001I will. Nope. I'm just going to call the meeting to order first. Okay. And then if everyone could please stand for the pledge. Where's the pledge? 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. They forgot to bring the flag up. I know. I know. Forgot the water, too. But um Okay. So, do you have your sheet up? Yep. because we're going to do our oaths of office now and Mr. Kova will call people up. Okay. We will have Mr. Lucas. Pearl, you don't give you didn't give me an order. Okay. Pearl Horn, the district clerk, will administer the oath of office to returning board members Allison Douglas. Okay, if you'd raise your
002right hand. I, Ellison Douglas, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge duties of the office of school board member according to the best of my ability. Great sign there. You want to know where to go back? Thank you. Let me I think that's a bad mic. It's got a lot of back pain. You want to shut that off? I'll bring this one off. And now Pearl Horn will administer the oath of office to Kenneth Sherman. I got you. I, Kenneth Sherman, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of
003school board member according to the best of my ability. [Applause] And now, Pearl Horn, the district clerk will administer the oath of office to returning board me, no to new board member Ryan Lucas. [Music] Hold this up. Yes. Thank you. I, Ryan Lucas, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the school office of school board member according to the best of my ability here and here. And now, Pearl Horn, district clerk, will administer the oath of office to one of our student representatives, Evangelene Plutoa. Our other Emma Rubar, I'm sorry, Emma Rubar is here. Evangelene Plutoa was not able to make it today. This is the first time we've had co-
004uh student board representatives, but the board was just really impressed with two of the candidates and decided it was also a good idea because sometimes they can't be at everyone, but it gives them the opportunity to be able to talk to each other and then make a schedule on the ones they can come to um and they can divide and conquer to get even a larger voice among the student population. So with that, I will have Emma Rubar come up and take your oath. raise your right hand. I am a Rubar do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States in the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of student board representative according to the best of my ability.
005[Applause] Okay. And now we're going to move to um president of the the board. I did receive a letter of interest from Steve Patch and a nomination from Dave Tacman for Steve Patch. Um, if there's no other nominations, if somebody could make a motion. A motion. There were two writings. Mary, what does that mean? And then I just need a vote now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Patch. I'm ready. Two things at once. I Steven Patch do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and I'll faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of Board of Election Education President according to the best of my ability. We are. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Catch will
006take the meeting over. Okay. I have one. Now we'll move on to the vice president. And we have one uh person that put in for it. Christy Fishman. Anybody else interested? Can I get a motion? Second. All those Any discussion? All those in favor? Congratulations. [Applause] Emma, I'll send you the picture. You can hang on your refrigerator. Do kids still do that? It's a while. All right, there we go. I don't know if it matters. We do it at our house. I don't know if it matters. All right. Yep. I, Christy Fishman, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of Board of Education Vice President according to the best
007of my ability. Thank you. Hey Christie. I think we need empty dehumidifier in our office here. Look at this baby. [Music] Okay, on to item E, appointment of board officers. And this can I get a motion to accept item E in its entirety? That would be for the district treasurer, deputy treasurer, and district clerk. A motion. Any discussion? Just board. I think this is item E is just the board officers. We'll go the regular. Yeah, the regular meeting. I think this is Yeah. Yeah, it is the that's the regular meeting. Nope. It's okay. Anybody else? All those in favor. Okay. Yep. I was going to take a Do you give it or do I You give it. I, Pearl Horn, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the
008Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of district clerk according to the best of my ability. [Applause] Oh, we're talking more than that. I do. Oh, okay. I thought I read that. Perfect. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Pearl. Welcome back. Okay, on to item F, board appointments. Can I get a motion to accept item F in its entirety? All motion. Any discussion? All those in favor? Thank you. Have Okay. Item on to item G, designations. Just got to get a motion to accept item G in its entirety. Sorry, I'll I'll motion. It's not in the It's not in the detailed one. It's in the It's in the non-detailed one. I'll motion. I'll second. Any discussion? Um, we do have to Are we doing that after? I think
009we we got to fill it in. Got to fill it in right now. before we approve it. So, we got adopted board members is um Are you going to be the board representative and be No, I didn't. I attended it. We're not going to it, but it's done remotely. No, no, he's for the Swiggo County. Oh, god. Yeah. Oh, for the SBA? Yeah. You did it last year, so I just didn't know if you wanted I'll I'll do it again this year. Sorry, Steve. That's why I love you as VP. Um, okay. Adopted board members. So, we have AA Cole, Breweron Center Square Middle School, Hastings Mailor Elementary School, Miller Hawk Elementary, Paul Vmore Moore Transportation and Maintenance Center. Um, Lori, what we'll kick off with you. What would you like? School. Okay. Ken Middle
010School. You link down Pearl. You're awesome. Mr. Tacman. I would take Miller Hawk. Miller Hawk. Ryan. It is Mrs. Douglas. I'll take maintenance. Miss my AO. So that leaves I'll take transportation. Transportation. What's that leave? Hastings. Hastings. So Brian's got Hastings Mallerie. Did you want Brian to take Hastings? So he gets for not being here. So he'll go to Hastings. Brian, he's not here. Then we have maintenance. You did. You said Oh, take the high school because his stepson goes here. So, why don't we give him the high school and I'll go back to Hastings. No, I think it's good sometimes like if you don't have a kid at school. Yeah, if you if you want the high school, Lori, I mean, he's not here. Yeah, take the high school. So, you know, you lose
011that. If he's not here, he gets volunttoled, right? Volunteered. Plus, Lor's got a kid in that school, too. Yeah. Grandkid. No. Teacher, her daughter, right? Her Who are we? She's taking the high school. I know. That's what I'm saying. I'm like keeping the high school. Yeah. Do we got all of them? We do. I think we do. Yeah. And you got the you got the sweet thing. Okay. Good. Now, can we vote on it? Well, are we do we need do we need a voting delegate? Do you Oh, for F. I'm sorry. Yeah, F is what I was originally talking about. Yeah, I know. Sorry. Board of Education voting delegate. I'll try to take short. Well, this is what we did. I didn't do Yeah, you and I have alternated. Um, does anybody else want
012to do the voting delegate? You want to do it? I think it's fascinating, but it t with now that they did it online, everyone just goes on forever. So, just bring lots of coffee to your computer. We are, but we're not going this year. So, we save money. It would be virtual. 12 grand in savings. Okay. I had four plus hours. I could I couldn't make the whole thing. Yeah. It was six when I did it and I bailed the last like 10 because we didn't care about the last 10. So, yep. You want to do it? Yeah. Anybody want to be an alternate? If she can't do it, you can put me down. I'll be an alternate. I think Brian said he wanted to do it. Yeah. Yes, he did. Okay. Um, so now
013we have the the policy committee. We have four members. Allison, myself, Tacman Wood. There you go. Attackman. What? Anybody else? I think I don't think we can have anybody else. Oh, that's right. Because then we have a quorum. So, that's for um I'll do audit audit committee. Christy Casey too. So, Randy was the other one. Ryan, you want to you want to be on the audit committee? It's it's actually pretty good. Learn the ins and out how how the money's accounted for. Three. Ryan prior to our not 30 minutes prior to our normal board meeting. Okay. Good. I think we're good now. I think that's it. Okay. With those changes, I could I get a motion for G? You want to vote on it? We already motion. We already moved that second. All those in
014favor? Okay. Thank you. Exactly. You have you have no idea. Um All right. I got board appointments item F. I think we can do this. And we already we've already done that. We already did that. We're on H. Sorry. That's the thing that it just this one got all mixed up. So now you can switch back to this one. We're here. Okay. H authorizations. Yeah. Well, you're right. It's okay. No, it's all right. We got it. Authorizations. So, I'll make a motion. Yeah, I think we just need a motion for that. Second. Alison second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. Um item I re uh adoption of the code of ethics and current district policies, regulations, and procedures. Can I get a motion for I? A motion. Second, Lori. Second. Any discussion? All those
015in favor? Okay. Item J. I think we can do that in its entirety. Can I get a motion? I'll motion. A second. Second, Lori. All those in favor. Okay. Item K, approval of New York SIRRI insurance coverage for the district employees, board of education positions. Can I get a motion? I'll motion. A second. Any discussion? All those in favor. On to item L, reestablishment of the reserve funds. Can I get a motion? I'll motion. A second. All those in favor and item M, motion to close the annual organization meeting. I will motion. Thank you. All those in favor? Okay, so that is closed. Thank you for your patience. I act like I've never done this before. That's not easy. That's all right. We can do it in front of a stone wall. I can do
016it. Yes, Ryan. We'll get a picture of you that we can put on the site. Replace Randy. So, before we leave today, I'll go in front of that same wall. We get that after the student board. Okay. I'm going to call the regular meeting into order minus the flag salute. We've already done that. Could I get a motion to approve the meeting agenda? I'll motion. Any discussion? All those in favor? Are you sure you don't have a blue card? No. I I love the face since it raising her hand. She wants more money. Okay. So, um on to the next uh item. I'd like to have a moment of silence for Shirley Jones, teaching assistant. Uh, from September 1969 to July 2002, she 24 years of service at the district. Okay, thank you for that.
017Um, item D, there is no special presentations to the board, no reports. So, on to item E. Can I get a motion for item E in its entirety? I will motion and I will second. Any discussion? Couple questions on the list of uh coaches. When we had met and talked about the um budget restraints, there was a talk for middle school modified sports uh for dropping the programs that we added last year for cost savings. Did that not go forward with reducing the programs? So, we made the change because we were able to remove the weight room supervisor at $18,000 and not have to then cut those positions. So shortly after we had that meeting, the athletic director came back and said, "If we do what we were going to do, we would remove 89
018kids from being able to play sports. If I can find that same amount of money and the 18,000 in the weight room supervision was a huge thing along with the newly appointed assistant coaches, then we more than made our mark. If the 3% didn't go through, then that was the next thing we'd have to go back to." Okay. We did cut some varsity sports though. We cut gymnastics. We were down to four and hockey was never ours. Okay. So, it was about $2,000 per kid for about four of our students. Right. So, with that, we said we can't we can't do that. However, if a parent were to go through the boosters, not our boosters, but their boosters to offset that cost, not a pay-per-play, but if their boosters were able to figure like if
019they needed our kids to be able to run their team, then they could figure that out, but it would not be on our end. Okay. So, we had to no longer send them. Okay. Tom, um, for hockey, I I totally get that. Uh for gymnastics, we had talked about the getting a list of what the costs for all the sports were and how many we we had I think Lori had requested it the how what the budgets were for each sport and how many students were involved and um things like that because we had while we were in that room that we did have a lot of different information with respect to some of the things that were being discussed uh for cuts. And for us to cut one varsity program, I feel like it's
020um but that program was going to be cut several years ago, too. And I wasn't aware of of that. You talking about gymnastics? Yeah. So, the whole thing with gymnastics was the the rising cost of using that facility with just four of our own kids. Um and busing. And well, then they came up with they said that we' be able to use the place at Great Northern Mall, but then the busing of that just knocked that out of the water. Right. Right. And then they couldn't guarantee after that one year that we'd even still be able to use that space. So given the fact that we only had four kids in that understood, but if the if the parents were willing to transport, what was the what was the I I know we had talked
021about that briefly, but there was some concerns about potential, you know, issues of weather and things like that, but I mean, when we're having practices here at 5 and 700 p.m. at night, the parents are driving them back and forth anyway. So the conversation I had with Jamie was that when we have a sport that we have, like we didn't have hockey, that was combined, but that was our sport right there for gymnastics. And given the declining numbers that we've had, and it was dwindling to four, which it could have even been three this year. She had said that she was going to bring up 11 seventh graders that came out of nowhere. But given the and they still didn't even take the physical the state requirement there, that test. Well, but that I I
022just again I just I didn't think when we were in that room kind of hedging back and forth about things, I there was a different number on the table. And I think a lot of us in that room, at least the ones that I've talked to, might have felt differently if that number was different. And if you know, I thought we were going to explore that more. I didn't I thought there was going to be more discussion of whether that was going to be sustainable or not. So, let me just make sure. So, you what you guys wanted. So, we thought, my team thought that that conversation stopped when the 3% had passed. And so, before the next budget, what we were going to do, and starting literally in the fall, because we already know
023we're only going to get 2%. So, we're kind of ahead of the game on that. We were going to break down all the numbers for music, band, sports, each individual one. I didn't know that. We didn't know that that was the expectation for the reorg meeting was to be able to say the cost for every varsity sport JV sport. Yeah. I don't I don't know if we needed it for this particular meeting, but I just at some point, but with what what season is gymnastics? Is that winter? I'm not sure. I I don't know. I just, you know, there were things that were brought up after that meeting that we had prior to the the revote that when we were trying to figure out if this was, you know, what was doable, if there was
024a 3%, what it looked like if it was zero. And so, you know, like Fulton was charging us for our players if we had so many of these gymnastics girls from other schools and we could offset the cost. It seems silly to cut a varsity sport if it could be something in the single digit thousands of dollars opportunities. And you know the the 11 or this 11 or whatever seventh graders that she talked about, it was my understanding that they were trying to schedule those A tests, but they were the parents were told that the sport's not going to exist, so they couldn't schedule them. So, right, I don't I don't want to bank on the fact that none of the kids took the test if the test wasn't provided, if it wasn't offered to
025them. Um, so I just I thought we were going to look into it more if the 3% passed. We were going to see if we could make up whatever the cost was, whether it was we charge Mexico $1,000 per kid to send their kid here and if it was only going to end up being four or five or $6,000 to have those kids if they were self transported, you know, to the but it's still like and we can have the continue the conversation, but it comes down to the coach, the JV coach, we pulled that money out, but when you look at about 11 or 12,000 for the coach and then you look at the number of kids that we have, even if other if other districts paid. Part of that could be for the
026coach. So, I can again circle back with Jamie and say, is that even an option? Um, we would have to find out all the kids that participated in gymnastics from the other districts. A would they be willing if if we did kind of like what Fulton did to then that could offset the cost? I can I can absolutely look into that. Yeah. I just I didn't know I thought we were I thought that was going to get looked into. I thought it was a done deal at our last meeting that we were not going to explore it. Right. Well, and that's what Jamie thought as well and that we weren't going to move forward. But and with that being said, just like when we made the decision to save the modified sports by getting rid
027of the one thing, if we can if the nine other kids that were on that from other districts agreed to pay a set cost that that would offset and not be a cost to the district, that's information I can bring back to all of you guys and say, "Hey, here's the deal. It's not going to cost us anything to continue this opportunity." But I think if we do that, we have to do it for girls wrestling because we sent our girls elsewhere. So to be completely fair, we didn't offer anybody else to send their girls in to make it cost effective. So I think if we do that, we need to keep it, you know, at least fair. One of the differences was we looked at our own sports sports first. That is our was
028our sport. Girls wrestling wasn't. We only had two girls that had signed up when we tried to have it. So I think yeah we we can't create a team relying on other teams but if we already have a team and other teams want to send the girls for that team possible here well we don't know and that's that's the point but for the this approval for this list here again this was just my perception but when I talked to a few people even at the meeting I thought when we kept talking about this is just a rough draft this is not if the budget pass this is not end all beall of what's going to happen. We can still have discussions about what gets caught and what doesn't. JBachnics would have played, right? I brought
029it up as the discussion because we one of the things that we did talk about was any programs that were added during CO because of COVID or postcoavid um would be considered for removal in the event that we have to save money. We offer the sport to kids, but we're offering two teams, which means we're busing two teams for boys and girls. We're busing two teams, u basketball, soccer. You're talking for modified. Modified. Yeah. All of those age levels have an opportunity to try out and play the sport. And if they don't make the team, then there's other options for them. But be it a club, be it another sport that may be low on enrollment, they could consider that. Um, and the biggest concern that I have with it is the excessive cost with
030with what it takes to if one team's home and another team's away, every time we have a game where we have all those added expenses, referees, busing, um, with the extra, it could encourage kids to maybe try another sport. Um, and it also takes out the equation of it's a matter of time before half of that team is going to be cut at the JV level, right? But devil's advocate stronger program. I get it. But I've had other parents say the exact opposite of that. That these are the only opportunities for their kids to play a school sport and we all know about participation and what it does for academics, discipline, attendance. I definitely agree with we've talked about this quite often, but we're in a situation where we don't have an endless budget today.
031So, they have to explore other opportunities. No, I get it. But seventh, eighth grade can play modif um community basketball. They offer it at that age level. They offer it for soccer. Uh to have two teams and spend taxpayer money. We are offering it competitive level. And I see that. But I also remember the board that did tell me not to micromanage six years ago when I have an athletic director that says we have 89 kids that would not be able to play for their school. And that means something. I'm not devaluing your point. I think this I'm glad this is being spoken about publicly because if that's the direction that the board wants to go in, there's going to be a lot of upset modified parents because kids got caught where it's easy for
032me to say it was all disgusting. They have to come out and vote next time. What's that? They have to come out and vote. Agreed. I hate to say it and I hate to be that cold. And I'm not sure how many players we have on soccer. I know basketball is 15, but my own son will be impacted by this decision. He was a manager of one of the two teams. So, it's not a personal decision for me. it's more more in the interest of the taxpayers and you know the budget that we're working with and I think that we just need to make up some criteria because what we've been going under the athletic director myself in previous board decisions were how many people it impacts. So if you've got a boys soccer team
033and you've got 60 kids try out or double the amount. So what whatever that number was it was double the amount and then the same amount of girls try out rather than make all of those cuts. I mean I do see it both ways. Sure. um because bossing and everything is a factor. But what I what I think is important though is to get all the information because you're going to have people that have a sacred cow and for for the coach loves gymnastics. The four kids that were on the team for Central Square loved being a part of it rather than say we can't do that because we don't have the money. If the other districts were willing to pay like Fulton puts out that number, right? then then there's no cost. Then you
034know and I and I'm not even saying there has to be no cost. I'm just saying it would be unfortunate if we have to cut a varsity program that's existed for a long time and yes the enrollment was low and if it perpetuated at below five of our own students then I would see that. But from what I understood and again I don't I'm not involved in gymnastics. I'm just taking information from some parents and from the presentation there's years where there's 15 or 20. And so had that number been 15 or 20, we probably would have felt differently about that. And so I would hate on a low year to have it happen to be the year the budget didn't pass and we're actually looking at it. I also had some parents of some
035other I I don't have personal knowledge, but there was discussion of some other very low number I cheerleading or basketball cheerleading or some there's very low numbers for those. We got we got rid of JV cheerleading. Okay. But so that's why that that information eventually would be helpful because then if this is perpetuating like we anticipate it is and we have to do then maybe next year it won't be an option anymore even if well that this all is good because it plays into the conversation I had with our cabinet that normally we would have to wait until like end of winter before we can even have the conversations and yes we we're not going to get our the governor's runs until they normally do it but we already know we're only getting 2%. So
036we can start to have this conversation to say, look, if this is the case, this is what we're going to have to this is the much money that we're going to be getting. This is the cost per sport. This is the number of kids that were on at the prior year. The other thing too is what Jamie is going to do and it worked last year was getting already I believe that he already has the numbers of the kids for the modified soccer for the boys and girls, right? And if there's not if there's not enough to make correct full size then we don't need to have all teams. Yeah. Um and then the only other thing and I don't think it was on this one unless all the coaches were on this. I I
037didn't notice but as a board you know I feel whenever we get into this negotiation that bowling issue has to be addressed. I mean, we've talked about it. Having one practice for two teams and being paid for your time twice is absolutely utterly unfair. And I don't I don't know how they can even do that because I feel like the state would have a rule against that. But I understand you've been there. You've tried to address this with them before. But if if the coach wants to be paid for the girls team and the boys team, both stipens, then I personally think he needs to have two separate practices. I I don't think it's fair for him to be paid twice to be in the same place at the same time because those co those
038kids when he's coaching the girls when he's coach they're getting half a coach in my opinion and so unless he wants to have separate which inevitably would add cost because we cannot do we can't rent that twice right but then something else it just doesn't it doesn't even seem like it should be allowed it seems like it's split the salary so now we look for another coach and whatever we're paying we split it in two and we go look for another these are conversations that have happened before but that's why I'm glad that one of you will be on the negotiations, right? They need to that's not or we get rid of the team and we rewrite it or some you know what I mean? Something needs to be done that should not be allowed.
039He's in the same place for the same time and he's getting paid twice. It's just Yeah, that's not even I agree. So I that alone that savings alone would cover the the gymnastics team almost. I if there's no transportation and none of that, just the coaching, the gymnastics team has been in a very strong decline over the past 10 years. Okay. And I don't want to see us put a sport out and spend money for four kids. Yeah. And like I said, if it if it perpetuates like that, but again, and I only have the information that I have, which is why when I when we get that information from Jamie, I'd really like to see like three last three years, how many kids were on the team, what the budget was, what the sal
040what that was, salaries versus equipment budget, transportation, so that we can see how this team has trended and and how expensive it is and what of the cost, Right. Exactly. Salaries, but no. Absolutely. Per kid, per student. And you have to have special staff manad or a hallway. What does it really cost? Right. Yeah. And you're going to see and we went we did this about seven years ago that like obviously football helmet is $700 for one helmet. But they also have one of the strongest booster programs. And so I get I'm not saying we should equip but but they could you know what if if there was an issue. And that's so that's what I'm saying. Yeah. You're right. That's I mean soccer they don't provide shinuards. Those shinuards are brought by the players.
041You know, like baseball, they get bring their own bats, bring their own gloves, bring their own catchers equipment, bring their own I'm not saying that we need to. No, that's what we're going to do. So, it'll be each sport. It'll be roughly the number of kids that are on the team. They'll be the total cost, everything. Um, and what the well and what the budget what the budget is. Is the budget, this is for this coach's salaries, and here's everything else what they have in the budget. It'll definitely be it'll be varsity. If there's a JV coach, it'll be the coaching salaries. It'll be the It'll be everything. Yeah. I mean, I would think that that should be relatively available information. So, the participation plays a key role. How many kids are on the team,
042right? So, then if we see that gymnastics for three years straight had five or less kids, then that's a different conversation. But from what I was told, that fluctuates a lot. And so, not that much. No. No. Okay. Right. And if we could get them, like I said, a five, seven, 800 thousand dollar stipen to send kids. I don't know what it was for for hockey. It looked like it was like 25 thou 2500 bucks. I don't wouldn't expect that, especially if they're getting the space for that year, you know, but there they could still contribute towards the cost, but it would be the busing. So, just like for instance, we were talking about the grime situation before we were able to combine and this this actually runs parallel to that. We were we were
043able to have the Living Word kids with the um Bishop Grime kids because the proximity, but now it's not to do that. It's 30 minutes away. So, we can have the the Living Word kids and the Bishop Grime kids on the bus for a lot longer or um Jason Fellows told me today it's about $32,000. They have a separate run. Yeah. Just because they have to bid. There's kids that live in Cleveland that are on the bus for an hour and 15 minutes. I get it. But but that's why it's good that we're having these conversations. I'm going be honest. Most boards don't have these conversations and it's important to have these conversations because this board does not rubber stamp and you ask difficult qu not difficult question but important questions because they have to
044do with the budget. Well, budget budgetary yeah budgetary constraints and so that Bishop Grimes parents made it you know they were very creative and they they worked out a solution. If it happens to double their length and they're on the bus, then that's you know I I don't they're still getting transported which is what they asked for. So since this will save me in my superintendent report, what she's we're referring to is a parent had said that there was a place over at CNY Boom Trucking and it's literally it's the very end of our district on Mudmill Road and it's exactly 15 miles from there to Luton. And so that would be the drop off. And then full transparency so anyone watching this would know, a parent wanted to know, could they keep it, the
045drop off and pickup still at Brewer? And I I asked Bethany, I didn't think we could. I thought it was where they physically got on and Bethany corroborated that. And it's where they actually get on. So the drop off and pickup would have to be there. So I spoke with the gentleman who owns that company on the phone. Great guy. Um they plow it out. Paragon plowing company plows it anyway. And so they have a plan to be able to do that. I sent Jason Fellows over today. He said it all works out. He spoke with him. So what we're going to do is we now have to decide um to combine the bus run to keep it combined, right? Which would make it roughly 30 minutes longer on the bus. Either way, it's going
046to be able to have a run. So, it's going to let the parents or sorry, let Bishop Len Grimes know that if you have anybody enroll from the Central Square School District, you can let them know that that's an opportunity for that pickup and drop off spot, which I'm hearing right now is only three kids. Okay. And um in terms of the length difference or anything like that, does that get us into any situations with respect to CBA or No, because it's there's no one that's closed. No. No. And you know what? I think Dave brought up a good point before. There's like seven new STEM schools in the city of Syracuse. Like two of them just this summer opened up as well, but they're all outside of that. Okay. Thank God because there's no
047way we would be able to have. And is that mandated if it's within 15 miles? We have to. Okay. Correct. Tom, can I just say one thing? It's me, the voice over here. Um, regarding fall sports. So, Family ID opens July 20th. So, that's just next week. So, if there's going to be a decision about fall sports for this year, that needs to because the season starts earlier this year. So, just FYI for that. But we need to determine what season because I know it goes on the website. It says fall. All right. So, then tomorrow I will get with Jamie Grimshaw to see what that total cost is. Let you guys know. Write that down. Any more discussion? And I I think that it's important only because of of the budget. This conversation is
048going to be is going to be needed later on down the it's going to be reoccurring. And I I think we're forgetting of the makeup of reserve funds for this year that we won't be able to perpetuate down the road. Right. So these are all conversations that we're going to have to have. Okay. Thank you for all that. All those in favor? Okay. On to item F, consent agenda. Okay. Can I get a motion to accept item F in its entirety? I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. Okay. Item G, reports. Emma, you're up. This is your time. We won't put you on the spot too much. If you're not ready, that's okay. So, this usually, Emma, is a time where school's not in session, but when it is, you kind of, you
049know, like we talked about in your interview, you get the voices of maybe different concerns or things that highlights that you want to be able to mention here that were really good. Um, I I like how you guys talked about um how fall sports are coming up soon because a lot of my friends do different sports. So, I think that just um addressing any issues that have to do with fall sports and getting it out to the public and parents and everything is something that we should get on because um a lot of people don't know the issues that have been brought up. Like I personally didn't even know that we were cutting the gymnastics program. So, I think like you guys said previously, I think that's a good thing to bring up because there
050are a lot of kids that participate in fall sports and it's because it's football season or things like that, it's one of the more popular uh sports time. So, I think getting out any kind of information for that is good because people are going to want to know that stuff. Okay. Thank you very much. We look forward to the year. Uh board members reports. Does anybody have anything? I just wanted to comment on graduation um for all the efforts that went in for a successful evening. Uh it's enjoyable to be there and be a part of it and seeing all the work behind the scenes to to put it together. And you know, once again, uh congratulations to all our grads. Yeah, it it was a great event. I I tell people because I say,
051"Oh, you go." And I said, "There's not many times in life that you can attend a function where there's that many happy people." Yeah. within, you know, sometimes it's a sporting event, but sometimes you go in there thinking you're going to happen and you end up leaving very, very sad. But it it's it's truly a great thing in the community to have that many people and have that much happiness. Um, anybody else have anything for the kind of to piggy back off of Dave a little bit. I don't piggy back off of Dave a little bit. That's so loud. I'm so sorry. I think that it's really nice just as a parent of a graduate when I say to my son, you know, what's a couple of the things you're going to miss and he
052literally lists his principles and all of the administrators behind us. When I was growing up, you were terrified of the administrators or the superintendent, right? You weren't like Mr. because that's how he talks and like he's gonna give him snacks and like the fact that he has positive experience and he's not like one of those kids, right? goofy jock and the fact that like he had so many positive things about all of his administrators to say he's going to miss me. I think that says a lot about what we're doing here about you know the environment we're exposing our kids to and it's something to take away from all of the muddy messiness of this budget stuff going on is that what we're doing is working and the kids are happy and they feel accepted
053you know I don't know it's just a little something to take off Yep. Yeah. I I'll just uh do a final thank you for everybody on the board. You guys do an awesome job and um last year was I think a great success. It had a lot of sorrow, but it was a success. Um and and I want to thank you for that. Um and for upcoming things, a to-do list that we have is so if you want we've we've got the schedule together. So, if you want to talk about have somebody come in and talk, I talked about at the last meeting, just let me know, you know, time frame wise. Like I said, I'd like to have the Bose superintendent come in. Uh we do have the counseling that's going to be in
054September. So, if there's somebody that you'd like to have presented, talk about other thing, maybe having the the middle school come in and talk uh might be something that that I I would be interested in to see how they're doing. So, middle school principles Yeah. So, the school we used to do it um you know, kind of on a regular basis where we'd have all the principles come in, but it um it it's a lot. But it but to me it's it's about trying to make the normal things normal. So, if they know that in February they're expected to be and make the presentation, they know that it's scheduled instead of saying, you know, the opposite of that is, you know, I've heard some issues at this particular school. Let's get them in next meeting.
055That's That's really not how I I think the the best approach is. So, it's October. That's what we're gonna do. Yep. Yeah. Gives the principal legs on him to be able to acclimate himself and Yep. we could also, you know, start to invite maybe once a year. Yeah, I think he said that. Yep. He's gonna come right in. Y I think that Yeah. So, you know, think about it. let me know and then we can um yeah who would you like and then we can you know I'll get with Pearl and you know we have Moren's you know her her eight presentations you know if you can do it in if you can do it in three weeks Moren okay we've seen it in three weeks now so it's true yeah but it um and
056then I think you know we we have the standard I think uh reading scores So, I think we can stick with that. Um, Aaron, our favorite I think what the conversation that we were having about like sports and coaching and teams. I think it literally we were going to start this off in September was what are we going to go out at next year, right? Because if we know we're already going to get 2%. So, now we're great conversations because there are going to be some upset parents because there's only so much sports we can say. they're going to see some things that they're not seeing with the 5:30 late bus. And then that's where I really need this community to say, "No, no, no. We want this and we're willing to invest in that."
057And if those numbers are reflective of what they approved, what 1,783 to 780 or whatever that it passed by over a thousand votes. If that's the case, we're not going to wait until spring to have this conversation. It's going to be a conversation all year round. Yep. Y I think that's good. Yeah, because I think I think you know we have the next round of capital projects coming up. I mean it's been herculean the amount of work that's been done in the district since I've been on the board. I mean again it it's like normal where we've gone and remodeled another elementary school like it was nothing. And it is a big big deal. Um you know I I drive by Lakeshore Elementary and that is still a disaster. you know, that is a as
058a remodel project on Lakeshore Road in Cisro. So, oh, it's it's all tore apart. CNS, right? Yeah, that's that's part of CNS, but it it's been completely curious. So, it you know, there's a lot of great things, you know. So, it it um it's about getting it all scheduled. Getting folks in that that that are, you know, people that you want to hear from is really what I'm looking for. So, and so we have another great another great year. And Tom, just to piggy back off of what you had said earlier with respect to the athletics, you know, it might make sense for Jamie to do a presentation like you did this year, but more focused on that aspect of it than just I mean, we want to hear about the successes and the honor
059role and and things like that, but also talking and maybe being available for questions with respect to the eventual data that we get from but and I don't I want to make it it's not just sports, right? I mean, it's banned. It's it's all of the extracurriculars and the costs associated and how's what it's been trending in terms of cost versus, you know, all that agreement because we can't operate like we operated before. The girls, we wanted a varsity flight football. Let's make it happen. We had the numbers participation and band. I mean, we have so many different positions with field band and you know my feelings on that. It's there's hundreds of thousands of dollars in that. And if you talk to people where that's their sacred cow, they'll they'll fill this place with
060band people if they heard that something. So it's super important that we do have those presentations and they happen year round. These conversations are going to be regular conversations so that nobody can say, "Well, I didn't know that or I didn't hear about it. We'll do the road shows. We'll post things on social media." But I know that was another big thing is people said, "Well, you know, you guys don't let us know when the board meetings are." Yeah. So, there's a website and it says it, but what we're going to do is we're going to make it where when all the principles when they're sending home their weekly or bi-weekly newsletters, they'll it'll say when the board meeting is, so anybody wants to come to it, they can come to it. Yeah. No, I
061think that's a I No, I think that's a great idea. Um, and in terms of going forward, you know, it'll make it having that data all available, it will make it I would much rather see things trimmed than see things cut out, right? You know what I mean? And so to to the band, like if there's 27 positions for one, you know, I think that's an exaggeration, but you get what I'm saying. Like, can we make it happen and still have that program with 15, you know, like things like that. So I know union, I know contract, we've got very strong housing is a big factor. Do we have the driver to bring a person out? Like we'll put all those factors on paper because then it's it's objective instead of subjective. You can look
062at it and say it makes sense or this. This is what the cost is, as much as those kids are passionate about it, it's not financially wise to do it, right? And you know to Christiey's point talking about things you know maybe it's a conversation as well when we go out to contract or out to bidding you know when we look and we're meeting with the union we can say you know maybe if we trim you know $500 off of each coaching position or whatever right like I mean let's let's all invest in these children because if we took $500 off of each coaching position I know it's a hot topic but then the children wouldn't miss out and we're in the business of education. We serve the children. We don't serve the adults. But
063when you're on the negotiating team, you'll walk out of there going, "Did that really just happen?" Yeah. Did they really just have to? And so then there's no curtain. So, right, when you see those things I because I agree, especi 22 years of coaching, you're not you're not making $27,000, right? Or 36,000 like we have a somebody a coach that's also a teacher making 36,000 just coaching, right? And even further to that point, um I think it I wanted to in the reports section, but I forgot to do it. There has been a lot of talk about the summer camps, you know, that weren't that weren't that were district funded um that are no longer being dist district funded. And that was understood when the budget didn't pass. That was one of the first things
064that was a convenience. You know, the things that are conveniences had to go back to you can pay 25 or 40 or $50 per student. That's all fine and good. There are some coaches still volunteering their time, still doing summer workouts, still doing that. And I want to give them a round of, you know, applause, give them the gratitude that they deserve because there's been other coaches who have basically said, "Well, if we're not going to be paid to run that, then I'm not doing it." which and again I know we're our hands are tied with contracts and things like that but that's things going forward for me and I don't want to speak for everyone but for me that matters to me because if a coach is willing to invest their time in the
065team that's important to me if you're not then you know that to me that reflects something you know and I had these publicly with Jamie all the time because I coached three varsity sports in the 10 years I was a teacher and if you're a varsity coach that just meant you did a summer team, right? So, my summer team for Kaznovia hockey played at the Twin Ranks. I didn't get paid for that. That was because I was the varsity coach and then I was in the wait room three days a week in Kasanovia with those kids. You didn't get paid for that. But it's not isolated just to Central Square. That's kind of where things are when there was like $8 million per district for COVID money and everybody got paid, you know, hundreds of
066dollars an hour, use it or lose it, COVID money. And then people were like, I could buy a boat with all the stuff that I did. Now you're telling me I'm not getting paid to do Well, and it was it should be something that was appreciated as a temporary, you know, a temporary benefit that they had, not be an expectation to to persist. But again, I I just want to give kudos to the coaches that are taking their time regardless of the fact that they're no longer being paid extra to do it to continue, right? And that's what I want to make sure it it's it should not go unnoticed. And if it's not, that's something going forward. If it's not in if it's not spelled out, if you're a varsity coach, to your point,
067it it should they get paid a lot more money than modified, right? So modified is eight weeks, eight weeks of a season, and they don't do a ton outside of that. Varsity is getting paid a lot more money and the reason is because I mean it's a higher level of competition but it also it encompasses more of a commitment to the team on a not year round but offseason basis as well and if that's not spelled out in those contracts then we should be working on that as well. Anybody else? You're up. Tom, I just want the one thing that I was just going to say was capitalizing on um the graduation. It was fantastic. Uh it was probably that was my ninth. It was probably the most efficient and smooth. And I do want
068to give a pro a shout out to uh Dr. Heidi Sweeney. Um, I'll tell you this, when you stand next to the person that the kids all come by and shake your hand, but I would say there were about 140 kids that connected with her on a personal level that they initiated that conversation on something that she did for them or I mean that to me was powerful and the kids wanted to hug her and thank her and I know uh no relation but the next Sweeney Tom Sweeney who's the principal is very similar to that as well, people oriented. But to me, that was the most special part of the whole entire ceremony was the personal connections that the kids would have when they'd come through and got to, you know, thank their principal.
069It was pretty powerful. Besides that, we're cranking away. Um, like I said, we're already Moren and I having conversations about budget because we know that we're getting 2%. So, we need to get ahead of the game and get it out there to the masses. I talked to a lot of people. If you ask Pearl, probably about 400 people since when it failed to when it passed and they were saying, "Put out the same budget, we'll pass it." We just didn't we thought it would always pass. And so I do think it was a wakeup call for people realizing, you know, I I you know, we need to get out there, we need to vote. Um but on our end, more than ever, at every time you get a bunch of people together, super important to
070remind them about the budget process and that here's our numbers. If you have questions or concerns, if you saw something on a website that you thought somebody was getting a 9% razor for, ask us. We're very transparent. I was asked to come to some Pop Warner football to meet with them. One of the gentlemen stayed after one of the last board meetings. And I gave him my cell phone number said, "Whenever. I don't care. Just give me a half hour notice. I'll show up. I'll show up wherever you guys meet and I'll talk to parents afterwards." Because it's getting that information. Like Emma said, most students don't really follow along. what happens at board meetings. But here's the deal. Most parents don't either. And so there are a lot of big-time policy discussions that this
071board has been tasked to address. It's super important that people are aware of those things. Um so you're going to play a key role when it comes to the student voice as well because you can take that back to them. What happens here because you're going to be regularly meeting with student government. You're on student government. You're going to be joining student government. Fantastic. Tom. Yeah. Did you want to talk about the other thing that we were talking about before? Yes. Let me do that real quickly. I had sent you all of you an email. You're all busy. You're working. I don't know if you saw it, but the governor had come out. You're talking about cell phones, correct? The governor had come out um well in her fashion of with more information on her
072website that basically says that it needs to be bellto. So, Emma, this is going to be a key role for you for getting a student voice, but there are some categories and caveats that the ex there are some exceptions medical if a student has a medical reason. Um, if a student has like um it clearly even says it on there, like a note from a psychologist, which I think we're probably going to see about three or 400 of those notes appear. Um, and then um the other thing too is um educational purposes. So, we were out of the gate and I'll just give the quick quick spiel. Um, Mr. Lucas, I don't know if you knew how it all transpired, but September 30th of last year, we met in this room. We had a a
073pretty good showing for a forum. Uh, we had parents, we had students, we had community members, staff members, and it was pretty much uh the feedback we got matched. It mirrored the feedback we got from three Google survey students, parents, and staff. And nobody was looking to completely ban them, right? So like they realized kid needs to have the phone at some point I forgot my cleats or the parent has to say hey we're working late get your little sister off the boss kind of thing. So Steve really opened our eyes to Chad GBT and did an executive uh summary in minutes. It was amazing of about 500 pages of feedback. It was great. And so it ended up becoming our policy. So we were out of the gate way before the other districts because
074at that point the governor was just saying about the negative impacts distractions in classrooms. So our policy address that you can't have it in the classroom right simple. But then in early spring she shifted gears and said I want a complete ban pushing these yonder pouches um and things like that and not only in classrooms but literally belltobell not in passing in the hallways not in study halls not in lunches. So, what we're going to do is just add one little part. So, Erin's going to have a policy committee meeting. Um, we'd like to do that over the summer. Um, so that it's the second reading is ready to go to meet the governor's really quick timeline, which I don't know if a lot of districts are going to be able to make it, but
075we'd like to be able to make that timeline where basically just says it the policy is what it is except the one part in there that said that the teacher and the school district has the right to uh educational purposes. So, this they'll be locked in the lockers. Um, if a teacher says, "No, I use it for educational purposes," and we have a lot of ones that use them in a great way. They put it in their bags. They take them out of their bags for that classroom, then they go away. Um, so if they're in the cafeteria, we are assuming that they are using it for the right reason. And some people, and I put this in the in in the little email today, my son does, he's in seventh grade. I had made
076a monetary bet. I wanted to see if he can get a 100 average. He did. So what he does in in accelerated math was he would literally do homework, take a picture of it, upload it right to chat GBT and say, "Is this correct?" They'd say, "The first one's correct, the second one's not correct, but it was in the second step that you got it wrong, try this, this, give them a quick tutorial." Then it was like, "Would you like three or four other sample question?" Yes, I would answer those. You got them perfect. Here's two more higher level just to see. So there are kids that do that. We have some kids that that are sitting here during lunch and they they do day trading with the stock market. I won't mention any names,
077but might be one. Oh, he graduated so I can say it. Her kid made good money doing day trading. So, it's like are we are we keeping these away from kids that literally in a matter of months they're out of here and they're going to have to be able to to do that. So, we know in the classroom it was a distraction. No one doubts that in the lessons they were removed. But to think that we're able to then police in the cafeteria or in the hallway. We don't have enough monitors. We don't have enough cafeteria administrators to chase kids around. And then she also made it very clear you can't suspend a kid for this. So what does that mean? When it becomes insubordination, then can you suspend a kid? So we think we
078have a simple tweak. She'll have the policy committee meeting and we go from there. Now, if there's a kid that's bullying somebody using their cell phone, we treat that like we always would. And the kid's suspended for harassment, it's not just because he did the cell phone there. It's because you can't bully people online. So, or in person. So, that's the one thing that we were going to do. Aaron, did we get an idea yet when we were going to have that? Okay. I have to look. I might be out of town. Can you have other boards? Yeah. Okay. I mean, let us know if you need people send out an email and we can make it. Just before the meeting, right? Half hour before the meeting. That's not a board meeting that day. Yeah.
079Meeting in August or whatever, the second reading the end of August. Yeah. But we we we have a cell phone policy. Here's the only thing though. We have to tweak one part in the existing one because one of the punishments said inschool suspension. We're not allowed to do that. We have to tweak a few parts based on what the governor said for compliance. So you just you just need to approve the amended one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. If you can just if you have a specific day or or even if you're flexible on when that is, you could circulate two or three days and you can see who you know which one. And they can be during the day like whenever's convenient for you guys. I can do during the day easier than at night. So
080yeah, I can too. That concludes the two pin report. Okay. Thank you. Well, Matteo's not here. So Matteo's not here. Throw me on. Um, Pearl, can we do we have to do each item of H individually or? It has to be done separate. So, not this time. Okay. So, we can do uh H in its entirety. I'll motion. Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. I will make a motion that the Central Square School District Board of Education hereby move into executive session to discuss matters leading up to tenure of 20 particular people with no action to follow. Can I get a second? I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor?