I am a senior and this is my second year in the program. Deca. Um, how DECA is currently working, where like what DECA is involved in with the school. Deca is currently in charge of the school, which I actually

123it's open second period every day. Guys, stop in. You'll see my lovely face in there every day. Please stop in. Um, as long as they follow guidelines, students must put an application with staff references and their availability. They train with the school solar worker. So, um, I train Julina has trained most of us as she really knows this stuff well. When they are ready to be on their own, they can work during study halls or or before and after school. We prefer them to work in here. So, I actually work with one of our other students that's here tonight, Shirley Vander, second period in Mr. Culp's internship class. Um, all business students are able to work without applying as well as DECA members. Students are not allowed to be on ELOG, detention, ISS, OSS to

124be able to work in the school store. DECA is also in charge of the print shop at this time, but will soon be trans transitioning into it to the business department. Currently, orders are taken, then build by the financial advisor for um DECA student workers and students in business classes currently fill the order. So expectations for the DECA members. DECA members are first expected to follow school and DECA roles. We provide practices and materials to help to help students who want to compete. DECA members should be attending meetings once a month. We usually have at least one and practice for the competition team members. DECA members are work in the school store during study halls or special event holdings. DECA members are expected to fund raise and vote on items that we need to make

125decisions on. As a quote officers for DECO, our president is Julina Hawkins. She runs the meetings, meets with adviserss to plan out meetings, sends emails to members as needed, and to meet with other officers as needed. As I said, I am the vice president. I assist in organizing the meetings, running the means if the president's absent, and I assist in sending emails with the approval from the club andor advisors. Uh we have two secretaries which are our secretaries are Jayen Pierce and Pax and Kirwell. Uh they take the main notes. Our co-reer is Zoe Alvarez Fluent and Pulma Sandal keep the they keep the finances in check. meet with the advisor to go over any financial items coming in or going out. They recount the deposits and sign off on any of the sheets that

126we have to have. >> Hello everyone. My name is Mary Shen and I'm a senior at Salaminka High School. This is my first year doing DECA and I must say I wish I had done it earlier. So, our competition team, it consists of five people. We have three seniors. We have Norman Clayson, Mary Chen, which is me, and we also have Maya Woods, which is not who's not here today. But we also have a junior, Julina Hawings, and we have a freshman, which is um Rowan. So the Okay. Um so a couple months back we our compet competition team we were able to um we were able to go to a regional competition at Alfur State where we basically compete at a higher level other than like going running the school store or doing simple

127things as what DECA Clubs does. And um not only did we win awards, we came back with an overall winner, which is Jelina Hawkins with a $500 um to Alfred State College. And we also have a third place, we have Maya Woods, which is also a first year senior and it's her first year in Deco and she did amazing. And so yeah, and it was really honestly an amazing experience. Like like I said, like also the food is also amazing. Just throw that out there. Um but yeah, like I said before, I really wish I did DECA earlier because not only did it provide more knowledge in business, it allowed me to uh do hands-on work in the de in the business industry. And for someone that's a senior and going to college for business,

128I wasn't sure on what business I wanted to do. And I was able to determine that after going to regionals for this section. So this is it is our time at state compet. This is our state competition. During this we did a competition where we actually met with the judge and we get were given 10 minutes prior to take notes on a box. You are to take wisdom in to your judge and present their solution to the issue they are having in their business. When we are there, we don't only do a competition and testing, but we also network with other students from other schools as well as with the judges themselves sometimes and we have fun. All Thursday night we had a trivia and ice cream social which I don't know who from and

129it was a lot of fun. It just a bunch of cups where you could win prizes. Want to have anything to add? >> My favorite part of DECA is the social experience. You I you get to meet people from other schools >> that that are also interested in business there. Now, there may be a lot of DECA members, but what I'm particularly interested in, there isn't too many people around here with that interest. What Deca does for me is it gives me an opportunity to talk to people who are interested what I'm interested in. >> No states, too. >> Yes. >> Over a lot of people are rowing. Um, so my favorite part of it would have to be um like I love meeting all the new people, but it's the public speaking elements I

130get from it. Like I probably honestly I'm not nervous when I speak in front of a group now. Um, and getting to go and stand in front of a judge is and just being like not knowing anything about and having like five minutes just have to talk to that judge is really helped with my public speaking and my confidence of okay, this is what's going to happen. my quick thinking skills. >> Um, so my favorite part, like Roland said, it was definitely the amount of people that were there and like also like the diversity. I know that my family is the only Asian person, Asian family in like this town right now. And when we went to States, there were so many people that like looked like me and so many people that like I

131could talk to and like understood my culture. And obviously, I love native culture. I just made a ribbon dress actually. Um, but it was just so nice to like see people that look like me and have like people that I can bond over certain things. >> Oh yes. >> So competition results. So we had some really good exciting competition results. So it first started off on our opening night. We got um we were the number one chapter in growth in the whole New York State with over 492.96%. Um Julia Hawkins was inducted into the DECA honor society which is a very big thing to be inducted in as you must be a three-year member um business grade a average over 93 in honor role for your other classes. Julina also placed top 10 in test.

132Top 10 in testing in the category of food services. Okay. So ICDC is a national competition that comes with an academy. It is a national competition for members in the top seven spots of blocking areas where students will attend workshops, go on evening excursions and get awards for competition. ICDC is the location of the death. It's the end of it for a lot of students. More than 25,000 high school students. We mentioned that 25,000. New York State alone we are in a hotel by ourselves where when we go to states like there's like seven or eight different you know districts with us. This is just all New York State one very often. >> I can't even imagine. >> The way I'm doing is to be ready. It's a male leadership development program featuring Ignite Academy

133which helps members ignite their passions for DA and max in the future that we have. This program is designed for high performing and early career members. It offers workshops, networking and professional skill building areas like collaboration, communication and public speaking. >> Yes, I get to go to class, too. Well, she's in class. Actually, I have to work one event and then I get to go to classes. And some of the things I'm going to be able to bring back to the business department is how to implement the DECA curriculum into their plans. you know, how to make it more there because like when we went to states, some of the kids are telling us like the first half an hour of their classes, they do role plays and they're taking the number one and number

134two spots. So now we're going, so how do we implement that into our 42 minute period and not take away from what needs to be taught? So we're trying to come up with some ideas on that, whether it be, you know, we get a we meet every day. Right now when you go in competition we meet two three times a week before we go to competition practicing and we practice as long as they want to practice. I'll stay till five six whatever and we'll just keep going over role play. But I'm really excited to see what I'm going to learn there to be able to bring back to the table for the business department as well. So what's our vision for the program? We want to upgrade the items that we have in the school

135store, bringing new items that will take interest in going in there. We're trying to make DA introduction videos for the lawyer wake up to announcement. to give you an idea of what DHA is. If you just heard DHA, you're going to have no idea that physical that's possible future influence business, but also the ability to speak publicly and open environments easily. So here this is an opportunity tool and have them run through scenarios and give them that understanding of what it is. So after discussing its weed conclusion that provide the younger audience with an overview that would help to prepare them for nth grade and the project complete. So they would end up shadowing experienced DE members colleagues and they would allow the young participants to then emphasize how important how to be an active

136participant in the material and they also get to know the basics of they also get concepts of business early on that will not just be beneficial for their ongoing training program but they will also get the insight if this is something they want to do in the future. So what this does for these seventh and eighth grade students, it's kind of building confidence, boosting participation skills, giving making them more confident to give their opinions within their group and preparation for competition. This will help them appealing to be successful within their high school years within classrooms. and they also get to that early sense of eagerness to be in such a prestigious program. So overall, a program like this can be very influential for interested young members. And if a program like this was around when

137I first joined up, I was given the opportunity to go and compete. But even with a lot of practice and being surrounded by such influential members, I was not ready. So I the opportunity to go. But if a program like this was around, it would have prepared me and others for what they actually doing and it would have helped to build confidence to go into and the goal of that junior overall is to have young passionate students be. >> So kind of what the thought is we are in a different kind of environment here because we're 8 through 12. So Jelina went as an eighth grader and she did really pretty well as an eighth grader, but people were like, "You're 17, right?" And she's like, "No, I'm not. I'm an eighth grade." And then

138last year it happened to Rowan as an eighth grader. So what we're thinking is we would love to try to grasp these kids at like seventh grade because seventh grade they're not fully invested into the high school experience with all these things that are open to them. But at least we could start kind of exposing them to DECA and building that. And then with the eighth graders, it gives them that extra year of just coming in to be able to train, you know, alongside with the kids. Um, and then that way when the business classes then are starting to make their business classes like for the eighth graders, so they do that class seventh and ninth grade, they might be like, "Hey, you know what? I've already been in DECA for two years. I need

139to keep taking business classes." Um because what happened was when we went to states, two of these kids mentioned, "Wow, I'm so glad I took that business class because that really helped me during competition." So they really do go hand in hand. Um we're just trying to like I said, we're trying to straighten out that matching and we're going to get there. Go ahead. >> Okay. So we're at state competition where I talked to other students from other schools. I was talking to some bigger New York City schools and just asked them what they do. Aside from the 30 minutes in class, they really business people area to come talk about how they have made our business successful and what they continue to do to improve their business. By having a discuss occupations, we can

140get a true idea of what they are supposed to do, which will help us when we go to competition and we see the application title. The next thing we want to do next year is getting the social media page. We would like to start a social media page through Levi, which would allow us to share when we open the store on Saturdays. this way. We're not just saying, "Oh, we're open." And no one wants to open and store and actually look at the page and be like, "Okay, they're open this Saturday, this Saturday, and this time." And really we just wanted to thank you guys for the opportunity you've given all of these kids because you know without the board behind us and people hang up they would not be getting this opportunity we really

141do >> I always have questions not have questions >> we're going to address this not to you because this is threatening people for questions like these question you Okay. >> You have 83 total. >> Well, 3 to 12 of them are non 12 of them are active consistent house. So that is a 1/4 or at best and a less than onetenth attendance rate from DECA members. Is there any plans to fix that? So the a student does that include my business class here who don't fully feel dug up always will we should be trying to close that gap and do you see that asking a solid group of students to begin with and then maybe slowly expand it into >> and maybe pinpointing the students having teachers give student recommendations like if Mr. Cole was

142to say, I think Mary Chen is a very good student. I think she would excel very well at DECA is also something I think we're looking into. Also is having teacher recommendations on students who would go above and beyond and excel in our competition team and DECA program because we're always looking for new members to go and compete with us. >> And this was your run of doing that. So it was an experiment. So at the broad level trying to grow. I understand. Thank you very much. >> Okay, that concludes our presentation for tonight. Uh next on the agenda is our consent agenda and uh that includes uh last week's minutes uh some financial reports conferences and overnight trips. Do I need a motion to accept the or approve the consent agenda? >> Motion second.

143Motion by Tracy, second by Zap. >> Yeah. >> All in favor? >> Oppos? Motion carries. Okay. New business. This is the fun part, isn't it? The uh the first item is a a resolution to um what's uh this is a resolution related to the uh budget vote in May. Um so this is all of the um we'll call it legal ease I guess that outlines what uh individuals will be voting for the two propositions as well as the open um u board member seat. >> Okay. >> So I need a motion to approve the resolution motion motion by Brad. Need a second. >> Second by T. All in favor >> I postain motion carried. >> Okay. The next one is uh accept a capital project phase 4.1 construction bid. >> Can we alter the language

144on that to say approve the contract instead of >> the >> approve the contract? the contract. >> Okay. A motion to approve the the contract >> for construction project 4.1 second. >> Okay. Motion by T. Second by Brad. All in favor SRO's We have a resolution to um continue with the SRO program in the county. Um so I need a motion. >> Motion by Tracy. Second. >> Second by Brad. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carried. Okay. Next item um is to create a special revenue account for for a motion. >> Motion motion by Tracy. Second. Second by Brad. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. Okay. Last item under new business is to accept a donation from Aaron and Matthew Swansson and that's the amount of $100 and and a letter of

145appreciation. Do I need a motion? >> Motion by Tad. >> Second by Brad. All in favor? Motion carried. Okay. Personnel agenda is uh there's one item on there uh and that's to um to hire a person for special ed special education position you move um I need a motion >> motion second who's who Okay. >> Uh all in favor say motion carried. Do we have a person? >> We do. I will ask Mrs. Barry. >> All right. >> Right next to me. Fantastic. So this evening we're pleased to sh all of our um she's being recommended tonight for appointment as special education teacher at Senica Intermediate. She brings with over 20 years experience in special education serving students across a range of settings including self group instruction specializing. was currently she's working in a 61

146classroom with young adult to during the interview process it was extremely clear to all of us um to that she demonstrates a strong commitment to meeting students where they are and helping them grow academically, socially and emotionally. She shared some very clear examples of her ability to communicate effectively with families, colleagues and support service providers emphasizing collaboration and regular progress monitoring. Her experience, professionalism, and strong advocacy students align well with our values in our district are very look forward to the dedication that she brings to us. you have a speech for us? >> I'm excited. >> Great. Welcome to that. Thank you. Okay. Uh our next agenda item is is just a some information and reports. Um I committed meetings um meeting minutes. Uh it looks like there's a bunch of uh transfer within Prospect

147Elementary some TAs to some in the different grade levels. Correct. >> Okay. um capital privacy phase 4.5 summary and our enrollment numbers for for the month and our upcoming events which uh we have a IC meeting coming up tomorrow or not tomorrow but um first week in in April. Um spring break of course is is on everybody's radar right now. Um voter registration is is April 20th. So, if you're not registered to vote in the district, um it'll be the superintendent's office conference room will be open to accomplish that. And our next board meeting is April 21st, be held right here at 5:30. So, with that, um I we entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Motion by by Greg, >> second by Tad. All in favor? I >> oppos motion carries. Thank you

148folks. long but well