11-04-2025 BOE Meeting

001I can't see. >> Can you give me a thumbs up when you're ready? >> Okay, good evening everybody. We're going to get started this evening uh calling our meeting to order at 6:34 p.m. beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Uh we're going to Our next item um is our recognitions. Each month the board likes to recognize students whose contributions [clears throat] or achievements are outstanding, employees who go beyond beyond the call of duty, or community members whose generosity is greatly appreciated. Um so this month we are pleased to recognize uh firstly the boys varsity soccer team, a member of which happens to be

002sitting at the table with us. So congratulations Santino and all of the all of the guys on your team. Uh they were runners-up for sectional champions, correct? Yeah, so good job. Um we want to say congratulations and best wishes to um Mrs. Tracy Stryker. She is retiring this month after 12 years of service with our school district. So um we uh we appreciate all of her time here and everything that she's brought to the district, and we certainly wish her a happy uh retirement. Um couple of things that aren't in here, but I will mention is uh just a shout-out to the DCPTA for the annual Halloween bash, which I heard was a success. Um and um to uh Ms. Labarge, who I think is back there. Uh I'm sure you had the same uh

003experience that I did. I had a lot of parents telling me how excited and happy they were um and families to be able to watch their kids walk around the track in their costumes for Halloween this year. So that was really cool. Um and uh to our our our village residents and our fire department here in Delanson for hosting a safe and a place to get warm on Halloween um on Friday night. So anybody else have anything that they wanted to say? Okay. All right. Next item is just uh discussion of this evening's agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Serena? Nope. Okay. Um any questions or comments about this evening's agenda? Okay. Our first resolution of the evening, uh be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education approves

004the agenda for the regular week meeting of this evening, November 4th, 2025. May I have a motion? I'll motion. >> Thank you, Francis. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Sarah. Com- comments or questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Next item is public comment. >> [clears throat] >> And I do have, yes, a couple of folks out there that said that they were interested in public comment. Great. Um so, I will read our our policy. Um I don't unless we have people that want to talk, so. Um public comment section, uh the board encourages pub- public comment public participation, excuse me, at board meetings during a specific portion of the agenda entitled privilege of the floor, public comment. Public comment section is not the time or place to register complaints about

005individuals or items that have not first been addressed through proper channels with those closest to the issue, such as a teacher, the building principal, the superintendent, or other appropriate party. Individuals making statements during privilege of the floor are expected to be courteous and respectful, modeling for our students how one can participate and have their voice heard in situations where there is agreement or disagreement with others' views. If members of the public have gone through proper channels and still wish to discuss a matter with the board, they can submit their comments in writing to the board clerk. At its discretion, the board may invite visitors to its meetings to participate in the board's discussion of matters on the agenda. The public comment section is an opportunity for residents, and residents only, to address the Board of

006Education. Should place only [clears throat] takes place in the portion of the agenda designated. Uh let's see. I don't think I have to say all the rest of that. Um Uh does not permit public in public session discussion individual personnel or students. So, to keep that in mind as well. And I think that's all I need to say. So, is it Dana? Let's work on a walkway. My name is Dana Misick. Been a resident for over 26 years here. Had four kids graduate through here. What I'd like to do tonight is I leave my personal information. I'd like to have a meeting to talk about the conditions of the grounds. Not the construction part of the grounds. I understand that. Just the overall lack to detail and and I figured tonight would be a start

007for that. So, I think that'd be the professional way to start. All right? Surely. So, um I'm If you want, you could send an email to the Board of Education um and Ms. Ross. And then we can we'll start that process probably with a meeting with Ms. Ross and we'll go from there. Does that work? Okay. All right. Thank you. >> you so much. Melissa, did you want to speak as well? Great. So, uh Melissa Misick. Um I just kind of want to piggyback off of a little bit of what Dana was talking about, but um my concerns are more um with the inside of the building. Again, not construction. Um Kim, I know you and I met back in June. Um I did let you know that I had some concerns over the way

008that things were being maintained or lack thereof. Um in the over 26 years that I have been coming in and out of this school on the first day of school, whether it be for work or to bring my children, I have never been so disheartened by the way that our school looks on the inside. Um just things paint that doesn't match up and we just say just go through and patch it up and it doesn't matter if it doesn't match, baseboards and stuff kind of, you know, liquid nailing them and getting them back together, we take painter's tape and just stick it to the wall. Holes instead of being puttied, we just put clear tape over it. Um and for me as a parent and a community member, I I have to sit back and

009go, where's that Eagle pride? Where is that? It's not coming from the people that are supposed to be taking care of the inside of our building and I'm not talking our custodian. He is doing the best he can with what he has to work with. But the absolute dust on top of our exhaust systems in our cafeteria where our kids are eating. And I look at that every day. And and even in the gym over our our um closets. It's so thick. And that is the newest part of our building that, you know, we invite our families and community members into for all of our special events. And it's embarrassing. And I look at that and think, what happened? There used to be so much pride. You'd come in and the floors would be shiny

010and the walls would be clean and and I know there's a lot of construction going on, but that doesn't have anything to do with what's going on as far as our maintenance people and the job that's being done in there to make it look to feel good when you come into your job, you know? So, I just wanted to, you know, voice that and and hopefully something can move forward and and get Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> you, Mrs. Misick. Um I We [clears throat] took this before a couple people came in a little bit later, so is there anyone else that had wanted to speak but didn't sign up? Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Oh. Okay. Um our next [clears throat] item is that I get to

011give the ex officio student board members oath of office to our second student board member, Santino Bailey. >> [clears throat] >> It's here. Hold on. I have a lot of papers tonight. All right. I I know, but I'm have to stand up, so I'd rather have it on the paper. All right. So, Santino, I'm going to ask you to stand up with me. All right. All right. And I You should have a paper of it as well. You're going to repeat it after me, so if you want to hold it so you know what I said, that's okay as well. So, Sure. >> All right. So, Santino, >> [clears throat] >> I ask you to say, "I do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully serve as the ex officio student board member of the Duanesburg

012Central School District Board of Education I do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully serve as the ex officio student board member of the Duanesburg Central School District Board of Education in accordance with the Constitution of the United States in accordance with the Constitution of the United States >> of the State of New York the Constitution of the State of New York >> and the policies of the Duanesburg Central School District and the policies of All right. of the Duanesburg Central School District To the >> of my ability to the best of my ability. I will fairly represent the interests and concerns I will fairly represent the interests and concerns of my fellow students of my fellow students with integrity, honesty, and dedication. with integrity, honesty, and dedication. I pledge to uphold the values of our

013school community I pledge to uphold the values of our school community to listen with an open mind to listen with an open mind and to contribute thoughtfully to discussions. and to contribute thoughtfully to discussions. I recognize the importance of my role in advising and informing the board I recognize the importance of my role in advising and informing the board on matters affecting students. on matters affecting students. I will strive to be a positive role model and a leader I will strive to be a positive role model and a leader setting an example of respect, responsibility, and civic engagement for my peers. setting an example of respect, responsibility, and civic engagement for my peers. I will perform my duties to the best of my ability I will perform my duties to the best of my ability

014always striving to enhance the educational experience for all. always striving to enhance the educational experience for all. Thank you. Welcome. Okay. Uh next up we have uh minutes >> [clears throat] >> excuse me from our last meeting. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent the Board of Education approves the minutes of the regular meeting on October 7th, 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Alyssa. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Ray. Comments or questions about last meeting's minutes? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. We have several [clears throat] presentations for everyone this evening and we're going to start with um our advisors Kendra Shedina and Dana Caymer um about positive culture in our school. So, thank you all. Um so, Dana and I are here just going to

015give an update on what we're doing this year to really foster our positive Eagle pride. There we go. There we go. So, just a little reminder for anyone. So, we are representing the Dignity Act um aka DASA um the shift has been towards Dignity Act just because of the stigma of DASA over the years. So, New York State really has shifted to calling it Dignity Act over the DASA, but we real respond to both. But, the goal always is to create that safe and supportive climate and really being able to focus on the education social development where in the past students have had that fear of discrimination being physically, verbally, and emotionally harassed. So, ultimately as Dignity Coordinators here, we are truly trying to create that positive school environment. So, as part of our efforts

016to promote a positive and safe school climate, we feel that it's important that our staff, students, and family share common understanding of what bullying truly is. So, bullying creates a hostile environment by conduct or threats, intimidation, or abuse. It may cause emotional harm, physical injury, or interfere with students' educational performance. Bullying can be based on race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or sex. Many situations in schools involve conflict, teasing, or bothering, but not all meet the definition of bullying. As I will speak about later in our initiatives for the school year, making this distinction helps us respond appropriately and teach us students effective problem-solving skills. So, as Dana mentioned, there has been a shift over the years. So, it's about the impact it is to the student.

017So, some students are have a little bit more impact to what um others might say to them. So, right um where some might be a dandelion and and it doesn't affect them, whereas other students, what is said to them might be take a little bit more um like elevate the concern and really shows that impact. So, we did provide the data over the past couple years. So, we did find last year we did have an increase in number of complaints. So, there was nine total. Um three of those came from the elementary school and six of them was from the high school. Four were founded. So, one in the elementary school and three in the high school. So, that's just over the years. Now, there might be pieces that we do address that are not

018formal DASA complaints. However, anything that comes to our concern that even isn't if it isn't documented formally through DASA, we do address them and we go through um with different character education efforts based on the patterns that we see. So, in this, right? So, the process itself, so when we receive a complaint, we start the investigation within the first 24 hours. Um and part of that is we interview anyone who's involved, so the victim, the aggressor, any witnesses in the situation. We document all of that, and what we do is we end up looking through a lens. So, in our DASA coordinator trainings, they gave us a very helpful tidbit of the impact on students, and we use that checklist to see, okay, is that a founded uh issue, or is it something that's unfounded

019and still should be addressed, but maybe not through that formal channels. So, when it is founded, we do go to the administrator for that consequence, and if there is no consequence because it's unfounded, we still brainstorm, how can we address the situation? Um so, those can vary. Sometimes it can be a counselor meeting, mediation, separation in classrooms, and along with the formal can be a suspension, can be an after-school detention type of situation. So, we do create a little variety in that depending on what the situation calls for. So, some of our initiatives for this year, um ongoing um trainings for DASA coordinators. All staff are trained at the beginning of the year as well. Uh we have our Google site with resources and our streamlined form on our website. Uh we have DASA presentations

020ongoing um throughout the whole school um and specifically on bullying versus bothering like I spoke about before. I will be doing um a presentation on that starting next week with UPK through fifth grade. Um the elementary school we are rolling out an SEL program called Fly 5 and continuing with our Zones of Regulation. Um both of these programs are intended to enhance student well-being, strengthen positive behavior, improve self-regulation, emotional awareness, and social skills with our students. Uh we are also um introducing character ed for elementary and secondary students, which are essential life skills that help build healthy relationships, uh help manage conflicts, and contribute positively to their school environments. We are going to start in third through fifth grade focusing on empathy, communication, problem-solving, respect, listening, and responsibility. And then in the middle school And

021then we're building on those same traits in the middle school and high school. So, we're using those, but we're also, again, like I said, the pattern. So, if we're starting to see like a conflict resolution issue or um we just recently went in, talked about what does it mean like how can you be mean or rude? Like, what are you doing for that and how to fix it? And how to be more kind. That was one thing that we looked at specifically for eighth grade because that was a pattern we were seeing. So, we are looking at um trying to be timely with those pieces, too, to really make it so that the grade level that we're pushing into, it's something that we're we're noticing and we're trying to address it so that way we

022can prevent for further situations from happening. So, that's something that we're really trying to continuing to increase our programming, making sure that um students are heard, too, because they'll come and voice and be like, "This is a situation that we're experiencing. How can we really help that?" So, that's something that overall um I will say the Google Form has been really positive. I've heard a lot of positive feedback from community members about the ease of it. So, that's kind of helped, too, for really getting our efforts across the board. Thoughts? Questions, comments, concerns, thoughts? I I know you don't have this information today. >> [laughter] >> But, I am curious, and so maybe you could just let us know in an email later about sort of how I I presume that the that the number

023of incidents, the number of reports, is commensurate with the population of a school district, right? So, we had nine, we have 688 students. Um but, I am wondering sort of how we are measuring up against other comparable districts and and just how this is going in general across our area. Um anecdotally, it doesn't feel great out there. So, certainly at least not in my um my professional position, but um but yeah, that would be I would be interested in that information if you can get it. Yeah, and when I recently did another DASA coordinator training, um I did ask about the documentation piece, and sometimes the other schools, it's not like a formal documentation piece. as long as New York State basically says as long as you are documenting what's happening in the school and

024you're addressing it, it might not fall under the same category as DASA. But, Mrs. Ross might be able to get me that information in terms of uh what other schools are reporting. I'll I'll try, but I've never seen in all the access we have, like when we look at Tableau, it doesn't necessarily it doesn't have it doesn't report out what other schools um but I'll ask those questions if there is a is there a place that is public information. Um the state takes that the SSEC report every year in July, and depending on how many SSEC, it's the old data report, violations you have each year, they use that to gain gauge if you are um a predominantly high-risk school in when it when it comes to violence. So, DASA's one of those indicators. That

025would be the only thing, but it doesn't I'll see what I can find out. I have a quick question. Um do we practice restorative justice um here at Duanesburg? Um and what are they? We do. It's just we don't it's not advertised as, "Hey, this is restorative justice." But, those mediation situations where it's not you're not getting a punitive punishment, right? Like after school detentions, suspensions are punitive. When we have those conversations with students, when we do conflict resolution, when we um have students when they um like if they broke something and they end up have like helping the teacher fix it, those are the restorative practices that are typically what you would see, they're just not labeled that. Right. Cuz uh a lot of times um research has shown that if there is an

026environment where there are bullies, chances are the bullies themselves are suffering. And what um sort of um, recourse do we do we follow up with uh identified bullies to make sure that they are okay because they, you know, they're our students as well. Um, do we have a an extended program to sort of hurdle help uh, not just the victim or but the person who is engaging in the violence or or the or the language or anything like that. Yeah, and I would say so in majority of these situations I don't have the actual numbers for this so bear with me on that but majority of our situations when we have a bullying situation they are required to still meet with one of our counselors. So whether that's through like sometimes Dana would do a

027social group with students or sometimes they meet with like Mr. Preston or Mr. Meckle, Mrs. Gobel. So we do try to follow up with those mental health concerns because like you said it a lot of times there's a rooted behavior with that. So that's why we usually try to work really hard with that piece. It's not just always that punitive piece cuz we know punishments don't always work. Um, it's that's when we usually see a repeat behavior if you're just constantly giving those punishments. So trying to balance that out and figure out, do you know how to treat others with kindness? Do you know the words to use? Cuz I have also with, um, um, lots of, um, research it shows that if there's a restorative justice piece and there's a counseling of the bully,

028the bullies could actually turn around and become the student's biggest ally. And that's that's I think that's integral uh, to to creating and um, supporting a student led sort of non-bullying act here. Um, and but it really starts with I think and studies have shown that it starts with also following up, supporting, um, making sure uh, that that that individual is okay as well. Um, and and that's part of putting part out of the fire of of out of um uh destructive and destructive um environments um that um is everywhere these days. So true. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, great. Thank you, Mrs. Thank you, Mrs. Kemer. >> Okay, I I think I stole a little bit of his thunder, but Miss Coach Simpson is here to talk about our athletic for fall sports.

029>> [laughter] >> I don't even know how to How do I get this full? Is there a present button on this? Thanks. So, it's kind of funny doing the fall athletics recap because, you know, we have a couple teams still going. The fall season is as quick as it is that, you know, some of these sports are, you know, for example, I'll talk about cross country. They're going to be probably running in the snow here shortly. But, uh we're we're still going and if you look at it, we have a total of 18 fall teams. Um which at a school our size is an it's a lot. Um seven modified, four JV, seven varsity. Total of 141 um students are playing athletics of some sort. Um I'll talk about the merged teams in a minute

030and then, unfortunately, I can't put the scholar-athlete teams up there yet cuz the first quarter hasn't ended. Um that ends this week, grades next week, so um they'll be updated anyways when we get them, but typically fingers crossed, just about all of them get it. Um talk about the modified and JVs. We have the seven total mods with boy soccer, girl soccer, um two volleyball teams, which is good, Boys and girls cross country, football. Um, the four JV teams with the boys soccer, girls soccer, and volleyball, football. Um, out of those merged, I said I was going to talk about it. We got girls soccer that is merged. Um, football is merged. We have cheer in there as well that I'll talk about. Um, and you know, I can sit up here and talk about

031the 18 different teams. We'll be here all night. But, it's always impressive to me the modified and JV age. Just seeing the kids learn. And the coaches taking that on to teach that. Um, cuz you know, winning's important, but bringing the kids back is also important. And I think our coaches did um a great job with that. To talk about some of the squads, we had cheer with Bernards this year. Um, two members, as you see them right there. And in their competition here the other day, it was this past Saturday, they finished runner-up um, with the rest of the section, which I thought was great. Varsity golf. Golf is the quickest season I think I've ever seen. Um, which makes sense. But, they finished 9 and 2. Um, and looking at the squad, we

032had just enough, you know, you have the six golfers um, with the seven there. But, going 9 and 2, their only losses were to the bigger schools. Um, which sometimes you just outmatch. But, you only have one senior in that group. So, to have that level of competition and compete at the way they did with only one senior in a young group is it's quite the, you know, accomplishment by them. Um, five out of seven players got first team all whack and four out of seven qualified for sectionals. So, you know, um, and first year head coach Grady was amazing. He did a great job with such a young squad and um, the challenges that comes with a young squad. Right, do they do sectionals for golf in the spring? Or do they >> So,

033all the state's doesn't really make sense, but it's what they do. So, you compete all fall. Right. >> If you win sectionals, that's great. You're going to golf again in May. Right. Okay. So, >> I thought. >> that's just the way it goes, you you weather and sunlight dictate it. But, if you make it to the state level competition, it's in May. So, it's in the spring. But, the sport itself is just a fall sport. Yep. Our varsity girls soccer, we had five total um students here that played. They finished 6-9-1. The only senior happened to be a Duanesburg senior, Harley Manis. Um and what was nice is, you know, you you see the record, but their JV team was dominant in only having one senior. You You only build from there. So, they're very

034excited about their future. The varsity swim, we got two swimmers. Um their sectionals what what the prelims is Friday, sectionals are Saturday. Um Ella is our eighth grader amazingly has qualified for three sectional events. Um and Bridget, who as we know the O'Donnells, they're just bunch of fish. Um they they they can swim. She qualified for five herself. Um and, you know, we we're not swimming just against small schools. This is merged with Mohon and Schalmont. They're division two, but they're not just against the smaller schools. This is competition against these bigger schools. So, they'll be at Shen Friday. If they do well Friday, which I'm assuming they will based on their times, they'll be um competing for some championships on Saturday up at Shen. The boys cross country team. So, the numbers weren't very

035high at the varsity level, so they couldn't score. So, we couldn't put up a record for them. Um but, one of the good things about the running sports is just cuz you don't have enough for per se a team, you still go to those events. You just can't be the winner as that. But, when you get to WACs and sectionals, you can compete to win as an individual. You still compete for Duanesburg, but you can win. So, at the WAC results, Modified Max came in fourth, Bradley seventh, Nate um came in seventh at the varsity levels, and their sectionals is this Saturday up in Queensbury. And like I said, it's crazy but if they do well, which we've had Nate go to states before, he'll be running the following weekend. Probably be snowing and it's

036crazy but um they they always score very well when they get to these big competitions. So, they'll be up in Queensbury along with our girls cross country. Um so, kind of what happened there was with the record, we have a lot of dual sport athletes. Kind of what just makes it work at a small school. Um so, sometimes they had a full team, other time they had you can probably talk just sorry. So, once again, uh could you score that day? Could you not? Um but at the WAC with the modified stamp came in 12th. Um over to Lake Lakeland came in first. She was a WAC All-Star Molly in 12th as a WAC All-Star Stella wasn't able to run. Um but she's always a high finisher when we get to sectionals. She was a

037WAC All-Star and then last year at sectionals, they came in second. So, we have high hopes for Saturday and obviously we're pushing for first. Um they do a great job with it but once again, they do well, they'll be running in states the next week. So, that's this Saturday with the boys. They all compete up in Queensbury. Um different time races but that information actually just went out on Parent Square, the tickets and everything. So, that's out there for the community to see. Volleyball, volleyball is still going as well. They finished 9 and 8 in the regular season. They earned a home sectional game which happened to be on Halloween and if you saw the booster club picture, bunch of the soccer boys were there in their inflatable suits. Those inflatable suits tried to make

038it to the boys sectional final. They did not work. But they but they did try. Um but they beat Argyle in four sets three to one and they're heading up to Hudson Falls tomorrow. They got a 5:00 game against the number one seed McKeel. Um they've they've had a very solid you know, it was up and down record-wise but solid year. Anytime you make it to a semi-final or final, it's it's a great year. And that's another first-year head coach with coach Herb. She's handled it extremely well. Then the last varsity team that um we have is the boy soccer who we already recognized. The way the WAC works, I told you there's there's three divisions, red, white, and blue. They were the white division champions. They reached the sectional final this past Saturday night.

039Um and from what I've heard, that was the third time in school history that they made the sectional final. You know, on the run they beat the 11-3 and number two seed and I asked a player today how many times Maple Hill has won it. That's their 27th sectional championship. So, they just ran into a buzzsaw. But they played extremely well. The run was incredible. The I The community showed up for them that night. So, they had an awesome awesome run. And some hardware to bring back. So, that'll be in the trophy case this year soon. And then for the first teams, Logan Evan made first team in the All-Star Shaq Brace and Andrew um made second team with the overall record of 14-3 and three. And that wraps up the varsity side of it.

040We do have our fall sports gathering that was supposed to be tomorrow night. Varsity girls are playing, so we bumped it to Thursday so we can all support the varsity girls up in Hudson Falls. So, Thursday night will kind of wrap it up with the other sports still going, but winter sports start in 13 days, I think. Two weeks from yesterday. So. That's it. Questions? Nope. Tony? Good call. Uh I don't know how Brett, how much did they communicate with you? Okay. >> No. They uh there were seven competitors, one of them from Shalmont. Um so, six kids. Uh they brand new team. They It's an incredibly individualized sport uh and it is a sport that people with a lot of experience do better. So, they were seventh out of seven in their group division

041league. I I haven't quite figured those words out yet. Um but it was a really exciting year and it will happen again in the spring. Yeah, and he's hoping Steve's hoping to Steve Larsh is hoping to allow more make it so that more people can access it because first time out it was tight. It was long long days. >> [laughter] >> All right, any other questions? All right, thanks Brett. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Congratulations you two. Thank you. Over here sitting at the table. Nobody's listening to me. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. I'm talking to you ex-officio student members of the board. >> [laughter] >> Congratulations. All right. And you're up. Well, for student news, you know, a few days the junior and senior class plan to go on a DC trip Washington

042DC and as you might know the government right now is not you know, entirely functioning. So, there was some concerns about the itinerary. A lot of the attractions that were originally planned were um government funded like a lot of museums like the Smithsonian and everything. So, thankfully there's a new itinerary with a lot of alternative options so that people get their money's worth with that. So, that was an issue nicely solved. And um as uh Coach Simpson mentioned before all the sports did very well this year. You know, volleyball in their semi-final and for boys varsity soccer second varsity final or sectional final in school history. Which is, you know, always nice. And I think Arya's has some stuff to say, too. Uh yeah, so we wrapped up the fall sports season and as far

043as student news, I get to be the one who says the not nice stuff. Santino gets to say all the nice stuff. Um our sports teams did perform very well. However, we did have some challenging circumstances to contend to with for transportation and I know did Simpson already leave? Simpson tried very hard. We appreciate him very much. But, um we did have a lot of issues with transportation to games and meets. We had lots of last-minute cancellations, lots of coaches coming to find people to be like, "You Our time has changed. We're leaving right now." Um which obviously is not ideal. We don't want to miss a bunch of instructional time, but a lot of that had to happen just to make sure we got to where we needed to be on time. So, that

044was something that we were contending with throughout the fall sports season. Uh trying our best to to get the power through it. Um but, you know, it things happen. Um the other thing that I wanted to talk about um was we had the PSATs. All of our juniors, some sophomores, some seniors did sit for the PSATs. Um it was rescheduled from its original test date because we had a bunch of internet issues with the original place they were taking the test, which again it goes back to like the lack like losing instructional time and just chaos because I know many people were very nervous for that. A very stressful time and to have that rescheduled and then have to reset and get ready to do well again is a stressful thing. So, we have had

045some issues with that and we also have still had issues with email whitelisting and getting sites whitelisted on our school devices. Um a lot of it ties back to perhaps maybe something with standard procedure, I think, because I think that has been mentioned of people don't really know where to go with it. So, when you hear the grumblings and the mumblings and the concerns, you don't really know where to take it and where to go. So, it just all kind of stews, and that can definitely create some tension with students being like, "Why isn't anybody doing anything about this?" when they haven't told anybody about this. But, uh we're trying to be patient, and once again, it's it's unprecedented times, but we're trying to do the best you can. I do appreciate everyone who is

046trying to resolve some of these issues, both with transportation, with technology, and all of that. So, I'm pretty sure that's all we wanted to talk about. All right. Thank you. Can I ask you, Ari, where did you guys take the PSAT? Where I don't know where they ended up taking it. They tried to take it at the church. Okay. >> It didn't work. They took it in Ms. Hex's room. They took it in Ms. Hex's room. >> okay. [clears throat] So, it was not like way off campus, but it was meant to be across the street. >> meant to be across the street. They took them across the street. It didn't work, and then the next time they took it in Ms. Hex's room. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Anybody have any questions for

047our student board members? Great job, you guys. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Okay. Um in an unusual turn of events, I have a report. Is it on here, Jeff? It's on here. My screen? Yeah, but which I don't know which one is mine. Do I have to log in? I was really hoping that it would Oh. Oh. Okay. Where's that? Did somebody close everything? All right. Yeah, it's on my Google It's on my Google Drive. Sorry. >> [laughter] >> My Gmail? And then, where's those little three buttons they said I could do? So, this is actually your Oh, I just hit slideshow. Oh, great. Okay, got it. Okay. You can pull that back up now, Declan. Thank you. All right, great. Okay. Um the reason I have a report is because we have been really

048busy um as >> [clears throat] >> as a board um and also as myself and Kim. So, um a few of the I just wanted to tell everybody sort of what we've been up to. Um one of the things that I don't have a slide about is that um if you were here at our September meeting, you may have heard from Lisa Petrie. She is um the creator and the organizer of I'm Human 360, and she's been doing listening tours around the buildings, and she met with um all of us as Board of Education members in small groups as well. So, she's using all the feedback that she has gotten from those meetings, including um some with us, which is great. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Okay. Uh forgive the quality of these. These

049are photographs of my presentation that I got when I got to this training. >> [laughter] >> Um cuz they didn't give it to us digitally. So, this is just from the uh the paper copy, but um on the 17th of this past month, Kim and I attended uh the New York State School Board Association's Governance Leadership Program. There were 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 or 10 different um districts represented with their superintendents and their board presidents. Um and it was a really great program. Um >> [clears throat] >> what we ended up focusing on was uh leadership styles. So, Kim and I each took a leadership questionnaire prior to this and discovered what kinds what kind of leaders we tend to be. So, um I I am interested and so it's something

050that I'll bring to the board and maybe we can talk about not right now cuz we've got a lot going on right now, but um I think having this um this this survey for all of us um and and doing a workshop with NISBA about this would be really um useful to us, but it was really it was really cool. I'm a psychologist for those of you that that don't know that about me and so I get very excited about this sort of thing. So, I was very excited about this. Um at any rate uh we all got sort of categorized um based on the way that we responded to the questionnaire and um you probably won't be surprised to to find out that I was very strongly a mediate person. I'm a psychologist by

051trade, so that makes sense. Um and Kim was an engaged leader followed pretty closely by a mediate leader. So, it was it was really cool. Um we went into our different groups with people that were were that their leadership styles were similar to ours and we talked about the ways that our styles might create difficulty communicating with other styles and then what we also can bring to the conversation um and how having a group with different types of styles really creates um a dynamic way of leading. So, it was really really cool. I enjoyed it very much. I think Kim did as well. Um let's see. Uh I've just again another another example slide. Um, >> [clears throat] >> but as we were sort of doing this, I was thinking in my mind about the

052people that I know and the people on our board and what style they might be. Um, tell style is faster paced and task oriented. Engage is fast paced as well, but a little bit more people oriented. Analyze is the person that asks a lot of questions and wants all of the the information that's you know, very detailed oriented. And then there's a mediate style who is a little bit slower, very people oriented, very collaborative, that kind of thing. So, it was a really interesting um day. It was a a whole day. Um, and I think we learned a lot and again, I may I may suggest that that's something that we do as a team moving forward. Even Oh, yes, we lost power. That was exciting. Because we were in a room with no windows.

053So, um but we just rolled with it. It was fine. >> [laughter] >> Um, okay. So, that was in the earlier in October. And then uh let's see, about a week and a half ago, two almost two weeks ago, uh three of us from the board attended the NISPA Annual Convention and Educational Expo. Myself, uh Francis Spore, Sarah Gwiazdowski from the board, and then our superintendent Kim Ross, and then our board clerk Serena Kellenberger also went. So, that was really um it was really great. So, I thought today I would let you all know, my fellow board members, the about the sessions that I went to. Um I won't I won't take an hour, I promise. But um so that know what we did um and what I'm bringing back from what I learned. And

054then I'm going to ask at our next two meetings that Francis and Sarah do the same for us. So, um so I'm hoping we'll have a presentation from each of them in our upcoming meetings. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> Okay. So, uh it's a three-day conference. On Thursday, Francis and I both attended the pre-convention board officers academy. The title of that this year the the focus was one vision, many voices. Um and it was about resolving conflict and building consensus. Um so these are the the sessions within that. It was all day. It was 9:00 to 4:00, I believe, 9:00 to 4:30, something like that. Um and [clears throat] I personally learned a lot here. Excuse me. Um I think I I wrote down in bold some of the things that I that I took

055from it. One of one of the things was um that conflict is a sign that people care very deeply. Um I knew that, but it was nice to hear it. It was good to hear it. Um and that conflict is not the enemy of progress. Ignoring conflict is the enemy of progress. Oh, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Um the other thing that I that I revisited um because I did this Officers Academy last year as well, um is that high-performing school boards are associated with high-performing schools. So, when school boards are working well and working well together and have a common vision, uh the district does better and the students do better in their academic achievement, in their social emotional growth, etc. So, we're here sort of at this table talking about things at

056this sort of high level, um but it really does matter because when we're functioning well, students will function well also. Um and it's just good to know that. Uh we talked a lot about building consensus um and sort of understanding when you're building consensus that so for instance, when you hear >> [clears throat] >> excuse me, a board vote yes and everyone votes yes, that means that we've come to some likely come to some consensus. Um it doesn't mean that we're rubber stamping. It means that everyone has agreed to move forward with whatever decision has been made. So, it was a excuse me. [clears throat] Um it was a really helpful day uh and I think I'll bring a little bit more detail in our next board retreat um so that we can talk a

057little bit more about the things that we learned there. Um, >> [clears throat] >> one of the other things that came from that, oh, consensus. That's the other thing I wanted to say. Um, they sort of boiled it down to three steps. I understand. I can accept. I'm It may not have been my first choice, but I I can accept what's being decided, and then I will support, right? So, supporting might simply be that we don't say anything negative if we didn't really agree in the first place, right? But we come together and we make the decision. Um, or acknowledge that if I didn't initially agree, um, I can be supportive because I understand that we all came together with the same vision, with the same goals, and we came up with a decision together,

058right? So, um, it was a It was a good reminder for me and and a really helpful meeting. Um, we also talked about board self-evaluations, um, and I do intend to implement this this year. So, um, we evaluate our superintendent, and in so doing we require her to evaluate herself. Um, and within our school community, our administrators are evaluated by our superintendent, and they are asked to evaluate themselves. And we do evaluations, but we don't evaluate ourselves, or we haven't historically. Um, and I don't uh I I think that we could benefit from taking some time and reflecting and and considering what we're doing well and and what we want to do better, right, moving forward. So, um, >> [clears throat] >> again, something for you to look at later, but uh they discussed how

059we might go about a board self-evaluation. There are lots of tools. I'm not going to use SuperEval, I promise, don't worry. Um, >> [laughter] >> um, and so, in that light, I also intend, Francis and I intend to meet with each of you as individual board members. I'm hoping by the end of the calendar year. I'm going to do my best to um It's a busy time, obviously, but Francis and I have agreed that after doing all of this that we really want to spend just a little bit of time with each of you individually and and sort of take our our temperatures individually and then that'll help us kind of carry on and and move forward as well. All right. And then on Friday, oh my goodness, I went to the keynote session. This

060was Tim Shriver. Tim Shriver is Maria Shriver's son and he joked that he sometimes has people tell him that he looks like a Kennedy, of course, cuz he is a Kennedy, but anyway, he discussed the concept of dignity versus contempt in the context of how we speak to each other. He is he's the co-developer of something called the dignity index. And again, reminder, I'm a psychologist, so this this scale and and and talking about dignity was spoke to me in a big way. So, >> [clears throat] >> the dignity dignity index, excuse me, is a tool that they developed to score speech, to score communication along a continuum from contemptuous to dignified. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about it later cuz I did it an extra session, but this intro was

061really great. I went to a do's and don'ts of executive session, which I always go to because I always need to be reminded what we can and can't do. So, we're going to be going into executive session later today. We talked a lot about what's permissible for executive session. It's very specific when we're we're really only allowed to go into a meeting for everyone else's awareness, right? And for specific things. Everything else we conduct in public, right? So, reminding reminding me so that I can then remind all of us how to manage that, um, what's permissible, what's not permissible, what we can talk about in email and what we can't, um, things like that. Uh, making sure we protect people's confidentiality, etc. Um, and then later in the day I did the dignity index a

062deeper dive. Um, the woman that ran that, excuse [clears throat] me, works for the company that I think produces that scale. Um, but it was a really powerful, um, really powerful session. Uh, so it's just I have a couple of slides. totally lifted them from their slideshow. So, I'm giving them credit where credit is due. Um, but just an idea, uh, of the differences between contempt and and dignity. Um, that contempt is a feeling of disdain or disgust for another group where we treat another as vile or worthless. Right? That's at the lower end of the continuum. And dignity is the mutual recognition of the desire to be seen, heard, listened to, and treated fairly. To be recognized, understood, and to feel safe in the world. >> [clears throat and cough] >> So, the dignity

063index kind of puts these two things uh, next to each other. And, um, helps us sort of understand and put some context around how we're communicating. So, this is the dignity index. I have copies of it, so can we can look at it together in our retreat as well. Um, but it talks about it gives you a way of, um, taking a look at and interpreting what you say and how you say it. And, um, again, I found it not only fascinating, but really, um, eye-opening and uh, sometimes we don't even realize when there's contempt in our voices, especially when we're at the the level four. Oh, they don't really belong. They're not exactly one of us. Um, it's it's still not a dignified way of of treating another person. So, um this was a

064[clears throat] really really great uh Of course, you can get the index and they can come and do trainings and all the things, but um which we probably won't do anytime soon, but but it was really um it was really powerful and really interesting. So, I'm I'm happy to uh share more about that at our next retreat as well. Um I also [clears throat] went to This was interesting um and I have a question for the board about this. I went to a a workshop presented by these folks from Hampton Bays um school district about what they That's a program they call Handle With Care. It's not like what Handle With Care used to be. I know that Kim was like, "Ah!" Um so, it's not it's not historical Handle With Care. It's it's now

065Handle With Care. Um and it is uh an approach and a program where uh law enforcement >> [clears throat] >> and schools work together to ensure that students are being uh cared for as best as possible when um particularly when an event may have happened in that child's home. So, essentially what happens in this program is that if um and it and it's across uh within the the county, there are several school That's quite a few school districts. So, if if um law enforcement were to were to uh respond to a household within a school district, that school district is notified, we went to a house this address in your district. They don't know necessarily whether there's a student enrolled in school, but the school knows whether there's a a student that's enrolled um that

066comes from that household. And then um it it simply says Handle With Care. So, there's no information about what happened. There's no, you know, breach of confidentiality. There's just a notification that, "Hey, um there's some stuff going on for this student." And what was really um again, powerful to me was that and I think we can probably all recognize that we've been there. It is if I had only known, right, that there was something that just happened for this family or something was going on in their lives. I would have seen this situation differently. I would have understood this situation differently. And we're moving toward trauma uh informed we're we're we'll talk about that later, too, but we're moving towards trauma informed um uh support for students and so this is sort of a step

067in that direction. So, the program >> [clears throat] >> I believe we can get through Cornell Cooperative Extension. So, something to think about, you don't have to answer right now, but it is free. And we do have an SRO, but we don't have something as specific as this. Um and it might be something that other districts in our area might be interested in as well. Um so, I can look into it further if you guys want me to. Um again, you can shoot me an email, let me know what you think, but uh it was pretty um pretty compelling. >> [clears throat] >> All right. And then, Saturday morning was a student board representative is more than just a mandate um about our student board representatives. Again, sort of a question or something to consider

068um that maybe we circle back to this in the spring, not right now, but excuse [clears throat] me, they were talking about having a district leadership council that included the superintendent, the board president, and student board representatives um as well as at least um one of the principals um to kind of help identify who those student leaders are as they're kind of coming up um and providing them with opportunities to to, you know, to be leaders uh and and moving them in the direction of perhaps wanting to um consider being on the board. So, that was that It nice it was nice. It was not quite as exciting as the others, but it was it was good anyway. But something we might want to do is is consider putting together a council that includes you

069two, right? As we as we think about moving forward, um what what are we looking for? Um what students what students do you see with leadership potential? Um maybe not always the ones that are always doing all the things, right? But [snorts] some of those that are maybe quiet leaders. Um how can we cultivate that? So that was a an interesting thing. And then lastly, um Francis and I think uh might have been the only ones that were there for this one, but this one was just incredible. Uh this is Steve Hartman. He's from CBS This Morning. Um he does the On the Road segment on Sunday mornings. Um he had his kids there. He had um that he did kindness 101 uh during COVID with his kids. Uh and then they got a job

070for CBS with CBS after that. So it kept going. So um I thought, just for fun cuz it's less than 3 minutes long, that this is this is a follow-up on one of the stories that he shared with us. Um And it was just really amazing. So I will share it with you. Best friends stay best friends, no matter their differences or the passage of time. Steve Hartman has found Okay, so as you can probably imagine, he did three or four of these stories. Um and one of them he brought uh there's a doctor from Baltimore who was doing um work basically pro bono. >> [clears throat] >> Um and and he brought him on stage uh to to help him with his his talk, but it it really nicely um dovetailed with the opening

071about dignity and respect. Um and how how that really does come together with kindness um and compassion. And so not a dry eye in that entire auditorium, for sure. Um, but it was a really good conference, and I appreciate the district's, um, willingness to send us, um, and, um, you know, I have I have a good time. I love to learn, so conferences are really fun for me. Um, but I'm really also looking forward to hearing from Sarah and Francis, um, and Serena, if she wants to, although I don't know if she wants to, um, about their experience as well. So, that's all I got. Do you guys have any questions for me? All right. >> [clears throat and snorts] >> Melissa, just so you know, I was able to rip the whole video of

072Steve Hartman. >> to say, yeah, we're going to watch it in our retreat, so bring some tissues. Yeah. I I actually I shouldn't say I did it. Um, I had a little help from my team. Mel helped me get the video. All right. Uh, next we have superintendent's report. I'll be brief cuz I know we have a lot of presentations tonight. Um, just a couple things. Um, we are going to be joining, uh, districts in Schoharie County on Monday for a regional professional development day. Um, usually those days, years ago, it used to be hosted here at Duanesburg when they worked on the essential ed. But with our construction, it's, uh, we've moved over to Cobleskill Golding Middle School. This PD day is for teaching staff and teaching assistants. Um, other staff are going to

073stay back and they're going to continue their work with Dr. Petrone. Um, and some other other things that their building principals will have assigned to them. The PD day is going to wrap around MTSS, um, which replaced RTI several years ago because it pulls in that, um, social emotional component. We have a world-renowned speaker, Ali Hearn, flying in. She's actually quite reasonable. And, um, she's a so- social worker by trade. Sure, you're fine. Um and then Meredith Madden as well. And then there'll be some breakout sessions, smaller group sessions for folks to sign up for. Um so that will be on Monday. Um CJ's going to be updating you all on the capital project, but I just want to let you know the upcoming vote and budget hearing. Um met with Trisha today again, and

074she um created a new link on our website to update the community on the capital project. I was looking at another district's website, and I I liked the format of more of a bulleted with a Q&A, because I think um research has shown that as humans we like brochures versus reading an essay. So, she was going to update that, some really quick uh quick links. Um a postcard is going to be it's in going to print tomorrow to be mailed to the community. But, we um we are going to have a tour. Um De- December 2nd is the the hearing. We're going to have a tour at 5:00. Um anyone in the community is welcome to join to see the progress of what's happening here and talk about the next leg of this project. And

075then we did add today, um we're going to do a virtual information meeting the day before. Uh lots of times folks' schedules there's conflicts. So, on Monday, December 1st, um it will be in the postcard on the website that will um a be a link. Anyone within the community can join and ask questions. Um and uh CJ will be joining us for for that virtual, yeah, as well as our architect Drew will be the be on the virtual meeting, and Jeff and um kind of walk through any questions that folks may have and who can't come to the budget hearing or the tour. So, that's going to go out. Other than that, the only thing I have is something personal. I am happy to say that That's okay. Very excited as of this weekend my

076partner and I are official residents of the Duanesburg community. We may be living out of boxes, but we have a bed and a coffee pot. That's all you need in the world. He's over there right now trying to hook up a TV. >> [laughter] >> But we're excited to be here and I know this isn't necessarily superintendent's report, but the conversations Brian and I have had is that my career early career was teaching in the community that I grew up with. My children went to Cobleskill. I graduated from Cobleskill. They graduated. And even though my travels professionally have taken me to some really great places, there was always a feeling of disconnect. And I actually really missed walking through the grocery store and seeing students and families and catching up and even if it you

077know taking an hour to get through the grocery store for a gallon of milk. I haven't had that in my four other districts because I lived out of the community. So when I talk about coming to Duanesburg and the full circle and the final chapters of my career, it does feel like home. It feels like now we're we're rooted you know begin our roots in the community and um don't be shy to say hi to me at Hannaford. That's it. Questions? Welcome. >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry. You should have kicked me under the table. All right, very good. Thank you, Kim. Yep, we're moving on. Do you have Sorry. lived in town. Yeah, Lou Lou lived here. DeFilippo. Yeah, so you're joining a good group. All right. Mr. Ivenburg, you're up. It is. All right,

078we're good. Okay. Uh so, tonight you will see that the uh reserve fund report is uh is on BoardDocs. Um just uh this is an annual uh reminder of our reserve funds. Uh so, we use our uh reserve funds to save for future projects, acquisitions, and other allowable sources. Uh it is a mechanism that is legally uh for saving money to finance all part of an infrastructure equipment and other requirements for the district uh to provide a degree of financial stability, especially in in years when we could have uh budget uh challenges with uh the state's budget with state aid, uh and to probably provide those budgetary options uh when we have when we have to think about cuts instead of or instead of uh higher, you know, raise tax or raising taxes at a

079higher rate. So, uh this is a list of all the uh reserve funds uh in summary here that you will see in the uh in the uh report. Uh it also lists the amount that we have uh in in each of one of the uh reserve funds. Uh so, one that we've talked about uh quite a bit recently is the uh capital reserve fund where we used that to fund phase one of the uh the Centennial project. Uh it it eliminated the need to borrow $6 million. Uh so, um and then the interest that was uh earned on that uh also uh eliminated the need to borrow another $400,000 for phase two. So, um it it really allowed us to stretch uh uh, our funding to to make things a little bit easier for the

080Centennial project. So, uh, that being said, we had established another one, uh, 2 years ago, uh, the in 2024, uh, another capital reserve fund. And, uh, this year recently we we established a repair reserve fund report, our reserve repair reserve. So, those two, uh, repair our reserve funds are actually established by the board, uh, at a at a certain dollar amount, uh, and the capital reserve fund is actually established a certain number of years. So, within 10 years, at a cap of $6 million is what the capital reserve fund was set for. So, within 10 years we would use by 2034, we would use that that, uh, capital reserve fund that was established, uh, in 2024. Uh, the repair reserve was capped at 300,000 and was also, uh, voted on not only by the board,

081but also by the community at the, uh, the budget for 25 26. Uh, here's a list of the, uh, the reserve funds that we do have. So, you can see that the there was a, uh, reserve for capital that was established for the Centennial and you'll see that now we've transferred a lot of the money out, uh, and at this point it's dwindled down to almost nothing, uh, in order to fund and pay the bills for phase phase one. And then, uh, we had established, uh, some funds, found some funds in undesignated fund balance and put that into the, uh, reserve fund, uh, recently. And we also were able to save some money for repair reserve, uh, which allows us to make repairs to our facilities. Uh and a few of the other uh So,

082I won't summarize all of the all of these because it is in the report for what their purposes are. But, we did we were able to also fund recently at the uh end of the most recent budget year, the uh the TRS fund. So, because we had a good budget year and those uh unexpected uh funds that did come to us last year, it it definitely helped us to be able to save for for years that could be difficult in the future. And then, this is just a look at what the uh most of the funds are in the capital are in the capital reserve. Um accounts for almost about half of the the reserve funds that we do have. But, also some of those other funds such as the uh the retirement uh retirement

083funds, you can actually see that uh retirement rate can go up and down and fluctuates a lot. So, saving for the TRS and the ERS funds, it definitely helps the district to be able to plan and not have to increase taxes uh when you know, when that when those rates do fluctuate cuz it's not it's not something that we can control. And there's some resources here and there's also listed right on the report. There's some uh resources here. Uh resources on the um on the report that you'll find online. And that is that is it. Thank you, Jeff. Anybody have any questions for Jeff? Question. Jeff, you said something about undesignated funds you found ended up where? Yep. So, when we when we finished the the year, uh we had undesignated fund balance that we

084were able to fund the reserve funds with because we had uh uh more than 4%. So, we had from what our budget was, we still had more than 4% from what we budgeted for. So, then we took that money and put it into one of these reserve funds. That's correct. Which reserve fund did we put it into? That was in the uh TRS and then the capital reserve and uh the repair reserve. So, we split the sum total between those two reserve funds? Between the three, that is correct. >> Oh, three. Okay. Thank you. Yep. And that was that was actually at the I believe it was at the August meeting. Yeah, it was pretty recent. It was at the Yeah, it was either August or September. Uh just to clarify, the TRS is a

085retirement? That is correct. Yes. So, um they came out with that allowance uh in 2019. We were allowed to establish a subfund, the TRS uh the TRS uh reserve fund um in addition to the ERS. Um so, the TRS is a fairly new uh uh fund for everyone. Can you explain the difference between retirement contributions and the TRS retirement accounts? So, ERS is for uh anyone employed non-teacher, and then TRS is for teacher retirement system. So, ERS is employment retirement system. TRS is teacher retirement system. Thank you for clarifying. Yep. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, that's our last presentation. CJ, welcome for our capital project update. Hi, everybody. >> talk about roofs. Uh Actually, not a lot of roofs kind of going on. There's only a

086couple. Um so, I believe in your board docs you guys have seen or at least received a copy of this. I'm not going to read through our paragraph of description. I'm just going to kind of talk through that. Um some of the things by area um we're expecting in the next couple weeks that the bulk of what we're still waiting for to go back into third-grade classrooms, we're going to have before Thanksgiving. Right now, we've set um with the school district that 12/2 we're going to take back three of those classrooms in the third-grade wing. And we're going to go back at getting those things completed. Uh whiteboards going up, floors going in, bathrooms completed, tile installation. We're expecting that by 12/5, 12/8-ish we will have received the casework for the classrooms as well. So,

087we're trying to time that so that we don't have to have people be inconvenienced for a second time to come back out of those rooms so that we can do that. And then once we complete those three rooms, we're going to do a kind of what I call a shift, which is kids will move out and then move into those. And then we'll do the next three rooms. And as part of that, there are two um uh half classroom-size rooms that are in that same hallway. We're doing one of those at a time as part of those shifts. Um so, I'm really excited to see that we will have things where we can complete work in classrooms. Yes. I just don't want to forget to ask this. How How long do you think any individual

088class will be displaced? Uh we're looking at from 12/2 to after the break for the first three and then it's going to be about the same amount of time after that. It's about four to six-ish weeks. Yeah, oh sorry, that's not right. It's about yeah, four-ish weeks um by the time, but we also gain I kept doing this wrong earlier, cuz it's only Thursday is the Christmas and the New Year. Right. So, I suspect we will only really gain 6 days out of those 2 weeks, because most people are probably going to try to take Friday off. Okay. Um But, it it sounds like about 3 weeks or so. >> Yes. Per per per >> at I would say four to be safe once we do the three that are outside of the break. Um

089and then again, we're looking to have all those pieces done so we can move people out, move people in. There will still be punch list items, touch-up paint, scuffs, things like that. Um but, we're expecting that they will be for the lion's share of the classrooms themselves will be done. There are a handful of things down that hallway that we can't complete. The floor itself in the hallway is probably about a 4-week process. So, we had to defer that to the summer. Um which also means there's uh if you've been down the hallway, there's some larger open areas down the hallway. Those have casework and benches and things like that. We're waiting to do those so we can do the floor below them and then do that and then finish up. So, the bulk of

090that stuff will be done before we hit probably the tail end of January. Um but, it'll be good progress. The same process is going to happen um over at 106, 107, 108. Um thankfully, those are already unoccupied. So, once we get that stuff, we can start working in there as well. Um the kitchen cafeteria here, we um I don't know if anybody's looked through the windows down there. We finally were able to get a lot of the stuff in the kitchen itself underground. We've been really struggling with getting some information and finding some connection points between the grease trap where it is now and what was supposed to be an existing connection that was too high, that we tried to push outside as close to the building as we can. That was still too high.

091So, now we're looking at going halfway down the path down here to get to the next sanitary manhole. Um so there we're waiting on some information to finalize that. Once we get that, we can finish the rest of the below ground. And then they can continue on putting up walls, starting to tape and finish walls, and all that exciting stuff. The bus garage, which I know is a very exciting topic for everybody here, the foundation and the slabs have all been poured. Everything is back together. All the temporary structural items we did to keep the building together in that time frame has all been removed. So um every all the brakes came back for concrete that was tested appropriate or higher. So they're in much better shape there. They have now demolished what was the

092existing spaces that were the offices and the meeting room and things like that. The addition on the outside is progressing. And a big step we had over the last couple of days between last week and this week was the electrical service. We're supposed to put a new meter on the outside of the building, which involved getting National Grid here, taking down the existing service, putting the siding up so that they could then mount the service back to it. That all happened within the four days that they were shooting for. Um and so now they're going to continue with siding around the building, finishing the roof. We're still waiting on some overhead doors for each of those larger openings, but they're expected in the month of December. So we're hoping we can get a lot of

093the outside of that buttoned up and get that whole thing completed sooner than later. Um I'm going to have some pictures at the end of this. Again, some of the challenge we've been having is we're still waiting on material items. And then that underground piping that we talked about at the cafeteria. So a couple of small wins, or at least small wins for me, was uh earlier in October we were able to get the BenQ boards in. Uh there was no real reason to wait to put those up for classrooms. We knew the teachers were needing them. So those went in around the uh Indigenous Peoples holiday there. Um Uh so, this is your current kitchen area in the high school. So, it was uh considerable about considerable amount of work to get everything from

094what was the back side of that wall really turned 90°. It looks way worse than it is. Every project always looks like this, I promise. Um but, you can see the uh impact of everything. I mean, every drain underground, piping through the ground, electrical items through the ground. Um and then, they have to be backfilled, compacted, tested, and all that fun stuff. Um so, even with all those checks, there will inevitably be some sort of issue somewhere in this process again. Um and we'll continue to work through those issues as we go. Students, I feel that you should share these photos with your colleagues. Now, you know why we're not eating in the cafeteria. >> [laughter] >> Surprise. And now you know there we have an archaeological dig happening in our cafeteria area. >> [laughter]

095>> The nice thing that's been happening is there are other things that can be done in the cafeteria that have been being done as far as we can go. Um a lot of the ductwork that's been in the cafeteria itself, not the kitchen sections, that's been put up. A lot of the heating piping, plumbing piping, domestic water, electrical circuits that could go in have been go installed. Um we're finding less and less things that are issues with the building in this particular section. Sorry, I don't want to be too much of an all out. Um but, you know, we're hoping that as we get all the materials, get through the floor, we can start to can catch up now and gain some speed and get through those items. Uh now, you're looking at what was

096the foundation pour. So, I don't know if everybody remember the pictures of the contractor grabbing the foundation crumpling in in his hand. That whole section that was exposed along the front and to the corners of each of the sections here where the front is, those were all stripped out. The foundations were checked. The foundations were in good shape. They were suitable to put foundations back on. We installed foundations, then they came back and then poured the interior slab. So, sorry, I'll take a step back. They poured the foundation. We took samples of that to test it for structural integrity, make sure it hit compressive strength. They poured the floor, samples of that again, same process making sure it gets to its strength. And then you'll see here the outside with the rebar. That was all

097poured, again samples taken again. Um so, we don't necessarily take samples of every truck or a couple of truck, but depends on the pour, but we typically every time we pour we take samples so that we can make sure that it's hitting the right strength or things like that. And then you can see sheathing on the outside of the building so that they can install insulated metal panels. And then on the mezzanine area, they've been working through getting the new boiler installed, all the ductwork. They're moving um the IT uh server up there, things like that. And then that's a picture of some of your panels. The mezzanine is if you were to walk into the bus garage through the main door, it is the ceiling above you. It's as fancy as a bus garage

098gets. Um oddly enough, there was an office up there. Um there is not going to be one after this. And then again, just some more pictures of them working through the foundations, the insulation going on on the outside of the foundations, the rebar sticking up that basically ties in with the floor on the inside and on the outside. Um you're looking at addition framing of the new area of the addition. So, um I think a couple of things I just want to add. You mentioned students. If there are students that are interested or if there are people that want to learn more or see pieces of this, I do that stuff all the time. I'm happy to do that if there's a handful or a tour that wants to be done. Um it's things that

099we'd probably do after school. It's probably a little bit better that way. Also, I don't like to do it when they're actually working cuz there's just too much stuff happening. But, those are things we're happy to talk about or if we can help in any way, we're happy to do. Any questions for me? This just kind of occurred to me. If you're talking about in that third grade wing, emptying the kids out, putting in the flooring, and the painting, and all that stuff, putting them back in. Mhm. Modern materials that are used in education building, do they outgas? Is that something that we need to build into the timeline? >> So, the nice thing is that everything is low or no VOC. Okay? The bad thing is I have yet to find a material that

100doesn't have a smell. There will I have never been on a project where somebody has an ultimately It's not that they're complaining. It's that everything has a smell. Um a big thing typically for instance is when we do roofing, everything is low or no VOC. I mean, it's all printed on it. We have all that information in the MSDS sheets. You smell it. There's no question you smell it. And there's no amount of here's information that necessary will help in that it still smells bad. Um so, the answer to that is everything is low or no VOC. Um even paints are no VOC, but they all have a smell. So, again, if we're finding things that are affecting education, right? We don't want to have to create a bad space. If those things are starting

101to happen, then that's a different conversation to have, which is has has happened on this project. We were doing some roofing over at the elementary school. It was really loud that day, or it was the 17th day of it being too loud, and people finally had enough. That's totally understandable. Kim called me that day, and said, "Hey, you got to stop these guys. We can't can't take another day." I think that was a Thursday. They stopped and go Friday, finished up a couple of things on the weekend, came back and started again. You know, that's that's ideally the mentality that people should have. It isn't always like that, unfortunately, but everybody knows that we're here working in a school, and we're working during the day and school's happening. Any other questions for CJ? So, just

102in case I have to just in case anybody's confused, it's not the third grade wing. Oh, thank you. I'm so sorry. It's the 300 wing. 300 That was that was the compromise of not renumbering the system. Yes. And you have told me that repeatedly, and I'm so sorry. >> just know that some folks who may not know it's now the first and second grade wing, like, wait, the third grade wing? But third grade third graders on the other side of the building, so it's the 300 wing. And when my wife taught in that wing, it was the fourth grade wing. It was actually the third and fourth grade wing, I think. So, it's just the 300 wing. 300 wing. You got it. I will I will blame Henry when I see him for writing that

103and me repeating it. I'm just kidding. It's my fault. Oh. Yep. I'd like to thank Shafer for allowing us to bring our buses down into their garage. So, Jeremy's been driving buses down to Shalmont. And uh they've been very helpful to allow us to use a bay when he needs to use one. There have been a couple times when he can't drive the bus and he has to do repairs in the in the parking lot, but um it's it's been a it's been an interesting, you know, and so uh yesterday he had to take one of the trucks down to Shalmont and do the they've also been using their his tire machine and all that too down there, so yeah. So, I I didn't see in the report, are we are we paying them? Or

104how is this working? Um when we are bringing our buses to Shalmont? So, we have we're not paying them. They didn't ask us for anything. Um and uh they're helping their neighbors. That's great. Yeah. So, That's cool. Yeah. Cupcakes, sure I can do that. >> [laughter] >> All right. Excellent. Um thank you, CJ. Appreciate it. >> Absolutely. Do you want this off, move back over there, or just want me to go? You can go home. >> [laughter] >> You don't have to stay any longer. Thank you. Okay. Let's see. Um next up, we have um some board actions. First set are financial. So, be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education approves, >> [clears throat] >> excuse me, financial items 11.01 through 11.07. May have a motion? I'll motion.

105Thank you, Francis. A second? Thank you, Michael. Uh comments or questions about any of the financial items? All in favor? Hi. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Uh next we have our instructional personnel. >> [clears throat] >> Again, be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education hereby accept uh and excuse me, approve um instructional personnel items 12.01 through 12.03. May I have a motion? Thank you, Tony. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Ray. Comments or questions about instructional personnel? I'd just like to welcome uh our new art teacher to the district. That was a a nice quick replacement. Well done. Any other comments or questions? All in favor? I. Hi. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Next are our non-instructional personnel. >> [clears throat] >> Be it resolved based upon the

106recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approve non-instructional personnel items 13.01 through 13.05. May I have a motion? Thank you, Alyssa. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions? All in favor? I. Hi. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Excuse me. Next item is CSE and CPSE minutes. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approves the CSE and CPSE minutes from the meetings on October 3rd, 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 27th of 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Sarah. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Francis. Uh comments or questions? A lot of meetings. Thank you. >> meetings. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, other? >> [clears throat] >>

107We have the approval of the tip-off basketball tournament. Be it resolved, based upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education approves the tip-off basketball tourney that will take place on November 28th and November 29th, 2025. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Uh, thank you, Tony. A second, Sarah? Thank you, Sarah. Uh, comments or questions? Just a reminder, we heard from Coach Simpson about this at our last meeting, so All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. That's our last action item. Just want to call to everyone's attention, um, that we were going to have our December meeting at the elementary school because we're going to do a meeting each year at the elementary school, but um, because of all of the things that CJ just reported to us, we're not

108going to do it on Tuesday, December 2nd. So, [laughter] our Tuesday, December 2nd meeting will be held held here, um, instead of at the elementary school, um, in part because of the construction, but also because we will also be having the public hearing for phase three of the capital project during, um, during that time. So, we'll start that at 6:00, um, and then there's the tour that day at 5:30. I'm sorry, at 5:00. If anyone would like to come and and take a tour of what that capital project will look like. So, 5:00 for the tour, 6:00 for, um, the public hearing, and then our regular board meeting will be here at 6:30. Um, there is a Oh, and Tuesday, March 3rd, Oh, yes. Okay, because right. So, Tuesday, March 3rd, our board meeting will

109remind you again in a few months will be moved to room 118 because this this room will be used for the high school musical. Okay. Um Next, the board will be entering into executive session. I will do a motion for that momentarily. But just letting everyone else know that is out there. Thank you so much for being here. We do not intend to come back to open session. So, have a lovely evening. Happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you all next month. Um Uh may I have a motion, please, to enter into executive session to discuss matters leading to the discipline of a particular employee as well as contract negotiations? I'll motion. Thank you, Francis. I second. I'll second. Oh. Michael. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. All

110right. Eight Oh. Wait. Thank you all. Yes, thank you. >> Mhm.