001They're great. >> Fully. >> All right. >> Okay. Good evening everybody. If I could have uh we'll stand and do the uh flag salute. >> 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. >> Okay, I want to thank everybody for that. And if I could uh get a motion to approve tonight's meeting agenda. >> Motion. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? And I saw we have a community and we have one person signed up. Randy. Hey guys. Is this coming through now? Is it coming through the mic? Okay. Um, so just good evening. Just something real quick. In these unpredictable times that we're
002kind of experiencing right now, it might be a decent time for those of us to look around, for those of us in the district and in the town that might not have the food stability, that might not have the things that they need as the holidays are coming up and just go check on folks right now. Just go out and ask people, make sure they have what they need. If you can donate right now, I know Divine Mercy's been collecting uh up at the pant, I believe, like up on 11, right? That they've been collecting. I know that the uh some of the social workers direct uh folks there when they need things, but I'm just asking everybody if you have kids that you know, families that you know that might be in need that
003that might be struggling, now is a great time to just reach out, touch base, show some grace, show some empathy, and just make sure that they're okay. These are rough times right now. It's worth just making sure that everybody here makes it, okay? All you'all have a great evening. Keep up the good work. Make sure you tell the teachers they're doing a good job. All right. Have a good evening. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. On to item D, special presentations to the board. We have our technology presentation by Dr. Ted Lob. >> I I have a couple little surprises to share. Um but while we get the uh presentation up um want to give the board just a quick update this evening about all the work that we've been doing in technology. It has
004now been 16 months um that I've been here in Central Square and I couldn't be prouder of the work that we're doing and that my team is doing and the collaboration really with our administrators, with our teachers um and really taking a look um at a variety of key areas that I'm going to highlight for you tonight. But most importantly, I want to show off a little bit of uh school spirit here and show you that we have a little bit of uh our own Red Hawk. And the title for tonight's presentation is actually Chirps and Bites: Updates from the Nerd Birds. So, I'm going to warn you that I will actually geek out just a on a couple bullets. Um and if I go a little too deep, um you know, feel free to
005rein me back in. But I'm going to try to keep it kind of short and sweet tonight. And what we want to talk about are just these five things. Um I want to share with you how we're improving our organizational efficiency because one of the major roles that we play in technology is increasing efficiency across the entire enterprise. Whether it's in the classroom, our administrative offices, I've spent time over the past few weeks and few months helping getting fuel systems up and running. whatever that is um is increasing our efficiency so that um we can do a better job ultimately serving our students. Um increasing IT security. It would not be an IT presentation without talking about IT security and how important that is these days. Um I've actually just lived an entire weekend filled
006with IT security events. And um we'll highlight from you some of the key things that we're doing in the school district to keep our staff and students data safe. Um we're going to talk a little bit about leading innovation across uh the district. I want to highlight for the board some of the money that we're saving in some of those key initiatives and um also how we've spent the past uh 16 months now really building a culture inside our IT department. So um for the first one improving organizational efficiency um the first bullet is really about parent engagement um community engagement and that's really our parent square platform. Um I was just talking to an administrator today that said you know we used to call parents and they won't answer the phone but if we
007send them a direct message through parent square they'll answer. Um, and so that's where parent square is decidedly different than the typical blast that we had before because it's not just one-way communication, it's two-way. Um, next I want to highlight how we've streamlined our account uh management. We have a new system that automates all of our computer accounts so that when a student enrolls that enrollment record is generated in school tool that automatically now syncs to our computer system, spins up their account. when they leave the district, we're automatically disabling their account and we're doing the same thing on the HR side as well. This increases our efficiency and reduces our exposure for old accounts hanging out there. Um we have uh optimized our software and system deployment. Um really through a platform called Class
008Link, we're able to now um roster a variety of different classroom instructional applications efficiently. we can say exactly which students which classrooms should be getting that application. We uh dump all of the data uh integrate the data into that platform and then we deliver that application right to the student's Chromebook. Um next we talk a little bit about building a robust and reliable uh IT infrastructure. And I'd like to highlight for you some of the key things we've done in the past year. We've uh installed a new 10 gig firewall here in the district. We've replaced our core switch to a 25 gig core switch. We've replaced all the Wi-Fi access points at Millard Hawk, Breweron, and Hastings Mallerie. We've replaced the switches at AA Cole. We've replaced every single battery in our UPS system.
009So, every data closet has an un uninterruptible power supply. Um, we have uh created a new server to host critical on-site services including new servers for our fuel system, our building automation system and redundant network functions. Um, last bullet on this one and efficiency is driving continuous process improvement across our IT operations. And this is really a key point for us here in IT that we've created now SOPs, right? Our standard operating procedures. Uh, for the first time we now have a knowledge base. Um so when auditors come in and say show me your procedure for whether that's uh password requirements or how we handle um you know delegating accounts all that's documented in our knowledge base. Um as I mentioned I'm going to get a little geeky and this is where you know the
010IT security piece is so incredibly important. Um, you know, I was talking with uh Erin just last week about policies and how our policies can't even keep up with IT security because we can barely keep up with IC IT security, right? We're staying one step ahead. Um, and some of the things we've done since I've been here, we have updated the code on every single switch in this district. We've updated the code in the firmware on every single UPS system. We've updated every single desktop computer to Windows 11. And we've updated all of our printer codes. We when I came here had 85% of our printers were out of date and had known vulnerabilities hanging on our network. >> So you can build a computer, but for those people that are layman, can explain to
011them like what a switch is? >> Yeah. So our network all of the all the classrooms and all the offices are connected by a system of wires that all get plugged into these closets filled with network switches that uh handles the data and where the data goes. And so really that's a key piece of what we do to protect that data. Um and those switches um contain code on them that if if our if that's not kept up to date um could make us vulnerable to security attacks. Um second uh bullet here training and focus on incident response and data breach policies. And this is where um we've spent a lot of time. We've updated our documentation um on uh what our breach processes are um and we've reviewed that and trained on that procedure
012with the team. Um I mentioned a little bit about class link. Um this third bullet on implementing identity management and strengthening password policies is really about we put in place an identity provider, an IDP. And so that's why the students now see Class Link when they go to log into their Chromebooks because it's a single identity management solution for us. So, it allows us to better protect um and we will be rolling out um in the coming days, months. Um two-factor authentication within class link for staff members as well as we now that our secondary students have email that's open to the outside. Um we'll be rolling out a system for teachers to be able to reset student passwords and for students to be able to set their own passwords. Um so that way they
013don't have a password that maybe they've had for 12 years and their friends know. Um but and and teaching our students about keeping their password safe. Um >> the two factor >> what's that? What are you using? >> So, class link is actually going we were on Google two-factor um and now that we've moved to class link as the identity management um so staff will have a choice of um um of two-factor um providers. Um and uh we have not decided if we would do that for students, but it's kind of interesting that um we do have the ability to do off-campus only two-factor and it could even be like an image if you've uh seen like maybe you log into a bank site and it says select the you know I'm the boot or
014the Eiffel Tower. Um so we have a lot of um new tools at our disposal. Um the key piece is really we're having a lot of conversations before we roll anything out, right? We're talking with our teachers. We're talking with our administrators, with our cabinet. Um, you know, I just brought up the conversation last week about moving from a generic substitute account to actually automating building substitute accounts, right? Um, so that way we can keep those generic passwords, you know, uh, out of our system. The, um, we've done some simplifying internet filtering. When I got here, we had three different filters in place. We're now running one. is just go guardian across the entire enterprise. Um and we run the crowdstrike desktop agent and then increasing and integrating physical security and monitoring. And this is
015where um we have deployed 35 different temperature sensors. So we're now monitoring coolers for food service. We're monitoring uh temperatures in our data closets. We have um really kind of uh exciting to us set up uh electric uh power monitoring. So, every single closet now has monitoring power through our uh uninterruptible power supply, so through Schneider Electric. And so, now my phone blows up every time Hastings Mallerie loses uh power. And I can tell you exactly how long those uh buildings have been down. And Friday night was an absolute nightmare, right? Um we're also really kind of exciting. We're partnering with Day Automation for a trial that we're going to be standing up at Brewerton in the next month or so. Um, we've got a walkth through this week and we're going to go visit
016Fateville Manley schools for a system called Verata that would integrate our door access hardware and our camera system into one cloud-based management console. Um, and that's free of charge. They're they're uh actually we're demoing all of the equipment and we're going to convert the entire building over for a few months um to kind of give it a test drive and and see how it works. So, we're really trying to do a lot on that physical infrastructure security as well. All right. Now, some of the more fun stuff. Um it's really exciting to be leading innovation and um uh along with uh Superintendent Kalibufo, we're uh really excited about the AI platform and training teachers on November 10th about the uh 4EU AI platform and just all of the things that we can now do um
017in the classroom with that tool. Um, we're reimagining classroom instruction through flexible technology. And I just sent out some invitations today to 12 teachers to pilot some new equipment um where they can become unplugged from from the uh from the desk and take their Chromebook around the classroom and wirelessly project. And we're working with uh a really exciting wireless projection technology on that. And we're excited to get that in the teachers hands to get feedback about how does this work and how can this uh better um help teachers present to students and engage students without having the presentation device locked away in the corner. Um we're mod modernizing the district's online presence and at the end of tonight I'll show you a quick little preview of what the new district website is starting to look
018like. Um and we're upgrading our telecom infrastructure. So, for those of you who have uh been frustrated with our phone system, um we're actually embarking on a really exciting um uh kind of new technology to bring in digital voice to the district um through redundant fiber and 5G connections um through a softwaredefined WAN or SDWAN technology um which should give us much more reliability. So, more to come on that soon. And then um probably most importantly, you know, to the board is that, you know, we're doing all of this while we're reducing cost. Um we're reducing uh overspending. We've taken a hard look at our software licensing and um we're using tools on our network to see how many students and staff are actually using the software and then only purchasing the number of license
019that we need. Uh we've been we've reduced our software purchasing by about $30,000. We've optimized staffing where we've reduced a full-time network administrator position and created a part-time uh project manager position that saved us about $50,000. In addition, we've reduced from two to one tech integration specialist from Boseis saving us about $50,000. And then um I know Tom shared this with you last year um but I had to highlight it again because this is why having a project manager is so important and having relationships with our vendors. we were able to time our Chromebook purchase um so that we purchased those before the price went up by $150 per Chromebook and that saved us over $150,000. So >> that was all >> Yeah. Yeah. So um we had a network administrator uh that was full-time
020here in the district. Um when they chose to leave, we looked at filling that vacancy and really what the skill set is. And um uh we were very lucky. So Kevin is the former assistant director of the Central New York Regional Information Center. He had just retired. Um Kevin was also a parent in Phoenix that I happened to work at for a while. He was always my parent rep on the tech committee. Former director of technology for city Boseies. And uh he and I got talking and I offered him a position three days a week to come in and do just project management because so much of what we do in IT is now project based, right? Um we're looking at whether that's procurement um you know working with uh you know our capital project
021um and having someone that can keep the ball rolling on all of those projects is key to me because oftentimes I'm pulled into whether it's you know executive meetings or meeting with teachers or you know other uh critical issues. Having someone that just comes in three days a week and is just looking at how do we keep the ball moving on all the projects we're doing. Um, I give Kevin a lot of credit for all of those bullets you just heard that we've accomplished in 16 months wouldn't be possible without someone whose sole job is to keep that each each piece of that moving along. >> It's also a testament to you because what he does in three days and I've shared this with other super. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's exciting. We've and
022then this is really where I wanted to end and that is, you know, we're really building culture as a team. Um, we got new uh copers over at the copy center last week. So, here's the team. That's Kevin on the left. Um, along with Leanne and Mary and our our copier trainer and uh they posed for a picture in front of the new color copier. They're really excited about this new production color. So, teachers, spread the word. Send your color copy jobs over. They will look even better now that we have this new machine. And you know, as a as you're hearing a theme, we did it at the same cost, right? So, we extended the lease by a year. We increased our production print quality. Um, same cost to the district. Um, and then
023on the right, I think it's important to celebrate uh what we do. And at the end of the summer, I took the entire team out. We had a team event uh offsite and uh you know people brought their spouses and just you know we're building a culture of supporting each other enjoying what we work uh do for work every day and uh you know loving uh love loving the challenge that comes with uh the 6 a.m. phone call that the phone system's down. >> Any questions? >> Um I don't I don't really have a question. I just have a comment. And I I remember when I first got on the board almost nine years ago, we didn't have Wi-Fi throughout the school and and we didn't you know that that required a huge project. We
024didn't have Chromebooks. We didn't it we the district has come a long long long ways from when I first got on the board and and that's a testament to you know and it seems like we've made incremental leaps and you know since you come on a board it's really really stepped up where technology is is integrated it's modern it's something that that kids and students you know can be used to along with um you know with staff, you know, it's really, you know, the the the better you get at it, the the better you can become proficient in it. And then I think with with AI, I I I just told my wife, I I I don't know what I would have done and how much my career would have been so much easier with
025AI throughout my It's it's a it's truly truly truly amazing what you can do with it. and it just um I'm excited to see what everybody's going to be able to do with it here within the district. So, congratulations to to you guys on that. >> Thank you. And if I might, Pearl, would you pop up just the quick preview? So, we've been working with our our friends at city's Boseies who have to taken on the leg work of really creating this new look and this new vision um for our district web presence. While none of the links really take you to any content yet, I wanted to give you a quick preview of what it of what it looks like. Earl, can you you can shut that down. Yeah. >> Got to love technology.
026That's what access. This is super exciting. This is very exciting. So, I mean, I've been on the board just same years as Steve, and this is another huge, huge bone in our side. It It's been an ongoing problem with people complaining about the website, and I can't find this on the website, and it just looked archaic to some extent. So, we're excited about it, and a lot of work still early December. They're already working That was streamline that See the popular amazing because it's frustrating like so many apps out there, right? it it always has that option at the bottom that says, you know, view full site and it's like there's so many things missing on the app version of it or the mobile version you can't find and it's like you got to go
027to the desktop version. It's like, so that's awesome. If it makes it keeps everything there, just makes it smaller. Okay. Could I get a motion to for item E in its entirety? >> I'll motion. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor. Thank you. If I could get uh motion for item F, consent agenda in its entirety. >> A motion. >> Get a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. On to reports, student board member report and take as much of town's thunder as possible. >> Um, I would just like to say that cheerleading has gone to sectionals this weekend and won. So, we'll be going to states. >> Um, so we'll be going to states. Um, it is overnight. So, we got the discussion today about
028all of the policies and stuff that we need to go over regarding um bag checking um the fact that we're going overnight that we have to, you know, have to follow the rules um rooming and all that stuff. So, that's super nice that we have the opportunity to do that and that the um Mr. Grimshaw is paying for it. >> Very nice. >> Yes. Um, the counselors are doing senior interviews. Um, I really don't know what goes into that, but I'm really excited that they're doing that, especially for the seniors who don't really know much about that or who um don't know how to speak to people. So, it's really nice that they're doing that. >> So, if you haven't experienced it, it's great. We have a lot of board members that volunteer their time
029to come in as well. That's one area that I've noticed, we've all noticed over the past 10 years. It's lacking for students. the ability for them to sell themselves, right? And so I've heard board members, I've heard leaders in the community that own businesses, that is probably the most valuable information that these students and they are taking down notes feverishly because they need it, right? Like they need to hear what they're saying because they will be doing an interview and uh it's it's really meaningful. I'm glad you touched upon it. >> Thank you board for um taking your time to do that. I didn't know you guys did that. Um there was a fundraiser mishap um for I think the sophomores where their fundraiser went out and um Miss Shap had to take a pause
030on it and then continue on. I don't really know what happened with that. >> Well, since you brought it up, I can let everybody know there was something that we weren't aware of. Um and she's been doing it a long time. It's not going to happen again. There can't be a money grab where if a student won something, this company was going to do a money grab where there have potential to literally, you know, win undisclosed amounts of money and legal said that we can't do that for high school students. So, they were able to still do their fundraising and win like a free ball ticket or things like that, prom tickets, but you we can't do uh money grabs with high school students, students in general. That's what it was. All right. Um, another
031thing is that um, sports are coming to an end. So, the football season is um, over and the color guard and a lot of seasons are going either going into their sectionals or preparing to um, which is super nice, which means that winter season is coming around and um, open gyms have been happening for basketball. Um, I know track starting to um, do their open gyms. So nice to know that, you know, it's coming around. Um, let's see. We had the senator meeting which I think went pretty well. It was nice to hear a lot of teachers opinions um on different things that are going on in our community. Especially um for me and Emma, we discussed that, you know, we didn't know a lot of these issues were happening. So, it was nice to
032see a glimpse into what's going on behind the scenes that we don't all really know about. And it would be really nice if we take someone's time to like have a lot of that explained to us, especially when it comes like C4 and the teachers benefits and busing. Um, so that'd be really nice. Um, we have NYSCLSA conference coming up this month, which is super nice, which is an overnight conference for student government. um to help us learn more about leadership and um definitely take ideas from other schools and bring it back to our school. Um it it it's at um Niagara Falls this year, so that's super nice. Um and to touch upon um the lack of food for um our people in our community, Boseies is doing a Thanksgiving free meal. Um I
033think it's November 22nd. Um where people just come in. It's first come first serve. Um and it's definitely a grab for our community which I think will definitely really benefit everybody. >> We've also increased our backpack program that we have a wonderful job. And thank you. And food insecurity has always been something that has has really plagued this county. As I said before, Asiggo County ranks right up there with food insecurity in the whole state. So it's not just now, it's during the holidays. It's all the time, especially now with, you know, with what's going on. Yep. Thanks for bringing that up. Okay, >> that's the report. Thank you. >> On to any uh board members report. >> We all good. >> All right, take it away, Tom. >> Okay. Well, Evangelene took a couple
034of my thunder and I appreciate that. That's okay. Congratulations and great job to the cheer team and I want to say that because she's on it and she didn't get, you know, give credit to herself, but you did a wonderful job. You really did showcase that. You're you're we're proud of all of you. Um good news from the music department. On November 2nd, the Asiggo County Music Educator Association held its first ever scholarship recital. Students from around the county performed up to 10 minutes of solo music for the uh crowd and judges. The judges selected, here he is, Eli Connor, who spoke at one of our board meetings, um as the first prize recipient and Madison Helvy as the second prize recipient. Interesting. I was actually at Wegman's grocery shopping with my wife two weeks
035ago and I had something on that said Red Hawk shirt or my Red Hawk jacket and the person said, "Do you work at Central Square?" I said, "Yes." I said, "I'm the superintendent there." They said, "Wow, we have seen Eli Connor on the news. We've heard about him. Like, he is a talent." So, I say that because oftentimes you hear that for sports. I think it's super important that we also recognize when we have our fine arts. Like, I just thought that was great and I wanted to be able to say here publicly. Um, Eli Connor and Preston Lacy have been accepted into the American Coral Directors Association All Eastern Egg uh, Capella Festival. That's another huge accomplishment. You see Eli popping up a lot. Central Square Music um, middle school students accepted into the
036NISMA area all state junior high school f uh, high school festival chorus. Grace Anderson, Lillian Brinklo, um Laurel Po, uh P um Kaylee Kayn Pulley, um Addison Zatanic, and for band, David Borton, Madison Burkhart, Maddie Durin, Alex Fenton, Andrew Flynn, Anika Hip, Kenzie Katab, Alex Malone, Ivy Pay, and Lexi Ramsey. On October 11th, the Red Hawk Regiment competed in the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland at the Marine Corps in uh Invitational. Competing against five bands from Maryland and Virginia, the Red Hawk Regimen finished first place and swept the awards for best overall effect, best visual, best music, best color guard, and best percussion. at our uh last football one of our recent football games um we had Tony Bush um came and actually gave uh presented them with a proclamation and that was at
037our home show. So all of the other schools got to see this uh school districts that was remarkable. The Redhawk Regimen um completed their season with October 26th competing at the JMA Wireless Dome. The band finished fifth place in the state, achieving both their highest finish and highest score since 2015. I was there. It was remarkable. Um, they were so proud. It was It's great to see students achieve in an area that they excel in, whether that's in sports, whether that's in the classroom, whether that's fine arts, whether it's our city Bosei students when they're competing um in their competition in the spring at the fairgrounds. It's always great to see students, you know, excelling at something that they're truly passionate about. That's why we're all here. Um, former board member Dick Crips, who lives
03820 houses away, was inducted into the New York State Field Band Conference, NYSFBC Hall of Fame on Sunday during the championships in the dome. And he has been retired. He was here um he was here in the capacity of a board member when I was here. He had already been retired during my 11 years, but he's always remains a staunch supporter of the district and a huge uh huge supporter of uh student programs. His kids dominated in his own kids in athletics and in music. So, it's great. It's great to see him um being recognized this way. That concludes my superintendent report. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Ready? So, uh, the administrators were in good spirits. They are great sports. They all dressed up. We all went to the different buildings on Halloween
039and the kids got a real kick out of it. So, that was great. And kudos. I see some administrators back there. I see some teachers and they were they were all in costume and the kids love that. They love to be able to see their teachers and their administrators having fun on a day that should be a fun day. And so, yeah, that was a lot of fun. Okay. Can I get a mo motion for item H in its entirety? A >> motion. >> Can I get a second? >> A second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? Can I get a motion for item I? >> A motion. >> Can I get a second? >> Any discussion? All those in favor? That's a wrap. Thank you everybody. Thank you.