South Seneca Board of Education Meeting - June 24th 2026

001Mhm. >> All right, let's get started with the pledge. Please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. I have a motion to approve the current agenda. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Shannon. >> Discussion. So, uh we're going to add an agenda item for first reading of the What is it called? Social media policy? >> Social media and digital communications policy. >> We'll add that, probably the last item. >> Yeah. >> Can I have a motion to add that? >> So moved. >> Yeah. >> Second, Mark. >> Okay. Uh any other discussion? On favor? >> Aye. Any nays? Hey. May I have a motion to

002approve the minutes of June 10th, 2026? >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Heather. >> Discussion. On favor? >> Aye. Any nays? Uh may I have a motion to approve the extracurricular activities report for May 2026? >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Heather. Discussion? >> Um, yes. I just had sent Miguel a question earlier in the day that hopefully he'll he'll answer. Um, I think I've asked this question before, but I couldn't remember the answer, so I decided to ask it again. Um, which is I noticed that there are a lot of sports teams that have accounts. Not all sports teams have accounts, and I know we have the sports boosters, which recently like there were separate sports boosters and recently I think they merged into one, and I just asked him to explain a little

003bit about um the different types of sports clubs. >> So, I went down the list with Santiago Huff, and after tonight's meeting, not all the sports here will have a club associated. But, yes, they do. They have There's a girls' basketball, there's a modified basketball that's associated to the sport. >> And that's for money that the students raise through fundraisers, and then they can their their club decide It's sort of like a club where they decide what to do with the >> Exactly. And and the reasoning is there's certain things the district can purchase for athletics, and there are things that we can't. And for the things that we can't, that's where the extracurricular comes into place, and even a further step, a booster club can step in. If the extracurricular doesn't have enough money

004in there, the booster can do it separately or together. >> And that's typically things that the athletes would keep. >> Yes. >> So, like backpacks, things like that, hoodies. >> Yeah, whatever the Whatever we cannot purchase because of the gift of funds, >> Yeah. >> we we the business office will divert it to or address with the extra class or the booster if possible to make those purchases on their behalf. >> And so then the money that the boosters have is totally separate from the school. >> Yes, yes, yes, totally separate. >> So, do they have to have like a an organization? >> [clears throat] >> You would need to ask them directly. From my experience, yes, most likely if they want to take donations and they want to give the people that are giving

005donations a letter saying, "Thank you for your donation. Here's our EAIN number. We are tax exempt." They can put that in their in their taxes when they file their returns. If that makes But I'm already giving you too much information Okay. But yes, you would need to ask the boosters. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um I'll say I also noted that um it looked like there we had some discussion earlier in the year about the $6,000 being transferred from the current seniors. [clears throat] Um I believe it got transferred back now to the student government class. So, noted that in there. So, I think, you know, this is fairly relatively new for this year, this extracurricular class. So, so it's nice to see some of these things that we can draw attention. Oh, yeah, this

006is happening. They're fundraising here. You know, you can see the money. So. Nice from an oversight perspective. So. >> Is there a limit to how much money can be in each club or no? >> Not. >> Okay. >> Not really. >> Okay. >> Not that I know of. >> It's I believe it's all about how active it is. >> Correct. >> Like we got flagged on the audit for a couple that I think we're dissolving tonight. >> Right. >> That because they hadn't had any money in or out, it's they then ask us, "Why do we need that?" So. >> Do you know where where does the money go for that? Back to student government? >> Um it could go to a couple different places. Like they could choose. >> Right. >> Like um like

007Shannon was pointing out, it probably can go to the extracurricular or a booster club outside of the district. Or if they choose to it can go to student government to start up other Uh, >> Okay, with startup money. >> Well, it most of it goes it most of the time it goes to student government and then if they want to restart, student government acts as the seed money to restart. >> Okay. >> And that's the that ends up being the being the cleanest way for the district so we can you know, if they decide that you know, if you get a new advisor or the current advisor decides, "Hey, I want to do these things now." We can we then have an avenue to them. Say, "Hey, here's some money we can then create the

008>> So, there's no really anyway to curtail the amount of fundraising that they do. Some of it some of the treasuries are I don't know really large. And at this point really large. And then we have as a senior class graduates, they're leaving about $5,000. Thank you very much to the fundraisers. It's a lot of money flopping around. Is there a way to uh, to maybe bring the charge down or say, "We're only going to raise 10,000 and we're going to work within that." Depending on what it is what the club is or what the class is. There's no way to do that. Is there a way? Don't know. >> No, I don't I don't think there is a way. All right. >> Almost $15,000 in one of these classes is an awful lot of

009money at that age. Okay. >> Yeah, I mean I assume >> I think the seniors really need the money so maybe >> [laughter] >> they're going to be they're going to be having a picnic on the front lawn of the school so they're senior year. >> I mean I assume that I think student government currently regulates uh, some of the fundraising for other classes, right? So, I assume that they they look at that and they're all like, "Oh, okay, these people are planning a trip. Maybe they need to do more fundraising. These people are just getting started or maybe they don't have any money. Maybe they need to do more fundraising. So they probably Maybe you guys look at that. Brooke, I don't know. >> Oh, I know that the allowed classes or clubs to

010do two fundraisers at a time and like that's their limit. But like once their fundraiser ends, then they can start another one. But all fundraisers go through student government and we approve for say, oh, why don't we wait on this because there's so many fundraisers going on right now. >> So maybe piece of it maybe in the future could be to look at current balances [clears throat] and say, you know, what is this target? Is it really appropriate for you to do another one versus another class? I don't know. Uh all right, any other questions, comments? All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Uh public to be heard on any items? I have one student, Nina Redmond. >> Hi, my name is Nina Redmond. I'm a teacher at the Saugus Union High School and the SSTA

011uh co-president. Um so I wasn't planning on talking tonight, so I'm just going to say a couple things. Um we were I really wanted to thank the board for inviting us to talk about or I should say the policy committee for inviting us to talk. Um it was myself and three other uh teachers and that was really nice. And I also wanted to thank the policy committee for putting [clears throat] out the draft policy that's going on the agenda tonight so that our staff had a chance to comment on it. Um so I just wanted to start there, but um we were uh And and also there was some edits done to this policy that's going to be done they're going to be put up for first read tonight. What I was objecting to was

012that this was not put on the agenda prior to the meeting so that if somebody had wanted to come to public to be heard tonight to talk about the policy, they aren't necessarily given that opportunity because you're having a first read tonight. School is ending in 2 days. People have plans for the summer or they just don't look at their email or don't pay attention to board meetings because it's the summer and they're having their on their break. So, I just think this is a really inappropriate time to bring up a new policy the last week of school, really 2 days of school, and I would hope that you would decide not to vote to have a first read of this policy and that this would go into the either the summer or the beginning

013of the fall after the new policy committee has, um, a chance to review it. Um, also we had assurances from, um, the superintendent that we would go through with the training on policy and so that was one of the concerns of the policy committee but that's already been said that that's going to happen. So, I just wanted to say that with some background and but I do want to thank this board. I come to a lot of board meetings and you guys have been very open to listening and, um, you know, and inviting us to speak to us. It's been so forth. It's been nice working with you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right, I think that's all the sign-ups I have. Um, we have presentation on school improvement plans. Who wants to go

014first? Maybe start. >> The driver has queued up. >> Mr. Botnez loves a microphone, so >> They accidentally uploaded your most recent one twice, so >> All right. Well, first of all, most Thank you again for, you know, inviting us to to come out and talk about our school comprehensive education plan. Tonight, what I'm going to do is give you a little couple of updates on not only ELA, but also SEL, social emotional learning, and then math, and then talk about our plan that we've developed going into '26-'27 for hopeful Uh so, the process for creating the the '26-'27 school uh comprehensive education plan is is different than the process that we had to go through for the '25-'26. So, last year, what we had to do is we had to do a needs assessment.

015Uh we sent out multiple surveys. Uh I had to do a bunch of uh data analysis and variations of third graders, fourth graders, fifth graders, how they performed over the course of course multiple years. And then break that down by sub because we're identified for three sub groups, white, students with disabilities, and economically disadvantaged. We created that set over the course of multiple months. We had a family and community engagement. We had teachers and staff a part of that creation. And then we brought here it was approved. And over the course of this entire year, what we've been doing is we're making progress on the goals from 25-26. For 26-27, all we had to do was make adjustments to to continue the plan. So, taking a look at the progress that we've made over the

016course of of the year for ELA, math, and social-emotional learning, what types of things do we have to refine? What areas do you have to work on? And then, for math, I'll talk a little bit about what the plan is for for math going forward. So, again, three target areas. Um, this will This gives us the biggest bang for our buck, right? I mean, we continue to be identified as a target school based off of ELA, math, and social-emotional learning, and our kids' social-emotional well-being in the school and making sure that they know that they have adults that care about them is one of my core beliefs. I let my staff know that, and it's one of the most important to me. Uh, if we don't hit that, then ELA and math, it's going to

017It's going to be tough to to make the progress there. So, this is what we did to to address ELA this school year. First thing we did was uh dismantled departmentalization. So, if you remember, in 3 through 5, our kids went 1 hour for ELA to one teacher, 1 hour for math to a different teacher, 1 hour for social studies and science to a different teacher. So, they were really only getting 1 hour of ELA. Did away with that. We increased the ELA minutes to 2 hours across the board in kindergarten through fifth grade. The other thing that we did was we implemented a Tier 2 program with UFLI to really develop um those basic fluency and decoding skills so that we're able to address at kindergarten, first, second grade those like foundational skills, and

018then our kids in 2 through 5 building that up so that they are able to be both formative. Uh at the end of the 25-26, you can see that we had 18% over 18% of our kids in tier two services. Over 2% of kids, 4.2% of kids in tier three services. And then other thing that we implemented, and this was mid-year, is we added Am Class Reading which was in addition to STAR, another diagnostic. Um what it addresses is phonological awareness, phonics, high frequency words, oral reading fluency. So this is just another data point that our teachers can use outside of STAR and outside of um just common assessments from the classroom to get a a better picture of where our kids are, where are they struggling, and make more appropriate recommendations for tier two

019and tier three services. Again, not just relying on one piece of data. So this is our reading progress um for kids in second through fifth grade. So I'll talk a little bit about the difference. So this is STAR Reading grades two through five. Um at the end of the year, 33.9% of students are proficient. If you take a look at 2024, starting year at 26.1. Right? It's incremental. It's not great. Right? But it is the kids who are in second through fifth grade and just based off of that grade level, right? If they don't have the the foundational reading skills that UFLI is now addressing school wide, they are going to struggle. Then we come here. So early literacy is for our kindergarten to first grade. And as you can see being able to really

020hit on those foundational skills of reading, we're we were able to make tremendous growth over the course of this school year in comparison not only to the beginning of the school year but then also 23 24. Again, our subgroup performance, so this is for reading as in a whole as whole. Beginning of the school year, 43%. 6% growth. 12% growth for students with disabilities. And then economically disadvantaged we got 103% growth. >> Dan, can I ask a question? Yep. What's in the subgroups, what's the population in each of the subgroups? >> I'll find that out. >> Maybe something you can come back to us on and let us know? >> Yes. >> Cuz uh you know, I just be interested to see where our students fall within those subgroups. >> Yeah. >> If you send

021me that this week, I can include it in [clears throat] my memo to them this weekend. >> Okay. The other thing that we did was we we sent out reading surveys. Um which is important so I know that I can tell you for students it was 30, uh for staff it was 15, and for parents there were eight. Um For parents, you know, I did send this out through Parent Square. Um For students, the the question was, do you feel more confident as a reader? I could say yes. Right? Do you feel like the reading lessons are helping you? Yes. Do staff see improvement? Yes. Al- almost 100%. Um and then measurable growth. Do staff see their students 80%. The parents piece is is is important, right? Because when your kids come home, you want

022to know what they're what they're doing and you know, if you're reading with them, are you seeing those those skills increase? And again, in both areas, it's a yes. So, you know, I I truly believe that the things that we put in place this school year, hitting on tier one, hitting on tier two, have been pretty impactful school wide. >> A few went back and you set parents with Parent Square. Do you know [clears throat] that all the parents have Parent Square? They all have computers. >> They have access. But they don't have them at their house. You're You're talking to library. >> They're But everybody has accounts. Right. But they may not have daily access. It's a good point. >> So, building on our foundation, so again, this year we we implemented Amplify Reading

023Fly and Class. Next year it's going to be just refining. Making sure that when we're when I'm going into a fourth or fifth grade classroom at the beginning of the school year and they're working on personal narratives, that in January, they're still not working on personal narratives. Right? Making sure we're adhering to the scope and sequence of Amplify. So, that's going to be important. The other thing that we did, which which I would Stacy to make sure this happened, was you know, in kindergarten through second grade, special ed model is integrated, meaning that there's a special ed teacher in that classroom the entire day. Three through five historically has been our consult teacher model, uh which means that a special ed teacher may have responsibilities for students that they support in third grade and then

024in fifth grade and then based off of that they wouldn't have common planning time with third grade or fifth grade teachers. What we've done going into next year is a third grade teacher third grade gen ed teacher will now have a third grade special ed teacher for core instruction. So, it's about ELA for 2 hours, math for the full hour, and that's going to stay the same for third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade. That now allows our special ed staff to be a part of those conversations when we're talking about data, making sure that you know, the targeted support also has the lens of special ed when we're talking about differentiation as a tier one service. Right? Uh and it it just makes it just makes it better. So, here are our benchmarks and

025here are our goals. These are lofty, I'm not going to lie. So, I want at the end of the school year for both early literacy and reading to be at 75%. So, that means that 33.9% is going to jump like 40 points. Like that's what I want. I think our kids can do it, right? I think we have a good foundation at first grade. So, those first graders going into the second grade, those numbers will just jump based off of now having uh the foundation and I'm just going to keep it the same. Okay, so the foundation of decoding and literacy and fluency, right? We're going to see now that in three through five, cuz now they have a year under their under their belt with U-5. So, that's the LI, so SEL, so social

026emotional learning. Uh again, this is this is the big one. Uh I think when when you take me over to the school and you go into the halls and go into my classrooms, there's a different feel. My students feel supported, my staff feel supported, and just based off of that you can see that, you know, in 2023-2024 we had 253 referrals. Last year we had 64 out of showing what we had this year. Our attendance is 92% and a little 193. What we did was we wanted to ensure that social emotional learning was something that was done in the classroom. This year what we did was we implemented Sources of Strength. There was a dedicated special and one of our support team members would go into classrooms and do lessons. This is our behavior data.

027So, 82% decrease in referrals. And that's only two months cuz you know we got one day we got one day left, you know. It's [clears throat] a big day. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a half day. >> Yeah, exactly. But you never know, you never know. So, again, >> [clears throat] >> this this goes to not only the work of my support staff in making sure that kids are supported and we're being more proactive. It really goes into my teaching staff. All right? We've had so many conversations of if you feel like a student needs support, call down. Somebody will come. Somebody's going to talk to the kid. Somebody's going to figure out what's going on. And that number and that decrease is really all teachers with a little of our support staff. So, I'm

028I'm super That's something that I'm I'm very proud of. >> I think something that goes unsaid, too, is the office staff. Like, when I've been over and I've I've seen students come down to the office that needed a needed a break and uh you know, it just seems like everybody's wrapped their arms right around them, you know? >> Here are survey results for SEL. Again, you know, do students feel like they have someone they can talk to? So, almost 82% of our kids say yes. Um do they Have they participated in Sources of Strength activities? Some say no. Um you can see the staff about student-adult relationships. Have they seen it uh an increase in engagement? Uh for parents, has your child talked about any Sources of Strength activities? 37%. But, you know, I don't

029know about y'all, but when I ask my kid, "What did you do today?" Right? It's like 3 hours of PE, uh an hour of lunch and recess, and they go back to PE. That's all I ever hear about, right? Uh so, I mean, still 37% is still not good. >> They might just not know it's called that. Like, if that's how you ask the question, >> the parents might not >> Yeah. >> like know that what the kid described was >> I know. >> Yeah. >> I think the the more important piece is that second piece where do you feel your child is supported? Yeah. You know, when I'm talking about do parents feel supported, do the staff feel supported, do the students feel that? That's what I hang my hat on. I I just

030feel like our community in school is in the right direction. So, going into next year, we're we're to make uh a couple different changes. Um one of the things is, like I said, our support team led Sources of Strength. Next year, teachers are going to make school Sources of Strength because that just makes a little bit more sense in terms of, having conversations, common language within the classroom as opposed to having someone to come into the classroom, teach a lesson, leave, and that teacher is not there. Now, that teacher can utilize some of the strategies incorporated within Sources of Strength in their day-to-day um classroom management. And they can have those conversations in real time. They can build stronger relationships with their kids. Um and again, I give credit to my staff. Anything that I

031throw at them, they are down for. So, I credit them for logging in that sense. Here are our goals. Right. Uh end of the year this year will be 46 referrals yesterday. Uh and then 93% attendance. You can see our survey results. I want to increase our student connection. I do still want to decrease um the number of referrals. And I want to make sure that our our kids feel supported. The next piece of math, math is a little different because it was really just the process of similar to what we did with Amplify. We did for math this school year. Meaning, we needed to take a look at a math program that would can for our kids. All right. And as you can see, we're not proficient in math, only 6%. Which is an

032increase, but still What we heard not only from staff, but then also parents just a lack of cohesion, progression over time. And just a lack of supports for our classroom teachers in tier one. So, that was the why, why we needed to to make this happen. This is what we did in terms of researching and selecting a math program. So, obviously we we identified our needs, we researched different programs. Programs like obviously we have Eureka Math Squared. Another program that that we were taking a look at is the Amplify piece of math, Desmos. Uh there's another one it's Zearn Math. So, we had conversations with with with vendors, demoed. Um the other important piece is, you know, kind of when we when we're thinking that we were going to go with Eureka Math Squared, I'm

033lucky that I have the opportunity to go to principals meetings and I had conversations over and over again about, "What are What are you doing in your school to see growth?" And a majority of the principals, our principals council, said they're using Eureka Math. And then one of the principals invited um a couple of my staff over. So, people from Candor allowed two of my staff members to go. Um they observed the classroom. They sat down with the math specialist. And then the teachers. And then they just had a like a just a true honest conversation just with them. And then the administrator came in and they had another conversation about, you know, if this is the way that we're going to go, obviously Avengers going to give you all the things you you need

034all of this stuff, right? He was able to really say, this is what you need and you don't need any of this other stuff and this is how we supplement using the kind of like that base model or that base package that we're going to give you. This is how you can use your math like apply there's like apply books that you would be able to use for tier two interventions so we would be a little more guided than what we're doing right now. So, that was an incredible opportunity for our staff and I think just based off of that and then having both of those teachers be able to talk to the members of the of the math curriculum selection committee and made them feel very very comfortable so that we made an informed

035decision so, you know, again obviously if if this if this is passed or approved then we'll be going with doing the math square going into the 2026 2027 school year. This is what we would be doing. Uh so, over the course of the summer we'd have two days of PD from their trainers. Um we have ongoing support throughout the entire year and then [clears throat] we'll just continue to to to collect data not only through the curriculum and that square but then also M class has a math component as well that we we would be able to use just as you know the data point into the uh outside of start. This is start math. Also huge [clears throat] improvement. As you can see 39% 3% all the way up to 52.7%. I'm real proud

036of the work that we've been doing. Really addressing tier one and try to give them what they need, right? I think that the both scores, yes. You know, start reading didn't show a substantial growth. Like what the literacy of math does. Uh yeah, I believe we're on the right track. Listen to subgroup performance. And then based off of based off of where we are at the end of this school year, you know, 75% is still my goal for next year, too. And I think being able to implement all the chips year one program is just only going to help our kids. So, the other piece which which is important is, you know, I'm making all of these plans, [clears throat] right? They're a fruitful program. You the community should probably understand all the pieces uh

037of the the finance, right? So, Eureka math total cost is over $59,000. What that includes is the PD trainers to come out for in-person training for 2 days. It's the consumables, so the student materials, um the manipulatives, workbooks, all of that. And then the digital licenses, which then allows teachers to have access online and then teach and then students to access it as well if there's ever um an activity or lesson that that needs to be done digitally. In addition to that is our staff training training piece which will cost a little over $16,000. Sources of strength that will cost $75. So, that's going to be a one-day professional development opportunity. And like I said, do the math, you get two days. >> So, um sorry. Can you go back? So, SIG funds, tell me

038again what that stands for. >> School Improvement Grant. >> So, so this is still part of like we're getting this money from New York State because we were identified as needing help. This isn't >> Correct. >> This isn't like coming out of the regular budget. >> Correct. >> How much money did we get actually? Did we get? >> So, last year the way that it was broken down was the elementary school got $75,000, the middle school got $75,000, and then the district as a whole to support both plans got $50,000. Um the way that I saw it it was just kind of lumped summed $209,000 which is is a little bit of an increase. But that's because more than likely going into the '27-'28 development of whatever your plan is going to is going to

039look like. Uh I'm going to assume that there's going to be less money that is distributed out to the two school districts identified. So, all in all $209,000. I I tried to say I know I tried to keep something missing. But >> [laughter] >> you know I can be pretty descriptive. >> With um about the the math materials, so are most of these things that once we buy them we never have to buy them again or is there kind of a every year we have to spend something to get more of whatever? >> Uh so, the consumables so the manipulatives we'll have, right? [clears throat] But like the student workbook, what what what will happen is we'll have a a set and let's just say it's 300 for the course of 3 years for third

040grade. Next year I'm going to use 50 of them. I'm going to use all of the year at 250. So if I have 60 kids now in third grade, now I'm going to order 60. So it's just going to give me a lump sum for 3 years for workbooks. >> And staff training, is that a is that a required training or or is that something they can opt out of? >> I'm trying to make this as as required as possible. And again, my staff is pretty well invested in it, right? So I did send out my Google letter to them just give me your availability. And obviously what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to make sure that it's it's one where, you know, a large majority of my staff will be

041what's up two at a time. >> Also, with the uh the tier systems, I know we're still using that, right? I know we don't have MTSS coordinator right now. Um but I'd like to like to see the growth in the the lesson, you know, the tiers. I know that your goals are being met in most areas, but I haven't seen like the tiers, like how that's changed. Um I'd like to see less numbers >> Of course. >> from the tier twos and threes and back in the tier ones. So that's something you have somewhere so that it'd be nice to have. >> Okay. Good. Any other questions about this piece or anything so far? So again, we have three goals, one mission, and that's to win as a team. Our kids can't can't achieve it

042if they don't feel supported and welcomed in my school. And then once we get that, we'll be able to continue to find ELA and then math is just going to come. And I expect nothing but continued growth in both of those areas and a decrease in the the number of behaviors that we have in the school, which you know, again, great smart teachers. And again, if you walk in the halls, maybe in the classrooms, like kids are learning, kids are working hard. So, again, if you guys have any questions, >> I have one more question, which is how long are we um on this program, this CSEP? Or S? What do you How do you What do you say? >> SEP. I want to say SEP. >> SEP. Okay. How long are we um identified

043and like is there a way we get How do we get un-identified? >> So, every year that they're taking a look at your three-year performance for the elementary school. Um so, let's say we meet the growth of the requirements for the test that we just took this year, right? More than likely we'll still be on that list cuz they'll they'll want to see sustained growth. Um and I would assume the year after, if we continue to make growth, that's when I would say that we would be off that list. So, more than likely, you know, there'll be another message to parents saying that we are on the list again next year. Um don't quote me on that. I'm just, you know, I'm assuming. So, more than likely for the elementary school, it's going to be

044another two-year process. Which, you know, luckily, we've been able to purchase a lot of things that we did with these funds, which is the nice part. And I think that what we've seen, especially in in ELA, the investments that we made with that have already shown proven evidence. >> Um so, I would Sorry, I have one more question related to that topic. So, the everything you shared in your presentation tonight was focused on assessments that your teachers are giving students during the school day, like STAR and um You talked about other ones. But then the state is looking at how we do on the state test, not not what you shared with us. >> Yes. >> So, um like I know that opting out is an issue. Um, but do you like do you feel

045like we won't get the state test results for a while? I know it takes them a long time, but um like is are you concerned that we have a lot of students opting out and so therefore the state test results may not like reflect or that's Is that not such a big deal anymore? >> we had 11 12 opt-outs. 20 to 25. I don't see it being a huge variable. >> Okay. >> And our numbers look pretty well. And my concern is our kids have made a lot of growth. I just need them to crush it for like 5 days. 2 days of ELA, 2 days of math, 1 day of science. Right? Um but there's the variables that we don't talk about are what's going on with that kid on that specific day. Right?

046That we can't control and regardless of how many supports we put in place. Like you know, if they just click through the test and click through the test. So, like those are the types of variables that we won't be able to control. I don't think that opting out having to be in the elementary school was a big variable for for our results. >> I think with the the more confidence that I see you see they become more confident, the more they will take the test and want to take the test to prove that they are competent. Yeah. And that's I think that's a big improvement. Like Like you said, it's their confidence level is better. So, they take tests better. So, I think that you'll see improvement in that. >> So, that comes to mind.

047>> Um Dan, you mentioned uh two different trainings, the teacher led SEL training and your Eureka Math Squared. Earlier this year, we approved a professional development committee. I'm just wondering, do you have a overall plan of all the trainings that are like maybe planned out for the summer and maybe into the beginning of fall, maybe not for the whole year, but just something that in the future maybe you could present to us. Sorry. The rest of the board. Just to show like kind of where the path is going and maybe that'll help the board understand how it aligns with the district goals, things like that. Um but yeah, so it just drew my attention as I noticed those two pieces that are planned, so >> Yeah, those those those three >> Yeah, those three days

048of training are the focus of the summer. And then when [clears throat] teachers come in for pre-service for the two days before superintendent's conference day, both of those days will be will be done people by social emotional training. Just making sure our our teachers are are ready for arrival Yep. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, sir. Yep. >> So, uh because this is an update from January to June, I left all the data in there from before. So, that we talked specifically where the updates happened as a function of the changes that Mr. Boston has talked about. We didn't have to do the whole thing, but we had to do was kind of dig a little deeper and talk about where that matter process look like. So, when we talked about last year,

049this is basically the measures that they talk about. Yeah. So, some of this is last time when we go over quickly. Um if we don't meet the requirements, this is what it looks like. And the reason why I have both of those listed is to your point about what happens if you make the improvement, you go down from TSI to LSI. So, from partial to local school control. And so, [snorts] one of the things that we found that we talked about in January is that some of our issue was in fact around building the confidence in kids, helping them understand what it looks like to take the test, giving them some practice questions further in advance and talking about actual mechanics of what it looks like to be a good test taker because that was

050one of the gaps that we had in that area. So, because we made some of the growth that we made, what we did the second half of the year was talk about it's great that we have improved test performances. That is not necessarily the crux of what it means to be a good learner. And those are some of the other things that we encountered this second half of the year. So, we moved beyond just trying to talk about going from TSI to LSI to digging to our systems that we looked at. And we really tried to target our MTSS process because that was one of the things that was a weakness for us. Um And to the point about trying to see the tiers three, we really looked at some of that data. And we

051talked about where we had made some of the growth according to the state measures here. So, we are still not in good standing for economically disadvantaged students. And we have an absentee problem. So, in terms of the state metrics, it's attendance and economically disadvantaged. Our subgroups improved enough to go from TSI to LSI, so we were not doing the same kind of deep dive in those areas with like the subgroups necessarily like Mr. Contino's. So, our ELA scores, you know, talk about how did we stack and measure against the state. This is where it was from 6th through 8th grade. From the year before to this year, so you can see from 1 year to the next, even by grade level, there were increases. So, 6th grade in the previous slide from the year before

052even made improvements from 12% to 18%, etc. For our math data and proficiency, combined in the '23-'24 school year when we were identified compared to the growth in this particular year, which is still needs a lot of work. Um was one of the things that we looked at and the part of the solution to that was to recognize that because our teachers with 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, we didn't necessarily have spaces for extra math support in the same way that we might have if we either had additional shared staff and/or spaces in the schedule. Our science data was not necessarily anything that had us on the target school list. As a matter of fact, our internal Regents exam scores were better. It was the combination of the combined eight that has the regular

053English 5th students taking all of the English 5th students taking Regents exams compared to one another. And these were the improvements that we made. So, one of the things that we talked about, tested, not tested, and opt-outs that Shannon mentioned earlier. Um while it is a small percentage, when you look at that over the course of like ELA data, right, you end up with 13 and 17% not tested. So, for us, those few numbers and trying to make sure students understood where they were successful and trying to promote that concept was something we leaned into. So, this year, um students who opted out because state tests are daunting for some kids, whether it is a confidence issue or an anxiety issue, either way, they need a safe space for us to collect that data so

054we can make targeted improvements. So, students who didn't take the state test were given a mirrored previous state exam, modified slightly, and on paper so that they also were given a chance to show what they know and for us to collect the data, whether it landed us in good numbers or not, so that child could practice those skills and we could look at what that data meant. So, again, what we learned from last year and then the first half of year was that we really need to turn our attention to attendance and socioeconomic hindrances for our students. One of the things that when we talk about looking at this throughout the course of the year, and I would say the whole year, but also particularly once we found out the new designations stuff was to

055look back at what it is we thought we had accomplished versus what our data was telling us. And so, we found that there were some variables vari- some variables that we had either not considered or that kind of showed themselves as we went through that reflection process. So, we needed to strengthen our MTSS framework uh framework to ensure consistency and clear progression of supports. One of the gaps um that like Ms. Latini and I actually talked about was one of the things that happens is because we're not necessarily aligned in programs and every program is what they call proprietary. I've got what I offer, you've got what you offer. They don't necessarily translate well from either one building to the next. So, DIBELS was the consistent factor that Ms. Latini used to track that. And

056so, you'll see that I used the growth pathway because all of the reading practices were site reading based. But, the measures don't translate exactly to STAR grade levels. So, DIBELS will have a sixth grade matrix that is beginning, middle, and end. But, it doesn't break it down in like 6.4 for the grade level in the same way that the STAR does. So, trying to triangulate that data means basically trying to create the formula that aligns them. And so, we looked at just the DIBELS because that was consistent with measured over the three years that we had as compared to trying to make that square peg fit into that round hole. Um, we needed to strengthen our middle school transition supports for students because when we talked about kids who were not confident or maybe didn't

057feel supported at school, we always have had a small number of students who seem to be outliers in that way. They on their service don't identify a trusted adult, they have attendance issues, and while their reading scores are not great, one of the things we wanted to say at the end of the year is the kids that were in the program and stayed in the program were successful and their reading scores towards the end of the year more accurately reflected their capacity as compared to just them rushing through the STAR test. We kept our APC and D days in terms of trying to have content catch up and one of them was always an SEL day. I will also admit it feels like the closer you get to the warm weather, the more some of

058those were SEL days and not necessarily content driven days. So, if you get to let's say May, the weather's nice, and we're almost done with our review for a unit, there were some of those days that we honored the whole child with SEL. Um so, one of the things that we talked about when we were looking to move forward, student incentives were used. One of the things that happened is when we offered the opportunity for kids to take part in an extra day outside or you know, for like the booster students like a pizza party for like the percentage one of our tests, we only had two students miss for an entire section of ELA or math in a grade level because they had to the year before. Um so, the participation rates did increase

059this year, and that state test still rendered us the results. They gave us a chance to look at them. We will continue to modify tier two meetings. Currently, what we've done is we've broken them out by the categories. So, we used to have a um whole child approach to that, which we still do, but not siloed by the purposes of MTSS. So, for example, we might talk about Suzy Q public, and we might talk about SEL, math, reading, attendance all in one go about that particular child. And one of the things that we found is that our people have certain levels of expertise siloed into different areas. So, now when we talk about attendance, we talk about children with attendance issues and only those attendance issues. If we have students that have SEL, we talk

060about the SEL portion. And so, we found that trying to talk about them just holistically didn't allow us to set individualized goals for each and two of things. So, Susie Q as a student might struggle with attendance and may also struggle with the SEL needs. If we parse them out like that, we can set an attendance goal for her and an SEL goal for her. This is actually from the Latine MTSS coordinator at the time. And so, we use staff designated team times to input the referrals. Um I have a team time calendar where we talk about whether it's a day where we do logistics and plan the picnic versus a day where we actually talk about referrals for MTSS. One of the things that I'm finding is that team time is fine. It is

061not enough time. So, to your point about PD, a lot of our PD this coming year will be specifically targeted at these particular areas just to consistently get at that with a lot of our shared staff because not all of our staff are Latine staff. So, this is a way to build that capacity across all of the adults as compared to just that small kind of target area that happened to be free at the time. >> Yeah, again, I think that same request is that you know, if we could have list of those PD activities uh would be helpful to for the board to understand like what's going on and how that aligns with the district goals. Uh you know, whatever's planned for the summer and into the fall so. >> So, I definitely do

062already have I would say probably about 80% of that plan. I will get that to you. Um one of the biggest things we found about attendance um when we were talking about our kids and when we were meeting with our parent group, which I thank you very much for sharing. It's a small group of parents, but they are dedicated in that way and I appreciate the candor of their conversations because it is nice to be able to set and gather that, right? Like the perception matters and it does help to have that kind of feedback. Um so, [clears throat] we talked about gathering attendance and one of the things that we learned both about our transition program and about our SEL kind of data is that the attendance marker for both of those while the

063state measures it in ways that you come to school, so it's your daily attendance, right? The things that are mattering to or that matter to like the middle school level of this is the capacity to have time on task and build stamina to stay through a thing. So, we had several kids who come consistently, but their daily average attendance is well above 80%. But their time on task is different than that. So, I opened up our smart pass system, which is our student pass system we use in 6 through 12. When a kid signs out to go to the bathroom, the locker, drink, etc. And to look at that data and their truancy data to a class as compared to a kid's average daily attendance there were stark contrasts there. And that was one of

064the eye-opening things for us is that we can have a kid who has 80-plus percent attendance on the way that the state measures it by average daily attendance. And yet they were not necessarily in class on task during that time. So, that is both a function of physically being there and being engaged while being there. So, I'll give you a for example, um one of the students we looked at had like 87% daily attendance. But they were a student and academically a very strong student who was very often not in one class, because they were seeking the support of a teacher for a different class. And whether that was because they didn't zone in, or because they had a hard assignment, we were missing physical time on task. You look at that same student, they

065didn't their smart task numbers were not huge. They were only missing like three to four hours worth of instruction through the whole course of the entire year for right shrinks and water locker, side locker visits, etc. But their time out of task was actually always spent academically someplace else. And so that poor child was in a cycle where they were always simply behind everywhere. And so those were the kinds of things that we found because it was not just the kids who don't come to school. There were also the really good kids who come to school, but don't engage in class, and not even for nefarious reasons. Right? So, that was some of the things that we discovered, which were telling about the ways that we could shift our systems to help improve that for

066those kids to find them those supports academically. Um so, when we looked at the attendance, we decided that we needed a multi-year approach to improve practices and goal setting. So, one of the things that Ms. Latino and I talked about is that it feels as if there's a change every year to what you label as tier one and tier two, and children don't change from one year to the next automatically in those systems, because you have summer slide. So, students who may not have been identified before may have been very first star and dibbles test look like they need supports. And so, you may also have children who do really, really well, life settles in for them, and they on paper look like they made tremendous progress. And so, it really will have to be

067a longitudinal look at how individual students fare across those triangulated pieces of data, not just star, not just dibbles, right? We also realized that in order for that to line up, we needed to align to the elementary school. Um and so we looked at our reading program and so we were aligned up with pointing you flying and then dibbles was the piece of data that I used because it transitions fully up with eighth grade. So the core of the foundations, like Ms. Watkins just said, you still have to have the foundations in order to be a good reader. But one of the differences is learning to read and then reading to learn and by the time some of the kids get to middle school, even though they may still struggle with some of the foundations,

068very often they found coping mechanisms that actually cover some of those gaps and then you don't catch them unless you put them into targeted reading instruction. >> [clears throat] >> So that's one of the reasons for keeping kids, all kids in our reading support group six, seven and eight. But also creating the schedule by which every child was available in a singular block of time is a way for the reading teacher to pull them into small groups. So these were the programs that we used this year based on need. Next year, we will be using Amplify. I used some of my money this year and made an amendment from supplies to purchase which is which is just considered textbooks and materials in that way and PD. Um so our training actually takes place for sixth

069grade teachers to be trained mid-July. And the additional seventh and eighth grade teachers will get that as kind of an overview because they will start then the following year so that it tracks for the consecutive three years. In sixth grade, this is the average growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in terms of DIBELS metrics. One of the things is that when you look at the gap, they overlap. So, DIBELS beginning, middle, and end of the year may have like a window of 112 points, and the middle of the seventh grade benchmark is probably the end of the sixth grade benchmark. So, that they travel in that way as you progress through grade six through eight. This is significant growth. It didn't necessarily take a kid out of the

070the red zone or low-level reading. And yet, our kids, some of them were low-level readers, but scored threes on our state exams. And so, this is what I mean when I talk about the discrepancy and to try to track that data over three years because the triangulation doesn't work just seamlessly because the programs are not designed to read one another in that way. >> Now, Missy, one of my very poorly understood assumptions about DIBELS is that there's a big piece in DIBELS assessments that they don't actually assess a portion. I think it's in reading comprehension. >> Is that it? >> Um that uh they, you know, DIBELS really doesn't do a very good job in assessment piece. And um you know, I think that's kind of why in the elementary school we kind of went

071away from DIBELS. >> So, >> Um so, that's a little bit of my concern here at the middle school. >> So, because we only have those scores from them for moving up, and part of that, you're right, part of that is that I'm just looking at the composite score. So, I'm sure about fluency and the way that they track some of those pieces, comprehension is not one of them, which is why we to the STAR score. And we use the state score. So, I use all three of those pieces to look at whether a child meets that marker, and it's never just one because a kid could click through the star and or have a lucky day on the state exam, and it's only one day's worth of like learning that you're measuring as compared

072to the actual thing. The other part of that is as we move to Amplify, the Dibels will go away because it will be replaced with the end class in the Amplify portion of that. So, that will be the next year that will have the Dibels metrics will be the seventh graders because the sixth graders will have switched. And so, [snorts] we use that and additionally we use Just Words for the targeted instruction. I did not provide that, but I can actually read you the list of kids and look at their Just Words progress, which does measure comprehension. Um so, I could do that minus the students' names. So, we could look at the Dibels >> Yeah, I I mean, I think I think the more options you have for assessments kind of helps you build

073a little bit more holistic picture of what the students are able to do. Um so, that's one of my concerns is like, you know, if you only use Dibels and there's really missing a piece, then >> So, >> I think that's a >> So, when I talk about triangulating the data, I'm looking at three measures, the Dibels, the state score, and their star scores as benchmarks throughout the course of the year. Um but we do also use Just Words. Just Words is used in all of sixth grade and in seventh grade for students who need support because it it was our precursor to Amplify. Um we just invested in that three years ago, and so everybody at this point has now had a full three years of Just Words. So, the move to Amplify works

074because it does carry over both, and Just Words was only available at the middle school level for a while because it was not already been used in elementary school. So, the alignment I think will help in terms of tracking for three, four years, and that data that actually shows growth in a way that does not have to be negative or calculated. So, we come back to our transition room. Our students, uh small group, predominantly eighth graders. One of the things we learned is that because attendance was such an issue, particularly for those children, using only attendance or using attendance in general as one of the measures by which you select children became kind of a misnomer for the participation. So, if I selected everybody in this room to be part of that program and a

075third of them have attendance issues, you still because you were not there didn't get the benefit of the modified schedule and targeted instruction. And so, trying to get to the root cause of why child landed there is something we need to decide to dedicate more time to. As a matter of fact, we will now with um Mr. Fontenot, Ms. Larkin, myself, and actually already set class rosters so that we could talk about who benefit from this type of things instead of waiting until the start of the year for the teachers to get familiar with them, but we don't have previous teachers for that experience. It requires hand building each schedule for every kid. Um of the students that the student program attended regularly enough to benefit from that program, we learned they needed hand schedule

076classes because simply putting them in where they were available and the teachers that for those four subject areas was not fruitful some for some of our kids um in the sense that it left them feel disconnected because they wanted to be in art or course and band where we had them, they still got the access to that class, but it wasn't where they had access to that class and had their friends in it. And so that kind of disconnect worked for them. And so once we hit I'm going to say it was like late January, early February when Red Hand scheduled every single one of those children and reevaluated their program, that is when that turnaround happened and more than ever successful. Here's our attendance from January. And our attendance from June. You'll see that

077the top two levels were the ones that changed. So to our credit, not entirely, um but you'll see that it's 16 and 16 [clears throat] for the level one chronic absenteeism. 2% increase for the level two. And a larger increase for the level three that means that they're at risk. And so we do see those numbers tend to tick up when the warm weather breaks, uh simply because we also have several families that can transient in nature, right? And it's easier to move, shift, bundle things, find new employment, etc. when the weather is different and it's not and still burning [snorts] roads. So our goal is to utilize flexible scheduling to increase intervention enrichment support. I mentioned we didn't necessarily So we have a lot of space for that. Um and we didn't have way

078to necessarily provide academic enrichment for groups of our students because of the way they track together due to the looping. So this year sixth grade and seventh grade will both only have two home-based sections. And what that accomplishes is that um it means in seventh grade I've created a spot for basically 14 additional rotations where staff can provide targeted intervention services and or enrichment for our higher end kids. Additionally, when we talk about this, that means looking at curriculum gaps. So, we talked a lot about the difference between something a teacher is passionate about versus what our data tells us and what kids need. And so, we're doing a combination of both of those. It happens in our third period block of time just coincidentally. Um and not every staff member, but I'd say to

079you almost half of them will be able to provide one of these blocks. So, it's also a variety for our kids who wouldn't necessarily otherwise have access to that staff. We'll continue to expand our leap and transition program, improve our tiered approach to both attendance and reading. And and we'll hopefully really break results on this year's tests. Cuz I would love to be off the list. Questions. Besides pulling extra data. >> Nope. >> Thank you guys so much for >> Thank you. >> All right, we have uh superintendent's report. >> Uh yeah. Um this week there well, in in the last week there's been a lot of celebration of students this week. On Monday, there was a pre-K graduation. Uh those kids are so adorable like watching them in their little caps and gowns. Um

080good turnout by families. Um today was the fifth grade moving up ceremony. I unfortunately wasn't able to attend. My own son had his sixth grade moving up ceremony um in a neighboring district. Seventh grade for him is the start of high school, so he uh he's super excited for summer school. Um and then tomorrow we have graduation here. Uh we've been tracking the forecast and we've made the call today to have it indoors for the sake of not having to set up two spaces. Um So, some things that we have going on. Um we have our phase two of our capital project that and as well as our NYSERDA project, which is the geothermal on this campus and the air source heat pumps on the other campus and then lighting and envelope work on both

081campuses. Those will be mobilizing starting Friday and in the next week. So, it's there's going to be a lot of action and when we know dates where they're going to need the main entrance um isolated, we will put out a communications to be using South Street entrance. Um we don't have those specific dates yet, um but we know that there will be times where that needs to happen. Um that is most of that and then we have This is the last meeting for two board members. So, I have uh service plaques for Peter Jennings' 8 years of service. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for your dedication to the district and Brett Eastman's three different terms totaling 30 years of service. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And then tip her. >> That's it. All right. Um we

082had administrative reports. We had both the elementary and middle school high school reports. Anybody with any questions? Comments? All right, I'll ask my question. Um so there maybe just I'll make a comment. Um in here where there's a discussion about uh caps and restrictions and um uh goal uh that the list of students and restriction is reduced by lowering not by lowering rigor, but by increasing engagement. Um and I think some of that uh goes to the attendance discussion that we've been to. Uh but I would also suggest that maybe we look at um you know, I've been asking about caps and we've been talking about the athletic piece of caps, but I think uh the piece about those non and extracurricular um then maybe we need to be looking at something that's um so

083afterschool detention um something that's more above and beyond. I know when I was in school we had it. Um so I just would make that suggestion that we uh look at that to try and get students um uh in school and uh more focused on the academic piece um even if they're not in extracurricular, so. >> I have >> Yeah, if you want to comment. >> So um the last example that I looked at there were two I tracked them after the 35 week similar uh 30 week and we had roughly 74 in our 70 students that were listed for restriction meaning they were failing two or more classes. With those numbers depending on the season and the whether it was a 30 week or the 35 week report what we saw was a difference

084between about 17 or 12 students were engaged actively with caps. And so those kids are on caps because they're already in an extracurricular sub group. So while attendance is part of it, I think it also it to the engagement piece. And so the tension for the academics is only a small piece of that, right? Like a support during the class day. The the vast majority of those students or the students that come out of that 74, probably only five to six of them had actual daily attendance problems and struggled with that. The rest of them showed a great lack of engagement and our culture and our climate and being here choosing to do something extra. And so we're looking at really three different problems. One is, you know, how do we kind [clears throat] of

085bring them in? And the other one is, how do we find them the supports that they need during the day to want to engage, to be physically in class, to simply feel connected enough to want to do something extra, and or to find things that they enjoy. Because I think sometimes if you're not an athlete, you don't have participation in drama or chorus or band. If you're an extremely introverted child, we really don't necessarily have a lot of offerings for those particular kinds of students. And those are ironically enough the same students who have been ideal profile students for that middle school league program. And those are the kinds of things that I'm talking about is that that's a subset of our culture that I'm not sure we always do a great job with. Right?

086And it's because they are our deep thinkers, our more quiet children, and they don't come to like give you any of what a quiet child wants sometimes. And that's something I need to work on next year because everybody should feel like they're included. From our highest achieving kids to our special ed students and every child in between. And so that number was was the reason I left I lost sleep that night, right? Like that's a big gap. That's almost >> [clears throat] >> an entire grade level of homework for kids. So that needs some attention next year. >> Any other questions or comments? >> I was just going to add maybe now that we're getting to the end of the school year, we I know that we don't need anything nearly as detailed as the

087corrective action plan, but it might be good to see some of the progress happening at high school as in terms of ELA and math also as we're some of these kids are graduating out of middle school and now we should track them into high school. So, just a suggestion for future reports as a you know, grade tracking sort of thing showing that progress in ELA and math in the high school. Any other questions? Okay. We had supervisor reports last time. No correspondence. Ex-officio board member report. >> Yes. She's doing it really well. Didn't even do my homework. Um We're ending the year with a really comfortable sum of money in our student government account, which is really great for next year. Um all of our elections have been done and all of our members have

088been elected for next year. Um field day was a really good great success. I think everyone enjoyed it. A big thank you to everyone who made that possible. And then Um Miss Butler proposed to us as student government um whether we should purchase the caps, gowns, stoles, and cords for the seniors moving forward. So, we took a vote. The seniors abstained. And it was unanimous. Moving forward, we're going to be purchasing those for the seniors as long as our funds are sufficient. >> So, I think it's fair to note to I which I I really appreciate that having a principal. I think that's great. Like the the stoles and the cords and things like that, the district's not allowed to do because we would be giving them away to the top 10 or the top

08920, you know, to just specific students and it wouldn't benefit the whole student body. Um which is you know, we could buy 10 and the top 10 would have could wear them on the day and then give them back, but it it ends up being one of those, you know, mementos that that the students like to keep and as a memorial of the of the celebration. So, having somebody like student government um sponsor those things, you know, is is one way that we could do it as a district. It's one of the only ways. Anything else? >> No, I think that pretty much covers everything. >> All right. >> And if you're not mentioning anything >> Okay. Sounds good. Uh thank you. >> [snorts] >> Uh board member reports. Do you have anything to Anything

090of posies? No? >> I haven't had any next time. Next time. I just I would like to take the time to be able to do this even though it's not a report. I'd like everyone to know what the the word rumor means. It means a currently circulating story or report of uncertain and doubtful truth. And uh January 10th, we had um public we heard time was spent talking about that and we were a rumor. And it ended with um an explanation of how to if you lose a board member, how to fill that position. And I believe probably all of you and I'm sure as soon as the new members come on, they'll they'll understand there are several ways actually of three ways. And the person speaking did speak of those, but the person said,

091"You know, it's best to use this system. I would hope you use the system that best works at the time that's needed for that kind of thing." And at the end um of his speaking, this person also stated um that he was hopeful that the rumor was false. That's what was going on. It's recording. Great. >> Thank you. Uh board committee [snorts] reports? >> Fortunately, Mr. Cornejo explained most of what was went on in the meeting. We we had several just meeting buildings and grounds questions specific to um Butch Care Butch Butch, but I think we I knew we both basically covered it. I think we had a new member there. Ethan Is his name Gardner? >> Yeah, Ethan Gardner. >> CNS CNS along with Shawn um >> Dalton. >> I I'm just Josh was

092there. So Josh Misialek was there. Um I know other than basically, it's going to start on the end of this month. And they'll be um scheduling throughout when school starts where they have to close down. They promised they would make sure that they had all the areas, our rooms, time to be able to prepare for that. And it's not as invasive as I actually thought it would be. I I assumed it's a lot of ripping out of a lot of walls and going, you know, full bore and it's not quite like that. We can tie in other things. They will be taking everything out ceiling and because you'll have LEDs and all that. It's going to be um I will still say like a monster of a project overall for particularly this facility. Not for

093the new Lincoln facility but this one. And it'll it'll go for quite a long time. It's not going to be over until spring. >> I actually was in a contractor's meeting yesterday and it sounds like they're going to try and do quite a bit of things on what they're calling the B shift or the second shift. So, you know, in the that evening time they're going to try to do as much as possible. So, >> And hopefully we'll we'll prepare anyone if they say we're going to be using room 212 or you 212 214, whatever. They will know ahead of time to be able to seal things down, let the teachers know. >> Yes. >> And it's going to be a strain on cleaners. Our own facility. >> I have two questions. I asked Kyle

094before. Do we have a certificate of occupancy of the bus garage? >> We do. >> Yes, we do. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, we did talk about that. >> Sorry. We confirmed that. >> The other question I have is the parking lot, the back wall. Cuz I believe there's a phase two portion that we're going to be doing some more paving. Right? Is that still planned? >> Phase two >> for the student area. >> No. >> Well, there out in the the new lot, there's with some of the settling, one of the manhole covers is is raised. >> Yeah, that was one of my questions too. >> they're fixing that. >> Okay. >> Cuz I think it's been on the updates for like 2 months now and I'm it's annoying that we have, you know,

095>> [clears throat] >> there's no plan, there's no answers. It's like, okay, when is it happening sort of thing? >> Yeah, so that it'll be this summer that they're coming in and fix that for them. >> Um and then I I thought there was a plan at one point to pave some of the student parking area and I'm noticing that there's quite a bit of potholes forming and things now that we're through the thaw and stuff. Um so, hopefully there's a plan to maybe patch that up. >> Yeah, we'll have to patch it. Like the we had gotten a quote, but it was not going to be warranted unless we did the dig down do the whole deep replacement and there wasn't funds for the for that [clears throat] level of replacement. >> Okay. >>

096And it didn't didn't feel like it made sense to spend all that money and not have any sort of warranty on the work. >> There still are some concerns but Nitchi has some concerns about certain things within the transportation department. So, that's going to be ongoing. >> Yeah. >> And the phase two for the railing is going to start. Also, I'll probably finish that. The This will be the railing at the entry. >> Yeah, at the railing. >> They've already taken it down, yes. >> Yes, they took it down and they ended up finding that there was I-beams like in those columns. They were they hadn't anticipated there being I-beams there. So, there's a request for additional information in from the contractor um to see if they to see how they want it they're going

097to secure it. So >> [snorts] >> It should be in the coming weeks though. >> I think one more thing was the the kicking wall. Right? The the coach wanted to refresh on it. >> Yes. >> Um just like it is, right? >> Uh it would be it would be different. It'd be >> It's it would be something different. But they didn't ask exactly what they were going to do on there exactly. >> Yeah, it would be My understanding I talked with uh Mrs. Ms. Perry the other day, you know, was to come up with a new design is what it sounded like. >> So hopefully the board members were agreeable to the new design. I think that's make it look nicer than what's up there now. >> Can't hear you. So what are you

098talking about? >> [laughter] >> The kicking wall. >> Oh, the kicking wall. >> Got it. >> Okay. >> We approve it, it'll look nice. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> There you go. Summer. >> And it's uh they're going [clears throat] to dedicate their time to do it. Um so I think that's a nice thing. That's it? >> Um board committee reports? Uh who wants to go? Policy >> Policy committee. I think I think we we we talked about one topic and that was the new policy that's coming for first reading today. Um So we had some teachers in um talking about it. Their concerns were were I think everybody was listening. They were valid and we listened a little bit to what they were um and we adapted what we were doing now until we

099can have another meeting to discuss another meeting for that one. >> one section in there. I don't know how we want to describe it. Section three related to personal accounts um that would seem to be the focus of the concern um from the teachers um in the feedback that we got. And so for this portion, this first reading, uh we've struck that out to leave it out. Um but the bulk of it, I think in general everybody agrees with. Um and we reckon they recognize the the need for it. A lot of it is related to basically complying with laws that we we need to make sure we're we're following, right? And um give us some protections about rolling this out and doing some trainings over the summer that Kyle's already working on, so. Um

100This will go for a first reading in our uh suggestion from the committee is to approve the first reading as it is. And then [clears throat] if we have any minutes I or any changes, I think there's going to have another policy committee meeting uh before the next meeting, right? So. Any questions on that? Okay. And uh board member forum. >> Uh I'll bring up a topic. Um two [clears throat] things. Uh I just wanted to recognize the Susquenita trap team. Uh I know that they got their award for first in class this year. Um currently in the atrium uh with the other awards. Uh so, nice job to that team um in bringing that home. They also had a fairly large group go to states and had a nice successful season, so. Uh I

101don't think I've seen any postings from the district on that, but um thought it'd be nice to recognize that. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Uh the other thing I wanted to suggest is I think um uh we We some award ceremonies. Uh I attended the fifth grade moving up ceremony. I want to thank Mr. Pontius. I think he did a very nice thing allowing the students to recognize a teacher today. So I think that was a very nice tradition to start and look forward to having that in the future. And the award ceremonies for the middle school or high school middle school I think went very well. Maybe the only thing I would say is that I'd like to see a little bit of the awards more focused on excellence and less on the

102ones that we had related to hallway conversation things like that. But I think you know our focus should be more on the excellence piece of things. And that was all I wanted to bring up. I don't know if anybody else attended those but >> I would just like to let everybody know that the state inspectors came in during regents today and they had been at Waterloo, Romulus and here and everything went really well. >> Very nice. >> I I did attend the elementary concert. I saw Mr. Pontius there. It was very very well done. I think it's probably one of the best performances I've seen. Cuz I've I've been to a lot of them but they were really good. >> You're talking about the like the band and the chorus. >> Yes. Yeah. It was

103very good. Very good. A huge improvement I think. >> I also attended that too. >> Very nice. Great. Anybody else anything? >> Well, I'm just I'm just going to bring up because it like this is the forum this forum of all, yeah. I I think it would be nice uh to start all of our meetings with I think we used to like with Steve he would have up like sort of a synopsis at the beginning of like things that had been posted on the different you know on the on the district app and social media just kind of like sort of like what we were have all been saying like oh we have these are all the things that happened since our last meeting and students that got recognized teachers that got recognized um events

104that happened like that like I think that would be a nice way to um start >> Yeah you said you said like a little slideshow of pictures and >> Yeah. Like it be a I'm just curious cuz I have no idea. >> Yeah sort of like um you know what I'm saying? >> seen this things that are good like you'll like that he would have so. >> Um yeah it was kind of like a slideshow um >> Yeah like they have >> awards things like that. >> say most of it were the things that were already on the um you know had been shared out but you know it it was all in one place and >> Okay. >> you know. >> It was just like a slideshow playing when we came in it started

105the meeting so it was just like that. >> But then but then often at the start we he would kind of um >> mention them as part of the superintendent >> support would would like kind of highlight certain things too. So. >> Okay. >> Is there a closing program of any kind on Friday? >> In the morning yeah there is. >> Time? >> It breakfast will start at 8:00 and then we'll start around 8:30 quarter to 9:00 with the closing. >> That'll be for your pins um retirements. >> Yep. >> I think every board member that's available to go or that would like to see it, so long as it's in that. Everyone's there. Right? >> Is there Was there uh the food being sponsored or did that get approved? >> No. Well, um so

106the the plaque dedication um so Mr. Zilitz the Mr. Zilitz key plaque, he his daughter is getting married this weekend, so he is not available. Um he'll be available later in July, so we'll do uh we'll have it sponsored then. Um I did get clarification. Um we can have like CNS or one of our partners sponsor it. Uh it would come to the board as a donation. Um and that the board would accept it and then they'd be able to sponsor it. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Um I had one last discussion. We have a third grade open position uh that I think we talked about where there's a desire to fill it. Is that still the plan? Do we know what the overall plan in staffing is? >> Yeah, so yeah, so we've

107we've posted for it. >> Okay. >> Yep. So, it it won't be a third grade position. There's an internal move uh transfer, so looks like it may end up being a second grade position. >> okay. That's That's what I heard. That's why I was wondering if the plan's still moving a little bit. >> Yeah, so it's like we knew that there needed to be another section in third grade regardless, so it was we had a second grade teacher wanted to move up to third grade. Um Um, and then we since we've decided decided to rehire, um, the opening is now in second grade. >> Okay. >> Unless somebody else wants to transfer, but I haven't heard that, but so something's up in second grade. >> Yeah, I was just wondering what the if there was

108a shift in the plan cuz that's what I had heard. >> Oh, I wanted to mention one thing. You're talking about plaques, and I I'm not trying to downgrade something's display, but >> [clears throat] >> I was talking with my son the other night, and he said, "Do you know that the Harold Harold Miller Miller auditorium plaque is still underneath the sheetrock going into the stage, backstage. So, if you could cut that out, it's in the wall. >> [laughter] >> They never took it down. They went in and put the sheetrock over the top of it. Oh, my gosh, the plaque is still there. I remember it as a kid. She had to walk through that just to get into the gymnasium. You walk through there's a drinking fountain and then the gym. Just over

109the What do you call it? Top. It seemed like it is not big >> I'll have to have somebody show me where that plaque is. You're like kidding. >> Chad knows Chad knows where it is, right, though? >> Chad knows where it is. >> That's interesting. >> [laughter] >> All right, anybody else? All right, I'm done. New business. May I have a motion to approve the stipulation agreement? >> So moved, Shannon. >> Second, Kristen. >> Discussion. All in favor. >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have a motion to create a 1.0 secondary principal position effective July 1st, 2026? >> So moved, Shannon. >> Second, Dan. >> Discussion. All in favor. >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have a motion to legislatively approve the following MOA with the administrator's bargaining unit of provide providing

110the necessary funds therefore. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Kristen. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have a motion to appoint Melissa Butler to the position of secondary principal effective July 1st, 2026. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Kristen. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have a motion to approve the employment agreement with Miguel Andrade, which sets forth the terms and conditions of employment as the business administrator for the period of time commencing July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2029 with the annual compensation as defined in said agreement. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Ed. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have a motion to appoint Rhiannon Vanish to the position of long-term substitute elementary guidance

111effective September 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 at the salary of $263.97 per day. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Mark. >> Discussion. >> Um I just want to bring up Shannon had asked a question in email earlier about um kind of what happens with an LTS. Um so, we hire an LTS uh while they're awaiting certification. And once certified, they would come back to the board for an amendment to a probationary position. Um so, they will come back. This is an appointment for 1 year. At some point during this year, the amendment could happen or it could be at the end of the year. So >> And that'll be into the 10-year track then, right? >> Yes, so yeah, they would be on a probationary track. >> Any questions? All in favor? >> Aye.

112>> Any nays? May I have motion to appoint Caitlyn Beach to the position of long-term substitute pending center certification elementary special education teacher effective September 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 at the salary of $263.97 per day. >> So moved, Shannon. >> Second, Dan. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. >> [clears throat] >> Any nays? May I have motion to approve the tenure recommendation of Patty Parsons in the area of agriculture 7 through 12 effective August 31st, 2026. >> So moved, Brenda. >> Second, Dan. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have motion to appoint the following substitute support staff. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Dan. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have motion to appoint the following summer substitute cleaners at

113$16.50 per hour. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Mark. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have a motion to approve the elementary SCEP plans for 2026-2027. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Kristen. >> Discussion? >> [snorts] >> I have a question cuz it says elementary. >> Yeah, do we need to have them >> Is it for the Does that >> So there there will be a There will be a middle school plan as well. >> Oh, it'll be at the next meeting. >> It'll be separate, okay. >> We approved them last year at the the business part of the reorg meeting. So we'll do the same with that plan. >> Okay. >> That's why I hesitated. I was like, is there Are we missing one? All right. All in

114favor? >> Aye. Any nays? May I have a motion to approve the closing the following extracurricular accounts. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Kristen. >> Discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. Any nays? May I have a motion to approve the CME Associates for Niskayuna special inspection services. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Ed. >> Discussion? Revisions? All in favor? >> Aye. Any nays? May I have a motion to set the date of the reorganizational meeting as July 8th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. >> So moved, Kristen. >> Second, Mark. >> Discussion? Everybody good with the time? All right. All in favor? >> Aye. Any nays? May I have a motion to approve the attached resolution to ratify the Eppler reserves. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Kristen. >> Discussion. I think this is uh basically part

115of the plan to support the the budget that was passed. >> So, to go back to the financial statements that we got in October, one of the findings was that the Eppler was nowhere to be found as to the original resolution establishing it. We looked all over the place. We found the establishment of the all the other reserves, which was very surprising. >> [clears throat] >> So, but the Eppler was really missing. So, uh we consulted with our attorneys and they said the best course of action action for the board is to ratify the original establishment, although we don't know exactly when that happened, but in the documents I gave it a ballpark year where I think because of financial statements, looking at other reports and things like that, uh is the best estimate of

116as to when it was born. So, right now the board is just establishing it as, you know, ratifying it so it can just be on paper and the auditors can be okay with it. >> Um as far as the liability reserve >> Yes. So, >> that that we had talked about >> Yeah. >> Um this this is that that piece. >> No, that's not that piece. So, uh as as part of this consultation from all our reserves, we we consulted our attorneys and we're bringing the auditors in uh in a couple of days for a meeting to discuss where we go with the reserves. We're working on a plan and one of the one part of the plan was a liability um reserve and what would be the best course of action. You know, um

117in the past we have talked to to our attorney. We were not getting clear answers. Now we have a good uh good uh good answers. I mean, the answers that we wanted to hear we needed to hear. >> Well, and that's from changing attorneys. We had named Ferrara as special counsel at the May meeting. Um we've been working with Ferrara, you know, they're very busy. Like if we we don't get an immediate answer in 24 hours, but we've been working back and forth with them and we finally have the answer for how to, you know, condense the liability reserve. >> And the the answer is we need to uh take it out to the voters. >> Yeah. >> We want to liquidate it or we need to put it in in the annual meeting, which

118is the uh vote. >> Or have a separate meeting. >> So, we're shooting for the >> Yeah. >> May vote. >> Yeah, so it'll be So, we won't be >> One of the resolutions. >> Yeah, it'll be part of the resolutions in May. And so >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> But it doesn't uh it doesn't impact what we're doing in this school year. >> Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Like it like once that resolution is done, it's actually we can immediately move. >> Mhm. Yeah. >> So. And that was new information as of yesterday. So. Sorry, there was a lot of discussion on that item. >> No, that's fine. Any other questions before we move on? >> [clears throat] >> Clear as mud. >> Mhm. >> Good. Good. Yeah. All right. All in favor? >>

119Aye. Any nays? Uh may I have motion to authorize the district treasurer to transfer up to 200,000 from the Teachers' Retirement Service Services Reserve Fund to the General Fund as approved by public vote in May 2025. >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Aye. Any nays? May I have motion to authorize the district treasurer to transfer up to $450,000 from the employer retirement services reserve fund to the general fund as approved by public vote in May 2025. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Mark. >> Discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? May I have a motion to authorize the District Treasurer to transfer up to $50,000 from the employee benefit accrued liability reserve fund to the general fund as approved by public vote in May 2025. >> So moved,

120Dan. >> Second, Shannon. >> Discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? [clears throat] May I have a motion to approve the agreement with Timothy McGill to retain his services as bond counsel in relation to the Nicerta project. >> So moved, Dan. >> Second, Mark. >> Uh discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. >> [clears throat] >> Any nays? May I have a motion to approve the creation of the Sentry County Sheriff's PBA scholarship with the criteria as attached. >> So moved, Brenda. >> Second, Dan. >> Discussion? >> Uh they reached out to us yesterday morning and asked that we um they they have money that they would like to sponsor um a senior with. Um so with this was a late addition, but felt like it was an important one. >> It's good. Uh

121all in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? Okay, may I have a motion to enter into executive session? Oh, sorry. You're going to first read item six there. >> got to refresh my ice cream. >> the policy. >> Yeah. >> And I'll give that to you tomorrow. >> Ice cream doesn't have to work. Uh may I motion to accept the first reading of policy What's the policy number? >> It's 8275. >> 8275 social media and digital communications. >> So, moved in. >> Seconded. >> Discussion? Again, I think this is a good step. Um and the goal really here is the trying to get it through first reading and then hopefully second reading and that way we have time over the summer to work on the plan for implementation and give Kyle time to roll out

122some training and get everybody uh ready for the next school year. Um trying not to wait till summer's over and do it when school's starting. And I think the only piece that's really question that could probably be cleaned up at a later date is that little piece that we talked about there at the end that we struck through. Um I think there's probably some little minor language changes and we'll probably find some agreement there. Questions? >> And I'll upload this to the public part of uh board docs tomorrow. So, it'll be on there as well. >> All right. All in favor? >> I. >> Any nays? All right. Thank you. Um and then we have uh public to be heard on any items from today's agenda. >> I have to what? >> All right. >>

123Hi, Jody Latini, formerly MTSS coordinator. I just want to answer the question you asked about the dibbles. >> Yes. >> So the dibbles does in fact have a comprehension component. The value of that test is that it's normed. So it's normed to a large sample size across the nation. So we can compare how kids are performing at various grade levels and how what that looks like in various skill areas for reading. So it can be like letter recognition, sound identification, and then comprehension, but it's all at its probe level. So the comprehension piece is how well can you pick a word from a field of three that fits into what you're reading. That's [clears throat] very quick, 3 minutes for most most grade levels. So as with most of the dibbles, it's like a it's

124just one piece of information, but it can be like they can decode, they're pretty fluent, but they have no idea how to put that into context, then we can be like, "Oh, we need to probe further into this comprehension piece and do some more robust comprehension testing, but then then we'll get us the information we need about what the intervention should look like." >> Okay. >> One more time, please. Anything else about dibbles? Cuz you know I love it. I'll talk about it all day. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Okay. May I have motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of the superintendent's evaluation >> [clears throat] >> and board self-evaluation. >> So moved, Mark. >> Second that. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any nays? Good. >> Mhm.