001Congratulations. [Music] So exciting. Oh my gosh, she's so big. I know. I remember when you guys were pregnant. I didn't hear you, Christine. What did you say? Okay. >> Can you hear me if I'm talking on the mic? Elanor, can you hear me? >> I cannot hear you, Christine. I know you're talking, but I can't hear what you're saying. >> Okay, one minute. Can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, I'm just going to ask you that if you want to add to the conversation, whatever, just kind of give me a wave so we can see you out of the corner of my eye. Okay. Thanks. All right. Thank you everyone for your patience. Um terribly sorry we had a very important executive session and um I appreciate your patience. So the meeting
002will come to order. Please join me in um standing for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Um for everyone in attendance, just so we know, emergency exits are behind us and then of course out either side here. Um um when you go out the main doors here to the left. All righty. Recognition of visitors. Uh, board of education welcomes comments from the public. Each person wishing to speak is asked to identify themselves and respectfully limit their comments to three minutes. Anybody have any comments in the interest of time? Okay. Thank you. All righty. Let's go into committee updates. Can we start with uh board policy committee Christian? >> So, board policy committee hasn't met yet. Um, I was waiting on something. since the letter is drafted and we plan to meet before the end of
003the month. >> Do you want me to do audit as well? >> Sure. Go ahead with audit. >> Um the audit committee is meeting on September 17th to review our um external and internal audit and we plan on making a recommendation to the board for the September 22nd meeting. >> Thank you very much. Um facilities committee meeting. Jim, >> thank you. Yes, we had a meeting uh I don't have the date in front of me but two three weeks ago. Um main topics of discussion were three larger projects uh well two two major topics. One were three larger projects that we are considering and then timing of our upcoming capital bond. So maybe I'll work second first. Um uh I guess they go hand in hand. So I'll tackle them both at the same time.
004the three uh major projects that are under consideration to be potentially included in a capital uh project uh yet no decision from the committee. Um but we decided that plans were close enough to um work on getting costs so we could consider whether or not we want to include them and then present that to the entire board who obviously will approve um any potential future project. Uh those three projects uh one is mandatory per state ed which is uh bathrooms and um concession area by the new high school stadium. Um we didn't have the funds to do that last time. We need to do that to get any other state funding for capital projects. So we will be pursuing that project. Uh just we're discussing plans there. Uh the other two projects are a potential
005um kiss and ride loop if if you want to call it that um behind the middle school to um change the drop off there. Uh so buses would be in front of the school and cars would be behind come in off of Lee Road and loop around uh the existing football field track there. Um so uh with that project there's going to be you know need for some extensive earth works and it was decided that uh the seeker would not be able to be completed by November December to try and put a a bond vote before the community this fall which we had discussed as a possibility. Um so we're if we do have a bond vote we would uh current thinking is it would be in conjunction um with the May budget vote. Um
006and then the third project would be um an expansion of the middle school for a new cafeteria um and food prep area. Uh the kitchen area is in dire need of repairs uh both in functionality as well as structurally uh underneath. So we approved those three projects approved them in terms of getting them costed out. Um, next meeting will be three weeks from tonight, uh, Monday the 29th, uh, at the high school at 6 PM. And, uh, there we will be discussing, um, what came back from the building condition survey, which was completed in the spring. Um, and, uh, comparing that to our current list of projects for the district. And, you know, there's going to be obviously a lot of overlap, things that we already knew about and see what additions are there. Um,
007and then we'll start the rest of the fall getting work together on uh trying to prepare a capital project to present to the full board uh ultimately to ask for the voters's approval. >> Thank you very much. Um, communications committee Brendan >> have not met yet. I've uh been speaking with our other committee members about establishing uh a date to have recurring meetings. So, I know you wanted to change this year to really schedule them all out in advance. So, which is a great idea. So, um we will have our uh we'll have our first meeting definitely by the end of September, probably in the next few weeks. And then, uh I'll have that scheduled for you so that we can get that up on the the district website as well. And I I would
008also add um and this is to the members and uh kind of just a public call, we will be looking for uh members of the public as well to join. And I say public uh that doesn't necess that could also mean other members within the district as well. So um that request will be made more formally uh after we meet but just want to put that out there in case you know for all of our tens of listeners if they want to throw their hat in the ring. >> They don't need special permission. They can just show up. >> Yeah. >> I I will uh we'll formalize the way that we'll intake that. But certainly they could also just show up. Yes. >> Thank you. And our last one is visitation. Carl, >> how you
009doing? Um last week we met uh last Wednesday we met. Um we discussed some visitation um building of relationships and school uh liaison. Um we had a great time. Um, I think that the committee is going to be looking real good and um, we are going to set up a meeting with Megan, Christine and I and um, and that's it. >> Um, and then we have Oxa Christian. So, um, Miss Diaz and I attended the last OXA meeting, which I believe was September 4th, >> last Wednesday. >> Last last Wednesday. Um, the major things to report, um, they, uh, there was a presentation from the ADAC of Orange County, which I believe stands for Alcohol and Drug Awareness Council, did I get it right? Of Orange County, and they presented to us a variety of
010different mental health resources that are available to districts, um, as well as anyone living in Orange County. Um and uh I think that we we have partnered with them on other things in the past and they kind of in a sense just extended an armed to be assistance to school districts and there was a little bit discussion of what they're seeing um mental health wise among students but also in terms of things such as um alcohol and drug use and abuse and they also mentioned the upcoming NISPA convention which uh is coming up in October and I think that was the thrust of the meeting. >> Thank you. Legislative, anything? Um, Jim, >> um, there was a meeting that, uh, NISPA put on virtually with a representative from, uh, Representative uh, Ryan's office, Pat Ryan's
011office, which I attended. Um, there was maybe five people there in the room with me. um took some notes, emailed them out to the board. Nothing super significant, but yeah, >> thank you for attending. >> Richard, anything from NISBA? >> Yes, so I just signed up to uh attend the annual business meeting on Thursday, October 16th, just for the new uh board members. Bass was our former NISPA representative and I think the way he did it was worked well and if it's not broke, don't fix it. So, be on the lookout for an email from me probably within the week with a either a Google spreadsheet or Excel sheet where you can vote either yes or no on the propositions. Um, and I will represent the board's, you know, majority on how you feel on
012those propositions. So, just be on the lookout for that. And yeah, that's it. Thank you. >> Can I uh >> Yeah. >> What's the schedule on that? When when are they >> They've already released what the the topics are. >> Yeah. >> Just today. >> Yeah. >> And And when is uh when is the tally going to be due by? >> Um well, >> I'm sorry. >> No, no, no. I mean, the meeting's October 16th, so I would probably like it at least a week beforehand. Um I'll put that in my email once I look at the calendar and you know, >> whatever it takes. Thank you, >> Commissioner. >> Yeah, >> can make a comment on that and I said this to you uh privately, but some other districts post the votes of the
013board members on the NISSBA resolutions um just as a me measure of accountability, but also um you see how people what positions they take on it and people see what NISBA is and what they're voting on. Um I think it would be maybe interesting to follow that practice, but that I'll leave it up to the board as a whole to decide whether that's advisable. Yeah, I mean I think that's worth a discussion if you know if the board wants to do that or Yeah, that should be up to the the board as a whole, but I'd be I'd be for that. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh did I miss anything? Anyone committees? Okay, great. So, let's move on to our consent agenda. Um before we get started, I need approval to add item number 10
014to our consent agenda. Could I have a motion to approve The resolution um be it resolved the board authorizes the board president and interim district superintendent to communicate the determination of the board to the teachers association regarding the stage three grievance brought by the Cornwall Teachers Association. May I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Christian, can I have a second? >> I will second that motion to amend the consent agenda at item number 10. >> Thank you, Jim. Okay. So, adding item number 10 to our consent agenda. We have items 1 through 10. Is there anything anyone would like pulled from the consent agenda? >> Do we need to vote to amend? >> You need to vote to add it. >> Oh, sorry. Could I have a vote um to pass the motion to
015add the number 10 to the agenda? >> All in favor? >> The motion passes. Thank you. Now, would anyone like to pull anything from the consent agenda for discussion? >> I would like I would like to pull number seven and number 10. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. So, I need to get approval on the consent agenda for numbers 1 through six, 8 and nine. Could I please have a motion to approve those numbers on the consent agenda? >> Some moved. Bren Brendan with the U motion and may I have a second? Carl with the second. All in favor of approving the consent agenda items one through six, eight and nine. >> I I >> Anyone opposed? The motion passes. Thank you. We've pulled num we've pulled number seven and number 10. Resolution to approve funding
016of the capital reserve. Can I have a motion to >> um M if I may um can we consider 10 first because I pulled that simply for the purpose of voting individually on that. Um so it doesn't require any discussion at least not from me the person who pulled it. >> Okay. Sure. >> So you want to do a um a roll call vote? >> Is that what you're asking for? >> I I think I did not pull it for discussion. And I pulled it simply to >> have had to vote >> normal way. >> So to if people I >> could I have a motion please for item for agenda item number 10? >> So moved. >> Thank you Jim. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you Brendon. I have a
017second. All in favor of um resolution for item number 10. Show of hands please. So, please note we have Loftton, Jamie, Carl, Brendan, and Christine, and Jim. All opposed. Please note, we have Richard and Christian >> and Elanor. >> Oh, Eleanor, I'm so sorry. Thank you. All right, the motion passes. Thank you. So, item number seven. May I have a motion for the resol resolution to approve funding of capital reserve number three? Jim with the motion. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Brendan with a second. Discussion. >> Christian. >> Uh, so I've I've said this in the past few years. We made a similar motion about funding the capital reserve. And you know, I understand that this money has to be allocated. Um I question the advisability of allocating the entire the entire
018balance to the capital reserve itself because by allocating it we are actually making a spending decision to allocate this money that can't be spent in any other way and my preference would be first of all to fund the unemployment insurance reserve up to the recommended level and I would also would think would be more advisable especially given what budget we probably will face in the upcoming year to keep that money and use it to return it to the taxpayers which would be one other way we could deal with this money in an effort to defend our program as opposed to allocating it to spend on a larger capital project and I don't and I would also say that even though there is a 4% limit um according to at least the last controllers report that
019I've seen between 55 and 60% of the school districts have more than their 4% limit and I am not aware that there has been any penalty. While I realize that the audit will the audit comm the audit auditors will probably not like the fact that we're above that. is not uncommon for people to do it and at least in the short term I doubt that the state would take any action especially because part of the excess is because the state passed its budget after school districts passed their budget which means there was going to be an excess built in anyway because there was more money out given to us by the state than what we budgeted so my preference here would be well I will probably be voting against this resolution and I would rather
020keep this money to defend our program espec especially in the context in discussion of the previous budget. We were often told how things were unaffordable that we eliminated the total number of teaching positions in the district. Um that we did not support a strategic plan that was in our board goals from past years and perhaps you know all of a sudden once again this year we found we have $2 million above and beyond the churn which roughly speaking is about taxing about seven uh levying about $7.7 million over four years, more than we spent in the regular program budget. And I I realize I'm not being exact in some of those terms, but I think that if we're not going to spend the money on the program, that perhaps we should consider given that we
021might have a difficult budget season in terms of revenues to keep at least some of that money available for that purpose even more so than normal and not necessarily incent spend that money by putting in the capital reserve. I will just say the last thing on this is that we have done this kind of in an odd fashion which is usually when you do a capital project you pass a resolution and then you raise taxes to fund the capital resolution going forward which means that you go to the community and say we need to do these capital projects and let's vote on it and this is what we include on it and therefore you agree to a higher tax higher taxes or higher levy rather instead of let's say raising the money beforehand and saying
022oh well since we already got the money from you, it'll be tax neutral going forward because we've already in a sense levied that amount and then use that toward our capital project. This is a point that I've made before. Uh but that's how I and I've said this on previous resolutions of this sort, but I still think that that would be more advisable. >> Just a couple points to clarify on that. So, just on that that last point, um the way that we're going about it being different than the way that other capital projects are typically run where you put it to the voters and then you raised the money through taxes. I will remind you that um and anybody listening that uh the last two times that we tried that path, those bonds were
023voted down. uh the one time that we have uh tried this alternate path which is to have the voters approve of a capital reserve fund fund it then put a capital project with zero tax increase that has been successful. So I think that logic would dictate that if we're going to pursue a second capital project we would take the path that has been successful. You mentioned that um we are uh putting this money into this reserve fund and then going to the voters. Uh as another reminder, the capital reserve fund is established by a vote from the community. Uh we have approved over the years three capital reserve funds. Uh all of them have been overwhelmingly supported by the community. I think implicit in that vote is the public's expectation that we will fund that
024capital reserve fund. Um, and it has been part of that uh that plan that I mentioned before of putting capital uh projects before the community with zero tax increase. To your initial point, I'm very sympathetic to that idea of keeping money aside for uh academic programming, particularly if we feel like we're entering what could be a challenging budget season. But for this year in particular uh we know that there will be parts of the capital project that are unatable. In fact, those parts are the parts that we some of those parts are the ones that we have to include in this capital project in order to uh be approved uh by state ed. I won't go into the details. I'm sure you're aware of them yourself. So, um I think there's a lot of nuance
025to to this move in this year uh that makes makes it more sensible uh to put as much money into the capital reserve fund this year as possible. Um although I I will say in ensuing years I would agree that having a uh judicious approach to how much we put into the capital reserve fund is warranted. Uh but this year I think full steam ahead is uh the wiser course. Other comments can >> I just want to get I think clarity Christian on one thing you said that you wanted to give this money back to the taxpayers and save it for programming. Was that a different suggestion than just holding over 4% or you're saying by holding over 4% we are saving for program or were those two different I'm trying to get clarity on
026your comment because I didn't fully understand it. So my understanding and I'll defer to uh Mr. Frink on this to if I miss if I'm not understanding this correctly. What we need to do is when we go over 4% is have a plan to sp spend that overage. Legitimate spending could be putting into reserve because we've decided to spend it by saying this money should be allocated toward the capital reserve and how much should be put to the capital reserve from that overage. We could put it into other reserve funds as well. There's no necessity that it goes into one particular place. One of the things we can do is in a sense, hey, we levied more than we needed. Let us return it to the taxpayers in the next budget season. And by doing
027that we would lower the tax levy effectively by in a sense in a sense adding this in addition to whatever is the allocated fund balance in the next budget which would then let's say make it cheaper and give us more ability to support programs if that money is not coming from the state or the money from the state is not as generous and therefore the increase in let's say the cost of our programs increases but we don't get the same increase from the state. I think that gives us more flexibility and that would be my my personal preference but other people might have different preferences about how this money is spent because once you put it into a reserve fund it is hard to claw it out as you >> I it's it's always been
028my understanding that if it's over the 4% what we will put aside the argument of can you hold more than 4% and how many people do it and will state ed slap your hand if you do uh because we know the answer is a lot of people do it. And state ed's never said anything, but you're not supposed to. But putting that argument aside, it's always been my understanding that you have to put it allocate it to a reserve fund, that you can't just allocate it to the next year's general fund. I would love to get Mr. Fin's thoughts on that issue. >> That is correct. They have to be allocated to our reserves. So I I'm I'm not positive. Um Christian, when you say that you want to put it towards the voters again,
029would that be reducing the appropriated fund balance in which case we appropriated um we use appropriated fund balance about $2.4 million to reduce the levy? Would we use this 2.6 to reduce it further? Um I I don't know if we can do that and I would have to check with the auditors. They can answer that question for us next week. And I can assure you we are not holding more than 4%. >> Um this is not about so just to be clear I'm not accus I I'm not accusing anyone of putting money in the wrong place and I the point about for the auditors they want to know what this money is going towards right and putting in the capital reserve is one way to say we have made a plan for how this money
030will be used. Um my understanding is based upon reading the controllers about what happens on the overages of controllers report from a few years back about the different options that are available to a school district if they end up having more than their 4%. And it seemed fairly clear to me but I will admit that I am not an expert on this and I will defer to your judgment that it is possible if you initially say look we have this extra money we're basically going to use it and return it because we levied more than was necessary. We always budget more than we spend for obvious reasons because we don't know we only have one revenue point or we only have one major revenue point and we have many different expenses some of which we
031don't know at the beginning of the year or when we budget. So it is not unnatural that we are going to have an overage. Um the question is what we do with that overage and obviously we have prudently allocated that the funds both yourself and uh Mr. Scotland before you and as you noted in our memo a lot of our reserve funds are well capitalized if that's the correct term and I think we are in good shape over it however I am concerned that there are other things that we might want to be more cautious about and that's that explains my own pre my own personal preference now as I said that's one preference the board will take a vote about the prudence of John, may I ask a question? Um, if I remember last
032year, so we have this e extra money. Our options are to put it in a reserve or it has to go into the fund balance. We can't we can't go back and now we want to do strategic planning and hire someone like I feel like we had that conversation when we weren't sure what the state was giving us. >> So that that that's correct. So I think there's a little bit of confusion um being talked about. one of our revenue sources for the 2526 school year. So the state came back and said we're going to get I think it was $100,000 more you know or thereabouts for the 2526 school year. That's not received yet. So that's not included in what you are seeing here. That will be received in the 2526 school year and
033be allocated in our fund balance next year. So a year from now we will be dealing with that money. um when we when we come full circle here. >> So, that's a great clarification that we did discuss. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments, questions? I'll just um I want to echo Brendan's statement um you know that the voters obviously approved this capital fund balance and with uh proposed capital project coming up uh this year I think it is prudent to put this money um in the capital reserve fund uh number three uh as Mr. Frink um has recommended to us as a board. Uh, I would like clarification though for next year. Um, if we can take um any unallocated funds and not necessarily put them in a reserve fund, but put them in
034the allocate them to the next year's budget. That'd be an interesting question for clarification because that's always been my understanding um that that's not allowed. But uh but for tonight, I am in favor of this resolution. >> Thank you. Other questions, comments before we take a vote? Okay. All in favor of resolution to approve funding for capital budget, excuse me, for of capital reserve number three. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. So, Eleanor, I didn't see yours. I'm sorry. In favor? >> She was opposed. >> Opposed. Okay. So, that is um 7 to two. The >> Nope. >> I'm not good with math, but Okay. 7 to two. The motion passes. Thank you. Thank you everyone. So, now we're moving on to the non-consent agenda and our first topic of discussion is our
035board goals. And um I'd like to approach this a little differently this year. Um I think that let me just get out my papers here. What I've done is I have a packet for everyone if you don't mind just taking and passing that to that side. And I think there's enough for everyone. If I miscalculated, please uh share. So the one document you have is just a reminder of what are board goals, what are district goals. So we received uh Megan's draft. We will discuss those at another time. um she's fine-tuning some of those details, but they certainly fall into the part that comes under district goals. And then we have the section that is board goals. And there are certain things specifically, and I thank Christian for helping to qualify the categories. You know,
036I did such a good job of taking notes and being prepared. And now, um Christian helped me to qualify the categories that most of these fall into. So, I had sent him a bunch of brainstormed ideas and said, "What do you think?" and he very quickly was able to say, well, they look like they fall into these five headings. So, we have facilities, instruction, governance, culture, outreach, finance, budget. So, thank you for that because that was very helpful. So then what I did was I took those um five headers and I looked at uh the New York State Board Association and the National Board Association and looked at you know what are the what's the call to action for board of education related to those categories and I came up with um I didn't come
037up with them alone. I went I did some research um some potential goals that fall into these categories. These are not intended to be um Christine, set your goals. This is not intended to be the beall end all. This is a starting point for for our discussion. So um I'm going to try to talk loudly and I just want to show you what our next step is going to be. Okay. Well, Eleanor, too. So, hopefully she can hear me, right? Because Eleanor, you're gonna take this journey with me. I'm gonna carry you around with me. So what I did was I have on each of these flip charts, there's five of them that are posted around here and each of them has one of these headings, governance, finance, facilities, and then as I mentioned, there
038are some thought starters of some goals that are listed there. And I've also included uh the NISBA standard and the New York State standard that would support that so that it's not just willy-nilly what we came up with. And the instructions are there in front of you what the next steps are. You're going to pair up into groups of two. I have stickers for you and I have markers for you. And the task is that you have two stickers per flip chart. So you get to vote on two of these items that you think ah that's the one we should really be fine-tuning or that's the one we should use. You are also free to add other. So you can add an additional one if you feel like you know she missed this entirely. We
039need to get XYZ up here. You can edit one that's up there. You know maybe you like half of it but you want to change the other half. So we are going to go through. Everyone's going to rotate. I'm going to call time. I'm going to have three to five minutes. So, we're going to move quickly, but I want to make sure you have the time to go through it. Once everyone's been through all five flip charts, I've asked Jamie to help me. We are going to debrief and just kind of give you a recap of what we see on the flip charts and then we will take it back and I will consolidate the notes, consolidate your votes, your thinking. I'll send that back out to the board and then hopefully we have enough
040consensus around it that at our next meeting we can do a final vote and um have a consensus on our board goals questions clarification needed. No, not right now. Okay. So, why don't we have um Jim and Loftton, if you guys don't mind going around together. I'm going to try to pair up folks that don't necessarily work together all the time or maybe new and newer. And um we'll have um how about we have Richard and Brendan. We can have um Carl. Do you want to come around with Eleanor and I or you could go Jamie? Okay. Why don't we have Jamie, Christian, and Carl go together? Is that good, Christian, for you? Is that good? And then I'll go with Eleanor. Actually, Elanor, I'm going to email you the document and we'll just do
041it online between us. Okay. So, why don't we have um group one start here? You can designate who's group one. Oh, thank you. Hold on. >> Two stickers between you that hopefully you then Elanor, just give me one minute to get you the email. Okay. So, Elanora, I just sent you the email. What? I just sent you the email with what is on top of each of these charts. So, if you want to look at those, you can even just type in there your feedback and give me like the highlight of the two that you like. And then of course I could always follow up with you after for any clarification if that works. Okay. >> You guys have 1 minute and 20 seconds. Christine there. I don't have an email from you. >> I'm
042trying again. One second. >> Okay. Okay, Jamie's group are overachievers, so they're going to get gold stars over here. They've already moved to their next one. Everybody else needs to move. So, Jim and Loftton, you guys have to pop to the next one. I just resent it. So, I'm going to give it a minute. Two minute warning. Did it come through, Elanora? >> Did it come through? Okay, great. If you don't have enough time, I can circle back with you after, too. >> Yeah, I'm kind of going I'm reading them. I most likely won't finish it. >> That's fine. That's fine. I figure because you're not working with a partner and all that, but yeah, that's good. So I was just easedropping a little bit on this conversation here and I bring up a really
043good point. These do not include KPIs or sort of like how we measure. Did we actually do that? And I think that maybe becomes part of the next phase. So make a note there that's like well I like it but so if that matters for that if it matters for the statement feel free to do that Okay, finish up your last thought on that one. You guys have five seconds and then you'll move up. Just kidding. There's a timer. One minute. Brandon, I think you're the last group. Yeah. I just wanted to note that you have two minutes. Elanora, if you want, we're going to go we're going to go through these and like kind of give a recap of what got the votes here and stuff. So, if you just want to kind of
044make note of that and this way, if you want to do something different or whatever, it just might help our our discussion be easier for you and I, you know. >> Okay. Okay, great. You guys are super fast. Thank you. So, what Jamie and I are going to do is we're just going to go around and give a very high level overview of where the, you know, the most votes landed. And one of the things I probably should have done that I didn't think of was I maybe should have just had a blank page to say what did we miss o overall. So, at the very end, if there's something that you're thinking like, listen, I don't see this anywhere. Um, we'll have a moment to to capture that as well. Again, I don't mean
045to insinuate this is the beall endall. So, when we look at the finance budget category, overwhelmingly we have align budget with student achievement priorities, ensure financial decisions directly support instructional programs, equity, and student success. And the note is made to make sure we're doing that with metrics. And then somebody added one here, which is great. Budget according to a strategic plan. Allow for long-term planning for multi-year initiatives. So, those are the two that got um the most votes from the group. So, we'll dig a little deeper into those um before the next meeting. >> All right. Instruction. Can you guys hear me? I always feel so weird talking in a microphone. Great. Um the two that got the most votes, the first is advance student achievement and equity. So, ensure instructional programs are designed to
046raise achievement and close opportunity gaps. The second is use data to drive instructional improvement. monitor students performance data to identify needs, inform and evaluate program effectiveness. A third was added at the bottom which is UPK. So we'll add that into our discussion. So here we have facilities and we know this is a hot topic for us. So the two of them that are on the top are promote fiscal responsibility and capital planning, oversee long-term capital planning, ensuring fiscal responsibility in facility maintenance, construction and modernization. That's like a whole ball of wax, right? And then foster community engagement in facilities decisions. So invoke stakeholders in facilities planning, including parents, staff, and community members to ensure transparency and support. I feel like these have been on our goals year-over-year, maybe just said a little differently. So we'll
047look at some of what's been said in the past and and fine-tune it a little and get some input from the facilities committee as well, but those are the two that rose to the top. So, in culture and outreach, there's a three-way tie, which I don't think is surprising at all. Um, so the first one is support building an inclusive school culture. Promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in all schools by ensuring that every student, family, and staff member feels respected, valued, and supported. Second is strengthen family and community engagement. develop stronger partnerships with parents, caregivers, and community organizations to support student learning and well-being both inside and outside the classroom, and enhance communication and transparency. Ensure consistent, accessible, and multilingual communication across all channels to keep families and stakeholders informed and engaged. I'm also going
048to note because it was my group, we picked to add number four into number two because I think they kind of are one and the same and can work together. So number four was expand partnerships and community resources, leverage relationships with local businesses, nonprofits, and higher education institutions to provide mentorship, internship, and enrichment opportunities for students. So I think there's a way to just make that a larger community outreach discussion. And the fast the last one, excuse me, is governance. So the one that got the most support was support strategic planning and long-term sustainability. ensure decisions are grounded in data, fiscal responsibility, and community input with a focus on long-term student success and organizational sustainability. And another note about metrics needed. So these are like the overarching themes, but we have to drill down into
049what do we really want to look at? And then the second one is strengthen policy development and oversightes. Ensure all district policies are clear, up-to-date, and aligned with state and federal regulations. regularly review and evaluate the effectiveness of policies to support academic excellence, equity, and safe learning environments. Update as necessary. So, okay, I'm going to turn this off because I >> Yeah, that's it. >> If I can just hop in with a brief comment just um Jamie to your point, uh Loftton and I thought so number two, you'll have to refresh me. eyesight's not that good. But number two was to just improve >> um >> like number three was to improve communication and outreach and number two was to make sure that families feel more connected and I'm forget the exact verbiage but >>
050it was strengthen family and community engagement. So >> we thought that two was an outcome of three. So we voted for three in that we thought three was like the direct action and two would be the outcome of three. So, we're kind of in the same camp as you in that, you know, >> I think we all had a tough time with this one. >> I think there's a connection there. >> Yeah. And to that point, Jim, we were Richard and I found ourselves kind of um leaning towards things that were more specific that were that felt like goals as opposed to and we didn't say this, but this my the way I look at it, goals that we can achieve versus um ideas or virtues we support. >> You know, like I think that
051we all support everything that's on here, but is that a goal? Is that something that we we can look at at the end of the year and say we we furthered that uh particular goal? >> So in the interest of like when metrics and we added like sub goals, it was just from our view it's like love it but in some cases we'll just need to make it specific so that it's something that we as a board can achieve. >> How do we how do we know we were successful at the end of the year? Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Question. So part of my thinking about looking at this is just what is these are board goals and there are things the board can do and the things the board can't do and if we
052just take the standard divide between we set values, we set policy, we allocate resources, we don't run the school district. So when you talk about an inclusive school, I think that's very desirable, but we don't run the school. We're we're nine people. So we are not going to actually do anything at the school level. What we can do is make ourselves more accessible to the community. We can make efforts to reach out to the community and listen, right? But we're not actually changing, we're not on the day-to-day of the school. So, I tended to favor things that were about allocating resources or how our our process our governance process works would be at the core and some in some of the things that I think are completely desirable but just not in the board's competence
053or in the board's role. And I just that's kind of how I looked at some of the things that I think were great just not for us to do. >> Yeah. I think it's important to say that I don't know that the thought starters that were here were intended to be the final goal or to your point Christian that we don't have direct oversight over that. But if this is a priority for us, we certainly we can then go back to the what resources are needed, how do we support administration in getting that done. So, I I think we're on the same page. And I I tried to um really make sure we were focused on things that the board had oversight or or could um influence more so than what's really the administration's role.
054So, thank you for clarifying that. Other thoughts or or questions? anything not up here or in the five categories that it like you were surprised we didn't see it or you think you know we missed it and we need to capture that somewhere. >> I don't have an addition but I do have gratitude towards you Christine because uh you did this in a different way and I think it was a successful way to approach and to work our way through at least the first sift of this process. >> Thank you. >> I would echo that. Um and then I will add something that I think we we could u we could add uh just about formalizing a bit of how standards for how we are going to operate. I know there are some specifics about
055adding an extra retreat. Um there's been discussion on you know the u board self-evaluation. There are there do seem to be some specifics that we could add that would be in the interest of uh board operation, however we want to title it, but that seems like uh it would be worthy to pursue. >> So, can you just like not that it's I'm holding you to it, but like um you said board retreat, like what else comes to mind? >> Board retreat. Um self-evaluation. I know last year we we um at our retreat we spent time on um you know operating guidelines, principles, I forget exactly what we call them. Um we could add that as another deliverable. Again, all of this would be vote, you know, discussed and voted on, but as far as what
056are the options for metrics and deliverables, I think that's those are three and you know, usually three is enough. So, what I before we I I'm going to ask if other people have other things, but my intent is to take what you guys have voted on and what you've done and the feedback you've given and try to consolidate a little bit and even to Christian's point like if it's something that it's more of an output of supporting, you know, make that identifier for everybody and then circulate them back out to you so that we have something more concrete next time to talk about and vote on. Um, but is there anything else that was missing that um or that you would add to Brendan's list of um things standards we want to formalize? And this
057isn't your last option to talk. I just I want to get it before we leave. Okay, great. Thank you so much for um putting your time and energy into that. Um now we have um time for public comments number two. Okay, the one person in the audience is not interested. I do have one comment to make though, if you will um let me. So, we were in executive session for quite a while today and we were late to our meeting and I just want to acknowledge that Mr. Keith Basley um who was um approved tonight as our technology integration specialist at CCMS and CCHS um he's returning to our district. So, we we want to welcome him back. he was here for um the the um appointment and I'm really sorry that we took so
058long that we missed you. Um but we're really excited to have you back. Congratulations. And then Michelle McCoy also, she's our new cse chairperson that we have. That's through the state, right? So that's part of our state grant that we got. Um we're thrilled to have more support in our cse division. And again, terribly sorry we weren't here to meet you or congratulate you in person. That's never our intention. and we will look for you the next time we're in the building to stop by and say hello. So, congratulations and thanks for coming out. Just sorry we took a while. So, um with that, could I please have a motion to adjourn our meeting? Carl with a motion. Can I have a second? >> Richard with a second. All in favor? I >> Thank you.
059The motion passes. Have a good evening everyone. He shut me off already. Eleanor, I'm going to follow up with you in an email afterwards. Okay.