001All right. Good evening everybody. Thank you so much for your patience. Um I've already called the meeting to order, so we are going to move forward in the agenda and do our pledge of allegiance. Okay. Um If you come to our meetings regularly, thank you. And also you know that each month we like to recognize students, um employees, and community members that uh have gone above and beyond, um have done something fantastic, uh and and recognize um their contributions um and how much we appreciate them. So, this month our recognition uh uh our recognitions are are several. Um one for the elementary school sing-along, which uh is always just a delightful a delightful >> [clears throat] >> event. So, a special thanks to Mrs. Walz um and Mrs. Chovin. Mrs. Walz prepares the kids for
002for a month or more with their songs, and Mrs. Chovin decorates the whole gym. So, um special thanks to them, but to really the whole elementary school for getting in the spirit, um wearing their PJs, and uh and singing along. Um we also had our elementary and high school winter concerts in December um that were phenomenal um both of them. Uh again, special thanks to uh our band director Mr. Hopkins um Mrs. Walz in the elementary school, and then Miss Heck in our high school for for chorus. Um we did also, and I mentioned this a few months ago when we found out, but uh we had a junior student who uh was a performer in the with the Empire State Youth uh choir for the Melodies of Christmas program. Um that was something that
003I had never attended before, but I went because I know this student. Um and if you have not been, not just because of the student, it really is an incredible uh an incredible program. So, um congratulations to her. Um we also have uh had our referendum back in December, and we want to thank our poll workers who stay for hours uh and sign everyone in and and give them what they need to exercise their right to vote. And then finally, not on our list, but I'll let everyone know that um Mr. Ravenburg passed his CDL test and is now a substitute bus driver. And he got to uh he got to drive the pre-Kers in this morning, who he thinks are adorable. So So, when we need a sub substitute bus driver, we will look
004no further than uh the business office. >> [laughter] >> And we are always hiring bus drivers. >> Yes, we are. We are. Mr. Rivenburg would probably appreciate anyone who's interested in being a bus driver. But, you can attest that it's kind of a lot of fun, right? Okay. Um anything else that I missed that anybody has? You guys, students, anything that I missed that you would like to call out? No? Okay. All right. Um Any questions or concerns about our agenda from anyone? Any changes? Serena? Okay. Okay, great. Uh all right. So, we'll do our resolution for the agenda. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approves the agenda for the regular meeting this evening on January 13th, 2026. May I have a motion? Thank you, Michael. A
005second? I'll second. Thank you, Ray. Uh comments or questions? All in favor? I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Serena, do we have anyone that signed up for comment? Okay. Um We do have a sign-up for public comment, but so I don't have anyone on the list, but if there's anyone in the audience that had wanted to speak and didn't get an opportunity to sign up. Anyone? Anyone? Okay. >> [snorts] >> All right. Next item uh is our minutes from our last meeting. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approves the minutes of the regular meeting on December 4th, 2025. Uh may I have a motion? Thank you, Francis. A second? Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions? All in favor? I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay.
006we're going to move to our reports. And we're starting with high school student council. So, welcome. What do we have? No, we don't have? >> [laughter] >> All right, Jen's here. Jen's here. Is Jen here for all the things? >> [laughter] >> Jen's here for all the things. All right. Okay, hi guys. I am Jennifer. We've definitely met before, but um I'm here to talk to you today about student council. So, we're spreading school spirit one day at a time, uh and we're doing this with like our pep rallies and stuff like that, which honestly guys, I have seen a change with the middle school. I'm not going to lie. Like when I was walking the halls during the pep rally, like like they were all low-key participating. So, I was really happy about that
007actually. Um so, yeah. Uh so, that's our pep rallies and there's Mr. G dressed up as Santa. They're really fun. Uh I think probably one of our like main games I feel like is the tug-of-war. Everyone has a lot of fun during tug-of-war. I participated this year and I was really happy cuz usually I'm like on the sidelines like working and stuff like that, but I actually got to play this year and it was really fun. And then we have our doing the eagle mascot. Um and we do one every like sports season to celebrate our athletes. So, we have one in the fall, one in the winter, and then one in March for like or like in the spring for our spring athletes. Um and that's more pep rally stuff and I think it
008was really fun this year >> [laughter] >> again. Uh these are like our spirit weeks, so we always do them leading up to the pep rallies. Uh this one was the one that we did in the fall and I think like I we thought about like the works on Wednesday because our school's currently undergoing construction. So, it was really fun to just have like that go along with what's going on in our community and I thought that was like a really cute idea that we came up with. We always like to do usually like the class color and this year, you know, as a senior we got to do black, which is like really cool cuz like it's always been a senior thing. So, it was cool to finally participate in that. Um and then
009this was our spirit week leading up to our uh winter pep rally. Um let's see. Ooh, the winter wonderland was fun. I thought that was kind of cute cuz everyone got to kind of dress up in the certain color. And um the festive Friday, it's always fun to see people with their little sweaters. I had a Snoopy one. So, I thought that was kind of cute. Um and this is going to be our spirit week for the spring. And yeah, so we have Aloha Monday, take me back Tuesday, Western Wednesday, again the class colors, and again seniors get to wear black, and then pep rally Fridays, which we always do the purple and gold. Um I'm really excited for Aloha Monday. Those are always really fun because we get to be like summery and stuff
010like that. And this is our homecoming dance. Uh we recently started the homecoming stuff cuz I think it's like what? Two or three years ago now, Ms. Downs? Two years ago? This is our second one? Yeah, cuz we used to do semi-formal at Settles Hill. But because a lot of the schools surrounding us do homecoming dances, we decided to also do a homecoming dance. And I think that also added on to the school spirit stuff because people are like, "Oh, we do stuff that we see on the internet." You know what I mean? Like everyone else has a homecoming dance, everyone does hoco, and now we finally were able to do hoco, which I think was something that really helped us with the school spirit here. And so, the hoco dance is only for like
011high schoolers, but we can't forget about our lovely middle schoolers. So, we do a snowball dance for them, which is also really cute, but it's in March this year. And now, we have our sixth graders added to it. And I think they have a lot of fun there. I DJ'd last year with Haley. It was kind of fun. They asked for Bob the Builder as a like song request. I thought that was kind of cute. But yeah, no, it's kind of fun. I I enjoyed DJing last year. And these are our gift bags for this year, cuz I know every club does a gift bag. Um so, we're doing like the Halloween candy dis- we did the Halloween candy distribution at the Halloween bash, and then like something for teacher appreciation week, and we're working
012on planning what our spring gift bag will be soon. And that's it. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. You guys have any questions or anything? Okay, thank you, guys. >> Thank you, Jen. Thank you very much. Okay. Busy student council. Oh. >> [laughter] >> She's just changing her hat, right? You change your hat. Okay. All right, so next up we have drama club. Hi, guys. I'm Jen. Long time no see. Do we have to have Declan's or should I Can I Do Let's see if I can change presentation without Declan having to come up. I did it. Thank you. How do I make it full screen? Amazing. Look at that. I did it. >> [laughter] >> All right, so I'm going to turn it over to these guys in a minute uh but I am
013Lindsay Heck. I'm the music teacher up at the high school for chorus. And I also am one of the many people helping out with our drama club this year. We have a couple new we have a little bit more people on our team this year. Me, Mr. Hopkins who's been doing it past couple years but we also have Kate Prior who's one of our science teachers helping out. Mrs. Waltz from the elementary school is coming up here to help us out and Mrs. Montero new librarian will also be helping us out this year but you don't want to listen to me talk. You want to listen to the kids talk. So I'm just going to introduce our drama club officers here. So we have Asa our president Santino one of our student board members who
014was also our vice president. Christina Foreman who is our treasurer she's there and Jennifer Patino our secretary. I'm going to turn it over to these guys. Okay, so about drama club it's you know drama club. We always put on a performance. We act, we sing, we dance, we do everything basically. And we feature grade 7 through 12. We do two main things. We have a fall showcase called Wings for Things Broadway where it's a combination of a bunch of Broadway songs. This year me and Turtle did a duet. We did For Good from Wicked. And we did Larger Than Life and What was the other one? No, no Larger Than Life. What was the what was the other one? What was the finale? High School Musical. Yes. I'm sorry guys. Yeah, My Shot. >> [laughter
015and gasps] >> But yeah, those were our two like group ones and which I think they're always really fun. I like to sing and dance so I always really enjoy doing it. And then now we also do our big spring musical in March. So, yeah. Okay. So, this is our our spring production from last year. We did Adams Family. As you can see, we had a really fun time doing it. It was a great show to put on. It had really good response. Um we had really good profits. We had an amazing set here that was put together by an amazing team. And we like to thank that team once again because they were awesome. Thank you so much. Um unfortunately, this year we're not going to have such a large set because part of
016that was part of one of Mr. G's classes last year. But we still think this production is going to be awesome. Um yeah. We're getting there. We're keeping you in suspense. It's a surprise. So, a part of the drama club is the pit orchestra, which started off with Cinderella. Uh that was our first year doing it. And then Wizard of Oz, that was our second year doing it. And then The Addams Family was our third year doing it. And it features a lot of students, but we also have some adults there. Uh which they're very helpful too. And like sometimes if I ever got lost, like I knew the adult was there and knew kind of like what to do too. So, yeah. I think it's cool and it's definitely like interesting that it's um
017it's a combination of adults and kids. I think that was a really great opportunity to have because honestly, I've learned a lot from just being there and playing with uh people that like have years of experience. So, I think that's really cool for us. All right. Over here, um Jenna already talked about a lot of the details of the Waynesburg sings Broadway. Um you might remember me. I was in there, too. I And um but what's uh important about that show uh serves that as a fundraiser the allow for a lot of permanent um improvements for the Duanesburg Drama Club. Uh for example, uh this year we raised over a thousand dollars, which is going to be used by uh or used for various improvements such as um hired musicians for the pit orchestra and
018along with another uh other uh various um improvements. In past years, we've bought uh new lighting, new microphone equipment, and other uh things to step up the shows year to year. If you've noticed, there's been a steady improvement since uh COVID with the Drama Club shows. Uh we've had a bit of a rebuild since then and on the up and up. And uh Duanesburg Sings Broadway is part of that is a key to that success. Allowing for a lot more resources to for development. All right. Uh since you were asking what our play is for this year, we're doing Once Upon a Mattress, which is a story about like the fairy tale of a Princess and the Pea. Um and we have a lot simpler of a set this year. Actually, I think it's only
019like one scene for like the whole show basically. So, it's going to be a lot easier for like the stage crew and stuff like that. So, that'll be nice. Um we have our performance days much earlier this year than we have every other year. Normally, it's like March 25th or 4th. Um so, our rehearsals are very compact and like we already started rehearsals in December. Um so, that's really good that we have all the other teachers and the choreographers that we have helping us because it's really helpful in case you miss like a rehearsal, you can always work with Miss Heck while everyone else is with Miss Prior or Miss Walton everyone else like that. Um and we still have around like a big cast, nice orchestra, and everyone's really helpful. And I'm really excited
020cuz it's I think it's going to look really good. So, I hope to see you all you guys' faces there. Thank you. And then I'm going to talk about that in a minute. It's not going backwards, but I'm going to >> [laughter] >> So, it's still the drama club. You guys have any questions about drama club? Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Mhm. Yes. It's Yeah, I have a always have a great time. It's one of my favorite things that I get to do. Um and uh this year we're going to keep moving forward. It's going to be great. Okay. All right, you guys can sit down. All right, and while I'm up here, I'm also going to talk a little bit about um our overnight band and chorus trip. >> The next item on our agenda.
021>> Yeah, the next item on your agenda. >> Yeah. Uh I'm not going to leave and come back like Jen did. Uh unless you want me to. Uh so, this is a um a trip that we started 2 years ago uh that we started taking our high school band and chorus ensembles on like an overnight trip to our music festival um and giving them a sort of new experience. So, um this we're hoping to do that again. Uh the dates of our trip this year, similar to last year, would be at the end of May. Uh we don't have all of the details yet. We're still waiting on it. Uh but the way that the festival works is we go down uh the one that we're going to this year is in New Jersey uh
022and we will go to a high school somewhere in that state. Last year, I think it was in like Manchester. Um and we take the groups down. They each perform two songs, and they get evaluated by judges, and they get feedback. We all get little plaques and ribbons. Uh and I think it's a really great way for the kids to get another performance opportunity, and then also being able to get some feedback from different people. And I know we go through the feedback with the kids, and uh we hang the little plaques up. You guys probably saw in my room the little ribbons on the side. Um that we get those every year. And then afterwards, the part that the kids are probably more excited about is then they get to go spend the rest
023of the day after performing at a theme park. In the past, we went to Hershey in Pennsylvania. Last year went to Great Adventure, and this year we are going back to Great Adventure because the other part of our trip is because an overnight last year we were able to stop in New York City and let the kids we went to the Museum of Broadway. And this year we're hoping to do a similar thing, stopping somewhere. We're not sure exactly yet. We have to get estimates for price costs and things. But seeing a show or going to another museum in the city, which I think the kids really enjoyed getting to go down to New York City. So this is sort of the general timeline. This is based on last year and what we did last
024spring. So we anticipate that this year it will be similar. But again, we don't have all of the details yet until we get our performance time and we know that we are officially able to go so we can start booking reservations and things like that. But we would leave Thursday morning. We usually get a charter bus so the kids don't have to sit on a school bus for that really long time to get down there. When we stop in New York City last year, like I said, we went to the Museum of Broadway. And this year we're looking at a similar museum in the city or maybe a musical performance of some kind. And then we go the rest of the way down to New Jersey. We stop for dinner, and the kids get to
025the hotel. Last year we got back a little late. And then the kids all have curfew. They have to be in their rooms. We typically have four students per room, and then two like adult chaperones. We usually bring a mix of staff and parents to go on our trip for chaperones. And then the next morning we wake up, we have breakfast at the hotel, and then we go do our performances at whatever school that we go to. The kids perform, we get our feedback, and then we go to the park. And then uh the kids spend We try to give the kids as much time as we can in the park. Typically, we leave uh like around 6:00 or 7:00. Uh we come back, we stop for dinner somewhere along the way, and we usually
026get back here late. Uh usually it's around 11:00 coming back to school. Uh so just a quick financial again, this is based on last year and the estimates we got, but we anticipate the price will be around the same. Um the kids, if you have a season pass at Six Flags, you do get a little bit of a discount cuz you don't have to pay for the uh price of the admission into the park. Um but typically, it's between uh like $145 to $185, depending on uh how many students are going uh and what we So when we split the cost of like the bus and the hotel and the festival tickets, um that's usually what it goes out about. Uh I have T-shirts on there cuz if you've seen our Duanesburg music T-shirts that
027are purple tie-dye, uh most of the kids already have them, uh but if they've grown out of them or if they are new to the ensembles this year, we do have to uh they do also have to get a T-shirt uh so that they can all wear them when they're in the park and they look nice for their performance, but also we can all find them when we are walking around the park. Uh I do find that the purple tie-dye is a lot easier to spot than some of the plain colored shirts. Um also, our shirts are cool. And the kids wear them to school even when we're not on field trips. >> [laughter] >> And these are just some pictures from last year. You'll see Mr. Hopkins is really good at the basketball game
028where you like throw it, and so he always wins really large stuffed animals that end up in our rooms. Uh so this is um some of these are from the formals, a lot of these are from the park. And this was our big group picture. That was at the end with everybody. Okay. Any questions? Yes. Yeah, what we do, I believe the school does have options to help pay for field trips. All they have to do is talk to us, and then we will uh talk to the uh talk to the school about getting them help uh with paying for the trip. Yes, this is high school. Yes. And it I will also say that the trip is not mandatory for the kids. While we like encourage the kids to go and have the experience,
029they obviously do not have to go. If they choose not to go, that is their decision, and we um don't we obviously don't force them. >> [laughter] >> Mhm. Uh at this point that was our uh our plan, but if that is an issue, we can address that as well. I have just one question. Um Wait, this is all based on last year's totals. Yes. As close as you get to the actual trip, are you going to uh Yes, obviously well so we can't book things like the hotel and the bus and um and like the tickets for whatever we do in New York City until the trip is approved, so we can't get contacts um like contracts and things like that. It also um with more students uh the cost actually might go down.
030I know our ensembles are bigger this year. Um so depending on uh like the buses and the hotels, the cost might go down, but because we have more kids, we'll need more rooms and things like that. But, we anticipate it being around the same. That was actually we were hoping to bring them to like a show on Broadway, but the tickets are very expensive. Uh so, that is something that would highly raise the cost, which is why that is um something that we probably will not be able I was going to say, yes, so that is and that is definitely something that we take into account when looking into things because we obviously don't want them to have to pay more and more and more. Oh, yeah. She yes, she told me. >> [snorts] >>
031Mhm. All right. Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Miss Heck. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. And thank you again, students, for being here to report about your clubs. Um looking forward to Once Upon a Mattress. Happened to do that in my high school, so super excited about that. Me, too. It's a good one. It's a good one. If you guys do uh um What's the one I'm thinking of? I don't know. Oh, Little Shop of Horrors. If you do Little Shop of Horrors, I'll show you a video of her. Well, thank you. All right. Anyway, did that one, too. >> [snorts] >> All right. Next up, we have our student board members' report. Oh. Is this thing on? All right. So, um as you might know, the past few weeks um a lot
032of people uh well, we haven't really had school very much. We had a full two weeks >> off. Is that what you're saying? We had a full two weeks of Christmas break, which I'm sure everybody was very appreciative of. Um but there hasn't been a lot happening. As uh was mentioned before by Jennifer in the student council presentation, we did have the pep rally before break, which was enjoyed very much. Um I heard everybody had No injuries, yes. Uh everybody had a lot of fun doing that. And so you know, keeping it informal here, but there hasn't really been much going on, but uh so far since everybody's come back from break, everything's been going very smoothly. School's going very well, but that's about it. Like I said, not much going on. Yes. No, I
033don't have anything. Ari, aren't you going to tell the board about your great adventure with Was it Senator Fahey? Oh. Um Um right before break, I did I did a student advisory council with Senator Pat Fahey, and I got to go the day the last day of school before break, I got to go to the state capital. We took a tour of the state capital, and we actually got to go out on the Senate floor and wreck havoc while the very anxious security guards watched on. Hoped we didn't break anything. Um and we got to present some mock legislation that we drafted throughout the program. So it was really cool, but yeah, that was something that our history teachers uh nominated us for. I think I was the only one who did it, but yeah,
034it was cool. >> Were there students from other schools, too, Ari? Yeah, there were about a million kids from Shen and Mohon and Nisky Give or take. and everywhere. >> [clears throat] >> You should be proud that you were selected to go. It was a great opportunity for you. That's very cool. And we have midterms and regions next week for some of us, right? Yeah. Okay. All right, good. Anybody have any questions for our student representatives? Okay. Okay, next up we have our board vice president with a presentation about our conference. >> Do these people go away? Hey, that's me. Cool. All right. Am I on? Yes, I am. Hello. Uh so, um back in October, um Ms. Peterson, Ms. Peterson, and um Ms. Kuzawski and I, and along with the superintendent, and Ms. Killenberger,
035I'm sorry, words are hard. Uh we all went down to New York City for the New York School Boards Association conference. Uh it's an annual conference. First time I've gone. Uh and as part of that, this is me reporting out to you the things that I learned to try to tell you why it was worthwhile. Uh so, day one, uh the president and I attended the Board Officer Academy, uh which had a couple of major topics of leading through conflict and united we stand. Uh really the the big takeaway was sort of it's important to sort of ha- try to have as clear conversations as possible. And this is one that I think is certainly something we can all kind of learn and think about is just not immediately dismissing the other person's starting point.
036Just sort of at least allowing them where they start to have the conversation, arguing from there clearly, but uh you know, and then following through on whatever decision is made is vital. And even if it's not the decision that I started or uh agreed with necessarily, but it's the way it goes. So, day two, there was a keynote on the dignity scale, which is sort of an interesting dignity index. Sorry, I typed the wrong word. It's interesting. Um It's just sort of a a ranking system to sort of on how we interact with each other and sort of see each other's feelings, uh see each other as people. It was It was cool. It was a neat presentation. Some of the sessions I went to were about bridging the gap, transforming school board policies into
037accessible engaging resources. That was interesting for me because I'm the head of the policy committee. And actually it was put on by the woman that'll be helping us rewrite our policy book. So that was an interesting time. I went to another one. They're not all bangers. This one was uh reimagining community engagement, a new era of community and school partnerships. This was put on by Was it Kinderhook, Sarah? It was it was it was I Yeah. I don't know. It was some some school down in the the Hudson Valley. They were like, "Hey, we don't have a lot of people coming to board meetings and coming to stuff. So we're going to put up flyers and people will come and um that was that was sort of my takeaway from it and uh I feel
038like we put up flyers. Uh I don't know. I don't really I I think engagement is still a real issue. I didn't feel that this necessarily drove in the right way. And then I want I did go to a a conference uh session on empowering education with AI. It was sort of an interesting conversation between um the head of technology out in Buffalo and the head of technology at Brooklyn School of Tech, which is a kind of a very different sort of environment and how they're approaching AI within their school. Neither of them really seemed to fit the pattern that we're going to need to have here. But it was interesting to sort of hear schools that are ahead of us where they're at because we need to come up with something coming up soon.
039So day three, I went to a session on community schools, which was an evidence-based strategy for school improvement. Really the idea there was it was put on by schools in Monroe in Monroe County, so primarily Rochester. It was, "Hey, we're a large school and we want to pretend we're a small school. And being a small school it was interesting hearing how they're really working hard to sort of recreate the environment we already have. The one thing that I took away from that I believe you took away something similar was it's vital to try to as the school engage outside of our realm. We need to engage with EMS with you know all of the providers in our community and not just Duanesburg the county cuz EMS and the and the the sheriff are county wide.
040So you know if there's a problem if somebody if something gets called in in an odd corner the school may not necessarily know and unless EMS unless 911 is able to probe them somehow. So there is a real value there to figuring out how to kind of strengthen some of those bonds both in Schenectady and Schoharie County where we have footnotes footprints. And finally the the closing keynote was on kindness and that was a beautiful presentation. You you played a video last time it was really amazing. I enjoy watching him anyways the presenter when he's on CBS this morning but it was really it was a great conversation around sort of the world we create is the world we all have to we have to make it and we have to do it by supporting
041each other and being kind. It was it was great. So my closing thoughts I don't like New York City. >> [laughter] >> Don't like it it's too loud buildings are too tall too much going on it's too dirty. Like I said we need to think about pairing more with our other within our region with other Schenectady County Schoharie County schools and to give more weight and advocate for alliances with learning and social needs. Every school is dealing with low community turnout. Uh constantly, and it's annoying and frustrating, and it drives me crazy that we had 165 votes when we had this auditorium filled with people. People just aren't showing up and doing stuff, and I don't know how we drive that. Um and the stories that I heard from schools that are bigger than us,
042smaller than us, all around the state, we're in really good shape. Some of them have real horror stories as to where they stand, and um we're we're doing fine. We have a a really good student base. We have a really good community. We just need to kind of connect things a little bit more, and I think we'll be in great shape. Uh I'm always willing to talk more if anybody would like to. And for now, that's me. Thank you. Thanks to Francis. Okay. All right, where are we? Okay, superintendent report. So, I got to log in because I didn't yet. Sorry. Jeff, if it does if it does two-step authentication, will you press the button for me? My phone's right there. This one? It should go off on either. Oh. Yeah. I was taking pictures.
043And it wants a password. I don't have that. >> Probably taking pictures of your feet. Okay, so I'm just going to recap. Um I was talking with Melissa and Francis about our making sure that our data is noisy. Um I did report out to the board in September our 3 through 8 assessments. Um in most I met in in you and I talked the other day a little bit. The accountability data is still embargoed until February. Um reason for that is school districts who have been identified as target schools or schools in need of improvement, they have this month to appeal to the state. And so when that appeal process is done, then they can then it becomes open, you know, open dialogue. So I'm going to set the table for the conversation. Hopefully we'll
044continue at our February meeting if they release it. Um we did do some 3 through 8 assessment data in September. We did talk about accountability in September, but that was for the previous school year. Okay? So it we didn't find out the results until November ourselves. So I didn't break any rules with embargoed data. I just want to make that very clear. Okay, as a reference point when we talk through 3 through 8 assessments, we have four levels. And that pertains to how students do on their state assessments. That's just a refresher. So one is um insufficient expectations, um considered you know, insufficient. Level two is partial insufficient. Level three is sufficient and level four exceeds is more than sufficient. All right, you saw this very similar. Um I condensed down from uh September. This
045is the proficiency trends in ELA. Um I always find it interesting cuz they do the test shift, right? Um I always find it interesting most folks like to look linear, right? Each grade level. I always like to track how our cohort's doing. Now kids come and go. Now please know that our numbers are based on kids who are continuously enrolled. They don't take kids who come and go. They if they're here on bed's day in October. So it's always interesting to see and pleasant to see when kids we see they make gradual increases within within their proficiency. Same thing for math. All right, so we overall have been growing in math. And again, other than some hiccups throughout the years and there's multiple reasons why you know, kids could fall down one school year including
046shifting to computer-based testing which was a challenge and it's still a challenge. Um as we mentioned last year with the Regents exam, was it living environment? It crashed. Living environment, it crashed during the computer-based testing. Kids got frustrated. So that impacts things. So there are nuances. Then we look at science. So science changed and you're going to see 2024 was tough not just for us. It was tough across the state because it was a brand new test and a new testing grade. So but you can see we did a nice recovery. You don't see any anything in eighth grade science last year cuz they all took the living environment. All right, performance levels. Here's just drilling down a little bit deeper. So when we look at the assessment year of 2025 in ELA across 3
047through 8, right? How many level 3s, level 4s, the 2024 year in comparison. And it's nice to see that when we look at level one versus level two, when we try and move kids, I know this, you know, it is academic interventions, but from an instructional leader approach, you really focus on your level two kids cuz they're easier to to shove forward, right? That gap is not as big. We do provide interventions for our level one, but we like to make sure that we're, you know, we if you focus on those level twos, they're easier to shove forward to to level three. And I'm unsure why when I pulled it, there's no not tested in 2025. I couldn't figure it out. Then in 2023 >> [clears throat] >> versus uh 2022. Same thing for math.
048Um we're seeing a slight uh decrease in our level ones. And again, it's easier to to shove our level twos forward. And then in math for 23 and 22, nice jump in our level threes. And then here's a comparison to districts across the region. I know you saw um something similar in September. >> [cough] >> Um just out of respect for our surrounding community, right? Just making sure that Duanesburg is the third one down. And the progress that we've made, the linear progress across each year for each grade, and then comparison to other districts. Um there are districts who are outperforming us. But if you can see, what's really critical is green. We want green. We love green, right? So we I'm happy to show other than grade eight ELA, we were in the green
049per se, and that's in the state size as well. And that right. Oh, the ELA crashed? The ELA crashed as well. In 2025 um for grade eight. Looking at math, right? When we go across, and we go for Duanesburg, we're staying in the green. 2024 was a little bit tough, but we rebounded this year in grade five. Last year we had some um instability with math instruction with um the teacher at the time had some personal things going on. And then again, and this is where it proves that teachers matter. Um and then in it when we look in the other grade levels, that um we stayed pretty consistent across the board, which is great news. Oops, I'm going to skip past that cuz there's there's names. I didn't change that out. Okay, let's look
050at Regents exams. Um Serena, before we post this to the minutes, make sure I uh take that out. All right, so Regents exams, they do August, January, June. That's the cycle. That's how they could they get their data. Lots of times the kids who are taking the August Regents are kids who need to make it up cuz they haven't passed it. So just keep that in mind. January is usually our first bite at the apple for a lot of kids and some who need to make it up again. But historically, August um is the kids who need to take it and pass it again, and January is traditionally take a bite at the apple, and then June is the big month. But for data-wise, they combine them together. So this past August Regents will be
051included in next year's data. If that makes sense. Um we look at Algebra 1. We had 63 students. 39 passed, 22 failed, two were exempt. Exempt is based on their either students with disabilities or their their social emotional needs. There is still an option to be exempt. Then we look at geometry. The reason it may not seem like this is cohesive. These are These tests are rated on a scale to one to four. Some are going to be rated on one to five just to make it fun. So geometry, we had 18 students, seven passed, 11 failed, none were exempt. Earth and space science, that's new. That was new last year. So we had more kids taking the Earth and Space and only a couple kids taking the old Earth Science cuz they were taking
052it again. Does that make sense? So 30 kids took the Earth and Space, 24 passed, 10 of those 24 earned mastery. Five did not pass and one was exempt. And then for the old Earth Science, nine students took it, two passed, and seven were not successful. Sure. I don't know how do I go back? This way? Okay. Yes. Pretty accurate, right? They're not taking it for the first time. Because the the test changed. Right. Yeah, the Earth and Space. And kudos to our teachers, right? Brand new you know, they had a brand new test, brand new curriculum, and and to have 10 kids get mastery, that's that's excellent. Now we're going to level five, right? One through five. So we we want to change it a little bit and it's still science. So we have
053the new life science biology. 89 students took it, 45 passed, one was mastery. Again, brand new. Um Did our all our eighth graders take this as well? Our eighth graders took this as well. Um so this was a brand new uh frontier for all of us. Learned a lot of lessons along the way. This year they will take it again, but we're looking at how we can support these students better the um in the 2026-2027 school year. We've already started the conversations about it. The living environment is the old exam. So again, we had 10 students taking that. Uh six passed, four were not successful. Physics and chemistry are on a scale of one to five as well. Physics, six students passed. Mastery of five. And then for chemistry, but there's only four I'm sorry,
054only four levels for chemistry. I didn't want to do another slide with another bar. 38 students took it, 32 passed, and nine received mastery out of those 32. So that's that that's excellent results. Common Core ELA, 63 students, 45 passed, 18 received mastery, and 18 did not uh were not successful. And then Algebra 2, which again, these are level fives. Uh 56 students took it, 37 passed, six mastery, 19 unsuccessful. Global history, 47, 34 passed, 14 mastery, 13 unsuccessful. And then US history and government, 52, 39 passed, 10 mastery, and 13 were not successful. Here are the trends over the years, right? So NA means um the test had changed cuz it was the framework. Um so global history has stayed the same. And then when we look at US history and government versus the
055framework. And then Regents Common Core, obviously the same. Um there was a little a little more of struggle in the last couple of years, but Jody has um really worked hard with the English department in restructuring um how they're delivering instruction and who is delivering instruction. Um they're in agreement that the more seasoned teachers um have more success. All right, so when we look at algebra and then that test changed 2 years ago. It was Regents Common Core Algebra. And then um and then it just became Algebra. And then we have a across uh you know, from 2022 and same with geometry, that changed as well. Um and when you see Regents Common Core Geometry 38, those are the kids who took the geometry a few years ago and are still working towards passing that
056that course that uh Regents exam. Same with sciences. When we look at the sciences, right? We have Earth and Space. Real I'm really proud of the success of the on nearly 83% kids. Um and then biology, and then um the the the Living Environment crashed. Right? It was Living Envi- I always got it get it mixed up. I have to look at Jody. So, the kids were taking the the assessment and it was across the state. And um yeah, it kids across the state, it all crashed at the same time. And kids could have been almost done with it. Oh, which Oh, it was the It was the science assessment that Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Oh, English test crashed. This one was Oh, that's right, because it was There was a call across districts with
057the Living Environment that they were assessing things that were in the new curriculum. And the And state ed didn't want it They just it is what it is. Um chemistry great. Uh we have the again, we have the physical setting earth science and then the physics obviously. So, again, we're going to dive deeper in February when we look at the accountability data where we'll look at attendance and how the attendance uh indices changed as well as um some other preliminary data that goes into determinations for um our measures of improvement and areas that we need in cohorts we need to focus on. Questions? Oh. On how do I Is it on? Okay. So, this isn't really a question, but I just want to note this cuz you didn't say it. I think it's important to
058like understand the data. So, it's not just people who fail who take it in August because if you're one or two points off of mastery, you will be very sternly advised that you will be taking it in August. So, I just think that's important to know. >> Yeah, I agree, right? So, it's not you're absolutely correct, Ari. It's not necessarily the kids who haven't been successful. It's the kids who want to take it again because either they were so close to mastery. So, I agree. Um but I think that's usually the exception and not the rule for the kids who sit in August. Um but you're right, absolutely. Anything else? Awesome. When it's when in the accountability data is not embargoed, um can we talk about not necessarily about neighboring schools, just sort of where
059we stand on those tests against other districts because those numbers are some of them are frighteningly small, frighteningly low. >> Well, if I go back, right, we can see when I did comparison to the different districts. So, we have ELA, right? Um when we look at our surrounding communities, um you know, again, there's some districts, Duanesburg is the third highest >> just referring directly to the regions. Oh, the regions exams. Yes. Okay, I Yeah, these I get. These yeah, but I'd like to see something similar with the regions. I can I can make sure I include that, a comparison of the regions. Cuz like our averages not great, but that's the way averages work. But, you know, it might be looking across the a whole body, it might be okay. Right. No, I can absolutely
060include that. That's that's easy enough. We have a wonderful program called Tableau that allows me to pull all these graphics down to share with you. All right, great. Thank you, Kim. Okay, next up Mr. Ivenberg. How do I get myself out of here? We can do it later. Yeah. We'll do it later. Sending out emails. Your what? Mhm. No, I think I put it in the wrong There's a couple different places you can put it back there anyway. All right. >> [snorts] [clears throat] >> I know I'm so old school, right? I got got the PowerPoint going, no Google Slides. Uh all right, so a quick little uh precept for our uh for our budget uh planning that we'll do over the next couple months. Um just some couple a couple little things just to
061kind of show uh how we're going to discuss the budget this year. Uh we're going to break it down into just the um when we talk about expenses, we'll talk about the uh the component budget portion instead of breaking it out into the uh the six sections that I had talked about in the past. Just kind of make it easier for everyone to understand. Uh so, we'll uh we'll go through the administrative budget and then the uh our the administrative portion, the program portion, and then the capital portion. Actually, I apologize, it'll be capital um we'll talk about the capital first. Uh just because a lot [clears throat] of what comes out of the capital are kind of like the things that we know right off the bat when we start the budget. Like those
062are the things that we we know what what our debt service is going to be. We know what our um what our facilities cost, you know, kind of estimated will be at that point. Um and then the last thing you'll end up discussing will be program because those are the things that we're all discussing and working on uh during during budget session and uh discussing anything that's needed in the classroom. Uh principals are discussing with their teachers what they need for next year and and so on. So, um those that'll be how we'll discuss the expense budget this year. And then uh I will also as things start to unfold with revenue and state aid and all that, I'll bring those to the to the sessions as well as they start to evolve. Um so,
063the next board meeting we will talk about the tax levy and the tax cap because that does have to be filed by the March 1st deadline. So, that's a pretty pretty quick process and we'll have to establish that at the next meeting. Uh and the uh Uh for those of you that don't know, the governor gave the the state of the state address today. I did not get a chance to watch it. Uh >> She didn't talk about it. She didn't talk about it. >> Yeah, so nothing was really talked about. So, um you know, we'll just see and we'll wait we'll wait and see when the New York state budget comes out to just see where we're where we're going to kind of set the stage for where we're going to stand. Uh so,
064the the district is made up primarily with our revenue side of uh you know, state aid and property taxes. So, where where um if we're lacking in state aid, then we have to make up for it in in property taxes in order to meet those uh the needs with our expense budget. Uh and then, if there's any gaps, then we would look to to balance that budget with either fund balance or reserves. So, we'll be discussing those as well during the course of uh the few the the budget meetings as well. Uh just a look at where [clears throat] we could be with our foundation aid, one of the biggest portions of the state aid that could come out uh is that um we could see a 0% increase and we would, you know, because
065of save harmless, it'll be an equivalent to about a little over $12,000. So, not very much, but uh you know, hopefully uh the foundation aid thing will get sorted out this year, but you know, this is the you know, at the worst it'll be a 0% increase on that foundation aid, giving us very little with state aid though, because foundation aid is a large portion of the state aid that we receive. Um with the other categories, most of them being expense-based aid. So, as we're spending it, we're also earning it back. So, it's not like we're getting more money to add program. So. Uh this is something that I thought Francis would like and it was without him even mentioning that I didn't even know he's going to mention what he mentioned tonight, but uh
066this actually just kind of points out like what our percentages were for for budget votes of the past and um and then also the actual total voters. Uh so, you can see it's been it's it's fluctuated over the years. We just had a few years where we had a really good turnout. And then uh over the past couple years it again kind of leveled out to where it had been between 2017 2020. So, um you know, we it's it's important for people to get out to vote and but this kind of shows where we're at with with our votes in the past. So, some of the things that we'll be talking about with challenges of the 26-27 budget obviously are that we don't know where we're going to stand with the foundation aid, will it
067remain flat or will it increase? Uh and then we do know as we discussed last year, contractual obligations and renewals, they will continue to rise. So, those are the things that we know, it's just that where they fall is going to be something to determine later on. Uh and then we can assume that employee benefits uh health insurance and retirement systems will will increase. Uh there are a lot of threats with health insurance increasing. Though, um I'm going to keep my fingers crossed because I'm still we're still doing well with our health insurance trust that we're in. So, um I will say that I got uh trust that our health insurance trust is going to do us well this year. So, um especially compared to some of the other uh health insurances for other school
068districts. Uh so, we'll be talking about um this is the uh tentative budget planning schedule and uh if anything uh pops up, I will address or I will adjust this as we move along. Uh so, at the next meeting, we'll talk about the uh the capital portion of the budget. We'll talk about the tax cap and uh where we stand with state aid at that point. >> [snorts] >> The administrative budget will be on March 3rd. And we'll talk about revenue budgets our revenue updates as well. And then uh program on the March 24th meeting. And then the computer community budget presentation with the board adoption of the budget would be on April 21st. Uh followed by the public hearing on May 5th. And then don't forget to vote in May at the end of
069May. Um so, also um I had mentioned to Kim uh just uh thinking over the weekend because that's what we do, right? >> [laughter] >> Um the the location and it's on the agenda tonight to talk about the the calendar um or to approve the calendar. Uh the one thing that the calendar uh has in it uh is the the location of where we have the vote. Um I'm I'm not too convinced that the transportation facility is the best place to do the vote based on where we are with uh construction, um afternoon dismissal at that time, etc., etc. Um I had kind of suggested that we might want to try and find another location over here at the high school um and make some adjustments and just kind of strategize what we can do.
070So, I had some ideas that I talked to Kim about and talked to Serena about and um like to kind of get that in the in the works because we do have to get our um public notices out in April 3rd, is it? Is that correct? Yeah. I think um you know, Jeff's you know, thinking is that we we understand having when we did the budg- uh for the referendum in December, it's a challenge for a lot of our seniors and disabled. We have a ramp, but the ramp is long, but what can we do to make it a shorter walk or shorter incline? So, um we are in open discussion what's the best place and again, we hear the community. We know it's a it's a problem. We did speak to legal. It has
071to be on on on our grounds. It can't be like we can't go to the you know, D-Vax center, which would be brea- great, but we don't own that. So, we I would say probably in the next few weeks as we we had a capital project meeting today and they make it sound hopeful. Um but I guess we probably by, you know, our February meeting we'll probably make another suggestion to see where we're at. Um it is the ease of getting there. Um you know, elementary school is problematic because you have students floating around and and you know, missing instructional seat time is important is you know, something to be mindful of. So, we wanted to put it on your radar that we're thinking and we're trying to find an alternative solution and that the
072community knows that we recognize that it is a challenge and we're actively seeking solutions. Any other questions for Jeff? Okay, thanks so much. Okay. Okay. You do have an early bus in the morning? I don't know yet.