CCSD Board of Education Meeting October 02, 2023 @7 00 PM

001e all right good evening everyone I'd like to call uh this October 2nd uh work session of the Cornwall School Board to order and ask that everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America Amica and to the repu for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all excellent thank you everyone um I would like to now move to the recognition of visitors uh just as a recap all speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner obscene Lang language liist statements threats of violence statements advocating racial religious or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual District Personnel or students should present their comments Andor concerns to the superintendent of schools during regular

002business hours that said anyone wishing to come forward please come forward grab the microphone speak into it thank you Barbara GAA um this year on February 26 the Times Herald Record ran an article a feature on a Sunday with um Regents performances in the schools in the area and they did it you know um for June 2022 post pandemic and Cornwall had 200 Regents that came in um with failing grades and I'm wondering how did we do June 23 and I'm particularly interested in how we did in math because there's a lot of information out there um that speaks to students not um having a difficulty with math after the pandemic with the loss of of time in the classroom so um you have my contact information if someone could get that information to me

003please or if you want to bring it up in a meeting address it there um i' just like to know how we did I'm not sure that the paper would be doing a followup but um I think it was a interesting number thank you thank you all right anyone else okay well thank you I noticed that we have Doug Zimmerman partner from efpr group with us um I'll turn it over to to Terry or Jim if you want to provide any introductory comments prior to Doug getting into his presentation inory comments fantastic well Doug welcome we look forward to your uh your information great and thank you very much and uh we did have opportunity review the financial statements in detail with the audit committee back on September 20th uh we had issued a draft

004on September 15th I'm going to go through the uh highlights of that uh report the audit approach is a risk based determination the audit for the the district we look at significant audit areas sorry interrupt can you just make sure you're speaking to the mic we can hear you without it okay but if you're not in the microphone it doesn't get recorded on the video thank you okay uh yeah so um so we identified syn V those internal we also tested the effectiveness of the inter controls that are in place seems we identified audit work programs and that we're designed for each significant area that allow us to uh make our opinion we do issue a number of reports okay Sor we do issue a number of reports uh we have an audit of the

005basic financial statements uh which will be what's called an unmodified or a clean opinion there's an also an audit of your compliance with Federal grant requirements and you get about $4.7 million of federal dollars in the most recent fiscal year we also have a extra classroom activities fund report so all of these will be unmodified clean opinions uh and that's exactly what you'd want to receive and that certainly attests to the uh you know the work that Harvey and his entire staff do throughout the year to be able to maintain the records to allow us to come in and and do those audit procedures everything that we asked for was uh was easily provided freely provided there were no issues there were no limitations on anything that we requested uh the result results of our

006tests also disclose no instances of non-compliance or other matters uh under another set of rules that we follow called government auditing standards uh so that's also a clean bill of health there were no material weaknesses or deficiencies or non-compliance matters on the internal control of financial statement reporting uh there were no uh issues material weaknesses deficiencies or non-compliance with regards to the major federal programs uh so as I mentioned you get approximately 4 .7 million of federal uh money and we audited two of those areas the uh in this year the special uh education program and then also the education stabilization fund which is effectively the era money that you're receiving either uh directly from the federal government or passed through New York State and again those were clean uh Bill bills of Health the

007last report that we issued to the board is a uh was called a report to the board it's required communication between an audit firm and a governing body and again this was a a clean bill of health uh there's uh significant accounting policies that are clearly described in the financial statements uh accounting estimates were reasonable the disclosures meaning the notes were uh were clear and concise there were certainly no difficulties in performing the audit uh we had no changes to our audit strategy as I mentioned we developed a plan in the beginning and we're certainly happy to report back that we were able to fou that plan without any deviations based on uh the information that we saw uh we were not aware of any other C consultations with other public accounting firms uh there

008are no disagreements with management about any type of financial uh statement reporting item and there were no other matters that were considered uh significant to the district's financial reporting process so again overall a very clean bill of health and certainly happy to report that back um as opposed to coming in with all kinds of issues and findings and again it really uh attests to the quality of the work that is done throughout the year by the entire uh staff in the in the business office I I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has any questions for for Doug Bass yeah thanks for the nice presentation I uh my question is very general do you see any room for improvement anywhere in everything you looked at if we had noted um as an example where

009we saw uh something that was not in accordance with what what you might call Best Practices sometimes what we would write as what we call a management letter although we it wasn't a deficiency here's something that you might try to do better uh certainly with the the relatively small staff there's only c c so much internal control that you can have in place so we didn't see any any areas uh that were subject to recommendations internal control however is something that continually should be looked at it's not something you set up and and forget about and five years later revisit it it's something that should be looked at on an ongoing basis and quite frankly that's what's being done um as I mentioned the era money that we audited uh that's a new program that

010came around as as a result of the pandemic I've had other districts that um didn't maintain those records accordingly didn't uh put uh policies in place as an example didn't spend the money in accordance with all the various federal guidelines that certainly was not the case here but that that shows that the district receives unusual money coming in and they set policies and procedures to address uh whatever they have to follow to make sure they're in compliance with either state or federal guidelines good question and thank you Doug for the answer any other questions Brandon thank you Doug um and good to see you again you you kind of alluded to some issues that you had noticed in other districts I mean it's great to have you come here and tell us that you didn't

011find anything but I just for the sake of benchmarking and knowing how well we're doing compared to others obviously you're not up here to uh tell Tales out of school literally and figuratively but can you give us a sense of what other districts are running into and it maybe just give us a better sense of where we're excelling as opposed to just you know a clean report that doesn't give us some of that Nuance sure absolutely I mean one of the one of the requirements that the state has is that you can maintain no more than 4% general fund balance you are right at the 4% threshold as a result of the pandemic and the es and flows in in revenues and expenditures and and remote teaching most District uh haven't been able to comply

012with that requirement um some uh are way below uh and I've got some and uh certainly it's all public information some districts are at 10 12% uh meaning that they you know they basically as a taxpayer taxpayer there could argue well you over tax me because you shouldn't be that high you should only be at 4% so you've done a good job here of managing the ABS and flows and the funding coming in certainly providing uh you know education to the students but not um retaining monies in excess of what the state allows and had had you been over 4% that ends up being a finding in a report hey Doug could you just hold that thought for a second I think we're having some technical difficulties sorry about that say it all again so

013obviously you're in compliance with that 4% requirement um which you know is something that has been a struggle for a number of districts uh throughout the state during these unusual pandemic times um other than that you know the programs that you received money in um you know there they're reg relatively stable programs yes special education you know program you've been doing for years as I mentioned the uh education stabilization fund is an unusual program it came along the federal government was sometimes issuing regulations after districts already gotten the money started to spend it you were able to adjust accordingly to to that um one of the big issues districts are facing and uh you know I believe har Harvey's been fairly Lucky in this is you haven't had a lot of turnover um districts that

014have had turnover have had all kinds of problems in their financial house and had trouble attracting qualified candidates and what that it's a almost a ripple effect they don't they have vacant positions for a while uh internal controls break down things get F uh falling behind you do have a requirement to file this report by October 15th certainly you're going to be able to do that um there's going to be a number of districts across the state that don't have the ability to do that uh by uh October 15 so really you're doing everything you have to do to comply with all the various rules and regulations you have to follow and uh and again a number of districts for a lot of different reasons uh you know aren't quite in the same shape appreciate

015it hey Doug just to piggyback on Brendan's question regarding the unassigned fund balance how does that affect your uh unqualified opinion in the districts that have that balance we would still have an unqualified opinion on your overall financial statements we would have a finding in your uh compliance report under government auditing standards because it's a violation of New York State uh regulation that you're in excess of that per. great thank you any other questions for D Terry not so much um appreciate your uh work with our our team um but couldn't let the moment pass to you know thank Harvey and his team you know had we had three findings I know we would have spent the next three hours grilling Harvey on what happened um so I did want to take just a moment

016to um thank you Harvey um this does not happen everywhere um a complete clean without a management letter uh with no significant findings with bringing on a huge Federal uh program in the pandemic relief funds is just you know my hats off to you you know I appreciate the heck out of you and just want to take a moment to thank you and your team for all that you do any ditos I'm sure there will be but any getting back to questions for Doug thank you for that Terry but any questions for Doug uh Richard so thank you for this presentation based on what I heard I'm sure the the answer will be no but were there any areas that were identified as high risk well anytime we perform an audit there are certain areas

017uh that are almost automatically predefined as high- risk as an example the federal government says that the education stabilization fund is going to be considered high- risk no matter how you perceive the district being hand handling those monies because of the fact that it's a high volume unusual program that hasn't been around any for districts uh we always consider uh capital projects high-risk area um that that's not something that a district does uh you know day after day on an annual basis you know you have a new school school that's built as an example uh it's something that you might do once every 10 years or something like that so when we go in we see you know what's changed from last year to this year um have there been any key turnovers in personnel

018as an example you know if Harvey wasn't here next year uh we would be uh looking at certain audit areas a little different because of the fact that that you know institutional knowledge that uh leadership isn't there so uh there's a lot of different items that we look at to determine where we're going to focus our various audit efforts in so nothing out of the ordinary was nothing out of the ordinary there's nothing that that Rose above what we would typically uh be looking at you know as an area of high concern or anything like that excellent thank you thank you Richard any other questions Christian so I had the opportunity to ask you questions earlier so maybe not so much tonight but just to um um I know this is not your report but

019did you review the internal audit in preparation of the external audit we we do not rely on the work of internal Auditors we certainly review any work that they produced during the course of the year to see if there were any findings or issues just like if you had had a ococ auditor or any any type of uh outside party audit we be looking at that I was wondering if that was available to you when you performed your audit or it was you're a separate you're a separate audit so it it's not as important but we we uh I I specifically don't remember um what we looked at here Harvey I don't recall do you remember you wouldn't have been able to they you didn't look at the current one which you're actually going to

020be approving tonight because it was been in a draft right format until the audit committee and now then tonight to approve it but it would have been the uh the previous prior year one yeah and again we we look at those to make sure that there weren't any findings that should adjust our audit plan but we would never rely on those like if you got a clean bill of health on whatever area the internal Auditors looked at that doesn't relieve us from the responsibility of still performing the audit procedures we need to do in that particular area and just one other thing um and Jim correct me my memory is we talked about areas to look at going forward in the future and how sometimes we always only looked at the highest risk areas to

021review and we thought about some things as you said are high risk by their nature and that perhaps we should look at some of the things that are kind of on the lower tier going forward in the next uh we were discussing specifically internal audit at that standpoint yes I but just as something that because I guess I'm using the general audit discussion to kind of bring that up just because I think that was part of our discussion as well um I think the next time we have an audit committee meeting that is probably an area a good area for us to discuss of you know let's review the audit plan for in in advance of next year's external audit and just to explore if there's any other areas that we'd like to audit yeah

022yeah if I could just add to to Jim's comment on that it it's it's a bit of a Sticky Wicket when you rely on the external auditor to do whatever they want to go wherever they want and then for you to try to specify what you want them to look at right it it it it's a bit of a Sticky Wicket and and I think Jim is right by by saying the internal auditor who we the board does control does report to the board is the proper place for us to see how that risk assessment has been made how items have been classified in the areas that they we as a board want them to focus on so I just want to make that slight distinction and Doug could you yeah that put a period

023on that sentence yeah certainly that that is the case um that the internal ERS are going to dig into a specific area that the uh committee you know or the board may have concern with we are certainly going to reach out to see is there something that happened over the course of the year that the board or the audit committee is concerned with and depending on those conversations we may or may not devote additional effort into that area uh I mean I go to some meetings where their focus on a particular area turns out to be a few dollars but you know it's concerned to them but from our audit point of view you know it could be completely wrong and would be immaterial to our audit presentation but that certainly is an area that

024the internal audit would would want to handle then yes thanks for that any other any other questions for for Doug on this well let let me then just say Doug thank you to you and your team for conducting a very professional audit of the bank or the uh of of the districts just giv telling you where I was earlier today uh uh the district's uh um internal controls and Financial condition the statements thank you for that thank you I I want to thank the the audit committee uh Jim krian uh Christian brunelli and Nina Ross who's with us this evening as uh um our community uh adviser uh in doing the the hard work and reviewing all the documents that uh Doug and his team and and Harvey and his team produced to be reviewed

025and and lastly I want to thank Harvey and uh his team over in the business business office for the great work that they do day in and day out because it makes everyone's job so much easier when you have an effective internal control structure and have uh uh do as you go work such that someone can come in and quickly uh review the documents that necessary to get comfortable with the the financial condition of the organization so without that I don't know where we'd be but uh I thank you for that Harvey and please relay our our gratitude to to your folks there all right great all right with with that Doug any last words uh no again I just reiterate everything that you just said it's a it really is a team approach to

026get to this point we certainly do all the work we have to do but management and the you know the entire district has to keep things uh in good shape throughout the year to be able to be here tonight to present great thank you Doug thank you everyone you all right thank you thank you Doug enjoy the rest of your your your week thank you and presentations all right so um that will take us then to uh reports and uh committee updates I go first uh let's let's let's go alphabetically I know Jim wants to go because uh he thinks the iron's hot but let's go alphabetically oh look two and one all right Jim audit committee please uh thank you John I I held my comments here um so Terry sto where I was

027going to begin um thank you Harvey to you and your team um I think it was pretty clear from the presentation uh that the audit was very clean um and that uh they were very happy with uh the way um that you run your department and the way that the um the books are kept and the financials are kept for the district um so just a few notes uh we had an audit committee meeting on the 20th in and we went over uh in a little more in-depth this external audit report uh we had Doug and Jeffrey Jones from efpr join us virtually and we were able to ask any questions we had you know kind of came to the same conclusions here uh all records and information requested were freely available no instances of

028non-compliance no material weaknesses deficiencies uh or non-compliance findings so very happy with the audit report um anything else I want to highlight there I don't think so so uh the full board excuse me the uh committee took a vote to recommend obviously unan unanimously that the full board uh adopt the external audit at tonight's meeting which is in the consent agenda we also discussed the internal audit which was conducted 626 and the internal audit um few things we discussed so overall um it was uh uh clean opinion there was just two areas um two recommendations to uh on a corrective action plan so the internal audit as well as the corrective action plan are both in your um items tonight in the consent agenda the two items for corrective action where one there was not

029a backup Treasurer forgive me that's probably not the technical term was that the deputy deputy Treasurer um due to some staffing issues we didn't have a deputy Treasurer in place for a significant portion of last year so there was no backup to be able to sign checks uh that was remedied at our July meeting when we uh as a board uh identified a deputy Treasurer so that was corrected another area uh that the internal Auditors nent and housler recommended was that uh when receiving that the packing slips are collected with um with receive receipt of goods and transmitted to the business office um and that has been implemented over the summer uh by Harvey's team and that uh message spread out to all the department so just a way to beef up our receiving procedures

030um so with those two corrective actions uh already completed uh you know very minor findings uh so we as a then took a vote uh again as an audit committee and unanimously we recommend to the full board that you approve the internal audit as well as the corrective action plan um other items discussed dis discussed excuse me other items discussed in the meeting um were that internal audit um right now we essentially just review We direct the internal auditor to review one area and due to either the volume of transactions um in that area or the Mony monetary inflows in and out uh or a combination of both certain areas are always classified as high-risk uh payroll um um sorry draw a blank here but between another one that would be um yeah just purchasing

031um there's few areas that are always identified as high-risk so uh one thing that we're recommending and Harvey's going to get um just a quote from an internal auditor is to add it the extra expense to uh audit a moderate or low-risk category in next year's internal audit just so some of those basically some some areas would never get audited so uh just beefing up the audit a little bit there uh but again you know really happy with the results of both audits hats off to Harvey and his team um and I don't have anything else to discuss as an audit committee since we are recommended these three actions uh to vote tonight happy to answer any questions that anybody might have for me yeah thanks Jim you just said that uh you're going to

032recommend adding a budget line or adding Monies to the process to um audit I'm going to use the term lower hanging fruit or or lesser risk lesser risk is that in Li of the high risk items or no no in addition to okay yeah in addition to I got you yeah thank you thank you good question good answer any other questions for Jim hey Jim great report thank you and appreciate the the work of you and your committee excellent excellent uh Brendan do we have any updates for communication yep we have a uh communication committee meeting on Tuesday October 17th uh we'll be discussing I think our the most pressing item will just be you know what can we do to support the outflow of information from the capital project um but then we'll also

033be exploring you know what other uh initiatives we want to address throughout the year and over the last two years basically the capital project has been almost if not the entire focus of the communication committee so pulling out a little bit and seeing what else we can address um but our hope is to have something quickly to move on with the capital project uh after that meeting and then make a schedule for uh ensuing initiatives for the rest of the year thank you Brandon uh Lewis facilities sure please so the facilities committee um has a meeting upcoming on Tuesday the 10th in the district office at 6 PM um this meeting is uh or this committee has uh public members and other members not not board members on it I'd like to invite anybody in

034the public who wants to participate as a commune member to please email me and get that or you know give me your name and contact information and um uh we'll get you on a list as well well as um District Personnel are are welcome to participate in this in a perfect world it'd be nice to have um you know some uh U building level administrators as part of this committee as you know they are the ones occupying the facilities that'd be nice to hear from them uh directly I know it was very helpful with uh their input putting together the phases that we that we uh are seeing worked on today um the committee in general in general is going to focus on what previous facilities committies have focused on and and done very well

035um you know a Forward Thinking conscious plan for the district to um look at you know different different um um portions of our buildings and our and our grounds that need our attention and um so we're we're we're going to primarily focus on the Forward Thinking needs and and tee up these projects as as we're as this you know the projects we're working through now with phase one and two is we will we will spend brief moments on the current projects we're in we're you know in general we're not construction managers we are a a facilities committee so we're going to focus on the Forward Thinking um but again everybody wants to know what's going on in the house you know so you can't you can't you can't avoid it um any if there's any

036questions or comments I'm I'm welcome to here so L I think that was a great clarification on that if if if you could just um include this notion of Lessons Learned learned and how we might get ahead of the narrative as it pertains to construction execution I I I think there's some valuable lessons learned that we might be able to to codify to memorialize such that as we get into more capital projects down the road we can use that as kind of like the the what not to do uh cookbook uh so maybe things get a little bit more on time and and and the like so so if you could add that to that list and I think we've talked about that it' be helpful yeah I um I'm I've been working with Ary

037for the last several weeks um I sent him a note today on so I should preface the Palomo group and tetr will be at our first meeting and looking to report to us on the State of Affairs as to where we are again we're not construction managers uh but we are you know responsible I'll say for for you know keeping an eye on these things so um tetr and the the Palumbo group will be present and um some of what you just annunciated John will is what they're going to be asked to present to that facilities committee um to understand where we started how we executed the shortfalls and the pitfalls let's talk about them flush them out make sure we don't fall into those traps again and the important thing is identifying them and

038recognizing them so we don't repeat them that's that's the that would be the the main goal of of hearing from you know those folks and as well as you know the future projects uh that we have te up our phase two let's let's understand what our how our phase two looks um from a timeline perspective and a schedule perspective you know two two completely separate terms timeline and schedule what does the timeline look like um that's a floating document and then a schedule is when that lands on a calendar it starts on the 1 and ends the 30th or some such thing um so they were they were going to be asked to attend that meeting John and at our next committee update I'll be able to report back to the board the findings such

039such thereof so so that's great Lewis just just to to clarify before we have that next work session which I believe is November 2nd we have a board meeting on the 16th and I know some of your efforts and and and Terry's oversight of the current status Palumbo is going to present at the October 16th board meeting is that do I have that right um Terry maybe you could chime in real quick y so we um we sketched out a sensitive plan with uh John and Jim just to try to get ahead of making sure people know keep dates on their on their calendar um like last year you know um depending on how the facilities committee discussion goes you know they really that's why we have um it's a board committee you know if

040they need to change it or or um what have you but we're we're going to rely on on them but right now we have um the 16th um update on facilities and um the second a few items that you sent out to the board right right okay so so so depending on how the 10th goes I guess is we'll we'll we'll know exactly what's going to be on the uh agenda come the 16th okay seems fair so John I guess we're not going to discuss where we're at tonight we're going to wait for the 16th right um but I do have a quick question Terry you had um sent an email out which was um that the bathrooms are in use so I'm taking that to be that they're in use but they're not completed

041correct yes that's correct so uh last week both uh CES came online um Monday Tuesday of last week and CCMS um our Middle School came online um on by Friday Friday of last week so um those are students can uh use the facilities but there's an extensive punch list of items that still need to be completed and I guess that's what we're going to find out on the 10th where we're at when this is going to be complete that would be phase one correct it would be portions of phase one that we're phase one okay okay okay great any other questions on that I think it's pretty well covered Lewis thank you for that um moving on on to policy have we had a Jim uh thank you policy has not had a meeting yet

042we are scheduled to meet next Thursday on the 12th excellent excellent um visitation Richard all right thank you so I have a few uh updates to give everyone tonight first off we had a meeting on September 19th as a committee and we discussed um various topics um and it was agreed upon by the committee to that it was needed to to um to create a committee Charter and that's what I'm going to present tonight I apologize it's on me that I didn't have printed copies for everyone but I did email it to the board and administration prior to the meeting um I believe it's it should be on board docs if not now it it probably will be in the minutes or whatever so um anyway hey Richard just just in the interest of time

043I I appreciate the committee meeting and and putting together you know some some some structure yeah to the visitation committee because I think it would be worthwhile as we move forward I'm not sure how many people have actually had a chance to look at the do document that you're referring to I I can admit that I am not one of them who has had that opportunity to look at what's been posted um I don't want to detract from from the good work of the committee is it possible for you just to give kind of like a high level summary of what's in the document and then to provide kind of a of a timeline that you're considering in order for what I'll call a better term like maybe board action on it yeah can you

044do that just in the interest of time and and knowing that I'm sure much like the policy committee when policies come before us it gets well vetted and discussed and then there's a what do you call it the the first reading first read thank you yeah thank you Christian the first reading and then they'll be a subsequent so so I I don't want to consider the first reading tonight I I think we could do that possibly um next time um and if there's really no objection we probably could get right to uh a board action that same night but just give us a a key summary of uh of that Charter what you're thinking the committee is thinking of as well as like a timeline sure for implementation yeah that's great so this is the

045first reading I included that in the email this will give you more time to look at it so basically in the uh the committee meeting that we had we discussed a few things right um committee scheduling we decided that the end of October early November would be the best time for us to to do our first visits in the school year and visit all five of our schools um and the second would be April or May before the the budget vote and um it probably would be best to have it before the the budgets approved by the board so if there's anything that we hear we could bring it up before we approve the budget to go out to the voters so let's see here I took some notes so let's see so basically what's

046in the charter it covers who's on the committee it's up to four members of the board can be on this committee not a quorum and that will be approved by the Board of Education or by the board president and um there'll be our M you know they'll be the ones that are that have the uh what would you call it they have the responsibility of going through our schools and coming back to the board with a report and with their findings and the chairperson they'll be the main coordinator for these events that they'll they'll be charged with putting together the visitations and coordinating that with the committee they'll also be um put in charge of of putting together the reports and making sure that the the committee agrees on that making sure all their input

047is um Incorporated in that report so the committee they're there to visit observe and chat with the the teachers and staff um it's important to note that the committee cannot make decisions for the board and we'll organize our visits with working with our administrators and um and the committee will compile detailed reports and spend time chatting with our teachers and staff so our in our discussion that we decided to that we should have at least four meetings per year and to go over our visits and to schedule our our visits moving forward so that's an overview of our report I emailed it to everyone so if you get a when you get a chance to look at it uh feel free to to send your comments ments feedback and questions to to me and the

048committee and I'll be sure to have that for you at the next meeting thank you okay Richard thank you for that just just to clarify something yeah that you said in terms of of the coordination you mentioned the the the committee I but it takes two to tango so so on on the on the on the school side the committee the chairperson you're the chair you're going to coordinate with with with whom at the so at the district level yep so I think my understanding is that Megan you've been the like the lia on between the board and the administration and that's our plan I'm going to set up a meeting with Megan and we'll develop a schedule for these visits into the schools okay so we're going to continue the the way we've done

049it in the past it sounds like that's the plan right now I we'll discuss that yeah and I think we'll we'll align those visits with our board goals so okay you know what I mean so so so so I'm not sure what I but that's for another time okay I I don't think we need to to Deep dive on that right now but uh um in the interest of of time speaking of timelines so so you're asking everyone to to review the document you set out so and when would you like uh uh um feedback input whatever I would like feedback over the next week and I would like to approve this at the the business meeting on October 16th I believe or 18th okay so that would be my timeline so the ninth is

050when you like to receive input yeah from everyone by the ninth that seems reasonable anyone have any problems with taking a look at this this Charter I know we have one other Charter it's the audit committee I don't think other committees have Charters but it's I think it's a good idea to type you know provide structure and understanding and and and clarification to the degree of Charter can do that as it pertains to purpose and how things are supposed to work so hats off to the committee for for moving forward on it but I I want to make sure all the committee members have a a chance to review and provide feedback um before we take any action uh at a uh at a board meeting in the future so October 9th seem reasonable Le

051yeah thank you so akin to our other our other documents that we receive review provide provide feedback and approve I think it's a little fast-tracked to um say here it is tonight you know I'm just going through my emails at 6:30 and then say at our next meeting we're look for look to approve it actually Richard you know tonight that you'd like this to be a first reading akin to our UMC our um our policies they're reviewed they're sent out first readings happen a period goes by then a second reading happens I think this is the same same notion sounds like we're trying to push a little bit to to get it through without the the proper review sounds like I feel is it it should be considered the same way that other documents are

052our our goals for example Terry's goals they're sent they're they're um issued in a public meeting reviewed issued again for a final final review and then we're accepting them that's my opinion timelines so yeah so I think you know I sent it and that's my apologies sending it kind of last minute um I think we're giving everyone a chance to review it up until you know October 9th or whatever and we'd vote on it at the next meeting so I think that's plenty of time to review it between now and then I I appreciate that view and actually I appreciate everyone's view on this I uh I I know we have precedent under policies I think that's an appropriate uh uh precedent to to kind of follow in general um but the preeminent rule of

053thumb the euristic that I follow is getting it right versus getting it right now that's that that that's what drives my focus and and Richard I don't want to detract from the good work of the committee at all I I this the the the the the fact that you guys sat down got together put a charter together uh on your own um speaks volumes of not only your initiative but also the care that uh all of you place in in in this district and and the role that you play as members of that committee so hats off to you all on that I want to make sure that we as a board right conduct our Affairs in a methodical thoughtful and responsible way and I'm not saying what you're suggesting is not that I think

054what you are is I just don't want to prejudge outcomes and so you know let's let's get it let's see what happens we'll get it on the agenda for the next board meeting as a specific item and whether we get to yes at that meeting or have to get to yes another time we'll let that meeting and the discussion that ensues be the the final AR on that so I don't want to I don't want to prejudge outcomes or or tie the board's hands in any way towards a timeline that may or may not be realistic based on you know what's in the document as well as any feedback you receive and that's not a knock on anybody okay I just I just think it's it it's it's board work and it's can be somewhat

055do work it can be somewhat uh uh uh you know challenging to use a clean word John um B yeah I'm I'm a member of the committee so I can uh just add some context a little bit very valid point uh uh Lois I mean you know like having enough time to review but like the document we're talking about like everybody should know it's it's like a one pager you know it's not I mean to compare it to the policies that we review Terry I mean put out and uh like we be talking like 100 pages I mean everything I mean no no the the policies that we review on a threee cycle right I mean so so the volume that we need to review this is one I mean this is kind of because

056you haven't looked at the document I feel I have to mention the size of it this is one another thing is like if you ask like again I mean uh you know I appload uh the initiative that that Richard Champion here to to to put put uh you know a document together Charter you can name it you know whatever you like but Charters is a nice term to use why the question is why because last year the visitation committee I was part of it we failed last year I can tell you we did fail uh without pointing fingers we didn't do our job we managed to do one visitation instead of two right we did not bring to the board to the full board a report on the first visitation we did why because we

057were arguing this version one version two version three at one point in time I volunteer to to to to consolidate all the versions that were in front of the table that didn't go anywhere so what Richard is doing and again I upload what Richard's doing is to put everything on paper like the the documents is going to say we're going to do like two visitation first visitation towards the end of you know October second visitation in the April time so it's nice ni to have it on on on paper we talked about again I mean who's responsible for writing the report right I mean so everything is going to be much clearer instead of being kind of hey you know I mean uh I'm improvising you know as I go that did didn't go well

058last year so the the again the intention is to improve the process that's all thank you bass I appreciate that I ask a question Christine are we bound to a timeline to get this done like will it impede our ability to have a visitation in the first half of the year I don't see that it would I think the the sooner we get this you know figured out and approved that would it would be better but yeah I can appreciate the enthusiasm and you put a lot of good work in you want to keep it moving but if it's not going to impede us getting into the school this semester whatever first half of the year I would just recommend that we just kind of follow the established process if there was a milestone that

059we were up against I think that's when we can step back and say can we make an accommodation here right that's my suggestion thanks Christine I appreciate that Richard that's you got something to add to that or I was just going to say I don't so first reading right that's at this meeting I don't see there being much of a difference between getting it on a Friday or Thursday or Friday afternoon and today and I it's it's close to the meeting I get it but we're giving everyone a chance to review it over the next 10 days um up until the next meeting and if there's there's enough questions and then I think that discussion would be had at the the following meeting Richard I I think that's that's fair I think I think the

060the the the the the next step let's not let's prejudge all the steps but the next step is for us as a board uh um individually to provide feedback to the committee on the document that you've provided the board and then at some point next meeting we will come together collectively to talk about not only that document but hopefully maybe revisions that you may have made uh based on the input from Individual board members uh uh um to the whole board so I I I don't want to belabor the point um I I think everyone's focus is on addressing uh um a structure for the visitation committee to improve its Effectiveness as well as its utility to the board as a whole and the district and and hats off to that that effort I I

061I fully support it and um like I said before when when getting it right is is more important than getting it right now and when I say right my my my my timeline is within the next 30 days okay I'm not saying six months from now all right just to clarify John you said so um hi Meg I've always been the liaison with the administrators and the chairperson so for me I'm the realist here with schedules of buildings this isn't ready and there's no way this is going to be set for the end of October it takes several weeks to plan a thoughtful schedule to have focused groups for the board to go into um based on the superintendent goals that's what it's typically been based on in the past because if the district is

062looking at something specific for academics then I would imagine that the board wants to come in and see that in action um we haven't begun this scheduling you haven't reached out yet I'm sure you're going to um so I think there's steps that need to take place in order for it to be a thoughtful visitation because it can't just be walking into classrooms unannounced it needs to be an invited process and then thoughtful discussion aligned with what's happening in in the district yeah I think I think that's fair but I I also want to caution the the notion that things haveen have to happen sequentially versus versus you know in some type of simultaneous effort so so as the board is looking at what the charter looks like my hope would be that the scheduling

063can be done independent of of what's in the actual Charter itself yeah I have no I have no reservation with that at all so so I don't I don't want to make things contingent on a charter that the board has not had that we're trying to to to develop and approve at some future date to the betterment of of the committee's performance in the future so Carl go well I think what we have to do is once the you know everybody gets to read the documents we have to see what the feedback is if there's no feedback then the process can actually move forward quick quicker than what we're talking about right now I I I don't know what we're talking about right now other than the next step but thank you for that Carl

064I would I would agree Christian sir um so I'm going to I guess take the position and I'm not going to AR argument here but um you know given some of the lead times I've have on longer documents that we have to vote on and consider I think October 9th is a reasonable amount of time for a charter for a committee that has no specific requirements like an audit committee or a policy committee has so I think that I intend to have this done a half hour after this meeting concludes um I think that I don't think that that if there's not a substantive objection I think that it is an improvement and I think uh I'm not sure that this is something where we need to parse language that carefully and so I would

065just urge to move it forward and to honor the effort I and as I said I could refer to other documents that we have voted on already this year where the lead time was less than the eight days that Richard is suggesting all right thanks Christian any Lewis yeah um yes um another point to talk about I think is the union lens of it the teachers un have we consulted I mean can can can we I think that's an important consideration I haven't looked at the document I'm not sure what's in the document and I would prefer to defer any discussion about the material uh elements of the document I'm not going to talk about the document I'm talking about the overall in concept of a union that's in place right the visitation committee is

066now going or the visitation committee is looking to develop a very formalized document and develop reporting as V noted you know documented reporting fiable foilable reporting now with um based on board members being in a building and and being present with teachers and Educators and and and and and staff Etc we got um you know through through the grievance process last year um we made assumptions the district made assumptions that we're grieved based on past practice and it'd be it'd be prudent of us to take that lens into consideration developing a charter again making something so formalized as to developing a charter right and that you know you're I get the play and I'm I'm all for it I think it's a good thing frankly if we're doing it for audit we're doing it for

067visitation we should make it uniform across the board we should apply a charter to other committees if that's the case but um make sure we explore all the Avenues and we're not exposing ourselves to you know problems down the line that's that's all I would know okay I appreciate that and I think that's something that the committee took into um consideration when we were uh work working with the [Music] charter so let me try to put a a bow on that and just say that the committee reports that they've put together a charter a draft Charter for Board review individual board members will now have a chance to review that document and provide their individual feedback to that document the committee will then kind of do what committees do assess and filter and and and

068look at to provide a document for our next board meeting so we could continue the conversation and the discussion as it pertains to uh improving the structure and guidance for for that committee seem fair to everybody and just to be clear John because you said it before just to underscore it if it doesn't seem like we're ready to vote on at next meeting we don't need to feel pressured to do so I right right right exactly okay well thank you thank you Richard and thank you to the committee for for putting that together for us definitely moving the the needle forward in my view okay um any other updates um for the board uh bass yes yes yeah uh there's uh the as everybody knows uh already nbba sent us uh sent us a while

069ago I I would say a month ago if not more uh they sent two versions of the proposed resolutions uh on which the districts would have to vote the same day we have our next meeting actually at 4 P.M and uh I'm the liazon with the NIS I'm going to cast the vote on behalf of uh the district so rather than casting my own vote which reflects my own position on those like 50 56 resolutions uh plus uh one came late plus nine resolutions they were amended I uh I'd like every board member to give me their vote and I will cast the tally uh since we are nine I'm not worried about a uh a tie I mean the votes would have to be 54 anyway and whatever the results are I will cast

070them on that day the the meeting is going to be uh virtual on Zoom but uh that's why I intend to do so uh I don't know if you had a chance already to look at those resolutions uh they they they're all over I mean there are if you want me give you an example like uh one resolution says each School Des would have to have Naran to fight you know fantel overdose and uh it says like the original version says uh the district would have to fund that and then the amendment came no the state would have to fund that uh but this is just like one one item for instance and there I mean there are like different nature of resolution all over the board uh I think it would be very important

071for us to cast our vote on those yeah thank you bass so so I think you bring up a good point that these resolutions are basically um nisa's um talking points legislative efforts to influence uh State action up at uh up in Albany um many of these resolutions have already been established in the past like adopted say 2018 19 20 and so on I haven't looked at the document specifically to see what new resolutions are being proposed for this year um but I don't I I ask everyone to to to to meet bass and providing him the the the feedback and and do it by exception because there are over I think a hundred items there that if you could just let bass know of those that you take issue with he will tabulate and

072bass if if there's ever a situation where the majority of the board is not in uh um in agreement for these uh these resolutions please let us know so we can we can uh um have a meeting but my my my sense is in past practice the these these resolutions are supportive of school districts and and suppor of of Albany doing the right thing as it pertains to the funding of such things as upk and the like so so just if you would bass tell us when again you are looking for this feedback so you can go about doing it I know the meeting is like in a week or two maybe two weeks so on October uh 16 I mean uh just the day we have our next meeting right so it's a virtual

073meeting I think right so it is virtual so you you'll be here for our meeting but you need the the feedback from us ahead of time so when would you like the feedback from from so this is the thing I mean it's going to go along with Richard just said if you can do it in in a week uh but again I mean keep in mind it's not like the the documents have been sent to all of us like a month over a month ago right I mean they've been sitting in our mailboxes I mean probably we had some time to look at them probably not understood but but so October 7th or October 9th yeah end of day seems like a reasonable time frame to to provide feedback to to bass on these nisba

074resolutions any anybody have what I did is I prepared a spreadsheet with all our nine names the resolutions you just go WN WN WN that's all I need y great and send it back to me that so it sounds like everyone can accommodate that that that timeline so so thank you bass for putting it all together Christine yeah yeah exactly exactly okay all right any other uh items updates all right so so then let's move move to uh the next item on the agenda which is new business consent agenda um in the interest of time I just going to ask is there any items on the consent agenda that anyone would like to remove for a separate discussion John uh yes uh Personnel actions uh number two and um approved cafeteria worker uh number eight

075number two and number eight okay any anyone else all right so can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items one three through S and 9 and 10 move it second second all in favor I I any opposed any abstain all right thank you motion passed all right so let's go to item two first and we'll take it as per document which is Personnel actions uh Carl just very briefly um oh wait Carl I got I got to introduce it now sorry my my my my mistake may I have a motion uh for this item personel actions I'll take it as per document I'll move it second and a second um discussion Carl yes uh very briefly number two um temporary appointments I see here that they have something 80 80% for enl

076just somebody can explain that to me that temporary part and the 80% yeah sure so the 80% is reflective of a point8 FTE uh temporary appointments anytime you have less than anytime you're appointing to an encumbered or unencumbered position that's less than 1.0 it's not a probationary appointment and it needs to be temporary it's appointed annually okay uh just with respect to enl and Tel in general it is a a relatively challenging uh and sparse applicant pool um so we're you know we're in the process of still trying to fill those vacancies okay good thank you all right thank you Brent any other discussion on that all in favor I any opposed any abstain all right motion number two pass takes us to number eight so number eight I had sent an email Carl I'm

077so sorry go ahead thank you um approved cafeteria workers uh Mo MOA may I have a motion moved second second thank you discussion Carl okay so on number eight I had sent an email out earlier this morning I had a couple questions there and Harvey Harvey answered that uh answered me um just before the meeting so so we're good with that so what I wanted to find out is who is part of the negotiating team we're new trying to figure this all out who's part of the negotiating team is the board involved in that and who authorizes the who who's authorizing the terms of the MLA in other words do you meet with the board prior to going into negotiations where the board sets some guidelines on exactly what you're going to be offering and

078stuff like that so the process is usually where the in terms of getting authorization when we go in there we kind of have parameters but nothing is agreed upon until obviously the board givits okay now along the way as you might recall um you usually have a visit from legal and they'll give you an update and that's where they kind of talk about the progression of negotiations and where it's headed and getting your you know whether you have to tweak or stick with the parameters that you originally set so so I realize that this has been this was started before we became members on the board so I I was that you know that's why I was trying to get some clarification on how that all how that all progresses so so the the the

079second question is are the board involved in the negotiations at all they can be um as you might recall uh the teachers negotiations they were okay they usually usually I wouldn't say it's limited to but usually it's with the bigger contracts that that we do that and you know like I was telling you before you know in the C CA where what I'm involved in we do you know we have secretaries everybody's falls under one contract so this is unusual of where I see the CSEA has like two or three negotiating teams here so um so we do get involved is there anything coming up is there any negotiations any newer negotiation coming up we're actually good right now good okay that's it oh I turned myself off thanks thank you Jim for pointing that

080out and um all in favor I I any opposed any abstain all right number eight passes thank you so that takes us to our next item which is new business um non-consent agenda first up is the discussion and uh approval of the board goals for 2324 um let me do a quick recap or review of Where we've been where we are and see if we can move forward quickly um we've been looking at uh uh board goals uh for the last I guess two weeks the goals that were drafted uh by by Jim and I uh um were provided to the board at the last meeting we then uh asked for input uh over the last week or two we received input on these on these goals we went back tried to make revisions where

081we thought uh uh they made sense um we've sent it out uh again to the board and so in the interest of time let me just say that I've received feedback today um and I should call it continuing feedback Like A continuing dialogue which is exactly you know board board work um but I want to have that uh discussed today uh on what uh was put to the or put up on the agenda um and see where we are and instead of doing this kind of free-for-all I'd like to go go by goal and see if we can get to a place where each item is because I I have a feeling that we are going to spend some time on at least one or two uh as it pertains to discussion so I am

082going to take what I think is the least uh discussion required goal and uh start with that so that's item number two which I believe is the board assessment John just to jump in and leis sure won't you want to open the open it because it's up it's up as a as a as a resolution or is it just just just open free discussion I'm gonna I'm asking yeah I'm gonna open it as discussion first to see once we have a final document then then we have a final document hopefully that won't require much pen and ink changing and then entertain emotion to move that document and then y y y in terms of process does that seem fair sure that but thank you for for the opportunity to clarify that leis okay so so

083that takes me then to the the the board self- evaluation um goal I think Jim was the one who who pointed out that uh uh this is probably something that uh is worthwhile to do that we should be doing and uh um that we need to commit to getting done this year um I'll open it up for for any commentary discussion or requested changes I think we're good good great see that uh I thought that would be the easy one okay thank you for that all right so the next one I would like to take on uh is the first one which is the uh basically putting together a long range planning road map towards the eventual development of a strategic plan for the for the district and I would like to open it up

084for for discussion I I don't want to go individually because that might not be required but I do want everyone to contribute so I'm just going to open it up and Brendan I recognize you first thank so just to I just want to clarify my understanding of the second we will so um create a project plan document that identifies the key task stakeholders participants inputs resources timelines and work required to create a multi-year strategic plan by May 2024 my understanding is that by May 2024 we are so let's just back up we're defining two nouns the uh project plan document which is basically the document that we will use to plan what the Strategic plan will be right and then there's the Strategic plan document my understanding is by May 2024 we are committing to

085creating the plan document not the final strategic plan itself is that a correct understanding correct okay that will come later yeah and that effort is the heavy lift right so we're not this is basically doing the the the brainstorming of if you were to do this endeavor what would you what type of information would you need to do it well yep and so this is like the fact Gathering effort yep that bullet so we can assume that that would happen the Strategic plan document the final output would happen sometime next year no earlier than next year assuming we can get to the board to agree that such a effort makes total sense because it is a quite the lift yes yeah okay that I just wanted to clarify my understanding of that y thank you

086for that friend I'm with you I I kind of smelled the same thing when I when when I first read it um but I I'll jump on the heels of that that some challenges that I've witnessed here in in the board settings in that turnover period that that year-to-year turnover I think it's very important if we put something like this out that we tried our best to finish it and and create that document as much as a heavy lift as it may be communize it perhaps but to then tell the next board which may or may not be all the folks sitting here that the previous board settled this obligation for them you know it it may make more sense for this board to finish it to try and put a date out there to

087commit to the before the July one date provide something put your push something out so so just to be realistic in the effort to create a strategic plan if we if we have the the road map established and a project plan document established we're not going to be able to get that done even if only one person were to to to do it right to come you know it would be their strategic plan not not the districts it it couldn't be done and so I I I agree with you that there is a certain level of coordination that this this board our year board right now needs to to fulfill I'm not sure what that looks like but maybe that's part of that project plan document that we do build out by May to specify

088what those key Milestones would be I between you and me Lewis and and everyone who's listening I believe in this document not being the work of one board but the the work of the district which will include if we get it right you know guidance Direction and and uh U expertise from Terry and his staff um input from from the teachers and and the athletic directors and and and the like and so it's it's going to take a lot of of work to to to that final strategic plan document and if we get it done like I said before getting it done right now is not important getting it done right is and uh I do believe in continuity of service so so my hope would it would survive multiple boards because the the the

089Horizon of it would be a three to five year Horizon right so Christine and then Christian um when this got mentioned a couple weeks ago I'm under the impression we hire a firm to help us I don't think any of us around this table I I I think it's a really heavy lift on top of everything else we do and we're not experts in this field so I would just like for consideration that maybe one of the things we should back up and look at is who's going to do the work who's going to guide us what you know is there a consultant is there a firm that comes in and does it that helps us gather the community and it's very strategic just to do the plan so so the the plan itself I

090think will cross that that that bridge when we get there and that is in the development of a strategic plan right there there are people that that do this for a living okay but first things first we we we before we can get to that point we need to to to put the road map together as well as all the considerations of what that strategic plan might look like won't they help us do that first I I'm just to make our to make our lives easier and to make sure it's a really thorough plan they've done this a lot they can warn us and give us best practices so so some of us do have extensive experience in in that realm of course and and and so I don't want to prejudge outcomes I think

091that's something that's on the table for consideration but not as part of of the goal right in uring that we have the right resour it influences the timeline though and the realistic part of that it if we have additional hands to help the lifting I think that influences whether we can get something done by May or whether it it's going to be more of like an 18month project I've done a lot of project planning as well I just don't know that I have the time to commit to what this would take for me to be heavily involved on here be you know in terms of being really doing the heavy lifting right so so so so not that we have that road map yet because that's something that we're going to explore and discover I

092think together but the way I Envision this unfolding is that every working session meeting that we have between next one and February and February to May there would be materials and updates being provided for Board review and consideration um if we need a outside consultant to do that for us like I said we I think we can as a board collectively cross that bridge but before we get to that point we need to establish this as a goal and this will be my last point I'm sorry I think an outside consultant can tell us what we should be gathering for data what we should be looking at to help make our decisions I think once we have that yes we can do the work internally in terms of getting more input making suggestions but we're

093not the experts in the the district or the school side of it to know what to ask for does that mind making sense so so I don't think just staring at me yeah I think that's a fair statement I think I think in the end what what you're alluding to is is is who is going to be shepher in this process and and in the discussions that we've had and that's Terry Jim and and myself is that us three will Shepherd that that process along in ter terms of the development of these considerations in that document and then I just want to be on the record that I really think an outside Source should be involved that's just I I I think at some point they will be um but in order for them to

094be involved we we need to have a goal agreed to and committed to by the whole board so but thank you for that uh that input Christine um I saw a hand over here chrisan sir so kind of in response to some previous points um the first one about you know future boards and I think the first thing is that strategic plans are not a novel thing for school districts we would not be breaking new ground this has been done it as uh just because there a future and just even in this District I believe the facilities committee has a five-year plan or a long-term plan which doesn't bind anyone in the future so we've not only is it not novel we have done something similar and on that point I think that what it

095provides to future boards is a baseline for their own thinking it doesn't bind them to any particular actions resolutions but it gives an idea that it helps to talk about it rather than in a sense Reinventing the wheel every single year as a third of the board turns over which will happen from here till the end of the school district so I think that you know that's you know we have elections there are different points of view I think it's good to lay out those the second thing is I think about the uh on Christine's point about you know bringing outside I certainly would agree with that um we could invite the tri States Consortium in which is a uh group of school districts in our area that comes in and does advising that's kind

096of something that we could do NASCAR peers and certainly I would be in favor of doing that there are certainly Consulting agencies that exist however I will point out that there is one agency in the area that for southern westest School District put out a homeostatic change or sorry change chart they copied out of a chemistry textbook and presented that to a board of education in this area so I don't think we need to inflate the expertise that might be brought in there are five-year plans on a lot of websites throughout this state and throughout the country and certainly um we could look at them consult them bring them together but I think what we for this year and what is not necessarily the expertise is that every plan starts with an understanding of what

097our values and our goals are and that's a process where we talk to stakeholders We Talk Amongst ourselves we talk to the various people who would implement the plan before we even talk to someone on the outside because otherwise we're going to let the you know the means dominate the ends so and I don't think this contradicts anything you're saying Christine I think it's actually the same thing is that yes I think we should get outside feedback but there's also what we need to do amongst ourselves which is to come to a consensus about what we think is most important for our district and I think that would be useful uh for us as we go forward for things that we know that are kind of in the in the Stream already so that we

098can be proactive about them instead of reactive about them thank you Christian anyone else uh bass it's see very interesting debate uh I think the last few words uh we heard from uh Christian are about like internal versus external I think we understand ourselves better than anybody else coming from the outside uh each Community is unique in a way uh so that kind of like expertise coming from within out valuum uh a lot more than genetic expertise coming from the outside now uh saying that I do recognize that there are experts out there uh in developing strategic plans and goals and stuff like that I would worry only about us spending money on hiring those Consultants uh because nothing is there's no free lunch anywhere I mean I don't know if we can find any

099consultant that can come and volunteer their expertise for free May right yeah so yeah so so so to that point I guess if if if we're aligned properly and and doing the the support of a strategic plan at some point these items would be identified and then properly budgeted so that everything's flowing as it should right we're we're we're we're starting this process from a a baseline with no budget the real expense of this is in the development of the plan and that's where I think the expense is best paid but but I think any discussion about the use of a consultant is a little bit premature we first need to to focus on the goal itself and determine whether this is something we as a board want to want to do so any other

100questions on that I don't have a question but if we're end up going to be talking about voting on it is as it is I would suggest maybe we add something to the effect of Define what our like begin with the end in mind what is our strategic plan going to entail is it going to be do we want to have a three-year plan A Five-Year Plan like it doesn't have to be that but what is our what is our goal going into it because I think that will then guide all the work you're talking about us doing internally and then being able to determine what the necessary supports are so I I think that's fair I'm not sure I understand the distinction between what would be required for a strategic plan that covers three

101years versus a strategic plan that covers five one year versus three years versus five years like what is our desired outcome here in terms of the complexity of the plan right I guess is what I'm really wondering and I don't I'm not looking for an answer I'm saying I think that's part of our process in developing this and I and I think that that specifically to your to your point is covered in that second bullet that the plan document would identify the key tasks the stakeholders participants inputs resources timelines and work required to create a multi-year strategic plan multi not not a single year I think we've been operating on a one year at a time basis and my sense is in talking to everyone that has limitations that that we need to address and

102see if we can improve upon so any any other considerations or comments Brandon yeah I Christine I I think I agree with you but I'm also thinking like I agree with you that everything you're describing is the best way to do it but I don't know if this I don't know if a public school district can follow that Playbook you know like and and hire a consultant before we even there's so much that we don't know about what we even want and you're asking the right questions that my fear would be that we hire a consultant who who gives us an amazing document and the public is like you spent what on what you know like we have to we have to vet what level of document is even necessary and and where those all

103those different sliders like align like what we need what we can afford with either time or actual resources and what people are actually willing to support I don't know where any of those three land and we might need six months just to figure that out or a year to figure out 100% And I'm not s I'm not suggesting someone comes in and tells us who we are or how we do it more of a someone who's going to help guide us John I don't know your expertise maybe this is what you do every day and so then we don't need the person right in terms of running projects but I think just someone who can help lead the discussions so that we're on task hitting the marks getting what we need to get to put

104the plan together if we have that expertise on the board then of course we don't need to spend the money but and I'm not suggesting they tell us who we are they ask the question so we can Define ourselves but I so I hear you I just I don't want you to think I'm thinking we should just sign a check today I'm just bringing it up as something I think we have to consider I I know yeah and I I don't mean to imply that I think that the way I read it was that and maybe the likely outcome is that when we get to that February 2024 touch point it's like we'll we'll all agree yeah we can't do this on our own and we need to hire somebody and that will be the

105point where we have that discussion thank you Christine Brendon all right so are we able to can I get a a motion on on this specific one thank you second second all right great all right so that's so that's two out of four done thank you for that let's move on to number three which is uh student outcomes this one has received uh a fair amount of of commentary and discussion uh I appreciate everyone's perspectives on this um I'll just open it up for for comments or discussion bass thanks John uh I start by kind of apologizing uh for my late comment I made I give sent to you the bo saw it uh today um my last three weeks I mean weren't easy but anyway I made I I read I the document the

106whole document is is uh in my mind is good you know I mean uh I'm in support of uh the whole document I only saw I made the suggestion to add basically we will uh bullet point under the student outcomes and that is uh in a way it's symmetric by itself I mean to keep our eyes on our ranking and when I say ranking I look at a uh the most uh I don't know uh ranking kind of you know maybe organization that people look at and that is the US new I'm not making any kind of endorsement here but uh I think you anybody listening to the video would agree with me US News and World Report uh ranking uh colleges ranking high schools uh that's something you look at and when you see

107your name there I mean something to be proud of right so I suggested adding uh kind of I mean we will strive I said I mean what I'm suggesting we can play with the language we we will strive to be among the top XXX number uh in the state of New York New York and they do that and they do even more they kind of do subgroups they list us under popy and the metro area of New York I mean I think they call that category and we are number 10 there uh right so I mean what I said is kind of I mean we can look even at Orange County now US news world report they do not list orange count they don't list counties at least I couldn't find that but as I

108said like Regional in a way we're number 10 I think we can strive and that's like the way will strive to and it's a metric by itself you can see how we're progressing every year to become number one in the bipsy metro area of New York City and among you put like in the blank any number you want top 100 top 50 in the whole state of New York uh as I said it's like a goal and it's very it's a metc by itself when you see where you rank thanks bass anyone else Christian um so the First on this I'm happy that there's language about upk in here and I enjo I I think it's important I think at this stage we're mostly examining the possibilities so that we have a plan for if

109we want to go forward and as more State money comes through um that how we might want to how we might want to do that and I think that's something that we should start thinking about um I I would just to respond to U Dr Shakra um on the rankings um I'm not sure that focusing on rankings is going to get us to the goal because of how the rankings are done and just as my my experience as an educator um so what happens with these rankings that they people find out the algorithm and in the original US news report it was how many AP classes were being taken by a school and so AP went from having maybe like one section to having five sections of an AP so they could just have more

110students in the class and they didn't even have to take the test and so some of these rankings then kind of distort kind of what might be best practice and at one point many school districts that were conventionally highly ranked asked to be unranked or not ranked because they felt that it created a distorted picture of what was actually going on in the school district um just an example and I haven't looked at this recently but Scarsdale at one point stopped naming their classes AP classes and called them at classes Advanced topics uh giving their teachers some freedom to teach material and then the CH choice to take the test was up to the student and they felt that was a better in a sense balancing how education rather than what US News and World

111Report or niche.com or whatever other ratings that there are and um and just while we're on rankings I will the acknowledge that we were ranked 22nd in the Hudson Valley or for Central High School um which I believe was 88th in the state last year I think we were in the mid hundreds I'm not sure that we increased while I think we are a good school I don't think the movement from 150 160 where we were last year to 88 this year is not necessarily a meaningful change and that's why rankings because rankings means that you have some noise in it and you can Bounce Around in between so that's why I would look at other other metrics other than rankings although I think I understand the desire to do that thank you Christian Brendan

112yes so I I was uh I was going to make a similar point to Christian and and you provided a lot of a lot of great specifics on that I I would just I was going to phrase it a little differently that uh we I feel like as much as I I love rankings and I'm very you trips the competitive bone and you you want to climb as high as you can there's also a sense that we're like out out sourcing our ability to um Outsourcing our North Star to a magazine you know why would we do that you know I I don't think everything every argument is can be viewed in in this way but like when I I I don't tell my children like you need to get XYZ Awards right I want

113to see I want to instill in them certain qualities and if they exhibit those qualities I tell them all all that other stuff will fall into place right so I think that's the same effect here you know the more that we we get to set our own agenda and if we fulfill those goals I have total confidence that all that other stuff will fall into place and to Christian's point it can be kind of wonky the way they put this stuff together I mean you can hop from one school to another from one website to another and they have totally different rankings and you it just gives you a very quick window into the capriciousness of of their formulas um I did have another point I wanted to make though very small just about the

114uh the the universal prek there was a um oh there's just there's a type well typo maybe two typos feasibility of a providing a we should take out the first a just catch it as I'm going through here now um also upk stands for ival pre so to say Universal Universal prek feels like one too many universals um I person I understand the uh the desire to put this in a goal and I'm not going to jump in front of the train here in my view this is a presentation that we would get in the spring or whenever and not necessarily rising to the level of a board goal there's a lot of presentations I would like to see throughout the year but I don't think Rises to the level of a board goal especially

115on a topic that I believe has been vetted uh very thoroughly over the last two years by this board um so I want to put that on record again I I don't think that's a consideration that should derail it but I think this we're going a little In The Weeds on this issue where we don't on others thank you Brendan Jim uh yeah just a few quick comments to sort of Follow the discussion um bass I I I I'm don't want this to be like hey we're jumping on bass here um I think you're there where you're coming from there is a very um go we always want to be the best and everything but I sort of echo Christian and Brendan is it's not a problem with trying to be ranked highly the problem

116is the algorithms of the rankings can have you chasing things that aren't actually good for our school district so tying our goal to those rankings the problem is the way those rankings are compiled uh but I certainly appreciate the thought process behind that um and as far as the upk to your comment Brendan I think this is really going to be an ongoing issue basically every year right as as we adjust to um what's the demand in our community what's the funding level um and I think we've you know we're going to dig into this whether it's a goal or not uh in the budget process pretty much every year for the for the foreseeable near to medium-term Future future um and we're we're going to have probably more of a discussion on this than

117we have on a lot of other items in the budget um so I don't know that we need to do too much additional work outside of kind of what we've done in the past couple of years which is this goal sort of uh identifies that um we can dig in maybe a little bit deeper um uh you know in terms of thinking about um you know do want we bring it in house or not and that I'm sure that's information Terry um and his team have been looking at bringing to us but you know I think it's going to be it's going to be discussed whether we put it in here or not uh extensively every budget season for the foreseeable future so thanks J anyone pass can I don't know if you want to

118call it rebuttle but uh so far I heard from three members out of nine that uh correct me if I'm wrong what I heard is you don't believe in ranking okay I'm sorry say that one more time I heard from three members out of nine that they do not believe in ranking I mean they I mean they're trying to convince me that ranking is not important now I can remind you uh Mrs Argo last year at the end of the presentation she did use one slide if not two on ranking and she you use like several sources uh Niche was one of them I remember us news and report so so to hear from experts you're all experts in your area that you don't don't believe in ranking you're entitled to your own opinion right

119I do believe in ranking uh now to me to criticize the algorithm that US News and World Report uses well would you go and create your own algorithms I don't think so right I mean you cannot discredit uh whatever they're using there is Merit to each one of them I just happened as I said I'm not advertising for us news and report I don't work for them they didn't pay I don't know if this video would reach him somehow but uh a lot of uh authorities do care about their ranking by the US News and War report when I was doing my PhD in mechanical engineering my department of mechanical engineering who was ranked number five in the United States I I'm proud of that I don't know where do they rank now maybe they're

120better than five maybe worse than five but when I graduated it was ranked by US News and and World Report as the number five mechanical engineering department in a research University public research University so there's a lot of Merit to that now if you you're entit to your own opinion but as I said we're looking at goals and it was brought to our attention that a goal without metric is not a goal because how can I measure whether you achieved the goal you hit the goal you hit the target or not when you look at ranking it's symmetric by definition that's all I want to say thank you bass I I'm looking around to see anyone else has any comment let me see if I can kind of Lewis yes um I just I have

121a question on student outcomes right bullet bullet two not numbered but the middle bullet bullet two as it were prioritize students' needs with a focus on providing appropriate resources to narrow any achievement gaps that emerged during the pmic pandemic using 1819 assessment results as a benchmark I ask a question and the question is can we use the 1819 assessments for the education of the students that took place in 2021 or 2223 right so we're looking to take that assessment or or this says the way this reads is we're going to take the 1819 assessment and apply it to Future classes is the curriculum curriculum such that we can we can do that does it does it C does it cross over and is it that easy if it is that easy you know check the

122box I'm okay I just ask yeah it's it's apples and oranges you won't be able to compare 181 19 as a benchmark the simple explanation is the standards have changed across numerous Consin area so there's a new there'll be a new Baseline established um based on 22 23 assessment results and that's coming from the state of New York saying you literally cannot compare 1819 that was a test based on different standards it would be like me going back to say how are we doing compared to Common Core completely different standards and expectations so just in in an educator World it it's the school would not be able to be measured is there is is there something we can use is is there a metric we can something we can apply and the it's your goals

123the first one is appropriate how how are we making progress based on whatever data is available at that time so um for the board you know the standards that haven't changed could be a a comparison um but then for the standards that have changed it would be based on this Baseline are we putting the appropriate resources in place to make sure that we're progressing in 24 25 and and the like but the first one is spot I mean just ensure that where're our proficiency levels are progressing with with the learning standards is very well written because it's based on the established learning standards and can I make a suggestion hold on Christian and then Brendan I mean thank you leis as someone who's in the education world as well you can compare you don't necessarily

124compare let's say the score like the score of the test because the standards change you can look at percent proficient okay because the the percent proficient according to whatever the standard at the time is something that can be comparable uh and I think the point is that yes there's more complicated in there but people do that all the time there's data amputation there's people that use metrics there's do this with economic data when you have different metrics there are ways to do it it might be more complicated it's not necessarily going to be necessarily and in the sense that the numbers are real but you can follow a trend they do this with crime data all the time which means like when they have different data sets or different standards and different measures they'll just

125overlap two things so the point is there's still something that we could use the question is whether that's an appropriate Benchmark or not or where and I think there's a lot of comparability because in many ways what generally produces that are socio economic status of the community the same more or less teaching staff the same more or less uh programs and and courses being taught there's a lot of simil ilities is it perfect no but you know in the same way that nations are compared even though they're not exactly the same population or they're not exactly the same system people and researchers do that all the time and frankly given the quality of most education research which violates rules of research design all the time up and down misrepresenting things in statistics qualitative designs Etc

126I mean it would be good enough thank you Christian Brendan yes so I I I think this uh du tails is what Christian just said I um I have confidence too that it could be done but you brought up the the the key qualification that it would require just some some expertise and especially since these are board specific goals we we just don't have the facilities to to run these U complex analyses so I think that we don't know what metrics we should use to Benchmark or what benchmarks we should use so I think if we just simply end this sentence after pandemic uh narrow any achievement gaps that emerged due the due to the pandemic period we're not tying ourselves into a specific benchmark and we're going to receive a lot of data throughout

127the year and we can come up with our best way to compare um and identify where those um achievement gaps were but it just I think we've this whole discussion has highlighted some of the uh shortcomings of using that specific benchmark so why put ourselves in a corner thank you Brendan any other comments on the goal in whole um not just bullet number two hearing none let me let me see how Brendan's uh uh Amendment if I could call it that if you would um what type of uh support and if I understand it let me just restate what Brendan suggested um that uh um for bullet number two that we end it um after the word pandemic so it would read prioritize students needs with a focus on providing appropriate resources to narrow any

128achievement gaps that emerged due to the pandemic period leaving the work for determining an appropriate Benchmark to a later date and to possibly additional input from from other folks and experts how do I'm looking around to see if everyone support that Jim this is the Baseline if you strike down 181 19 I'm sorry oh what what do you compare what with what I mean this is uh I don't think you should to change the sentence as is so so I I I appreciate that bass I think I think what is being suggested is that because of the complexity of the calibration and the normalization of the data that we as a board just focus on the Gap and let how and let the analysis of the Benchmark come from the administrators to us for us

129to accept opine Etc on and I do believe that Christian is right when he mentions the fact that normalization and calibration of data happens and it should not be that hard as long as we focus on the right metric and believe the right metric is are we being are our students proficient in the learning standards that are established I mean that's the ultimate it will be a n defined question without we get into the specifics of what is a 500 equal is that a category three or four that's not our our business and you as use dat you've identified it in bullet one just I would just recommend not overthinking it partner with the superintendent review New York state grade 3 through eight math and Ela assessments region exam results in other relevant data points

130to ensure student proficiency levels are progressing same thing applies to achievement gaps if you're looking at progress or lack thereof that is the that is the definition of an of an achievement Gap so it it doesn't pigeon hole you into one data point um our parents in community I'm I'm just going to tell you it's they're not going to put all their eggs in state assessment results I'm I'm just telling you when we do this strategic plan that that will be an outcome so I think this leaves us some some flexibility to say it's not just State assessment results it's also on great um I I'll tell you something I studied as a principal was whether our students were on grade level for reading that's a a critical um data point uh we want all

131of our students to be literate when they when they graduate so I'm just saying that bullet one you all have you have worded really really well and I would just say that that feeds into bullet too it thank you I appreciate I mean the the point I like the point you just made it looks like bullet one incompasses bullet two if we were to remove the law statement about using the 1819 assessment data as a benchmark because my question is like you're removing the Benchmark like you you're you're too General to a point where you don't know what you have to do what you need to do what means you like to rely on to make that determination that we are progressing or we're stalling or we're going backward right so that's why I like

132to rely on data if we have to name the data that even better like when you say other relevant data point what other we have to avoid being uh subjective right it's not like you know I mean an authoritative position and I feel I you know we I you know uh filled the Gap you know we we're not suffering kind of we don't see the what do you call the consequences of that uh pandemic anymore we I believe we improved no I mean okay I respect like you think you believe you improved but how what data points did you use right so kind of like the first bullet as Terry said I mean yeah I like it and I feel like if we were to strike anything change the document reading maybe I don't know

133elaborate a little bit more on point one and let it uh cover point two as well so so so bass I I have a an amendment before us right now I I appreciate you trying to offer maybe an additional or other Amendment I'm just trying to get a sense of support on that and I think there's enough support to just end that bullet at the word pandemic knowing that there are a lot of data that we could rely on and will rely on by the way to assess what type of gaps are we really confronting as we review all the data that's of utility for this purpose that said there's also bullet number three where we're making some what I'll call conforming changes based on uh uh the Striking of uh and the Striking of

134universal due to its redundancy with u in upk any any issues with that none right so so that said can I get a motion for three with those amended changes so moved second second thank you okay so that takes us to our last one thank you everyone for your patience on this um positive School environment goal number four the board is committed to ensuring a positive work environment for all students teachers and staff um discussion none can you oh heyr bullet 3 I think I had um raised this question I don't know that the public or even the people around the table will necessarily know what conduct Baseline data analysis of District employees like what information what data what are we going after so thank you for that Christine I think that's a that's a

135fair question my understanding of what that actually translates to that's a lot of jargon there right what what what common sense uh um I I believe you call that Employee Engagement surveys that's my understanding yeah as well right if I have it right right yeah okay so I'm all for employee engagement surveys you and I talked about this I think we have to assess if that's appropriate in the school environment or you know what that would look like and work with the superintendent to and the and the union to see if that's um if we can go that route thank you Christine Brandon just to Echo what Christine said this one um although I think it's a a good idea I think uh and I can see the intent anyway behind it there does seem

136to this seems like it maybe a little uh a little much for a board goal to me uh this is something that the district would execute all the other things on here the board could execute with reports given to the board Etc um it's hard to see how we would execute this so I just on the grounds of whether it's within our purview I I I would uh be inclined not to include this and but to the other nuanced points that Christine raised I think it introduces a uh or demands an element of cooperation with the other stakeholders that would be involved certainly much more involved than we are um and that is the district employee so I uh I think it might be a little a little soon and uh perhaps a little too

137strong out of the gate for uh for a board goal at this time thanks Brandon anyone else leis yeah I can jump in as well John um I I feel the same as as as Christine and Brendon as well as as the policy makers of the district and the oversight group I feel like we're going to be down in the weeds with something like that trying to conduct you know assessments interviews trying to gather data on on on the district's employees I think we're a few levels lower than than we um are designed designed to operate so I I kind of I kind of echo their their sentiments as well In fairness to John John and I have spoke about engagement surveys so I don't want to leave the impression that I said was talking

138to you about one thing and now I'm saying something else right I think we we have an opportunity to take a temperature check on the culture of of the teachers and the staff and I don't know what that process looks like I don't know if that's a Board responsibility or if we can support the administration but when we when we start to hear things like folks aren't happy about this or that or whatever the case is I think there's an opportunity to assess that culture that level I'm I don't know if it should be a board goal I don't I don't know how we do that right now but I think that was the intention at least initially speaking with with you so I I we did have that conversation I don't want to seem

139like I'm throwing you under the bus now hey Christine thank you for for reminding me of that conversation I you know the the goal is written it it's it speaks to the board's commitment to ensure a positive work environment I do believe that's part of the board's purview um and there has been I believe enough anecdotal discussion out there some people would call that rumors or what have you that is actually getting in the way of us moving the district forward and one of the ways that one can put all those anecdotal statements either on the positive side or on the negative side about how bad things are or how great things are is to actually take a temperature of it and all feedback is valuable in my view and the way I Envision this

140happening is to hopefully put to bed the issues that have kind of demanded too much time over the course of the last year plus by giving people an opportunity to express where they are how they view the district we want everyone to be proud of this district and we want to ensure that the right environment whether it be physical emotional uh um or resource specific is provided and my sense is this becomes the pilot program for future surveys that once we get into the actual conduct if we are so lucky to get there of developing a strategic plan this would become the the the pilot of which we apply Lessons Learned to make sure that when we engage the community and we engage parents and we engage students that we have ironed it out because

141we've basically done this uh to ourselves so can I can I mean can I I know you want to talk and I'm gonna recognize you ter let me finish my thought right so I appreciate that so so so I understand your perspective I just am looking for empirical data to try to move things forward in a constructive and positive way and I just want to say I know you don't recall our conversation but we also have to be cautious because when that data comes back what we do with that is critical and it's not I've done surveys like this it doesn't come back pretty it because you're asking people like what's wrong so are we going to be committed to doing what's necessary over time without without vilifying people the first time we hear this

142so so so first off I I haven't even thought of what a question I would want in a survey to look like I don't think any of us have so the premise that we would be doing this under the guise of something harmful or or or the questions questions that get asked in an engagement my my sense is the way to move forward is not for us to construct the questions but much to your point about finding a the to those questions are still they're still sensitive and and we have to be sure we're ready to react to them in a way versus vilifying folks or situations that's all I want to make sure people know if we're going to go down this path I yeah I I yeah the this notion of vilification I

143because if the results come back really bad in one building versus another building I don't want us to be pointing a finger at a principal saying it's your fault and you know you're in trouble because that's what happens in in business people get you know they don't get great results and now all of a sudden it's their fault and it's never one person's fault so I just want to be sure that if we're going to put this as a goal and go down this road that we really know what that entails as a concern for the backlash of what can come that that's all I want to I think that's a fair point to make thank you thank you yeah I'm sorry Terry now we can get to you that's all I was going to

144say I've um like Christine I've done engagement surveys in Fairfax County and it goes back to a school specific level um so we decided um that it wasn't fair to just focus on a school um we also um did a survey for students if we're talking about a goal of ensuring a positive environment for all students teachers and staff um then we should survey students teachers and and staff um that's that was the kind of realization we got to in Fairfax County so rather than just lifting out um a survey just dedicated to um employees there's also um making sure that you hire someone we we use K12 Insight um they're very good at what they do um but it was really how do you triangulate data to say here's what we see at the

145student level that's contributing to X or this is what we're hearing from parents that's also contributing to X Y or Z so when you whenever you take a sliver you're going to get feedback from whoever you go with to say this is not a large enough brush of data to really make some actionable plans um so I'm just saying that from my experience in a very large District moving forward and then my concern is magnified that was a a district of 200 schools we have five there there is no way around saying look at the data of cormal and Hudson versus Willow versus CES that is what this will turn into so um I'm just echoing what Christine said that we just have to be really strategic and careful with how we um gather the

146data and who we're Gathering data from just to make sure that we're meeting the whole goal and not just you know for one subsect of um of the district thank you Terry just a followup on that Terry just from the uh your past experience what what what grade level were included in the in the surveys themselves uh for students upper um Elementary through high school where the there were um different surveys administered for each level um so age appropriate like what does a lyer scale look like for an elementary level uh student at what grade level are open responses um developmentally appropriate but we really focus on uh yeah knowing that it's age appropriate but fourth grade up could be yeah okay thank you uh Christian um so like as someone who gets graded by

147students all the time and I get to read the reviews and I've done this on different levels yeah you always have people who love you and you always have people who hate you and you have people in between and there's a way you look at that data which is you know you you read you read everything and you try to piece together a bigger picture but and a lot of surveys are poorly designed and a lot of them are badly designed and frankly there was a survey earli this year that was presented uh and let me not identify the source that was put out by this District that I thought was just awful like do I mean for the questions they they posed not surprisingly they got the the results that they got and that

148but here's what's the alternative to collecting data the alternative to collecting data is just everyone's Vibe you know I feel this way I rumor assertions by an individual that I have a better take on what the you know temperature of the district is and I think that's less helpful so I would rather have some data I would rather have bad data meaning like bad data meaning incomplete or having all the problems that people are referring to then have nothing and I think the question is that are we committed as a board to providing an environment that students staff community members Etc feel that is appropriate for a learning community and if that's our goal then how do we go about that and part of that is collecting information whether it is a survey whether it

149is a focus group whether it is a series of conversations I think there's data is plural and data comes in many different forms and I think the point is what we're as a goal we're setting an aspiration and then how we get there that we can work out as we set this goal and we can figure out the course to that whether it is having a better survey collecting data figuring out what it is getting the Buy in from different stakeholders to actually answer the survey and to make it useful or creating it in such a way that it doesn't become this person is a bad person and therefore you know you know becomes where a 360 review where everyone tells everyone else how much they hate each other um and so I guess what

150I see this goal is that it's an aspiration to address an issue that has come up whether it's true or not and I think what we're committing to ourselves by putting in our goal is to start figuring out what that problem is and working towards a solution and I think most of us are in favor of doing something on that in that direction and so the question is I think we can work out what the best instrument is and I think in one at least draft of this part of it was to design it which meant like we take into consideration all the limitations that people have brought up so I think it's good to have this goal and I think maybe perhaps with that understanding thank you Christian let me brenon so I just

151want to come in with maybe some suggested language that would actually maybe achieve what Christian just suggested so um assess the feasibility of a districtwide data project that gathers input from District employees students parents and community members so we're using this kind kind of as a similar Hall to what you you laid out with the Strategic plan I think it's something so new and so important that taking time to just figure out what's the best way forward you know and not going so far as to say you know we're going to conduct something I think we need a period of just figuring out how it's to be done um and I think being more clear about including all the stakeholders I think will give us a a a better picture and doesn't send the wrong

152message because it's funny when you gave your um description of it gave me a much different impression than the wording itself and I would be concerned that the wording of the original goal it seemed very focused on employees but you're explanation seemed to pull back so I'm hoping that we can achieve that feeling in the language of the goal itself thank you Richard real quick um I agree with most of what was said um the way I see this goal is proactiveness that the board is you know and and the administration that we're taking on the role of being proactive and trying to get information before it blows up and you know whether it comes to meetings or or grievances or etc etc I think that would be the the main reason why we should

153have a goal like this but I also agree that and I like the idea of not just focusing on staff but students and the community I think that would be great as well to explore all of our stakeholders thank you Richard Lewis yes John thanks um so yeah I like the the broader scope the Bro the broader Community uh um staff all you know a little bit of everybody I I like that idea again better than kind of how it reads um the question I have too is is on the back end so we set this survey out and now we get this monkey that we have to carry around what do we do do we have any action items what are we expecting to do with it I mean are we going to get

154involved and have a talk with I'm use broad example you know the the the custodial staff at ex School are we are we prepared to jump in with them are we legally can we do that can we act on the on the data points we even get you know and then to if you get the data points you get this information back and it's such that you can't respond to it because it's not within your legal purview then maybe you look even worse collecting this information maybe maybe this goal gets pulled out and this goal gets blown up into its own item and and gets handled on its own um akin to that document John you were referring to earlier so voluminous it's going to take multi years to maybe put together maybe this deserves

155the level of attention that that that as you're talking about get it right not quick you know the note you used earlier maybe there's value here but it's how we do it and make sure it's done done right because you know you're going to survey parents students staff what are we ask like like what are we doing like I I I get the general notion if we're going to survey our educational staff you know you're looking to see what they're doing in their environment if you're looking to survey the custodial staff and and the maintenance staff you're looking to see what they're doing in their environment you know the parents are going to have the parental lens completely different than the internal lens I just I I think it needs a lot more a lot

156more structure if we're going to plan on doing something that that large and and Brandon maybe your your suggesting flies I'm I'm okay um but I think we have to be careful it's it's a it's it's a touchy Road I mean and then maybe maybe our legal wants to way and say you know what guys you're a little over your shoes maybe you want to reel it back a little bit I don't know thank you leis bass uh thanks John yeah I again I mean emphasize what uh Lo just said it's an open-ended goal uh the target is not clear you mentioned Baseline data analysis uh any time I hear the word Baseline that's a model uh what do you do with it right so can I mean Baseline the way I look at my

157Baseline is this is now something that I can compare apples to apples with so you determined your Baseline what is next what comes after determining the Baseline and what are you comparing what are you trying to compare right I mean as a goal what are you trying to achieve the way it's written I I'm 100% sure that the intention in the way kind of you phrased it is clear to you but but it's not clear in the warning as to what exactly are we trying to accomplish there and how so I think that's that's a fair question to try to clarify I'll go back to the description of the goal itself which is something that I think we all are unanimous in our our uh uh position that we want a positive work environment slash

158call it a positive School environment because of how research shows what a positive environment translates to in terms of goal number three which is student outcomes right it's it's important the notion that we are thinking about expanding this at this juncture seems premature I think bass to your to your question about what we're trying to achieve is we're trying to achieve where we are in terms of that positive work environment right if we're a boat at Sea we're trying to triangulate our position right one way to triangulate one's position is to rely on input through surveys the legality of a survey I I I'm I'm happy to entertain that Lewis but my sense is school districts have been using surveys since school districts were born or surveys were born and so the the issue would

159be potentially in what you do with the information that you receive might have some legal ramifications but we're not I want to don't I don't want to get the the cart before the horse here first we need I think my view and that's where this goal is being uh suggested is to establish where we are as it pertains to having a positive work environment nothing more nothing less what do we do with the information my view is like all information you incorporate it into becoming better or the best version that you can be given the resources at your disposal that would be the outcome now first Terry because I saw Terry's hands first and then Richard thank you so I I think we're all would be a unanimous vote that we want a positive work

160school environment for all students teachers and staff all in bullet point number three does not give Justice to students teachers and staff so I I think it absolutely has to be expanded my work with parents who do not have a grievance process to speak their truth um from do you feel supported and that it's a positive environment for you as a x y or Z student is it's almost like a non-negotiable for this board that to only focus on um the staff I think misses misses the Mark um the the goal says students teachers and staff so bullet 3 should reflect M students teachers I think that's a great ad thank you Terry uh Richard great I agree with that by the way so the way I I interpret this and think about this goal

161and I guess how it would be how it would be done right I think about the visitation committee I don't want to get into that again but um the visit ation committee when they go into the schools and visit the schools they talk to staff we take their feedback and we come back and and compile a report and present it to the board and the administration so that's a an information gathering uh type of action and I kind of see this as as a similar a similar thing just I guess more more specific and more um more planned so I just think it would be you know the way what we do with that information it would be similar to what the the visitation committee has done in the past correct I mean that's how

162I Envision it uh no I I I don't Envision that being the the case at all um I it it it it becomes the the the the the visitation committee has a certain um bias associated with it and and that bias is either someone who wants to share something that is you know causing them upset or possibly share something that's you know causing them Joy now I think the results that are skewed to you only get input from those who are upset not from those who are Overjoyed right so so so the survey itself would try to normalize so we hear those who have joy and we also hear those who may be upset but put it into the context of what really is happening as opposed to one's own personal views it becomes the

163collective view somewhat like board we all have our internal view or individual views but at some point it becomes the collective View and that's why I like Terry's if we're going to do it once as a pilot do it for all those in the school makes a lot of sense to me um but I want to make it's totally different because the purpose while information is valuable this would be cleaner this would maybe have a a certain level of of lack of better term utility to it that we as a board and the administrators working with each other all of us together can plot a course out to see how we could move the needle on the things that may or may not get uncovered and so it would help us allocate resources allocate time

164effort and focus where the indicator of a a visitation doesn't lead to that outcome in and of itself when you put that in the context of a survey maybe you get there as well as other data points because you just can't rely on one data point right Terry But but so so so so I just want to just clarify that and I'm sorry if I kind of went on a little bit but I think it's an important point I I think my point was more towards that once the survey results are given to the the board or whatever entity you know you do it through or whatever the board isn't I don't think well they're charged with executing deciding what to do with that information but that it would be collaborative just like the reporting

165through the visitation that was more of my point that it's not just the board doing it it would be a team effort that's what I was trying to prove there I I I can't imagine an environment where that wouldn't be the case but I mean I John if I can just say something you you good I'm sorry no go ahead so I I love Terry's idea but go ahead Carl I like Terry's idea he's he wants to incorporate every everyone I just want to make a statement I just I don't believe that we should always be afraid of what results are going to be whether they're whether they're negative or not and Terry by no means is is afraid of what the survey is going to come out to be I think this can only

166be a positive thing no matter what the survey you know whatever we conduct here whatever it comes out it's it's going to be a positive thing um you may not like everything that's written in there but but but we can expand on that and we can correct those problems that we've had here in the past and I think that's all we're looking to do we're not looking to you know I just don't think we should be afraid of things you know what I mean I and I would love to see it just be a positive thing again Terry you know right we just talked about this a little while ago there's going to be criticism no matter what right we all know that I mean look at gez I'm number but it's what we do

167with that criticism you know what I mean and I think this is a positive thing I I think we can fix whatever the issues are or whatever people are are reporting back we can fix them and we don't have to worry about anything yeah I'm not afraid of and we weren't I think we were in the same point of view that um I'm never afraid of data but my first meeting here in Cornwall was with the group of students who felt that they weren't served well by the Cornwall Central School District so rather than taking a sliver of just employees I think we have we have worked to do across the entire school district and I think it would be a shame not to have data points from everyone so that we can look at

168our whole and Terry I would say district and say how do we move forward if we just did it with staff it wouldn't be fair that's right okay so I love your idea I think we should be hearing from the community I think we should hear from the students as well as the staff and and again it seems to me like it doesn't bother you whatsoever so all right thank you Carl thank you Terry um trying to trying to move this forward I want to I appreciate everybody's time on this um let's see if we can do the following um I would like to offer an amendment uh you got I'm sorry oh okay I'm sensitive to may be overly sensitive to people raising their anyhow so so uh an amendment to Bullet three based

169on I think the the the good conversation that's come out of this and I appreciate everybody's input and and perspective and I I know as Terry said the unanimous support for having a positive uh School environment now how can we ensure that we get there comes the question so let me offer this amendment to Bullet number three where it says we will and I'm going to keep the language explore assess and conduct engagement surveys of students teachers and staff to identify sustainment SL Improvement areas and to assess the feasibility of a larger scale data project incorporating all stakeholders in the future joh can you can you read that one more time I'm sorry sure we will explore assess and conduct engagement survey of all students teachers and staff to identify sustainment SL Improvement areas and

170to assess the feasibility of a larger scale data project incorporating all stakeholders in the future just a point John for clarity explore assess and your in your modification I'm okay and then you say uh uh of a larger scale data projects and corporating all stakeholders right a larger scale incorporating all stakeholders all stakeholders as defined previously in the statement or does that outside of the school which would be the community all stakeholders yeah right should we say something like the Greater Community Define that a little some word you want use stakeholders yeah yeah the Greater Community in the future the greater Cornwall Community sure I'll take that as a a second amendment to that thank you leis I'm just writing it down so any other Christian I'll just point this because there are some people

171who I think this is important too including at least two people who have come and spoken before us um we're more I think District Community is probably the most neutral way to say it say again District Community is probably the best way to say it we are not just Cornwall we are Woodberry and New Windsor and this has been pointed out I think to us at least twice this year already so could you give me a phrase after incorporating I'm sorry the district community in the future CCSD Community yeah okay great thank you so let me reate what I have here and and see if we can move it and be done so number three amended as follows we will explore assess and conduct engagement surveys for all students teachers and staff to identify sustainment

172SL Improvement areas and to assess the feasibility of a larger scale data project incorporating the CCSD community so um I just want to be sure that when we say we will conduct that we're sure that we can do that like we can conduct it you know like that it's specifically a board action I mean like because then we're we're the ones taking ownership of the whole thing as opposed to partnering with the school district to conduct I think that's just more accurate to what's actually going to happen and what is in front of us was that I I had already had that word down we must be like no I just you know just being as as accurate as we can um so is this on me now to come up with it or do

173you want to no I'll go for it re I mean we're making sausage here and I appreciate everyone's indulgences on it but it's important right I it really is um so let's get it right so we will partner with the superintendent to explore assess and conduct an engagement survey of all students teachers and staff to identify sustainment Improvement areas and to assess the feasibility of a larger scale data project incorporating the CCSD community in the future is there a motion oh can I just have one tiny tiny it's so tiny no you may versing the order of conduct and assess cuz we will conduct it before we assess it right I I mean I I know some people like to think sequentially I thought of that earlier but what's the argument against sequential besides it

174being your idea just joking just joking what I am no I'm glad we've gotten to the point where it can be that fine it's just we're going to make it I noticed that before but in the spirit of trying to move forward but uh um so I'll leave it to you that's it no go ahead that's all I had to say offer offer the amendment verbatim if you would oh I didn't know that's how we were doing it yeah so I offer to amend the order of conduct an assess thank you you're welcome no no no all right so the fourth time is the chart and this is what we're going to do so may I have a motion for the following Amendment we will explore conduct and assess engagement survey for all students teachers

175and staff to identify sustainment SL Improvement areas and to assess the feasibility of a larger scale data project incorporating the CCS D community in the future so move second second second thank you all in favor I I uh oh boy in favor oh of of of that amendment of just the amendment for bullet number three Re the rewarding okay yeah sorry all right so so can I get a motion then for all of goal number four so moved thank you second second all right so let's go back to the agenda agenda if we could and to Lewis's point about the resolution it's uh and so resolve the board of education does hereby approve the 2024 Board of Education goals as just amended uh can I have a motion so move second I think we've discussed

176it I I like to discuss like for the last because we discussed each one separate now we're discussing the whole thing go B okay I felt like uh you know going to the student outcomes that was goal number three uh again talking about ranking uh I think to be fair for everybody I did not hear from each one of us about going for it or against it I heard from three people so so so so bass I appreciate what I I I think you're going to request I believe that that item has already been voted on it was it was motioned it was seconded the and that goal in its entirety as listed on that page was agreed to if if you want to go back on something you weren clear about Su I would

177I I will strongly uh ask you not to go that route um I do to your point though broadly speaking I do believe establishing appropriate benchmarks and baselines is important and that will be a continuing effort of this board working with with Terry I know we've had conversations in the past when we talked about like compensation at what percentile when you compare yourself to other districts do you want to be at right I think I think that's still something that we haven't identified that that cortile so to speak but I do agree that that's an effort i' like to go on the record I'd like to go on the record whether the Board of Education of Cornwall Central School District does or does not believe national ranking or State ranking I like to hear that

178so so so so so why don't we do this because I don't want to take a vote on something that we haven't really considered and thought of so how about Jim and I consult with you and we will we will put it on the next board meeting agenda what an appropriate uh um item for board consideration might be okay and and and I I don't want I don't want to do something spur the moment that hasn't had proper thought behind it and and so I'm going to ask you to think about it we'll all think about it my my sense is just because someone does not respond to an item that someone has expressed doesn't indicate that they either disagree with it that's my point or or or agree with it I don't know if

179they support or not think it was gerain to the issue of the board to to to go through at this point and and that's all I'm I'm asking your Indulgence on that we just table this discussion for another time okay that's okay thank you I appreciate that B I really do and I promise that we'll we will talk more about this so so any other items on that no so hey uh we have a motion that's been seconded for this uh amended uh board goal document all in favor I any opposed any abstained so moved thank you all right so the last item um which some might take issue with because of the order is um discussion approval of our district Vision this is an item that's in policy that we do annually uh um

180that we review The Vision so so the vision of the district States we envision a school district in which every teacher is a source of knowledge and inspiration every building is a place of safety and support every leader is a pillar of integrity and every student is a source of Pride that is our vision I think it's a darn good Vision a lot of effort went into it a lot of thought and the words each of them I think are impactful and represent what Cornwall strives to be so any um other commentary if not I'd like to a motion to reopt this some second all in favor I I any opposed any abstains no thank you okay so um at this point we would open up normally to uh public comments luckily um they have

181uh um retired for the evening the public has and so with that uh I would ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting thank you leis second thank you Richard all in favor I so moved well thank you everyone have a good night yeah oh