001regular meeting of the Canastota Board of Education to order. >> [clears throat] >> Um, will do it with rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of 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. >> Okay. At this time, I will entertain a motion to enter into executive session for uh discussions about um personnel and matters leading to employment. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. We are now in executive session. We shall return. >> Mhm. >> We are back from executive session. Um before we get into routine matters, I'd like to make the announcement that there are two amendments
002added to the agenda under new business, item D9, and under the other heading, there is J2. Okay. Uh routine matters. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approve [clears throat] the following routine matters. The uh CSE recommendations as listed on the agenda. Do I have a motion? >> I motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> That's right. >> It should be 12 5 2017. >> Okay. Uh Hold on. Any opposed? Motion carried. Okay. Presentations. Uh we have the gentleman from Turner Construction to give a capital projects update. Vincent and Robert. >> Hello. >> Good evening. >> Thanks for having us. Got it. Did they hand Did they hand the report handed out? >> They're on my desk. >> Okay. >> We had a situation.
003>> Okay. >> Sorry. >> No worries. No worries. Uh walk you through it. So, for those who are not familiar with us, I'm Vincent Denawski, project manager of Turner Construction Company. >> I'm uh Robert Pompiod, I'm a project engineer here for the project. >> Uh so, just to give you a quick update. Uh currently, we're still working in the auditorium. So, the middle school cafeteria has been turned over back in November for use. Um the auditorium we started last June, >> [snorts] >> and the target was to have that ready for graduation for this year. Uh with the focus being on the cafeteria, there was some time lost there, and then there were some difficulties we worked with the contractors for making the ductwork fit within the steel, some discovered conditions. Uh we've gotten past
004all that. Right now, it's back on track for targeting for before uh graduation. Um walls are painted, ceiling and structures painted. Uh they're ready for acoustic panels, which will be coming in this week. Currently, we're dealing with humidity and temperature concerns. So, you have wood panels that go in on the ceiling and the walls. Those are humidity sensitive. It's a natural product. Um so, we're we're monitoring temperature and humidity. Um byproduct of that is we got the permanent system operational, and they're able to balance it out. So, we know the air flow is where it needs to be for design before we close the space out. Um currently, the painter's making his way towards the stage. We can get that done. And soon we'll be pre-finishing the stage floor. And then looking at finishes, the
005seating, the flooring and carpet, um the stage itself, and curtains and lighting. There's Well, you see there Well, there are miles and miles, and I can't even say how many miles there are of electrical conduit. It is impressive how much is on the stage. You wonder how you ever got by in an auditorium without it. But a lot of it has to do with there's fire alarm, power, lighting, um and all your theatrical systems, your stage lighting, all your new sound systems. You're also broadcasting video for production and sound to other spaces, to a faculty lounge, the um the lobby where people will be congregating, and even to the middle school cafeteria where the they'll be getting ready for rehearsals. So, they know what's going on on the stage, they know their timing. Um so,
006the art room's on track. We're currently working in art one art rooms. So, 158, 159 have been turned over back in February for use. Uh we're waiting on the kiln, which just arrived last week. So, the district got one of the kilns in place in 125. Our plan is to do that one first, to get that We know what the connections are, and then move into 158, so it's less than two to the classes while classes are operational. Um so 158, 159 has finished products and that's in use. Art 125, we have floor grills going in, ceilings in place, um duct work connections were completed last week. Um so we're nearing finishes on that. We're waiting for one piece of casework which houses the interactive whiteboard and your electrical wiring that goes with that. Um
007so that's where we're towards finishes are getting made. And then um Art 147, which is across from 158, 159, that has a spray booth and movable partition. Um that's actually in the room, so waiting on countertops to put that in place. Meanwhile, the finish radiation is in place. We're just bent for our finish covers for that. The walls are painted, ceiling grid went in last week, and they were doing ceiling tile today. Some lightings in place, working on floor grills and ceiling devices. Um late large gymnasium. So there was a change in plans between the gyms. We're supposed to take the play gym first. Working with the district and understanding some concerns of odors with refinishing the floor, we we revamped the schedule a little bit over the winter. And our target there was really
008let's get out of the other spaces during the break week. Let's get the duct work demo done, which are precious the IT spaces. So thanks for these guys for IT department for housing us and being cooperative. And then the fire alarm system so we can turn the locker rooms back over for use while we're still in the gym. Those were accomplished during the break week. Much much success. Now we're in the gym proper. The duct works are already [snorts] in place. You'll see them on the pictures. That's laid out. Um they're starting to install that now. That all goes up from the IT area up into the joist and goes across the structure. So there's a lot of layout in there. It's probably about three weeks worth of work. And then they'll get painted out.
009Um acoustic panels are ready up on the ceiling deck. Um there's some electrical work that's associated in there. Our target is early June to turn that space over and then take over the play gym. That gets us ahead of summer schedule. It also gets the floor finishing towards the summer so those odors are not a concern while kids are in school. And then from there, we'll move towards the male gym during the summer. The high school kitchen cafeteria Um we got an early start in that December. We ran into some underground unexpected conditions with the soil and some pipe inverts. Um we also find some feasible solutions, got those employed. We're keeping the focus on that and getting that back on track. You'll see in the pictures it's very impressive the duct work in there
010and the light fixtures are going in place. You look down the line and it just looks terrific in there. It looks great. Um our goal right now we still show August turnover for the original schedule. We're pushing to actually turn space over in June to get the temporary serving line out of the quarter. Um the outside that cooler freezer building by the middle school was torn down during the break week. Uh so that's knocked down now. There's currently plans in place to change the site work a little bit to enhance the features. So we're waiting on final plans for that to finish that space. Um bus garage was slated for fall work. We're about 90% complete there. They have work to do in the boiler room. That was affected by your heating season. So as
011soon as the boilers come offline, there's an old storage tank to come out and there's gas valve that has to be replaced. So once the heat's off. Um on top of that, one of the challenges on this project was the amount of work trying to balance it out throughout the over [snorts] two summers. And we have still a lot of work ahead of us. So keeping that focus at Robert Street to get out spaces, lighten that load into the second summer. Now how the bus garage off our plate aside from the parking lot, which is the last piece there. And then looking for opportunities at other buildings. I'll let Robert talk to you a little bit about that. >> Thanks Lance. So as he alluded to, we've been through these ongoing conversations with the district
012have been trying to identify some early work opportunities to to lessen that upcoming load in the summer, which we know is going to be pretty intense. One of the areas we identified was Southside and specifically the site work at Southside. Um start to develop some of that that drop-off the new drop-off loop that we have there. Um so currently the plan here is that we're going to have a community engagement meeting on May 5th and then the plan is to roll into that site work beginning the following week. I think that's the week of May 11th there. Um setting up site fencing, uh moving materials over and and actually start to do some of that site work operations. A little bit later in the month we'll be looking to get started with the gymnasium renovations.
013[snorts] So beginning that on second shift uh over Memorial Day weekend and then continuing that uh through the following week. The intent is that between the work at Southside and then continuing what we have over here at Robert Street, that will carry us into the summer time where our primary focus will be of course finishing up those two buildings, but then you know, at Peterborough. Uh in terms of a Peterborough update, we did come in this past Saturday, did some more additional exploratory demo. So you actually saw cut a few floor areas in the basement, uh saw cut and jackhammer them out just so we could investigate some of the subsurface conditions. And the information that we've derived from that is really key in developing and refining the plan uh for the work coming up
014at Peterborough. Um so unless there's any other schedule updates, we'll kind of move us over into the engineering and and budget side of it. So if you're following along on the report, we're on the third page now. Uh I'd direct your attention kind of that upper middle area there starting first with this middle So, in terms of submittals, just a high-level update, we're about 86% complete on submittals, tracking over 1,000 as you can kind of see in the metrics there below. [snorts] This is something that we still have a lot of focus on. We frequently bring this up with contractors cuz we're obviously driving them towards 100% completion. Um one of the key things here, we have some upcoming pre-installation meetings, so I thought I'd just kind of touch on that really quick. Pre-installation meeting
015is kind of one of those key avenues in which we help to control the quality of the project. And really simply put, it's just getting everyone together, whether it's in the same room or on a call together. Uh that would include design team, district, us as the construction managers, and any contractors and subcontractors that might be involved. And we kind of [snorts] just talk through whatever scope of work they have coming up, and make sure that that work is accomplished in adherence with the project specifications. So, we got a number of those coming up, uh specifically auditorium-related flooring, stage floor refinishing. Uh just recently had one talking about the south side boiler room work. So, those are things that we just periodically schedule as the work approaches. Um continuing a little bit further down, just
016the RFIs or requests for information. Really, all we just want to provide an update on is that to date, we've incurred over 250 of those, and the design team responsiveness continues to be quite quick, which is really key uh to ensure that the questions that the contractors are raising are answered in a timely manner so that the work can continue seamlessly. Uh moving on kind of towards that right side column of the report there, with their cost overview. Really, the key things we want to talk about here is that the project's within budget. Um we reconcile with the district on a monthly basis to ensure that project-related expenditures are are captured, and that they're coded correctly. Uh and that's something that is ongoing. Uh in terms of contractor and applications there, really the one thing
017we wanted to highlight was in the bottom right section of that box. You can see that we're 52% paid out on contracts, and you kind of see in that table how that breaks out by contract. But, um this is something we do on a monthly basis, of course. And And then, in the bottom right there, you see the change summary. Uh changes are inherently part of these capital projects. It's It's, you know, part of the course. Uh the key things here is that, you know, when a change condition arises, that it's documented, that we solicit pricing on it, we review pricing to ensure it's fair and equitable, uh and that they're processed in a timely manner. So, again, as to not delay any of the work in the field. >> [snorts] >> So, that kind
018of, really, sums up a lot of the information we wanted to present to you this evening. We'll open it up to questions from the board or things you wanted to us to expand on. >> You can do it with no notes, cuz that was >> [laughter] >> That was very specific with no notes. Are you teaching lessons on that? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, you got to >> He lives and breathes it every day. >> [laughter] >> Anybody? No? Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next up we have the uh strategic plan update from uh Mr. Bessette. >> All right. Um as we periodically, our our goal was to just update as a a public board session how we're progressing with our um 2030 capital or or um I'm sorry, strategic plan.
019Still talking about capital projects, which is a part of it. Um but I wanted to clarify a couple of things because from the beginning and even when you know, at our last meeting woven throughout the presentation, we were referring to specific goals. Goal number one, if we're talking about academic performance or emerging opportunities for students, and goal number two, or we're talking about infrastructure things. So, a lot of references, which you'll continue to see, that directly link what we're doing, why we're doing it to the strategic plan. So, but what I wanted to spend a couple of minutes talking about today were three other components that are really um embedded throughout all of the things that we say are district goals and priorities. And so, from the outset, uh we talked about three universal factors.
020Um and this goes back to when we were working as a group, you know, when we were you have the had those stakeholder meetings, right? Where we all were sort of sitting around what, usually three tables, you know, big tables, and we were wrestling with how do we best organize our work? And how do we make it meaningful and not just a hoop to jump through, but something that really guides our work and that we can be proud of. And we were struggling and then at a certain point, we decided to put these three what we're calling universal factors, um saying they're they're a part of everything that we do. And those three things were long-term financial planning, right? So, the question is, how do you How are we paying for it? How are we
021making it happen? How's it being supported? Communication. How do we let people know that this is happening and why it's important, and how do we address their questions and provide information? And then the third, um how do we build the capacity to be able to sustain it? So, what does our professional development around that look like? Those three factors are involved they're are tied to everything that we do. Pick any subject, in some way those three things are going to come up. So, I just want to spend just a couple of minutes giving a couple quick examples of Okay, what do we mean by that? It's always easier to take a look at a at some examples. So, when we talk about long-term planning, okay? Pick anything that we've talked about leading up to the
022construction of the budget, right? Or in a you know, in a few weeks when we have the budget hearing, we'll we'll talk about that again. Well, you're going to hear certain things that are recurring themes that have shaped our our whole process uh of budget construction. One, maximizing revenue. So, one of the long-term strategies for the financial health of the district was to make sure that we're looking at is any financial advisor to a school district is going to advise you that the responsible thing is to get you know, that we should be getting to our cap or close to our cap on a regular basis. We get sometimes there's variations, there's exceptions, there's but um there's never really going to be a time where we're going to be going under our cap in any
023significant way because it's not we feel we feel um and we feel it's supported by financial professional opinion in the field that that's a disservice to the to the school district long-term. Um so, that's a theme that we talk about a lot. And this year we as as we talked about, our tax cap is 2.75% and we'll be at that um um moving forward. Other things that we talk about a lot, accessing available aid to support programs. So, for example, when we're going to bring in a performance to to one of the schools, right? We don't want to pay dollar for dollar cost. We want to uh whenever possible access aid. So, there's things like you know, through BOCES exploratory enrichment for example, where you can get the vast majority of every dollar we spend
024can come back in the form of aid. That is cost-effective program development and offering students good experiences at a at a value. Right? Those are So, every dollar spent is not the same. And so, we we make a big deal out of that because in any way that we can we can try to find those opportunities to fund things and generate aid. We like to do that. Um The other thing that you're going to hear a lot is there is a long-term We have I'm glad that COVID is is getting further and further in the real rearview mirror. Um but we knew that eventually um we were going to have to step away from that the federal money from COVID. So, that was part of our long-term strategy that continues to this day and and
025moving forward. And that How do you How do you uh plan for staffing and programming and things like that and not have upheaval? Right? Not have chaos. Not have wide variations in staffing and things like that. So, that's that is a function that's continuing this day because we had a multi-year plan of how we were going to step away from COVID funding. Um And then finally, um if this is again throughout everything that we've talked about, continuous evaluation of staff the staffing and pro and how that ties to our programmatic needs reflected in the district priorities. That's something that we are continuously looking at um when we have any type of uh talk about programs or talk about any type of uh um uh situation where uh we're looking at how we're staffing um and
026and offering these programs. It that's We don't settle in and say this is what our model is for the next decade. It's a continuous process of evaluation. Are we putting our resources where our priorities are? Um are we getting the the most benefit for our students and are we doing it in a way that's getting the most value for our taxpayers and where do we find that balance? They always talk about finding that is trying to find that good balance. So those are some just some examples of of that universal factor one related to financial considerations. Second one related to communication. Several things that I would I would really encourage people to be a part of because a lot of these things again it's about communication connecting the dots and just some simple ways that
027we're trying to enhance our ability in communicating in in every direction. Um one the strategic plan itself. We now have Um it's on the the front page of the website where it has its own drop down menu. So we can go to that. We're going to continue to populate that with with updates, right? So you can have this for example this whatever it is 13 page you know sort of general outline is on there but there's also going to be uh you know there's some interviews that have been done. There's some examples of things that that are directly tied to the strategic plan and the goals in that and so there's they're going to be um easily accessible and that but we're open to suggestions. What are the other things tied to the strategic plan
028that would help people to understand it or ask good you know get information or effectively ask questions. So we're open to feedback and how we can make that better because it's new. Parent Square obviously is something that we've used extensively Um, that's not unique to us but it is a tool and we always try to look at how we can better utilize that. Our PAC meetings, if when you look over years, I'm not going to belabor the point. We've talked about it a lot at this meeting, but it's a unique way to communicate in person for people who really want to sit in the same room with people and be engaged and think broadly and build projects like our annual barbecue in the in August that brings hundreds of people, um, typically or uh, offering
029the mental health first aid training for parents and any other number of of opportunities. Um, those are things that, um, that group is a good outlet for. This year was brand new, our athletic advisory council. We've already seen some positive results. We've only had, what, maybe four meetings, I think, or so. Uh, our fifth meeting is scheduled for next next week. Um, next Wednesday. We have, uh, former NFL player Rob Drummond, former Syracuse University star, um, but he also he's going to be, uh, the keynote featured presenter, but he's going to talk about career pathways and how he ended up not, you know, being a 15-year professional athlete, but how he built a career post, um, his athletic playing career. And, um, and so we encourage people to come to that. And then the last,
030uh, couple of things I want to talk about are new things that are on the horizon. Uh, and uh, one is sort of an archive of snippets, video, short clips of things that uh, of uh, explanations of our programs. You know, we realize that a lot of the feedback that we've received is, um, well, it's great if I have to read, you know, it's a nice alternative to having to read an article or whatever. We'll still do that. We'll still make it available. We'll still ask people to come and talk to us, but we know that people like to click on videos, right? So, if we can learn about what our e-sports program is all about, and what the competitions look like there. Well, let's get something that in a couple of minutes somebody can
031look at and have a good handle on what it is. Or what is the education foundation, and how does that support um the our school, or what is Connecticut Community Schools, and what are the ways people can learn well. So, gradually over time we're going to create these small, easily accessible if somebody wants to look at it at midnight, or you know, 6:00 in the morning, or at their lunch break, or whatever, then they can easily access that information. And then finally our academic committee has been involved with some good discussions about how do we how do we add more substance to our 5-minute Fridays, right? That was new, right? 5-minute Friday was new, the way of that was, by the way, a direct result of parent feedback at our PAC meeting. Said, "Well, we
032get lost sometimes in all the stuff that's going on in the district." That was a way of saying, "Here's a snapshot of what's happening in the next week." Cuz we get a lot of people can't look beyond the next few days because their schedules are so hectic. Right? So, but added to that sort of calendar of what's coming will be some some did you know type things, things that, you know, a sampling of, you know, learning more about people who might work at the school, or our teams, or groups, or organizations, or things that impact learning. So, it's going to be a variety of those types of things. So, look for that to come in the coming months. That's going to be an additional way of sort of beefing up a little bit the the
033um 5-minute Friday segment. So, and again, interested in getting feedback from people of what kinds of things would they like to hear? Um, what would be valuable? Um, and then the final piece is how do we make it happen? We want to do all these these good things. How do we build capacity to to make that happen? And I just want you to draw attention to a few examples of the way it happens in at different layers of the district. Um, last few years we've really put an emphasis on K-12 committee structure. So, we have for example, several K-12 committees, uh, our curriculum council, our district cabinet, and our faculty advisory council. Those have all, I think, brought value in that they brought us together at the same table and we talk about how do
034we make the school better, what things need to be on the front burner, what things need to be, um, dealt with, considered. Um, so that's a a great uh, that's been a great tool for the district. At the board level, I see the board's been engaged with with training and through the state, New York State School Boards Association. So, you know, the board's engaged in in high-level professional uh, development and training. And and so that's uh, that's a part of of our uh, moving our priorities forward. Our staff day, you look at our most recent staff day in March, last month. Um, that day was sort of reflective I think where a lot of things are going in differentiation and personalizing what is relevant. We had some people in Syracuse uh, looking around the room
035at some of the people who were involved with those things. Uh, people who were going to writing workshops in Syracuse and people that were involved with with work around science and technology and some people that were working on getting ready for the state assessments. It a wide range. Some people who were working on the mental health and looking at Mr. Carter, you pull mental health uh, first aid uh, training through the county. So, that's just sort of off, you know, just things that you can immediately identify um, um, that, um, really was was providing what people needed and what was valuable. And so, that's where we, you know, everybody's busy and we want to make sure that we're spending time on things that actually are relevant and have value. And, um, and then finally, um,
036uh, I'll end with a preview of the New York State Portrait of a Graduate. Uh, we've been talking Haven't talked a lot about it lately cuz quite frankly, we needed more information. And it it We now we're starting to get more information about what that looks like. So, for example, and this is sort of hot off the presses, we had a conversation at our superintendents, regional superintendents meeting last Friday. And there's now going to be a regional, uh, through our Madison-Oneida BOCES, there's going to be a regional committee from and the districts will provide a wide range of people from each district who will be sitting at the table together. Uh, and there's several dates that are now going to be, um, put on the calendar going into the fall where we will collectively talk
037about what are things that should be happening. How do we take the new regulations, for example, that are we're anticipating in June and how do we How do we How do we make the most out of it in terms of providing great opportunities for students and providing creative pathways for how they can they can, uh, check the boxes to to towards graduation. So, that's going to be a process for all of us. You know, everybody who works at it's new to everybody, whether it's your first day working in a school or you're you've been here, you know, in the school for for decades. So, we look forward to that. That'll be something that we talk about a lot at the at the, at our board meetings as well because there's just going to be a
038lot of new news. I think if you look over the next 6 to 12 months, going to be a lot of movement on this after we've sort of been waiting for a little bit of time for some clar- clarity. So, those are just again, just want to do a refresher and draw people's attention to those categories, you know, financial, the communication piece, and the capacity building, uh professional development, and we will continue to come back to those things, um and uh look forward to sharing that with our our uh school community. >> Good. Thank you. >> Director's report. >> Good evening Director Kennedy. Thank you. Thank you. I know I've missed the last couple of times when it was my turn to do this. Uh first thing I have to say is going to be
039all about state testing, and I'm almost afraid to say the things I'm going to say because things went so so well today. >> Don't say it. >> Yeah, knock on anything that is solid wood. Um but I really think I you know, I always strive and work with the principals and our um support staff to to make the process better than it was the year before. But really, I think what it was this year is that every grade level right was testing on the computer, where the last 2 years have been a bit hybrid. We've had some doing paper, some doing computer, and that just messes the waters just because it's seamless. But it was really, really, really smooth. Um so, as as long as our next Terra testing platform stays on top for the
040New York State, we're we're good to go. Um we had technology, you know, up and running. We've had extra very few Chromebooks. Mr. Sales, how many Chromebooks did we lend today at the middle school? >> Altogether? >> Yeah. >> Altogether, three to five. >> So, it was awesome. Kids we we put a few things in place to get Chromebooks here >> [snorts] >> um in charge, so that I mean, it just everything really fell together. so you know, special thanks to the building principals and special ed teachers and PPS department for really checking and rechecking testing accommodations. Um, and we had a good plan, so I'm, you know, >> [clears throat] >> like I said, I'm hesitant to say so, but um, so tomorrow session two for ELA, then we've got kind of a week,
041I want to say week off, but we'll use that week to get all of our absentees in, and then May 5th and 6th we start with our we do our math uh, administrations, and then we finish up on May 12th with science for 5th and 8th grade students. Um, something to keep in mind also was along with state testing is new kind of for elementary students are the science investigations over the last few years, right? Students in grades 3 through 5 and 6 through 8 are required to do kind of what in back in my day they were science labs, you know, but we call them investigations, and um, you know, it's part of our curriculum and our instruction, and and we, you know, we give it we administer them, and then, you know, students
042are allowed to make those up, and then >> [clears throat] >> based on their progress on those investigations, teachers will go back in and reteach and support because the the investigations really go hand-in-hand with state testing, so working with all of the science teachers to get that in place before May 12th as well. And something they probably don't think about very much, state testing and and Regents exams at the high school, but we also have state testing for English language learners that actually started this week, and those students actually have to sit for four different sessions of their test. Um, they have a speaking section, a listening, a reading, and a writing. So, that started this week, and now that's the test is called NYSESLAT. New York State, uh, right? New York State >> Goals
043right up the alley. >> Uh, [laughter] what is it? New York expected [clears throat] to look at it. Oh, uh, for the English language learner achievement test. So, right? So, our YNL teacher can't actually administer the first section. It's against regulation. So, we partner with itinerant teachers from BOCES to come in and do those. And then, all of the YNL teachers in the region get together at the end of May and they, you know, pull all the tests together and it's quite an event. I always feel quite special walking in with our little box of our kids. Here comes like CNS and Syracuse. They've got like a cart. They're pulling things in and I'm like, "Here's your little box. Thank you." Uh so, that's a whole bunch of stuff going on with with testing. Um
044>> [clears throat] >> Uh another thing that I do this time of year, and I've actually tried to dive in a little bit more this year, our curriculum resources, the folks that we get those from, specifically I'll speak to math, they like to make changes and updates and publish new versions every year. So, we have a few of this version laying around and a few of that version. So, as we're doing the inventory from this year, so that we're not wasting anything, cuz we order a very small extra each year, but can we take those old versions and mold them together so that they're still usable? So, I've been really digging into that and kind of charting lesson [snorts] by lesson by lesson so that our teachers can can use those and we're lowering the
045cost of what we're purchasing. So, I don't like waste and I don't like spending money. So, [snorts] those go good together. And I know Tracy and I are on the same page with that. So, Um just one brief note, you know, we did successfully transition to BOCES to to take on the supervision role for our home school students. It's been a super smooth transition. So, thanks to that team over there in Cheslat Doyle. Um and then, I just want to finish by recognizing the folks that put their time and effort into the after school program this year. Um, you know, I couldn't have done it without the teachers that stepped up and also with with transportation, food service, and cleaners. So, um, our kids at Robert Street at the middle school refer to this as
046the after after school program because to them after school is that 2:30 to 2:55 um, program, but Um, so this year we specifically invited students to attend that based on their winter benchmark score for NWEA because NWEA is a predictor in how those kids will score on the ELA and math assessment. So, we we kind of targeted that group where we were looking at the twos and wanting to get them to threes. We also invited some of the lower half of the threes just to make and I think a few kids from the other ranges kind of gotten cuz they might have had a sibling that got invited and then they kind of came along. Um, so, you know, we really structured that program this year so that it was based on test taking strategies
047and really doing the best that they could on that. So, it was really successful year. We had 95 kids finish out the program, uh, which is probably the highest number we've had in a few years. So, thank you to our teachers again. I know they were board approved, but I want to say a special thanks to our third grade teachers, Miss Sericia, Miss Jones, and Mrs. Davis, our fourth grade teachers, Miss Macomber, Miss Henderson, and Miss Mills. Um, and I couldn't at South Side I couldn't do anything without Sandy Carey. She keeps me in line over there, um, thankfully. And, uh, fifth grade students, uh, Mrs. Kurek, Mrs. Gifford, and Miss Gaynor worked with our fifth grade students. And because of the lower enrollments in sixth, seventh, and eighth, we tied those together and Mr.
048Bazinet and Mrs. Glenis worked with all of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. So, a special thanks to them. And this year we finally got to bring in science cuz we had a science teacher interested. So, Mrs. Lambo taught science to fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade teachers. So, super glad and I again couldn't do it without the support people and I don't know what I would do without Cindy over at transportation, you know, telling me that the buses were cleared so that I could go home. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Okay, you might have given Cindy a run for her money there with your lengthy report. >> Thanks. >> VERY THOROUGH. VERY THOROUGH. >> I don't understand people talking so long. >> [laughter] >> WELL, I HAD A COUPLE OF MONTHS. I
049MEAN, I HAD TO MAKE UP FOR lost time. >> No, and I was outside today just there in case Ms. Burns needed anything and I will tell you those kids worked so hard. You can tell that they really were putting in the effort and they just even [snorts] the teachers, it was just I hesitate to say relatively seamless, but it was probably the smoothest testing day I have experienced. So, um and it was just it was just a great you know, the kids were ready and excited and it was it was great to see. So, couple of PPS updates. So, like Sean mentioned on our March 20th PD day, um Jennifer Malouka, our CSE chair, and I attended a training at BOCES, which was all about different strategies um and was based on how students'
050brains have changed over the past 5 to 10 years and how they're more active and how to work that into your classroom lessons without taking a movement break every 25 minutes, right? So, what are some different things that you can do, some different activities to do in your classroom where you're maintaining the content, but you're working in that movement or you're working in some different strategies. So, we were able to do that. Um we actually held it here in the library. They we held two three-hour sessions. Um it was a make-and-take, so we provided all the materials. So, at the end we also did it with the help of our OT, um Danielle Burkhardt, which was great. So, at the end they were able They had about 45 minutes to kind of make whatever they
051wanted to to take with them for their classroom, and we have plenty of extra supplies um in PPS for those that um need more eventually. So, I will also say that there was a great Our first session was mainly K-12. We'll say my my Cedar Borough peeps for the most part. Um and they great feedback. They loved it. In the afternoon we had a couple more middle and high school teachers, but it's definitely something we got some great feedback on. So, we would like to offer it again moving forward because it's not necessarily a a special ed thing. It's, you know, things are changing and we need to make sure that we are you know, working those different strategies into our teaching. So, that was great. Um and you know, it's April. Time flies when
052you're having fun. So, we are At this point, you know, we're kind of helping our seniors get all wrapped up and ready to go. Um exit summaries are being finished. Um and so, we are going to make sure that they have everything they need wherever their next stop may be. Um so, our our high school team has been really great on that. Um and the only other thing that I want to share is, as you may or may not know, tomorrow is Administrative Assistants Day, and I know much like uh Karen Rutherford saying to carry her work style site our PPS office runs a lot on um the shoulders of one D assistant. Um and they are they are they work so hard and they are so great. So, I just wanted to give them
053a shout-out along with everybody else um in the district at the high school, transportation, in the district office, but have working so close with them every day, um it is definitely not something that I wanted to let pass by without giving them a real shout-out. So, but yeah, that pretty much wraps it up for people. Any questions? >> Nope. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay, moving along to new business. Uh resolve that the the Canastota Central School District approves the 2026-2027 [clears throat] tentative administrative budget of the Madison-Oneida Board of Cooperative Educational Service Services in the amount of $8,028,676 funded by $1,306,500 in expense by components plus $6,722,176 in earned interest and other miscellaneous revenue. And shall so allocate as a contingent expense its share of said administrative budget as a portion in accordance with
054Section 1950 of the New York State Education Law. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolve that the Canastota Central School District Board of Education authorizes the clerk to submit and certify its ballot in the name of Richard Engelbrecht of the Madison Central School District to serve as a member of the Madison-Oneida Board, excuse me, Madison-Oneida Board of Cooperative Educational Services of the Sole supervisory district of Madison and Oneida counties for the term of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 for the seat currently heard held by Mr. Richard Engelbrecht, uh Madison, New York. The ballot will be submitted to the clerk of the Madison-Oneida BOCES on April 22nd, 2026. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >>
055All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that [clears throat] the Canastota Central School District Board of Education authorizes the clerk to submit and certify its ballot in the name of Craig Brown of the [snorts] Morrisville-Eaton Central School District to serve as a member of the Madison-Oneida Board of Cooperative Educational Services of the sole supervisory district of Madison and Oneida counties for the term of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 for the seat currently held by Mr. Craig Brown, Cazenovia, New York. The ballot will be submitted to the clerk of the Madison-Oneida BOCES uh Madison-Oneida BOCES on April 22nd, 2026. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that the Canastota Central School District Board of Education
056authorizes the clerk to submit and certify its ballot in the name of Patrick Barron of the Sherrill City School District VVS to serve as a member of the Madison-Oneida Board of Cooperative Educational Services of the sole supervisory supervisory district of Madison and Oneida counties for the term of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 for the seat currently held by Mr. Patrick Barron, Vernon, New York. The ballot will be submitted to the clerk of Madison-Oneida BOCES on April 22nd, 2026. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board does hereby approve the 2026-2027 appropriation budget in the amount of $42,270,428. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >>
057All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board is hereby adopt the 2026-2027 real property tax report card to be submitted to the SED. Do I have [clears throat] a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board is hereby approve the following election inspectors and assistant poll clerk as per the attachment. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board is hereby approve the cooperative educational service agreement COSER with Madison-Oneida BOCES effective July 1st, 2026. Do I have
058a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> [snorts] >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Um this is one of the new items that was added to the agenda. Uh D9, resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board is hereby approve the memorandum of agreement by and between the Canastota Central School District and the Canastota Teachers Association for an early retirement incentive. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Okay. Uh student board member updates. Anything to add? Uh let's see. Committee reports. Um I'll start facilities and I will just refer you back to the wonderful presentation that we just experienced from Turner Construction from Robert and Vince. And I have nothing really to
059add to that at all. >> You don't want to do it again? >> Nope. >> [laughter] >> Uh how about finance? >> Uh we have not met since the last meeting. We met uh before or I remember last Monday. >> Last Monday. >> Monday. >> Yeah. >> Um and then we had a meeting on Tuesday. So yes, we haven't really met since the last meeting. Um just going uh highlighting again some of what was explained at the about the budget. Um >> [snorts] >> the increase this year um looks like it is a 6.67% increase to the budget, but reminder that 5.48% of that is new debt from the project. So we are bringing on um revenue to offset the raise um in the uh uh expenses because of the project. So really the operating
060budget itself outside of the project, 1.18%. Um I think that uh much better than most of the other districts around our area. You see a lot of other districts are losing a lot of positions. Um we have been able to keep everything um as the same as we can. Um and able to not have to get rid of teacher, get rid of other administrators, anything like that. Um we've done a really good job of trying to build a budget. I know um Scott and John and I have asked a lot of questions of Tracy. She's probably sick of us at this point in time. Um and we also encourage anybody if they have any questions about the budget, please reach out to us. Um uh one of us to the board email. We will get
061back to you as soon as we can with the answers. And we want to make sure everybody understands the budget, um what they're voting for, um how the project affects what the budget looks like. So if anybody has any questions, please reach out um and let us know. >> Okay. Uh policy. >> Policy, uh we have no update since our last meeting, but our next meeting is May 12th at 5:00 p.m. >> Academic Committee. >> Our meeting is on the 28th. >> Okay, safety. >> [laughter] >> Okay, board comment period. >> Anybody? >> Superintendent's report. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I'm going to take it from the top. I'll be I'll be I'll be brief. Watch this. This will be a record pace here. >> But I do want to I do want to take a
062I do want to take a minute to congratulate we had 19 students recognized last night by our uh, for young leaders in service awards. I believe it was the 19th year they had indicated that the you know, the Lions has hosted that event. So, it's a great event at Theodore's. Uh, students who accumulated uh, 50 to 99 hours I believe was the you know, the silver status and the gold status 100 or >> [snorts] >> and over. So, we had some kids who are really involved in doing great things in the community and certainly we want to encourage that and thank them for that and they're just a nice event overall because the parents were able to and families members were able to participate and uh, so congratulations to all of those uh, to all
063of those um, students who were recognized. Uh, I'm going to skip over uh, Karen really covered the state testing situation. So, um, just you know, looking forward to another smooth day uh, tomorrow and then again in a couple of weeks but we're we're back at it. Uh really want to encourage people. I referenced the Athletic Advisory Council. We have an awesome presentation next Wednesday. It's going to be right in this room uh at at uh 6:30. Uh so, if you want to meet a longtime, you know, uh professional athlete and uh football player, SU star, uh former Philadelphia [snorts] Eagle, um then come and uh join us for that for that session um next Wednesday. And just another reminder cuz it's already on the calendar. It's tomorrow. It's the Eric Stevens concert is tomorrow night.
064Um I It is 7:00. We can we confirmed. Um but the twist is because of our our auditorium that will, you know, hopefully be coming back to us uh you know, in a in a couple of months, it's uh going to be at the Greystone Castle, which is a a cool setting. So, tomorrow night at 7:00. So. >> Okay. Thank you. >> It's a that was >> No. >> record record >> You just stop pressing it. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh moving on to personnel recommendations. Uh note all appointments are pending clearance on fingerprinting. Uh permanent appointments. Resolved upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board is hereby approve Terry Thornton as permanent probationary cleaner at $19.24 per hour, 8 hours a day, effective May 6th, 2026 with a
06526-week probationary period. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board is hereby appoint Brendan Lee on a probationary basis as a 1-through-6 childhood education teacher in the tenure area of elementary with the understanding that the named individual does hold New York State certification appropriate to or required for that position. That the probationary appointment shall commence on 9 1 2026. That the probationary appointment shall expire on 8 31 2030. And that for the named individual to be eligible for an appointment on tenure upon expiration of the probationary period, it shall be necessary but not sufficient that the individual has received an APPR rating of either effective or highly effective in three of
066the four years of the probationary service. And has not received an annual professional performance rating of ineffective in the final year of the probationary appointment. As based on ratings derived in compliance with education law section 3012D at step six bachelor's plus master's plus 36 hours at $63,269. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby appoint Rachel Garrity on a probationary basis as 1 through 6 childhood education teacher in the tenure area of elementary. With the understanding that the named individual does hold New York State certification appropriate to or required for that position. That the probationary appointment shall commence on September 1st [clears throat] 2026. That the probationary appointment shall
067expire on August 31st 2030. And that for the named individual to be eligible for an appointment on tenure upon expiration of the probationary period, it shall be necessary but not sufficient that the individual has received an APPR rating of either effective or highly effective in three of the four years of the probationary service. And has not received an annual professional performance rating of ineffective in the final year of the probationary appointment. As based on ratings derived in compliance with education law section 3012D at step six bachelor's plus master's plus 30 hours at $62,141. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> A second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Substitute appointments, resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approved China
068Rose Matias as a non-certified substitute teacher at $120 per day effective April 22nd, 2026. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? >> [snorts] >> Motion carried. Um moving on to other. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby appoint Rain Martino as Isabelle Hart's mentor for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second? All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Um moving on to This is another addition to the other section, uh J2. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approved Wendy Dunn, teacher assistant, letter of intent to retire at the end of the 2025-26 school year. Do
069I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carried. Public comment period. Nope. >> Okay-dokey. >> Uh future dates, May 12th, 2026, the budget hearing uh 6:00 p.m. uh in here, correct? >> Yes. >> Yeah, 6:00 p.m. in here, which will be followed by our regular Board of Education meeting. Okay. Um I don't believe we are going to be requesting another executive session, so Going once, going once, going twice. Meeting is