Whitney Point Board of Education Meeting - October 7, 2025

001Megan once came and then she went back to school and they were still stretched. They were having concert that night. So, she's practicing in band with no feeling in her mouth. And I get text messages from Jess saying, "Please tell me this is going to be worn off by the content." [Music] >> And then Is that the one that's No, that's the academy, right? >> Put it in the display case outside here. >> Yeah, I have one of those at the library. >> Yeah. >> Or I might have two >> other place. >> Yeah. afterwards. Okay. meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. Everybody can please stand and join in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation

002under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, first up, we're going to hear from Ensero and Company CPAs um about our external audit. Thank you for having us here tonight. So we did meet uh briefly before this and I just want to touch couple brief points of we don't want to get too much into these numbers. Um so if you have the executive summary which would be this documents I'll just go over the first couple pages. So to start with we did give the district the auditor's report on financial statements and supplementary information and on that report we did give the district an unmodified opinion which is the technical particle or a clean opinion. We also gave the district an audit report on control over financial reporting and compliance in accordance with

003gas because this is a mental entity and once again did give the district another unmodified. We were hoping at this point to be able to also issue the reports on the sale audit on the uniform guidance. Unfortunately, there'll be due to being not being able to release certain documentations that we do need. We have not been able to get that part completed yet. Once that is complete, we will be working with Zach to get that done as soon as as possible. But we currently we do have we have total expected federal expenses of just over $4 million. During phase three did also issue a master letter for the district on which we had no comments or concerns. We also do the extra classroom for the district. We had no we had once again a nonpart

004opinion on that as well. do want to thank the new central treasure for all she did for the years of service that us gave us between the two of them. It was a seamless transition and between the two of them, we we were able to clean up a lot of issues that were in the in the last comment letter to the point where we only have one for this year a page four. One of the other departments audit and we had no comments of concern coming out whether was to let the board know about what gaze this year gazies 101 and two and it had to do with certain disclosures as well as compensated absences. So overall we did complete a a detailed audit of the district. We had no comments, no issues. We do

005want to thank staff once again for everything that they do working with Zack. for exact decade at this point and every year he comes he gives us a professional service that come up to expense along with the staff and then the board there any questions >> thank you once again for a thorough job and a good presentation to us earlier >> thank you so much >> thank Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Um, may I have a motion to accept the financial report? >> Thank you, Chris. And a second, >> Aubrey. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay, that brings us to the um literacy presentation. So, um at our last meeting, we discussed a little bit about some of the curricular changes that have happened

006over the last few years. And so, we thought it was be nice for Val to give you a little overview. >> Okay. Well, I'm going to give you a fast overview of about four and a half years worth of work in about 15 minutes. So, hang on. And I made about 10 copies. Sorry. So, I'll just sort of disperse them out. People don't mind sharing a little bit. >> I have itically, too. >> You guys probably have this. >> Does everybody have their own? >> I have electronic. >> You're good. Okay. >> All right. And no, I did not run here. I am out of breath because my heart is beating 100 miles an hour. I've done this before once or twice. It's always All right. So, like it says, right, exciting things really are

007happening. And um I thought before I start telling you about all those exciting things, I'd tell you a little bit about me that I actually graduated from here. And um so did my husband. We were both class of 1990 right in this place. And my kids also graduated from here. One's class of 23, one's class of 24. I was lucky enough to have both of them choose a different path. one went to Boseis and did heavy equipment and that's what he does now. My daughter is a junior in college and she's studying um healthcare management. So this was a end of the day picture. They were like you got to take a picture of us because this is the difference between us right there's just a hot mess of dirt and Ellie's got shoes on

008and all that. But both of them came out of here and are very successful humans and um proud this place for that. Um, I started my teaching career in green teaching kindergarten back when I always say back when Pinterest wasn't a thing. No one had a badge. You walked out the door if it locked behind you and you forgot your keys like good luck. So, um, I started there. I stayed home with my kids for seven years. Then I came here and taught kindergarten, taught second grade, became the literacy coach, was then asked to go to Boseis, which I did for a couple of years, which was a great learning experience. But there is no place like home like Dorothy says. So here I am back full-time this year as the literacy coach K5. So

009that's my life really fast. So these are the three things that I thought might most interest you. Um why did all these changes happen in literacy for starters? How did all these big changes happen? And what has happened as a result of these changes? So, I have to say Joanne and Shannon have been 100% pivotal in making these things happen. They I've had like unprecedented access to them every month for years. I've been meeting with them. Um, and they have listened to me in my ramblings, for lack of a better term. um and helped focus things and guide and ask really great questions and really allowed our school like if without them being like yeah let's try that none of this would happen and I because I've worked regionally I know lots of places where

010it doesn't happen because of impediments due to administration and the board. So these are all big deals and they're all big deals because of you all letting that happen. Wait, did I mess it up? Because I I don't know. I can't make it move. Huh? >> You just pull your head in and she'll make it. >> Okay, there it goes. Okay. Okay. So, why all the changes right in a phrase? It's because of the science of reading. So, you might be like, what on earth even is the science of reading? The science of reading is as it says it's an interdisiplinary body of research. It's really about a body of research. It's not a program. It's just about people having an understanding of how kids learn to read and write. And the inter interdisciplinary piece

011is around education. Yes. But also encompasses psychology, linguistics, and even neuroscience. A lot of what we understand about how kids read is due to MRI scans and fMRI scans. So, it's really important. It makes me feel like part of this community of people that are really smart and know a lot of things about things that we don't and they probably feel the same way about us. So, it's pretty exciting business. there isn't a lot of there isn't the amount of guesswork anymore that there used to be in trying to think about how kids would learn to read and therefore write. So because of this increasing understanding and awareness of this really large everchanging body of research a shift began. Right? So a lot of people and I I use Whitney Point as the reference but

012really it's not just about Whitney Point. This shift is about our region. It's about the state and it's really even about our country and changes in our understanding of the way that we've taught kids to learn to read. So, we've made a shift from balanced literacy to what is known more as structured literacy, which relies on all of that research around the science of reading. Three of the big principles of structured literacy are that instruction would be systematic and cumulative, that it would be explicit and direct, and that it would also be responsive and authentic, right? And believe it or not, like these have been some pieces that have been missing in our country's education system for a very long time. So, a couple of the big pieces that I talk about to the staff

013are um number one around effective instruction, right? That effective instruction is explicit and systematic as we just saw, right? But then even past that, that kids would have lots of opportunities to respond and that we would always be doing one of two things. Saying, "Yeah, you've got this. That's right." Or, "Nope, you don't have this yet and this is why. Practice this with me. let me show you what's correct. Now you try it. That sort of process and taking that understanding not only from literacy but through the whole entire day and then that we would also have an understanding around the gradual release of responsibility, right? That the teacher is the smartest person in the room. That kids need to know what we know. that we need to explicitly teach them in the focused instruction

014part of the triangle and that then we would guide them as we do it together and that then there would be some collaborative piece where we're going to do it together and then they would finally do it themselves versus um I'm going to tell you now go do it. That's pretty disastrous. And I always tell people if you ask kids to go and do something and everybody's hands goes up or you hear a lot of I don't know or what am I supposed to do? That's not about them. That's about us, right? It's about reflecting on our teaching and what it is that we need to need need to do better. And the bottom of this it's from um a website and article called letting go is messy. And I just think it's important to

015point that out because letting go really is messy. But it feels so much better to them and to us. So like I said, from balanced literacy to structured literacy, that shift, how did it actually happen? So um in 2021, I just was like, we're we're missing something here, right? So I started because I was only in the CA thinking about K3 and thinking about the role of phonics and how all of that was going and I sort of just started following the guru of phonics who's pictured up there top rights right just like I'm just I know he's re I know he everything he puts out is based on research I'm just going to start reading what he has to say and understanding some things better myself about phonics and I piles of papers everywhere,

016but I was telling everybody all the things like, "Do you know the most common way to spell sh is actually not sh, it's with ti." Like, I discovered this, right? Everyone was just so excited with me. I mean, who else cares but right? But these were the things that we didn't know, right? And then you're like, okay, if that is really the truth, then what am I spending most of my time teaching kids? Ti or sh, right? or at least I'm telling them equal parts, right? So, all of that thinking just kept getting bigger and bigger like a snowball rolling down the hill. Somebody recommended this book, Shifting the Balance, to me. Um, and it really is six ways about shifting your instruction from balanced literacy to structured literacy. And it really opened my opened

017my eyes. My husband always says, "Just highlight the things you don't want highlighted in a book because that's what my books look like, right? There's one big highlight, right? Every article, just highlight all of it." Um, and then I also listen to the podcast Sold the Story, which is and was a whole huge big deal. Um, and you really had to remove your feelings out of reading that book and listening to that podcast and think, okay, what is true in here and what does this mean for our instruction? So then the district bought that book for the teachers in the CEA and I was able to give professional development around that and we actually listen to parts of sold the story sold the story together and everybody it was so amazing that you will not

018find a staff like you do in this district anywhere and I know that because I've worked other places but like everybody nobody was mad, nobody was like this isn't right or you know anything like that. They were just like, "Oh, this makes sense." And then what happens is you start exposing people to this and then the things they're doing are a mismatch and they want to know something different. So then you're like, "Well, I just made a lot of work for myself, I believe." So we started thinking about how we could change tier one instruction for all students. And I did that by piloting a couple of things myself, right? um which we'll talk about in a minute. It's sort of hard to like create a straight path in this, but I started piloting some

019things myself and we also got into tier one instruction. And that's where teachers started like, whoa, we're going to drink out of a fire hose here. We're going to really just put one thing down and do something else. And I think many of us for years have felt like this now, like, whoa, there's a lot coming at us, right? So, I put this in the packet. So, I'm not going to read all of this to you. That would make me a really bad presenter, but I am going to tell you the things that I think are really important in these pieces that we've got going on in our school right now. So, UFly is a K K2. We have used it K3 um explicit and systematic um phonics instruction program to support kids in K2

020or like I said K3 for us, but it can also be used as an intervention and we'll talk about that in a minute. So, that was the first big piece. Then when you start implementing um youly you realize your assessments are not a match. Actually, Joanne realized that. So, I was like, "Oh, great. I hadn't thought about that. I don't know what we're going to do instead." But what we are doing instead that is a match to our instruction and is very normed, very reliable is Dibbles 8. And that stands, Dibble stands for dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills. They're just one minute probes. It's a really quick assessment. It's really reliable, as I said, and it detects risk. And we administer this three times a year as a benchmark. Then so we've got

021the fus phonics piece going and then we needed to add everybody was always like what about writing? What about writing? What about writing? And ELA instruction. So, we added Fish Tank K3, which is um a ELA program that allows kids to work within grade level text and it exposes them to complex, diverse topics and texts and it integrates writing instruction. It really has upped the game for us. It's been spectacular. Then we added integrity for UPK4. UPK4 as this as their phmic awareness piece which is really just about manipulating sounds until you start adding the letters then it becomes phonics instruction and as the year goes on that is exactly what happens. And then we added expeditionary learning is an ELA curriculum that is now running from grades four to grades eight. >> Yes. >>

022Excuse me. >> Yes. Can you take one second to explain why it's important the knowledge building piece? >> Yeah, 100%. Okay. So, the knowledge building piece is really pivotal in this because it allows kids to develop um a greater depth of understanding around topics and be able to write about things that they're taught in the classroom. It's a great big equity issue, right? where I don't care where you came from or what your mom read you or didn't or where you've been on vacation. It doesn't matter. Everybody gets the same information around um specific topics that also carry from year to year vertically. And um so kids get this amazing exposure to things that they just never ever would have had without the books. We people say in education, right, that um books allow kids

023to um books can serve as a mirror so kids can see themselves, a window so they can look out and see what other people might be like, and also as a sliding glass door so they would then open the door and walk out and do something about what they know. And even like even more basic than that, which is huge, you know, so that no matter where you come from, like you you have exposure to to lots of different concepts, the if you can learn like if you're you have good phonics instruction and you can sound out words, if you don't can't match that to something in the world, some word that makes sense, if you don't have that vocabulary because you haven't been exposed to it, you know, you still don't you aren't really

024reading, you know. >> Yeah. 100%. All the pieces come together, right? Like oral language, vocabulary, the phonics piece, fluency, comprehension, all those pieces have to come together and ultimately work so that kids can read and write on grade level text, not at their um level, but in grade level text. It's an expectation for their grade level even when a test to be supported. So then we obviously not everybody is on grade level, not everybody's at the same place. So we also need some interventions. We were lucky enough in 2024, January 2024, to have the RISE grant come in and support our teachers in being able to be trained in certain programs like rewards, which is an intervention that targets, as you can see, word attack skills, multi-elabic words, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension for anyone that

025can read at a fourth grade level or higher. Then there's word connections which does a similar thing um only the level they you want students to be able to read around a third grade level to be able to participate in that program. Then there's youthly which like I said is a K2 phonics program but some of our kids really lack some of those foundational skills. So this covers kids as low as the individual letter sound relationships. So it can be used as an intervention for kids who get UFly as tier one instruction. Like a second grader might go to reading support and be supported further with UFly strategies. But it also could be that there are eighth graders who and this is happening right there's an eighth grader who's getting UFly because they just don't

026have these foundational skills. And then there was keys to comprehension also that came about which it could be used as an intervention or as sort of like a layering over any of your tier one instruction. It gives strategies for comprehension to help kids um be supported in that area. And it's for fourth grade all the way up through 12th grade. But all teachers have the option and four through eight to be trained in keys to comprehension. So, what did this look like across the last four plus years, right? So, you can I showed this to my husband. He was like, I don't know. I would have put the years at the top and I was like, look, it's too late. I don't I don't need your feedback. I was lying. Um, so the years obviously

027are at the bottom. >> The pilot is indicated with a star, right? So if you see something with a star after it's when it was piloted that shifting the balance sold the story me attaching myself to Wy Blevens was in 2021. In 2022 I piloted you fly myself and yo in Logan Duso's class. Best time of my life. It was so good. And we also were just trying dibbles out throughout the building. Right. We were like let's just see what happens. Where are these kids? Do they have these skills? No. No, they did not actually as it turned out, but they do now. So then we went to 22 23 right where now we're the whole school, the whole CEA is implementing Uklide. We're completely using the Dibbles. We're like really forging a path here.

028There is no one to help us. We are literally forging a way. Um, and then we're like the ELA piece. We started piloting that. Joanne and Shannon both asked if any anyone could do it that wanted to do it in the CA. 10 teachers said they would. And we met I feel like it was every other week after school. I can't remember if it was every week or every other week after school to be like, whoa, what do we do here? How does this work? Or how is it going? What what do we need to think through with this? And then we piloted Heaggerty and UPK. All of those rise grant things were happening as well. And then last year we were like full steam ahead, right? We had UFY going, we had Devil's going,

029we had Fish Tank going, we had Heerty going, Full Force in the CA and the TRA. They started piloting ELA programs with fish tank and EL, which is expeditionary learning. And now we're in this year. Oh, wait. I forgot to give credit to the high school. Sorry. The ninth grade teachers did this amazing thing with rewards. They took that intervention program and they were like, "Wow, we've got a lot of kids here who can't read. We've got to help them." So, they used a specific time of their day that was already set up and kids just got this as an intervention, right? They were doing the best they could, which is how it all starts, right? We're just going to do the best we can with what we've got. And then fast forward to this

030year, at the end of last year, I assessed all the eighth grade students so that we knew how to group them more appropriately. So now the ninth graders got much more pointed instruction. Those that need phonics skills and who are struggling with reading, they get this. And it's a really amazing thing that the ninth grade teachers have pulled off. It's just so impressive. And then the TRA is full steam ahead with expeditionary learning. We're we're just making our way through that, doing the best that we can. And then um the CA, we've got you going still Dibbles. Fish tank was updated this year. Good. That's great because it's year two. We're so happy it changed. But everybody really likes the changes. They're really excited about the updates. It's just kind of a little bit of

031starting over again. So, and then Heerty as well, right? And kudos to all the teachers staying up late doing all this work and taking all of this on, right? And then we get to a couple of pieces that I didn't want to ignore in this timeline that in 20 January of 2024, New York State caught up with us, which was so exciting, and they issued the literacy briefs. They were like, "This is about the science of reading. We're doing structured literacy. Let's get after it." And then in January of 2025, they went a step further and released the ways that you should be teaching, the things that we want to see um in prek through three around teaching of fluency, comprehension, phonics, vocabulary, all of those pieces. And then all schools had to sign an

032attestation by this year to say where they were in this process. And I kind of feel like we crushed it. Um because of all this work we' done before. None of that was surprising to us. We had pieces in place already to allow us to check the box of got this. That wasn't the label, but I feel like it should have been. >> And then oh yeah, Eureka Math, too. They're also doing a new math curriculum. New math. Just kidding. Oh, right. So between every one of those years, we were here. We were like working our way through these poor people who were with me. I was like, "Pardio one, I got this, you guys. I'm going to teach you how to do something. I don't really know yet, but we can do it, right?"

033And I feel like we have and we've worked through things and we've continued to morph and do a lot of powerful work and a lot of great things for kids. So what's happened because of all these things? So, um, is there data to show there's growth? Yep, there sure is. Um, we want the growth to look like this. Um, that's not what implementation science says happens. Implementation science says that it's like this, right? And there's this visual that it's like you start going up and then you drop down, there's a bear, then you come up and you drop down, there's a volcano, right? It's just like things happen. So, we keep adjusting and when we see changes in um the data, we're like, "Okay, why why is this happening? What do we need to do

034differently?" We're responding way way more quickly to the data. So, this is what's in your packet. So, I asked people if they could tell me something about the changes in curriculum, right? I don't I worded it in a way like don't tell me any bad news. I can't take it. Um, so there is no bad news here. But it's okay. I don't think anyone would have said anything negative because really that's not how people are in team meetings that I'm in with them. People are looking to make a way forward. They're not looking to find what's not going well. So I'll be quiet for a few minutes and let you read through some of these things, quotes, and information that people sent me and I'll Okay. So, this is a slide I put in every

035um presentation I do somewhere in there and I it's applicable to all of your work as well and the people sitting back here too that um what you do really does matter. And this is why I'll let you read that book, cuz sometimes I cry when I read it. So that's it. I say I'm the Lorax because I took this position so that I could speak for the trees who are the teachers. They're working really hard and they're doing really smart things. They're taking on so much and um I am really super proud of the work that they're all doing along with the administration that I'm lucky enough to get to work with. So if you have questions or time for questions or comments or >> I'd happily try to answer. >> I guess I

036just have a quick comment. Sure. >> I've been on the board for a long time. I've been very frustrated with our level of reading and competency and for a long time. >> I'm excited. >> Yeah. >> So, I am I I appreciate that that >> when you mentioned the ability to go. >> Yeah. >> Because to me it was just a visual of just constantly like it's going to go through. It's going to go through it's not it wasn't >> sure. >> And I'm glad that this is exciting. >> Yeah. And I think right I think some of that is we I've had the same sense right. I taught in classrooms where I'm like, "Okay, I felt like it wasn't quite right, but I didn't know how to fix it. I started as a literacy

037coach and everybody, like I said, this isn't just about our school." Like, there are still people engaging in those practices 30 minutes down the road, right? So, I'm just so happy we aren't. We found we figured something out that's better and we've done something about it. If we knew something better and did nothing about it, that would be a terrible place to be in, but we've not done that to the credit of a lot of people and a lot of moving parts and a lot of hard work. >> Yeah. >> I I like I I paused a lot on the one comment about two students and seeing the difference even with their own their own >> Yeah. And and I mean that's that's pretty powerful. I mean there's difference with children, but >> Sure. >>

038if they didn't take that into account. So that that's a quick >> 100%. And there are other people who have even more children than two who are like my son is in sixth grade and he can't spell. Um my second grader spells better than my sixth grader. >> Where's that in here? Because I'm I'm really old and I can't spell. >> Try to help you. >> Latin and Spanish I can spell English for day. >> Yes, I get it. I think to some it's super interesting because we teach like frequency and patterns, right? So, it could be helpful to you. >> I think one of the things I noticed is that again, I've been around a long time and I've seen all of the different types of program that we've used and they've all seem

039to have focused on one small area. >> This seems to be almost a compilation of all of those plus more. So, it's not that we were doing everything completely wrong. >> Yeah. >> We were just doing this little bit right and then we switched and we were doing this little bit right and this just seems to combine all of that. >> I think that idea of explicit systematic instruction there there was some of it but not in a way that teachers felt really supported and confident in what they were doing. For sure. Yeah. I know that UFly has allowed a lot of singing to happen and I think the kids love it and I think the kids grab hold of music as it approaches their language and I think it's been wonderful. I don't know

040if you've seen with your children but I know I've seen it and the students love it, my students love it. So, um, and I think the best comment, there was lots of good comments, but the fact that the teachers are seeing that it's allowing for cultural diversity that hasn't been in >> put into the curriculum on a like a good concept, I think that's also very important for our children here at Whitney Point. >> Yeah. And when you see second graders debating and like they're like so offended that someone would be mistreated for some like physical attribute like what else could you ever want right in to be able to put forth in kids >> ABCs. How'd you learn your ABCs yet? How I learned my states. >> Anything else? But thank you. >> I

041was I was excited to begin with and I was even more excited when I saw the Lorax. >> What What a What a great finish. >> Great. So glad. So glad. Thank you for your second. >> I appreciate your enthusiasm because it helped us get enthusiastic. >> No. So, like, let me just say, I mean, I I know you've heard me say this before. I I mean, if it wasn't for Val, I mean, she I mean, you can tell the boundless energy she has and the devotion she has to this work and figuring things out and spending, you know, every hour of the day listening to podcasts and reading articles and, you know, like I have like my kids listen to me like listen to because Val sent me another podcast that I listen to.

042But, you know, I mean, it and the energy um and commitment she brings to it and inspires our faculty when they're tired and feeling overwhelmed every single day. Um, you know, I can't thank you enough. >> Well, thanks. That's super kind. >> And >> does your heart slow down >> a little? I feel like >> going to be okay. >> But we do appreciate the fact that you're back here >> and while we know that you never really left because you were supporting everybody, but to have you to ourselves is fabulous. >> Yes. And it is it is really important work and I always feel like there's not enough time in the day. So, if you ever want to hire like a 6 through 12 literacy coach, um I know some people and I just

043am always like, how do you get like we need it to keep going, right? Six through eight needs >> this engagement the same way that K through five does. There's just so many things that we could know better and do better. Not that people aren't already, but I'm just like keep leveling up, right? And I think that could potentially be one way if you I suggested a bottle canned right to hire another literacy coach, but which I was told okay, but I'm not sure how that would work out long term. So, but if it ever comes up and we have money we don't know what to do with, that would be my vote. >> Positive reinforcements. There we go. Thank you. >> One more really quick thing. >> Sure. I know I get to go

044into a lot of different schools and I see a lot of different districts and I appreciate too that when other people can do it because I think people that are insulated don't realize how wonderful this community and this district really are especially when you look across our area of some of the >> I'm sorry total car wrecks that are going on in certain places that so I I appreciate that very much too. Yeah, I I do feel like me being at Boseies for a couple of years, it was a great gift that um my learning curve went up. I made great connections with people and I got to go out and see other things that were going on and you can feel really good about what's happening here. And again, the rate at which things

045can change here is unparalleled to anywhere else. Yeah, for sure. Unparalleled. who meets with their superintendent and assistant superintendent once a month. Nobody does that. Nobody does that. >> And I make the appointment before I leave. They don't make it. So maybe they don't want to meet with me anymore. >> Christina. Yeah, it's another meeting. Yeah. And I meet with um Lauren and Aaron also every two weeks. And I um meet with Matt and Allison as well every three weeks. So there's a lot of communication that goes on and I try to get to as many team meetings as possible. But yeah, there's a lot there's just a lot going on. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So great. >> Okay. Everybody have a good night. So I'm just going to say one other thing like what

046you saying about the teachers they have been asked to do a lot and and the urgency around this because as you said Tom and you've been saying for years and and you know we cannot afford for any of our kids and we you know like our older kids have these huge gaps as a result of not having that explicit instruction >> have the huge gap. >> Yeah. So, um, it is like we need to move on this and I can't imagine it being done as well and as rapidly as we have if it wasn't for Val. So, we're very fortunate. Great. Okay. Next up, we are going to go into our district-wide school safety plan hearing at 6:42 p.m. And I'll turn it over to Zach. Stephanie, >> a little bit of deja vu. Um,

047we have to have an annual hearing for the district school safety plan, which we typically do uh the first meeting of July. Um, and we did that. We had our comment period and we approved our plan for the 25.6 school year in August and then uh SED issued a memo on August 14th. Um there was a change in the law. Not a bad thing. Uh but it's called DESA's law and basically uh it's regarding AEDs. um and the uh openness of school districts to uh have this information available um and to train and teach people um how how they work and the the new law requires that um the district's response to DESA's law is in our districtwide safety plan. Um they put a timeline on it. It has to be in effect by January

04820th of 2026. Uh, hence why I bring it to you tonight. Um, this will be the initial change that we're proposing for our districtwide safety plan. Uh, it's only for the DESA law component. Um, after the meeting tonight, we'll put in on our website, I will start a 30-day comment period. If anyone has any comments they'd like us to take into consideration or any other changes, um, they can do that through the website. And then uh I I don't think it'll be the next meeting because it won't be a full 30 days, but the meeting in December, I will bring it back to you if there has been any comments uh to again for our new schoolwide safety plan. Uh so again, just going through the plan itself. Um you know, we we document every

049revision. So if you go to the very last page, um previous revision was 22 done done on June 26, 2025. This revision will now be number 23 on today's date, October 7th. And it tells you what we did on page 24 of our districtwide safety plan. We added DE's law cardiac arrest emergency response plan language. If you go to page 24, um again really uh we got our verbiage from New York State itself. Um they're the ones telling us what had to be in the plan. Uh it was dead or bad. Um, so this is kind of mirrored uh of what we plan to do. So again on page 24 we have the TESA law component. Um, I'll go through real quickly. By compliance states TESA's law education law chapter 29 2025, the district has

050implemented the following cardiac arrest emergency response procedures. Each school building and athletic facility is equipped with at least one automated external defibrillator AED. AEDs are rarely inspected and maintained according to manufacturing guidelines. Uh, select staff, nurses, and coaches receive CPR and AED training annually. SRO's receive CPR and AED training by annually. Uh, each building level response plan will include a cardiac emergency response protocol outlining how to recognize sudden cardiac arrest, steps to activate 911, AED retrieval and use, and the maps uh in the building of where each AE is located. Again, that's the change to the plan. Um, again, not not not a bad addition. Um, but again, why we're a little bit out of sync with um doing two uh hearings in one year. Any questions? >> Kind of a quick question. Zach, I

051know it's the law for AED in every building. Do we have more than one AED in our larger buildings? >> Um, so there's always going to be a mountable one for like public use somewhere within those buildings, but >> you can buy some kind of exit, right? >> Yeah. By the nurse or something like that. There's also like portable ones and go bags for like our athletic trainer has one, nurses have one, that type of stuff. >> I guess the one that I'm most most concerned about is our science um lab, our STEM lab, because it is so far up and so far away and that is where kids are playing with a lot of things that could cause like a sudden cardiac arrest. I'm wondering if we could consider having one in that area

052and or very close to the area or something. It's just a suggestion just because it is sort of a higher risk area. I don't know. >> Yeah, >> I know we've been trying to look at those kinds of things at the college. So, I didn't know if it's some idea. >> Yeah, it's a valid point. Um, I have to look at the TR map specifically. I don't know off top of my head where it is in that building or maybe it was part of the addition, but I don't remember seeing one up there. >> We we've ordered some new ones um out of the stop grant that are going to be coming. >> Yeah, I think we'll be strategic in whatever we do. again is an expense and it's one where you have annual um

053maintenance cost with them, >> right? >> And then annual training because it used to be >> they just two years. >> Well, you also it used to be this is my understanding of the guidance is that they used to say when in doubt even if you don't have training go use it and they're not saying that anymore, right? >> So we are not direct. So >> we have to get people trained. So you can have the AED there but we're not supposed to direct people to use it unless they've been they have updated training. So, um, it's like this cycle we got. Yeah, we got to build it in. And it's and it's a lot to become a trainer. So, we're working on that. You know, we have all our coaches obviously trained and um,

054but we we're we have to build a cycle of getting people regularly trained and then get the AEDs accessible for them and make sure that they know where they are and and they're in strategic locations. Um, and I don't know, but I have seen some P12 schools go to the extra thing where they have the Noxlin and the blood um, safety kits. >> Yeah, we have we have >> those two there. Okay. Just want to just double check. Yeah, >> I know it was mentioned about the the yearly or the cost for it too because the pads and then checking them all the time. Is there somebody that's responsible for checking all those every year or twice or three times? >> Yeah. And then they make the recommendation obviously to to me for what we

055need to buy. >> But yeah, uh it's not every year but I think every five years or so we end up buying you know substantial amount of replacements. >> Um and then the initial costs themselves I mean they the unit is you know pretty uh sophisticated technology so it does cost a little bit of money. Um, but again, it's hard to be strategically locate these things wherever a potential emergency might be, keeping it kind of, you know, >> I know the pads have expiration dates, but I meant like to even make you're supposed to check them to make sure they're still charged and they're still blinking >> extra train all the buildings. >> Yep. Um, do we offer the teachers to take the training if they want it? >> Well, that's what we're talking about.

056So, like for example, UHS does it for me, but they only will do 12 people at a time and they and so we have to get somebody to train. So, what we're trying to do is get somebody on our staff that's a trainer. Well, you're not on our staff, >> but I'm more >> and we can't pay you. So, >> no, I'm I'm a Red Cross volunteer. Does it can it be Red Cross or does it have to be American health? American >> are are you trained to do the training to certify? >> Yes, I'm certified. >> You currently are? Well, >> I've done it. I've actually done it for Murphy a couple times. >> Oh, okay. All right. Well, so we'll have to talk about it. Yes. Because we're having a problem to have

057enough people trained at a regular enough um >> cycle and then freeing up the people to do that training. you know, it's not that straightforward. We also So, I just wanted to add to >> Yeah. So, the um uh we also just, you know, we have these like go emergency kits in every classroom which we're actually redoing them. Um and um we offer periodic nlloxxone training for everybody who wants to. So, there's sort of kits all over the building. Lots of people have been trained. >> Well, I think people do them all over too on their own. So there might be people in the district that are already trained that are still >> that are certified on their own. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um >> do that. >> Yes. >> So we need

058a motion to adjourn the um safety plan hearing at 6:51. May I have a motion? >> Thank you, Chris. And a second. Second [Laughter] have Michelle. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? >> Do we have the need for an executive session >> now? >> But after we Okay. Um correspondence we have none. Um policy discussion we have none. for first reading and second reading there are none. This brings us to the first opportunity for comments from the public. Since I only see employees here at the moment, I am not going to read the guidelines. I'm sure that you have heard them enough and understand them. Um, at this time, if there's anybody who would like to speak, please pipe up. >> Something real quick. um >> you >> minutes

059pretty cool piece of Woody Point history was dropped off the TR um history made it way up to my office. Um we're actually going to put this back in display case outside the T auditorium where there's like a lot of historical Winnie Py Point um artifacts over the years. Um I'm going to pass this around take a look at it and there's a little thing on the back that you know interesting. >> I think I have one of them actually. Guess what's I have two at the library senior center or something. I have two library and then I have two in the TF yoga um >> Yep. >> The original building. >> Yep. >> And there was also one that was um made when the TI building was originally built. Um they did it in

060blue and maroon. So I have both of those and I think I have two of those. >> Yeah. They're down there now. Honestly, >> they may be the senior when I was at the senior center um a couple of seniors used to say the boys used to pick on the girls and take your shoes off and set them out and the window shuts up shuts. So at the top buildings are always there. Part of human nature. Yep. >> Do you guys have any um problems with us continuing to commendations while you take a look at that? Because I don't want to stop you from looking at it, but >> commendations. >> Okay. Uh so first we'd like to start with the board of education members for their dedicated service and commitment to the Whitney Point

061Central School District in an acknowledgement of school board recognition week which is actually next week October 13th to the 17th. And we have a little video here for you. [Music] It's okay. I like that one. It's just rendering. >> Yep. >> See if I pop it ahead. Will it? Sometimes if you do pop it ahead, it will Yeah. See if you can pull it past it. There you go. No goats, no glory. Nice. >> That's great. >> Very nice. >> It's awesome. >> So, we thank you for your service. There's a little gift there and a certificate and then eventually we'll get the the official state recognition that comes. >> Well, thank you. >> Can we get a copy of the video? >> Yeah. >> Share it with you. >> Yep. >> That's really nice.

062>> I mean, the certificate and stuff is nice, but that means a lot. I think when you're I guess we got things from the CEA. I still got >> Yes, there was a little jar that um had been hand painted and >> Yeah. >> Okay. And we commend the Whitney Point PTA, Miss De Antonio, Mrs. Proop, and CA families for a fun family weenie roast held on September 12th. And if anybody was there and you saw the weenie glasses and the weenie Yeah. I was like, "Where do you find these things?" Amazon. Yeah, it was so funny. Um, the New York State FFA officers who visited the TR on September 17th to meet, have breakfast with, and do some team building exercises with our uh own chapter of the FFA. And thank you for Mr.

063Miracle for making that happen. uh the Whitney Point varsity field hockey team for representing the district at the National High School Invitational in Pennsylvania from September 19th to the 21st. They came home with a victory against Lake Leman, PA and a tie in overtime with Cherokee High School of New Jersey. High school and TR students are participating in the Chalk the Walk um uh for mental health awareness campaign by decorating our sidewalks with words and encouragement of kindness and positivity and beautiful pictures. I don't know if you got to see any of that, but >> uh it was much beautiful artwork. And um a TR fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Driscoll, for recognition on WICCT uh TV in their teacher of the week. Uh do we have that segment >> in September on September 30th? >>

064It was. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. So, >> that's Olivia dress school since we've got like three to schools in >> Yeah. Yeah, it's Olivia. Um, and then I just want to say again, thank you to everybody who helped out with the accident. Um, it was, like I said, it was very scary. It could have been much worse, but everybody was quick thinking and but calm at the same time. And thank goodness everybody was okay. So, can't appreciate those people enough. Thank you. >> Okay, Jordan, >> it's time for you. Okay, I didn't have a specific topic for the report this week, so I focused a lot on some complaints, so I went around and asked a bunch of students if they had any complaints in their student life or there was any improvements they

065think we could make in the school. And there were a lot of answers, but I focused on like the main ones, like the ones that kept being repeated. Uh, one of them was engagement. people are finding the classes too boring or they just they're tired of sitting in a room for 40 minutes after period after period after period. Now, I don't have any specific solutions for that one, but in some classes, I thought we could just implement more of like a hands-on learning or more of like a direct approach so people aren't just like sitting and being lectured for hours and hours. Okay, that's one of them. >> Okay. Um, this one I don't think we can really do anything about it, but it was one I heard a lot. Hallway traffic. People are just

066they're standing in the middle of the hallway talking to their friends or they're walking on the wrong side. And people are constantly being late to their classes because of it. And they're getting written up or yelled at by the teacher because they're late to class. but they're late to class because other people are blocking the path. So, I don't know. I thought maybe we could make like an announcement about that. You know, like telling people to walk on the right side of the hallway or just or just, you know, telling people to stop soft in the middle. Okay. Okay. Another one I heard a lot was conflicting clubs or um conflicting schedules. Um, a lot of the athletes specifically were complaining that they have practice like every day after school, right after school, so they

067don't have time to like go to clubs or get help from teachers. So, I thought maybe we could just talk to the coaches a bit, see if they'll um put the put practices down an hour or something or get like a more concrete schedule that allows like more time for the students to go to multiple places instead of just the one every day. Okay, this one wasn't mine. This was Billy's. Um, she noticed that a lot of students were upset that our dances don't have beans. And I know that kind of seems, you know, not important, but uh lots of students, they're really excited for the dances and they want to like do more for the dances. And when they're just, you know, a homecoming, oh, that's fun. But, you know, lots of other schools,

068they do like under the sea or like a Disney themed one and lots of students just wanted to have a more homecoming dance. I mean, a more a more themed a themed dance. I don't know if she came up with any solutions for that, but I thought obviously budgeting would be an issue for that because, you know, to buy all the dire decorations or the themes, you're going to need a budget for that. So, I thought maybe we could do like a schoolwide fundraiser like how uh the SAD club recently did a car wash. We could do something like that. Um I didn't hear a lot of this one, but I thought it was important to add bullying and harassment. A lot of the weirder kids or like the more gothic or emo thing, I

069guess. I don't want to really stereotype, but you know, um, they're complaining about being called names in the hallways or, you know, just getting picked on by their peers. So, you know, as always, we do do bullying and awareness things. And we like the chocolate walk, we bring awareness to that. maybe just a few more or like more presentations or like when we do do the presentations, I've noticed that it's like a wide demographic. I think we should focus like more on a on a school level, if you get what I mean. So instead of like the big picture, we really focus on like a specific school problem >> like what bullying looks like within the school as opposed to >> just bullying. Yes, that's what I meant. So um so interestingly so what what's

070going to happen moving forward is um our board members and the advisory group uh which consists of the people who also were interested in being board members are going to work with um some of the people who are going to be on your student voice committee to make sure that we're like tapping into like what concerns are like the ones that she's talking about right And then they're going to then work meet with the principal in the high school who would have, you know, the ability to work with teachers to to address some of these issues and figure out with the students how we're going to do that. And then moving forward what will happen is the student voice committee and then our advisory group then will come and give you updates on so this

071is what was raised this is what's been happening this is what you know the issues are and there may be times from but you may decide there might be something happening I don't know in education or or you're you have a question about something that's happening in the schools and then they can you can ask them to then like survey the student body but we Jordan went to and Billy went to um a training for board members and um >> for student board members >> student board members which is also kind of it's an evolving thing because it's a new thing in most places but um one of the important things that they let they tried to reiterate with us is to not put students on the spot to be able to speak for the

072entire school student body or even you know anecdotally because I mean so we have to find ways to make sure that we're really having a representative perspective and then helping them with through this this voice piece like find ways to advocate for themselves and work with the powers that be meaning the high school if we're talking about high school issues and the high school administration and how do we make some changes and then keeping you informed of that you know but there may be also times where you say you know we'd really like to know about this or how this is impacting kids and then Jordan and Billy and the advisory group can then figure out maybe we need to survey kids or maybe we need to have discussion groups about this or and try

073get some feedback and then they would report to you on how that's going. Um, again, like this is sort of a work in, you know, progress for all of us to figure out what's the most meaningful way to do this. Um, but obviously we want it's a great opportunity to tap into the experience of kids and make sure that our school's doing a better job and is responsive to um how what their experience is. So, >> so, and by the way, >> Jordan does anti-bullying education in our school. She's a a second step leader and she also does announcements. So, if she wants to announce to stay on the right side of the hall, she >> I find out about club meetings and they don't put an announcement. So, I just throw it in there

074like I talk about the car wash or whatever I hear in the hallways just on the car wash. So, I I have two suggestions, just my own personal ones. Um, for the uh traffic issues within the hallways, >> why don't you see if you can do a poster contest? >> Um, just, you know, like reminding, you know, like >> don't stop in the middle of the hallway or, you know, just to do something fun like that that then things that can be put up and it's not just an announcement. Um, puts a little bit of fun into it. utilizes people's artwork. Um, as far as the dances are concerned, I have a lot of decorations at work. I also make a lot of decorations. So, I would volunteer to help you guys with that even

075without a budget. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Obviously can't do anything about Thursday. Yeah. But but if but like if there was something that you guys felt that would be fun to do at the homecoming dance that you know we could potentially do that we might be able to source um before then I would be happy to do that for you guys. >> So we need to talk work with the high school administration. >> Oh no I know I was gonna that's what I was going to ask. So you know so this came to us. So, what's the best mechanism for us to get information back to you about what like I know Steph just sort of just let her at have some ideas, but maybe sometimes it's not best for us to say those ideas

076right now. So, what might be the best way for us to get that information to you to where it needs to be? What's what you think? >> I mean, it's okay for Stephanie to say I mean, but we just in order to make that those things happen, we sort of work with >> But if we had something like we wanted to say, So, like if Jordan comes to a meeting or Billy comes to a meeting and says, "This is what we've we've uncovered as issues and concerns and so this is what we're working on with the high school administration, but one of the roadblocks is that we don't really have supplies for those kinds of things." Then Stephanie might say, "Well, hey, I have, you know, I'm willing to help out with that." Or, you

077know, or somebody else who's in the who knows, whoever happens to be in attendance that we could problem solve here. Um, yeah, we can do that, but we just can't like as a board say the next dance is going to be >> No. No. And that is legend and that's why I I prefer by saying these are my personal ideas and obviously >> nobody has to do them and obviously >> so you've now offered your support so as forward yeah we can >> do you guys play music while they're transitioning >> on on Fridays >> on Fridays. Mhm. >> So I'm curious is if the crowds are less on Fridays and if the lines move because that music is known to keep people moving. So I am curious about that. >> Yeah, it does. Yeah,

078it does. So >> interesting. >> Is that your experience, Jordan, or no? >> Um, >> just take a look. >> Not really. >> And all I all I have to say is I am super glad that they're talking to each other and not just looking at their cell phones and walking down the hall. So, I will say good >> to find a way to keep people from stopping in the middle and blocking things. Take it to all of the local places where people are shopping. My wife literally came home today and said, >> well, I think probably a lot of the issue is the short period of time we have between classes. I mean, so it's >> might not have been an issue before, but you know, get to the bathroom to get to your

079next class. >> So any roadblock becomes a big roadblock. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> Yeah. It's getting him ready for driving. >> Sorry. [Music] >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Jordan. You still going? Okay. Um, this one I thought was important to mention. Um, a lot of the girls were complaining about the sanitary products because specifically for the tampons, the applicator is cardboard. >> Yeah. >> And they are not a fan of that. And I know we don't have a lot of budget and obviously the school provides those for free, but I thought just like any upgrade that's not cardboard would be nice. because I there has been a lot of complaints. >> Um I agree. >> We're all >> I don't know that the environment does though. >> I know the environment doesn't. >>

080Yes. Go ahead. >> Um this one is more specific just students. I haven't really consulted Miss Vega, although I probably should have, but um they specifically for like people who have been in Spanish for four years, lots of like other schools, they'll go on like a field trip somewhere. And um a lot of the people were hoping that we could just do something like that too. So we could be like fundraising for like the first four years and then eventually if we like take Spanish all four years or something like that could go on a field trip at the end just you know to also to increase you know students who are taking that class because not a lot of people are shaping the languages class right now. >> Okay this is my final one.

081Um now actually a teacher said this and they asked to remain anonymous so I I will be respecting that wish but they said that even if they like request people to stay after and get more help they won't do that. So they like suggested implementing a 10th period where um students it's like it's not an actual period of the day but it it still technically is but it's not like everybody has to stay specific it's if specifically a teacher requests you to stay after you have to stay after during that 10th period and if you don't it's like considered skipping a class or and you get like a detention or a write up or something like that just so students who need the help can actually get the help. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >>

082That's it. If anybody has any uh comments or concerns or questions, >> feel free to ask. >> Thank you. >> Very good job for your first time having the BRACK report. Thank you. >> My next report, do you still want me to focus on complaints or do you have a specific topic they want? Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna remember how I said we we finally get everybody together and everybody can we can do we're gonna do eagle time except for when you have to do second step >> so that we'll pull everybody together. We'll talk about it. >> These everybody who's involved with this has they have very busy schedules. >> Yes, you do. >> You don't have >> Don't be sorry. Don't be sorry. You're doing great. >> Okay. Um the consent agenda. May

083I have a motion? So move >> and a second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Appointments. Um the appointment of Sierra Monahan, full-time teachers aid effective September 24th, 2025. May I have a motion? >> Thank you, Tom. in a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Chris. Any questions or comments? >> We We have a number of aid openings. >> Okay. >> We're still hiring. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Lynn GM, bus monitor, effective October 8th, 2025. We have a motion. >> So move. Thank you, Molly. And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Michelle. Any questions or comments? >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Um Monica Wilsack, bus driver, effective date subject to fingerprint um clearance. May I have a

084motion? I moved. >> Thank you, Chris. And a second. I'll take uh Michelle for that one. >> Any questions or comments? >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Um donation. Um, this was received. Um, school supplies from Senator Webb's office, 25 backpacks, seven boxes of tissues, 41 packages of filler paper, five bottles of hand sanitizer, eight personalsized packages of tissues, four packages of tab dividers, one package of construction paper, and one box of bandages. May I have a motion? >> So move. >> Thank you, Chris, and a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Benny. questions or comments? >> You think that office is >> she seems to be very involved um >> and doesn't forget the smaller areas of her district. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any

085opposed? Any abstain? Um equipment for disposal. Um, an audiometer. Yeah, audio meter. Sorry, I first read it as aometer and that wasn't right. >> Audio meter. Um, >> that's complicated. >> I know. Oh, I was trying not to. >> I was saying, >> sorry. Um, this is going to be um disposed of through Hopkins calibration for an account credit. So, may I have a motion? >> Thank you, Tom. And a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Molly. Um, I just want to comment that I do appreciate the fact that the district tries to dispose of things in an appropriate manner. Um, like sending things to auction. So even if the district doesn't get a little bit of money from it, we're it's not just >> sitt Yeah. sitting around and getting a little bit back

086for it here again, you know, um account credit and it's going to be disposed of properly. So I appreciate that. That's always an ef making an effort here. >> Yeah, it's a it's a level of sounded. Yeah, it was just my brain not processing the word properly. >> Okay. >> Brookley thought about putting that in the display case off Terry, too. We reached out to the vendor and asked him if he'd be interested. He said he'd give us a $50 account credit. So, >> hey, why not? I've been seeing a lot of those on my account Amazon account recently because Charlotte's been looking for one to use as she's teaching and um so yeah, I keep getting those weird suggestions. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstaining? Um, this is

087a refund of real property taxes pursuant to section 554 of the New York State real property tax laws. The total warrant changes $4,67.50. May I have a motion? >> Move sadly and a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Benny. Um, since we have some newer members, could you please refresh us on how this works, why sometimes it happens? >> Yep. Um, in August, um, right to the board, the ability to collect the school tax warrant. Um, in September, uh, the bills go out. Um, I know the district reported school taxes. Um, thinking a lot of this information is frozen in time at a certain point. Um sometimes the way that certain targetates work or the certain age of individuals or sometimes clerical lawyers um certain uh again um exemptions may not be applied correctly or

088they get dropped off and not noticed until the next bill comes out. Right? The bills are already out. We already have our set amount of money distributed equally amongst the taxpayers. Um typically uh the school we budget about 15,000 a year for normal um again really clar Hoyers that can happen along the way. Uh last year um was a exceptional year. Um, and just so we put that in reference, uh, we've never since I've been here, 14 15 years, uh, we've never gone over that $15,000 amount we set aside. Last year it was around $115,000. Um, and there was a one talent specific, uh, problem. Um, we did get about 75,000 of that back. Um, and the way that we can get money back from the state, it's a little wonky, of course. Um if

089it is a star exemption mistake uh the state will make us whole. Uh any other type of mistake by a cult agricultural we do not get that money back. Um so this one particular is an agricultural exemption. So it'll go against that 15,000 that we budget for those mistakes. Um thankfully you know it's uh October 7th and this is the only one we've had. So it's way better than last year and I think worked out. Um, so there'll probably be another couple in the November meeting, but that's basically the background. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Any questions from the board? >> I was just check I'm trying to check the public site to make sure that document didn't get on the public side and I can't get to it. So, is there a way

090we can double check? That that document we don't want up on the public side. >> I talked to Stacey. She made it private. >> Okay. Okay. >> And I'm on the public side. >> You're on the public side. It's not there. I Ryan keeps making me get to my log spot. So, thanks. I just wanted to double check. >> Thank you. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay, Chris, you're up with the review of NISPA proposed resolutions. >> Let me Oh, sorry. I was a little >> Yeah, you're right. >> Okay. Um, so just so you're aware, you have the voc. Um, so you got the same two as last year. So 51st Senate District, Peter Ober. >> Um, and then also 131st Assembly District, Jeff Gal. >> Yes. >> Yep. Both

091of those again. And then as far as the proposals go, all of the proposals um were unanimous across the board. So every there was really no discussion or any kind of debate anywhere for any of them. There were two that I wanted to explain just because the votes seemed kind of odd and there was rationale behind them. Um one being um resolution 34 and that is mandatory implementation of daily recess for all students in schools. >> Yeah. that serve exclusively elementary grade levels in addition to scheduled physical education classes and their um stance was a no vote only because um it was too poorly worded. The rationale was that you can implement this at a local level anyway and for our school we do it already anyway. So until the wording is worked out a

092little bit better they would like to vote no and let them clarify um elementary level more specifically. So that's that one and again you can vote. >> Yeah, I'll listen to the discussion, >> right? Um and then the other one too was with regards to regent exams. Um and the vote there was no >> which number was it? >> Sorry. Um 31. And I've got all these notes in here for you too. Um so that was 31 and the vote there was no also because it's already being worked on essentially. So to let it kind of play out with the blue ribbon commission and let it kind of fizzle there. That one didn't pass last year. >> Yeah. So, I've got those two specifically dog here and everything is highlighted coordinated for you. >> There

093was one other thing too. So, because the annual meeting and the meet the candidates meeting are have the last few years been poorly attended and kind of redundant meetings. There was um a motion to kind of restructure the team meetings. Um the feedback from both board members, superintendents and candidates has been poor kind of relating to each other saying like their side's not coming, their side's not coming. They're redundant. The questions are kind of overlapped. So we created a subcommittee of which I had joined. Um, so we are going to begin kind of forming a plan to determine how we're going to structure it for the 2026 election year and kind of determine how we will um arrive at the questions used for the candidates for that year. And most likely it'll go out to

094the districts like how what questions they want to ask. That way they can get the candidates in advance so everybody has time to prepare and that will that plan will mostly be done via email so I can share it with all of you and then send it back to them. Now the biggest complaint has been that there's not been enough time left for um questions by to the candidates been too much talking by the candidates and not enough Yeah. >> And then last year too when we went there was a debate the same night so two of the biggest candidates weren't able to attend because they were busy debate. So there you go. >> Thank you. >> That was cool to go to. >> It is a cool meeting, isn't it? >> It's the only

095way to start getting fast. >> It was like >> they know what they're doing a couple times like wait >> will not be fast on Thursday night. I guarantee you that. I've sat there for seven hours voting. So >> Well, that was I was like I expected it because you the way you described it. I thought it was going to take a long time and they were just like papa and I was like wait wait wait. Thank you. >> And you can join on Thursday night if you want to for a little while. You might not want to stay the whole time, but you could get a real sense. Anybody's allowed to. Um you just can't be a voting member, but you're allowed to listen and to hear the how they debate and it's a

096virtual meeting. It's quite interesting, >> right? So >> I have I can give it to Stacy if anybody wants it to. I think >> Thank you very much. Um, superintendent's update. >> So, just to clarify, so what's h there's no meet the candidates meeting this year. Is that what they're saying? >> I think they're still going to do it this year, but then after that they're going to try to change it. >> They said they only do it election years. >> Oh, yeah. The the meet the candidate is only election years. That is true. That's why they're trying to re-evaluate it now. Yes. >> For the 2026 election, >> but there still be the other one that they do on the odd years. And that's they usually have a presenter at the Y. >> Okay.

097>> And the big dinner is at Shenangle Forks this year. >> Okay. Um, superintendent update. Well, I was going to talk about student board member process, but I kind of did that already. So that's what our kind of vision is moving forward. Um and as I mentioned um it's been challenging getting um like you guys are involved with everything. So it's there um we're going to try and use Eagle Time moving forward. Um, if things come up that you feel like, we'd really like to know how how the students are are are thinking about this or what their experience has been with that, you can always send me an email and then I can work with them to sort of figure out how can we best sort of get the pulse of what's happening in

098the student body. The other piece of it is really they represent not just the high school. >> I was going to ask about that. >> Yeah. So, we have to figure out like how can we do that in the other buildings too like you know reach out um again given their busy schedule. So um we'll have to um work on that also. Um just uh to have on your um uh awareness that we are working on trying to revamp our presentations. Um Val, you know was something that we thought would be uh interesting for you to kind of get a little bit of an insight about. um where we have firmed up the having um some people from Boseies come out and talk about uh the changes that are happening high school graduation requirements, portrait

099of a graduate so that you just can have you know just brief presentations just so you have the basic you know um information and you can ask questions um anything else that was that was important there. So, I would like it to be like so if you hear about something like you get those new uh school boards association newsletters and you there's lots of articles in there about lots of educational topics in New York State. if there's something you'd want to know something about that's how is that um playing out in Whitney point that would be something that we can do like a mini little uh presentation or at least a board discussion on just so that we can you know like I said keep the conversation open make it meaningful for you um and

100make sure you're getting the information that you that you want. >> I will say the presentation and the information the conference gave us the other night >> especially for our community. >> Yeah. >> Oh my goodness. I wish we could get that out. >> Well, he's he's going to um you may have heard me say that he's going to give me some information. He's coming tomorrow to meet with the superintendent. >> So, he's going to he's got some like little flyers and stuff that we can turn into to posts. >> Right. In a nutshell, it was people who are 25 to 55 who've never received an associates degree. They could have any kind of college degree. They could have had college credits. They can go free >> in high areas. >> High needs areas. Yes.

101>> So I was like, okay. Yeah. In education, teaching, business, we're all in the high needs. Healthcare or all in the high needs areas. And so is it just no charge? >> So maybe you can get a free computer. >> Yeah. So yeah, we're gonna So we're going to put that out. I mean that I there's lots of people that could really impact and it's really and it's true of any community college. It's a state u program. So um if you know anybody that that would apply to, let them know. Um yeah, and the uh next time uh Gracie Schroer is going to come and talk to us about math and movement. Just give us a little bit of a demonstration on what that's looking like, the work that she's doing with teachers in the

102CA. Um, and also they just give me a reminder for to for you to notice all the lovely artwork behind you. >> It's all the cookie monster. >> Yeah, I know. >> And then also, I guess I can tell you it's not too early to tell you that we are having um every year there's like a holiday uh this uh Southern Tier Food Bank does a holiday repack. You probably see, I don't know if you see it on the news, and all the politicians come to that. Um, and everybody uh packs food bags, but we're doing that at the TR this year. >> So, um, and they're going to we're going to do little tours of that building and the STEM lab and our and our pantry that there >> December >> I think it's

10312th. >> Is that right? >> Would it be a Wednesday? >> Yeah, that's the 10th. >> 10th. >> Yep. We've got it on that. >> The 10th. Yep. Can we have my birthday party at the same time? >> Cool. I think >> so. Anyway, I I will, you know, let you know a little bit more about that, but if you want to come and >> that'd be nice. Yes, >> we're gonna and we're going to do a little have some kids performing and playing some music, too. And >> nice. Yes. >> Very good. >> That does bring us to our second opportunity for comments from the public. Any takers? Okay. Um, board of education comments. >> I just had her give me another copy of the draft. Um, I didn't hear from anybody. Anything want

104to change? I would make the suggestion that on page three where it says soliciting the ex official student board members depending first during a board discussion could be changed to um you could change the wording to match that um that it's on the agenda for the student instead of I could just change the wording this page it's on page three because I use the d I used the draft that you got from the state and I even sort of owed that first. I didn't think it was necessary to have him first number. >> It's a very number. >> Did you give Jordan a cop? >> Yeah. >> Did Jordan didn't get a copy? She can have mine. >> I think that's >> here. She can have mine because I brought my phone. >> Okay. >>

105So, what are you changing? >> It's the very first number one. And it says sol soliciting officials for matter is first standard in board discussion. >> Chang the wording to say that soliciting the according to the board agenda. Um that place I'll revert it. I just didn't do it yet. And then I can get them into the board docs or the super if you want to go in early. And then I have one more thing. So is this just an idea? I'm pulling up all these crazy ideas. Um so I maybe it could be the meeting that we want to get as much of the community members out for like maybe the board um budget presentation or something like that. But I know the TRA has is it? It's not the pantry. What is it

106called that they use? What's it called? Care. >> The care plaza. Eagle. There's a care closet and there's the Eagles covered. >> Eagles covered in the care closet. And I just thought maybe as a board we could maybe say we're going to do a a board education push to help fill these cupboards and we're encouraging you to come to the board meeting. If you can't, we're going to have boxes. We can drop things off and just help do a push for the two cupboards. And it could be our one of our board goals to become more community engaged and become more visual. So, I just thought it might be an easy way for us to help the school and um maybe get more people out to our budget meeting. >> And it would also be

107helpful if we put out what they need. >> A list. >> Yes. >> Of things that are always in high need. Yeah. And I thought since we got time ahead of time to do that and maybe that's even something we can do with our student reps and and our students in the buildings. >> I think that's a wonderful idea. >> That's a good idea. I just have a quick um question. Um, does the district have extra space for things like that given the food service requirements of stuff that are here already that going into >> So, Heather Pudish runs the um pantry and she and so that's why I said to Chris when she had brought this up that that's a great idea, but we'd have to be very careful that it's the things that

108we really need and they can't get everything from um the food bank. So, there are some things but it's the perishables we have to be really careful about. Yeah. I just know that in some other districts there are things that those pantries were done and that weren't looked at and >> sure and there's no room for the stuff that they need to have especially with government food coming in and all kinds of things that come in huge amounts >> and they're being told yes you can and there isn't any space >> right >> and all hygiene items are a big need that's a big need >> yeah things like that >> yeah we could get a list together >> we and We do and we do go through those very quickly but we'll but we

109the people who run those I mean we have the community schools people who um run that they also prom dresses um the uh mother daughter dance dresses I mean we've got those but we can't we can't have endless storage for them but there is a need for those things >> little fancy shoes for those events >> we just need a list of non >> or nonline it's just that >> two different groups are doing what they're supposed to but not >> Yeah. >> And then it causes problems, >> right? Which is why we said we would coordinate and >> Yeah. We'll check in month on the things that go quickly and and that we always need. >> Yeah. And I know they do a lot of stuff like that around Thanksgiving, November time. So board

110budget hearing is in March. Am I correct? March or April? May. May. >> So maybe before that. I don't know. Something before school. Maybe a March meeting or something. I don't know. Yeah, I'll kind of do good. Thank you for listening. That's all I have. >> Do any of the other board members have something they would like to bring up or talk about? Accidentally closed my agenda when I took out that packet. Um, okay. Um, we do need an an executive session. Okay. So, we are going to recess the public meeting at 7:37. Um, we will end the meeting directly after our executive session. So, nobody needs to hang around and um stay for that. Um, may I have Oh, we're going to have discussion on >> specific state matters. Okay. Student matters. May I

111have a motion? >> Was that you, Molly? Thank you. >> And a second. >> Go ahead. >> I got Michelle. >> Um, all those in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay.