Bethlehem Board of Education meeting 11/16/2022

001all right okay I'm good okay if we can reconvene our meeting to open session in the board has been an executive session since six o'clock to discuss a contractual matter we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] we could have introductions Moriarty John Walston Jody Monroe Holly dellenbaugh Christine Beck Robert Willow bear John McPhillips um I don't know if we have any um Pig students in the audience with us tonight if we do your obligation is to stay until the meeting ends or nine o'clock whichever comes first if we go that long then we will stop and take a break so you

002guys can get signatures and head out uh first up is our approval of minutes it is recommended by the superintendent that the Board of Education approved the minutes from the November 2nd 2022 regular board meeting so moved second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions that passes uh three meeting reports um first it's our superintendent's report thank you um just one thing to announce uh last Friday we had our first Veterans Day Spirit Run did any of you guys participate in the room nope um so we had over 400 elementary students and some parents participate in the spirit run our k-3 student K through third grade ran between a quarter and a half a mile while our fourth and fifth grade students competed in a one mile run where the first place

003male and female received a trophy we also awarded a school trophy to the school with the highest percentage of participation in that went to Glenmont so they get to keep this large trophy for the year and maybe another school will take it over next year now it was a great success I would like to thank Andrew Rickert who took the lead on organizing the day and also to all the other staff who helped out and members of our cross-country teams who served as great role models for our younger students that's my report for tonight anybody have any questions for Jody next is our board report and I just wanted to say that I had a chance this past week to visit both Eagle Elementary school and the middle school and it was great to be

004able to go into the buildings and have a chance to see some of the classrooms at Eagle I saw everything from a from kindergarten up through fifth grade and then at the middle school I saw some seventh grade and some in an eighth grade class and it was uh it was great to be to be back in there if anybody has anything any other things they want to talk about I know John you were at the middle school the same day I was experience I had a couple colleagues so I was also in the middle school for a half day visit and my visit focused on the mostly the special education program in the middle school so I sat in on a DCT eighth grade resource room and a DCT sixth and seventh grade math

005and social studies class I to be honest the whole concept of what that program looked like in the middle school was a complete mystery to me is only having elementary students currently and the program I don't know where Kathy is it it was an incredible visit those students are so supported um like I'm almost in tears thinking about how impressed I was with how that program was run the engagement of the students the level of support they had having me as another adult in the room they were like can you help me um because they're just so used to having so many adults sort of wrap around them and it was I was so glad that that's what my visit had focused on so well done um I also had a nice discussion with principal

006Klugman about the sort of the social emotional Wellness in the building and all the ways that the counselors and his staff are making sure that those students are okay on a daily basis that's a really tricky age group to work with so I felt really good leaving that the students in the Middle School building were in really good hands the only other thing is I also had the opportunity to attend the um High School wind and string ensembles and corals chorus performance and I'm not kidding you that it was like something I would spend money to go see it was really impressive what else um Catherine um I also spent um a half day at the high school I got to sit in on a lab school class along with um a social studies class

007so I really thank everyone for inviting me in there it was very educational in many different ways and I also got to go to Slingerlands and sit in on a cold talk class which I'd never seen that in action and I was amazed at the teamwork between the teachers and the aides and how how the students really responded to to the team teaching so that was a wonderful experience um and I also went to the spirit run and wanted to thank everyone um especially John who was involved in that it was a wonderful hopefully a new tradition um that we can continue because the kids really enjoyed it I think the parents really enjoyed it and cheering everybody on was great Catherine yeah middle school earlier this week the PTO over there organized and hosted

008a guest lecturer talking about executive functioning and how to develop executive functioning in our students and just absolutely Blown Away really cool Hands-On information that was almost immediately useful and uh and just a great great Community turnout great Community Support so thank you so much to the Parent-Teacher organization at the middle school put that together and I'm psyched to go to high school next week I'm going to head off for computer science power mechanics and metal design so I'll report back at our next meeting thank you sounds good I just wanted to talk about the nisba conference since I wasn't here last week I went to a couple seminars on Dei and there was also one on Roi return of investment on like academic purchases to see you know were we getting the benefit we

009thought we were to make decisions regarding future purchases they have a special role in Saratoga so I want to afford that to Dave to take a look at I thought it was pretty interesting but one of the topics they brought up and I thought this is something I wanted to bring to the board and I know we've talked about it previously is the Dei instructor was talking about the importance of offering minimally algebra one as a ninth grader so it gives more opportunities to finish your high school career taking pre-calc and that's one of the strong indicators along with um the living is it living Science Biology living environment living environment yeah so they they indicated those two ninth grader and eighth graders as an eighth grader so a lot of schools offer it as

010eighth graders so that way they don't have to take biology in high school and it opens up additional science electives so I don't know if the the board is interested in having a discussion on that I know there's a lot of parents who would like to make sure that their child has the opportunity to take algebra as a 8th grader I don't know how much discussion has been on living environment as eighth grade I know St Thomas offers it um locally and I know a lot of the other Suburban schools also offer both of those in the eighth grade setting so I think Bethlehem should you know maybe we should talk about exploring that I know there are some challenges with the scheduling at the middle school and that would be making choices about what

011you know options there are but I don't know if anybody's interested in hearing more about that on the board has anybody interested in in hearing more information about that patterns that we should continue the conversation awesome that's it uh next on the agenda are committee reports um and I know the the only committee that has met since our last meeting was the facilities committee um and my understanding is that that maybe a longer discussion um so I would like to uh request a motion to move the committee reports to after we have our public comment on agenda items second um all in favor aye any opposed okay so we'll move that just don't let me forget that we moved it uh next on our agenda um are our student reports do we have anyone here

012from the high school student Senate hi good evening I'm Elizabeth Baldwin the president of student Senate and recently in student Senate we've been working a lot on smaller High School tasks like problems in our school and just quickly undressing them and making sure that we're working with Administration as well as bigger community events that were still in the process of planning and this process has been greatly helped by our new addition of a um of six freshman senators and we're it's really awesome to have them in our meetings again as their new set of nurse because they bring just a great new fresh mindset and ideas to the conversation and a new group of information that we can talk about so thank you uh do we have anyone from the middle school student council hi

013I'm Maxine Lee I'm in seventh grade Mohawk House hi I'm Phoebe deliber I'm in 7th grade on Hudson halves more than 800 students showed up to the Halloween ball and every single one was in costume a good time was had by all and this was the first time in four years that we were able to host this event our fall sports teams closed out their seasons over the last two weeks and all teams had positive and successful experiences we thank our coaches parents and our Board of Education and administration for all of your support we will be providing all students the opportunity to order their free be the change character t-shirt prior to holiday break and we invite all of you to participate the cast of Wizard of Oz is almost done choreographing the show

014and we are growing in our excitement for a great performance our first quarter of the year ended last week and we anticipate that all report cards will be posted for students and parents by the end of this week our student council has sport some sponsored several spirit days and has created a Veterans Day themed bulletin board in the front lobby at the middle school celebrating local veterans it's a beautiful display and great tribute to those local residents and family members who have served our country this past Monday no November 14th no place for hate sponsored our kindness day and over 350 students and staff who are blue to commemorate the day our seventh grade students will have an upcoming assembly with noted speaker Mr John Robinson on November 29th Mr Robinson will be presenting on

015themes of self-identity kindness and community service Mr Robinson previously presented at the middle school seven years ago and his presentations always have a positive impact on our community We wish all of you and all in our community a happy holidays as we all had thought toward Thanksgiving thank you [Music] and I believe we have some Hammer Grail students with us tonight who are part of our first presentation with Mr Knox well good evening we're excited to be hosting a board event meeting tonight at hamburgl and just a quick thank you to families for supporting your children and bringing them to the meeting tonight we're excited for them to share some of the great things they're doing at Hammer Grill so in the spirit of aligning some of the work in our student presentation with the

016Dei presentation tonight we thought it would be interesting to kind of tie in some Equity of opportunities that our our students are being afforded because of some of the robotics that we've had in our schools so we're excited tonight to kind of go through that we are going to talk about how equity and opportunities are aligning in our elementary schools we'll we'll have Mrs Berlin go over some of the history of Robotics in our in our schools Mrs hapner our media specialist is going to go over some of the standards that we're reaching towards and our incredible students are going to be talking about some of the coding and we're going to have some board members so thank you come up tonight and perform a little task for our for us so we're excited so

017in the past in my experience anyway in elementary schools especially there is this um mishmash of how technology is allocated to Elementary classrooms maybe donors choose gets picked up in a third grade classroom or maybe that the PTA supports one grade level with a 3D printing machine in this case an equitable provision of Robotics and Computing equipment for us is really creative even playing field for our kids an increasing access for everyone not just a particular grade level or a group of students but everyone um you know technology can be a little bit divisive in terms of what students are engaging you know technology like phones have really isolated some of our kids however we found that Robotics and coding it really provided a learning opportunity that encourages positive relationships and Community you know I

018was down here last week watching some of these guys practice their Robotics and they are laughing enjoying the student discourse level is at an all-time high and it's all because of the technology that we're using with this coding project and the collaborative nature like I said really designs activities that provide social emotional learning for students that Fosters a sense of belonging and empowering you know as myself I was not a strong math reading student as a kid but there were certain things that I really latched onto and and coding and Robotics are something that all students can access have time to explore and feel empowered that they're learning and part of a community a classroom community that maybe they haven't been in the in the past it also will provide subgroups of students who maybe

019aren't coders today an opportunity to really get some hands-on experience early on so when I talked to my wife about Robotics and Equity she wanted me to explain it a little bit further but I think that Equity of opportunities is huge for our kids and it's amazing what our kids are able to do because of the robotics we have and the staff that's been working with them so it's been great so with that I will pass it on to Mrs Berlin she will talk a little bit about how we acquired the robots hi so my name is Stephanie berland I'm the K-12 instructional technology specialist I do a lot of work throughout the district with both teachers and students getting them more comfortable with technology and my favorite part is when I get to collaborate

020with teachers and be able to go into classrooms and so this fall I've been working with Miss Hafner with these awesome fifth graders here at hammergrail the robots that we have now we were purchased over the summer and I was able to kind of get into this and kind of last year I was able to start working the Robotics and coding into the classrooms taking advantage of narrick's lending library that they have for the capital region and over the summer we were able to purchase sets of robots for all five elementary buildings and there's now a lending library that teachers can check out the robots they can have me come to the classrooms with and use it with them or they can use it on their own so that's just a little bit about you

021know the history of this and I'm going to let Ms Hefner talk about the um computer science and digital fluency standards that are also kind of make this completely relevant um thank you so much my name is Kaylee Hafner I'm the librarian here at hamagram and so I just wanted to speak a little bit about what we are heading towards and also why this is part of Library so um traditional Library instruction includes information literacy digital citizenship and problem solving it's also accessible and in my opinion should be fun um and so to help students become future ready and incorporating these new digital fluency standards that we have we can introduce these Core Concepts and maintain instruction in our traditional Library subjects as well as introduce these computational thinking and Collaborative Learning opportunities to the

022students and so those are just some of the standards that we work on which really Target specific learning goals around algorithms comparing algorithms and building up those logical computational thinking skills so now we're going to have our students kind of introduce a little bit about what they really did throughout this process we start first started to learn about algorithms thick and detailed when we tell a robot our computer what to do then we learned how to use the Sphero robots in the sparrow app to help us create our algorithms we worked together with classmates to build simple programs which are algorithms in code finally we learned about the history and video games of Paul we got to create our own programs where the Spiro robots play Pong we feel strongly about learning Robotics and coding

023because we are learning problem solving skills logical thinking and we were having fun collaborating with our classmates now we need two volunteers to play Pong excellent okay here is how we play our pong game the objective of the game is to get the Sphero past your opponent and not let it get past you you must defend all three sides of your Arena yeah stand facing each other with the Sphero in the middle we will aim it when you're both ready we will run the program that we built don't kick the sphere out just block it with your foot it will turn around and head in another Direction at a random angle and a random speed good luck [Laughter] oh foreign [Laughter] laughs [Music] [Applause] so real quick just on the board is the code that

024the students actually created themselves this is block coding using an iPad app and they built this we you know we coached them and we helped them but they really this is what they built um and it includes randomizing operators and randomizing Direction which was some difficult Concepts and they did amazing so thank you thank you guys you want to come up here for a second [Music] thanks for coming to take this thank you very much um and you guys are welcome to stay but you do not have to if you would like if you need to go home um next on our agenda tonight we have a presentation on diversity equity and inclusion by Dr Leticia Ellis Williams [Music] brought the high-powered glasses I'll wait for the student there thank you to my partner presenters

025from ham and Grill your tough act to follow do you have cool ping pong robots so I actually played with them every chance I get whenever I see them in d122 I go in and I play with them as well good evening Board of Education Miss Monroe thank you for this opportunity I'm Dr Leticia Ellis Williams and I am the chief diversity Equity inclusion officer for Bethlehem Central School Districts and I just want to thank you for the opportunity to come and share the work that has taken place since my Inception July 1 up into present it's important to me to Anchor this work in honoring and acknowledging the unique student body that make up the Bethlehem Central School District which includes but is not limited to male students female non-binary Asian Native American alaskan-american

026Alaska native Pacific Islander white black African-American multiracial Hispanic Latino students with disabilities former students with disabilities English language Learners not English language Learners formerly English language Learners economically disadvantaged not economically disadvantaged migrant not migrant homeless not homeless foster care not foster care parent and Armed Forces and in addition to this striation there's another level which includes gender race poverty class issues gender identity gender expression sexual orientation mental health issues specific to women and girls religion beliefs family status national origin home language immigration status age and weight and although there are Cadre mentioned in both slides previously that doesn't begin to tip the iceberg as to what we see each day as we walk into the corridors of our buildings and the experiences these are the ones that we are aware of not the ones that

027we're not so I thought it was important to Anchor this work and this presentation in the acknowledgment of the diversity that is Bethlehem Central School District their Cadre of identified stakeholding groups at BC and it was important to me as I entered this work in the Inception of my arrival I was thinking okay where do we start there is no map there's no blueprint and I would never dust off something that I had done in a previous charge I wanted to authentically enter this work and in order to inform this work I had to meet with Holtz like meetings round tables as well as focus groups with the groups that I'm about to name to be able to get to the Crux of what it is that we need to add to our strategic framework

028to drive this initiative I met with members of the Board of Education thank you I met with the office of operations and maintenance parents community members students Administration supervisors human resource office offices of special education and student services the e l department our new hires Educators and paraprofessionals clerical staff Food Service guidance counselors psychologists and social workers Bethlehem police department Bethlehem Town board members the Bethlehem Central School District Affinity groups the New York State Office of mental health as well as the New York State Office of for new Americans it was important for me to enter this work with an authentic assessment of what it is that we are experiencing as a community under the aforementioned auspices as is related to this work because it needed to be informed in a way in which it

029made sense I would have been remiss if I would have superimpose what I believe to be any kind of areas to be bolstered areas in need of support it just based on previous experience or my own filters School District Mission reads to educate and prepare all to reach their potential discover their purpose and be engaged community members the Bethlehem Central School District diversity Equity inclusion Vision reads that bscd bcsd is committed to supporting an environment in which all members of our school Community feel free to engage as their authentic selves and an atmosphere of mutual respect and civility which brings me back to after meeting with the aforementioned stakeholding groups there were a Cadre of trainings focused conversations and workshops that emerge organically some of them include but are not limited to an understanding and

030conversation around key definitions and terms related to diversity Equity inclusion examples of diversity Equity inclusion in our industry not corporate historical references of Dei and the work that came before my Inception at Bethlehem Central School District the Bethlehem Central School District diversity Equity inclusion Mission slash vision inclusive leadership as a practice of our leadership team to be able to cast wide Nets to have students reflected within the staff that's actually important academic prowess unconscious bias training culture responsive and sustaining pedagogy microaggressions in the workplace and the impact on organizational culture academics Community wellness and character with a Dei Focus culturally responsive dispositions and by disposition it is the way in which you enter the work the way in which you are galvanized that you feel intrinsically how important it is for all of our students

031understanding the language of gender and gender expression and gender identity and we had a Cadre of trainings well a two-day training with our social workers counselors as well as our psychologist which was mentioned in our last meeting which has proven to be very fruitful because now they're asking for more tears of this work and then finally the community building at BC which I often think about the ways in which Affinity groups function and I admire Affinity groups because that's persons seeking commonality based on an affinity in a perfect scenario Affinity groups wouldn't have to exist if acceptance were key for everyone present when I entered this work in summer of 2022 and up to fall 22 2022 now we held an Administration retreat in which we took a deep dive into unconscious bias culturally response

032to pedagogy sense of belonging and the ways in which we could make sure that we had the tools to guide and support the facilitation of this work we talked about the potential professional development and workshops that would be beneficial for all of our stakeholders we collaborated with District leadership I actually have had the opportunity to visit schools and spend time and it was so cool to go to every single class in our district and I asked every single class if it was okay for me to visit and they all like yeah I asked is it okay for me to come sit next to you and pull up in the chair and talk about how you learned they were like yeah I had two or three that were still on the fence but they told me

033they'd get back to me but it was important for me to help them understand that I was here for them because sometimes a Mr minutia of what we're trying to accomplish as a district we forget about our primary people which are the people that we're here to grow and nurture and support and pour into so it's important for me to get their opinion I helped individual parent meetings some of which were initiated by Family some were initiated by me and that was important because some parents just wanted me to know what their student or child's experience had been in BC and it wasn't from a deficit model some spoke to amazing guidance counselors like Dr Carr they spoke about amazing teachers who take the time to engage students and think about the whole child and

034honor the assets that they bring to the classroom be it cultural be a social and academic next we continue to collaborate and discuss with state and local agencies like I mentioned earlier the office of new Americans was instrumental because when I arrived here I was unaware that we have families and on our roles that had been displaced because of it circumstances in the world so it was important to me because when I don't know something I'll dig in my bag of tools and figure out how I'm going to help right I didn't know how to approach a family that had been transitioned from one country to here and figure out how to navigate not only the medical forms to be able to stay in school but also the life that had been torn away from

035them and how to support their students in this fresh and new environment so I had a learning curve and I I'm thankful for bharati Verma from the office of new Americans with helping me with that Journey my community entry points included but are not limited to parents Bethlehem students both president and alumni community members Board of Education members diversity Equity inclusion officers from my neighboring school districts Bethlehem police department the superintendents of the Capitol region on the Bethlehem Central counseling office and the social work and supervisor the department leadership team members the elementary assistant principal as it relates to mtss and the Equitable access for students under that auspice also the director of Athletics and wellness building leadership teams and again the office of New York state mental health and thank you we are receiving

036free training for restorative practice for all of our building leaders we also are in the workings of scheduling Suicide Prevention as well and it's always nice to get things for free so I'm thankful for both into both entities next steps so I'm often challenged by my husband to be reasonable and rational because for those of you who don't know me I am a go-getter and I don't let much grass grow under my feet and it's important that I actually have a sense of accomplishment in this work as well so throughout my collaborations I want to continue to collaborate with building principles we're going to really take a deep dive in what inclusive leadership looks like and we're going to start to bolster the ability of all of our building principles to walk into classrooms and

037recognize the Equitable practices that are taking place by utilizing our Equity classroom walkthrough protocol I'm going to continue to collaborate with the content supervisors as we continue to appeal back the layers and also amplify when we see wonderful culture responsive and sustaining pedagogy occurring in classrooms I'll continue to attend school building team meetings and that team meeting is not the one that's on the schedule for the counter for the year there were a core group of Summer word that people that were willing to meet with me in the summer and each building galvanized eight to five five to ten people to be able to meet with me and talk about the culture and the school from the perspective of Dei as it relates to his work again informing the work authentically I'm going to examine

038and scrutinize School data as it reflects the academic performance special education classifications involvement in extracurricular activities and graduation rates secondly I'm going to continue to work with the district leadership team so that every District administrator is trained in restorative practice we're also going to make sure that our district mental health and crisis teams are trained in not only restorative practice but suicide prevention the diversity Equity inclusion dashboard is in Phase One of development like it's still on a piece of paper established four BC parenting Community working groups which will be sent the information will be sent out in the next week those meetings will take place midday to provide opportunities prior to pick up from school and also that evening and with the collaboration with generation ready and we will actually be focusing on academics

039character community and wellness with the diversity Equity inclusion lens we'll continue to participate and collaborate with the Suburban Council of Dei coordinators and directors in the capital region those are the persons that I get to go and be my authentic self with continue professional develop personally professionally as well as engaging in collegial collaboration thank you very much [Applause] I have not stood in front of a mic still since my seventh Easter speech in church which I still remember I thank you very much for your presentation tonight um does anyone have questions Catherine I have so many um thank you but others should also jump in so sure just running the floor please you were at the end so I just kind of oh well thank you I appreciate that um so yeah so many questions

040so one of the things that um that came to mind is that you know you mentioned all the different stakeholders you're working with and um when I look back at that you know it's everybody from Board of Education Ops and maintenance you know guidance counselors Town board members it's everybody Under the Sun they're all coming into whether it's conversations or trainings with their own background with their own lived experience and a lot of those are really different experiences how I mean how do you can you tell me a little bit about your work how are you having these conversations how are you bringing them in what is the entry point there um so for example when we when I launched the Workshop slash professional development for unconscious bias I was able to redirect and revamp

041that Workshop slash presentation to reflect the role of clerical the role of O M our Fleet of bus drivers because I made it resonate for their role within this construct it takes our entire Community to know experience be the example and also think about how we present to students because as I said in all eight of those sessions in a time like this we can't afford not to it's important for us to recognize the assets that they bring it's important the bus driver will recognize which student is usually out there a few minutes earlier which one is not and why if a mother has to leave a father to go a parent to leave to go to work early whether he's going to say leave that child in the house I'm gonna toot the horn

042twice just tell them to be looking out the door so they will all Galvanize based on their experiences and what attributes those students bring to the table and the second example would be food service we had a great conversation about how we transitioned to our scratch kitchens and they want to make sure that we are culturally responsive in the food offerings because not everyone eats from a monolith right so making sure that we have the parameters and the wherewithal to be able to offer foods that are familiar to students so that they will participate in not only a breakfast program but our lunch program during the day so some of the cool ideas and that we're working on is trying to figure out how we can and secure certain foods such as tagine jollof rice

043rice and peas you know to represent and we took the time to look through our student demographics and the ones that we could see identified on paper and sometimes we have to learn that you know from other areas as well that we can actually do this so that was important so each auspice had an opportunity to engage authentically as to what's my why in his work and it was great feedback as well like I have they call me Doc they're like oh doc I like the way in which you do that so I know that it resonated and it really hit home oh that's awesome I've got to talk to um Mr domel now about why I don't have lunch on my yeah last week was a tomato curry soup oh all right awesome awesome

044um and then one of the another thing that caught my ear you were talking about um working and collaborating with Dei officers in your in your counterparts in other districts um what what's happening around our area how are you interacting how is what is Bethlehem look like in regards to other places like what else is going on out there um so not to make a comparison because there's nobody better than us um but we also we all come together once a month and like I said it's a space in place for us all to be our authentic selves what we recognize and honor is that we are always on the minute we enter our buildings and for some of us we become the catch-all till the end of the day right and with that we

045help each other by supporting tools sharing information attending workshops and conferences together and also sometimes just picking up the phone and calling but like hey how's your day going sometimes it's like I'd rather not talk about it and some days it's like oh my God this is great today we decided we're going to add cricket to the PE curriculum and how we'd actually you know evolves to engage in the social emotional aspects of the diaspora of the world so it's it's exciting it's um daunting and sometimes when certain circumstances hit hard we Galvanize a rally around each other and sometimes that's like a two o'clock in the morning call because somebody's having to break down because there's this tremendous sense of responsibility that we all hold dearly in this work so it's not something that

046you get in a car and drive away from your workspace and you don't think about anymore turn on the news read the local papers Etc and you're thinking how is this going to creep its way into my school um thank you and and if others want I've got more but let somebody else ask questions too uh one question I had was um whether you can you have thoughts about um further Community involvement how you would like to get the the community involved in some of these issues so we've already begun that Grassroots work my priority was truly the students and those who so I made a progression students the Educators that are before them all the peripheral persons that make up our institution so it's an outward movement so as I stated earlier the third

047week in January we will formalize our parent Community groups and that will be under the osters of our four pillars that we are focused on as a district so that is the way in which we're bringing them in it's important to be tactful and I call it working groups because in my experience working groups work they have goals there are benchmarks and there's actionable steps that happen so I'm not a fan of committees no disrespect to any committees it's important because committees tend to do a lot of talking and a lot of sharing and time elapses and for me time elapsing in some cases is harm caused that's the length of time that harm is occurring so I don't have the time to do all of the committee meetings I honor every committee happening in

048every school and I have that candid conversation with every building principal what you've already been doing prior to me coming I honor it whenever you need me I will help come bolster speak to enhance it in any way but I'm not responsible for all of the pockets of committees here it's all about the process and making sure the the respect is there and I agree with you and I'll take that a step further it has everything to do with its sense of belonging when you have a strong sense of belonging and the connectedness it actually impacts emulses your individual self-efficacy your ability to answer questions out loud in class your ability to have academic discourse with confidence even if you wrong your ability to engage authentically with persons and also through a lens of empathy

049right I've said it multiple times empathy is not you walking in my shoes empathy is you listening to me and I tell you how my shoes fit and you believe me because I said so not because your shoes fit that way and I think that is important so in blue in essence when I talk about culturally response of pedagogy it has everything to do with a warm welcoming environment for all of our students honoring the assets they bring to the table culture food experiences parental contributions because once you Galvanize and you welcome everything that belongs to me I'm ready to be here I'm ready to engage as my authentic self and I'm going to take that one step further because I see people in our audience how how are you going to start or how

050quickly do you think you can implement that process to include student bodies that maybe have been excluded previously to make them feel more belong more belonging in the school so this also has a we are in the Thrones of doing so but I have to always restate it's a marathon not a race and there is no line of demarcation to say oh we did it we're done we have you know what are our identifiers because everyone's story and everyone's individual self has to be acknowledged has to be honored in a way in which the building the classroom the playground the auditorium feels like it belongs to all of us because when you are in a situation where you outwardly see visually a perceived dominant culture because it is sharing of skin tone but as I

051identified my first two slides within that are the constructs of what was described so when we think about the way in which we approach curriculum we are approaching curriculum and we are Incorporated not just books because they're written by someone browned about somebody Brown because a lot of the books if we don't take our time to look they're written from a deficit model they're not telling my story they're just a story about trials and tribulations and so we're thinking the first step was let's get books in our libraries I'm looking at what books we have in our libraries and a matter of fact tomorrow at nine we're actually assessing our library catalogs in ordering for classroom sets in every classroom across the district because that's how important representation is and lastly just like Equitable like

052how do you look at Equitable division of like assets materials does that come into play at all into what you do so as far as me I'm having fun building a budget so there are programs in like we have Harry tells it come in to present to our middle school students in the spring and my only caveat was that the teachers take the time and I helped develop what that curriculum would look like leading up to it because my only concern was I did not want that to be a single story that's not when my history starts so we need to go back to the kingdoms of kush we need to talk about the ways in which the transatlantic slave trade attributed to persons that look like me in afro-caribbean ETC before we get to

053Harriet's story in preparation for that presentation thank you Meredith um you were just discussing uh making sure we have a welcoming environment we are you know currently also going through our bond and doing some major improvements within our schools do you see anything physical within our schools when we were talking about the new construction and the new work we're going to be doing have you thought at all about any physical work that you feel like needs to be done on our schools can I get an office that was a joke write it down sorry I walked right through that one I know my office is in process thank you Nick um so when I think about the school layout and facility like I love the common area the one part of the way in which

054our general foyer in the middle when every four corners come together is the reluctance for students to go into the guidance office because that's Main Street so if you're a student who's in need of a certain level of attention care support a lot of times I'm hearing from students in my Affinity group that they don't go because everybody you can see from the cafeteria you can see from the LMC that I'm going in here and the stigmatism is that I'm going in here because I have a problem they could really just have a great relationship with adult right and that's their trusted adult but they feel judged so if I could change that edifice I probably would move it in a direction or in a space in which they didn't have to take the walk

055down Main Street to go into what would be considered like oh you're going to therapy and the stigma Associated but other than that I think we have great swapping spaces awesome classrooms with beautiful furniture and Facilities across the board I think our students have the space to work cooperatively as well as not that I like to see this but in rows and it's important for them to be able to have the classroom belong to them because so often the classroom belongs to the adult or adults and then the kids kind of come in and get to be there for that time so not a criticism just an observation and along that lines um you know this is a new position so we created it now you've been here a couple of months do you see

056certain resources that your office is going to require besides the actual office um that you think we should keep in mind in our budget line for next year um yes but I'd rather talk offline about what that would consist of okay and thank you Catherine do you have another question sure yes thank you thank you um you mentioned looking so yes about I think maybe two more questions for Dr Ellis and then one for for us for each other you mentioned that sorry I'm just scrolling through the slides one of the things that you're going to be doing is as far as the next step goes is examining School data academic performance special ed classification so on and so forth and I'm just wondering when you look at that data do you what types of

057things are you looking for or What's um so I'm I'm a mixed methodology researcher so I'm always looking for lived experience as well as the hard numbers so for example most recently there was a conversation when I brought to our district leadership team that we're going to move with you know restorative practice but come in some you know a big piece of what we're doing to help support students particularly coming back from cover with the social emotional aspect and really addressing the needs of students in a way that's not punitive but more restorative right we want to repair the harm cause in the community you want to know what harm was causing you want to have an opportunity to come up with replacement Behavior not be suspension suspended right not be put out of school

058because like there's a reason why we're in school we need butts and seats so with that being said it was a conversation about oh uh this many persons and this auspice have been trained and restorative Circle and I look and I'm like whoa those are my heavy suspenders so there's a disconnect interesting cool thank you thank you thank you um and then my last question for you as you mentioned connecting with um connecting with your colleagues in other districts and finding ways to recharge this could be a conversation off offline as well I'm not trying to put any spot but are you getting what you need to recharge and to continue in this work because it's big it's new and it's holy cow it's it's so much well thank you for acknowledging how big it

059is um and you know when I think about it it really doesn't look as big of a monster to me because it's my life's work meeting this amazing opportunity but with that I do know that there's a part of me that knows that I need to sometimes slow down me not what I'm asking others to do and to also think about how I'm reflecting and who I'm engaging with to be able to keep the momentum as well as my academic prowess related to this work so for example I have permission um to and I say permission because it was a real conversation and thank you Miss Monroe I have the opportunity and aware with all to travel to neighboring schools and out of state to see this work in progress I will be in at

060Ithaca School District in December and I'll be there for a one to two Day Tour I'll be able to see their Community Dei meeting in full effect I'll be able to visit their classrooms and see firsthand strong culturally responsive pedagogical approach so that's important because if I don't recharge and I don't have these experiences then I'm in a silo and I can only move as far as what I knew when I got here cool thank you um and then I think because this this predates me and I'm pretty sure it's Dr Ellis as well there was a slide up that had the district Mission and then the Dei Vision so I guess two questions first is like do we have visions for different aspects of uh of the district's work or is this kind of

061is this kind of unique so this is um when we started our you know work several years ago and it kind of evolved over time until the point where we brought in generation ready okay and that was prior to covet and so at that time our committee had expanded to a larger number of Staff representing all of our buildings and we felt that it was important moving forward that because of the kind of uniqueness of the work and that it did really extend to every aspect of the district we felt it was important to develop a vision statement for the work to kind of help guide us so that's it's a little bit unique there are in other buildings like buildings or departments have their individual kind of mission or Vision yeah but the group

062several years ago decided we should have something that was concrete to help focus our work no I think it's awesome and I think I guess my question for consideration and this isn't for answering tonight but as we move forward when I read this this is this is a beaut this is a fantastic Vision it's something to Aspire to and it it is it is both the point of Dei and also kind of Beyond right if we took this on as the district's Vision that that would be an amazing um amazing amazing set of guiding principles and values to reach for so I just I would just put it out there it'd be fun to consider adopting this you know just as the district's Vision going forward whether it's through um you know the next um

063updated strategic plan that's what I'm saying like Words strategic plan or something along those lines it's something to consider sure thank you and thank you just one one question you talked about you don't like committees because they don't have measurable objectives sometimes not to over generalize not over General they just become opportunities to be heard right and there's a space for that but when we're talking about an initiative that's important and this big there really isn't the time to just only be heard so the focus groups that will come out of the sign up the third week in January will have we'll begin with the I need to be heard from that what's stated shared will be comb through for patterns Trends and discrepancies and it will inform what those working groups will work on

064that's where I was going so a time frame for like the first year that's what you see like these working groups what comes out going through it getting information bringing it back looking to implement some change from the information that was received yes that's the only way to enter the work organically right because again otherwise people are just shooting from the hip and guessing based on other experiences in other places or their own filters so to be an honest broker that's the only way and I'm open to suggestions but if that works for me as a researcher to really have the lived experience of those in which I'm working with to help move the needle great thank you thank you very much for your presentation tonight I would just conclude with if there are ways

065that the board can support you and can support the work in our district please let us know and we will continue asking thank you thank you next on our agenda is our recognition of public comment on an agenda item if we have any visitors with us this evening that would like to speak on an agenda item now would be the time to come to the microphone promise not every time God my name is Amy Bloom and I've got two kids in the district and I wanted to come to speak tonight we've been in school about 11 weeks at this point in time and since then my son son who is a sophomore a child of color has been told repeatedly that you've got cotton picking hands he's been on a football team with somebody who

066felt it was good I guess to dress up as Hitler complete with a taped mustache and making the hell are sign twice in one day his nickname is J Money he's been called multiple times gay money he's hurt multiple Muslim slurs in the hallway and one of the quote unquote cool things to do at football practice is to give out the end pass so basically if you get the pass you're allowed to use the n-word um and so often that like children are asking children of color to give them the past so that they can use the word when I got home tonight at 6 30 I said to him I'm going out to a meeting um and he wanted to know desperately where I was going I was like why do you care I'm

067just going to a meeting um and so finally I said okay I'm going to a school meeting to learn about Dei and to talk a little bit about what we're seeing in our district um he's a 16 year old boy whose blood has been changed diabetes here's a 16 year old boy who identifies with her in ways that I'm not sure she will ever fully understand he's a 16 year old boy who found a mentor and a model and a strong black woman it's the first person he's truly felt a strong connection to it matters so as I was getting ready to leave tonight he asked me to please beg you please let us stop reading To Kill a Mockingbird and please let us stop breeding Of Mice and Men the teachers don't tell us

068what we do when we get to the n-word in the book and the kids who read those words like to say them and so when we're reading them and we just pass over it they say it in their head mom they say it in their head anyways and when we talk about it and the teacher says the n-word instead of actually using the word itself as it's written in the book The Kids think it's okay to say it and Mom it's not okay he's making stuff he showed the teacher in his music he's a rapper but he shared his music for the first time with Leticia he doesn't share it with many it mattered to her to him that he that she liked it it mattered to him that she listened to it and it

069mattered to him that he saw it that she saw him he sees himself somehow represented in her it's very very powerful to be his mom right now it was very powerful to come to this meeting and to have him know that you might hear him and hear his words it's very hard to get home each night and not know what I'm gonna find out has happened to this school day I adopted my kids purely colorblind I had no idea the parenting challenges I would face I had no idea that this would be the Life I Lived I'm Jewish and knowing that a kid on the football team dressed up as Hitler made me angry for days on end and it was the first time I could truly even begin to think that his life must

070be like on a daily basis I can't change it I can hide my religion he can't hide his foot and we have to do better and this is an amazing first step but if you don't know these things are happening you can't change any of it I'm not asking for suspension suspensions don't work but I am asking that we make these kids learn and listen and somehow understand that their words have meaning and that we're destroying some of our students every day as they walk through the pulse so thank you for taking the first step and thank you for seeing my sense thank you foreign would like to comment hi my name is Amanda harmath um obviously I spoke last time I just want to say Amy I understand a little bit what you're going

071through if you Google my maiden name Dylan um you will see it a few years ago that a very publicized incident happened at school um with one of my brothers in the Guilderland School District so I totally feel for your son and it's really horrible so I hope that something comes from that um and I just want to say that I hope that um with having the de I come in that we're not just it's not just becoming something that I hope that it is truly organic and that um it's I I have to say I I came from I'm the youngest of 13 kids um I have siblings who are adopted from Vietnam from Brazil um and from Colombia and everything so my family is very diverse so I will say that you know

072they were adopted and came into schools not speaking English some of them some of them could speak English um and I know that sometimes it's not just like you know having the lunch that they need to feel included it's really about feeling a sense of having friends in a community um so in the in the classroom so I hope that you know we do include more books um not just for people that look like me um but also for um Everybody um and I also hope that um we do offer more playgrounds and stuff equipment that is more inclusive for our kids that um you know have more challenges um because you know it is harder for some of them um to play on some of the equipment also um so that's all I have

073to say tonight thank you thank you have any other comments I can't tell if you're getting ready to come up and say something or not that's why I'm hesitating huh I'm Aaron Savari I'm a former Bethlehem student I'm a parent of three students I'm an aunt to a dozen current and future students and I'm really really happy that we have this Dei position I thought the presentation was phenomenal I know it's greatly needed in our community for so many different reasons and I'm just really appreciative that you guys made it happen and that you're doing the work we're all doing the work there's a lot of work to be done which we we know because we're we're hearing stories of things that are actually happening at school in all levels in the middle school and

074the high school in all the elementary schools too there's things that teachers don't hear there's things that bus drivers don't hear and there's things that our kids come home and tell us and there's things that horrify us that we hear and so we know from that that there's a lot of work to be done we can't control everything that happens in homes in every home in the district but we can control what happens in the schools and how we encourage all of our children to be great citizens and understand that inclusion means so many different things I think we can do a lot with Awareness on um all abilities and not just um you know Amanda touched on it with the playground equipment but also like how we talk about you know children with disabilities

075I'm an aunt to a student with a disability my sister Emily is here and I've learned a lot as an aunt what we don't say about children with disabilities and I think that our community at large can do can do a lot to bolster um inclusion for all those students including simple things like what's your name where do you go to school um little things like that that I know that some of my peers struggle with and I think I struggled with prior to having a niece with a disability I've learned a lot I have a ton to learn but I I can see great areas for improvement you know within our school Community here at ham Grill this is where two of my kids go um my oldest goes to the middle school and

076I I think they're doing a lot of great work there too but you know just fostering communication around families and peers so that we can um looking for the right words but um teach our kids like how to introduce themselves to someone that might be you know not neurotypical so that's all I have to say I'm just really happy that we're doing this work and I really appreciate everything that the board and the leadership is doing to take the next steps and you know be a great district for all students not just High Achievers so thank you thank you anyone else um so next on the agenda we're going to go back to um our committee reports and the only committee that met since our last meeting was the facilities committee um so and I

077know you were looking back at the the bond [Music] and sort of where we're at with that with the items that had been that were being removed because of the financial constraints um that we are currently under so Bob or John or Christine I don't know if you want to talk about the sure we can we can we can share the load um on last Monday on the 7th the facilities committee uh met uh as Holly said to discuss um some of the information that was presented with regard to the bond and specifically the changes that were made due to sort of circumstances of the global economy and inflation and whatnot we met last Monday in an effort to get a better idea about the whole process I thought it was a very productive meeting

078for me especially being a new member to understand how the bond itself worked how that came about and how decisions were made all along the process a lot of questions were asked you know of the principles at the at the meeting and I thought that there was a lot of good information that came out of it um and so for for me personally it was a quite quite an informative discussion okay I can hand it off now if you want it anything or I think it was um I think Nick did a really great job at uh sharing a lot of the reasons behind the decisions or not decisions but recommendations that were made and again sharing the process and where how we got to this point and uh where we need to go forward

079from so I think it was uh it was a good uh consensus of information and sharing and forward and you know with the I guess the question is is did the committee have a recommendation well I have a lot of questions to I wanted to ask Nick like I think the consensus between John and Bob is there I don't feel that personally as a committee we received enough information to kind of make that a decision based on the format on how it was presented and this is just an observation where I think there's a gap in our process um you know there's always room for improvement but I I do have some questions because we only had a few days before the facility committee receiving some of the information um for me to go through

080it so I didn't have all the information aligned for the committee meeting um which I had hoped would be pushed off a week but there was you know some deadlines that needed to be met so I do want to ask some questions about the facilities process that I wasn't aware at the time when I was there of some of the changes that had time to to Deep dive a little bit into the analysis and I just wanted to ask Nick some questions if that was possible if Nick wants to he is here with us [Music] and just uh first my apologies for you know the couple four minutes ago for um have putting my frustrations uh towards you because that was not appropriate and and I just wanted the members of the board to know

081that um you know I accept that and I'm I'm very sorry that you were the bearer of my frustration um I have some questions because I was going through the 2015 five-year Capital facilities plan and at the time it was completed by Ashley McGraw and me engineering uh Ryan Biggs Associates structural analysis and from what Jody indicated the laws around the five-year facilities plan has has changed since the time the 2015 but we're talking now like seven years and a few bonds so when the 2020 was developed how was that assessment done like I know you took some stuff from the 2015 but were there Engineers structural assessments what occurred in 2020 prior to us developing this bond to ensure all the items that they presented in here were looked at like was it the

082same process because there's no like summary saying or an opinion saying okay this is who came with us I just wanted to understand how the 2020 development occurred until as previously stated in the previous two meetings the 2020 Five-Year Plan was an update it wasn't required by New York State Ed law it was changed in 2019 so our architect updated it taking input from all of our stakeholders our program managers our Administration everyone to develop a scope for the 2021 Bond so nobody other than the annual assessments or the the working groups discussions there were no like structural assessment walkthroughs I just want to be clear on that in 2020 yeah no okay um so with the bond originally by Ashley McGraw there was 40 000 you know the 693 185 was the 40 million

08340 million sorry I'm looking at my numbers we're up 40 million 693 185 and when I went through the report from Turner putting back in the tech items that weren't listed on the SCD submission it was about 34 million I'm trying to get an understanding about what scope items were removed completely post-referendum so after the vote about a million dollars that we just I think we got the report on November 4th I think it was um so were those decisions to remove them like that was just like we just wanted we don't think they're necessary and how do they compare from what was on the 2015 facilities just spent two hours talking about this on December 7th actually we did much different we did not talk about this we did we didn't have this information

084so there's no way that we talked about it because I just spent 40 hours developing this spreadsheet so I could have this conversation okay so what would you like from me so I'm just asking you Christine is what you're asking I'm just trying to make sure I understand in the Turner are you asking you asking are being paid for from incident from the incidental they're below the line were they always being paid from they were so why were they presented to the community in the 40 million dollars but really that gives you does that give you extra money too so if you reduce the 2 million from Tech or whatever the amount if you recall all when the bond was presented there were items that were being funded through technology funds and also through the

085covid funds or the asset funds okay so that reduced the amount of money that taxpayers would have to pay which was the reason that the vote ended up in the community not having to pay okay between the capital reserves those additional funds that's always been the case okay so it's really when you say the 40 million that's not it is a bond going to the community but those funds reduce really the burden to like 38 or whatever of the amount a dollar amount and it still has to be to be the funding sources are coming from not just the taxpayers okay but the the max combined is the 40 million correct okay so then my other question is what were the items that were added and removed post referendum in the amount of three million

086one hundred and thirty nine thousand and fifty eight dollars so these were items that were added to Turner's scope to SED and then they were removed I don't know I don't know what you're asking me okay so let me just get to that I would need an example I think it's like the tech rooms in the Middle School extend drainage for 569 077 183 890 for the various locations through the masonry walls 1.857 for TPO roofs with a single ply membrane these were all added after the vote but then removed so I'm just wondering why we added them if we needed to add them and then why we remove them they were added they were not added list all 176 elements um actually no those these items were not they were they weren't you're mistaken

087I'm not okay so uh so they were added okay they weren't added they were always there and they were developed in design development okay I have the bond proposal from 2021 they were not and again you asked the same question and you said the drainage at Glenmont wasn't there you handed me your sheet and it's S1 I still remember it clearly it's s1b actually Bingo because s1b got a or s1a got fully designed as I discussed with you and when we realized that it went from 50 Grand or whatever it was to 500 000 we said we can't do that we're already in the hole so how did it go for 50 so if if we're doing an appropriate assessment of our facilities how did it go from fifty thousand to five hundred thousand said

088if we want to fix this permanently as discussed we are going to re-level the entire backfield several Acres the original design was just extend the pipe they said hey if you want to fix this forever the elevation issues you have to regrade the whole field but why wasn't that vetted out pre-bond work to know that that needed it had been five years I can't answer that I wasn't the director of facilities I don't know so but at a minimum we didn't have this information given to us that's that's where I'm struggling with some of the choices and then we have a potential removal from scope of like seven almost eight million dollars that we found out again um we were told that there was going to be items removed at a board meeting but we

089really didn't have the list of what was going to be removed and a lot of it are maintenance items and some of them are items that were from the previous Five-Year Plan The Five-Year Plan doesn't tell us the work that we did it doesn't tell us what's remaining on the the 2015 plan there's no way to bridge the gap from what was done to what we're doing what's left over and we're putting in five projects big projects we're adding but I'm not sure that we are maintaining and I'm not saying this is a criticism I'm just saying the way I'm looking at it we have a lot of new projects going on the books and we didn't scope out some of the projects appropriately prior to you coming on so we were already in a

090hole when we started the bond project and so now we're trying to make up bridge the gap so we can put the ELC uh Christine we were not in the hole before we went into the bond project we were because some of the projects weren't scoped out I mean it's not all inflationary costs some of it is with every Bond their estimates when we start well we need to do a better job than we talked about this you've been a board member for nine years and this is the first time this is not we had the same problem in the 16 Bond hold one second Nick one question I well the one question I have is we of the list of the things that we're removing recommended recommend it to be removed unless you know

091because we don't know what the bids are going to come back and maybe magically will they'll be really low um but on that recommended list you know are as the you know as the expert on these issues are you comfortable with waiting to do absolutely I wouldn't presented it to the Board of Education okay I my stance has not changed from day one but there are some items in there Nick that clearly need work that we're not going to do and we might not do another bond for five years so I don't see any like there's nothing in these development of these facilities and it goes to a lot of what Leticia was saying is like how much is student oriented how much is Staff oriented how much is District oriented like Equitable Fair equitableness

092that's right there some of the roofing was in the 2015 plan and it's not identified on the new planet as part of the last old plan I I could spend hours which I'm not going to do I'm just saying I don't agree with you we had the roofs in there in the order of seven million dollars worth of groups we value engineered like three or four million out of it I don't understand what you're saying well the 2015 said to replace some of the single um membranes from seven years ago so we're just a recommendation as I said previously right but be being able to compare the two to see what they recommended you have both documents they don't this document that's 197 pages does not list what was completed what's outstanding what was moved

093forward document that you have that was presented in 2020 does not have if it was five from the 2015 or if it was moved forward just just let him finish what he's trying to say well he's saying something that's not accurate you're not hearing him Christine Nick please finish finish what you were saying I forgot what I was saying I'm I don't know what to say so lastly my last question oh I have two questions left so on the additions that weren't identified um there wasn't a lot there was only about 663 000 which you know you could expect to find some stuff um between the time the bonds approved and the time it's implemented which was not that big of a deal but I do I do want to know um how do you

094so with this Bond we put in there and I'm just gonna hone on it for one minute we put in a million dollar structure at the middle school approximately a million dollars to replace it what part of the athletic fields at the middle school I'm trying to stay away from actually using the word because I don't want to look like oh I have to say it tennis courts we all know what you're talking about yeah so I have a question though like you and your team put in the bond scope yes of course I suggested it at the the meeting there were three or four people in agreement with that because I don't work in a silo how did it end up on a scope if it wasn't supposed to be replaced if it was

095always repairable why would it end up on a bond project for a million dollars If We Had a Million Dollars to spend on it we would replace it it doesn't so you just put well it doesn't require you but you should know that ahead of time like you should know that it's a repairable item and you wouldn't be replacing it so you asked no no go back to that you asked for the tennis courts to be replaced based on that request and part of the bond that was presented Nick got a quote for what it would cost to replace not repair replace the tennis courts so I wanna I wanna get this straight so a board member and a few fellow board members asked to have courts replaced and you just put it on the

096schedule to be replaced without vetting it out with an engineer to see if it needs to be replaced we you have to have a scope to provide to them for schematic design then design development I can't even work it's absurd I could tell you no those those mats in the back they're damaged let's replace them you're going to go get a quote for them no they look perfectly fine we were asked to get quote or design a Veterans Memorial we are asked to design the courtyards for the Garden Club those are different they're brand new facilities no we were asked that so we obliged and you put it in a scope presented to the community for a vote to replace courts but then come back after the vote you're not do not let me finish

097and you're not hearing me so we take and this is part of the scope development we take people's input and we put it on our list of elements it didn't fit scope development should be done before the bond goes to the community all right so this is why we get into a hole on the maintenance all right again you've been here nine years you've got how many been here twenty but all right how many bonds do you have or uh capital projects do you have under your belt at least three okay so you've got your conversation is not going anywhere hold on one second hold on I think Catherine did you have a question why don't you go ahead uh I think the only I think one of the questions that this is raised just

098in my mind bigger picture is um wondering a little bit more about when when we're looking or when when the facilities department is looking at like the identified the identified needs and what's possible in the world what's possible Right there's we're continuing to build new projects which are awesome and there's a question that's been raised about continuing to invest in the structures that we have here and so I guess I'm wondering because like you know to your point right whether it's the tennis courts or whether it's like any any piece of equipment there there's a there is a decision that's made about how you know where is the priority is the priority to invest it could invest in what we have or is the priority to um to build to continue to build additionally and

099so I guess my question and this might this might go beyond Nick but it's just like how at that level how are those decisions made how are the how are those how are those evaluations like how does that happen so it's it's a combination I guess because you know for take the Middle School auditorium could we live with the Middle School auditorium in its condition probably and he's saying you know upgrade certain things as we go along uh but when we have the opportunity to in this particular Bond you know there was no impact to the taxpayers because of we had additional funding uh the auditorium has not been updated in I don't even know how many years but it made sense to scope that out in a bigger picture and then there's also things

100that pop up over the course of time where you know we have computer science classrooms where six seven years ago we didn't even have computer science classes obviously health and safety come first so that would be something that Nick his team the engineers identify as any kind of health and safety issues and then some of the other programmatic things are secondary so often our principals our supervisors are involved more involved in the programmatic things they don't tend to get involved in Roofing electrical all of that stuff so it's a combination and we try and obviously when you're doing a capital project you also want to have things that people can see in the you know the library at the high school the auditorium some of those things are not only great for students but they're

101also great Community Resources as well so it's really a combination of those things and then if I may yeah so what we do is we we make that list and it's presented to the board on on multiple presentations this is what we're recommending um we have gone to um situations where we've rank them based on our recommendation this would be high priority medium and low priority items that would be part of your building condition survey or your Five-Year Plan you know the list could be huge it could be massive we would rank them we we believe that we have a number that we shoot for what do we think we could do in this 21 Bond started out and I'll tell you it started out we had no idea so we started putting it together

10225 million as we work with our cfbo we learned that hey we have a little more we worked with our um financial advisors and realized you know 40 million um dollars is achievable and that's what we ended up at so we did uh take low priority items move them up during that period some things became more critical and those were also moved up some highs were moved to low because program changed because the need was no longer there so so that's how that is presented to the board and then the board either approves or disproves that's when it goes out to the public for the referendum I think that's where the Gap is for me like some of the rationale is missing from what's presented or the changes so when you make changes to what

103was approved there should be some rationale attached to it because which changes I need I I need an example the rationale is through discussions often with principles and so do you understand like we are elected board members by the community to protect their interests in their voting on a bond I'm not saying I'm going to micromanage it but when you're making changes like in the millions there should be a discussion I have not made any changes first of all nothing has changed really really oh really you didn't have 600 presented to the Board of Education okay we have not changed anything what did you submit to SED items nothing please let him finish two items have been added to the scope of this one was the MDF HVAC because it didn't fit in our Capital

104project okay exceeded the limits and we had a major issue with a structural failure of our drainage system at Eagle those were the two items that were unexpected that had to be done we can't do it out of operating so we added it to the bond so when so when the 2015 this is my last thing when it says the site modifications re so the goals for this facility focus on site modifications related to basketball court resurfacing Paving Ada access to athletic fields Athletic Field improvements Track and Field improvements bleachers benches drainage and storage and it's the number one item on the list and half of it hasn't been done it has been done no it talked about the track and how the track was just like like the way it is right now to

105Cinder track there's nothing to do to it other than greater level well that wasn't the recommendation in here so what was it they were resurfaced and the Hoops were redone that's been completed has the Ada accessibility to the athletic fields been completed that has actually been learned that it's not a requirement oh okay sure so when they do what are they going to walk to grass so you're going to walk to it on a yeah they put a chair down and then they sit and they watch I can't believe you just said that out loud again I think at this point just to prove it the recommendation is I understand it from the facilities committee notwithstanding Christine's questions yeah the consensus recommendation is that Nick to move forward with The Proposal as Nick presented it

106to us that's great two meetings yeah is that correct correct what I will say is the way the material is presented to us I don't think anybody has done their due diligence on this board to ensure that taxpayer money is spent the way that it was intended or asked the right questions and I'm putting that out there because I did 60 hours of work looking at the stuff comparing it and every question you've asked has been answered and you think it's adequate the answer that he can't say what was moved for from a 2015 facility prestigious question man's Integrity I mean like you got you got to take it off questioning his integrity that's not what I'm doing that he's a professional and he can handle himself I think you're also questioning Bob and I

107because we have done our research I've walked the tennis courts I've looked at defenses I mean this is about it's about respect and I think right now Nick should just leave because okay again I'm just going to bring it back to the recommendation Nick walked in with animosity is to move forward correct I think that is where that is where we're at thank you thank you and I just for the record I'd like to say we do have our Dei folks here okay and I would think that from my training that we talked about you know the microaggressions are not required or desired okay I apologize and then you were aggressive to me so we could we could go here back and forth all day thank you Nick I think we thank you Nick should

108move on appreciate your time [Music] item six action items a finance action items it is recommended by the superintendent that the Board of Education approved the following Finance action items one through three so moved second any discussion all in favor aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions passes be professional Personnel action items it is recommended by the superintendent that the Board of Education approved the following professional Personnel action items one through eight so second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed and extensions that passes C support Personnel action items it is recommended by the superintendent that the Board of Education approved the following support staff action items one through nine so second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions that passes foreign D other action items it is recommended by the

109superintendent that the Board of Education approve the following action items one and two still moved second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions that passes item seven recognition of public comment on a non-agenda item if we have any visitors who would like to address the board on a non-agenda item now is the time to come up to the microphone item eight future meetings and events our next meeting is December 7th uh 2022 um at Slingerlands elementary school and that will start at seven anticipating executive session starting at six and the meeting after that is December 21st 2022 and we'll be back at the high school again meeting starting at seven anticipating executive session at six beforehand um seeing no need to go back into executive session could I have a motion to

110adjourn the meeting some of them all in favor all right you need adjourned [Music]