001call the meeting to order. If everyone can rise for the pledge allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, welcome to the meeting. We are going to start off with our public to be heard. Carla, who do we have? >> Sarah Keegan. >> Sarah, feel free to step right up. >> Hello, my name is Sarah and first I'd like to thank you for providing me with the opportunity to speak. I'm here to address some safety concerns that I have which are deeply impacting my son. Currently, my son is an eighth grade student at Betavian Middle School. He's been battling bullying for over a year now and it
002continues to escalate greatly. At the end of this past school year, he was attacked by a fellow student and his brother. On September 10th, he was again attacked by these two individuals, which resulted in him being sent to the hospital by ambulance. I was advised by the police department that due to the age of these children and nothing being broken, that nothing can be done. On September 16th, my son's father and older brother followed my son home. Again, these two students with a group of 15 others ran after my son to attempt to beat him up again. My son's father was able to diffuse the situation, but in the intro, this boy and his brother hit my son's father in the nose, gave him a bloody nose. The police again then said that nothing could
003be done. The reason I'm addressing the school is that this threat has now leaked into the school. One of the attackers does not attend the school anymore and is no longer allowed on the school property. Instead, he waits across the street for my son, directly across from the middle school. His brother still attends the school and follows my son through the hallways and threatened to beat him up again inside of school. Since this incident, I've not let my son go to school until something safe, some type of safety protocol is put into place. My son already suffers from depression and anxiety and this heightened act of harassment and bullying is deeply impacted his mental health. He's afraid to come to school and his self-esteem and desire for learning are plummeting. He's a unfortunately we have
004seen an increase in children over the years committing suicide as a result of bullying. Not only am I concerned for his mental health but his physical health as well. On September 10th, a fellow student at the middle school brought a knife. Luckily, another student brought it to the attention of an adult. However, what if they hadn't? What if that had been this the boy that has been harassing my son? The rate of inschool violence has increased leaps and bounds. And as a parent, I'm deeply concerned, not just for the safety of my son, but for others as well. While there may already be an SRO officer in place, that officer is unable to be everywhere at all times. I would like to ask that the school enforce section 9 part D in the code of
005conduct, which covers bullying, cyber bullying, and harassment. I ask that repercussions come to these students who are attacking my son. I ask that teachers be made aware and increase our hallway presence for monitoring of these situations. I did a simple Google And I was also able to find numerous grants available to New York State schools to increase safety measures. These grants can cover things such as metal detectors at entrances, cameras be placed in hallways, extra SRO officers, and just a few examples of what possibly could help. I'd like to ask that at dismissal there be an increased presence of adults watching over the students as they leave. As I mentioned prior, that student waits for my son to leave the building. And even though I'll be picking them up going forward, as you may be
006familiar, it's hard to find a parking spot when everybody's there picking up their son. So often I have to park down the street or across the street right where those boys wait for him. These students already hit his father, so clearly they're not afraid of adults. While I understand the schools face many challenges, especially monetarily, I beg of you to please enact changes to increase the school safety for both mental and physical well-being. I'm afraid to send my son to school now and that's not a feeling any parent should have. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, sir. >> We uh we appreciate you coming in. A lot of times uh our our meetings are always public and unfortunately I think some people hesitate on coming in. So, we appreciate you coming in advocating
007for your son. Mr. Smith will follow up with you um with Dr. Cry and >> call tomorrow, >> take a look and Mr. Smith will follow up with you. But again, we appreciate you coming in and voicing that tonight. >> Thank you for listening. I appreciate it. >> All right. Uh just the one. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. So, we're going to switch gears and go to our good news. >> Let's see. >> So, we have >> news Carl has something to show. Oh, we have some updates. >> Put it on the slide. True. >> Thank God. All right. So, we have from Dr. Corey regarding our new employee orientation, welcoming new staff in meaningful ways. Thank you to Laura Wilbert, Nancy Mitchell, and Carla Cole for collaborating to ensure success with
008every step. Um, our extended year offered great opportunities for our students to engage in meaningful ways. Thank you to the teachers who greeted students every day with a smile and creative activities. Thank you to Christa Lton, Jordan Grant for leading our youngest learners and Christine Cameron and Mike Langage at BMS for leading our middle school learners. You want to pick one from each uh school maybe? >> Yeah. >> Carly man, how many you have up here? >> There's nine slides, but they're not that long. It's up to you. >> Uh where's Jordan? Which uh school? >> JK. >> Let's read one for her. We had many new families come in for tours of the building this week. and one family commented in particular on how clean the school was. This is a testament to the
009hard work of our maintenance custodians and cleaning staff. Thank you to all you did over the summer to make our building shine for the new school year. Uh from Mrs. Nataro, Chris Manfrey, the new school psychologist, has been a welcome addition to our team. He is great with students and support student needs. Uh Miss West, BHS has enjoyed I picked the wrong one on this one. BHS has enjoyed a fun-filled homecoming week. Students and staff have been joining in the fun and have had an exciting girls varsity volleyball game against the Greece Griffins as well as our bonfire on Wednesday night. Students had a blast traveling between events. Our girls were victorious. Congratulations to the volleyball team. Additionally to our newest set of class murals are underway as the battle between the classes rages on.
010BHS has an awesome opening across the board and we are looking forward to a great year. Mrs. Well, go back to Mrs. Wazooi. She'll yell at me if I don't read hers. >> All right. Uh, from Mrs. Wazalooki, 1,000 kudos to our student support team. Proud and humbled to be a part of it and to work side by side with a masterful interventionalist. Um, and there's a ton more on listed. This is listed on our our web page. So, Well, I wanted you to read the Mrs. Gray. I really like that one. >> All right. From Mrs. Gray, students in Mrs. Gay's class were participating in an experiment with with a re a recipe where they poured three different drinks with different >> destiny in a cup. You got to give this to me ahead
011of time, Carla. The drinks stayed separated and made a a cool color spectrum. It tasted great, too. So, that's awesome for for her class. So, we appreciate everyone sharing the good news. Um, and again, there's plenty more listed, so please go on and take a look for those. Um, we have a ton of presentations for tonight. We're going to start with our Winterard trips. >> Hi everybody. I'll be quick. I'm Channer. Just a quick um note, I'm a graduate of Battavia High. I have uh one student in college now, but two are still attending at BHS. And I'm the director of Battavia Wintergards. We have two winter guards. A cadet winter guard that's composed of this year it's going to be 48. We're extending it to our fourth graders to get them started a little
012bit earlier. Um and then our IA which is high school students. Um we do have some students from other districts that do come and enjoy being part of um the windard as well. So this year um we would like to have two trips to travel to two regionals outside of the area. We mostly compete locally um between Buffalo, Rochester, and some of the southern tier. And we're hoping to be able to go um to Philadelphia and to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. So, just a little background um purpose of our trips are to stay relevant within WGI Wintergard International, which is the big um it says international because we do see Canadian groups and groups come from different countries depending on the year. Um but we want to eventually go to championships again as we have done in
013the past and then going to these regionals helps us stay relevant there. So the first one would be at the end of February at the end of our February break. We have attended this one in the past. It's really nice because it's a two-day regional so it allows the kids to perform more than once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Um it is at Council Rock High School. I don't know if you've ever been to some schools out of state, but compared to Jese County, this is one of those regional schools. I think there are 10 high schools um that are in this district. So, this is almost like a college campus. Um what we would do is leave on Friday, probably, you know, uh early afternoon and then travel to the hotel. We will
014have a practice time. We will compete and we will watch other guards and then return to our hotel. We'll basically do the same thing the next day, but return home. So, if students miss class, it might be like two hours of their school day maximum. Um, and then our second trip to Bethlehem, which these aren't too far away from each other. They just happen to be the most convenient ones statewise this this year. We'll be at the end of March. So, this would be the year we would go to our WGI um big championships in April, but we elected to try and do two regionals instead because WGI takes about four or five days. it would be during our April break. And we are a little bit in a growing year because we don't have
015any seniors graduating this year. Our oldest um performer will be a junior, but we just have a lot of kids that are at the younger ages. So, we're trying to get back up there. Um what we would do here is go to another big regional high school, Liberty High School. Same thing. Um go to the competition, perform once Saturday, once Sunday, and then return to school. And then our our season will finish at Gates Twilight with our local championships. It won't go I pressed it but just a little slow. It might go twice now in case. So in order to cover the costs um our performers are usually doing fundraisers. We do our fun big fundraiser is our home show in February which we get a good chunk of money from that and then we
016let that kind of start our season off as well as some of the things that the school board is a lot is able to help us with the school district is able to help us with but we do some local restaurant fundraisers a candy bar sale with the rest of the music department. Um our calendar fundraiser where our students will get you know sponsors for each day of a month. Of course our winter guard show which is scheduled for February 7th this year will help us out. And then usually we do a good one with Tav's original. And part of this fundraiser also covers all of the music boosters um scholarships that we give out at the end of the year for our graduating seniors. And then lastly, just to talk about taking the kids
017outside of the area. Um I have been a high school teacher. This is my 26th year. I teach in Churchville Chilai. I have taken students for a long time. I taught middle school. So we took them to New York City like 80 students at a time and I've headed those those um trips as well as taking students out of the country for foreign language trips as well. Um and then also I'm trained in first state and CPR as well as everybody that comes with us. And one thing that we always did anyway in our local circuit was to make sure that everybody was trained. Um it's kind of like a it's not the same one we do through the school but anybody working with kids goes through some training to make sure Everything's scopeic. They
018know what's happening. Our staff has been around and been in our program for a long time, but we also have another level this year of training for anybody that spends more than two hours with any students involved in the winter. So, that's another added thing that we have. We also go through the medical information. I work with the nurses at the schools and we have multiple chef rooms that go. It's not just me and the staff. There's usually other parents. We have a lot of equipment and things like that, too. So, if anybody has any questions, I can answer them for you. How many students? >> It'll depend. We're we're in our um tryyout stage right now. So, it typically ranges anywhere from 10 to 14 students that are performing. >> Okay. >> Because it's
019it's only our older guard that we take. We don't take the younger kids. They do the local stuff. Sorry to reiterate that. >> Anybody else got any questions? >> The home show still is a fundraiser to help offset the cost too. >> Yeah. Yeah. So we're kind of like always working, you know, a year a little bit of a year ahead. So our home show, which brings in our local guards from, you know, it's mostly Western New York, but we had we have one of the biggest home shows in our circuit, and we had 26 guards last year. And we also have Canadian guards that come and, you know, we have concessions, we have ticket sales. There are some costs of putting on the show, but they're offset by the sales of all that stuff.
020And like we use the whole school. If you ever get a chance to come, even if it's just to watch our kids perform, they're on at specific times. Like you would just be if you've never been to one, like it's a whole another world, you know? I used I worked bingo at Gates Bingo for my kids a couple of times because the my older kids have gone on to do more of this and my nieces and outside of high school and like it's the same thing. Like you walk in, you're like, "This is a whole different world. I don't play bingo." Like, and that's why I feel like you're going to walk in and be like, "Oh my gosh, this is a world I didn't know existed essentially. So, anybody else have questions? >> No.
021>> Thank you very much. >> All right. At this time, we'll need a motion to approve the Wintergard trips as presented. >> So, moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. >> All in favor? All right. Thank you very much. Good luck. >> Thank you guys. Going to go over to tryyous now. >> Have a great evening. >> You too. >> Our next presenter is Coach Staley for our hockey trips tournaments. >> Hi coach. >> Hello everybody. Um Mark Staley, honored to be your hockey coach. We I'm here sort of to ask permission sort of for our yearly trip. Um we do have with this pending approval, we do have a 20 game schedule for our varsity team in place. We also have an 18 game schedule for our JV team
022in place. Um right now we have 20 kids slated to be on the varsity team this year, 19 to be on the JV team. So numbers are strong and future looks bright. Um, I'm asking permission to take the varsity hockey team to the BC Classic, which is a Thanksgiving tournament in Bethlehem, New York. Ironically, um, we did go to this very tournament three years ago. Um, it would be interesting this time, however, because I'm not asking for the kids to have any time off of school because this is their Thanksgiving break. Um, some of the parents had an issue with traveling the day after Thanksgiving. Most hockey parents are used to this traveling on this. So, um we would play at five o'clock against uh Christian Brothers Academy Albany um which is a very good
023hockey team. Um on that Friday 11:28 and on Saturday 11:29 we would play at 10 in the morning against Bethlehem. Uh they have a beautiful rink there. We'd be playing at the Bethlehem YMCA Center. Um we would be traveling once again in what we call youth hockey fashion which means the kids travel with their parents. We do book the hotels al together for a preferential rate. But in terms of responsibility I know that's the big thing when we travel with students. Um what are we responsible for? What are the parents responsible for? Um the parents are responsible for traveling with their kids providing them transportation getting them there and they kids stay with their parents. We don't do three kids in a room or four kids in a room or they stay with their parents.
024Um when they're at pregame meals, uh pregame meetings or their ice rink, they're under my purview as their coach and then we go back to the hotel. The parents typically have meals for the kids and things like that. It has worked out wonderfully for us. The first four times that we've asked, we've gone out without a hitch. Uh these trips have been great for us. This would ironically be the first two games of the season, which I love to get the kids on the road early to build a little camaraderie. So, um asking for that no school off, not asking for any school off, just asking for permission to take the kids um on the road out of section. Um we play 20 games, 10 games are in section five and 10 games are out
025of section five, which is pretty cool. Section six, section three, section one, and section uh 10. We play against teams from those sections this year. Uh so, it's a pretty diverse schedule. So, any questions? I have one. >> Are you just taking varsity? >> Yeah, varsity. The varsity team is gone. Yeah. And we'll have in the past we've had some kids that we've dual rostered. Yes. >> This year, because of our numbers, we really probably won't have that. We may have one or two kids that I will bring up and and have play down, but it it's pretty well it's pretty well split. We have one female player and 19 male players on the varsity team. And this year we'll have one female player and uh 17 or 18 females on the on the JV
026team. So it'll be just the varsity team traveling. So Okay. >> Uh coach, are we still just Betavian Notre Dame or do you still have some students from other districts? >> No, we are just Betavia Notre Dame. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Uh and this is Brady Johnson. We had one student last year from Oakfield um who was grandfathered in and now it's just strictly Notre Dame. Okay. Numbers are very strong. Um and uh roughly 50/50 if you're if you're interested on the varsity team. The JV team is heavier with uh Betavia Middle School, Betavia High School kids. uh probably um 14 and and five and the varsity team is probably uh 12 and eight in the Davis safer. >> Okay. >> Um >> how's the roster size to pass for you? Is it still good?
027>> Same numbers. >> Okay. >> I mean within one or two players, right? And so um this would be the biggest JV team we've had in a long time, which is great. We had a modified team last year that you guys approved, which was wonderful. We got those seventh graders involved and seventh graders over at Nordam involved. Um, which helps build that camaraderie. They all know each other. So, um, I think it's a healthy thing. We are seeing more and more schools merge constantly though. Okay. One of the games the varsity team has this year is against, follow me here, Dew, uh, North Tanowanda and Sweet Home. >> Okay. Three pretty big school districts, >> one hockey team, and we're going to play them this year. So even combined with the two schools, our bed's
028number for hockey, um the only school smaller than us in Western New York is Aquinus. >> Okay. >> Uh at 500 something and our our best number combined is a little over six 625. >> And I went over the two minutes that Joel Reed told me that >> you can blame it on me for asking you questions. >> Okay. I'm happy to answer any questions about >> that's a great job keeping those numbers a testament to to your program. So congratulations. >> Thank you. Wish I could take the credit for it, but >> do we have any other questions? >> All right. Thank you, coach. >> All right. Thanks, D. >> So, at this time, we'll need a motion to approve the hockey trips as presented. Do I have a motion? >> We'll go we'll
029go Barb this time. And do I have a second? >> Second. >> And Jen has second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you, Mar. Congratulations. >> All right. And our last presentation is portrait of graduates. >> So just in ter of context, I invited Stephanie Burns. Stephanie Burns is one of our school improvement specialists at Boseies. And if you've been following the state news uh down the road, uh there's going to be new graduation requirements. They're not going to affect um our current seniors or anything. But I did invite Stephanie to give you a brief overview of board members, what you should know for down the road. She's been working on this hard since it first came out. um and she's updating various boards around her region. I wanted to invite invite her to come
030here and give you a brief update as to where things stand in New York State and what might be relevant for you as a board. So, thank you Stephanie. >> Happy to be here. Um so, it's not on here. Let me see. >> No, it's on. >> Is this the computer or no? >> Wait a minute. Hang on. >> Oh, okay. There I am. There's me. He already introduced me, so we don't have to do that again. Okay. So, um, my job is to be a liazison between New York State Department of Education and our component district. So, I sit on a committee known as the graduation measures communication network and I will be the point of contact for our region uh, should there be any questions pertaining to commencement and graduation. I will be
031attending all the virtual meetings and engaging in train the trainer sessions, which I'm starting to do here today, and really begin to raise awareness around some of the changes pertaining to commencement. And then should regional districts have questions, you can always reach out to me. Um, and if should the department, the New York State Department of Ed ask for feedback, I'm going to collect that from our component districts and give it to them as well. So, just a little bit of context as to why I'm the one going around talking about this work. Um we've had a few actions approved by the board of regents but right now the majority of this proposed plan is just that a proposal. So um when it comes to some of the items I will reference them but many
032of this is still unknown as to how we're going to go about it but uh hopefully I can answer any questions that you have and if not we'll put it in the uh the parking lot to get answers when more guidance comes from the state education department. So why make a change? Um there's various reasons why we would need to make some changes to the way in which we educate our students in New York State. Um we have a lot of data and research that shows us that our current system is often uh not meeting the needs of uh various populations and subgroups of students. Um students with disabilities, students who are English language learners, students from socioeconomic differences and backgrounds. Um, so this really spurs up the conversation of do we need to have
033all these compensatory options and safety net options in New York State or are we creating a lot of back channels to meet the needs of kids that were just not meeting their needs. So really we want to change the system so we don't have to create all the loopholes. Also, we want to create a system that reflects the um 21st century skills that students will need uh in their post-secary life. Whether they're going on to college or whether they're going to go out into the workforce, we really want to make sure that they're prepared. I mean, as you all know, the workforce and the technology is changing so rapidly, it's difficult to prepare students for a future that we don't even know that it exists at this time. Um so, we need to be uh
034more responsive in that way. And then just make it more simple. If you know the current guidelines, you would know that it's pretty complicated um how to get a you know, it's almost like doing a little game of connect the dots and making sure all the kids have their credits and all their exams and plus one pathways. It's like a little math formula at this point. So, the state really wants to uh simplify and then offer more flexibility for students to show us what they know and what they can do in various ways. And then um a lot of this was at the request from the public. So we had meetings with parents, community members, teachers, administrators, students themselves because uh we wanted to know what do you hope for in a graduate in New
035York State and there was a lot of feedback gathered and so that spurred up some of these changes. So I think framing the why is really important before I tell you what it is. Um because change is not easy but when we can ground it in what's best for kids and what's best for our systems, I think that helps a little bit. So that's kind of why um I won't give you a huge history, but essentially this work started way back before CO in 2019. Um CO obviously pumped the brakes on quite a bit of it, but there was a committee put together called the blue ribbon commission and their job was to do a vast amount of research on what other um countries in the world do for commencement for students and what are
036other states in our nation do, what are other high schools doing across the country. Um, they did a ton of research, a ton of feedback, and they ultimately boiled that down into some priority areas. Is it your computer that's running it? If I stand closer to you, maybe. >> All right. So, then those four priority priority areas were boiled down into 12 recommendations. You can keep going. And then ultimately led to the four transformations. That's what I'm going to review with you tonight are those four transformations because I think that's the nitty-gritty and what people want to hear you. So the four transformations, the first one is to adopt the New York State portrait of a graduate which is actually already occurred and I can see you already have a lovely poster of that here
037in the room. Um the state is looking to redefine credits and learning experiences for students. um they're looking to sunset uh assessment diploma requirements and then ultimately move New York State towards one high school diploma. So transformation one is all about the adopting of the portrait of a graduate. Like I said, this actually just happened and this is really going to be um the cornerstone of what we want all students to know and demonstrate proficiency in in New York State. So this is really the guiding the guiding light or the the lighthouse if you will for all um schools across our country. You can So this is actually what it looks like. You have it on the wall. There's also one in your folder. Um I'm going to go through these um components with you
038briefly, but I do want to mention that the portrait of a graduate does connect to a lot of the other initiatives that the state education department has been working on, which I'm sure you've heard of many of these um in your conversations here at your board meetings as well. um NTSS, culturally responsive sustaining education, SEAL, a lot of regionalization discussion happening in our small rural schools, CTE, workbased learning, just to name a few. Thank you. So the CRSSE, the culturally responsive sustaining framework is at the heart of all of this work. And all of that really means is we want to create opportunities in schools where all students feel respected, where they feel like they belong, and that they can be successful. We want them see themselves in their schooling, be confident in their work.
039Employees and colleges really want students to be able to understand not only themselves, but how to work with other people when they go into the workforce and be proud of who they are, all the while respecting others. And that's really what the CRSC is all about. So, they kind of put that right in the center of it. Just being a good human. Thank you. There are six attributes on the portrait of a graduate um that all students will have to show their thinking and knowing and understandings about. The first one is being academically prepared. Well, yeah, we've been doing that for a long time in schools in New York State. We've been making sure students are academically prepared, but we would also like to make sure they're creative innovators. So, when they go out into
040the workforce or they're working in postsecary, they can be innovative. We want them to be critical thinkers, effective communicators, either orally, written or any other type of way. And we want them to understand the greater world because our world is more connected now than it ever has been. I mean, we can sit on Zooms with people from across the world uh and do work at this point in time. And then lastly, as human beings, be reflective and be reflective about themselves and understand how to really focus on their future aspirations. So taking care of that whole child, not just the academics nowadays. And that's really what this is all about. You can click one more. All right. The transformation number two is around. So this one has not been approved. Only the first one has.
041This one would be a proposal. They're looking to redefine credits and organize the diploma requirements into those areas of your portrait of a graduate. So they'll nest requirements in all of those six attributes. They would like to add more uh requirements for career and technical education and financial literacy. Making sure that students are prepared to be financially stable when they're transitioning into adulthood. I know that's something I talk to my own children about all the time. Um and then lastly, uh expand ways for students to show their proficiency in various areas of the portrait of a graduate and our learning standards. Those could look like a lot of these things. And many of these things you already do here. You already have high school courses. you already have state exams. Um if perhaps you already
042have work-based learning opportunities and you offer seals and endorsements. So many of these things exist already, but it's just leveraging them, bolstering them, and perhaps even creating some new opportunities that's specific to Betavia High School. And you can click one more. So here's kind of what this looks like. Boots on the ground. If I have two students who are working towards effective communicators on the portrait of a graduate, I could have student A, who's on the left, earned the seal of biiteracy or complete a capstone project and complete um their English language arts class. And then student B could um successfully complete a digital media CTE program. she maybe passed her ELA uh regions exam and then lastly did a summer internship for the newspaper. Both have demonstrated that they are proficient communicators. They just
043did it in a different type of way. So it doesn't pigeon hole students into one particular way of showing that they can do things. It offers an opportunity for students to put themselves in the driver's seat of their own education which is very empowering. You're okay. You can go. So that's transformation two. We don't have a lot of information on how that looks yet, but that's the ideal of what they're striving for. And then transformation three is sunsetting assessment diploma requirements. So students will no longer need to pass a regent exam or a plus one pathway to graduate high school. Um they can if they want to take a high school regent exam for commencement. it just won't be a barrier per se for students who maybe can show us how what they can do
044and what they know in a different type of way. So, for example, I'm a special ed teacher by background. Many of my students with disabilities struggled to take high stakes assessments. So, um this would offer them the opportunity to show us what they know and do in a different type of way, whether it's a capstone, a project, um a work, a workbased learning opportunity, whatever that is. Um so students all students will have the option to take regent exams if they're successful with those or uh students who don't find success with those will have another pathway to show us. And then I do have to mention that because of federal requirements under every student succeeds act we are all districts in New York state are required to um give regent exams in ELA math and
045science for a federal requirement. So, those will still be a requirement for all students. Um, but they don't have to necessarily pass them to get a diploma. That makes sense. This one's been getting a lot of attention. And so, I just want to be very clear that regent exams are not going away. They are a viable option for students who do well with taking exams. And last one is transformation four, moving towards one high school diploma. There's that simplification. Let's just make it easy. One diploma. Um, if students were to earn the advanced designation, those would now become the seals and endorsements. So, I get a lot of people asking me, well, what would set apart a student here at Apotavia from maybe someone in Greece, a student in Greece or a student in Pittsburgh.
046Um, so these seals and endorsements is what kind of elevates students above each other. So, if you're looking to find kind of those high flyers or if colleges are looking at certain students, they might look at some of those seals and endorsements. and districts will have local control to create more of those uh as you move forward in your in your journey. So, the state is planning to roll this out over a um multi-year approach. We just finished the planning year. We're moving into phase one, which is installation. Phase two is initial implementation. And then finally, phase three will be um fall 2029 and beyond, which is full implementation scaling up. You can click and I did stick this in your folder if you want to look at this later, but it does kind of
047give you an overview of what is expected in each of these phases. You can see we've already done the portrait. We've provided exemptions for students who have a major life event, maybe the death of, you know, a loved one or their house burnt down or they're they're moving or they're homeless. We have opportunities to really consider the whole child and take care of our children. Um, and then we're going to move into those new credit requirements. Hopefully by the end of this school year, we'll have more information on that. We're going to be looking at our standards to make sure that those are all prioritized and formatted well. Um, and then we're going to get into the uh sun setting of assessment diploma requirements. So, all current requirements still stand until we get some more
048guidance in this school year here, the 2728. And then lastly, we would move towards we're actually going to move towards one transcript across New York State, which I know makes a lot of guidance offices very happy because they're all going to look the same. Um, but we're going to have transcripts that will show proficiency in the standards and also in the portrait of a graduate. And then if we change the standards, we have to change the assessments to make sure they line up. So that's going to match up with that. So there's the overall timeline. um looks nice on paper, but again it will be a lot of work for folks to learn uh different ways and and doing things and it's going to impact every single one of us. So just want to make
049sure everyone knows that we have a nice slow roll out and there's nothing we need to do right now. You can click next button. Uh nice wanted to let everybody know it's going to take hands all hands on deck and a shared responsibility to make sure that we're really um producing high quality people when they leave us out of high school. So, I'm excited about that. I think it really kicks open the door for many more kids to leave with a high school diploma and show us what they can do and be employable or go to postsecary. You can click this flyer is in your folder. You have it. This was created by state ed. It has all the um frequently asked questions and some information about this plan. Uh and that you can click
050one more there's the FAQs. I linked those in the slide deck for you. They're also on the state website. You can look over those. And then um STA does want your feedback from community, admin, teachers, students, and everyone. They want feedback. So continue to put your ideas in there as well. So any questions? I know that was like a very, you know, 10,000 foot view, but there's a lot of resources in your folder, especially uh one pertaining to boards of education. This one was actually hot off the press, brand new, created by the state. So that one is specific to your group that you can look through. And then there's several other resources. Does anyone have any questions that I can answer right now? >> What grade level are you is this going to be
051initiated for? We're not talking just high school. It'll start. >> Yes. So there'll be a phased approach. Um so they're cohorting the children coming into ninth grade. So they'll follow that cohort of student. But the um in in your folder there is a little um by cohort. that tells you which grade levels will this be impacting and how. But we're not looking until I think it's 2029 to really change any commencement opportunities until that cohort of ninth graders gets up there. >> Uh but holistically the plan will have an impact K12. Um because those um attributes that you see on the portrait of a graduate, they're going to be giving us some rubrics of what does that look like, sound like at each grade level so that we can make sure kindergarteners are prepared to
052be effective communicators and then when they get to first grade, what do they need to do? And then second grade. So we'll get all that information. >> So this expectation of the portrait of a perfect sorry of a graduate perfect >> I hope it is a perfect graduate. I do. >> This is for every student that graduates. >> Yes. This is our new northstar in New York State. This is the what we're aspiring to produce, if you will, for of all students when they graduate from high school. It's our northstar. And you can tell we're moving just, you know, academics has always been a priority in New York State, but I think we've realized, especially living through the pandemic, that we need to take care of each other as humans as well. make sure our
053students are are well cared for academically, social emotionally, mental health needs, everything. Very well-rounded human. >> So the introduction of this whole program will um go in to the teachers in every grade level as to what's expected for them to help these students reach this. >> Yes. That's why I say it starts in kindergarten. We're going to have to sequentially grow that type of graduate. Absolutely. And we will need professional learning as educators. Um lots of it. Um different ways to understand the expectations and how to teach them. Absolutely. >> Now, is there funding? So during the board the first board of regents meeting um when they proposed this plan, the state education department did um have a slide that did have dollar amounts and funding that was going to be allocated and required. That
054was um a while back. I don't know if that's changed necessarily. And the board of regents members, if you watch the video back, it's linked in your folder. Um they do ask questions to the department. Is this going to be enough funding? So I think that that's right now they're in a little bit of discussion around is it going to be enough that we we earmarked and obviously we've had some changes at the federal level that could be impacting that as well. And I think state ed has been very open that um if we need more time we'll we'll stretch out that timeline but we just want to do it right because we want to be right by kids. >> And you're also in including our special ed kids that graduate. >> All kids. All
055kids. All all >> that's exactly why they're doing this because right now the current system isn't >> meeting the needs of all. >> Okay. >> That's really what they're hoping for. >> Any other questions? >> So you're speaking that um you could take the class but not have to take the regions. Does it I'm old enough to remember where you took you could take regions courses or non-regions courses. Would it then all be the same caliber course but you just opt not to take the test >> because like you could take regions classes and fail the regions and not end up with the regions diploma. still be credits, if you will. They'll be nested in the areas of the portrait of a graduate. We haven't got that information yet. Uh but yeah, you can take
056courses and then demonstrate maybe your proficiency in the standards and in the areas of the portrait of a graduate in different types of ways. So instead of sitting down and taking a pen and paper regent exam, perhaps I do that internship or perhaps I do a capstone project. Maybe I earn the seal of civic readiness that you most likely already have here at Betavia High School and that counts for certain like when I think of the seal of civic readiness, it's already going to hit global citizen, effective communicator and academically prepared. What's another one? Uh yeah, definitely those three. So that one course could be pinging a few different areas on the portrait of a graduate if that makes sense. >> But I don't have the total clarity on what that's going to look like.
057I was just trying to see if we were still saying if everything is going to be the same caliber class or if you have almost like a regions versus non-regents was sport. >> No. All the same caliber. And in fact, they're going to give us rubrics for each of those areas. And that's going to keep a very level playing field across New York State. So, for example, you don't want a school A to have an expectation here and school B to have an expectation here. And the rubrics will really create a level playing field for all schools across New York State. We just don't have them yet. >> And you said you guys did research as far as looking into other schools. Um, having spoken to numerous sorority sisters all over the country, does anybody
058else have anything like this regions? Because when you say regions diploma and West Virginia school, they laugh at you. >> No, I think we're we're holding on. We've been holding on tight to history and, you know, nostalgia and and the things that we've done in New York State for a long time, but many other states across our country already have a portrait of a graduate in place. So, um, I feel like we're joining joining them in that way. Thank you. How would you say that this proposal idea is good for the higher students? Because you talked about the special ed students, you know, so we're like meeting them, but is there still going to be challenges for those higher, you know, middle kids, higher kids? >> Yeah, that would be um the seals and endorsements.
059So, those are going to kind of take the place of the advanced designations. So, you know, >> well, you probably don't know yet. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like, but um you have kids right now who are earning seals and other kids who are not. And that already makes them a standout when it comes to what they put on their resumes and what they put on their college applications. So you kind of already have that happening now and then we're just going to really bolster that and create more seals and endorsements. Um, so you may have a student who's looking at a specific field of study in college and maybe they want to do some sort of project or work-based learning opportunity that that highlights and showcases that they're ready for
060that program in their in the college that they're applying for. So like the example of the girl who worked at the newspaper, maybe she wants to be a journalist and she wants to go to college to be a journalist, but imagine putting that on your college application. That would be very standout, right? Other questions? It's a lot. There's more to come. We've got a long time to figure it out. Nobody needs to do anything right now, but I just wanted to raise your awareness a little bit and give you some information. >> All right. Thank you, Stephie. >> Thank you. Do you need me to car? >> No. Thanks Stephanie. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> I might have it here just >> No, it's not working. >> Let me see. >> Do you
061want me to try yours? >> Go ahead. Try it. >> Just do it by hand if you have to. batteries. >> So, while you guys are playing with that, >> he's he's anxious and ready over there. All right, we're going to switch over to Eli and we'll have your report, sir. >> Um, I don't have much talked about so far, but um, I would like to make a comment on the uh, new internet device policy and uh, homecoming. Uh so first with the new internet device policy in my opinion uh based on my expectations and how I feel other students expected it to go I felt the collection and redistribution of cell phones went a lot smoother. Um personally I found it pretty easy just to walk in drop in my phone and then walk
062out. I've seen them move the uh filing cabinets in and out of the lock storage closet and I felt they Um, I just thought it went really well. Um, uh, I even asked in an interview on the Blue Devil Radio podcast, um, the co-makers who are elected students by uh, the student body. um and they agreed that not only was it easy for them to um give up their phones, but they're also engaging in u much more conversation with their peers during lunch and even during study halls during class. Um so overall, I think from a student perspective, it's gone really well. Uh moving on now to homecoming. Uh on Friday, obviously as most of you know that probably know the football team won and um I felt that there was a lot of student
063engagement during the week with the different uh theme dress up days over the course of the week as well as the uh boys volleyball game Tuesday morning, the girls uh handball on Thursday, and then the uh bonfire on Wednesday night. I thought a lot of people had fun with that and Uh many people went to that. Um my favorite part, uh the pep rally featured a performance by the BHS drum line of which I'm a part of. So I'm I'm very proud of what uh we did as as a drum line even during the uh football game uh how we performed. So, I'm so far I'm looking forward to a uh good school year and I think it'll be fun. Excellent. Well, it's good to hear that the the new electronic uh device policy is
064going well and was received good by the the student bodies. Any other comments for All right. Good job, sir. Mr. Smith, >> I think I figured out what the problem is. >> Did you figure it out? >> Yes. I think this >> that one there. It's not that one. Is this >> one? >> Handy six. >> Okay. Uh my items include opening day for staff. I want to recognize bottom left our mayors Helena and Anthony. Give a very nice welcome to our faculty and staff on the opening day. Uh top left we have our uh core students that's saying our all honor. We recognize our staff members with 25 years of service. Thank you to them and our board President John Rio address the staff as well. There were there other events that occur that
065day but just want to recognize and thank the board members who were there. Thank our students that participated. We congratulate our 25 year veterans and um that was the opening day events for our staff. Our first day pictures for our students. We have obviously happy to see our students back. They all came back on Thursday. There's some opening day pictures that we had taken at the various sites across our schools. Uh as Eli mentioned, uh he talked about how well the cell phone collection has gone. There are some pictures. I actually helped out the first day uh when we had a backlog and now what's happening is pretty much self-service. So uh the students either leave their phone in their cars or they leave them at home. several bring them in and you can see
066they're across these as both at the middle school and the high school they're placed in pouch they're placed in a folder they're locked and as the feedback I've got from students as well including my own child it's going over well I brought some kids with me on the radio last month or so some of our student athletes and they also commented that they're playing board games again they're talking so we're pleased both with the results of the process and the and the implementation thank you to our staff uh Dr. Cry and Miss West for their leadership. Wendy Valon assisted as well. But you can see the center picture is at the middle school. Uh the other ones are the top left is at the middle school as well. And what's happening in the middle school
067is the students entering in two different doors. It helps them filter through. In the high school, we actually have two collection points. One by the main doors and then which is on the far right there with Mr. Kirkwood and then on the far left, we have one by the bus doors. Honestly, the only confusion we had is some students dropped it off in one location. to try to pick it up in different locations. So once we fix that, they seem to understand. So that's going well. Um, as Eli had mentioned, Robert Morris playground build, uh, very exciting. We did that two weekends ago. We had several volunteers there. Mr. Lang, of course, bottom left was quite handy. He was there for a good part of the day Saturday. We had a buildings and grounds crew
068there for Saturday. Thanks to them, myself and Jessica Cilius was there. It came out very nice. Uh here are some the finished products. I'm not there yet, but you can see um the finished products are there on the bottom right. We're just waiting for the um um what are you calling? The bottom part the turf part, you know, be put in the fences come down. We're planning a ribbon cutting ceremony later this fall. Um so we'll invite the board and public to that. But thank you to Robert Morris and our volunteers, our principal, Mrs. Celius and our contractors, our vendors and our buildings and grounds crew. We had several of them there on Saturday. All were thanked. This is the letter that I published in the Vagen. All the names are there, including um our
069our staff and our volunteers that assisted with the uh playground build a couple weekend ago. So again, thanks to them. Open houses, we have we've had two two already. Um September 11th, we had Robert Morris. There's a Robert Morris staff there on the right. Uh Jackson was last week. I was able to attend Jackson. Um, great turnout there. Middle school is this Thursday and then the high school is October 9th. And Eli mentioned homecoming. Here are some cool pictures from homecoming. Our blue zoo, our cheerleaders. We had our students dress up at the bottom right there. We had a great pep assembly. Favorite thing to watch is the musical chairs game. So that was always fun. Mrs. Naro was there in the top right there with her students in Jackson. We celebrated across the district.
070Um, and as Eli said, it was it was a successful week. And upcoming days for the board, we have tomorrow a visit from our legislators on our preschool program. I believe Karina is coming to that and Al S and perhaps Barbara going to be president for that. That started 10:30 to Robert Morris. Open house is Thursday. Uh, JK open house is I meant to say before is Thursday, October 2nd. BHS is the 9th. You have a workshop on the 9th with myself and Dr. Cory and professional learning communities. And then quite a ways away, but the the musicians are no induction ceremonies coming up on October 23rd. It's always a nice event at the Frank Owen Auditorium. And any questions? I'll leave the dates up there. So Jen's writing down. >> I got it. >>
071Very good. Ja takes care of me. She sounds >> like you don't have my place. >> And that's all I have. So thank you. >> All right. Thank you, sir. Um, I'm going to add an item on right now for the report. It's not necessarily report, but um more of a a statement um with some things that have been going on in the district. I think it's important that we address this evening. So, this is a statement that I prepared for um our fellow B board members and members of the community. I'd like to address a growing concern that is increasing impacting both the learning environment in our schools and the atmosphere at our school sponsored events and that's student discipline. As a district, our core mission is to educate students. Our teachers, staff, and
072administrators are here to teach, not raise or continue discipline students who choose to ignore the our rules. Unfortunately, more and more instructional time is being spent managing disruptive behavior. This not only takes away from learning but also undermines the experience of students who consistently meet the expectations. To our families and community members, our schools have clear rules for a reason. When students choose not to follow them, administrators must be empowered to contact a parent or a guardian to have that student picked up immediately. If these calls become more frequent, it's a sign that discipline needs to be reinforced at home, not left solely to our schools. When expectations are followed, the calls stop and learning continues. Like each of us, our educators deserve a work environment built on respect. They should not be subject to
073ongoing disrespect or disruption without consequence. The same is true for students who meet expectations. They deserve a classroom in a school setting free from unnecessary distractions. In response to the recent incidents, including last Friday's football game, and in direct conversation agreement with our superintendent, Mr. Smith and the board would like to propose an immediate update to district policy regarding student attendance at events. Specifically, we are recommending the following changes effective immediately. Number one, all minors below high school age, that's eighth grade and younger, must be accompanied by an responsible adult to attend Blue Devil's home games and any similar district event. That minor must remain with the adult in the stands for the entire event. Unsupervised minors will no longer be permitted to congregate around concession stand areas, practice fields, or nonseating areas. These events
074are meant to build school spirit and support our student athletes. Attendees are expected to model respect, sportsmanship, and appropriate behavior. Any adult who's attending and fails to meet those expectations will be asked to leave immediately and may be subject to be suspended for future events at the discretion of the administration. Our goal is simple. We want classrooms and school events to be safe, welcoming, enjoyable for all families. Children should be able to sit in the stands, watch the game, and dream about one day playing under the same those same lights for the Blue Devils. And that dream starts with the right environment. Today, we're committed to restoring a culture of respect and accountability both in our classrooms and at all school affiliated events. But this effort requires everyone's cooperation from our staff, from our students,
075but most importantly from our families. Therefore, in partnership with our superintendent, I respectfully request that the board support this immediate policy update recommended by Mr. Smith and formally direct and support the superintendent in his and his staff's effort to reinforce both these new event expectations and the student discipline policies already in place and communicate this with district families this week. Thank you. Just to follow up on that, an email is going to go out to our families tomorrow morning reflecting those comments that Mr. Rio mentioned about the changes at the football game. So families can be expecting that sometime tomorrow morning the parent square. I've also been in touch with the city and with the BBD. We're planning another statement to come out this week as well in response to the events that happened Friday
076night. So there'll be more information coming throughout the week. I've also asked the principles at least Dr. Crime, Miss West, to announce these changes all week at each of the schools. social work. >> I I think it's important to stress as well, you know, attending these events is a privilege just like playing sports and our in our uh extra activities that we offer and if we can't behave, those privileges are taken away, >> right, Mrs. Anderson? >> Yes. My thoughts. >> Thank you, J. Any other comments from the board? No, >> I I'll I'll say I think it's a great um unfortunately I would I hate to see that this policy has to exist. Um but the fact that we are you know not tolerating it um I think now is behind the scenes what
077can we do to get ready you know for the next game and make sure you know someone doesn't come through and you know complains that they can't get in or what what not. But >> um just as long as the communication is good >> then I'm all for it. I think again it's the partnership between you know par parents, guardians, um our staffs and the students. Uh everyone working together because everyone wants that ultimate goal for their the the kids um and to to learn and grow and become modeled citizens in our community. >> It's a definite partnership. I agree. >> All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. Moving on, we are going to move to grouping of our consent items and that'll be to group items E through K on our agenda. Do I
078need a motion to approve the grouping of consent items? >> So, >> Mrs. Anderson, do I have a second? >> Second. >> Barb, uh, any discussion on any items? >> Okay. All in favor? I >> Excellent. All right, that'll bring us to item L, which is old business. And that is for our BCSD safety plan. We need a motion to approve that. >> Some moved. >> Miss Lunay, do I have a second? >> Second. >> Now, all in favor? I Next item is for new business. Need a motion to approve our facilities fee schedule for regulation R280, excuse me, 3280R, use of school facilities. Do I have a motion for to approve that? >> So move >> by Barb. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Thank you.
079And other reports? Our other reports as far as administrative reports for curriculum and instruction and our business office are listed on our school website. So, please take a look on that. Uh, second item under there is for board member comments. Any board members have any comments? Are any topics you'd like to discuss? >> Um, I just want to acknowledge the um high school principal and the middle middle school principal. Um, I saw I work the concession stand. um at the game on Friday and just to see them before the game talking to the students um you know asking how former students were you know just seeing their excitement um I mean as who really wants to be there on a Friday night if you know that's their job but you can tell that they you
080know they do enjoy it and um it was it's nice to see them there interacting with their our students >> and the only other thing I have uh um to point out was on our social media and I believe it's on our website as well. Um we had a great video regarding our kindergarten um program. Uh >> oh yes. Yes. >> Mrs. Nataro and Emily did a great job putting together a video on introducing our our kindergarten program. U Mrs. Clark was in there. It just uh really shows where where the grassroots are and where it starts at. So that was great job. >> Similar like after schools. >> Yeah, it was a great highlight for for that. Well, and I want to give a shout out being in my son is in the Bulldogs
081and we're there all day because I shoot pictures and it's amazing to see a kid's face when our teacher shows up. You have no idea how many teachers take their Saturday to come and watch little tiny people play football. But the look on a child's face when they look and they're like, "Oh my god, did that's my teacher. That's my They think it's the coolest thing." And our teachers obviously don't have to be there and spend their Saturday watching five and sixyear-olds play football. But it's a it's a huge huge deal to them. and I thank them for taking the time out of their day to come and support these little guys and girls. >> All right. So, we are going to make a motion for adjournment and call for executive session which we will
082not return the public session. The call for executive session is to a motion to move to executive to discuss matters related to collective negotiation pursuant to article 14 of the civil service law um and the medical financial credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation or matters leading to the appointment employment promotion demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. >> I s do I have a second? >> Second >> by Mrs. Anderson. All in favor?