BCSD Board of Education 11/19/2025

001chitchat with reconvene our meeting to open session. The board has been in executive session since 6 o'clock to discuss three personnel matters, a contractual issue and a legal matter. If we could please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We could have introductions starting with you John >> John Mc Phillips Dave Hurst >> Katherine >> Robert Fiji Morardi Holly Denbach Jody Monroe >> Lauren Grazo >> Yuan Mcnite John Walston >> Ghost Pastori Kaou um and do we have any Pager SUPA students with us tonight? >> I was like there's got to be a couple of you guys out there hiding. Um thanks for coming. Um, you guys need to stay until

002the meeting is over or 9:00, whichever one comes first. And don't leave without coming up here and signing out. There's sign out sheets around the table. That way you get credit for being here um and don't have to come back another time unless you really want to. Um, first up on the agenda is our approval of minutes. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes from the November 5th, 2025 regular board meeting. >> Second. Uh any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Um item three, meeting reports. And first up is our superintendent's report. Sure. Um first I would like to acknowledge our Veterans Day run. Uh we have an elementary Veterans Day rung uh for all five of our elementary schools. Uh this happened

003on Veterans Day and the weather was not the best this year, unfortunately. Um, I would like to thank some of the staff who helped to make this event successful. Um, Hillary Bernaki ran the registration table. Uh, John and Carrie Deer helped with timing. Uh, Peter Randazzo was the MC. John Walston, uh, does the salute to veterans and push-ups on a regular basis. Our boys cross country team, uh, they actually are the course marshals and the elementary students love having them kind of lead them. and the um booster club also sponsored the trophy. And I'd like to do a special acknowledgement and thank you to Andrew Ricker who really puts all the effort into organizing it every year uh and is the cheerleader for it. So um even it was a great success again this year.

004So I'd like to thank him. Also, I wanted to let the board know that I had uh received a few inquiries about the high school hall of fame and I wanted to provide the board with a statement that I shared about this matter. Um, the high school hall of fame was decommissioned in 20121 when the volunteer nominating committee determined it was not an appropriate use of their time or district resources to vet inconsistently review the actions of adults. Um, its presence was removed from the high school and from the district website. The district's mission is rooted in four core values. Academics, character, community, and wellness. Fame is a not not among them. And sometimes achieving or sustaining it means abandoning the the values we try to instill in our students. We do have the utmost

005respect for our alumni who uphold these values every day. So that is the statement that I that I share. Um, and finally for the superintendent report, we do have our capital project vote coming up and John McFillips is going to provide a short update on it. And is Nick here? Nick here and [snorts] Drew, our architects are here and Turner Construction is here. So, we have the whole team here this evening to do a quick update. So, >> so Nick's going to do most of the presentation. I'll jump in with some financing information at the end. >> Thank you. I'll try to be quick. Um, so this uh presentation is really a a recap of the last presentation last month. I'll go through it rather quickly. If if someone has questions or um needs me

006to reiterate something, please let me know. Um, so [clears throat] again, our our student body is uh 4,127 students K through 12 in our nine buildings. We've got about a million square feet of building space uh that is comprised of 233 classrooms. Um we have 243 acres throughout our district and we have old buildings and new buildings. Uh Ellir being the oldest that built in 1927 and Eagle built in 2008. Uh our proposed capital project is 58.6 million. Uh and it includes 137 scope elements. Um our goal uh or our theme for this capital project is uh to focus on our classrooms and improve our teaching learning spaces across the district. Um in support of our core values as Jody just mentioned. Um and this will this capital project as proposed is budget neutral with

007no additional tax impact uh on the on the community. Um I'll go through these rather quickly. Again, this is um shows how this 58.6 6 million is broken down by the schools. Um I do want to point out that you know the high school is our largest school and it has the the most um uh dollars afforded to it uh which is about and it's also 23.7%. Um these numbers also include our proposed air conditioning, okay, which is not the bulk of it. It it happens to be a portion of the dollars spent at each one of the the school buildings. Um, this is by category. Again, it breaks down uh by percentage of that 58.6 million, how much we're spending at um by category. Uh the classroom renovations is the bulk, which is uh

008again something that we feel and I think that everybody's in agreement. Our classrooms need to be updated from the the 70s. Some may predate that. Um and it's been a challenge to do so in occ in occupied uh classrooms. Um the addition additional things that we'll be uh attacking in this bond project are our windows and doors are envelope uh roofs. You can see that about 17% of the total uh cost is for the air conditioning uh throughout the district. So each building will receive with the exception of O and M and transportation um air conditioning um in the common spaces and on the second floor is where our known classroom hotspots are. And in addition to that we have some bathroom renovations um and some of our life saf safety systems which is our

009uh fire alarm systems and our security systems. Um, talking about our funding sources, um, our, uh, the bulk of it is, uh, New York State building a aid. Again, that number is estimated at at 41.9 million. Our 2022 capital reserve fund, which is about 16.6 million, which puts us at a grand total of 586, um, which has no impact on the taxpayers. I do not want to go through this slide in completion, but if anybody has any questions, this slide shows you what we're doing at each building element by element. Um, and the highlight there is it shows that we have some, you know, dated buildings. Ellir being the oldest all the way up um to Eagle. Uh, again, the focus at the elementaryaries is the classrooms. However, we're doing some other work, life safety

010systems, parking lots, things like that, and roofs. Um so our goal is to modernize our mid-cent century classrooms. Um and it's mainly our uh elementary buildings. However, the middle school and high school, we have a couple of art rooms and some fax rooms that need to be updated as well. But uh speaking specifically about our uh elementary schools, um they're they're in dire need. Some of our um casework is is now well past its useful life. our cubbies um and and and our in inflexible spaces. So, we're we're trying to uh bring our classrooms into the uh proper time period. Um you know, we've we've done the steps uh putting all new classroom furniture in, new technology, and now it's time to bring the space itself into uh modern era. Um again the other uh

011portion of this the 17% of this the 58.6 6 million is our air conditioning and these would on this slide show the spaces that would be done. real quickly. Um the classroom the uh excuse me the hotspots the known hotspots are our second floor classrooms at the high school, middle school and Ellir and then each building will have common areas such as the cafeterias, the gymnasiums, the library media centers would be air conditioned so that we could augment if we did have some of those design days um and we could switch classrooms around. Um I'll skip over this quickly. This slide just shows that design days, design degree days, um we've actually increased over the years as to how many days that we have that are above average temperature in the shoulder months which are

012you know September, October and in the spring and April and May. Um this is uh another slide showing the rest of the elements at each building that were not part of the classrooms or the air conditioning. Um, so it's 45% of it. Um, and this includes everything with the exception of the aforementioned. And again, we wanted to put that out there so that we captured everything. I don't believe you guys want me to read all of this, but that shows the elements at the primary or the elementary schools and now our secondary schools. And it also includes transportation and the operations and maintenance department. Um, real quickly, the vote is on December 2nd here at gym A at the high school from 7:00 a.m. to 900 pm. And then this is our proposition language that

013uh we put before the community for them to vote on. I did that as rapidly as I could. Is there any questions that anybody might have? Just briefly, you know, to to highlight one of the points that Nick talked about in terms of the financing of the project. Overall, the proposition calls for a $60 million uh capital project. That's broken up really into two funding streams. The district plans on using roughly $16.6 million in capital reserve funding. Those are dollars the district had put aside in its savings account to use to limit the amount of um debt issued uh for the project. So taking into consideration the use of those reserves, the actual debt being issued is roughly 4142 million. When [clears throat] we talk about it being budget neutral, the district will have a

014significant amount of debt that matures and is fully paid off around in between 2029 and 2030, which is roughly the same time that the debt service associated with this capital project will come online. So what we'll see is rather than sort of a whipsaw or an eb and flow of debt service between years, as old debt matures and is fully paid off, this new debt will come on at we anticipate roughly the same interest um rate that's outside the district's control. But given the positive rating by the rating agencies, um I anticipate that there will be no impact to taxpayers associated directly with the the Kapper project as an isolated um budget related item. >> Katherine, you have a question. Yeah, I was just wondering um several presentations back now, we looked at different uh

015or discussed the potential timelines for the projects to come online and I know that that is still preliminary. However, I I'm sure that's front of mind for you all and I was wondering if if we can continue to receive updates about those. Are there any updates from that presentation to this point? like how are we thinking about when when this work gets done and how it's rolled out across the district. >> Okay, so I can speak to that. Yesterday we had our owner architect and um construction manager meeting uh internally without district administration and and now as we approach the actual vote um again it's it's very difficult for us to um plan this because we don't know if it's going to be approved by the public and there's a lot of variables associated with

016that. Um we actually have a um another meeting on Friday to discuss our phasing, packaging, and scheduling. Um we we've got, you know, we're constantly thinking about it and how we propose this and package it to have the least amount [clears throat] of impact number one on education, but number two on all uh uh faculty and staff here within the district. And um we've got some variables that are unknown at this moment. That would be manpower, that would be our supply chain, things like that. But the answer to your question is yes, we are thinking about that and we're once the vote, if we we have that positive, we're ready to kick off, put our heads down and start our phasing that we can put to paper and provide updates to the facilities committee and

017to uh the public. >> Wonderful. Thank you. I look forward to that. >> It's not It's not gone. I understand. My hair is turning gray. I'm still thinking about it. >> I understand. I understand. Thank you. >> Um and I had one other question. Um I think it might be for you, John, if you could just speak to why we're having the vote in December. >> Absolutely. Um the timing of the vote, while inopportune in in some some ways, really is governed by the scheduling components outside of the district's control. So, as soon as the the vote occurs, assuming a um a positive vote by the community, Nick and uh the OAT team will go in put their plans together for state ed approval, which may take some time. And a lot of the timing

018of the project, which backs itself to the date of the vote, works itself around the construction season. So, if we were to wait until a later date would push our SED review and approval along with any other things that may be uh on SED's plate from other districts, which may um have a negative impact in terms of when the actual construction could begin. So, if we were to wait longer, we could wind up actually losing one additional construction season, which would then possibly result in cost increases because you have an additional year. you're not quite sure what the, you know, the the the labor market or um what um your equipment cost may be, you know, with an additional year uh at the end. So, I appreciate that the timing seems an opportunity, but that

019was really outside the district's control if we wanted to maximize the [clears throat] cost presented to the public as well as the overall timing and schedule of the project. >> Thank you. And and if I may just to expand on that. So the way that we looked at it, one of one of our components is that air conditioning. And um if we waited until we went to the May uh vote cycle, just as John said, that puts us we miss a whole summer because with with the schematic design and design development, then our construction drawings and the SEDD review, we would have been way out to be being able to begin construction in 2028 versus 2027. So it would put us a year past a a starting point. So, in in the discussion, we just

020we recommended and the board approved us going to a December vote to get us to be able to get that all of this work done and be in in construction spring of 27 versus 28. >> Thank you. >> And I have a question also. Do does the team are you going to take is there any public comment here or are we going to wait till the end for public comment regarding the bomb? All public comment is at the after the presentations are all done. >> Okay. [laughter] >> All right. Anything else? >> Um, any other questions? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Uh, next on the agenda is the um board report. I had three things that I wanted to mention. first um that uh Meredith and Ewan and Jod and I all had the

021chance to um visit Boseies um their facilities um both both campuses. Um and so first I just wanted to say thank you to Boseies for having us there and letting us walk around. And second, I just wanted to encourage other board members the next time the opportunity comes up to go check it out because the facilities really are impressive. Um, and I was uh I was particularly blown away by the um giant room with the semitrs in it where kids are learning, you know, diesel mechanics and engineering and >> um and they're just implementing more programs um all the time. Um we got to see the the new plumbing program and the um and uh and it really it was it was quite impressive. Um, and then second, I wanted to thank Hamigrail and Ian

022Knox for letting me come um for a visit. Um, and uh, and also Allison Heer um, who brought me into two different classrooms to see um, bookworms in action. Um, a first grade classroom and a fifth grade classroom. Um, and she wanted me to extend the invitation to [clears throat] other board members who might be interested to see um, how bookworms works in real life in a classroom. uh to reach out um and she could um help coordinate something. Um and then lastly, I wanted to um recognize Mark Warford um our former um former assistant principal at the middle school and current um uh guru of all things green. Um I'm not sure what his official title is, but that's what I sustainability. [laughter] Um but he was um recognized um this a few days

023ago with the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling's lifetime achievement award. Uh it was given in recognition of his many years of leadership with um Bethlehem's green team, including composting initiatives, the amazing food garden um and organizing the community recycling days. So I just wanted to um give him a shout out for that. Um and Katherine, I think you were there when that >> Yes. Yeah, I was there. And um although you know this this may be a niche corner of the world. These are people from across the state who are managing all forms of composting, recycling, all of that and doing um doing the work that that New York needs. And uh Mr. Warford was like a rock star. He was he you know he was walking around there's like people

024waiting to to say hi and chat with him. It was really wonderful to see. Um and and the recognition was fantastic. The other thing I wanted to highlight from the conference, they um they gave all attendees a calendar to take home. Um and the calendar featured uh drawings from students across the state relating to composting, recycling, and the theme. Uh two of the drawings that were featured were uh Glenmont students. And so that was really really wonderful to see as well. So great representation from um from Bethlehem there. And it was wonderful to see Mr. Warford's hard work uh and and great progress. Really really applauded. >> Great. Um anyone have anything else that they want to share? >> I was going to echo your comments on Boseies. You know, I was really pleasantly amazed

025at just the level of facilities offered, the number of programs, the level of expertise people are getting and everything from hydrogen fuel cells to networking. Great facility. Um, I would encourage everyone to go, you know, think about those classes. And in similar vein, also I got had the chance to visit the high school this past week. Um, thank you to Dave and Rhonda and the whole team there. College physics was great. I, you know, I enjoyed learning that stuff again. And AP psychology, they were actually covering some of the exact same slides and content that I cover at the college level. So, it was really nice to see the prep that was being made for that being reinforced when they get to the next step. So, it was really cool. >> Anything else? Uh, we'll

026move on to our student reports. Claire Rose, I just wanted to mention that quarter 1 officially ended on two Fridays ago and I want to say a big thank you to all the students for their hard work and effort and to the teachers, counselors, and staff for supporting and guiding them along the way. And I'm looking forward to seeing what we achieve together in quarter two and to keep the momentum going. Additionally, BCHS Sources of Strength is planning an event uh to go down to the middle school and teach eighth graders about ways to find support systems. Um so I think that's really good and it's going to strengthen ties between the middle school and the high school. >> Thank you. Um and I think we have a couple people here from the middle school

027to give a report out from the middle school if you guys want to come up. BCMS Halloween ball once again had over 800 students and almost a thousand people total in costume and a great time was had by a special thank you to the BCMS PTO for their support in the running of our haunted hallway that they brought back to a huge success this year. Special thanks also to the Bethlon Police Department for their help with arrival and departure and managing our traffic. A shout out to our be our a shout out to our be the change club for the s for their successful code drive. All donations will be given to local shelters. Like our sister schools, BCMS has begun our holiday caring and cheering food drive. All students are encouraged to donate food

028items and a list of those items we are collecting were shared on Parrot Square with all parents. Good luck to our helping hands club as they compete once again in the re in the capital region's canstruction event at the Cross Gates Mall. The club's design this year is the Roman coliseum and they will be trying to create a scale replica out of canned goods that that will be donated to food pantries after the event. The BCMS turkey trot is tomorrow. This is an is an annual event held right after school the week prior to Thanksgiving. And every middle school student is invited to participate and then take the late bus home. Last year's No Shave November at the middle school raised over $3,000 to fight cancer. And once again, with the help of our teacher,

029Mr. Steve Smith, the fundraiser is off to a great start. And the early returns predict breaking our school record once again. The middle school will have a special unveiling of a new mural this coming Tuesday, November 25th, with the help of Miss Melanie Painter or K through2 art supervisor who commissioned the mural through local artist Kiara Johnson. We hope to hang the mural in the main office and move the mural from 1957 to another prominent spot in the building. We want to thank Kiara Johnson for involving many of our studio and art students in the creation of this mural. Thank you and have a happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you guys. [applause] >> Uh next on the agenda are presentations. This evening we have two and the first is a presentation on our high school computer

030science and science programs. [snorts] Good evening. Um I'm Jen Gier. I'm the K12 science and technology supervisor um for the district. And I'm just going to try to give you a pretty quick overview of our high school science program. And then Mr. Claremont will talk to you a little bit about our computer science update um as far as we move forward here in the high school um with these new standards and new courses that we've been putting into place. Okay. All right. So, for science, we did adopt new standards. They're referred to as the NISLS standards, and they were adopted by New York State in 2016. Um, and since that point, we've been working towards implementation um from K to 12. So, last June was the first uh administration of our biology and earth and

031space science exams. So, these were big changes to these regent exams. The biology exam now is needed for graduation for students for their one regions exam um in science. So it has a pretty heavy impact on our students. And then this coming June um we'll see new exams again in biology and earth and space science, but we will also add on a new chemistry exam and a new physics exam for their regions. Um and then at that point at this June 2026 then we will be done with the full imple implementation and that we will continue those standards and tests moving forward. Um so you know why do we want all these changes in science education and we really need to keep pace with the you know changing world around us. We know that like

03220% of the workforce is in STEM jobs and we want to make sure that we're producing students that are able to step into these fields and be successful. But also we are finding that just general science knowledge about disease and the environment and energy is important for all of us as citizens. And we want to make sure that our students when they leave the high school are informed about these and able to communicate, read um and decipher what's going on around them. So understanding the science shift. So these uh New York state standards came around really to modernize science education to enhance the relevance, the depth and the alignment um with our current academic and workforce needs. Um they are BA New York adopted the um standards from the national uh next generation science standards

033which are were a national science standards that were developed and those were developed straight from the uh framework for K12 science education that was developed by the national research council. So this has been a long time in coming. They produced these national standards. New York adopted them, changed them a little bit, and now they are out for New York State to teach as the NISL standards. Um, and we need to understand that it's a real change in the approach in teaching. So, a lot of times they refer to this as the three-dimensional approach. So, instead of just focusing on learning the content, learning this process, and then repeating it back to us on an exam, we're really looking to engage students deeper. So students are engaged in science and engineering processes so that they're really

034trying to think critically. There's a lot of maps and charts and graphs and readings to help them apply these to the real world. We have our disciplinary core ideas which are again your basic content knowledge in earth and space science, bio, chem, and physics. And then we also have our crosscutting concepts which refer a lot to our math connections um and ways for students to really think about um bringing science together. And this sort of shows you at the top we have our science and engineering practices. So students are asking questions, defining problems, making lots of models, analyzing data, um arguing from evidence, and uh communicating with information. Those are all tying into our four uh contour content classes here. And then also we're bringing from the bottom those crosscutting concepts where they're talking about

035scale and patterns and systems, structure and function and stability and change. So now we have all these playing together in the classroom at the same time to help our students learn. Um and then I will I do want to share these with you too quickly. So instead of just teaching a unit about um photosynthesis or living and non-living things now um we do have um what we call story lines. So these are bigger concepts that students are learning about that can't easily be answered in one step. So we call that a phenomena. So this is like our watery duck phenomena. So why does water flow off off duck wings? And you'll see that there's no easy answer. So students then engage themselves in learning many different parts about duck parts about water about polarity about

036preining and then they have to bring all those pieces together to sort of have a claim then show their evidence from multiple sources and then give us some reasoning behind why this phenomena happens. So, and this is actually one of the shorter phenomena um that we have and you'll see the amount of work and the different lessons and the different labs that all play into students being able to understand everything behind why this happens. So, that's the kinds of lessons and the kinds of like long story lines or phenomena that students are doing now instead of just learning about one topic. So in the classroom um you can imagine there's a lot more modeling, there's a lot more talking, there's a lot more group work going on. So you may look at like our old

037curriculum. It was very teacher centered. We had a lot of class notes, cookie cutter labs that were done could give you the same data every year. It was textbook based. You really needed to memorize content and memorize relevant vocabulary to be successful and pass the regence exam. And then you had your,200 minutes of satisfy satisfactory laboratory work that was needed. So in our new curriculum, there's a lot more of interpreting models and diagrams. There's citing evidence to support their scientific claims. We're doing a lot more claim, evidence, and reasoning activities. We're including those three-dimensional um pieces that I spoke to before. We still need our 1,200 minutes of satisfactory laboratory work, but now the state has also an uh added in um mandated investigations. So each content area has three mandated investigations. Um they're pretty

038lengthy. Um they take about 5 days to do per lab. Um so and again students cannot sit for the regent exam without this work. So it's very important that these get done. We're really trying to emphasize students being present in the classroom because missing the middle of it or the end of it um can prove very tricky to get it made up. Um and then I did want to try to point out so I think that one of the biggest concerns our students had after the change to the new um tests was the length of the tests. um students found we saw that many students had difficulties completing the exam which is not usually a problem that students have had on any past readance exam. So I just put up these two pages. It's like

03910 questions. This is what an old readance exam would look like. Um and you would read the question. You pretty quickly can figure out two answers that are not correct. And if you did have a good memory of vocab, you could pretty quickly pick out these answers. Like I think I did the first three questions in about a minute. Um, and then you move on to the second side. You see there's maybe three or four sentences about fissurers. And then you get two multiplechoice questions about that short reading. And again, not going to have you read it all, but if you were to read those two questions, you really don't even need to read the paragraph to answer them as long as you have some knowledge of the content or about what they're asking about.

040So, probably that entire page for a student would probably all those 10 questions would take about 10 minutes. So, when we go to the new exam, the new exams are being put into clusters. So, you're going to get a cluster of questions. I think this one is about seven questions long and it's going to give you multiple data points to look at and then they're going to ask you to draw conclusions. So, not only are you using the first paragraph and that diagram, which is pretty complex. I believe there's three or four layers of information you need to pull out of there, you need that to not only answer that first multiplechoice question, but you need to save that data and you need to refer back to that marsh diagram in order to get all

041the way through this cluster. So, then you would move on and you'll see we've answered one question. Now, we've had to interpret interpret a pretty long diagram and read a paragraph. Now, we're reading another paragraph. We have a set of graphs and we have some examples of erosion and what it looks like. And then we get to our second question. Um, you'll also notice that all the answers to these questions, your answer choices are again a full sentence to read and to process to get your right answer. So, okay, we've gotten through those two. Then they present you with another graph. Again, to answer that graph question correctly, you need to go back to this original Marsh diagram and pull information from that that also supports that graph. Great skill. Kids need to be able

042to do this. Um, but you're seeing now how the time is adding up on these kids and we're only through three questions. Then they give you a wonderful chart with engineering and strategies for how we could, you know, prevent erosion. Excellent. And then you go on, we have two more multiplechoice questions, lengthy. And then we get to the final question here in this cluster. And you'll see it's another very long paragraph. And that question 27 asks them to provide five pieces of evidence to get one point. So very quickly, you know, time is mounting up on these kids. probably to do this cluster of seven questions, we're looking at a minimum of about 20 minutes. So that's where, you know, the number of questions might be um somewhat similar, but the test length is much

043larger. I I wrote it down so I wouldn't I didn't misspeak, but I think the um I think it was like 42 pages. The new exam was 42 pages long and the old exam was 31 pages long. So again, these are all the things we're teaching the students and we have the skills to come to the table and do this. Just they weren't able to keep up at the rate I think that the state expected them to and therefore were disappointed that they didn't finish or weren't able to check as much of their work as they would have liked. Um and I think that's it for me then. So that was sort of we have the new standards, we have the new way of teaching, and then we have those mandatory labs now that are

044requiring students to be in class for those 15 days to complete and sit for the exam. So I'll let Bill go and then I'll take any questions you have. >> Hi. in terms of um computer science um I'm just going to give you a basic overview of you know detailing the development and maybe enrollment trends that have happened since the the program has been established u so in front of you right now are the computer science and digital fluency standards these are broken up u by grade bands K1 2 3 4 6 7 8 and 9 through 12 within each one of those there are also subconcepts in there with impact on computing um uh computational thinking network and system design, cyber security, and digital literacy. So, those are when we're looking at what courses

045that we want to establish here at BC, it must fit into one of those buckets. Um, in 201516 was the first year that we established the computer science program here at Bethlehem through an NFC grant with Sienna College. Um, at its onset, it was taught by uh Robin Flatland and Mary Anne Egan from Sienna College. Um and our teacher here at BC Rachel Nunan was observed that class. The first section started with 23 students. Um from there in year two we went to the introduction of computer science and that was taught directly by Rachel in support by Robin and Marian. And then um we went to two sections of 53 students. Since that year 2015 2016 we have also included uh the addition of about seven other courses. Um the one thing I did want

046to connect is the the second one AP computer science A and the very last one CSS CSIS120 software development that's a dual enrollment course. So that course is one and the same. The students take the Sienna College curriculum which is above the AP computer science A curriculum and that allows them to take the AP exam along with getting college credit for that course. They can take them simultaneously. The other two courses that are linked to or other three courses that are linked to Sienna College is the intro to computer science course um discovering computer science and web design. Um if you were to look at them in terms of uh what year they should take those courses, discovering computer science would come first. Um then if they wanted to take, they could take either intro

047computer science or um AP computer science principles and then they would take uh AP computer science A and that would leave them with a computer science A or software development and then web design would kind of follow that. So that's kind of the progression. have um a course for computer science for four years for students if they want to take computer science through four years of of uh of high school. Um and in all honesty that has not happened yet. We have not gotten a student to take computer science for all four years for one reason or another. Um this is the enrollment trends that we that we see from here. Um, again, starting in 2015 going to our projected numbers right now in 2526. Kind of looks like a bit of a roller coaster

048there. We've got two peaks. Um, one in 2017 18 and then the other one in uh 2223. Um, but when we look at the numbers and we pull them out, these are all pulled out by course. We can then look at the actual trends, right? We've made the trend comparison to the BCHS enrollment and then computer science enrollment to try to look and see if there are some commonalities between the decrease in enrollment at the high school here and then some of the decreases in enrollment that we see within our computer science courses themselves. Um ultimately in 2015 16 we only had 1.4% of our students taking computer science classes. Currently this year we have 7.6. Um we got up as high as uh 13.1 and 2223. Um part of this and part of our

049focus is um looking at the enrollment of overall students and not only that but but by gender, right? So when we look at enrollment by gender, um women and this is not just unique to BC. So women earn 20% of computer science degrees in the United States. um girls make up about 25% in the AP computer science A classes or that software development class. And then females interested in computer science drops um to 25% by high school. Um this is also a trend in the US in 1985 women earning 30 37% of CS degrees now just 20%. Um, so by the age of 15, girls lose interest in STEM fields. And that's kind of a primary focus is to, you know, when we're looking at some of those some of those trends and when we're

050looking at enrollment trends, we're trying to figure out where where those trends are coming from and maybe target some areas like looking at females in computer science or STEM. So, >> thank you very much. Um, Jen, I had a just a quick question for you, which is um given some of the changes at the middle school and the high school with the science curriculum, are we making changes in how we're teaching science, what kinds of things we're doing at the elementary schools? >> Yes. So, we actually implemented all of these standards back in 2017. We had a 5-year plan and that's when we implemented all new um Smithsonian NGSS. Those kit those kits are based on the national level. Um, so they have been completely imple implemented since 2021. So our current students at the

051high school were exposed to them starting in 2017. Actually think I came to the board in 2017 and we spoke about that way back when >> you did I think might people not that many people left. [laughter] Um, Katherine, >> so I'm wondering what are we doing with the information that the um that the science regents is taking so much longer than students anticipated and how is that impacting their performance? Is this something that we're speaking with the state about? Do we expect any shifts or changes or is this something where we have to make shifts and ask our students to make shifts? Like how is this being considered? >> Right. So I guess at this point we're doing both. Um, so I know the local science organizations that I'm a part of, we're all

052pushing for them to reduce the number of clusters. I know Dave Hurst on his committee is there also have written letters that have basically um, you know, said the same things. Um, we are trying to push kids in classes to go a little faster. We're trying to teach them specifically exactly what we want on a model, specifically what we want in a reasoning so they can produce it for us faster and then move on. So, at this point, we're doing both because we know that we may not see changes by this June, but in the long term, that is our hope. That's what we're advocating for. >> And I should have I should have prefaced this question with is this something that we're seeing across the board in New York State? >> Yeah, it was

053not it was not specific to us. Um, we do not have data right now for all of New York State release, so we could see how we do, but knowing from the suburban council and partner schools that I work with, I know we fared very well comparatively. >> Yeah. Um, and just thank you and thank you so much for this presentation and just a huge shout out to the teachers and students. These are >> they're amazing, right? I know >> posters. This is very very cool. Um, and it's it's very interesting. So, I mean, thank you. Thank you very much for all the work that you're doing. this is a this is a colossal shift and um but it's an exciting one because it's it's getting students to think at all these different layers. So

054I mean so thank you very much. >> Yes. And we hope it's that it's more engaging and kids enjoy it more also. >> Thank you. >> Yes. You're welcome. >> Just on on the examples you gave like all assessments all multiple choice and now we have short answers as well. Is that true? >> So I would say that you would get your you got your multiple choice all up front. I'm gonna guess it's around 35 or 40. And then you would have 10 to 15 questions that are that were write read something and write one sentence. >> And that hasn't changed. >> So now because they're in the clusters, we see like half are the multiplechoice and half are writing. Yeah. >> Bill, you mentioned in your list of courses when they were added a

055web design class. >> Yes. >> But then in the number of students taking each class, nobody took it. >> It hasn't run yet. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, um, if we don't get if we don't get the number up to around 15 or 16, we can't run the course specifically and take FTA away from, uh, from the department. So, I've seen it at most six to eight like students said they were interested in taking it and then the next year we put it on the books and those students who are interested taking it graduate. So, um, we're trying to find, you know, we're trying to find creative ways to to encourage students to continue to take these. Um unfortunately the computer science department as a department of one right now for me. Sure. >>

056Um so adding more FTE for computer science would be great if we got more interest from student body. >> And how much coding do you have here? Do people have the ability to learn Python or C++ or whatever they want to learn? >> Yeah. Yep. So the depending on the course that they take will depend on the type of coding that is included within those courses. Yeah. So, Java, Java specifically is for computer science a or um software development and then Python is our intro to computer science and computer science principles. >> Yeah. So, they learn two different coding languages. If they were to take those those three classes, they'll have a really comprehensive understanding of those two coding languages. We also allow students to take that AP um computer principles with no pre previous

057knowledge or no previous class. You just have to take some entrylevel um technology course. So that really can be a base level class that AP computer principles that kids can go right into. >> It also could be the discovering computer science course. The minimum for discovering computer science is algebra 1. So, it really is an introductory computer science course for students who are interested in getting in that field but don't have the upper level mathematics skills to maybe go to a computer science a class. So, we have all of those levels and we try to encourage students to take them. Um, you know, we really try as best we can to promote those classes within our our math classes and tech classes. Um, so any suggestions, we're we're open to them for sure. um because

058we do see its value, you know, for our student body to be able to have these opportunities. So, any any suggestions on increasing enrollment? I'm on I'm all ears. >> And then thank you, Bill. I really appreciate that. My other question was um you know, recognizing that these are larger trends outside of BC, but also that there are things that we can do within our community. I'm wondering how we're talking about computer science uh with our young women. Are we working to draw these students into these courses? And I know that we're highlighting gender inequality, but just from what I have seen in, you know, news contemporary literature, it it seems as though folks from who represent the global majority are also often underrepresented in computer science. So, I'm just wondering, how are we thinking

059about drawing um students into computer science who maybe don't think of it as their thing yet? >> Yes. Yes, there's a group called women who code and basically we get we get information from that establishment and it gets shared out either through the computer science teacher herself sends them out to her group. She also has a um the computer science honor society and they do a lot of work going into classrooms and trying to show examples of computer science and in everyday life. So we do we do talk with and communicate with those organizations, women who code and share out events um as best we can with students and um yeah so presentations within classrooms um Mrs. Nan does a really good job of doing presentations at all levels starting in geometry and algebra 2.

060So specifically go into the classrooms, try to show every student, not just women, but you know, all students the value of what computer science is and you know really some of the projects that they do to try to elicit some of them uh some of that interest. So um yeah, those are those are a couple of things that we do. >> Yeah, >> Claire, did you have a question? >> Yeah, I'm just wondering like how are the teachers being supported to like effectively teach the updated regents curriculum? Yeah. So, um I don't have an exact number, but we probably have at least 10 teachers here at the high school that are um New York State master teachers. So, that basically means that they've been um applied for and been accepted into this pretty elusive program

061where they have ex they get access to all this very high level PD on these new standards really before many of the districts around here were even talking about them. So based on the professional development they were able to do um they were able to really be ahead of this curve, they were able to bring it back, they were able to share it with others. Um you know I was very fortunate um back around 2018 to be on the SCDN committee through Boseies. So I was able to see 12 of the presenters that actually were item were writers of the NGSS. So we were in really early to know what the expectations were. Obviously, they sort of grow and change um as you come into full implementation. Um but those programs really gave us the

062background to get started. Um and in general, I feel like the science staff are really motivated to get you guys good scores to get you into good colleges. Um we know that a lot of students are very interested in science in college. Um and we take that very seriously. >> Okay. Thank you for the presentation. Thanks. Lauren, is your question? >> Uh yeah. Um Jen, you might have said and I missed it. Uh what what's the grade level for the duck projects? >> Um so that is actually an honors biology. So that's a mix of ninth and tth graders. And that's actually just to show you it's a little bit more impressive. That's the first one they do. >> That's awesome. >> Yeah. Um can we are we allowed to I did cover the student

063names. So >> yeah, thank you. >> Um they're quite detailed. >> One of those kids is a fabulous artist. >> Yeah. And I mean that's another thing too is that kids get to show their strengths like Yeah. >> Like their modeling is really great. Yeah. >> Do they do they get to do any primary experimentation using the real? >> Yeah. So I I don't know exactly but when they're looking at the polarity of water they have to design an experiment with oils and waters and they use Q-tips to figure out what's going on and what's creating the layers and what's repelling. >> No real ducks harmed in the >> No real ducks involved just pictures and videos. Um, and then Bill, um, in your slide where you list the computer science courses, there's an acronym

064in there that I didn't recognize, and you also might have said, PLTW, what did >> Project Lead the Way? >> Oh, cool. Okay. Um, and you did say that you're a department of one. >> Yeah. >> Are you really the only instructor for >> Um, Rachel Nan is currently the only math department uh person who's teaching computer science. >> We did have two others. [laughter] She we did have two other teachers that that left the district to to go on to other um careers and other places. Yeah. So um we had we had more than one computer science teacher and they taught discovering computer science along with Mrs. Nan. Um that teacher has gone on to a a curriculum a curriculum job. So um right now I only have one um I believe. >> Yeah.

065all of the four high school tech teachers that mainly teach the project lead the way curriculum courses with that's sort of like a program that's correlated with RIT to give students college credit and give them background in different areas of engineering. Um they all um they teach these courses. They also teach other courses that touch upon many of those computer science standards that we're looking for. Um so students even if they might get like a little bit of it in like an introduction um to engineering course then they might decide oh I'd liked that so now I'm going to look at you know computer science principles or they might look into another course that might be more involved in that >> last question. Um um I know that we've had a lot of student participation

066in the IT help desk project, right, Erin? Um have you noticed any intersection or overlap between the students that participate in that effort and maybe an increased interest in computer science and vice versa? >> Yeah, I mean I can I can speak to the the math kids that are also included in there. I'd say yes that I do believe that there is some comparison to them. I'm not sure about the product. Just to kind of give you an idea, the classes that are listed up there are are both math and science within the the tech department. So, the first one, intro to computer science and and AP computer science A, those are two math course electives. The next one, um, network programming one and two, those are tech electives. Um, and so is AP computer

067science principles and computer integrated manufacturing. Those are all those three are tech. The following three are math. So that's why we're kind of doing it together is that we have some some listed as tech electives, some listed as math electives. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So to answer your question, yes, there is some um some connection between, you know, our our kids who are working in the the uh the uh computer tech help desk and computer science. I can't give you a number as to what that would be, but yeah. >> Thank you. Other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. And let's um maybe we can pass the ducks [laughter] that direction. >> Holy cow. >> Before we um >> they're very these are fantastic. >> Thank you. >> Before we turn to

068our next presentation, which um is um probably going to be um have a lot of discussion along with it, I belatedly realized, Nick, what you were getting at. Um, is there um, and I can't make promises here, but is there anybody here who intends on making a public comment about the capital project by a show of hands? >> Given that there is not, do any board members object if we free Nick um, and the project team? >> No, full support. >> Nay, >> you're welcome to stay, but if you guys would like to go, >> I'm sorry I did not I wasn't following earlier what you were putting asking about there. advantage that way. >> I figured >> all right. Thank you. >> Um and uh while they are um uh leaving, I will just

069introduce our next presentation um by Tyler Technologies um on our an update on our zones of attendance. Um and um I uh we spoke um just before the meeting and uh Ted is going to kind of at good points in the presentation, take breaks for questions so that we can kind of try to segment them to the extent we can so that we're not at the end of the presentation questions >> jumping back and forth all over the place. Um, but so he'll kind of indicate where he feels is a good time to have a short break. >> Well, that's not going to work. All right, we'll try this. All right. Well, thank you all. uh like to thank the board for the opportunity to provide our third update uh on the zone of attendance

070project and this follows on four or five meetings we've had with the zone of attendance committee. Uh these updates are designed to provide transparency into the process um and to be intentional about soliciting feedback and input from the community on the the process that we're following and and to get that feedback into the final models. The last thing that I' I'd like to say is that nothing has been finalized at this point. Uh these are the initial proposals. Uh and we are there literally have been no decisions make made. So tonight's agenda will consist of the following items. Uh we'll go over the neighborhood boundary definitions. Uh a lot of work went into these definitions, creating these neighborhood boundaries by the zone of attendance committee. We'll then talk about the demographic projections, [clears throat] the

071numbers that we're using to estimate the enrollment in future years and how we got there. Uh we'll then go through the various options uh and explain what they mean, what what's actually involved in each one of the options. Uh and then we will uh talk about the community feedback session that's going to be held tomorrow night. So, uh, and we'll probably break after the demographic projections and the, uh, review of the changes there for feedback. I think those would be logical spots. Before we get into that though, I I do want to share again the timeline and the kind of the project approach that we've been following. We started this back in July and we we did a lot of data gathering. We actually surveyed the classrooms, uh, went through all of that. We talked

072to the transportation department, looked at the transportation demands. We then took that data and we walked through uh a process of assessing various class sizes. Uh we looked at the uh where there are actual surpluses or deficits in classrooms. We began the effort in October on modeling the neighborhood units and then began to evaluate some of the demographic impacts associated with some of the things we're thinking about doing there in November. So here we are sort of in the middle of the project. Uh we have incorporated a lot of the feedback that has been given by the zone of attendance committee. Uh we begin to assess various neighborhood planning units and their ability to move from one enrollment zone to another. Uh we've gotten a lot of feedback from the committee which has been very

073very helpful. uh we are literally underway modeling the transportation impact which is a very real impact because there's very real costs associated with any of those changes and then we have the community feedback session in in November. Uh [clears throat] we will incorporate that feedback and come back to the board in December with updated recommendations and then it would be up to the board to decide when to take action on those recommendations. The core of all of the modeling about any of the changes is starts with the neighborhood boundary definition. So, let's take a moment and review what those are. Uh the map you see here on the screen is the result of the zoning uh zone of attendance committee looking at the various neighborhoods in the school district, drawing those on maps, talking about

074them, deliberating on those. And how did they do? What criteria did they use to develop those neighborhood boundaries? There's four or five things primarily that are used. First, they're actually neighborhoods, right? So, a subdivision that was created all at the same time is a very common uh thing to look at. The uh another thing are physical features. So, it could be uh water features. It could be a busy highway or a busy road would be a natural break in a neighborhood boundary. And then land use changes are also used. So, a change, say there's a commercial area between two residential areas, those are often neighborhood designations or it could be a land or a change in housing type where you're going from single family to multif family are are also used in the development of

075these. A couple other things that we talked about at the committee and I think are are worth sharing again here. More units are better. There was a initial desire to have big units and the problem with big units is that then you have to make big changes and one of the goals of this project is to minimize the impact of any change and and so we encouraged the uh the committee to subdivide their areas you know create smaller units because then we could make smaller changes. Uh and and the final units that you see on the map uh again are the result of inputs from multiple groups. Uh there were conflicting suggestions made amongst the groups which is not not a surprise. And then we used local knowledge to to uh develop the final neighborhood

076units that you can see and review online. We did a lot of work looking at the enrollment projections and what you see here are the uh current enrollment projections that have been developed by the capital district regional planning commission and they do a great job of of analyzing the trends in the district and in the area and how that would impact enrollment. And so what will you see here are the the enrollment projections by grade and then by year. Uh I think it uh last uh when Jod did an update uh two meetings ago or a meeting ago uh she talked about the overall district enrollment is potentially going to increase uh which is is great. The the uh other part of that though is that the K to5 enrollment is actually projected to decrease.

077And so if you look at at the 2627 number it is lower than our current enrollment. And so you may think well why are we here? And we're going to get to that. um when you look at the kindergarten enrollment. So the kindergarten enrollment if you look at 20 26 and 27 we're a few students higher and then that number continues to be you know above our current enrollment uh over the next four or five years. The other thing that is important is that there are some housing developments underway uh here in the district. there are a lot of projects in front of the planning board. Uh and so the uh model used projects that are approved or under construction at this point. Uh we can't predict what the planning board's going to approve or

078not approve. Uh and and so we'll have to monitor that. The board should monitor those things over the coming years. But um uh but right now for this for the purposes of this exercise, we took any approved or approved and under construction developments and we put the impact of those all starting in the 26 27th school year. So why did we do that? Well, I think a couple of things. One is that's conservative, right? So it allows us to model what is sort of the worst case scenario. Uh two, it's uh it might be understood that there's a housing I won't say shortage, but a lack of available housing in the school district and it is likely that the developers who are working on those projects are going to be very diligent about building those

079out and and those will probably come online very quickly. Uh so I I think you know whether you know these units come online in 2627 or 2728 they're well within the study period here and so that's why we made the decision to include them all in [clears throat] the current uh in the 2627 projections. If we take those numbers and then we layer those on the previous numbers from the Capitol District Regional Planning Commission, that's what you see here in this chart. And I highlighted starting in kindergarten 2627 that enrollment because then you can see how that bubble we it's called the COVID bump uh is moving through the school district, right? So that large class coming in for kindergarten will move through and will create a bump or or a large class moving through

080the uh the school district over those years. The interesting thing about all of this and when you when you dissect it just a little bit further, those developments and the enrollment projections uh show that the overcrowding in two of our elementary schools continues to happen through the study period. the two development projects, well, one of them uh is focused on Ellir. The other one is is going to be in Slingerlands, uh but they don't really move the needle. The in those in those two school districts, they're still under capacity. Eagle and Glenmont, uh who aren't going to receive any substantial development at this time, still continue to be overcrowded based on the current enrollment projections. And so if we don't do anything, the overcrowding in those two schools will continue to exist and there will

081be other underutilized classrooms in the other schools. Are there questions at this point on the demographics? >> I'm sure that there are. Okay. Um I have a couple. Um and first I'm just curious with the the neighborhood boundary definitions. You mentioned that there obviously there were some disagreements between what made up a particular neighborhood. How did you resolve those conflicts? >> Uh we worked with the committee to to go through those uh and point out where there are some differences. Uh the committees were were broke the committee was broken down into working groups uh for each elementary school and not surprisingly one elementary school had thoughts and ideas about what should be done in in a neighborhood area of another elementary school and so we looked at those and and tried to resolve those and

082then we made a decision in some cases where where there wasn't the committee didn't come up with a solution on their own. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Um and then with respect to the um the housing developments, can you walk me through how you how do you estimate how many kids are those are going to generate and what grades they're going to be in? >> Yeah. And and we can get into this a little bit more detail tomorrow as well. uh will be some other folks as part of the consulting team at tomorrow night's uh meeting, but there are some some understood statistics around the number of K to2 students that will likely be generated or come into the district based on the quantity and the type of housing. And so, and then there's a breakdown

083between K to 5 and then secondary as well. Uh so if you [clears throat] look at uh uh at these projections here, there are 16 uh uh total students projected to come, eight from each of the subdivisions uh that we're talking about in K to five. The actual uh increase in district enrollment will be higher than that. But that that's that part and those are based on statistical averages uh and then looking at what's called the cohort survival and and how those move through uh the school district as the as the grades advance. Can I just add to that? The Capital Region Planning Commission, which Ted referenced, that's who we've been using for our projections for >> for a long time, a long time, right? >> They use similar formula with housing development. They get

084that from the town and use that same model for projections and they have been they've been very accurate, >> very accurate. So, >> y I do want to point out though that this the uh planning commission doesn't they they talk about development in their report. They don't actually provide these numbers >> by they don't break it down by individual right schools. >> Right. Okay. So again we the the demographers on the team use the models that they they have traditionally used uh to uh to come up with these estimates. >> Okay. >> And then can you just um explain and [snorts] maybe it might just be obvious but the COVID bump you just elaborate on what that is? >> Sure. Uh I don't I'm not going to talk about why we have it but [laughter]

085uh but uh yeah so so we have a large kindergarten class coming in in the next year and then as those and and it's you know 20 students higher in kindergarten or 19 students higher than the current enrollment. And so that's what the regional planning commission they they actually call this out in their report that you're going to see this large class move through the >> school name. That's what the name they've given. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yep. And then what happens is you're you may be asking yourself, well, why doesn't the uh 281 students in kindergarten become 281 in grade 1? And and so there's a number of factors there. Um, again looking at this the approach of what's called cohort survival, you're looking at historical trends to estimate the number of students moving

086in and out of the district year-over-year over year. I I think at the last meeting it was mentioned you had 130 late enrollments >> uh coming into the school year. And so so those those are the kinds of things that get get reflected in those numbers. >> Okay, Catherine, um, two things. First of all, thank you and I'm going to beg your pardon. I'm nursing an injury, so I'm going to like stand and sit and and I I apologize. So, thank you all. Um the um the question that I had I just really really wanted to underline this because as a board member, I've received many questions. >> Sure. >> About where are these numbers coming from? Like are we guessing? Right. So, can you so that for anybody who wanted to go look this

087up for themselves, can you say again where our um district enrollment projection numbers come from and where these housing development projection numbers come from? >> Yeah. So, so these numbers are right from the capital district regional planning commission. But one of the things that I forgot to mention is that these are these numbers are only for general ed and integrated classroom numbers because that is the focus of this study. So the actual enrollment numbers say for right now in K to 5 are higher about 130 students I think higher. So >> because the special ed students are not included in this. This is gen ed and integrated. >> Right. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Right. So uh so you you would find the enrollment numbers with those students added in in the regional planning commission

088report. These numbers here were developed by the demographing team because using the uh the units in [clears throat] these various housing developments and I think for example let me get my notes here >> and the housing development numbers that came straight from the town planning board. >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh so Philip and Kill Manor has 36 single family attached, 14 single family detached. And so statistically that development would add 15 students total to the district, eight of which are K to 5. Uh the Barbar Homes, Kenwood Avenue, I think that was actually just acquired by Barbara recently, is 11 single family and 40 11 single family detached and 40 single family attached. And so again, it's interesting. It's 16 students, eight of which are K to five. There are there's another development uh underway, but

089it's uh senior family. It's it's a senior housing 55 and older. So no students would come out of that development. >> And then go ahead, Bob. [snorts] And I've got one more. >> Oh, you can go ahead. >> Sure. Jody, can maybe this is a Jod question. I'm not sure. Um, so can you just speak to why we're focusing on gened and integrated classrooms for the demographic numbers and why we're not um including special ed students in those in this part of the consideration? >> Well, special ed students are included in the numbers. The the students and I referenced this last meeting, the self-contained classrooms were not included because they have their own space and they are a separate program. So they're not included in for the facility piece in the overall enrollment for those

090numbers. They're included in our overall enrollment numbers. >> Thank you. >> So does >> I misunderstood that. I thought we were saying that >> it's part of the facility the number of classrooms. So for example in Ellir when we have the facility of available classrooms there's two classrooms currently that are used by the connections program they were not included because we didn't want to count those as general classroom space that's available. >> Okay. But those those students the number of students who are in self-contained classrooms those are included in these demographic numbers or they are not >> not in the self-contained. >> Thank you. >> Students who are in integrated co- teach general ed classrooms but have an IEP they are included. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Thanks for Sorry about that. Thanks for clearing that

091up, >> Bob. >> Yeah. And I guess my my question is related and I'm not to be honest 100% sure if if that was answered. I mean, I know that there's there's an awful lot of moving parts that you're sort of dealing with. Um, and I know that I I think that you just addressed at least the space problem. So, you've got students, you've got space and different things, >> but we do have specialed students, right? >> And so, you as one of the moving parts um h how is that being taken into consideration with regard to the entire puzzle? I guess >> you want me to address that? >> Yeah. Yep. >> So the in regards to the actual numbers we're looking at for space when we did last week for example, we did

092not plan on when when Ted's going to talk about moving students back to their home school. So kids who were placed in elementary schools because of capacity issues are planned to go back to their home schools as part of this process. students who have IEPs, whether it's in a self-contained program or they have an IEP and they're in an integrated co-eing program, those students we kept where they are and didn't plan for them to go back to their home schools because we're special ed needs to determine, for example, if there are students in a K co-taught classroom at Glenmont, they would continue into a first grade co-taught in Glenma as long as there's enough students. So, we didn't anticipate those students returning to a home school >> and the space the physical space within the

093buildings is just not part of the consideration when we're talking about classrooms here and classrooms there that this was that was that. So, in other words, the the this physical space that those classrooms that you just discussed >> isn't part of the analysis. >> They are because those are gened classrooms. Okay. >> Integrated co-eing are just general ed classrooms that can be placed anywhere. The classrooms that weren't considered are the self-contained classrooms, >> right? The self-contained. >> Correct. >> And they would stay. >> They would stay at this point. They're they're planned to stay. >> Okay. Correct. >> Thank you. >> That was my last. So basically, they've been excluded from this whole process. This default starting assumption all self-contained parties will stay where they are. >> Correct. >> Catherine question. Thank you. I think

094um just one more question going back to something that you had said about the NPUs that have been identified and you know that that this was something that the committee considered quite a bit and and chose to go with more smaller ones if I'm remembering correctly and and designed these these maps. From what you were saying earlier as well though, this is part of what we're seeking feedback on tomorrow. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Right. Right. >> So this isn't this isn't done done. We want feedback on this. >> No, no, we we want feedback on it. Um I imagine there will be a lot of feedback Yeah. >> on those and the maps that we've prepared um have a house layer on them. So I'm sure everybody's going to want to find their house on the

095map and see what unit they're part of and and uh so we'll have folks there who can uh you know make notes and that kind of thing about what what the feedback is on the actual boundary definitions. >> Thank you. >> Yep, >> Meredith. Um I'm sorry Jay. I just want to ask one more question to be completely clear about this because I want to make sure I understand regarding um the integrated co-taught special ed classrooms. Those kids um we are you're saying that we are planning on keeping those kids where they are >> in the in those classes. I mean in the schools that they are currently in. >> Correct. are those so those kids are not how do I put this those numbers of those kids are not included in the the plans

096that we will be getting to in a moment >> they're included in the school they're currently in >> right but if they live in a neighborhood that we're talking about moving are there numbers included in that neighborhood that we're talking about moving >> does that question >> Oh yeah yeah it's a good good question and and I'll I'll uh let you know that we struggled a little bit with this too. So there were um these students were identified as you know out of zone and then we we were given a list of students who were eligible to move back. So that about 99 students who were out of zone and of those 99 about 39 were developed or were identified as yeah you you this student can move uh back to their their home school

097and then therefore be subject to uh attending a different elementary school potentially >> those are general ed students >> right so I guess there's two classifications of kids I guess I'm talking about some kids who have been placed out of zone because of overcrowding issues. >> Correct. >> Right. >> We are assuming they're going to go back to their home district. Right. >> If th if if their neighborhood is then planning on moving being if their neighborhood is one of these ones that may move in one of these plans, are those kids numbers included in the projection? So, if there's 10 kids in a neighborhood that's going to move and one kid is in a self-contained classroom, you would that would be nine kids that you would be looking at for the numbers. >> Correct.

098Correct. >> Okay. So, in special ed, those kids, >> we have taken that into account when we're talking about these numbers. Okay. >> And the kids that were out of zone because of overcrowding, >> we um are assuming they're just moving with their neighborhood, right? They're back at their home schools for the enrollment numbers and they're within whatever neighborhood they're >> right. Right. Right. Right. So, we specifically identified of the 1780 which ones were eligible and which ones were not. >> Okay. >> Student by students on this on this part. John, >> just going back to the the self-contained co-op, the students with IEPs who are in those classes, they would regardless still remain in the school that they're in because that's where those schools have identified as co-alk classes or will there be co-el

099classes in other schools? >> Well, there could be I mean we have co- classrooms in every school in different grade levels depending upon where students we've always done it where the majority of those students home school is. So, but for this for practice for this purpose, we we assume those students would remain at the integrated program they're currently in. Um, so >> so the idea those students would remain those but other students who don't have IEPs were >> correct >> maybe put [snorts] into those classes in in whatever home school they >> Right. Only the right only students with IEPs were not included in the moves back to home school. >> Okay. >> I I hate to bel labor at this, but technically is it possible then that you just said that you have the

100class of let's say third graders where the majority of the kids, you know, of is their home district. Correct. >> For students with IEPs. >> Yeah. With students with IPS. Correct. Could that change? In other words, let's say that a neighborhood gets changed and six kids get their home school is now different. No, because all of the students who have IEPs would we assume would stay there. >> Okay. Even if after the announcement >> I mean it might not be their home. Yeah. It might not be their overall home school but that's what we assumed that they they would stay in that program. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Rose, did you have a question? Um, yeah. I know you've mentioned this in previous presentations, but could you go over some of the reasons for unequal

101enrollment and could you discuss like if any of these reasons might change in the near future which would decrease the amount of students that need to move? >> Yeah, great great question. Um, I think there's a couple of factors uh that that are that get at this. Before I answer that though, I think it's important to understand that this is probably the third time Tyler Technologies has done this kind of work for the school district and there was a fourth time that it was done that we weren't involved in. The school district did it on their own. So, this is the kind of thing that happens every 5 to 10 years in most school districts. And why is that? Well, housing patterns change, enrollment patterns change. uh you have some areas of town of of

102the school district now where you have a lot of empty nesters, right? So so uh people have decided to stay in their houses and so those houses aren't turning over and bringing in more students uh and then all of a sudden the neighborhood will start to turn over and in three or four years you'll have an influx of of new families. So I think that that's one uh impact is that there's more options for aging in place uh than there were 15 20 years ago. I think another thing and the capital district regional planning commission pointed this out is that the average uh price of a house has gone up in the last in in the school district in the last 5 to 10 years and gone up dramatically. And so the conclusion I think

103you could draw from that is that uh new families on average aren't started in the district. Established families move into the district. And so I think that is one of the things that's leading to the K to 5 enrollment showing a small decline yet the overall district enrollment is projected to increase. I have one sure dumb question. The timeline you gave us, you know, ends in January. I'm assuming that we're not going to move any kids within the school year, right? The green time, >> right? It would be for September. >> Just wanted to make sure I was >> correct. Yeah. >> Yep. Thanks. >> No. Yep. Very good. >> Yes, Katherine. So, is this Sorry. Is this the a good moment to ask about um within the schools some classroom like some some space?

104We're not getting to that next, right? This would be the moment we're talking about overall numbers from now on. >> Okay, I'm just going to run with it. I'm going to run with it and you tell me if you'd like me to hold the question. How about that? Um, one of the I mean one of the questions that I've got is as we look to redistribute our population so that we are keeping class sizes at a at a certain size while making the best use of our available space is how that how that would impact future decisions in programming use especially again for special ed for self for self-contained classrooms for OTPT and associated ated services space. And the reason I'm wondering is like, okay, so over the years we've had different iterations of our

105special ed program where we have different breakdowns in the grades for self-contained classes, where we have more or fewer self-contained classes, and at times where we have more or fewer associated spaces for um for services. And so if are we if we make decisions now to fill more classroom space, are we thereby limiting our options when it comes to how do we deliver these programs in the future? Are we boxing ourselves in to a system as we currently have it? Does that make sense? >> Or I mean does my question do you understand? Sorry. >> I think I I think I get it. Um, I think that the way the way the enrollment is currently limits options for programming because you have two buildings who have no capacity and you have a couple buildings with

106a lot of capacity. And so if you wanted to make changes to special education right now and programming, you would be limited, right? because there is no opportunity in other buildings. So I think that actually providing more equitable distribution of students actually allows more flexibility with special education programming for the future. Also, you know, uh we have to I do think one of the things and you talked about this at the committee meeting is you don't want any building totally maxed out uh or we end up with a situation like we have at Eagle which I referenced last week where reading instruction is taking place in conference room or there's no room for OT uh at Glenmop if there's a meeting that's needed. So, I think that actually a better equitable distribution allows more flexibility

107for any kind of program, whether it's ENL, special education, uh, or whatever services, you have a little more flexibility in all your buildings to look at that. >> Thank you, John. >> One more question. As you're deciding the neighborhoods, is there any consideration for like socioeconomic uh makeup of those neighborhoods as well as like parental involvement? It might be hard to find, but like how how would that impact like the PTA one school versus another? Like is there is there any consideration for any of any of that stuff? >> Um, so the socioeconomic um I'll say was considered not directly the the factors that that were used, you know, the physical boundaries, the uh housing type boundaries, they there's some indirect consequence there. Uh but there I don't think there's any way to model parental

108involvement with the data that we currently have. >> And I just one more question. It's kind of related to Katherine's I think is how um in our buildings like say in in Slingerlands, how are rooms that are currently being used for OT or PT, how are they factored into like the classroom count? They're notable rooms. They're not. >> They're not because some have some designated spaces um in buildings that aren't necessarily gened classrooms. I think when there is available space, they've been used for other purposes. Uh that's why again I don't think it's a great uh we should be looking at maximizing every space in each building because we [clears throat] do need some flexibility with some of the related services. >> Okay. Um >> Claire, I just have like two questions. You mentioned that

109it usually happens like 5 to 10 years, will we have to work with this situation again like 2030 to >> potentially? Yep. >> Y >> and since like other districts also um dealt with this situation, how did they like um go about this? >> Uh, excellent question. I I think the general process that we went through at the beginning is is typically how this is done and then where where things I think could be different is how how the uh the changes are implemented, right? When are they implemented and how are they implemented? But the the general process that we laid out here is is how these studies are typically done. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I think we can move Why don't we move ahead? >> All right. Let's move ahead. Excellent. >>

110Thank you. Um, if somebody, and I hate to do this, if I could get a glass of water. >> Oh, yeah. That would be fantastic. >> Selzer. [laughter] >> Selzer's great. I can do that. >> Thank you very, very much. >> Make sure it's not the one that it's been sitting here for quite a while. [laughter] >> I'm not hunking you. Thank you. >> Chocolate. Okay. So, how did we go about looking at and what was a process that we followed to determine what neighborhoods would move? So, as Jod alluded to, we took the students who were in a different school due to overcrowding and put them back in their home school. Then we adjusted the projections and the counts related to the construction. And then we put every student on the map. Now that's

111called geocoding where you know we're all familiar I think with Google Maps now how that works. And then once we [clears throat] we had the students that were on the map, they're inside a neighborhood unit. And then we went through this process that we all just discussed about identifying which students are eligible to move and what of those pins are eligible to move and which aren't. We then reverified the classroom counts to make sure those were right. We then looked at and reverified the classroom class size targets which were discussed a couple meetings ago. And then once we have all of that, now we can start identifying potential zones for adjustment. We put those zones into the model. We run the model and we see what kind of results we get and then we iterate

112there several times. Uh couple of things that we looked at when trying to identify what neighborhood units could move. First is we want to maintain contiguous enrollment boundaries. So what what do I mean by that? We don't want to have students in uh uh in one elementary school zone traveling through three other zones to get to their elementary school. We want these these boundaries to be whole. Uh we also and this was [clears throat] decided early in the process. We will only move whole neighborhood units. So hence the the uh the desire to have smaller neighborhood units because then it allows us to make smaller changes when we move that whole neighborhood unit. Um we looked at and tried to model and and again iterating and iterating here minimizing the number of students impacted. We

113know that that is an overall goal for this. We we looked at this point uh minimizing the obvious transportation impacts. We are modeling out as we speak the actual transportation impacts. So we are for each one of the scenarios one of our consultants is building hypothetical bus routes and assigning dollars uh to those routes. And then the third the last thing was we wanted to make sure that we're creating capacity for future growth to provide some more flexibility in all the schools. [clears throat] There's also been discussion around school equity and what does that mean? And I think it probably means something in everybody's mind, but for the purposes of this study, this is how we've defined school equity. Uh first is that the goal was to have a minimum of two sections or classrooms

114in each grade in each building. So for example, in Ellir, they had to move in 11 12 students for this school year so they could have two classes of kindergarten. Uh we also want to minimize the impact of overcrowding in each building. Right? If if you have some cafeterias and hallways and classes that are overcrowded and others that are literally sitting empty, um that doesn't sound like an equitable situation. As Jody pointed out, we want to create the opportunity for programs in each building. And then the last thing is transportation, right? We want to have an have a fairly consistent across the district transportation experience. Um, and so we're looking at kind of to to keep within established ride times and capacities. And for reference there, I put the average ride times AM and PM

115for the regular AD routes and then the special needs routes. And so you can see that they're averaging 30 to 31 minutes uh in AM and PM. So, now we get to the fun part of uh of walking through the details and [clears throat] and I apologize the numbers are a little small to see, but I'll do my best to walk through. We're going to start in the left with the U number 38 that's highlighted. And so that is this is an Elmir example. So that's the actual number of students in kindergarten in Elmere in 20 in this school year. We then back out the students who are returning to their home school and then that gets us uh and I can't down to 27. And so that's really the starting point for our analysis.

116As we move over into the green section, the green columns, those 27, we're going to grade advance them. So take those kindergarteners and make them first graders. And that 27 becomes 30, right? It becomes 30 because we know we have a bigger kindergarten class coming in. We have more students coming into the district as we saw this year and that's why that number changes. You go to the bottom of that that are projected enrollment for Ellir before we make any moves would be 218 students. We would then model whatever neighborhoods are going to move in or out of an enrollment zone. And that's what you see in the next two columns there, the moving in, moving out. And then you get your new enrollment [clears throat] after those moves are made. And so in this

117case, this hypothetical model 218 after moving some neighborhoods into the element the Ellir enrollment zone becomes 236. [clears throat] The next part of the green sections is now to estimate how many classrooms physical spaces do we need to teach those 236 students. And there's two ways we looked at that. The typical way of doing that is to take the target class size and divide that into the total enrollment for that grade. And then if you have a remainder, then you know if that if that is there's a remainder on that, you round up automatically. And that tends to overestimate the number of classrooms needed. And and I think we've talked in earlier presentations how yeah it might say four but we know that you know we're we're we would actually come up with different uh

118class sizes and we'd adjust um you know if if we needed if we had 40 students we'd have two sections of 20 rather than three sections uh which would be very small class size. So we developed a model that would try to estimate again it's not perfect but it gets us pretty close on what the likely number of sections would be applying that same logic and so that's in how in this case we get from being four over to being one over uh by by applying that likely uh model. The last part again which we're a work in progress here would be to roll these out to 20 to 3031 and do the same math and to see what kind of uh capacity we would have in 2031. So any questions about this because this

119is the basis for all of the modeling that we're going to walk through next. >> You any of the questions? >> Yeah. So, I'm going to get slightly into the back reads here because there have been several points during the various presentations where the explanation for the numbers hasn't matched the numbers. I'm going to use this as an example, right? We're looking at the green sections. >> Yep. >> Total number of students sections to meet target. So, for grades three and four, you've got 37 and 3, 38 and three. >> Yep. But then if you go back to your previous slide, we'll see that the target class size for those grades is 20 and 21. >> So you don't need three sections to meet target in either of those cases. You only need two sections

120to meet target, >> right? And that and that's where the likely if I'm following I actually can't see that really clearly. But if 37 is saying to three, then it would go to uh go to two. >> So why is the model telling me that we would need three sections to meet our target class size when that isn't true? Uh, >> good question. >> Yeah. >> And the same thing for the next grade. >> Yep. >> So, that that's part of what I'm struggling with in a lot of these is the math isn't right. Well, we'll have we'll have to take a look at that and uh see if there's any if there's something Yeah, we'll take a look at it. Yeah. And then you're going to ask us a minute to look at various

121plans built upon these models and >> you see the you see the problem. I >> I I do. I think at the end of the day though it's it's a it doesn't change dramatically the overall impact. >> Well, I got no way of telling. Right. >> Right. Right. But a follow up to that when we do get into the maps and scenarios >> y >> are those >> built because because you and you're you're absolutely right in the sections to meet target. However, it looks like the likely sections >> are correct >> are on track. >> Yeah. >> So I think that's important. And which of these sections to meet target or likely sections are the uh proposals built on? >> We show both. >> I see. >> We show both. >> Yes, you do.

122Okay. Got it. Thank you. >> And as I Yeah. Generally the the rec the typical way of doing this overestimates anyway. And so we we attempted to come up with a different way of looking at it to come up with a more likely scenario likely sections that would be required. >> So for that section to be target for is there an algorithm that calculates that? What is this like an Excel? Is it >> Yeah, it's it's very simple, right? You look at uh if I have 40 students and I have 18 in that class as my target class size, then 40 or 18 into 40 is more than two. So we would round up to three. >> So So is it just that that's just such a rough calculation that it's rounding up even if

123it's >> if I'm one student over, >> Right. I'm I'm going to round >> would that would that account for the discrepancy in in the math or no? >> I'd have to look at the formula. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, >> and can you and or maybe actually this might be a question better for um for you, Jody, just speak to why having at least two sections of a particular grade level is beneficial. >> Oh, sure. Uh I mean this obviously was a large discussion at our committee meeting in the specifically for elsewhere because we did have to move a good number of kids in there for two K sections because having one K section you having one grade level going through elementary gives them really no opportunity for a lot of activities that most

124of our schools have. um just the social piece, being able to uh have students uh do things curriculum wise and co-curricular wise with other students. Uh it's just really too small. So >> is that for things like kind of art and music and so on as well? It just >> sure you need that critical mass of students, >> right? Well, even ma I wouldn't say two sections is a mass, but [clears throat] one section is very small >> to have be with everyone from K through fifth grade >> when we don't we don't have to have that. We have opportunities. >> Yeah. >> But even if you had, you know, a natural occurrence where one school's catchment zone only had, let's say, 18 students in a given year, you'd really want to add a second

125section. Yes. Within one, >> which is what we did this year essentially. Mayor. >> Okay. >> Very basic question. Um, if I'm looking at the ride times and then on in the um returning home to school, there's an acronym SN O Z >> special needs out of zone. >> Okay. Thank you. Yep. >> Got it. And I'll just say for as somebody who who had um you know an inzone uh inzone family in elementary school and still had longer ride times than the average. I am glad that this is something that we are considering. I know my family was not alone. I know that this is the average and that also reflects that there's many students who are above this. I know this is not all going to be ironed out through here. I just

126putting in my my cheer for strong transportation considerations as well as we roll this out, especially in um in light of the number of drivers we have and are trying to recruit and so on and such forth. So, thank you. >> Guess we're not going to achieve equity there just because of the geography of the district, right? Part of the district is going to have bigger ride times, >> right? >> I would imagine. >> Yeah. before you move into the different options, which is I think what um is coming next. It's um almost nine o'clock. So, if we could take a two-minute break just to let our pagan soup students go home. >> Y >> don't forget to come up and sign out. I'll turn it back over to you. >> Thanks, Holly. All right.

127So, we we have three initial proposals and then one of them has three variants. So, there's actually five different scenarios to look through tonight. And and again, I want to emphasize these are initial proposals. So option A1 uh [clears throat] has some common parts to it and I'll point those out and I'll do my best to describe the areas. So uh the first common point of option A1 would be the Long Meadow neighborhood uh in an adjoining area would move from Eagle into Slingerlands. um area 51 uh which is I think that's what that says which is the area between Murray Avenue the bypass and Elm Avenue and then I think up to Moer would move from Eagle into Hamigrow and then you have uh areas 57 >> 89 >> 58 89 and 90 move

128uh and so those are the areas between the bypass and Furbush uh that have entrance in the houses along Murray. Uh they would also move uh into Hamigrail. And then you have areas 14 and 15 which are between the bypass and the power lines and the houses uh along Bender Avenue from the bypass down to the power lines there. So those are the common parts of option A. And then we looked at some variations on that which is what because one of the the challenges here is we want to put students into Ellir. So what areas would we could potentially uh would help with that situation. [snorts] So the first one is option or area 33 which is uh between uh Kenwood Pine and I think Ellir that would move uh in from Hamigrail into

129Ellir. So that's that's one potential. Uh the next one would be areas 79 and 34 uh which uh would move into Ellir. And then the next one would be uh area 88 which is uh the houses along Bender uh lane would move into Ellare. So those are the three variations on option A. They all involve about 154 150 students uh would be moving and then this table here summarizes the counts uh that would move. Again, walk walking through this, uh we would end up, if we look at the likely sections here, uh this would create about five available class spaces across the district. Uh as a result of that uh those potential moves and we because of again the work involved, we haven't projected out to 3031. We wanted to get some direction uh back

130on which of these options we should explore further. Option two has about six likely sections at the end of 2627 and then option three has five available sections there as you as you work through the numbers. So they they involve different parts of uh of that part of town and they all generally end up with the same number of sections here. Um I'm I'm going to go through all the options. We'll talk about them, then we can go back and and answer questions about the details of each one. So, in option B, uh the Long Meadow neighborhood would stay in Slingerlands. The area 51 would still move into Hammerrail. The uh the four areas on Murray between the bypass and Furbush would move into Hammerrail. Uh, but because we're not moving the Long Meadow neighborhood,

131Eagle and it's up still in an overcrowded situation. So, we would move I think that says area 62 into Glenmont, which again seems counterintuitive because Glenmont's already overcrowded, but we're again we're trying to get students into Ellir uh to help fill that up. We've done a good job getting students into Hammerrail. Uh so we have to kind of move the puzzle pieces around the board and then uh areas 14 and 15 and now adding area 16 would move into a hammock and then area 88 would move into Ellir. So a lot of moving pieces here uh in this option [clears throat] total 185 students would move. We'd end up with three available or likely extra sections across the district. uh for option B and option C because they were a little more evolved. We went

132through the process of uh doing some scorecarding if you will just to help understand what are the relative impacts here. So option B all the zone of enrollments are still contiguous. Uh we do a pretty good job of school equity terms of balancing the enrollment across the district. U this one has the highest number of of students to move. Um so that's that's not a desired outcome. And then in terms of creating capacity for future growth, other options provide more available classrooms uh or likely classrooms to give us the more flexibility that we're talking about. In option C, uh we're back to areas 53 and 54 moving into Slingerlands. And then uh area 51 would move into Hamigrail. the same four along Murray would move into Hammigrail. And [clears throat] then uh area eight there,

133excuse me, I need to get to my notes. Uh moves from Glenmont into Hammer Grail. And so there would be no uh movement of students into Ellir. uh the likely number of students here is that would move is 128. We would end up with six extra likely sections. Uh and then three as we project out into 3031. So so this option and then the option B before do create some uh capacity for future growth in the district. Um again we haven't finished the modeling on the three scenarios of option A yet. So I can't offer an opinion on that. Uh if we look at the scorecarding on this, we're still maintaining all the contiguous uh zone of enrollment boundaries. Um school equity is is I'll I'll say neutral to to you know, it's not bad,

134but it's not great because we really haven't moved additional students into Ellir. Um this has the least number of impacted students at 128 and it does create capacity for future growth. Another area uh that we were asked to look at was grandfathering and there's been a lot of discussion I think about grandfathering. So conceptually what does that mean? That would mean you know exempting some set of students from these moves and and there are some and I think Jody pointed out last meeting if we grandfather everybody then there is no change. We're still in these overcrowded situations. Um there are also additional impacts to doing that and the first is transportation. Uh there's a real transportation impact because now we are running more buses to pick up these students who have been left in their

135uh current school. And another impact here which is impacting this district and and a lot of districts around the country is that there's an ongoing bus driver shortage. It's hard to get bus drivers. Um there was a problem 10 years ago and that got exacerbated by the pandemic. Uh and that is still an ongoing issue here is we just can't get enough drivers. And so then you end up with longer routes or more buses or both to go back and and pick up these students um get them to their grandfathered school uh and get the job done. And so we would have to model all that out. that is a non-trivial exercise to figure out you know what is the impact and how would we exactly get these students uh and address that and then

136assign cost to that and so we have not modeled that any grandfathering scenario out at this point. So any questions on the scenarios before we get into the community agenda or do we want to do that first and then go back? Holly, what would you like to >> Sure. There's questions on the the scenarios. Okay. >> Um, so I just want to make sure that I'm understanding them. Um, and I can go kind of in reverse order. Uh, option C looks like the biggest problem with option C is that nobody goes to, >> right? >> And so Ellir is still short people. >> Correct. Option B, why doesn't anybody move to Slenderlands in option B? Unless I'm misunderstanding that one. >> No, you're you're you're right. Nobody's moving in option B. Um there uh there

137is >> because it looks like everybody mo almost everybody's going to hammer which would still leave Slingerlands with a lot of empty classrooms. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I think Hamigrail actually has more excess capacity at this point than Slingerlands. And so we again one of the scenarios was to to try to minimize some of the impacts to not not move that particular 53 and 54 and leave them in place. And so what part of what we're trying to do here is to provide the board the information on if we move this neighborhood or don't move that neighborhood, what are the likely impacts of that? And so that was part of the the thought process in developing these scenarios was to try to answer some of the questions. >> And then in might be in the

138all of the different A options. Um I think it's numbers 14 and 15. >> Yep. >> They're going to >> Hamil. >> To Hamrail. Yes. Is there a particular reason why those ones those were picked to go to Hamigrail as opposed to going to Ellir instead of moving >> people that are currently at Hamigrail to Elsir if that makes sense? >> Yeah, I let me look at something. I know I know you have some grade level data probably for the neighborhoods that might factor in this but >> right >> so so the issue there is that there's 20 students in 14 and 26 students in 15 so you again trying to think about continuity here and there was discussion at the zone at the committee about those two areas being more intertwined than might appear

139from the map the the maps and so we thought that they should if we're going to do something move those together and then that's 46 students so then that would overcrowd Ellir >> so if you move 14 and 15 to Ellir it would be too many >> too many students right >> capacity just so for discussions in the committee meetings >> was anywhere from 20 to 25 essentially to move to Ellir Those two would be too bad. >> If you split them up though, would that would that work? >> Yeah. 14. >> You you could the committee the the committee feedback was they they felt those two neighborhoods belong together. So yes, that that is an option and we and we could model that. Um but again, we're trying to reflect the input that we

140received from the committee. insurance people. >> Um so acknowledging that all of this is up for conversation tomorrow night >> and that we are tomorrow [snorts] night broadening the the direct feedback that you all will receive from beyond just the committee. So, while acknowledging that, has the committee um has the committee expressed a preference for any of these or conversely any options that the committee thinks are not really worth continuing to pursue. >> Yeah. So, uh the committee has not seen the variations on option A. Okay. >> Well, they they have seen them. >> Well, they've seen them now, right? We discussed that. >> Yeah. We we didn't discuss them, right? So, >> Got it. Okay. based on the feedback from the committee um we were directed to provide more scenarios for putting more students

141into Ellir. >> Okay. >> And and then there was a um it was acknowledged that not putting additional students into Slingerlands might be okay. Leave Slingerlands a little empty, but let's try to get uh Hamigrail more students into Hamigrail and get a few more students into Ellir. Got it. Thank you. I have more questions, but keep going. >> I'm a little confused. Gosh. Looking at general instructional space sums you give us, right? It looks as though Elnir only has one room that isn't currently used. Am I right here? >> That's correct. >> Is it just that all of the rooms that are being used are being underused? like >> their well like their case their yeah their their lower grades are lower enrolled right also has I believe >> Ted you probably know this 19

142or 20 kids that are placed there who will go back to other schools that were placed at Ellir because of lack of capacity at other schools >> right >> so that's 20 students currently there who who go back >> their fifth grade is also a larger group who will be exiting so Right. So they also have two classrooms that are devoted for special education. >> So even though we're looking at, you know, Hammerrail having seven empty rooms, Slingons having six empty rooms, there's a a need at Ellis that isn't reflected in pure rooms, it's the rooms they do have being underused >> and numbers of kids, right, in order to maintain that two section. >> That's the that's what Ted was referencing in the committee meeting. It was very it was a long discussion that

143it was very important for Ellir to have two sections and not be just >> one of the other concerns that I don't think has been brought up. Um I know I haven't and I don't think Ted has that Ellir's feeling because their enrollment has dropped quite a bit. They're getting a lot of students placed there because of overcrowding and they're there for a year and they go and they're there for a year and they go which is not a great because they go back to their home school. So they that having a better representation will allow them more continuity. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Can you go to slide like 22? >> I don't know what slide 22 is. >> It's any any of the slides. It talks about the general instructional space summary. That

144that's fine. Pick that one. >> So we're looking at that bottom middle chart, right? >> Yes. Yeah. >> Right now we have 102 classrooms available of which 15 are unused. >> Correct. Are you telling me that in your modeling for this model A1, >> we're going to be using 97 of those 102 classrooms? >> Yes. >> Okay, I'm understanding correctly. >> Okay. >> Well, I I think one of the things that if we flip back a couple of slides there, the target class sizes are in some cases different and in some cases lower than the actual class sizes currently. But in this scenario you're modeling out here, you know, Hammerrail, for instance, is currently using 21 classrooms and we're worried that it has seven unused classrooms, but in your model, you now can use 19.

145They're going to have nine unused classrooms, >> depending on if the scenario potentially, right? >> That seems like we're not solving the problem we're trying to solve here. Using fewer rooms in Hammer will have fewer students there. Hammergirl doesn't have 21 se 21 sections currently. >> So looking at again don't move from that slide right now if you mind >> the previous slide. >> The previous one. >> Yeah. >> Do we go back to the one you wanted? 22. >> 22. Yeah. >> So that bottom middle chart right? >> Yep. >> Right now we're using 21 classrooms. I haven't >> No, they're available. >> They're available. They're not being used. >> There's not 21 sections. And then so that green column is we would plan to be using 19 of those 21. >> Correct. Right.

146>> Yeah, that makes more sense. Fine. >> Right. >> So, so sorry, just to sorry if I may. >> So, if we were to clear this up a little bit, we would have like a column that was available, a column that's like currently used, and then like a column for projected use in 26 27. And if so, if I sorry, just walking through the basic math here. So if I were to subtract the unused from the available, that's how I get to what we're actually using now. And then how that >> right >> compares to the Sorry. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I just >> in this same chart, same page, your model says we're going to use 14 classrooms at Hellmir that only has 13 classrooms available. >> No, it

147has 14. Yeah, it's 13 available and one unused, >> right? >> So, right now we're using 12 of the 13 and they're planning to use 14 in the model. >> Yeah. >> Oh, >> but if you went back to that class size one, the one that said 20 or 40, we would not do three sections. We would do two. >> And there was another one where we would only do two, not three, and it would come down to 12. >> Right. Right. Yeah. >> Right. >> But the the likely estimation is not perfect because we haven't gone through and and said exactly what those enrollments would be. It's an estimate. >> Sure. But again, you can't have a model that has a room doesn't exist. >> So, so there's so the the models that were

148that would be typically used would show overusage, right? So, again, these models are not the scenarios are not perfect, right? And so in this particular option A1, that's a problem, right? we we would theoretically have too many students in Ellir and and so that's one of the reasons why we you know we we were asked to put these models together look at these various options these are the results of those I I'm perfectly willing to believe the model isn't perfect but if you know let's say we suddenly decided okay we all love A1 and we we said great district go do A1 what your model is telling me is we're going to end up with Elmere having a class that has nowhere to And I don't see how the model handles this. >> So, so

149again, what we would have to do is look at exactly and break down. Okay, here here's our classrooms exactly how would we put students in classrooms? Again, we're we're rounding up where we need to round up based on the numbers and and the theoretical maximum class size, right? part part of our our math on the likely class size was to look at what's a maximum you know if if we if we want 18 in kindergarten what's the maximum number of kids we [clears throat] could students we would put in a kindergarten class 20 21 >> I get the difference between our ideal sections needed right >> which is and the likely sections but even going on that likely number right you're telling me we still even on the likely scenario right we still wouldn't have

150a space for this >> correct which is a problem with this particular scenario. Each there are no perfect scenarios. Each one has pros and cons to it. >> So if I may, so is this so is this reflecting go going back like there's there's no is this intended to highlight both the benefits and the challenges or imperfections with each scenario. This is not intended to be >> right >> a recommendation. This is, if I'm understanding [clears throat] correctly, this is intended to show the tradeoffs or the outcomes. Am I understanding that correctly? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. So, a tradeoff here is we, if I'm continuing with this, a trade-off here is we still have to figure out what to do with another section at Elmmeir. trade-off here is A1 is not a is not a

151perfect solution as written because we are still going to have to either have additional students in classrooms or we're going to have to still have students go somewhere else like that is that is a >> that is that is what this leaves us with. >> Right. Exactly. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> And I appreciate that and thank you for for pointing that out. Is there any trigger on this that in other words the fact that Euan was able to sort of sus that out in you know the drawbacks or the cons or of these I I guess I would I would like them for somebody who's not quite as uh astute that that we could have that you know glaring like here's the here's the big problem with this one. We've

152got this you know you'd have to figure out what to do with this. That's the con. In other words, and and I let me say I I appreciate that this is these are just these are proposals at this time, but going forward >> with regard to each one, I would really like to see here's the red here's the red flag for this one. In other words, so just just to make it a little bit more um evident that you know even somebody like me could figure it out. >> Yeah. So we we did not scorecard any of the A options. We wanted to get feedback, put out the information and get some direction on. >> Yeah. And I and I appreciate the for the other ones at least with the uh you know the green

153arrows and the red arrows. You know that that's nice. But in terms of the red arrow, you know, if if there's something like this that you said like you'd have to figure out for Ellir or whatever that you'd have to figure this out. This is this is the problem. You've got to then weigh that against whatever the the pros are because it might be that that's the best option. I don't know. But I I really just need will need to know that this is the con and this isn't just you know some kind of like broad equity thing. This is this is a you know this is this is an issue. So just going forward I you know if we could >> make that a little bit more evident maybe you can you know use

154highlighting or >> right yeah so we we purposely >> put out these three to get feedback. We didn't scorecard them. No fair enough. So like we we did more in-depth analysis on BNC. Right. >> Absolutely. just that's just a request going forward. Thank you very much. Following up on that, it would be helpful at least for me, right, to break it down a little further to say in this model, here are the classes and their sizes we would expect to be seeing at Elmate. Here are the classes and their sections we would be expecting to see at Hamilton and so on. Of those 20 rooms, which kids are going into with each of those rooms? >> Yeah. So that would be going a level deeper than you would typically go in a project like this.

155Yep. Because we we don't know the exact enrollments, right? We we would have to break down and to do all that to do all that work. >> But that's going back to the fact that we are modeling for incoming statistically incoming students, not actual incoming students. Statistically in like >> Right. >> I I get that. >> No, no. I'm not I'm not arguing with you. I'm trying to draw out the there are things here that are implicit in this conversation that I think would be better to be made explicit. So that's I'm not trying to argue with you. >> Listen, so that exactly that process gives you a system that says our model says there'll be I'm making these numbers up entirely. 170 students at Ellie of whom 36 will be in kindergarten, 25 will

156be in whatever, right? >> It's very easy to take that number and split it into okay, this is which classroom would actually be being used. We could we Yeah, I was going to say I mean basically I think what you're talking about is like once we have this is the option here's the actual numbers like Dave and I can certainly say this is how many sections we really would plan for right like we're not going to >> this is I think Ted referenced this is conservative so that we have capacity for the future we have capacity I I said this earlier we don't want everything >> Jeff no so I think we say with X number of kids there would be two classes of K, right? That's what you're talking about. Yes. >> And it

157would help you identify things like >> correct. >> You know, oh, as it turns out, we have two sections of second grade at Elmir, but there's only 12 kids in each section. >> Right. >> That that's a specific level of detail that we would be needing to consider before we move people around. >> Right. Yeah. >> Right. So, he's not asking for actual data. He's using the same data. And it sounds like Jody and and and Dave can do it like a big step, right? No. Right. >> Well, yeah, it involves making policy decisions on what is a maximum class size, right? What is too small a class size? >> Yeah, we don't have a policy on that. We just have guidines. >> We have guidelines in here, right? [laughter] >> Question. >> Y more

158afterwards. Um, back to something you said a little bit earlier regarding Slingerlands and the community's feeling about leaving Singerlands a little more empty. Um, I wanted to just go back to that and give my opinion on that because we're Slingerlands is as far as I can tell has six empty classrooms and Hamrell has seven. Is that correct? >> So those to me seem very similar. And all of the plans that we're talking about are putting a lot of kids in hammer and very few kids in Swingerlands and plan B no kids inland. Um so to me that doesn't seem equitable because even even if we're just not talking about um numbers adding a huge group of kids to a school is is going to affect all sorts of things. kids are going to be suddenly

159in a much bigger school than they were used to. Um, suddenly there's going to be just, you know, a lot more activity, a lot more noise, a lot more kids on the playground. And so those changes are real. Um, so I'm a little confused why we are adding so many pieces of hamograil and not dividing that amount so that there's an equal amount of change in both excuse me both hamrail and synerg um to kind of smooth out those big changes um considering fact and plus like what Jody was talking about having flexibility in each school seems like you have a lot less flexibility in hammer rail and still plenty of flexibility in Stherlands. So, I'm just trying to even those things out. There were a couple obviously there was a couple proposals you know

160I don't want to go into the exact numbers but it looked like in both plan B and plan C there were there was a unit number 51 that could move to Singerlands um instead of Hamrail and was still >> contiguous to Sigerlands. Actually, it wouldn't be because you've got area 86 in between the blue. >> It's you'd have to you'd have to move 51 and 86. >> And that goes to my another point that I have. >> I understand um the benefit of the contiguous areas. I think that's definitely one of the things that we have been saying is an important thing, but we seem to be treating it like that is the end all and be all like we can't that's not at all flexible and we I would like to see if there

161is a model I I understand it's like best practices to have it contiguous but if there is a model that affects fewer kids and does have you know a neighborhood where they do have to drive through other neighbors I understand again that's not the best case scenario, but if it affects fewer kids, I'd rather see, you know, I see at least a model of what that looks like. Um because, you know, there are some kids who are no matter what, they're driving a a longer area of time. It doesn't really matter if they're going this way or this way. Um I know we've done that in the past. I I know like there was a time where Colonial Lakers at one point was on its own and went to a different school than the rest

162of they went to Hamra. So it's not like it's never been done before. So I would appreciate if we could have some feedback um or a model that imagines fewer kids being impacted but it involves a neighborhood that is not contiguous. Um, can I make one comment? So, your your comment for models B and C is absolutely right. Right. Model A, it's 33 going to Slinglands and 45 going to Hammerway on that. So, it's not actually that that huge a difference. Just want to point out that one of the models at least does kind of treat the two schools almost equally. >> Um, I'm sorry, what what did you say? >> Model A, right? If you look at model A1 numbers, you've got 33 going into Slinglands and a net of 45 going into Hammerrail.

163>> So it's not massively inequitable essentially. >> Understood. Although there are kids leaving hammer >> scenarios which again I'm trying to >> avoid that >> avoid you know just trying to affect as few kids as possible. >> Y >> um couple other questions. Um, plan A takes more kids from Eagle and Plan C takes more kids from Glenmont. Um, which of those is most overcrowded? Which of those is our priority that we really need to get those numbers down? Eagle is more overcrowded than Glenma, but Glenma is Glenma is at capacity as well. Um, I think in the committee meeting, one of the things that did come up, um, and Ted, I don't know if you heard this from Lenmont, was is there enough kids moving out of Glenmont to make sure that that's long?

164So, that was something that the committee raised. Is is that enough students to move out to meet the numbers? Right. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Ideally, like you have a sense of about how many kids need to move from Glenmont and Eagle. So, They're not overcrowded anymore. I'm just thinking because that kind of informs when we're looking at the numbers of kids. >> So say if you have 40 from Glenmont, 40 from Eagle, that means at a minimum we're leaving 80 kids. So that's just a question of how many >> Yeah, it because the class sizes vary. That's a you know the average if you just take a straight average of the uh the class sizes, I think you're like 196 or 193. Um so you could and what we did on the one slide

165on the demographics is we said you know what's what is that target enrollment based on the average class size and the number of available rooms. U so so that that's you know one way of of looking at it if if there are again if there are other factors in there. Yeah. I mean, one of the things I think I had mentioned this at our last meeting is that Hemigrrell and Glenmont essentially at one point were roughly the same size student population. They have the same number of classrooms pretty much. Eagle or yes, Eagle and Slingerlands. Slingerlands has is a little bit bigger, but also had very similar student populations. In fact, Slingerlands was higher. So I don't I can't cite a number right now, but I would say having those buildings Glenott and Hammerrell be

166more similar in size student population. Eagle and Slenderlands more similar in size student population. Also then you get a more equitable use of the facilities, the programs when we talk about the, you know, the lunchrooms, the recess, all of that. So whatever those numbers end up being, I think >> the closer those are, Elmere has always been lower because it's just naturally the size of the building. >> But historically those Slingerlands and Eagle have been similar and Glenn and Hammer have been. So I would say that would be maybe kind of a target to be more closely aligned like >> which gives you a minimum [snorts] of about 100 kids give or take, >> right? Go ahead. So, um, so I would just like to formally request like a plan A4 that as Holly was

167re mentioned, um, that models either, you know, moving 14 to Ellir, um, I think or or 15 to Elmir, whichever makes more sense, just so that we can see. I understand, um, that those two neighborhoods seem to go together. Um, but if we're talking about affecting fewer kids, I'd like to see that model. >> Um, >> yeah. Can I I want you said move 14 to Elmir. >> Yeah. From Glenmont directly to Elmir. >> We're talking about Okay. A2 involves moving 14 to 15 to Hamigrail and then Hamigrail kids over to Ellir. So I am asking for a model that shows say for example either 14 or 15 because I said you said you can't do both. So it looks like >> we we can we can do either. I was reflecting the direction of

168the committee, right? We we can we can model whatever we're asked to model, right? >> We're only asking for that model. >> Y >> um just so that we can look at what it looks like to affect your kids. >> Um this question is for Jody. Um we're talking all about moving um students. We haven't talked at all about what this means about moving teachers. So could you speak a little bit about that? Um you know how we envision that happening? What's the process for that and and and just um what that would look like? >> Sure. I mean we do have teachers who move to other buildings now either by request or based on need. um when we've had shifts in our enrollment, we've had teachers who've had to move to different buildings because

169of additional sections or less sections. Um so we would look at obviously what is the student population, where are the classrooms located. So if there's instead of two sections in one building, there's three sections. Obviously there's a need for a teacher in that building. So is there someone who wants to go to that building? Um, sometimes it's based on grade level preference. Obviously, uh, if you're a primary teacher and your building no longer has that many primary sections and you want to continue teaching primary, you can say, "Yeah, I'll go to X building." Uh, and sometimes it just comes down to uh, making moves based on those needs. So, it's a combination of uh do people have requests to move based on either the grade level they want to teach or the building they want

170to be in or does it um is it you know we have to make decisions. We also you know you have retirements and when you're hiring you look to hire people for those vacant positions as well. So, you've got a combination of tools to look at. But yeah, there would absolutely be shifts. >> Yeah. And I just I want to make sure the the public um isn't surprised by that. >> Great. >> Um and then just in general, I think John touched on this earlier. Um I think it is important to ensure that um our schools have um a diversity in all of the schools regarding like free and reduced lunch families um ENL um special ed all sorts of different you know different communities here. So you know rural versus um densely populated areas.

171So, how are we tracking those figures and making sure that we're not making a change that um you know completely isolates one group? >> I I don't have access to that to that kind of data. >> I can address I mean the special ed population we have different programs in different schools, right? >> Uh we would continue to do that. ENL population currently is in Slingerlands, Eagle, and Glenmont. Um whether or not that would continue or that would change depending on what how students shift, that might be something we would consider. Um the reason they're in those three buildings is because that's where the most ENL students reside. So we do have some students who their home school is Hammerrell or Ellir who go to one of those three schools for ENL services. uh if

172there again I go back to if there's a better equitable distribution of students in general there might be ENL students at every building or um you know so that's something that we would look at moving forward but it's not something we're looking to make shifts currently as part of this process [clears throat] question >> yeah um thank you I mean one of the so I I just really want to underline uh something that Bob was saying earlier this I don't see any way forward here where there aren't tradeoffs right where there like that is part of this conversation that's why we are having this conversation in this way and so just really really really making super clear what are the trade-offs that we're considering so again whether it's highlighting or pointing those out um because

173I I fear I think it's too easy for for someone to say well there's a flaw on the model. It's like well or that's a trade-off that we have to consider actually. So just underlining that. Um the second thing I wanted to point out here is there is no there's been no consideration of flex zones which is not something I was familiar with two months ago to be perfectly honest with you. um and then have become a bit more educated on this and understand that there are um some districts around us where these are identified zones when folks move in. As I understand it, when folks move into a zone, um it is clear on on the maps that you could be placed in this or that school. It's not one of five, it's this

174or that school. And that those decisions um are made on a family by family basis. It seems as though some districts then commit like, okay, if your family starts in this school, we'll do that for all of your students moving through and then uses that as a way to balance um the the the eb and flow of of student population mix. We don't see an option presented here and I was wondering why and if that is something that we that is worth exploring. I mean, I can address I had conversations at city council meetings about flex zones actually last year when we first started this conversation. Uh and then again this fall specifically with Saratoga and Nicka have um flex zones. Uh both of those that I could just generally highlight started because of housing

175developments that had skewed their enrollment. Um and Niskuna currently just issued an RFP to do an enrollment study uh and look at reconsidering flex zones uh in part because of transportation. So both Saratoga and Msuna uh have the challenges with flex zones is that it's a burden on transportation because you potentially can have two or three buses going into one neighborhood all going to different elementary schools. Um, generally from what I've gleaned from speaking with my colleagues is that for example, one that's not really an option for us right now because we need to clearly make some shifts. If there was a large housing development, let's say that were to go in in an area and we weren't looking at doing a resoning or something, it might be a time where the board would want

176to establish that as a flex zone on a more temporary basis um to then balance out, let's say, this housing development with two elementary schools so that you're then saying you will either go here. A couple of the things that they pointed out is that the the districts that have the flex zone, so they don't notify families which elementary school they're going to till the end of July. >> Okay, >> which seems very late to me, but that's the only way they can really balance it out. Um Saratoga is also a city school district, so they do it with their city schools and they have a half mile walk radius. Um so that obviously limits how many kids they're actually transporting. uh and as I said is re-evaluating it. I know that in speaking with

177uh Saratoga they had a transportation study done last year and one of the recommendations was to not continue flex zones because it was a large burden on their transportation department. they opted to continue it and if they don't have enough um bus drivers they cancel that route for transportation that day and parents are responsible for getting their kids to school. Um again same thing in Niskuna. So I think that flex zones could be an option if you're looking at large housing developments or multiple housing developments which both NSUN and Saratoga when they implemented this put those in place as a result of that. we don't have large housing developments. Uh, and that's not the issue we're dealing with. But I do think that flex zones could be something to consider if that were the case.

178>> Just to follow up on that. So, and let me just repeat back just to make sure I'm hearing you right. What I'm hearing is in part that's not going to solve the current situation we have where we have too many students in some and a flex zone is not going to address that situation. So one way or the other, [clears throat] if I'm hearing you correctly, we need to make decisions that will >> that will address that. Right. >> And then just to press a little bit further, would it provide more both certainty for both the district um and the community to both address the current situation we have and build those and build in designated flex zones in each catchment basement for the latter of a better word for each for each school

179for future years out, right? So that so that we can say upfront like this is something that we're working to do proactively. Like is there a way to build that in for for future decisions? >> That would be more of a question for Ted or maybe Tim. I don't I don't know if there's districts who have done resoning and done flex zones at the same time. I'm not sure how that would work. >> Yeah, that would be [clears throat] we could ask Tim when he's here tomorrow. >> Yeah. I mean, and to be clear, I'm I'm completely respecting what you're saying about we have an issue that needs to be addressed, and I'm wondering where can we build in opportunity in the future so that in the hope in the hopes of not winding up

180with such an imbalance in the future, but rather designated areas where it's like this is the most convenient place to be inconvenienced on transportation >> and so therefore anybody. So, I don't know something. Sure. [clears throat] >> Thank you for Thank you for hearing me out on that. Um, you know, maybe you don't want to go into this, but obviously there's a lot of folks in the community who have asked about grandfathering. I know that you it sounds like you haven't modeled anything >> correct >> with the grandfathering. Um, you know, I think that, >> you know, at least I see numbers here with regard to to one to the one grade. Um, first of all, I'm looking here at at at slide 31, I think. Yep. >> Um what what are the total number

181for example for um for option A1 just to take a 29 is is the number. >> Yeah it ranges between 29 and 30. >> So that's what the 29 >> right [snorts] >> students in the fifth grade who would be impacted who would not be impacted. What is that number >> that would remain? So, so the your your 29 what what you attempted to do there is for each option identify the number of fifth graders [laughter] that would remain in their current building >> out of how many? >> I don't know that number off top. Yeah, >> I'll just say this. It makes perfect sense to me why grandfathering seems like a really really good thing for folks who are in the system, especially you, your fifth grader, you just want them to finish out

182at the school. You know, fourth graders, you know, I suppose you know, maybe I guess technically although I'm sure that the emotions, you know, maybe gets less with each, but I would like to see the impact if if it's, you know, if it's possible, at least for the one grade of grandfathering, like does does that third 20 29 kids does that does that blow up option A1? Does it does it completely undercut what they're trying to accomplish? I mean that number to me doesn't have any significance because I don't know how that affects the the overall balance the puzzle that we're trying to create here. And so I guess I would I would ask that we at least model the the one year to see, you know, how it impacts um the the the the

183scenarios because I I don't I mean I guess I don't know if if it's if it's not that big of an impact, of course, that's that's something. If it's if it just blows up every scenario, then you know, of course, that's you know, falls into the into the con category that we have to consider. But without that information, I don't know that, you know, we can do it. Um, you know, obviously I know that, you know, if everybody's grandfathered in, at least for one year it stays the same. And of course, every year after that, it'll it'll be impacted. And I know that this is sort of more of a I don't think we can I'm not sure we can do that, but at least for the fifth graders, I would like to see the

184impact of of grandfathering on on the scenarios. If you could model that >> and why could I Oh, yes. Second that. And then I've got a follow-up question. >> So, this is part of the reason I checked my understanding earlier. The current fifth grader is grandfather. We're not moving anybody. >> Right. Right. It would be next year's fifth grade. >> I think when you say fifth grade, he means the current fourth graders. >> So that was the next thing to check. Right. Your your numbers on slide 31. Is that the current fifth grade or would that be next year's fifth grade? >> That's a great I have to look at that. I don't recall off the top of my head. What we were trying to do there was given an approximation of the number of

185students that would remain. Uh so so again we're yeah there the current fifth grade is bigger if if um I'll have to look and see exactly what what those numbers are. I don't recall off the top of my head. >> So I definitely echo >> we're talking about the current fourth graders. >> Correct. Right. That you want to see a model with >> Yeah. Again I'm not I have no I have no um I have no impression about whether this it'll it'll just completely undermine the whole project or not. But you know I I I don't know again these numbers. that doesn't mean anything to me 29 or whatever it is because I don't know how how many it is and I don't know how it impacts the puzzle. >> You need the end result.

186>> Correct. >> So yeah, it I definitely echo the call start with grandfather and maybe current fourth and the current third and fourth, right? >> It it I will admit it annoyed me the same with the grandfather and everyone needs no changes is not true, right? Because we're not going to affect the current fifth graders. There's going to be an incoming kindergarten class. You could in some bizarre world have the current kindergarten class all ship over to Elmir and that would fill Elmir and Right. No one's going to do that. But it's just not true that grandfathering everyone would mean no changes. It'll be changes even in the next year as the current kindergarten class. >> Yeah. The the the largest impact will be the transportation impact. >> Sure. >> And and that will modeling

187each one of those will will take some effort >> and and thank you for that. I mean understanding that. Thank you for that cuz again in the in the spirit of understanding trade-offs, >> right? >> That's that's that's the spirit in which I'm asking this. And then the other thing too is I'm I'm terribly sorry. I just don't I just don't understand these tables. I it has to be that we have more than two fifth graders at Hamigrail. >> It's the number of students in the current who would be these are the folks who would be affected by changes who would have who would normally move under option A1. who would not move if the grandfathering for that grade were put in place. Why would they nor why would 22 students at Eagle normally move

188>> under the under that scenario? >> I'm terribly Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm doing my best, folks. >> More coffee is good. >> I need I definitely need it. >> Thank you. Sorry. Well, that's why I was like, this is not correct. So, thank you for [clears throat] helping. >> But what we need, right, is it's not this. It's what would the result be on the actual sections that would result from grandfathering one grade, two great, >> right? Right. And that Yeah, >> that was [snorts] my last question. [laughter] >> What? >> I'm okay. Thank you. >> What about you? >> Yeah. Sorry, I thought you were asking on that topic. Um the uh and then I know that for in large part the um the self-contained classes students with IEPs have been you know

189kind of removed from these from this from the proposed shifts. Are there any do so so this is a two-part question. The first part is even understanding that are there any of these proposals or scenarios that would benefit our special ed students in some way more than another scenario that we're being presented with? >> No. >> Okay. And then um my second this might be my second kind of question is we're having a community conversation about the impacts of disruption when we shift students and our special ed program routinely does that by virtue of programming the way that we we set that up. Is there space in this conversation? Is there is there space in this discussion around resoning to incorporate some of those concerns or is there another time and place where that can

190be discussed? That I think is a separate conversation and is actually already happening through the special ed cabinet in the continuum of services. In fact, Doug is coming, I think, to the board at one of the January meetings to provide an update on the special ed cabinet progress and programming and continuing of services because any changes to special ed programming would be done through that venue, which would mean if there's changes in where those potentially are located or there's new programs that would be offered, that would be done through that process, but not through reszoning. It's really not an appropriate place for you're talking about special ed program. This is not about that. So it wouldn't be appropriate to do through this process. >> And then did you just say that that is something that

191is a conversation that's happening at the cabinet level right now? >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Other questions on this finished presentation? >> Sure. Yeah. We have one more slide and that is just to review the uh agenda for tomorrow. So uh Jody will open the uh the meeting with an introduction and I believe there's a sort of an FAQ response to summar summarizing the questions that have been received so far. Um myself and some of the other team will go through a lot of the same material that we went through here tonight. We'll we will go into some more detail on some of the earlier parts of the project assuming that members of the audience haven't been at all the board meetings. Um at that point once we've we've done that we will

192introduce the idea of the breakout rooms. And so I believe that there will be one room for each elementary school and there will be a map that they can look at and and look at the options uh and how their particular house would be impacted and and they can see that. I think we're going to allow about 40 45 minutes for the the public to review their maps in their areas. There will be representatives from the zoning uh adjustment committee and the consulting team uh in those rooms to try to answer questions and then the idea is to come back after that 45m minute period and do a Q&A or do questions from the public in the same format as we do here. >> And this and meeting starts at 6:30 >> I believe that's

193correct. Yeah. >> And it is at the >> middle school. At the middle school, right? >> Um and is starting in the LMC. Correct. >> No, we're we moved it to the auditorium because we had a number of responses. >> So, we thought that would be a better venue. >> All right. So, in the auditorium at the middle school um and um and again, just a reminder for anyone who is still listening um RSVP and having the ability to submit questions ahead of time. I'm just reing that >> RSVP is required or encouraged. No, we just asked for it and we asked people if they had questions they wanted to submit in advance so we could try to proactively address them, we would. Thank you. >> So, >> and I and I believe I don't

194uh I think this is correct, Eron, there will be kiosks in each room in each breakout room where the public can submit questions at that time and then then we can that'll be a convenient way to gather all that information. Can before we just one quick thing. I know Meredin you asked for um Tyler in the committee to look at the other shifts for the neighborhood planning units. >> Is there is that the only specific request from the board or is there any concerns I guess maybe with any of these options that you feel like really you want the committee to go back and review more closely? I I think I had two requests. One um making like a plan A4 that involved either 14 or 15 or both. >> Y >> um and then

195another one to think outside the box regarding the continuous areas to see if there are any other neighborhoods that could be moved um that aren't necessarily contiguous but may involve fewer kids. >> Yeah. So those are my two specific >> we have request for some grandfather model >> right that I have >> um and then for reconsideration of planned flex zones for future us. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. >> And then to break down a whole granular. >> Got it. And really highlight the trade-off pieces. >> Thank you. >> Other questions for >> you. You're planning to hang out for the public comment. I I will listen. Yep. Yep. Yep. I will listen. >> Oh, and then I I I did have one more request regarding moving kids to use. >> I have that.

196>> Okay, great. >> Is there a specific action there? >> Well, um just >> I was talking about like balancing I was talking about number neighborhood 51, moving that to Slenderlands as opposed to Hammer in um plan >> A1 >> B I think. um specifically because then we wouldn't have to move kids from to >> but looking to have swagland more utilized essentially. >> Yeah. Essentially various that's what I specifically think about but there are various right reasons why >> I wrote more. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Thank you so much. Thank you very much. We'll see you tomorrow. >> Um, at this point, um, we will have public comment on an agenda item. Um, if we have, um, I know we have people who have signed up. Um, uh, what I'm going to do

197is I'm going to, um, go through the list first of people that have signed up to comment. Um and then at the end if there's anybody who um is remaining who would like comment on an agenda item um now would be the time. Uh just a reminder um that the board uses the public comment period as an opportunity to listen to concerns but does not debate issues or enter into a question and answer session. Um and um speakers have three minutes um to address the board. And I think Britney has volunteered to be a time. [laughter] >> Um I don't know if you can are you maybe a little >> more more >> somewhere where somebody can see you better >> or they could just >> Yellow is 30 seconds. Holly, I'm I'm a little

198offended after my stellar performance last year. I thought I thought I would be a a a contender, a strong contender. >> Volunteered and this way >> and came prepared with yellow and red folders. >> Yeah, I did not have the folders. >> Um the first person I and I'll just try not to butcher your name. Um and I was going to go down my list. I know some people have left. Um Evan Clawberg. Um, he left. Um, >> and then after Megan, I have a Gabriel >> Garcia, right? >> Possibly Garcia. >> I should have been doctor. [laughter] >> Um, hello board members and Tyler Tech. My name is Megan Clber. I come to you tonight after reviewing these proposals, not only as a parent, but as a concerned member of this community. I believe

199each of you chose these roles because you care about our children and about maintaining trust, equity, diligence, and transparency. At the center of this discussion is one essential question. Are we acting in the best emotional, developmental, and long-term interests of our children? And right now, I believe it's questionable. I understand this process began with concerns about class sizes and resource distribution, but I'm concerned about the data and the TBD placeholders being presented as a solution when overall enrollment has been in steady decline and when long range projections show steady enrollment and when the community is overwhelmingly uncomfortable with these proposals, how can these boundary boundary changes be the only answer? If the board intends to vote on this in the next six weeks, proposals must include full data, not partial models. Anything less is not

200best practice and will lead to community distrust. Research is clear. Non-promotional school changes are not neutral. Studies consistently link school mobility to emotional and behavioral difficulties, academic decline, and elevated dropout risk. These effects are strongest for young children and those with special needs. This is not abstract for me. My son, an only child, 504 second grader, is in zone 79 and we be moved under A2. Just today he received a glowing conference review with statements like he just hit his stride. You don't know how long we've waited to hear that he's always struggled in school even through preschool until Hamigrail. In the A2 scenario proposed he would likely arrive at Elmsir knowing no one. No neighborhood peers, no familiar faces, no built-in friends. His peer group at Hamigrail functions like siblings. This plan removes that

201for reasons that are not soundly p provided for me. Many Hammigrail families affected by plans A and B would face the same isolation. This is not equity. This is not minimizing disruption. It is creating an uneven social burden on the smallest, most vulnerable cohort. These models are tools, not marching orders. Consultants can generate maps, but they are not experts in our community values, child development, or the emotional cost of losing one's entire peer network. Their scenarios must be starting points, not predetermined outcomes where efficiency overrides humanity. There's also clear legal guidance. Boards may resone when plans are grounded in a rational educational basis. Commissioner decisions um example Corinstein Bucknerard all in for all affirm this. Reszoning must be supported by real enrollment pressures uh facility limitations, longrange stability and demonstrated educational benefit. Plan A as

202it remains misses the standard. The district's own ZOA shows that Hamigrail has the most unused space. Yet plan A and B treat Hamigril as both the sending and receiving school. This seems inconsistent, illogical, and violates the district's stated goal of minimizing disruption. And also, just to mention, just because I know I have to wrap it up, the capital project vote could potentially also displace students. So, that's a concern. Um, you know, so I'm just asking the board to respectfully go back to the drawing board, not because resoning is wrong, but because, you know, we need complete data. We need to make sure our kids are taken care of, especially those small cohorts. a lot of them might not move with other kids from their grades and and that's emotionally impactful. Thank you. >> Good evening.

203Thank you. All right. So, um I'm not going to be as eloquent as uh as Megan was. I'm I'm not as uh prepared as she is. Um, but I just wanted to say that there's been one constant that's been repeated through this meeting and that is that the zones that the options here that have been presented are not final and as this meeting has made it abundantly clear, they're not even close to complete. I think uh Ted, I'm sorry if I got your name incorrect. Ted stated that on slide 11 that that was the model for all the options which was so publicly pointed out to be incorrect. These are foundational options. They're not going to be affected much throughout this information session tomorrow. Forgive me if I sound cynical, [clears throat] but um it

204doesn't seem like community involvement has moved the needle much. Seems like any community involvement has pushed an entrenched position. At the meeting at 11:5, the last meeting, um, board member Morardi had asked that there be some transportation data provided. There's not any transportation data back, transportation data provided. At this point, these are supposed to be presented to the board in a final option by December. That's a few short weeks away, maybe by January. In any case, there are several several times where there's not going to be working capabilities. There's holidays that are going on. [sighs] Three of the options that have been prevented presented tonight have not been viable. Options B and C ignore a complete school. Just completely ignore it. And option A one overloads one of the schools. Ted had stated that these

205models are not perfect. We don't need them to be perfect. We need them to be correct. We still have a long way to go. I ask the board to please reconsider and listen to your constituents. I thank you. >> Thank you. So, I want to thank um thank you for the opportunity to address the board of education and for all of the hard work that they've done for the resoning process so far. Um, I come to you tonight as a parent of a Hammergirl fourth grader, second grader, and soon to be kindergartener in an area of town where between 16 and 22 other students may be reszoned to Elmere next year. After reviewing the different proposals uh for reszoning Hammerril in particular, one thing stood out uh before the meeting that one single proposal there

206was one single proposal that did not move any currently enrolled Hammerill students out of their familiar community. Um, I greatly appreciate what Meredith Morardi suggested, you know, looking at an alternative model that could also minimize movement. Um, I think that'd be extremely helpful. Um, as others have pointed out over the preceding months, disruption even for resilient kids can have real negative effects. Also, you know, because all of obviously by nature all of the reasonzoning proposals are necessarily built on numerous assumptions and estimates and thus by definition will lead to outcomes that are somewhat beyond our control. It it's difficult to precisely predict the outcome of each. For this reason, I urge you to strongly consider and focus on what we can control. Let's minimize disruption to a currently underenrolled school. It has shown that Hammergirl

207can both accommodate its curtain students as well as in uh welcome incoming students from Glen Moner Eagle so that class size throughout the district uh can be acceptable. Uh please let's focus on what we can control minimizing disruption to an underenrolled school and the students that it teaches. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I had Donovan who went home. Um, uh, Leah. Good evening. My name is Leam Montalter Rook. You saw me at the last board meeting and I uh am coming back to speak to you again um to just bring to your attention a fundamental inequity in the resoning conversation that really hasn't been discussed this evening or to date. Um, while there may be educational benefits for students moved from currently overcrowded schools into less crowded environments, there would be no benefit whatsoever to

208current students displaced from underenrolled schools like Hammerrell, only harm and loss. By moving children out of underenrolled schools, Tyler Tech is proposing to disrupt children's established relationships, sever their connections to known educators, and uproot them from thriving school communities. Not because the underenrolled schools are inadequate, but to needlessly vacate seats and buildings that are already functioning well and already have room for the extra students from over enrolled schools, especially as Tyler Tech's presentation indicates, no elementary enrollment in increase through 2031. In fact, the district is projected to have 31 fewer elementary students. What this says to me is that children at underenrolled schools, specifically Hammergirl, would be sacrificed simply to achieve a spreadsheet's vision of optimal capacity utilization. Our district proclaims the goal of enhancing social emotional wellness for students. And I believe that several

209of our board members here this evening ran on a platform advocating for mental wellness as the foundation for student development. Yet this proposed movement of students from underenrolled schools as part of an elementary school resoning directly contradicts that commitment by forcing unnecessary transitions proving harmful to child development. I ask, has Tyler Tech provided the district with data on the post-pandemic social emotional needs of young people? And is that data being used to inform our strategies tonight and in their pending proposals? Minimizing this disruption from the students or for the students moving from the underenrolled the overenrolled schools while keeping current students at the underenrolled schools would maximize the benefits of reasonzoning for all students. It would ensure that those disruptive have have an educational benefit to compensate for their transition and it would provide many

210students stability that they need. I urge the vote to I I urge the board to vote yes on a resoning plan that addresses the overcrowding at Glenmont and Eagle elementary schools while minimizing the disruption for those students and two that allows current students at all underenrolled schools to remain where they are through fifth grade. Thank you. Uh Lulua. Um Abani Sud here. Ted >> Mr. Barbie. >> Yep. Sorry. Thanks for filling that in. >> Um, good evening board. My name is Ted Devarieri. It's my first time attending a meeting of the board and I just want to say thank you for the robustness of your conversation. Um, I'm I'm totally impressed by your uh by everyone being here and bringing your your expertise, your attention, and your focus. So, thank you. Um I think one

211thing that hasn't been discussed with respect to the plan that's been or the proposal so far is with respect to the zoning um so we're going through a zoning process with respect to land use regulation in this town. So just curious, you know, has um h have any of the proposals yet considered the zoning map changes that the town is taking account of right now and specifically have you considered how those zoning map changes may may alter um NPUs going forward. So just curious about that. I'm wondering if you know I know tomorrow night we're having a more broad process. So to the extent that it's possible to get some information tomorrow night, that'd be great or at least going forward to the board uh here. Um and just you know general general comment um

212just again really appreciate the the level of conversation. What I have one thing I haven't heard so far, we've talked about grandparenting or grandmothering, but we haven't talked about polling and flexibility with respect to current students. I mean, I know that's that's some of the public comments here and you know, um, appreciate the the the requests from the board there. You know, you say you can model anything. Why not pull families who would rather stay or leave? Um, and factor that in. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Brian, >> thank you, Holly. Uh, Brian Sweeney, parent of second grader at Hamigrail. Cesaly Brook Sweeney as well as a middle schooler and a high schooler in the district. Um I'm just going to offer a very a bridged uh version of this in the interest of

213time. Um but I just want to um reiterate something that I sent in writing to the board just to read it into the record. Um, so when I spoke previously to the board on October 22nd, I raised questions about the district's intention to reszone and I submitted those questions by email and I came to the November 5th board meeting eager to hear uh how those questions would be addressed since the way communication works here is that we don't have our questions answered um directly, right? We present our questions to you and we we hope to hear them answered at another time. Uh in my remarks I had expressed support for balancing enrollments and if the data truly justified resoning now um pleaded that students in underenrolled schools be allowed to remain through fifth grade. Uh

214in the November 5th presentation by the superintendent that position was not discussed uh or even acknowledged. Um, instead the presentation framed the debate as between those favoring immediate districtwide resoning or adversaries demanding no action at all. And uh, those individuals were characterized as self-interested obstructionists, fearful of change in remarks during that meeting. This framing ignores the many parents, including me and those you've heard from tonight, whose positions do not fall in either of those camps. So, I just want to be on the record repeating that I don't oppose moving students from overenrolled to underenrolled schools to balance enrollment. I'm an educator. In my years as a professor at St. Rose, I taught many education students. My students are teaching in classrooms throughout this district today. I understand that overcrowded classrooms hurt their working conditions. I

215also understand that they hurt the education of children in Bethlehem. Uh what I do speak out against is needlessly displacing students from underenrolled schools that already have room for more students. My fear that that message is not being heard I feel was sadly confirmed when I looked at the proposals in Tyler Tech and saw that of the five proposals for move students out of Hamigrail 4. and Vice President Mori Arti, I I am grateful to you for raising the issue of the burden that's being borne by Hamigrail in particular uh in this process. Um, so I I just uh ask in the interest of wrapping up quickly, I just plead with the board of education on behalf of children in the hammock communities uh who have been identified, their neighborhoods identified for movement um to

216vote yes only on a plan that allows students in these underenrolled schools to finish out their time in those schools through fifth grade. I thank you. >> Thank you. Um that's the end of the list that I have. Do we have any um any additional um visitors who would like to address the board on an agenda item? >> Both of you guys could [laughter] >> we need you by the microphone and if you could just um state your name please. I'll just hold it. Hi, my name is Carla Briden and um I'm a mental health therapist. My husband is a teacher in Wler. Um I have two daughters and one is in the fourth grade at Hamigril and one is in the sixth grade at the middle school. So, we just moved here um a

217year and a half ago and um my younger one was able to go through Hamigrail and be at the middle school and um my other daughter in fourth grade, she'll be in fifth grade next year. So, I just felt it was really important to share with you all, you know, my heart and my thoughts about this um and how it's affecting me. I think the plan, we live on Ellis Mirat. I think one of the plans showed that my daughter would be one of two people moving to Ellir. Let me just give you a picture. She started kindergarten during CO kindergarten and first grade essentially no school. We were in the Alb city school districts. [snorts] Um so when we moved here it was just really important. I grew up in this area too. I

218went to Hammerrell. Um I felt so blessed to come back and find the house we had and be in the school um that I went to. And anyways, my point is that right um she has services, she receives OT, she receives speech, um she has a big transition next year after us just moving here and for her to go to another school for one year when she has to make another transition again the next year. I'm like shaking. [sighs] It would really and I know everybody has their stories and you have to think holistically and I totally understand that. I really do. Um I have gratitude for this district. Um but this was important for me to say and important I think for people to hear. Um how disruptive that would be to her. She'll,

219you know, she has a transition coming in sixth grade. We will do that. Just let her stay at her home school for her last year. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Got me a little shaky voiced. >> Yeah. Sorry. [laughter] >> It's all right. I'm not as as eloquent as everybody else, but definitely wanted to just have the chance to speak. Thank everybody for your time and questions today. It's really important to hear the thought um and and the advocacy for having a least disruptive plan. So, we really appreciate that because we definitely didn't see that in the models that came out. And just something that stood out to me tonight is looking at the models when A3 came up and there was a lot of talk about 14 and 15 staying together and I

220love that those are Glenmont kids that they planned ahead. They've known for a while that movement is needed and they worked together and they said these 46 kids in 14 and 15 should be moved together. This is their community. It will lessen the impact of them adjusting to a new environment and they should fight like hell for that. That's great. 14 and 15 moves together. I'm in A1. I'm 33. I'm 22 kids. There's a few second graders that move with my twins that have finally stabilized this year. and I didn't get to choose my 79 and 37 and 88 the people that I would want with my kids if we had been planning if we had thought that there was any way that Hamigrail was going to be displaced but we didn't in this process

221because we're underenrolled so of course you would think and I know there's lots with transportation and other aspects that you would consider but we did not plan we were not planning back in spring this wasn't even on our radar until late September, October. So to look at, you know, I know the people in 88 and they're the one little group from A3 that gets moved to Ellir while 14 and 15 moves together and it's an advocacy for 14 and 15 because they did that pre-planning and there goes 88 where there's a second grader that knows like two kids that would be going to Elmere. So the impact when we talk about how we look at, you know, the sections that there's two sections per grade because that's best for kids social emotional health and all

222of the pieces that go into that. um looking at this model now and seeing these like hammer communities that move while seeing the other communities that are staying together. You know, it's interesting and I advocate for that, but it's 14 and 15 is going together because they planned that. We're reacting now because we haven't had the opportunity to have this input and and this level of planning. So, um thank you. I appreciate that there's going to be a forum tomorrow. I'm concerned about how that's going to go and I know we'll all kind of work together to not cannibalize and to advocate for no disruptions, no kids being moved out of um underenrolled schools. And please, thank you for your responses to emails. Please read them. Please offer um some genuine responses and additional questions

223from that feedback. We really appreciate everything um that you guys are doing that I've heard tonight. Thank you. >> Could you just let us know your name? >> I'm sorry. Amanda Harper. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Anyone else who wanted to speak? >> Hello everybody. Uh my name is Kevin Powell. I'm a 99 graduate of here, Hammer Grail graduate, West Point graduate, uh veteran. Um I represent uh our special ed. Uh I'm on the I'm a founding member of the SEPTA um PTA. Uh we don't on the meeting tomorrow. We there's no room there's no we would like to request maybe a room for um for special ed. I'm in both Singerlands and the Hammer Girl District, so I don't really have a room to go to, but we also have unique concerns. I

224know that you've addressed that some of this isn't affecting us, but some of it kind of does affect us because we had to form SEPTA because our concerns were never met by the school district before, right? That's why we had to form a SEPTA group to get formal um recognition. And we still do have concerns that are still being that are still I think being missed by this. and uh you know in in thoughts of equity and thoughts of about um transition and whatnot, we still have issues and uh it would just be nice to have a forum for us too to be able to you know we represent about 15% of the population here. It'd be nice to have a room that we can have those, you know, um spelled out to if that's

225possible. If it's not possible, I understand. We will go back into the dark where we live, but if not, that would be nice. Um, I thank you guys for your attention. It was really thoughtful tonight. We really do appreciate you guys help. I can see that you guys are reading emails and bringing up stuff and it really does matter to us. Um, so we really really thank you for doing that and being so present um, and being so attentive to it. Okay, thank you very much guys. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else who wants to speak this morning? Sorry, I know it's late and I was not planning on speaking, but now I would like to. Um, [clears throat] so first, where should I start? There's only three things, but um I guess my main

226question is why now? Like why do we feel this huge rush to force this right now? It sounds like the numbers are not that bad. When we taught, we've talked to a number of parents at Glenmont and Eagle and their feedback across the board has been our classes don't seem that like don't seem large enough to be an issue at all. We are totally happy and fine with our class sizes. So, um, and I know that precoid that's what they were. I mean, in our time it was 30 kids. Um, but I just I I don't know that we are at a dire need to change it right now. And with the amount of holes and flaws and in in the math and in the numbers, I mean, even when I pull up the slide,

227I don't know because they don't seem to be numbered on here, but I think it was the it said that um likely 26, 2026, 2027, they would be using 14 of the 13 classes at Ellir, for example. Um, I there's just so many holes and there's so many concerns and the the proposals presented don't seem to incorporate a lot of the different um pieces that we have have pointed out. Thank you so much for your diligence due diligence tonight. I feel like it was just so much more productive of a of a meeting that we've than we've seen so far. So, that was really great to see. Um, and but but I feel like it was very much communicated that there's a lot of holes and we're going into the community forum tomorrow with a

228lot of um she said cannibalism. I feel like that was a good word. Um that might take place. Um so I I I feel like we um don't need to rush this right now. I feel like we are exposing a lot of potential future issues with enrollment and um it's great that we opened the discussion. We have a lot more research to do I would say with regards to what other districts are doing, how they did it, the um the flex zones, which I'll go into in a second. Um speaking quickly on the extra classrooms, um it's said that we have seven at um um empty classrooms, but we actually don't. They're all utilized and they're utilized for OT, speech, reading, and if we take those away, then where are they going to go? Um,

229as far as flex zones, when I look at the existing Hammergrail or existing um, Bethlehem district map, it looks like Hamigra's in the middle and um, the really we can just extend the Hammerrell school zone and add flex zones right along those and then it really just solves all the issues moving forward and gives us the flexibility to deal with enrollment changes moving forward. I think we need to dive into flex zones a little more. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else speak on an agenda item? >> That's a big last step. Hi, I'm [clears throat] Karen Kissinger. Um, I didn't plan to speak. I actually came for a different purpose, but um I came I felt compelled to talk because maybe I have a slightly different perspective because I was in your shoes when Eagle

230was built. I had a son who was going into fourth grade and holy crap, we got redistricted. We were not at all thrilled about it. I shared a lot of your concerns, had a lot of the same fears, and I'll be honest, some of them happen. My son had a rough transition. Kudos to the school district, the support staff that was available. He got moved from Elmere to Slingerlands. The um principal at the time did an amazing job integrating the kids. We had four kids on our block that moved or five. did a great job getting all five of those kids connected to the school. Did a just a wonderful job all around. Um, it really helped. It also helped my son feel more confident moving to sixth grade in the middle school because he

231felt like I went through a tough transition. I know I can do this and he knew a lot more kids. I applaud everyone. It's so clear everyone has the kids' best interests at heart. everyone has the best of intentions and I know it's really rough, but I do want to say we can get through it. Um and um hopefully there is potentially a glimmer of hope from someone who um had again some of the same fears, concerns, and um I will say something about the um excluding the fifth graders that was really rough on my fourth grader because there was a fifth grader on our street. So we'd go out in the morning and the fifth grader got on the bus to go to Ellir and my little guy had to go to Slingerland. Um,

232so that might be something to take into consideration if you're looking at excluding those fifth graders, how to do that in a way that's supportive of all the kids. Thanks. Anybody else? >> Uh, next item six, action items. A, finance action items. is recommended by the superintendent board of education approve the following finance action items one through four >> second any discussion all in favor >> any opposed extensions that carries uh B professional personnel action items it is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following professional personnel action items 1 through 11 >> so move >> second >> um And I just want to just make a note that we're um starting to see some of our retirements. >> Yeah, >> I object. [laughter] >> I think there might be some

233objections to some of these retirements. Um but uh but I just wanted to just say that the service to the district is always >> 31 years, 37 years. Yeah. Etc. >> Um and you add it all up and it's pretty amazing. Uh all in favor? by I. >> Any opposed? Any extensions? That carries. Uh C. Support personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following support staff action items one through six. >> So move second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any extensions? That carries. Uh D. Other action items. It is recommended by the superintendent of the board of education with the following action items one through four. >> So move. >> Any discussion? >> One question. John, you really want the job.

234[laughter] >> More gladly accept other volunteers. I'm happy to do it. >> Uh all in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Um and now recognition of public comment on a non-aggenda item. we have any visitors who would like to address the board on a non-aggenda item. Now would be the time to come up to the microphone. Um item 8, future meetings and events. Um as stated before, tomorrow, Thursday, November 20th at 6:30 at the middle school um in the auditorium will be our community forum with respect to the zones of attendance discussion. Um then our um December 2nd, uh, Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. here at the high school is the vote on the 2025 capital bond project. And then on uh, Wednesday, December 3rd, um, here at the high

235school is our next regularly scheduled board meeting, anticipating executive session at 6:00 and reconvening to open session at 7. Seeing no need to go back into executive session, can I have a motion to adjourn meeting? So >> second all in favor I think I left that great. Thank you.