001please have everyone stand for the pledge of allegiance okay bob are there any changes to the agenda yes there are two additions to the board agenda uh under personnel 10a we have added as the last entry a replacement for pam frank for her keyboard specialist position and under uh item h the revised independent employment agreement that we had previously discussed at multiple personnel committee meetings and board conversations then i need a motion to approve the agenda with the changes motion by sue second by brad are there any questions all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried and uh just for the record too barb sandy is excused tonight item three is a an executive session uh that we need for the purpose of personnel so i need a motion to approve the executive session motion
002by kerry second by dale all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried and we should shouldn't be that long so we need a motion to come back out of executive session motion by dale second by brad all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried let's go on to item five which is our presentation from stieglitz uh mrs ray members of the board um we may have a schedule issue here i reached out to the team that was presenting and they haven't responded as of yet i'm not sure if they saw the executive session on the agenda and thought maybe we were going to start a little bit late so i'm going to try to track them down but if we can move on to the next item that would be great all right then we'll
003move on to our summer programs presentation who would like to present that numbers were good solid this year we had um like i said seven sports the average per day boys and girls soccer was 32 track and field with 16 per day baseball 17 per day football 24 lacrosse boys basketball 20 and girls b-ball 18. each week was kind of a new sport something different they were two-hour sessions like i said usually finished with a game and they were all they were all ran by our coaches the the response from that has been pretty good we did a little bit of a survey trying to improve next year and hopefully expand um the heat didn't help in some of the instances and we had a couple weather situations so communication is going to be key
004and just getting out in front of that early we also ran summer swim this year which corresponded with the same dates and those lessons were led by anna gifford we had an 8 a 9 a 10 and 11 a.m and they were about 45 minute lessons and we broke those up by groups and the response to sign ups was was overwhelming we had quite a few over 80. we kept it at 80 and then some started to filter out and we called them back so our groups averaged around 10 to 12 by the end but many of those numbers dipped way off the last couple weeks as people got prepared for for school so um each each group each uh you know organization opportunity here was uh you know to benefit the kids and each
005each day was was run by our staff and we we had a lot of kids on campus throughout the day so it was good positives i think the only negative i heard was that they wanted it to be longer parents and kids so everyone i talked to was you know had nothing but great things to say about it so kudos i think you have a baby football game happening right now right all right did you want to go to that that was your that was your lifeline right there thank you chad thank you for reminding me so we'll move on to item c our uh school safety and reopening dr daley terrific thank you mrs ray uh today is the fourth day of student attendance it is absolutely wonderful to see our students back in
006the school buildings while prospect has some difficulties with the opening which mr breinstein will be addressing shortly i know that the students parents the teachers the staff and administrators have been working exceptionally hard there to make the best of the challenge a challenging situation so i thank you for the work that you've done so far our current school practices really have not changed much since my last report but i'll review those just so everybody's on the same page we know the students are returning to school five days a week all of our various layers of mitigation are being utilized including the wearing of masks cleaning social distancing encouraging hand washing drinking fountains are shut down testing which i'll talk about in just a moment we are consistently monitoring our local community and the community at
007large to determine what the transmission rate is and how we need to respond to that on a daily basis so just a couple updates or refreshers i'm on school buses all students are masked they sit two per seat if possible in family cohorts and bus seats are assigned in common areas such as hallways students are always masked and actually all adults are masked and stay within six feet of each other when possible when students are in classrooms they are masked most of our elementaries are already cohorted their social distance to three feet and are also assigned seats um individuals are quarantined when they are exposed when they are exposed to a positive case for longer than 15 minutes and are within three feet of each other at this point lunchtime is um unmasked obviously and
008we strive for the six feet but three feet is acceptable in those circumstances with our extracurricular sports if they are outdoors there are no masks but for indoor activities such as swimming and volleyball the with the spectators as well as the athletes when it's tolerable are masked as well we encourage our parents to come to the events the our events are open to the public masks are not required when outdoors in the rare event that we find a location where we're not able to attend which we're not aware of any at this point we will make sure that we let the teams know so the parents can prepare for that um one thing i did just want to make a note of is that all individuals on campus whether you're an adult or a student
009or a contractor or a visitor are required to wear masks when in our buildings that is a requirement from new york state the district does not have a choice in that nor did we have a voice in the decision it is simply a requirement by new york state so um we follow basically the universal masking precautions additional regulations came about last thursday last thursday we were informed that all staff in the district need to be tested on a weekly basis staff who provide evidence of full vaccination can opt out of the testing our nurse coordinator nurse creed is currently collecting information from staff who voluntarily provide evidence of vaccination the guidance that we were provided lacks guidance on when the requirement starts how the testing is to occur what happens if someone does get does
010not get tested and who will pay for the tests so the some districts are looking at this as it's happening immediately the practicality unfortunately is that there are not tests available within our region we are coordinating with uh cataract county to provide the testing the county will provide testing once a week but as i mentioned currently tests are very difficult to find and the ones that are available have been reserved for those who are symptomatic or who have experienced a close close contact scenario so there's several questions about that but i just want to reiterate the requirement is all staff regardless of what your role is in the district are required to be tested once a week for covid if you are fully vaccinated and provide evidence of that you can opt out we're not
011requiring or forcing anyone at this point in time to get vaccinated nor are we forcing anyone to turn over vaccination cards you can opt out of the required testing if you choose to so there are obviously some logistical challenges to the new requirements but we will work closely with our labor associations to ensure that the district is compliant and that we are fair and equitable to all of our employees and ensuring that we um provide a safe circumstances for our staff as well as for our students um i did have a brief update um just as far as where we are right now covet is in the community um as of today or this afternoon we currently have 56 students who are quarantined and we have 10 students who tested positive of those 10 students
012who are currently testing positive nine were already under quarantine due to someone else in the house being positive so and that was prior to school starting so only one of those students needed to be contact traced and as a result of the contact racing no one needed to be quarantined so the takeaway there is that contact racing seems to be working school is a safe environment right now but as i mentioned previously we are absolutely keeping an eye on not just kent county but our quadrant the southeast quadrant to determine how many cases we have on a daily basis so that we can yes um we have plenty of masks um both our fancy sailor maker mask as well as the disposable ones the disposable ones seem to be the preferred choice at the moment
013but we have plenty of personal protective equipment for staff and students as well as cleaning contact uh they can contact myself or mr haley um mr haley has been exceptionally involved with um everything so far all right does anyone else have any questions yeah you said you weren't sure on the testing is it a rapid test or is it the labs and no test um it will be the rapid testing uh rapid testing for the surveillance the pcr lab testing for individuals who come to a testing site that are symptomatic or have had close time okay thank you dr wheeler that's one of the first times i've heard that actually i just like to say my voice has never been told to be a quiet little voice uh we'll go on to item d which
014is our salamanca board retreat update um so um in early august the board of education and the administrative central office cabinet met in niagara falls and we had our annual august retreat that was co-facilitated by our strategic partner education elements which has helped us with our long-range planning during that course of the meeting the board and central office administrative team talked about our vision and i want to thank you marcie for bringing that up on the screen our vision continues to be raising resilience and compassionate borders and in this time of global pandemics and uncertainty teaching our children and our students faculty and staff and community how to be resilient and compassionate to others i don't think could be any more well-placed of a strategic long-range mission and goal for our district our mission is
015to maximize the potential of every warrior regardless of age and fostering those strong dynamic relationships embracing diversity and providing opportunities for the individuals to explore and to have inquiry in the areas that they are passionate about when we look and we talk about our values we talk about collaboration and communications we consistently talk about what works for our community how we can create unique educational opportunities for our students and for our faculty as well as celebrating the unique wonderful success of salamanca's culture so during the course of the presentation if you can flip to the next slide marcy we have come to know these icons for respect responsibility literacy interpersonal skills life skills and critical thinking skills and just as a general reminder these are the culminating of respect responsibility and the other mindsets that
016are attributed to the journey of our warrior from entry into our system at whatever age typically a prospect and then continuing through seneca as well as the high school when students leave us each of the icons have a slightly different visual representation for example in prospect we talk about learning to read and when students leave us they're learning if prospect is learning to read then the high school kids are reading to learn and expanding their horizons each of those six icons is built upon foundation skills that start at the level before they enter that particular school what the high school students experience manifest and look like growing skills as a kindergarten through third grader and then fourth through seventh grader all the way up until the time they leave us as students graduating at um
017at the culmination of their high school career you can flip that so when we met as the board we talked about what our priorities were as a school board and we started having the conversation about what are our 2122 board of education norms we spent time talking about ensuring that all voices are heard not just individual board members or administrators or teachers or faculty but also students and community members elders members of our community that may not have been in our schools in quite some time by ensuring that all voices are heard we understand the perspectives of everyone involved and we take those decisions and those conversations very seriously we also talked about how we promote respect in all of our interactions kind of built upon ensuring that all voices are heard if we take
018the time to listen to what other individuals are expressing as concerns fears strengths weaknesses points of pride we can better understand diverse opinions when we interact in a way that respects the interactions we're doing several things one we're understanding but two we're also modeling for our students what it means to be respectful to be critical thinkers and to have those interpersonal skills we also talked about how we need to utilize the data in front of us to make decisions the school district of today is vastly different in many regards from the school district of 2005 or 2006. i think we can all readily acknowledge that just from what the buildings look like but also the curriculum the content the instruction as well as the enrollment looks like now so we need to make sure that
019when we are making decisions that we hear all the voices we listen to all the voices and understand their reactions to the data and what it means to them hopefully we're past the point as an organization where we simply make a decision based on a knee-jerk reaction that isn't necessarily completely accurate maybe partially but we need to go back and make sure that we have all the information and then one of the last conversations we had as a school district for our norms and the interactions that we have is respond responding in a timely manner to questions asked questions posed or issues that may be proactive in nature and a little bit longer term of a solution or things that are happening in a timely fashion we know from the circumstances that have happened with
020kovid that our responsiveness to the community has helped us communicate better to the community we know that if we don't have the answer it's okay to simply say i don't know but we will get back to you and then it's critically important that we actually close that circle and get back to the person or persons with that information i can't promise i don't think anyone can promise it will have all the answers or that everyone will like all the answers but when we start enacting and utilizing these norms to hear all voices respectfully interact use data to help drive our conversations and decisions and then respond in a timely fashion that's going to help us catapult further into our strategic planning mindset marcy if you can advance one more okay um when we talked about
021what our priorities are as a school district we really focus in on four specific things one something we've heard consistently is what happens to our salamanca students when they leave us it's not just enough to get them across the state ed finish line of graduation or aging out at age 21 with a student with disabilities or a student who leaves us to go somewhere else we want to make sure that they have all the tangible skills necessary to be successful after they separate whatever way shape or form from salamanca and we talked about the next steps we talked about committees we talked about how we can engage the community in those world-to-work conversations the world is changing college is important but so our trades skills crafts and the ability and we certainly know this in
022the pandemic of we need people to just simply come to work for us in whatever capacity they help enrich us if we think that our drivers aren't driving instruction in our transportation department we've missed it our food service people do more than just serve meals they serve the fuel necessary for students to learn each and every day the title is secondary to making sure that we prepare everyone to be successful in whatever path they choose the second concern that we have and a priority for the district is improving student attendance we know that many students did well in a virtual setting some students did about as reasonably as well as expected and did okay and they have those supports but we also know that a number of our students have chronically poor attendance this is
023not new for salamanca this is not new for many school districts we need a concerted effort from all angles all avenues of the district to improve student attendance and one of the conversations we did have is that attendance isn't just student attendance it's adult attendance too you can be physically in attendance but not engaged and that's not much different than not being there so we need to make sure that we're there we're attending and we're engaged in those conversations we also note and have noted for quite some time i think exceptionally well our focus on interpersonal skills and social emotional learning basically in a nutshell we need to make sure that kids staff parents feel welcomed and comfortable and safe in our environment if they don't feel welcome safe and comfortable then do we have
024the resources do we have the supports necessary to make students staff community and visitors feel welcome and know that they can reach out to us over the past week with what has happened to prospect they're reaching out and the connections from faculty and staff about the mold issue at prospect is really manifesting in how are we addressing the social emotional needs of our faculty and staff it really does come back to communication and engagement and listening but it also comes back to sharing information in a timely fashion this will be a big task for us because this is highly interpersonal and individualized what may be your social emotional need to return to an academic or learning setting may be completely different than the person sitting next to you it's constantly a moving target but over
025the last five or six years we have added family support workers we've added mental health supports counselors psychologists social workers we've revised curriculum we've added a social emotional learning coach we've added supports necessary to fill in those gaps that may cause a temporary or a more substantial interference with learning because of other outside personal external familial community economic or other mental health concerns this is the new wave for public education today and this is what every school district is going to be dealing with for the foreseeable future and lastly the topic that we talked about is capital planning so i apologize um for tonight um stieglitz is actually going to present at the finance committee that's our understanding i did just get a text from them but one of the concerns that we have is
026our ongoing facilities and capital planning work we still need to address our accelerated five-year building condition survey we know that we have issues with finishing phase three construction and possible phase four and pace phase five construction and additional referendums property purchases the the capital health well-being of the school district does translate to how we are doing instructionally how we are doing with our community there's no better proof than how the steam edition has played out how vets park has played out and how other capital improvements historically and most recently in the school district have helped the school district move forward it does create a sense of pride but there's a great deal of in work that occurs from a financial perspective to make that happen you can anticipate more conversations on where we are with
027our capital project work as our five-year condition survey comes back from young and right in the next few weeks as well as what may be necessary with additional referendums perhaps as early as this winter and i think that's there might be one more slide other potential priorities um i won't go into all of those these were tossed out uh and discussed but didn't rise to the top four it doesn't mean that they're not going to be addressed it doesn't mean that they are less of a priority although in some regard it actually kind of does but these uh the four previous priorities for the world of work attendance social emotional learning and capital planning are our focal points for this year and that was the bulk of our retreat over the august 5th and 6th
028in niagara falls step one slide marcy please so the one thing that i think i know as a board member is that we don't want to lose sight of uh when are we going to check in on this we want to make sure that we're staying on top of these priorities that we've established and so one of the things i'm going to ask janet is that to make sure that on our agendas we have what our priorities are and when our check-in dates are going to be so that we don't lose track of them that we're they're always on the forefront of our mind and that we're getting presentations and updates on where we're at uh with the priorities so i thought it was very the retreat was excellent it really does help to have
029somebody outside of salamanca come in and kind of lead the discussions and keep us on track because we do have a tendency to deveer and it's good to just get those priorities out there just like bob said it doesn't mean that we don't have other priorities that we wanna that we wanna do but these were the four that everybody seemed to um come up with and say that yes that's what we want to focus on for right now so if i can just jump in here on september 21st um there will be a deeper conversation about the capital planning portion and i would imagine uh shortly after we get the five-year condition survey and have a chance to go through that with young and right we'll have a public presentation on that on august 24th
030uh we did have a half day session on preparing our students for the world of work there were about uh 10 or 11 staff members from the buildings that were participating with ed elements in working through some of those preliminary conversations and that afternoon on august 24th we had a half day session slightly smaller group but a little bit more focused on sel work and we spent a very productive half day on the social emotional planning and work that's happening within the district to address the social emotional learning so we'll get those on an update perhaps as early as october any comments or questions okay then we'll move on to communications no one signed up do we have uh title six here is jess on by any chance jess cross no no okay uh title
031six meeting tomorrow is six o'clock um we are looking for nominations for the committee uh there's some facebook posts going around looking for nominations looking for interest support i've talked to a few people about it um we just want to get more parents involved in title six tomorrow six o'clock right here in this room come on down so let's move on to our central office message we'll start out with karen stole my microphone um i have two things one you're probably greatly aware of but i'll say that for last um young and right we've talked a little bit about capital planning tonight they are due to have the report to me on august or october 5th so i'm hoping that the second session in october i will be able to present to you and then
032bob had previously mentioned that in november there'll be another board retreat that will uh deep dive into um capital planning so um a couple months and we get to dive deep into uh where we are with our five year capital plan and where we hope to go with it secondly um in case you haven't heard we have a little new food services program going on it has been phenomenal um the the staff and drew and john and the entire all the cooks and all the food service people have just been top-notch um dealing with as everybody is dealing with the closure of prospect but we've hauled everybody from prospect over to here and they're helping out here in this kitchen as well i've heard great things from the kids and the staff there's a ton
033of positive press on um on facebook and on social media and um several of my fellow business officials and actually other teaching friends that i have around the state are kind of a little upset with us um because the program has been so well um accepted uh here and they're all like well how did you do it what do you got to do so i you know i'm um speaking with them a little bit um somebody else from the community is also inquired about brigade um so our partnership with brigade has been phenomenal um john and um ryan from brigade we're here for two weeks on-site hands-on every single day from six in the morning until god only knows what time at night um working on stuff with our staff and for our staff and
034doing additional things for me for ordering etc so it's been really really good um and as the article said in the press that we are focusing right now on uh the lunch program because we wanted to to get that under our wraps um first and get that you know um really top notch and then take a deeper dive into the breakfast program so breakfast will look a little different come january and um then in september it's ready to rock and roll with everything as usual um so hopefully uh we'll get the kids back in it at prospect soon and they'll also be uh getting the new and improved food services and uh that's all i have i have heard great things about the food i know one of the parents from uh prospects said did
035you see this lunch menu like look at the items that are on there because they're just all so different and the kids were excited about lunch instead of you know lunch we got to eat the green lettuce again or the brown butter so um that was exciting and i have heard nothing but positive so congratulations on that i actually have one more comment get to that um they usually in in past years they've sold a ton of just cold sandwiches turkey sandwich etc you know pb j and that kind of thing they're actually taking them off the menu because they sold one turkey sandwich so those are coming out and they can concentrate on the other stuff that that is silly um pb j is still going to be around because there are some kids
036that that's all they want and if my husband lives here that's all he eats every every day for lunch anyway so um there are some that that's just another one it's been going really well so i thank you all for you know approving that that uh contract food brigade and allowing us to take this chance and the whole time i'm just like just gotta work gotta work working and um i should have known that the staff that we have down in there has has been top notch and drew came down and said the first night even after the the um prospect picnic he's like i can't believe how well this group is dealt and just work together they don't argue and they're not talking about each other and they're not you know he said all
037that kind of stuff that he used to have he doesn't have and everybody is just super helpful to each other and and um it's just going extremely well so thank you good to hear does anyone have any comments for karen the dr dealer then perfect thank you um i just wanted to reiterate how much of a pleasure it is to see our students on campus in full capacity as well as our staff it really brings our buildings alive and it's something that we've been missing for the past 18 months um i did want to just speak briefly occasionally i like to draw our attention to some folks who do a lot of work behind the scenes um so i want to speak briefly about one of those individuals who has taken on the task of
038ensuring the safety of our students as well as our staff ray haley started working with the district in 2018 his first position was as an attendance officer on march 4th of 2020 he assumed the role of safety and security coordinator so that's march 4th right three days later the governor declared a state of emergency and exactly two weeks later the governor shut down schools um so over the past 18 months the decision to have mr haley fill the new role has proven to be a great one he's developed our safety plan serves as a liaison to the county health department he's our contact tracer and is really all things coveted and safety related he's the first person an employee works with when they're concerned over a potential contact and mr haley provides a high degree
039of guidance and assurance to them in what can likely be a troubling time so i just wanted to extend a thank you for all the work that he does behind the scenes um and once again welcome our students and staff back on campus does anyone have any questions for mark all right we'll move on to the board message then brad how about if we start with you i just want to say welcome back to everybody i know my daughter is super excited about the food program we don't have to pack our lunch anymore so that works out fingers crossed we'll get prospect up and running soon and i'm excited for fall sports [Music] like to welcome everybody back to staff and students um i can't believe how how much students have grown over the summer
040you know some have shot up a whole foot i think but uh i just want to welcome everybody back and and just remind everybody to be safe and vigilant this won't be over until we have zero transmission sue hello everyone i too would like to uh welcome everybody back and hopefully this now that we're in the school and the kids are all here um it's kind of been very hard for the kids to be at home learning on their own and uh so hopefully we can catch up and the kids can get back into their regular routines thank you [Music] yeah i'm gonna welcome everyone back as well um and also thank everybody uh thank you to our entire staff thank you for coming back with smiling faces thank you for coming back with open
041welcoming arms uh some of these kids couldn't wait to get back some of them probably were dreading the day but um you know my little one she was she was anxious to get back to school but unfortunately we're at a delay with prospect uh she was actually looking forward to a zoom today if that tells you anything she got used to zoom classes so but she was excited nonetheless um but yeah i really just wanted to say welcome and thank you to everybody and keep up the great work that you always do and we'll get through this that's it oh also title six i forgot to mention i heard there will be pizza tomorrow at the title six meeting so it title six meetings are open to anybody anybody can come to the title six
042meeting uh the committee there are requirements for sitting on the committee but yeah i hear there's pizza that usually draws a crowd when there's some food i would also like to uh welcome everyone back it's exciting to be back to school um i know that prospect has had a little bit of a hiccup and believe me i've heard from a lot of prospect parents that the kids are just so disappointed that they can't be back so uh to the teachers out there that should tell you that uh how much you mean to the kids that they just they can't wait to get back into school and be a part of it just like dale said you know please everyone be village uh vigilant um you know wear your mask make sure that we're following the
043guidelines because we want to keep these schools open and we want the kids here because it's not the same without them um i did go to the varsity football game uh friday night and we defeated springville so that was pretty exciting i think we had more fans there than springville did so it was good to walk around and see so many parents uh with sporting all of the warrior attire um i counted we had 28 cheerleaders and i was told five or so was missing so i it was uh it's amazing to see the numbers of kids that have started to come out for our programs not just in athletics but for everything and it's exciting to see what we have to offer um i know there were a lot of parents that commented on
044the community picnics and the different organizations that were there and the things that their kids could get into so um you know i'm just thrilled that everyone is back and that we offer what we do um and thank you to all the staff because you know we can't have school without the cleaners and the bus drivers and the teachers and the assistants and the principals and secretary everybody so thank you for everyone uh showing the kids how much you care about them and we want to just make sure that we welcome everyone back so thank you and now i will turn it over to mr bridenstine okay a couple of items uh tomorrow uh is the indigenous education committee meeting at four o'clock um and that is at the acc uh it is not uh
045at this point time proving to be a long agenda um we'll set uh committee dates for the uh for the year uh and talk about some student engagement and reporting issues and then um probably having a round table discussion uh pretty standard fare for the september indigenous ed committee meeting that's four o'clock tomorrow at the acc um the board personnel committee did meet on thursday and we did talk about the format and process to replace dr mccune on the school board tentatively with the board's approval we have set an interview date of 9 14. we may have a slight schedule change so i would like to talk about that tonight just to get some feedback that is a pers finance committee meeting and i know that karen has some items that we'll need to cover
046on that if possible can we move the uh board candidate interview from 5 30 to approximately six okay the format that we discussed at the personnel committee is to invite all six candidates who have expressed an interest in serving on the board uh invite them to come in simultaneously and some have described it as a meet the candidate night where they're all here together answering uh questions that the board will devise um or a presidential debate where they'll all be here and we'll ask them questions uh it is open to the community i will be in the lgi um and i'm just inquiring if the board is okay with pushing it um to the uh 6 6 15 just so we can let the candidates know yes okay and then we'll have some sustenance for
047us as well um and then we'll invite the candidates in and janet and i will work tomorrow to contact the candidates to make sure that they're available if by chance there is a significant scheduling issue we'll advise and then we can always revisit and talk if there's a an option or a different venue in which you want to proceed but that's the plan as of now and then we'll reach out to the six candidates tomorrow [Music] yes i'm not sure i can rattle them off by memory um uh ken janet do you have them kenneth neary jessica kraus chad ryder nicole jimmerson tisch anticipated good okay so the last piece that i want to talk about is the status of prospect elementary so for those who are unaware about 10 days ago we were made
048aware by our cleaning crew that there was some issues and observances of mold in some classrooms the cleaning custodian crew did what we would expect them to they cleaned the entire site where they found that and reported it to us once we became aware of that which would have been the next day we immediately caucused we brought in stole environmental and testing and they tested approximately 18 rooms and they found multiple instances of above baseline or substantially above baseline for aspergillus penicillum which is common everyday mold it occurs in buildings it occurs outside in the community it's one of the most common forms of mold that is out there as soon as they tested and informed us while we were awaiting the official test results we had reached out to metro environmental for professional remediation
049of those sites at this point in time there are approximately 54 spaces at prospect the main office the library the cafeteria the gym cafetorium magnesium and classroom settings of those 54 classrooms 23 are clear mold free no concerns 13 are nearly done but are still having some ongoing monitoring in those spaces and 12 are still listed as a concern that means metro has not completely cleaned and remediated the space or we're still having issues with excessive humidity in the building the cause of the mold um in the the incident is exacerbated by external humidity basic weather outside and the fact that the system within the building is not was not calibrating to adjust to the increases in humidity we've identified approximately a three to four day period where the outside ambient humidity was excessive in
050the 80s or low 90s percent of humidity rain occurred and the system was essentially in unoccupied mode sucking in the outside humid air there was concerns before that that the humidity was a little bit higher but not terribly uncomfortable in the building but still it was a concern in early august those two colliding forces met about eight days ago ten days ago when over the weekend it exacerbated what was probably pre-existing mold which is in every space normally with the right conditions of excessive humidity and air circulating at an inoperable sub-optimal level that created the circumstance when metro had come in and approximately two-thirds of the rooms are just about ready to roll we've addressed what we believe the causes and have a remediation plan for the humidity to keep the building at an optimal
051humidity level for us so that we don't have a reoccurrence we still have approximately a third of our classrooms that need to make sure that they're cleared cleaned and the thumbs up then we have the monumental task of putting humpty dumpty back together again in this case humpty dumpty is prospect elementary and the classrooms we've had to pull significant items out of quite a few classrooms mold likes anything organic paper felt construction paper books wood surfaces puzzles anything that is organic is a breeding ground in high humidity and low circulation of air for potential mold that was already there in existing what we will need to do over approximately the next seven days is work with metro we will be training our staff to add additional manpower people power to help remediate those spaces there
052will be a training of our staff on thursday and then we will deploy our staff to assist metro in cleaning the items that were removed from each classroom and then reassembling them my best guess and estimate as of today barring any unforeseen setbacks is that we will accept students back on wednesday the 15th that is my best guess as of today we may make more progress in cleaning the consumable items that had been removed from the classrooms we met with prospect staff today to talk about what their preference is having their rooms ready and pristine or accept students back and universally they stated we want kids back we can deal with bulletin boards later we can deal with the rearrangement of construction paper and things of that nature we will absolutely have to replace significant
053numbers of items in the classrooms that are either not worth cleaning or are going to take too long for the price to get them back to the point where they can use them we will continue to make that assessment as we are moving forward we have a tent on site behind prospect to be fully transparent with the board in the community we cannot clean or remediate these items in the buildings they've all been bagged and are either removed already to a trailer outside the building or an industrial bag sealed by metro so that there is no likely contamination or cross contamination as i mentioned there has only been one instance of any mold reoccurring in a classroom that has been cleaned that was i believe in room 114 or 115 one of the pre-k rooms
054the room was cleaned there was a wood table and there was instances the next day where there was mold in the conversation today metro environmental and stole environmental who's done the testing suggested to us that there was probably mold still there after it was completely clean but because of the temperature because of the organic material in the wood it probably was still there we're probably going to throw that table out we don't want it coming back and we will need to replace some items our plan is to train staff on thursday and we will deploy as many resources as we have with our cleaning crew the superintendent anyone who's interested in being trained uh can help go through those items so long as you feel comfortable and you feel safe we will take the necessary
055health safety and ppe precautions to make sure that's the case but my main concern is getting as many of those classrooms put back together as quickly as we can as safely as we can to accept students our target date is now wednesday the 15th as we get through this this thursday this friday the saturday the sunday rich pinkowski our director of facilities has been directed to call in our existing personnel to authorize overtime of our staff to deploy as many of our existing cleaning staff to support the work of metro they are cleaning the big sites we're going through the stuff that our kids will use once they're trained um in the meantime we'll continue to do testing of the site and as we've discussed previously whether it's covet or snow days if it's not
056safe i'm not opening the building and if we get to the point where i believe it's safe based on the best information from metro from stoll from gail pavone from kim oaks from dr bieler mrs mcgarram mrs dudek mr pinkowski and the cleaning crews this isn't going to be a one person makes the decision ultimately i will be the one that will make the final decision but if there's a concern then we will hear it either from the staff from the building administrators from the central office or cleaning and custodial crew someone asked me last week and again today if i could put it into terms that's not really mold related so cleaning the space while the humidity is still high as i've said to staff today it's the equivalent of speeding feeding a toddler
057spaghetti and trying to clean them while they're still eating the spaghetti not really the most productive use of time and the best i can tell staff as to why some rooms were completely impacted uh by the penis aspergillus penicillium is very much like a tornado it leaped we're not quite sure other than to say that the optimal commission conditions and room 114 existed but in room 115 they absolutely did not so that's our concern with buildings and grounds stole environmental uns hvac dv brown the contractor that installed it turner hunt and other outside sources have been engaged completely to assist us with trying to do this the last piece i will tell you is today they delivered 13 or industrial dehumidifiers mark karen is that number about a dozen or so um okay the large
058industrial dehumidifiers for the classrooms to suck out additional air we've had additional dehumidifiers that we purchased last week as well as temperature sticks to measure the temperature and the relative humidity and eat in the classrooms and we've ordered some more of those the last piece that we discussed today is that the engineers have recommended that we purchase an external humidity monitor and that that is built into the protocols with uns and our buildings and ground staff to make sure that we're monitoring the external humidity and making the necessary adjustments to the system to be ahead of any weather conditions and we'll update tomorrow so have the parents been notified that school is not gonna prospect's not gonna reopen until the 15th a notice did should have gone out this afternoon so if any parents have
059any issues or questions they can contact mrs pavone they can contact miss pavone they can contact myself they can contact dr buehler or mrs mcgarra they can get any building administ any prospect administrator or central office administrator does anyone have any questions for bob [Music] all right then we'll move on to our consent agenda so we need a motion to approve the consent agenda motion by kerry second by sue are there any questions on the consent agenda all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried item aid is our old business number a is our policies so we need a motion to approve policies 1650 34 20 35 20 55 11 81 30 we have second reading for the policies to be deleted of 7150 so we need a motion to approve the policies that were
060listed motion by dale second by brad are there any questions all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried item 9 under new business i item a is turner construction contract so we need a motion to approve the extension to turner contract amendment motion by brad second by dale are there any questions on this all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried item b is our surplus items that are listed in the agenda so we need a motion to declare all the items surplus motion by sue seconded by dale are there any questions on any of the surplus items psychological evaluations and what i believe are encyclopedias okay good question so we have a motion by second by dale all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried item c uh is to close a dorma bank
061account and transfer the funds over so we need to close the 2021 bank account and transfer it to class of 2025 for 449.99 we need a motion to do that motion by brad the second by sue are there any questions all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried item d is our cataract and wyoming county's project head start agreement and collaborative agreement so we need a motion to approve those agreements motion by kerry second by dale all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried by to me we are creating some positions so we need a motion to approve uh three new food service helpers at a 10-month position by sue second by kerry are there any questions all in favor i opposed abstain motion carried and item f is our medicaid so we need a
062motion to approve um the medicaid resolution motion by kerry second by brad are there any questions all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried and item g is our district comprehensive improvement plan so we need a motion to approve uh the final plan motion by was that dale second by sue are there any questions on uh the attached dcip plan yeah who wants to give us a rundown i would be happy to do that um so for the past six years the district has developed a what we call the district comprehensive improvement plan the goal of this is to prioritize four or five areas that we wish to focus on this is usually a collaborative effort that usually takes probably six to nine months of various meetings that occur the priorities are also aligned with
063the um district goals that we um or mr breitner talked about earlier the five goals that we've identified for our priorities for this year are accelerating student achievement particularly those needs that have been heightened by the covet 19 pandemic bringing students back to in-person school with supports specifically social emotional learning as well as academic improving our diversity equity and inclusion practices focusing on writing as well as life skill identification and work strategies when we talk about life skill identifications we're talking about those particular skills that a student would need to be able to demonstrate and knowledge that they would have to be successful in life not just in school we recognize that there's sometimes a disconnect between what a student needs to be successful in the world post-high school and what we teach them this
064is to close that any other questions all right we've got a motion by dale second by sue all in favor i opposed abstain motion carried item item h is our individual agreement for our chief equity and diversity officer mla so we need a motion to approve that moa motion by dale second by brad are there any questions all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried item 10 is our personnel consent agenda so we need a motion to approve the personnel consent agenda motion by sue second by kerry all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carried and now we'll introduce any newly appointed staff i do not believe um i do not believe that there is anyone on the call that is being appointed this evening well welcome all newly appointed staff even if you're not
065here item 11. our coaching this evening so yeah i think so that's item 11 is our information uh reports let's see here are up uh we got a thank you card from section six i can i can read that um this is from mark d filippo uh executive director of section 6 athletics bob just wanted to say thank you again for hosting us yesterday this was in august for our ads workshop every one of your staff were so helpful welcoming and genuinely hospitable that is a tribute to the culture you and salamanca have created reinforced i know you recognize how great your staff and facilities are truly appreciative of all your support for section six our programs and most importantly for me personally thank you mark our upcoming events again september 8th is the indigenous
066education committee meeting at 4. don't forget title six at six and there will be pizza uh september 14th is finance and then uh again the 14th at six 6 15 to 6 30 we'll be having a special board of education meeting um to interview the six candidates that we went through before so everybody please join in it should be uh good to to meet the candidates and hear what they have to say and uh why they're interested on being being on the board and then again the 21st we have our next official board of education meeting so thank you everybody for coming be safe be healthy and we need a motion to adjourn the meeting motion by dale second by brad all in favor i opposed abstain motion carried thank you everyone