0011 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I feel like it's protesting. It's a celebration. Hopefully nobody's protesting today. Is there anyone any comments? No, there's not. 2 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I just want to give you a sense of how we're gonna work things. We're gonna go from personnel, and then we will recess and go to celebrate it. So just to, so we have a little bit of meeting but not too much. You can all stay afterwards if you want to be. 3 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Whatever you leave. Okay so there are NO questions or comments from the floor, so we'll move right at the personnel. 4 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The 1st one is retirement of Brian Christman as a bus driver and custodian, and Brian, I on behalf of the whole board, I'd really
002love to thank you for your years of service and we really appreciate it and sorry to be seeing you both. Very. 5 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Steven just wants to say if you will. Acknowledge Brian's service. Brian started as a junior custodian when he was still in high school and came back and vote here for 26 years. 6 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) He's made my transition very simple. I asked by him to do something I know it's gonna be developed very helpful, it's very knowledgeable, and he has a lot of skills other that most people don't see. Friends certified wellber. Most people don't know that, so anytime we've had to repair anything. 7 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) You give it to Brian and he takes care of it. So I just wanted to acknowledge that
003many many years to service that everything he's done for for myself and for the district. You're very welcome. Thank you. 8 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Pressure you have to approve your and you're gonna have some cheesecake. I have a second. All in favor. Now you make it back to work. 9 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, the next retirement is Larry Smith as custodian. And again, Larry, I'd like to thank you very much for your years of service and sorry to be seeing you going. Larry's not here tonight, he's one of those people who doesn't like all the pop and circumstances, but we we. 10 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Said definitely thank you for all the years of service. The son is now working here so they were actually worked together for the year, which is
004fantastic, and Larry's been in the business for 35 years, and there's another guy who whatever you tell him to do, he just does it and off he goes and. 11 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The one of those those types of people, you're just gonna continue to miss, so outstanding. So if you do see him around, say congratulations. He's gonna do a lot of traveling, he said he can't wait for that. And so he's excited. And he looks so young, he looks good. Okay, and also I'd like promotion to approve his retirement promotion to approve. Second. 12 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) On the papers. 13 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And our final retirement is Deborah to Deb and who? Kelly yes, that wasn't on my agenda. Okay so we'll go for Deborah, who was a. 14
005"Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) A classroom aid. Are you here Debra? No, she's not here, ok. So again, just for the record, you want to thank her for years of service and I would ask promotion to approve her retirement. I would favor. And Deb is another person who's been here for many years. It was a, that was an aid in. 15 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Kindergarten classroom and that that's not easy as you're getting five year olds running around doing everything but. 16 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And she's such a calming type of voice and somebody who, who kind of does relates well with the kids and actually the faculty and staff, so we thank her for her her service as well, so. And I'm shocked and said. 17 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Chapton said to
006add this extra retirement that I didn't know about, of Kelly on Hill as an elementary teacher. And again, Kelly we want to thank you for all of you here as a service and the great wonderful things you did for the kids in your care. So thank you very much. 18 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yep. What the principals are gonna say something. Do you want me to come out here or that's a meat thing. Okay, tonight together to celebrate Kelly Neal, an educator that has devoted over 30 years to. 19 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Shaking your young minds inspiring growth and creating the environment where learning flourishes. For over two decades, you touch the lives of helpless children from teaching math to special education to kindergarten to pre K For over 20 years in kindergarten free
007K you've nurture nurtured the very. 20 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Foundation of education. Your patience and compassion can provided these young learners with the most important lesson of all that school is a safe, fun, and exciting place to be. 21 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) You've helped them feel seen, heard, and valued, which will stay with them for a lifetime. You've not only been a teacher but a mentor and a friend. While we will see your miss your wisdom warmth and carrying presence, we know that you have earned this well deserved retirement. 22 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) As you begin this exciting new chapter of your life, we wish you nothing but happiness, relaxation, and the joy of new adventures. May you find it find to enjoy the things you've always loved, whether that's spending time
008with your grandchildren, traveling or playing marjong. 23 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Thank you for your commitment to our students for your dedication and the impact you've had on so many months. Enjoy your retirement Kelly. I know that you will always be a cherish member of our school family. 24 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay. That was between all the retirees 85 years of service to our dinterance, so. 25 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Unbelievable when you add it all up, so fantastic. Okay, and so now we'll get to tenure. There are eleven features up for tenure, which is really amazing and wonderful. And I'm just gonna go through and read them and we'll approve them all and then we'll get the word said about each one. 26 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So the 1st thing I want
009to say before we get to anyone is thank you so much for coming here, giving the way you have to our district, and we're just thrilled to have you be here for the long term and to help continue building our districts. 27 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Oh, thank you. And congratulations. So we have Carolyn Adams within the field of mathematics, Cecilia Boys, science, Diana Cook, elementary. 28 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Tammy Dingman, special education, Melissa Fisher, Science, Ashley Jones elementary, Morgan Treyhan elementary, Maria Marati elementary, Justice Parker, social Studies. 29 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Edward Watt, English for speakers of other languages, which is a new concept for me. I've never heard it up. And Heather Williams for special education. So I would like to ask for a consent gender to improve all of those.
01030 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Do I have a motion. All in favor? Okay, now I have an emotion to approve all 1110 years motion to approve. Second, all in favor. 31 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yeah wanna start? Yeah like right 123. There you go. When I still saw 1110 years, it made me think of that summer I felt like all we did was. 32 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) To Interview all summer and in in a principle, in a secondary principle's life, one of the worst days possible is when you find out you have a science teacher retiring or moving to another building, and you have a vacant sci science position. And we got really, really lucky that we had a former. 33 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I didn't see you back there Ceci. A student
011in grad CC it was Hill, right? So Cecilia Hill graduates from canjile. We've done with us now for three years, hitting the ground running seamlessly. I take great pride in ceiling great teachers from other districts, and especially. 34 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I'm so and cc's become such a valuable member of the team. I was talking to a couple of students today and and this voice is a ten year came up while I brought it up. And they're like, this voice is really tough on us, but in a way kind of like your mom's really tough on you, like she cares about you, but she really wants you to be. 35 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Do well and make sure that he does well. And that speaks volumes about who CC is. I can't thank
012her enough she's really become a rock in the middle slow. I hope to have you for many many more years. Congratulations. Thanks. 36 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I love it. This is probably need a bump out here. 37 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So I'll go alphabetically for my special ed, my special ed people, so I'm gonna start with Tammy. So Tammy has only been here for like less than 20 years and I feel like it's a little bit longer than that at this point because she's been such an ainful member of our team. So really Tammy is going to be tendered and special edged but what she really should be is donna. 38 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The autism spectrum disorder guru, because that is her jam right now. It wasn't initially, but you give
013Tammy a task in dear God watching because it will be done and it'll be done tenthful and that shows up so much with our students that are in her classroom. 39 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So I can't even begin to remember the 1st year and the group that I gave you, we had a group of kids that were like, we need a different level of instruction. She came in out of, I don't know the heavens, I don't know, we found her somewhere, and who, all of a sudden amazing things happen. And then we got a group of kindergarteners and absolutely can remembers the kindergartens because they coached out that year. A group of, we had. 40 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) As nonverbal friends, we had some friends that didn't even realize that there was a
014potting available. They were behavioral in some respects, and those kids. 41 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Came so far within that school year I'm gonna tell you that I have most of them got pushed out required mineral support what was declassed this year as a second grader, that is huge. That is huge because these students learn how to be students and how to be successful in the in the gen had setting, and it was amazing. So now I was like. 42 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) That's too easy, and even with your broken leg in your wheelchair. That's boring. Let's do a full awesome classroom. 43 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So she again jumped right in. I think she has more knowledge than most of our albany support systems are North Carolina blah blah blah program, and
015we have students that are flourishing in an integrated environment. These students are not verbal, they are behavioral, they are now pushed out with their 1st grade peers. 44 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Most of them are, they are achieving. We have one that we unfortunately much to herschargon, is moving back to their own district this year in a less in a less self contained setting. It's huge. 45 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And so I can't wait to see where our students go from this point and it's really all thanks to Tammy and her insaness when it comes to research in finding answers, digging into wherever she can. Over the summer she helps with the freezens do and autism. 46 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Fundraisers. They have their own organization called Aim, which is a fantastic program.
016She goes and works at their fundraisers over the summer. She was able to get the classroom $10000 that has turned into a sensory like haven. It's amazing. 47 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Last little bit I can go on and on, but there's cheesecakes so I won't go crazy. They, we have experts that come in because if Tammy doesn't know the answer to a problem and how to adjust the student. Okay, let's bring in an expert. I literally brought in the experts, I sat next to this woman who has been in the field for years and years and years and she goes. 48 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) No offense, you shouldn't have paid us because I got nothing like it's alright there. And that is huge for our district and for our students and I can't
017wait to bring you more friends and more challenges and so you can call me in the middle of the night when you're trying to troubleshoot and get me to get you something else. Congratulations. We are so fortunate. 49 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I have you. 50 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Canadapana butter cup cheesecakes. And ok so Heather, great job, NO. So Heather is it's funny, I don't think she has a really good sense of geography. So she grew up in fonda, right? He grew up in fonda. So in now she's here at Kanjay, quick job. 51 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Down route five if you're not from here, take through it, you can take five vessels lots of different ways. But she chose to do a totally different pathway in which she started down south,
018where we hit Georgia, we hit Louisiana, came back up to Gloversville, a lot on gas, but she eventually landed here. So. 52 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Who else do you can find us? What I think is best about Heather and what she has accomplished here is we took her out of a special class program. So in that case you are the lead teacher in the classroom, you have all the control. You can run the space you don't have to worry about other adults, and we said nah, we're gonna go into co teach. 53 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Which is an entirely different beast and she has grown and shown so much reflection and self growth as a professional that has been incredible to see and I think the best testament to her growth are the
019students that I saw this year at their interviews, so she's in 5th grade this year. She was able to lose. 54 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) With 4th grade because, you know, I stay with the same co teaching team when I can move you all over the place, and so you could learn more skills. 55 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The rest of our specialist staff realizes the manness of that. But what I saw of those students during the interview is more so than ever before is the confidence, the growth, the empowerment they had over their own education. 56 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) That I hadn't seen from this group of students in years past, and they're excited to learn. One of the coolest things that she's brought to elementary is that goal setting. So we talked
020a lot at the high school letter about those smart goals and how to get kids to find a goal and follow it. 57 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) She's brought that to the 5th grade level and my gosh, they are flurishing with that. So it is very, very exciting to watch not only Heather Grow and let you know Heather I'm also moving you next year because I don't want to stay aboard but watching her grow and watching her those kids also grow, it's been always so congratulations. 58 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) What? Let's stop trip. I'm gonna trip. Okay. I can take a fall. I don't know if the floor can take me, but alright, Melissa, Melissa Fisher, you know, my 1st year here, I heard a lot about a former science teacher and all of
021it was good. 59 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The staff would talk about her all the time, the legendary miss Fisher, how well she connects to students, how engaging her lessons were, and every staff member had nothing but good things to say about her. Well simultaneously was meanting the fact that she was NO longer with us. So I had to get a chance to know her, I was really pleased to find out that she completely lived up to her legendary. 60 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) That she like that maybe legendary was ficial, That's so many good things I can say about Melissa. She's hard working and embodies professionalism. Well, at the same time, she has a certain wit about her that always makes me laugh that students and staff across the board really appreciate. Her lessons
022are engaging and she's done a great job with making students and coaching. 61 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Teachers may feel comfortable in her classroom. Her dedication to this district is second to none. And you can see her passion and innovation and everything she does. Objectively speaking, she's been extremely successful. Her passing rates on region scores are among the highest both for our school historically and in our, and on our region, but not content to rest on her laurels. 62 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) She along with Troy Winnicker had made the bold move to transition to a co teach model for all of her biology classes and has worked tirelessly to ensure success with it. And that's not easy. 63 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Completely changing the way you teach is never easy, but she's doing
023it, doing it well and helping move the district forward in the process. That is one of the many reasons she's such a tremendous asset to our school. She's always thinking about what is best for the district and does so in a variety of ways from offering college classes, stepping up to run clubs, and just being a valuable voice and pushing. 64 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Go into initiatives. She has worked so hard for a ten year, probably harder and longer than anybody. After leaving and coming back, she hasn't start all over from year one and and. 65 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I'm really, really, really glad that she did because she is just a tremendous individual, and here we are nearly ten years from when she 1st came to Cando and she is getting the
024tenure that she has always deserved. It's quite the journey, and I'm so glad you came back to us and I'm so proud to award you tenure tonight because you absolutely deserved it. 66 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Alright, justice. Hi, Justice. All right. 67 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So I'd remember the day we interviewed justice. So this was during COVID time, so it was all virtual, and it was me in my office, the Phil's in that room, and Blake Smith in his room, and we had a whole day of interviews online in front of us. Justice was our 1st. All of us were just so impressed with him. He was well dressed. 68 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) He was polished, he knew his stuff historically and academically, and we all just instantly took the liking to
025him. When the interview was over, we all kind of knew he was gonna be the one. But of course, you know, like anything, you're still excited, like, well, maybe there's something even better out there. But by the end of the day, the choice was clear. We ended the last interview and Blake Smith yelled. No, justice, NO Pete. 69 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) He was the one. I 1st got to spent time with Justice when he joined us on our trip to DC for learning 2025I was really impressed that the teacher who hadn't even started yet was willing to join us in such an important trip and became. 70 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I'm such an integral part of our new initiatives. I was even more impressed that he was willing to walk the streets of
026DC with me at night to help me find the slurpy or talk to me around videos. But I have NO sense of direction. I was just being the white house. So over the last couple of years, it's just been a. 71 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Pleasure getting to know justice both personally and professionally. He is just a natural fit for the history department, and within weeks it seemed like he's been with us forever. He even started coordinating office with the fills and they became so close that the fills literally married justice. Officiated Justice with. And now. 72 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) That kind of cohesion and department is rare, and it's one of the things that, you know, a principle strives for across the board, I certainly do. They're just a great team and it's
027great to see all the fruit and how that manifests. 73 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Justice has achieved the highest passive scores for the US history exam we have ever seen. His values are aligned with our vision for the history department and he frequently teams up his econ class with the government class for senior seminars just delivering great cross curricular instruction that wasn't available before he came. The cohesions raised the bar for academic access. We. 74 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Seeing all sorts of areas, including the fact that every student who leaves Kanjo does so with the seal of civic readiness. That is the large part of justice contributions to the team. As impressive as all that is, he's just a really good guy who goes above and beyond for our kids and our community. He
028volunteers his time to wake up early to train ball players off season, so now I'm. 75 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Hey lifting weights at 05:00 in the morning and yes, I can't go through any speech without mentioning lifting weights at least once. It's gonna happen again too. 76 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And his team are are there training and we hours in the morning, and it's just it's just wonderful. In addition, in addition to being just a great coach, he's just a great mentor. He's taken several students under his way and watching these young men thrive under his mentorship is just it's just unbelievable. Justice. Thank you for all that you do, and it's my great. 77 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Great pleasure to award you can. All right, Carolyn. 78 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984)
029How are you doing? Good. Sorry. Excited? Good. So four years ago, I was in the fitness and a deadlifting, there it is again. And I got a phone call. We had just hired a woman to teach high school math and without a week or so left before school started, she. 79 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) He called me while I was deadlifting to decline the job. So I I was stuck. I I couldn't start school without a math teacher, so I did what I do best. Now, the Paulo before mentioned he likes to steal teachers from other districts to steal teachers from Tapalo. So sorry Chris. 80 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Before it's another statement. 81 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) There's so much that goes into teaching. You have to learn how to make a lesson
030plan, you have to learn how to recurriculum, you have to learn about priority standards and so much more I can drawn on all night. You can learn all of that through going to school and PD, and I've been talking all day about the great things about Carolyn, all the stuff she brings to our school, but I. 82 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Just in the just because I know we're still hungry and I'm hungry and honestly feed up on a cheesecake sounds amazing, so that would be part of that. But more than the academic piece, there's an itch factor. There's just an itch factor that just can't be taught. And some people have it and some people just get it and some people don't, and Carolyn just gets it. She gets. 83 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984)
031Our students are academically. She gets their background, their needs. She sees them all through who they are and loves them NO matter what. And all the time I have known her. I have never heard her say a bad word about any student ever, NO matter how frustrated she is, NO matter what happens, she always will look at the absolute best. 84 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Perspective on any students, it's absolutely wonderful. In the very rare case that there's some kind of disciplinary action required in one of her glasses, she always seeks to handle the restorative legs to repair the harm that was caused and to use it to teach a student a lesson and build a stronger connection with that student moving forward. She has shown unconditional love. 85 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Healthy support
032to all of our students and they return that in time. That's the it factor that just not everyone has. 86 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Carolyn understands our kids and is understanding with them. She treats them with love and respect and they return that to her. She is unbelievably reflective and wise beyond her years. I admire the way you constantly seek to improve in all areas, whether through your lesson plans, your sort of practices or just trying to understand how the kid in front would. 87 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Things and what matters to them as an individual in their life circumstance. You've always stepped up when asked whether becoming a certified restored practice trainer, a member of a new star committee, being reliable at the school tunor and so much more. You are a tremendous
033asset to our school and is my absolute great pleasure to award you then. 88 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, so my my speech's. 89 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Is short and sweet and we'll get right to your cheese page saying not about all of the teachers that are getting tenure tonight especially the five that I'm about to speak about. It's a privilege to acknowledge a well rounded group of teachers, each with their own valuable experiences. 90 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Are these strengths and perspectives that they bring to our school family. Maria Marati, Morgan Treyhan, Deanna Cook, Ashley Jones, and Edua. Congratulations. 91 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) To be Anna and Ashley, you spent your time with our kindergarten students. Your work is foundational. You created warm, welcoming environments where curiosity sparks and lifelong level
034for learning begins. 92 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) To Maria and Morgan, you've worked with our 3rd and 4th grade students. You faced the challenges of cultivating critical thinking, nurturing inter independence, and fostering a deeper understanding of the subjects you teach. Your impact is seen and the confidence of your students as they grow into more. 93 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Help assured learners and individuals. 94 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And at you have worked with our ENL population. Your ability, adaptability, compassion, and innovation have made a difference in the lives of students helping them overcome obstacles or realize their potential. We all know that teaching is a journey full. 95 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Little challenges. 96 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) But also one of the immense rewards. There are days of doubt moments of frustration
035and obstacles to overcome, but there are also countless moments of joy, proud, pride, and fulfillment. You've demonstrated perseverance, not just in your teaching, but in your ability to adapt, grow, and make an impa. 97 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Impact on the lives of our students. You are a role model so you inspire students to be the best versions of themselves and we are lucky to have you all as part of our school family. Congratulations on earning your tenure. 98 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) What? Now just remember tenure doesn't start until 1 September. Congratulations. The if you just bear with us for about four or 5 min, then we can. 99 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Well. 100 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So the next point I'd like to ask for a motion for a percentagenda for
036K on. Thank you. So we'll move ahead and so we have, I'm sorry just real quick. What? 101 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Who's the Sorry, I'm in the clerk today too. I'm not paying the time. Ocean Clean, a second by Heidi. Thank you. Move on now? Yes. Okay, so the 1st thing to see which is create a school household for. 102 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Effective 1 July. We have that for a grand for two years and now it's rolled over to our, our general. Yep. 103 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, any questions? Moving right along, we have continued temporary positions affected 1 July as well. That's the school counselor position I believe? No. No, ok. 104 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Oh, I'm sorry. So we have the energy maintenance worker, we have the energy
037manager with with Fran and his position is temporary, and so isn't the maintenance person. So we're kind of double. You're gonna see France come up, you're gonna see the maintenance person who's. 105 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Was in their forefriend during that time. And then we have pointing Audrey Spawalding as a substitute bus driver. Keep them coming. Very lucky. And then we have this pointing. 106 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Come on my my computer is not not being very helpful here then we have a point Bobby. 107 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Israel has a substitute monitor ok and then we have if my computer won't get there Eric has been. Why don't you say it? Eric. 108 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Hazard is a softball unpaid assistant? 109 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I'm appoint the
038energy manager Androsia and extend the appointment of Matthew Murphy to the position of temporary buildings maintenance worker. 110 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, NO questions on any of those, I would ask for motion to approve Motion to approve. Second, all in favor? Thank you. The next point on the agenda would be I would entertain a motion for resets. 111 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) All my favors. Next point on the agenda is my presentation on special education co achers. Alright, so I'm gonna kick us off. So a couple we've been using the. 112 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Refugee model in this district for about 13 years at this point. 113 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) It's been a model that's been around much longer, but it did start right after I had these done, and so I
039was able to participate in in that program. It's one of my favorite models in the building special X. So there's a couple of highlights that I just want to go over quick before I pass it to our 7th grade English team about co teaching the purpose. So the number one goal that. 114 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We have for our students, all students regardless of disability is the rigor. We want to make sure that kids are challenged, that they are pushed to achieve as high as they can. And what we have found in the past is that our special classes, where you have a small group of students with disabilities who might not be able to achieve their reading levels might be low. 115 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) They're IQs might be lower and not
040necessity ability to learn. So what we found is those kids and those classes are not pushed to the point that we would like them to be. So they continue to have gaps year after year after year. The co teaching model allows us to provide those supports in the gen Ed classroom by trying to achieve. 116 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Do those on level goals and on level standards while chipping away at the gaps. 117 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, so, this is one of our newest teams because Carly joined us this year, and I think they really highlight some of the work that goes into co teaching because it sounds like a great model. Hey, you're sharing the duties, it's two people instead of one, it sounds magical. It's hard it is. 118 "Canajoharie CS
041BoE" (3851177984) Painful sometimes because basically how they setting them up for an arranged marriage and it could be. But it's an arranged marriage that we try to do a lot of work prior to teams coming together? 119 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So that they can develop a common sense of of parody of expectations within that group so they can function fluidly. Now Carly, I really set her up and I set up all of my middle school specialized teachers because she co teaches with many teachers, so she covers both 7th and 8th. 120 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Great, so she has really felt the heat of trying to develop those relationships, not just with one co teacher, but with four. Okay, so it's a lot of work and this group has done a great job of
042collaborating and making the, the standards accessible to all students. The last pitch I'll give is how do we close those gaps? 121 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We have been working very hard as the special edit department as well as the middle school to highlight priority standards. So we might have an entire list of standards that students must achieve as a 7th grader in this case. 122 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We recognize that all all of our students are going to be able to learn and master all those standards so we pull out what we call the priorities. So we did a lot of work on looking at state assessments, looking at our standards as a whole and saying what's gonna carry a kid or be the most important in the future? So they really go
043in and picked out those priority standards to really hammer in for. 123 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Our students with disabilities and then figure out how to make the stepping stones to get them to, to those standards. Explain a little more on the priority standards of where you were getting there. So the priority standards, one big thing that we were looking at was our state assessments. So we use a program called Tableau through which takes all of our. 124 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Brief rate assessments and breaks it down into incredible amount of data sheets for us. 125 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) One of those sheets allows us to look and say, ok, here's how all of our students performed on these standards in our district. So we have, it's colorful, so it's colorful. Green means
044that we're killing it. We're doing a great job towards those standards, the deep red, not so great. That's how we identify what. 126 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) What we need to help bring to our students. So that was one way that we identify those priority standards. We also had teachers reflect on their own curriculums to determine what they see as being powerful and necessary for a student to master before moving on to the next grade level. What's that called again? Tableau? Tableau? Yep yep. 127 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) It really breaks down every state, every kid takes the state test, breaks everything down, like I said by standards even to the student, and then it ranks against the area and the state and the local and how we do, but then it pulls out all
045those, then they start to look at those standards that come out red, right? Red. And, and really break those down so. 128 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Of course as granular as that, and then they look at the students who were having more trouble with the combinations and IEPs, break that down even further. 129 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And how that fits into the IAPD, so we're really not much more we can dig down. You know what I mean? A lot of data analysis and and this team has also been integral in our school improvement committee at the, at the middle school where we're even diving even deeper than talking about how kids are looking at curriculum and so on, but we'll present on that at different time, but I will pass it over to. 130
046"Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) One other question is this just the middle school program? We we run this program K K to twelve. So I have most of my elementary and middle is co taught because I have found that the more we're pushing our kids, especially when they're younger, they're actually performing higher in the future. E.g., has our life skill students. 131 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The students that I have had integrated in gen Ed through co teaching model, maybe small pullout classes for targeted reading instruction, but mostly with their gen Ed peers are outperforming and working towards their CDOS credential over the students that have been in special class like their entire day. So just twelve kids function, you know, focusing on basic math basic reading. 132 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) They're outperforming with students,
047so I really push the co teaching model across the board. Caroline does math up here at the high school, and like I said, we have grade levels that covers water. Yep. All right i'll pass it over to partly Bigger and Master. 133 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Alright, we're so happy to be here. Just to kind of say what Jen said in like smaller terms, what teaching in is when we involve a general ed, that's me, and a special education teacher together and we collaborate and we instruct a class with both students with and without disabilities. 134 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So what that can look like, I mean it's like a student with a disability is going to learn alongside somebody who does not have a disability, and I always tell people think of it
048as like a pilot and a co pilot. Like we're both working together. We have the same credentials and we're both trying to get to the same kind of destination. Something just to point out, Carly passed out these. 135 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) This chart that we made, it looks really scary, but I promise you it's not. It basically just lists all the modifications that students could or couldn't have and how we apply it in a co teach classroom. So when you go home tonight and you can reflect on everything we talked about, you can see. Yeah, there will be a test. You can see how we do that. That's a question though. 136 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) With the. 137 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Kids who are, you know, being co co taught next to
049kids who are not being co taught, is there a tension there at all or issues? If, if you're doing your job it should be rather seamless. I mean, we don't ever ex explicitly say, you know, ok, Alicia has a you know like nobody really know who. 138 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Who has a disability and who doesn't I mean of course an instruction maybe Alicia might be quieter than another person, but when you're working alongside of peers who are expelling, you usually start to see that gap closed pretty quickly because again they're trying to be like the peers alongside them. 139 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So typically NO. I don't. I mean I haven't had anything, and the students from our district are really inclusive, like as a whole, like the group we have in
050coaching is great. Like they support each other, like even when we have students who are having hard time, they like pick up on what we're doing, like our coping strategies, they help regulate the students like it's great. They come to us, they ask, hey, can I go to lab today instead, so we flip flop, like the two of us just split flop position. 140 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Things all the time all day or basically one person and we, you know what I mean? But that's how it works really because our kids don't see it any different. It's not special education teacher versus a general ed teacher, we're just their teachers, you know, they see it as two of us, we're here to help them. Yeah. 141 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yeah. And it's good
051for the kids like general education students to deal with students with different needs because then they see that. I personally am a type one diabetic, so I really love this job because I used to have an IEP and a five oh four, so I take it personally, I want these kids to be able to advocate for themselves, understand, be around other kids, feel supported, and feel comfortable. 142 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay. 143 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So there are some hurdles and small though, which is what Jen was basically talking about. I do work with two grade levels, so it is hard, my day is split in half. So once I leave 8th grade, I go to 7th grade and then my 8th graders are looking for me, my 7th graders are looking for
052me, so we really have to work as a team all through the middle school to make sure all the kids are covered. So training for staff, how to. 144 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Effectively ensure a parity and plan to meet the needs of all the students. We have to have the time for that. And also Jen early in the year, make sure that we all meet collectively to like make a plan for the year, to learn what our different strategies are in those classrooms and how our personalities might match together. So there is like a method to the madness it's not something that just like magically happens. 145 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) It takes a lot of planning and also just like learning about each other as we go. In development of a positive working
053relationship between co workers, that's obviously something like that's important to us. We want the kids to see that we love being here together. We love being with them like it helps the classroom environment. In sharing ownership of the classroom, like I said earlier, the kids don't see it as we're different they see us as two equal teachers, whatever she does, I support vice versa. 146 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yeah. 147 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) There's tons of things. We could talk about obviously the most important is equal to access to curriculum. Again, the students who have maybe a learning difference is gonna get the same exact instruction as somebody and when it comes to state exams, the kids who have a disability are gonna get the same exact. 148 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Exam as
054another something greater, and so we want to make sure that we're again we're pushing that rigor so that they're getting the same access and that they feel successful for those. Again opportunities from general education peers. 149 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Greater student engagement, sense of belonging is huge. Again, like Carly said, we're always flip flopping our rooms, you'll see later that there's tons of different versions of pro teaching. And so a lot of the time we just flip the class in half and sometimes kids go to Carly's room and sometimes kids stay in my room and vice versa. 150 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Opportunities for a small group, two teachers are always better than in my audience, you know? We can do small groups. Carly can pull a few kids and they can work on
055a skill that they might be missing, and while I'm doing maybe a full group instruction, it really varies day by day and honestly minute by minute. So you said you go into two separate rooms? Depending on what we're doing. 151 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yeah, we'll do like a whole group lesson and then if we have like intensive writing and we know that our kids needs in the room, so we'll put like the students who need a lot of help, we'll put in one group together, we'll work with them directly and then we'll have another group running a different station, so we really every time we make a lesson, we plan like every single way it could go to make sure every kid can access it. 152 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And then another thing
056is social emotional benefits. Again, everything that we do in the classroom, and what honestly everyone does in Canjo K through eight is including those social emotional curriculum and needs. And we honestly just do that by being co teachers every single day students have seen how we interact with each other and how we interact with our students and just by seeing us work. 153 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Together, they're also seeing that social emotional needs because again we're. 154 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Showing them how to do it so that they can do it. Are there any questions? I can give you a quick success story though. One of the benefits, one of our students who is particularly one of our lower students, I would say he probably got a. 155 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We
057just had his meeting recently to develop his news IEP for next year and he's come like we're talking to somebody who couldn't write a sentence to somebody who's writing. 156 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The whole entire paragraph restating, answering, using all of his accommodations. Some of these students are sometimes are reluctant to use those accommodations that we provide and is advocating for them using them on a daily basis and instructions, so that's just kind of show from last year to this year how much he's grown since he's been well as a co each, so. 157 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Really great to see. I do have a question. Sure. No, you, you're given a very positive. Oh yeah, we're getting to the ok still getting we're gonna touch base on that right now. Yes. Okay,
058so obviously yes, knowledge of general educational. 158 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Me I'm the ELA girlly I know everything about ELA. I know what the state exam is asking of our students. 159 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And then I base our curriculum on that. I know where we're deficient when it comes to all of these all the staffs that we've looked at and where we need to go and move forward with. I do the knowledge that students needs, so I come in I say ok this is great, but we have to get them to access this standards so how can we do that? So we provide the modifications, we look at it together, we. 160 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Cut things, we make it so that they can still do the grade level work. 161
059"Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And then knowledge of instruction strategies like anytime we have a lesson, we look at it, we see how we can make it better for the kids in the room. And I always say like you could you give an example of bring them up to a great level of work? Yeah, like sometimes if we have like our heavy reading path, like words, like both had words, that would be like really hard for them like not like not. 162 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Not basic word, like, you know, according to like the text, like if it's a science passage, something like that. So what we'll do is we'll look at it and then I will. 163 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Take the reading level down, like I will modify all the work. I
060don't know how to like explain that better. So I basically chop things off, I kind of go in, I highlight things, like things that I know are gonna be roadblocks for them to make sure that they can get past that roadblock is helping them access. So the goal of that lesson is to learn these concepts, ok, so there's vocabulary terms that they're going to discern from. 164 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Reading passage, what we will do is take that reading passage down to their level so that it can access they understand the terminology. 165 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, there's also other ones like with writing we have kids that ok there they have difficulty starting or writing response. We'll we'll give them plenty of starters so that it's almost like a cube to, ok,
061now this is how it starts now I can keep going. It's just it's a ton of different things depending on and like weight technology is so great now too like a lot of our students. 166 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Does like use speech to text or to get their thoughts out, they're having a hard time like it's easier for them to do that or spelling if that's like a huge hurdle in their way speech to text helps with that. So we try different things all the time whenever works best for them. Yeah, and and writing is something in particular that 7th graders and middle school are struggle with in general because they don't like writing. And so usually what. 167 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We start with just across the board, the 7th graders always
062start with a graphic organizer and it becomes a norm for us like before you write any paragraph or any assay, you're gonna do a graphic organizer. We suggest it for the state exam, and it's great just to have throughout the whole schooling career, and that's an accommodation for a lot of our kids who are in our special education program. 168 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So e.g., it kinda feel like that you need to do in order. So like kids who have a hard time like. 169 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Processing or like understanding like 1st and next last, like they can look at the checklist and be like, ok, this is the 1st thing on the graphorse their eyes that I need to do but like help them plan their writing. Does that makes sense?
063Yeah, perfect. But like I said, like you said, it's not always rainbows and butterflies. Really we can we can plan the most perfect week and then our eyes are like, ok, this is what we have to get. 170 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) End of the week and we may only get to the 1st part. 171 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I mean some middle schoolers too. So they've got so many like emotions going on. So a lot of times too, it's pending on where they're at, where their head space is. We have to have a day where it's a self care dare like talking about what happened like socially, then we do that. Like we basically plan based on that, what they need, what the best thing for them is. I mean, we can have students
064who are totally disregulated and currently may have to take those students to. 172 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Regulate and I may have to do the lesson and then we may have to go reteach the lesson to those who need to be regulated. And then there's some days that Carly and I maybe just don't buy, it may work human, right? So maybe I'm having a horrible day and by the time I get to co teach, which is at the end of the day, which is a struggle in its sally. 173 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Which is at the end of the. Which is at the end of the day, sometimes we're just like burnout and so sometimes we just have to flip it being because, again, we wanna be the best teachers we can be and
065sometimes that's just a matter of flipping the classroom and maybe doing something a little less than what we plan to make sure that we're still giving our best self to the students. So. 174 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The bus because if she is tired then I happened, you see what I'm saying? Like we always like it's like a one person job fill in the gaps, fill in the gaps. 175 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yeah, so these are the models that we were talking about earlier, like how we do it. So there's the one teach one assist, one leads the other support. Sometimes we do this, this is what Whitney was talking about like when I have to regulate a student or disregulate it I sometimes step out, she would take care of that and then
066I'll come back in, join the lesson, see where the kids are at. She teaching ideally, both of us would be teaching equally. This is. 176 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Like the dream team this is what we'd like to do on most days that's where you would be the students and Carly and I are up here teaching together or maybe walking around while she's talking about checking in with everybody. So that would be more of the teaching that's like we're always. Yep. This is when we like split the class in half in terms of hard concepts and. 177 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Even for math, like we do this a lot of parallel teaching, we know where our groups are, so we split them up. 178 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The alternative teaching where one teacher
067works with a smaller group for targeted support and then maybe I have a larger group. Station teaching, we divide the students into small groups and rotate. We love, the kids love this because they always love to move around and like do hands on activities, which is great. Yeah, if you ask any mental school, station teaching is their favorite yeah and then the last one. 179 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) There's just when one teacher is teaching and that's one teacher is observing and that's mostly just for like data collection. So e.g. if a student is gonna get classified by them at some point, then hardly maybe watching them and observing how they're learning, what they're doing when they're learning so that we can make sure that they're getting the correct classification moving forward in supports in
068place. 180 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Please see what they need. 181 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Do you have any questions on the models? I was wondering you have like groups of students that work together? Oh, do you do any of that kind of work? Oh, yeah. Students work together all the time, all the time. That's another thing we do. We also either pair students in small groups, do partner work. 182 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I would say we're pretty much doing that every day, everyday class, that's kind of the noise. Yeah the model of rows of students is is really gone now, which is fantastic. When you go and buy some classrooms, it's really a lot of group type of stuff. We've even got to the point where the students. 183 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984)
069That are achieving and they've done whatever they now become the assistant yeah and so go help so and so. And they, they, they love it. They take right off with it and it's one more set of help. 184 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And the kids accept the help from the other kids. So it's really good. And it's never really the same kids because somebody gets something gets the concept better than somebody else. Ever really the same kids. 185 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yeah, that's good. So the goal in general is just to make sure that again the curriculum is accessible. So that we've Jen already talked about this, but we've recently identified priority standards and those are those standards that our students aren't currently reaching to the best of their ability and how we can
070close those gaps in our classroom. We. 186 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Recently what was it recently? Q2, the Mathene department got together and we worked on aligning curriculum all day long sitting in a conference room, making sure that all the curriculum that we have is aligning to again close those gaps. 187 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) E.g., ELA, a big thing is determining theme and central idea of a story. So what is the story mostly about and what is the message? For some reason middle school, that's like a very abstract thing. They're very literal, and they were like, well, the story's about a spider, and I'm like, ok, but what is the spider telling us as a group? Like, what is the, what is the message? What are we trying to learn? 188 "Canajoharie CS BoE"
071(3851177984) From that finer. And that's something that's really tricky for them. So again, something that we do all the time is make sure that we have a multi layered approach. 189 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So modeling all the time, using graphic organizers, doing a ton of guided practices. Over and over and over again until they get sick in the heart of that, but it works because it sticks. And then just making sure we're giving them that consistent formative feedback so they know how they can improve moving forward. And we want our session. 190 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) All education students be the most least restrictive environment, which is what the benefit of this model looks, they can be with their peers, they can be with their classmates, they can play sports, they can do the
072same things. There's NO reason they can't. 191 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So yeah, that's what a co teach does. And John John has done a lot of summer training this as well. But we do co teach training and that's where we said, you know, a lot of it is based on what takes you off? And let's talk about what takes you off so that you guys can work. 192 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Put together. How can you set up your classrooms together so it's a lot of work with just relationshipping. Yeah, these are some of the things like I try to include like six grades upgrade, but like a lot of things we do our hands on, like they read a passage about dragon fruit that was like native to this certain species, so they
073gave them dragon fruit to try. So like we try to make it engaging. Here we did a gallery walking 8th grade in. 193 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Preparation for state testing, we gave them all rubrics, showed them how to use the rubric, what they needed to do to get good scores. Our kids who did not want to do a presentation ever are finally doing it like on their own, like with supports like us being there, but they're doing it, which is awesome, they're working together, they're confident, they're seeing, they're trying different things. So we really push that, and that's what they do. 194 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) That's great. As co chitching fit into that picture right there. 195 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The skin. Because you would never do that. If you knew that
074student, that was something you would never try. It took two of us to get the boot on his foot and telling you. I agree. I agree. Yeah. I was wondering have you seen any impact of our cell phone policy? Honestly, they're they're they live like it's not a problem. They don't use that. 196 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We tell them to not. I rarely see a cell phone another pocket and they god's like yeah, don't take it, yeah. 197 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Thank you. Great job? Thank you guys. 198 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, so move right along the next point on the agenda is approvals. Nope, we got student presentation. Oh oops, sorry. I just gotta approve this little thing called a budget too. 199 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay so as usual,
075Alex gave us a a presentation, but unfortunately she's not here to give it so in galway, right? 200 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Galway. Yeah our field got ringed out, so the software team went to Galway. Okay. Thank you. 201 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So the baseball team was the only one that had a game. And they started off on a wedding note, which is nice. It was underfeated already, so that was good. Then they have started and I have NO idea what a green slot production was. What? Can Joe game show. So you. 202 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Do you know kind of game show? Oh, so the fills put on the fills dressed up is little, really cheeky talk show hosts, they both wear these ridiculous outfits with the mustache and jackets and they
076do they do just a variety of like of of different games like you know faculty fude, and guess what happens next? And so it's the whole afternoon. 203 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) When it's it's hilarious. They, they throw in these fake commercials. They did a commercial for Canjo paper towels, which is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. I mean, it was so funny and yeah it's just it's just a great time. So in the morning we did like pie star date. So it was all mathematics based activities kind of around pie, you know. 204 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) 3.145, not the list cheese cake bye. And then, you know, we all ate lunch together. 205 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And the kids, like we kind of keep it a secret, you
077know what, but also leak them to build excitement, you know, we bring them to the auditorium and then they put on it's just it's just 2 h of just completely foolish hilarities, is that they were describe? Is it recording? You know what? It's not, I don't know if it did or not. We probably should actually. 206 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Yeah, I'm sure the little snippets here and there. Yeah. The last meeting when they were here presenting the history to come in as. 207 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Detention. Yeah. Detention and Marcus absent. Yeah. They are hilariously and the animations that they have. Yeah they it's they make AI, they make like AI commercials, I mean really just. 208 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Just hilarious, like it really was a good time. Yeah, so I
078did want them to present it and then I was hoping they invite you to come and see things on the agenda for next year. I was hoping this because let us know, give us an advanced notice? Yes. You can even join in. We can even make it, I'll make a special. 209 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Board member game all you have to come and participate in. 210 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And then just a note on the prompt and post prom, which will be 17 May. And I know we've talked about that in the past, but NO one will be. 211 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Looking from going for lack of it's all good. Anything to report about that in particular? I don't think nothing that's already not been reported. Okay. And then there's a
079big thank you. 212 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, so moving right along to the superintendent report. Yes, a couple things. One, we started state testing this week. I don't know if you probably heard the news, but the computer based testing flopped kind of completely. They say only 10 %, but 10 % is 200000 students. 213 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So. 214 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) These, the program, how do I say, the place that administers the test, their their their software, their, their server didn't take all of the sign ins and logins, so it kind of kicked kids out. You can imagine the anxiety of kids, the anxiety of kids taking the tests. 215 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And now sitting in a room for 45 min waiting to log in. So there's a lot
080of push right now from superintendents to look at this data and say that you cannot use this for accountability. You can have it both ways, meaning tell us that NO distractions, make sure the kids have every thing under the, you know, the book when they take a test and have this happen. 216 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) You know, as we know, we're, we're on the accountability list for for a small area. You imagine a student with disabilities possibly who has an IEP, who is now for 45 min in the classroom waiting to take a test. So anyway, it wasn't good overall. So we finished though, we started and finished it. We, we held steady. 217 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Or a lot of schools. 218 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Bagged it and went out to
081another day, which you can imagine what that does. Now it's another day of NO teaching, right? And and you have to restructure that day at 10:00 in the morning and say how you're gonna adjust it from there. So anyway, I'm proud of our two teach our our two schools who kind of stayed the course and, and finished it, so. 219 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We'll see what the results will be. Not a happy day I guess. No. Not at all. It was a frustrating situation and the guidance that was rolling out in the moment was lacking to say the least. Yeah. To to say Paul, and we're a small school, so I have 200 students testing. 220 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And when the guidance says pause all tests, wait 15 min, can log students
082in in groups of 20 every 15 min. So that means students one 80 to 200 are gonna be sitting for 2 h before they can try to log in to take the test. It is so far departed from the reality of what a. 221 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) School faces on the daily basis, it was quite frustrating. I will, I will kudos to our teachers and our students who were very patient through the process. Luckily, we had started, most students had started testing before the slowdown happened, so it impact. 222 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Acted a small percentage of students not being able to sign in or if a student paused to go to the restroom, they were not able to get back in. We do a dry run for some we did we did
083the dry run their end, I mean there's just most of yes they'd be able to I wouldn't think this company's gonna be back next year. 223 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) When the when the 1st incident happened on Tuesday. We received an email at 04:00 saying that NWEA tested their system, it's optimized, it's running at 100 % and then at 08:15 the next morning we had the same problem. And, on Tuesday 5th grade took the science and. 224 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) At 08:30 it started and then I started getting a, well, I had all most of the 5th graders in the 5th in the in the great room and then I had a teacher call me. Then I had another teacher call me and I was like, wait, did I give you the wrong login?
084I don't understand. And then finally we got a message from the state saying that like. 225 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The school that the program wasn't working. But finally I could we kept on tests running and at 09:30, which was when I was gonna call the test off, we were able to get on to the program. So they had to wait an hour. 226 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So parent, you know, back in the day, make sure he's getting us a good breakfast and trying to set up everything, you know, I had a good handicapping condition, but you try to set it up so they will have a best chance they can to have normal and transition into it. And this stuff, you just don't get it back. No. 227 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) From
085that point on yeah and then I had to redo like the schedule because it affects our schedule, like when are they gonna have lunch? When are they gonna have their special that they're looking forward to? Like, we had to. 228 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Like change around everything because of an hour delay. So, yeah. And, and this goes further. Remember the opt out situation we had? Yeah this gives everybody an opportunity at this point to say, they're not gonna take those tests anymore, and they got alright to do that. So you might see another movement happen. 229 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And then the state and federal government's gonna stick us again and say, your percentages are too low, you know? So it's, they got some pro to eat here, you know, and hopefully they
086do. We'll see what happens. So, so testing part, tomorrow's the end of the Q3 already. When we come back from the break with all the extra snow days and a couple of half days. We're gonna have 24 or 25 classes. 230 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Days before June. So this this year is is definitely flying question. Just some updates on some building projects stuff. As you know, we've entered into a solar agreement. We, we've got a grant for geothermal project to do our heating and cooling down the elementary and. 231 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Decarbonization prod, really a great $14000000.01 .4 million from, like I said, nicerta. And then in the meantime, we're planning our next capital project. You know, our buildings are 25 years old up here, 27 years old by time we, by
087the time we we do the project and the same thing with the the bus garage. So we plan this. 232 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Well in advance, like there's a lot of planning already on this stuff. The state in their infinite wisdom decided to realize that they messed up with how they categorized solar, meaning solar is now what's called an, not construction. 233 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) But not in tangible incidental costs. So what that does, I'll break this down a little bit when when you have an amount of money or amount of, I'd say money money to use cost allowance for each building for your. 234 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Projects. So right now we have about $40 million of cost allowance in construction, and we have about $9 million in incidentals. That's just
088the way it breaks down. Solar was supposed to be in a construction cost. It's now being moved into the incidentals. 235 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So we're looking at $1.3 million or $1.7 million to go incidentals. And then if we do the geothermal, we're looking at another $4 million into the incidentals. So once you do that and then add your capital project, you don't have enough. 236 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) To do all three. So they just recently changed this without any repercussion in terms of what it affects. I just think we create these projects today. So we've been fighting with, with state Ed and working with fiscal advisors. 237 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) To get a breakdown of what this looks like with or without it, and I'm gonna have a meeting with the
089higher UPS, I hope next week hopefully they get back to me just kind of say, this isn't the time or place because you messed up how it was categorized to level this on people right now, any project in the works, and I think we have some say. 238 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) In this because the solar project was already submitted but not approved and the geothermal was we we got the grant. 239 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) With the approval five, six months ago. So I think we hopefully we have some say that they can change this. I can't promise that, but that just messes up everything. In terms of now our project that was 25 or 26 million possibly goes down to 18 million. It's split up into two parts. 240 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984)
0902027 and 2029. It should just. I wish the state in the future say implement this in the next calendar year or the year after. And they messed it up, so now they're not eating crow on this and it's and it's affecting us, so. 241 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I hope when we tell our story, it makes sense to them and they take it into consideration. So hopefully we have a meeting soon with it. So just giving everybody a heads up, there's a lot going on and it, and it's a ripple effect, it's a domino effect, but one project to the next project to the next project. So we'll see, we'll see what ends up happening. So just want to give you a heads up on that and I'll. 242 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Let you
091know as we get more information back. So that's my report for the most part. 243 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Do you have don't have any bright news? Yes, we are Q4 is almost here. And the weather is, well, I can't say that either. We're gonna get snow tonight. Moving right along, we have the finance committee report, take it away here. The finance committee wrapped up into our our budget. 244 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So if you want to click on the budget Chris, is there possible to put that? I can't get the screen to come back up, so I'm just letting it audio record right now. Okay cause I don't want to shut off the card. You guys have your presentation in there, you can open that up and if if Fran or Caroline, if
092they want to come over and look at a computer. 245 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So pretty much with our, our budget, this if you go past the 1st second pages, you know, obviously our mission, our vision and our values, again, everything we do, we take into consideration this 1st and then we put together budgets and programs from that. It's, it's our guide. And our goals for the budget are simple. Maintain pro. 246 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Programs for students. If you notice that doesn't say, you know, progress programs for students. Not to exceed the allowable tax gap and maintain jobs. And, and I think what we're trying to kind of, we're morphing into. 247 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Status quo, or morphing the status quo because the revenues don't exceed the expenses, you know, and
093we got lucky the last four years with the federal funds and some grants. We restructured our our our our medical benefits. 248 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We did all the things cause if you remember seven years ago you were sitting here that we were $750000 in the hole and we we started to talk about cuts. So we were able to kind of reverse that for a while, but as ok we restructured our, our, our benefits, but they went up 6 % every year for five years. That's a 30 % increase. 249 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Right? 250 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So, you're looking at that is outweighing what we're getting in for funds. Not to mention the federal is, you know, up in the air right now, so I don't know where that's heading.
094So anyway, that's our, our three goals. 2526 proposed budget has a tax increase of only 1.53. 251 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) On a five year everge, it's only 1.78 %. 252 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So we've done a phenomenal job for the community. That's good. The bad part is one point 78 % on average, doesn't give us a lot of revenue coming in. I already saw one school district or above looking at the above the tax cap. I think you're gonna see. 253 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) 15 to 20 across the state this year that will try to go above the tax cap. It's not feasible. It's not feasible to stay in the tax cap. So, we'll see what happens. Current proposal maintains student resources that maintains positions that were in a general fund budget,
095and it uses establishes reserves. 254 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And fund balance to offset annual purchases. But you know we have our equipment reserve that gets gets things out of our general fund budget so we can really look at what's just in our general fund, and then we're looking to use ERS TRS, and also fund balance to close the gap. Now, I caution that. 255 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) By saying this in the last four or five years. 256 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We've had that to close the gap, but we haven't had to use it. We haven't had to use it because there's been federal funds come in and stuff of that nature. That's not happening anymore. So you're gonna again you're gonna you're seeing it in the news, you know, Scotia cobal skilled.
096You know, two schools that are close are already talking about CV cap and cutting positions, right? That's gonna kind of start. 257 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) To be the norm a little bit. I think we've done a good job though of keeping costs down, like I said, 6 % in, in health insurance and getting grants and being careful with, with what we're doing. So the overview here is our foundation aid went up 4.5 %, which is great this year. No doubt about it. Our use of our tier. 258 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Again to close our gap. Addition of a 09:12 counselor, which was in a bus which was in a grant that's in there capital bus reserved for two buses. 259 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Because we're getting one electric, if you remember, instead
097of having three. Equipment reserve, we have to, we're gonna use that for last classroom furniture round technology and some facilities equipment that we just need to upgrade. We're gonna reestablish equipment reserve, if you remember when equipment reserve reaches its cap. 260 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) You have to reestablish it. So even though you have $500000 for one, once you spend $500000, you then have to reestablish. So reestablish that. Not saying we're gonna put the whole 500000 in, we're just saying it's there if we want to. 261 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We're hoping to do the carbon reduction in geothermal. I say we will, but it's gonna be different. And then we have a board of education representative dr. Berotie's position is up and he's re, you know, petitioning to reapply and NO one else has
098come forward yet. So could be an easy election level. 262 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Anyway, so if you go down to the next two pages, this is the breakdown of the budget, and like always, and it's not anybody's fault or mission, the top four lines are your biggest increases because they're just contractual obligations. We have to pay people. That's, you know, that's just normal and that's what happens. 263 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The other big ones, you know, health insurance, we cut that a little bit, even though with the increase because now we've had three years and four years of this insurance. So now we have a good idea of where we are and how many people have rolled over to the deductible plan. And then your ERS, you know, usually goes up and your
099TRS usually kind of goes up. Though we level the TRS. 264 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) It's because we are over budgeted for that because. 265 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) We were afraid a one year was gonna come in at like 18 %. They were talking about that. So it didn't, that's good. So we kind of lowered that a little bit. Bosy's went down a little bit because of some P tech, spots and some other items, but you can see our debt service and things of that nature. If you go down to the revenues. 266 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Our revenues are 1.53 % tax increases a hundred and $24000. Remember, we've been on average of 178, which is only about a $135000 on average. We did get a good foundation aid increase as of now
100if they don't change it before the budget's approved. Expense driven aid ties off with debt service for the most part and. 267 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Then you can kind of see below we have other revenue sources, but you can see that we have ERS TRS, and fund balance to close the gap. Now, if you look at 2425, we also had ERS and fund balance to close the gap, right? So just to kind of an offshoot of this. 268 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Since we had so much fund balance the last couple years, we took the total of the ERS reserve and the fund balance of last year and put a, a restricted fund balance amount of that amount that New York State allows you to do into another account. 269 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984)
101So that sits there in case we have to use that money to subsidize that. I hope this year we kind of break out even, that way we don't have to use it so that 08:50 goes into next year. Next year, because we closed the, some of the gaps on the on the. 270 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) On the line items, I I can't imagine that we're not gonna use reserve next year. This year we might get out of it. Next year we plan on get it, we won't. And I caution this for any school district, even though we have $3.1 million in an ERS reserve, and 680000 in ERS reserved. 271 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The problem is once you start using reserves more than two years in a row, you know where it's heading.
102And you can't rely on that because you have to con continue your general fund to make sure your revenues outpace your expenses. Because here's the other problem. 272 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) If you don't outweigh your expenses, you'll never gonna be able to put anything in a building reserve, an equipment reserve. So we'll have to watch that, but I think over the next, after the next couple of years, we'll continually use reserve. So next year I think we're gonna have to start talking about. 273 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Ideas of what we can do to level the playing field and that because listen, again, we have to give benefits and we have to pay people. That's part of the, you know, what we're gonna do. We value people here and that's what we need to
103do. What comes with that though, like anything else, if there's more expenses than revenue, something has to give, right? So we'll. 274 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Kinda take it from there. So our budget right now is status quo. Again, it keeps the district fiscally solven for right now. It keeps the taxburden to a minimum. So if we approve the budget tonight, that's what we'll move forward with. We have budget meetings on 29 April for faculty and staff. 275 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Community budget hearing on 8 May and then 12 May and do a Webex in case anybody can't make the budget hearing. So, any questions on the budget, it's pretty clear cut and dry. It's not much changed from last time. The only change was the increase due to the extension on the contract
104that we agreed to. 276 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So, any questions? So I, you know, we're not entire straights at all. We just can't get, we can't keep progressing. That's the, and that's why we were looking at the merger, right? We were looking at the merger to say, this can kind of keep progressing for kids. 277 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) As opposed to the status quo. Not that the status quo is bad. It's just we want to offer our kids the best, right? So, make sense? So that's our budget. Any other questions on that? Okay. Thank you. 278 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So then when at this point we have to have an action item to It's down further I think it's in this one. Yeah. Okay. 279 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) So I would
105entertain a motion to approve the proposed budget. Second. Thank you. Here we can move on to approvals. We will have to do the 1st minutes separately because now all of us were there and after that we can. 280 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Consent agenda. So any question on the 3 April minutes? And I'm sorry, go back to that your consent agenda, but you had to pull out the minutes just April 30 min because not all of us were there. Okay. 281 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) I would entertain a motion to approve the 3 April. The minutes second second on favor? Because we weren't here. Does that mean it can't pass? It can't pass. So I'll have to do that again next time. So we'll have to. 282 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) U. 283 "Canajoharie CS
106BoE" (3851177984) Okay, then I will entertain the motion for a consent agenda for C through J Motion for consent agenda. Second. Any question on the minutes? Small thing on the minutes. 284 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Just Okay let me just show these are the excuse me, i'll shut that hold on, let me just get this done. If you go to reports hold on, hold on. Not as fastest. 285 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) As Andrea. Okay, go ahead. If you go to reports B, my name is Spelledrown. Reports in the minutes? Yeah, it's reports on letter B. 286 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Gotcha. My name doesn't probably just not have an A in it. You're waiting all day for that one. I think it's funny because it's usually the other way. Yeah. 287 "Canajoharie CS BoE"
107(3851177984) As I said it was a small point. Yep. No problem. 288 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, Bills since Leah's here, not here, I'll keep my mouse trying to throw an email ok treasury's report, anything there? Okay, bunch of transfers, anything there? 289 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, transportation requests, a bunch of people are going to Bible school. Anything there? Okay, agreement with Mayfield, we have one of their students here? 290 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, surplus and the food courses of anything there? No, I was really, really impressed with the nature of those courses. It seem really, really fascinating and and interesting. I'm really happy for. 291 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) The students that have had the opportunity to, to, you know, participate in those because really looks like some innovative and and interesting,
108you know, thing, so good job. Thank you. Okay so I didn't agenda. Second. Oh my favor. 292 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Thank you. Moving right along to old business. This is just reminders for two upcoming meetings. 293 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Of three actions. 30 April 07:45 will be approving for voting to approve the budget. And then we have a, a meeting of fortune of a graduate presentation on 15 May at 09:00 A.M. up at. 294 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) It'll began it'll be speaking and really fascinating that I will read anything of ideas and internationally known. And so I would really encourage anyone who's available to go to sort of do it. 295 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Okay, and then the last thing is the budget owners on 20 May, as you know, and
109we're gonna be having a meeting after the pulse close and we have the results in order to hopefully approve the budget. So if you're not there, you can. 296 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) You know, we'll, we'll have a some kind of Webex go by Webex and Andrea will send out the email. Yes yep ok what's this one? Nominated candidates in notice of annual meeting 03:21. 297 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Oh, Yeah the ones that from the other the other night? Yeah. That's what we voting on the 30th. Yeah along with the budget. Yep. Okay. 298 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) And, oh, then there's also the, the meeting on the 8th 8 May, which is our regular board meeting will start a half an hour earlier at 05:30. That's gonna be a budget budget. 299 "Canajoharie
110CS BoE" (3851177984) Who have that in the auditorium, which is not We'll probably have it here. Yeah. Meet the candidate and then we'll. Why doesn't. Okay. 300 "Canajoharie CS BoE" (3851177984) Do we have anything from executives? Yes sir. Okay, I would undertake a motion moving to executives. Excuse me.