001Sorry. 6:36, 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. She was here. She made it. She made Okay. Okay. Oh, let me get myself here. I'm sorry. All right, there we go. Um Okay, as many folks in the room know, each month we like to recognize uh students, um community members, employees that go above and beyond, um who have been very generous, um or who have achieved or contributed uh in ways that are outstanding. So, we have a long list this this month. Um the uh let's see. Yes, okay. So, the first is um to shout out to our fall sports teams. Um we had homecoming week last week
002and spirit week, and it was tons of fun. So, we had our golf team. We have a new clay target league, uh girls modified JV varsity soccer teams, boys modified JV varsity soccer soccer teams, girls modified JV and varsity volleyball teams, and our swim team. Wait. And cross country. And cross country. And cross country. >> [laughter] >> Oh, and football. Okay, sorry, they weren't on my list, but we know that they're out there as well. So, good good job to all of them. Um it was a hot hot weekend, but it was a lot of fun. Um some special shout-outs to Mrs. Hoffman and Mrs. Downs for their effort in coordinating Homecoming Week, Spirit Week, and the Pep Rally. Uh we want to thank the Duanesburg Community PTA for sponsoring an assembly. Um Corey the
003Dribbler came uh and students from 6th through 12th grade got to participate in that assembly. Um we want to thank Booster Club for their fantastic leadership, support, and organization of all the Homecoming activities this past week. There was a chili and soup cook-off. Uh there were um Oh, yes, there was pie in the face. If you missed that, I'm sure we're going to have some some kind of documentation of that uh up on online at some point. Um and special thanks to Miss Serena Killinger over here. She doesn't like it when we call her out, but we appreciate all that you do um as president of the Booster Club. And then finally, um I was told uh just the other day that a junior student Shay was selected to sing with the Melodies of Christmas
004Carol in this year's Empire State Youth Melodies Christmas Youth Melodies of Christmas program. Um I know that this is the first time we've had student um participate in this since Mrs. Orton retired. So, that is super exciting, and we're really proud of Shay. All right. So, next up, uh any questions um or any questions about the agenda for this evening from anyone on the board? >> [snorts] >> Okay. Uh Serena, I know we had one small agenda change, right? So, I'll let you speak to that. That is correct. On 12.04, the title's been changed from approved instructional mentor stipends to approved instructional mentors. Perfect. All right. Uh so, we will do a resolution. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approve the agenda for the regular meeting of
005this evening, October 7th, 2025. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Francis. I second. I'll second. Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Did we have anyone that signed up for public comment, Serena? Okay. I'll offer it up. Any of you guys there from uh government want to have anything to say? I'm teasing. >> [laughter] >> We're going to quiz you on the audit. If you were here for the audit, you're going to you're going to get a quiz on the audit later. >> [laughter] >> Also, the last meeting we had cookies. Oh, thank you so much. Okay. Um our next item of business is very exciting. Um we are going to swear in one of our two uh student board members. So, should
006I have Anna come over here or does I just do it from over there or do we stand up? Okay. All right. So, Miss Anna Lowry is um a junior, right, Anna? Um representing the the the students on the board. We have one more, but he's at soccer, so we'll do him another day. All right. So, I will read this, Anna, and then your job is to say, "I will." As long as all sounds good to you, okay? So, hold up your right hand for me. >> [laughter] >> I do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully serve as the ex-officio student Do Do she repeat it? Usually they Oh, I'm sorry. All right. I guess we're going to repeat it. So, you can you can read your thing. I do solemnly affirm that I will
007faithfully serve as the ex-officio student board member that I will faithfully serve as of the Duanesburg Central School District Board of Education. In accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York, and the policies of the Duanesburg Central School District to the best of my ability. I will fairly represent the interests and concerns of my fellow students with integrity, honesty, and dedication. I pledge to uphold the values of our school community, to listen with an open mind, and to contribute thoughtfully to discussions. I recognize the importance of my role in advising and informing the board on matters affecting students. I will strive to be a positive role model and a leader, setting ex- an example of respect, responsibility, and civic engagement for my peers. I will perform my
008duties to the best of my ability, always striving to enhance the educational experience for all. Congratulations. Welcome to the board. Okay. Next up, we have uh acceptance of the Board Board Education minutes. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education approves the minutes of the regular meeting on September 9th, 2025. May I have a motion? I'll make a motion. Thank you, Alyssa. A second, Tony? Great, thank you. Uh comments or questions on the minutes? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, we're going to move to our presentations and reports and I think we start this evening with our athletic coordinator, Coach Simpson. Am I loud enough? I'm normally loud enough. Um so, what I wanted to present on tonight was an idea that's kind of been in the
009works um in terms of some of our winter sports with um what's called in most places a Thanksgiving tip-off tournament in basketball. And this is one of the common ones. You typically go um schools will throw a Thanksgiving tournament or a Christmas break tournament. And what it is is it would be a boys JV, girls varsity, and boys varsity basketball tournament with 12 total teams, three of which are us. Um and as I started with, it's a great way to start off the season for programs. It's a very common um date for teams to play, even though they moved the starting dates a little later. This is a most cases a the time that most teams tip off their seasons. Um and really, the purpose behind this would be, you know, to continue to build
010um that community feeling, especially piggybacking off of homecoming. Um and it's always nice to build a cohesiveness between the boys and girls basketball programs. Um especially with all sports, but when you match up with boys and girls in the same sport, it's nice to play on the same nights. And really, it's a booster club fundraiser. And I think what's important um to know is that although it may be a basketball tournament, the all the proceeds would go to booster club. It's not just for the basketball teams. It would be used for any any athletic program that that needs it. It may be basketball teams running it and playing, but in reality, it's for everybody um that can use it. And what you'll see is it is a very busy 2 days. Um as you can
011see the teams that we've been talking with um and the dates. So, they are all day on that Friday and Saturday of November 28th 29th, so that's Black Friday directly after Thanksgiving and then that Saturday. Um we are we would be looking for one more girls team. Um which us ADs and athletic coordinators, we have group emails that say, "Hey, we need one more game. We need one more." And people pick it up cuz games get dropped all the time. Um I know that's a lot of information up there, but that's what the schedule would look like. And if you see on the second night, on the Saturday 29th, with the hope that the boys and girls team do win that first day, you have championship games back-to-back where, you know, the boys and girls
012play right after each other and can support each other. So, the needs of this, you know, there are some you know, needs. And first is officials. It's a lot of officials. What's nice is with most of these tournaments is that the places I've talked to, each team would agree to pay for one of the refs for their games. So, in reality, for us to pay officials, it would just be no different than hosting one game anyways. So, there is no extra cost for the officials for this. Teams would, you know, email me their vouchers. We'll go through it. They, you know, officials sign it, send it back. Um the trophies for it for these tournaments, you typically have all tournament team, MVPs, championships, second place, so on and so forth. Would come from the booster
013club out of the profits of it that would be deducted as we go. The chaperone side of it, same as normal, we would open it up to the faculty. Um we know it's a holiday weekend and everybody, you know, most people have plans. If we couldn't get anyone, all the coaches have already agreed, modif- modified through varsity to chaperone if need be on a volunteer basis and we know after um homecoming the other day, booster club is more than willing to step in and help where where needed. They were the MVPs of it. Um the cleanup side of it is same thing. Coaches top to bottom have agreed that we'll we'll handle all cleanup side of it and, you know, building management of that, you know, outside of a possible emergency, which we, you know,
014we never plan on but could happen, but to clean up everything, coaches will be there starting probably first games at 12:10:30 in the morning till 9:30, 10:00 at night and we're all for it. Um Serena, anything before I get to the last one? I know you're a part of this. I was just going to say that I will make sure we go over the proper protocol in case there's an event or an emergency or anything that um goes not as planned. I'll make sure that I will know the the proper protocol. Miss Ross is on the available through um phone if there's anything as well that I need her assistance with um and I know what needs to be cleaned, what needs to be done, and everything will be back in order as we stopped
015it. >> [laughter] >> So, really my, you know, our ask would be the basketball programs. You know, as I started to plan this, I was being truthful, was not aware of this part of the board policy on that Thanksgiving Friday. Um so what we're asking is, you know, if we get the blessing is we will handle just about all aspects. Um as Serena just said, Kim has agreed to be, you know, the communication person in case of that emergency that, you know, we never hope for. So really we're asking for the board to consider a one-off amendment of this policy um for that Friday. Um and what I did do when I found out this was a policy, I did contact teams and say could we move it to Saturday, Sunday? Unfortunately, some of those
016schools cannot do Sunday and changing schedules, you know, if need be can happen, but it gets difficult. So if we're blessed to do this and it is a big success, I, you know, as athletic coordinator and booster club would have no issues in the future going Saturday, Sunday to avoid that Friday to keep everyone on their vacation days and everything. Any questions? How do the athletes feel? Are they excited? Yes, very. You know, we've traveled in the past, I think boys basketball Aiden's up there, but his one year, I think Payton did it. So probably the last 3 years we've traveled to other places to play in them. Okay. >> And the girls, I know last year at least went to Schoharie for one. Great. >> So they would be very excited to have one
017here. So we don't need a resolution or anything. We just have to So what we'll do well, I mean, yeah, we can do consensus and conversation, but we would probably have to um at least give Brett a a a sense of like yeah, we can move um move forward with the one-off with the policy. Um and then just for official purposes at our next meeting have a simple resolution acknowledging the one-off from the current policy. And again, I'm not Brett's not asking nor am are we asking or Serena to change the policy permanently because here's the thing. All anyone who works here deserves that weekend with their families, right? So that's the spirit of why Thanksgiving Friday so that our custodial staff can have that long long time because if they didn't have that day,
018if it wasn't a day for them, they would have to come in on the Friday after Thanksgiving. So I'm again, correct me if I'm wrong Brett, I think you know, looking forward we just got we tripped over this ourselves and that like okay because it's been planned but moving forward after after this event, we'll make sure that we still take care of the people who would who would have to be required to be here. And I'm going to be around anyway, so that's why I said if there's an emergency, he's just going to have to show me how to do the fire alarm. I mean the only other thought would be to make sure that the D-Vac is available. You just because the day after Thanksgiving they're a volunteer organization, too. I'm sure they have
019coverage but would make sure. Right. We can do that. Tony, you have a question? I know you're a Oh, yeah. Agreed. And again, I I I didn't realize it we didn't realize it till this past year when we started talking about the tournament. And then I think the challenge in the past was that again, rightfully, you know, deserving, we didn't have custodians here to do the clean up and and keep you know, building checks because they deserve that time with their family. So that's how we brainstorm like how do we move forward so that we preserve that for our custodial crew and um Serena's hosted tons of wrestling tournaments here and the the building is spotless. Any other questions for coach? Right, thank you very much. Appreciate it. So So let's have our conversation. Oh,
020yes. Are you guys good Does anybody have any concerns about allowing them to do this Friday Saturday this time? Just So just to clarify, this is not allowed by our policy, but we're just making a one-time exception. That's what we're talking about here. And we'll do a resolution at our next meeting, but Brett needs to be able to move forward and um you know, confirm the team's coming. Um we're not taking a vote on it today, but if he's got a sense that the board is um in consensus, then he can he can move forward. Any concerns from anyone? I think we give you the thumbs up, coach. There you go. All right, very good. All right, next up we have uh Ms. Ross with a superintendent's report. Okay. So. All right, I want to
021and I'm going to use my teacher voice and I know it should be a microphone. Ms. Serena's going to help me. If I could have hired Taylor Swift to come today, I would because I love the Board of Education, but she was a little out of my price range and she was busy. So. Even for me. Um it is Next week we'll start um school board member recogni- uh recognition week, October 13th through the 17th. Ms. Serena was going to put your picture up there. Um Oh, she's she's helping. Um so I do have I know we do these all the time where we put cookies out and things like that. I didn't I never see the board eat them. So you are going to get a cupcake put right in front of you so
022that you have to have to have as a as a little um so Ms. Serena will come around when she does that. But I do want to give a little fun some fun facts about the school board. Nisba put this out that school board members take on one of the most important citizenship responsibilities. Overseeing the education of the Duanesburg youth. Boards of education guide their local school systems and ensure public schools are flexible and responsive. Aw. Can we all get an aw? Aw, you I'll tell them in the back if you want Miss Miss Gordon to sign off on your sheet. You got to go aw. Aw. >> picture. >> [laughter] >> Um I do have a sense of humor even though people don't see that. Um You said [laughter] assistant. Public schools are flexible
023and responsive to the needs of the community. School boards are comprised of volunteers. They don't get paid a dime other than cupcakes. Um Serena, will you pass out cupcakes for me? Um Serena? The legend. And here's napkins. There's vanilla and chocolate. Whatever they prefer. All right. Um Do not receive any compensation. It's funny cuz they say most of whom do not receive any compensation. I don't know a board in New York State that does. Oh, actually, that's not true. The big big five cities they do get compensation. They're >> [clears throat] >> Right, you do not. They are individuals within the community who dedicate their time to improve public education. School board members statewide collectively oversee nearly 2.2 million K-12 students and 86.3 billion dollars in budgeting. Primary focus create a shared vision for the
024future. Set the direction of the school district to achieve high student performance. Provide accountability for student achievement results, develop a budget and present it, align district resources to improve achievement, support a healthy district school culture. All right, some fun facts. Number of board seats in New York. You can get it right, I'll get give you two cupcakes. I have it in front of us. Two cupca- Oh, you do? She attached it. >> Stop cheating. 5,086. I didn't know she Serena attached it. Male board members 48%, female 52%. Board member tenure 46.3% uh percent have served 5 years or fewer, while 53.7 6 years or more. About 2/3 of board members spend 6 hours or more per week on board activities. So, la- without further ado, I am incredibly grateful for each and every one of
025you. You bring unique um experiences and skills to the table. I know Melissa and I had to take a test cuz we're going to board president bo- and superintendent workshop next week, and it was fun to take, and I think Melissa and I are going to ask everyone to take it at some point if we can make it happen. It was a it's about strength-based, and I it's really eye-opening to see like um well, how you communicate and how you lead. So, thank you to each and every one of you. It's a thankless job. Um I know you lose a sense of privacy as you walk through Hannaford or go to Stewarts. I know. Um and that's hard, right? That's hard to live in the community where you can't get a gallon of milk and
026someone stopping you saying, "Did you hear?" or there's it's very rarely is it compliments. Sometimes, okay. Sa- savor those. So, I appreciate you and um thank you. So, um round of applause for our Board of Education. You're welcome. Okay, now to the the side business side. Ari, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. And I am so glad that you you're going to do your presentation and you're going to do your report in a little bit after Mr. Weinberg. Um so we we do have two student board members who are very busy. Um how'd you do at the track meet? Good? Dad bring you down? Thanks, Dad. Um cross country. What did I say? Track. It's okay. It's running. >> what you meant. I know. There's still running involved. Jogging. I >> [laughter] >> Is there
027a test for that for my strengths and weaknesses? I am sorry, cross country. I did a 5K once or twice. All right, other orders of business. The community may have noticed that um we had shifted our communication protocols internally. And um when I was on my listening tour last last year, I had many parents, especially when they have a child in each building, um I would say, "Oh, when I went on Parent Square." It did? Where? What? I can't find It's just so confusing. I get so many of these all day long. I get five or six a day. So, we implemented an internal communication protocol where unless it's urgent, that means it's coming from me, all communication has to happen after 3:00. So, that parents um almost in our in our um external families
028and community, if you get a message a pop-up from Parent Square in the middle of the day, other than there was one oops the first week by our own communication person >> [laughter] >> who designed this plan. Um if you get a a message in the middle of day from Parent Square, it's something that you need to look at. I'm going to give it another week and then I was going to send some information out to the broader community like, "Hey, have you noticed?" So that if something pops up on Parent Square, it's probably something you're going to want to read. But other communication is after 3:00 and both building principals have created system in their in their buildings where staff who need to communicate so that there isn't 15 Parent Squares at 3:00, it's
029almost like a digest every day. So with that being said, it's also National Principal's Month. And I want to give a shout out to Mrs. Marvin, our junior senior, and Ms. LaBarge, our elementary. Yay! So grateful to have both of you and as well as our pseudo principal, our Dean of Students, Ms. Medina. She's not here, but she yes. They all work very hard. We We were joking the other day it feels like it's May even though it was just September, but it's it's going well. So I appreciate you and I value you and I'm glad you're here. Let's see here. Uh The next capital project you're going to see on the agenda is the seeker that's just a required document and then there is the resolution for the vote. Just an open meeting want
030to put on the record that we will go out for a $6.9 million capital project that is tax neutral. Meaning a bond is maturing and we don't want our tax levy to fluctuate all over the place and to keep that stable we have to do a smaller final leg of the Centennial project 6.9. We have some Tony close your ears. We got final roofing. I know the same thing if I never hear the word roofing again. Roofs! Over the elementary building. We're also going to start some of the work needed at the bus loop, the infrastructure for its coming electric buses. So, if we can at least get the conduit and get a couple charging stations, it's a slow progress taking the first step toward it. Then we are the the gym is going to
031get um a facelift. Um the high school gym um including What are those things called? I know. What are those? Oh, yeah. The the whatever those big white things in the ceiling. What are the Clouds. Cross country. >> [laughter] >> CJ, what are the white things in the ceiling? Oh, duct work. Okay, it's duct work. Duct work is going to get new basketball hoops because they did repair the one hoop, but it was um a bit dangerous for a bit where it could just flop down. Uh it's going to get a fresh coat of paint, things like that. But what I'm super excited about is where up here where the school counselors are in the CSC office is going to be a complete renovation that it becomes a student support suite. Where it's um not
032so disjointed and they're going to uh it would the reconstruction will take it as a footprint. It has a private access for for families to come in as well and make that as I said like a student support suite as opposed to the box our poor school counselors are in. Um maybe give them a window again. Um you know, just really that's going to be um I'm quite excited for that to happen. Um all right, last but not least. Um and I know Ari's going to talk about it from the student standpoint, the communications that went out in the last week or two about some incidents here. Um I know that some people may think I over communicate. I'd rather be accused of over communicating than not communicating, but I I want the board and
033the community to know that we are taking steps. So, one of the first steps we're doing is in conjunction with um Schenectady County Sheriff's Department. Um one of the lead investigators, he and I check in pretty much every day. If it's not a text message, a phone call. I actually talked to him twice today. But, internally, um tomorrow, Mr. O'Neil arranged for us to get Lightspeed installed. And Lightspeed is an app um on our existing web filter that um looks for alerts for potential threats or keywords relating to harm. So, as our students are on their Chromebook, this is So, they have GoGuardian in the classroom. There There are all different types of filters um and firewalls, but this software, well, if say a child um or a student at 10:00 at night is looking
034certain things up, I will be alerted and the building principals will be alerted because we want to make sure kids are safe. We want to make sure individual children are safe, and we want to make sure that the greater community is safe. So, that's one of the next steps that we're moving forward. Another step we're working on is myself, the building principals, and our SROs are going to have a planning meeting next week about safety protocols and crisis protocols. So, we have crisis teams, and we have a crisis plan, but it's really important that we all get on the same page, we do some tabletop exercises, and we're clear about um our roles and responsibilities when when things happen. So, we do take the incidents seriously. They are being being handled. Um it but what
035can we do to do better and be better? And so, these are our first steps towards that. Any questions? That's it. That's all I got. Enjoy your cupcakes. I think mine's already gone. Okay. Uh next up, um how would you prefer me to refer to you? Do you want me to use your given name or do you want me to use Ari? Ari, okay. So, um, next up we have Ari, our student ex-officio student board member, and she has her report. You're going to borrow Mr. Bailey's microphone and turn that on. There you go. Um, sorry. Okay, so I didn't really have that much to talk about, but first I wanted to touch on the excitement that happened with homecoming last week. Uh, we had a lot of participation in spirit week. We had a
036construction worker day, which everyone loved because our school is a construction zone right now. And the pep rally, and we also had homecoming, which had really, really great turnout. Uh, we also have a bunch of clubs that are starting up for the year right now. Yearbook, Leo Club, Odyssey, NHS, student council, probably others that I didn't see the posters for. Um, and we have all been very shocked and very happy to see many new freshman faces joining and getting involved in different clubs. And we also have some students that are currently working on restarting our mock trial program in the winter, and they're currently talking with potential advisors to try to make that happen. Mock trial is a great club, so we're really looking to bring that back. So, that would be really exciting. A
037faculty member >> returned in the slip today to be the advisor to mock trial. I thought that would make your day. It was too late to put it on the agenda, but I think it's going to be okay. Um, so next I want to also touch on the sixth grade transition kind of from a student perspective, especially cuz last week was spirit week. They were the most involved grade in spirit week. Uh, their color for class colors day was gray, and I think there were probably two kids in the whole grade that were not wearing gray. Like, it was absolutely crazy how many of them participated. And it's great to see them excited with our assemblies and our pep rally. They were also the most enthusiastic in the pep rally. Um and they bring some
038much-needed energy to the juniors and the seniors that really just want to go home. Um and also with this transition, it's been really great to see the middle school building uh having its own community. It's hard because we are such a small school that sometimes the seventh and eighth graders get lost in the greater conversation, but I think now that the sixth graders are up in our building, it's really allowing them to have their own kind of identity. And I've also heard great things about the WEB Where Everyone Belongs program from students who are involved with that. As far as the cell phone ban goes, um socially students have been finding some very interesting other entertainment means, in- including playing cards, playing poker without the money. Miss Ross wanted me to make sure I said
039that. Um and then one student specifically said, "Lunch without phones is like a fever dream." Um >> [laughter] >> and also a lot of the faculty and staff have mentioned how it's great to see the kind of community and the social atmosphere that they had when they were in high school coming back, where everyone's involved in talking to each other. Academically, we have had a few more pitfalls. Especially in the beginning of the year, we were dealing with some long turnaround times with software installations that were needed for classes on Chromebooks and on our other school devices, which is something that we're still dealing with in a couple of classes, but mostly it has been sorted out. And we also had problems with Google Docs being blocked at times for students doing it during instructional
040periods. I'm not sure what that was about, but I felt that that that was that was a little bit disruptive. Um but overall, it's been uh it's it's been interesting, but overall, it's been great to kind of see that it hasn't been as much of a disaster as many of us were expecting. Um on a more serious note, I felt that it would not be fair to my fellow students to omit talking about threats of violence that have been made in recent weeks. While upperclassmen have been content to let investigations run their course, many underclassmen and middle school students have voiced concerns or fears over these events, and I thought that it was of the utmost importance that I make clear the effects that incidents like these have on our students, especially those who are
041transitioning into our building for the first time, as we as older students do not want our younger students to think that this is the norm for us. This being said, I have also heard from the overwhelming majority that they trust their teachers, counselors, and school officials to handle difficult situations as they arise. There was a specific quote that I cannot repeat, which I believe speaks to our school culture, and I hope that we can continue to show our new students what an amazing school community we have despite recent events. And that is all I have for today. Thank you. Thank you, Ari. Does anybody have any questions or comments? That was fantastic. >> fantastic. >> Thank you. Just what we want to hear about. I do have a question, and it's more for you than
042it is for her. Is are there wider reports of the threats of violence and stuff that we're seeing across other school districts? Is this a Cuz it tends to be things kind of move in waves. So, are other school districts reporting >> Yes. So, I asked that question at my superintendents my Schoharie County superintendents. At first, um I thought, well, is it because of the cell phone ban and kids are anxious and and no one is seeing it. I think it's an anomaly and I think it's um No No one is seeing an uptick in in any type of aggression. Um I think unfortunately that you know, the the press release brought shed light when I know a neighboring district had a student arrested for it um something very horrible on Instagram and that didn't
043make the news. So, um and there was no focus on that. So, there are and as well as in the the neighboring city school districts, they too we've the superinten- I don't want to violate FERPA, right? Like because Um but they are having incidences that just are not There's no microscope on them. Um so, you know, in in REA's right, like I love the sentiment that the juniors and seniors and I think I and they'll hear me say this over and over again, like what is your legacy? What do you want your stamp to be here? And I think having that mindset of we don't want the stamp to be that this is this is okay. And I've said this for a year and a half that a change in student culture cannot be a
044an adult-driven process. It has to be the kids want that. The kids want the change. The kids want the culture to be positive. Um so, I Now, I didn't prompt her to write any of that, by the way. She She uh told me what she was writing. I go, "It's perfect the way it is." So, um I thank you for that. But I think that unfortunately ours has just been um brought to the surface because of the press release, but there are incidences happening across the capital region. Well, are you seeing more aggression day-to-day in in sort of what you're seeing? Like are are more kids being sent to the office for Sorry. No. >> So, I'm sure it's just sort of general anxiety It's general behavior and it just I think it happened back-to-back.
045Interestingly, in in my 25 years in education and 7 years as superintendent Jody and I are both holding our breaths cuz sometimes there's copycats. Right? So, I've seen it over and over again. Kids see the notoriety another student is getting and the attention they're getting and so they're like, "Ooh, this let you know, for whatever reason they find find find it enticing to either make up accusations or do things to keep spinning that plate. But luckily, I think um we've settled down now. Um we're finding some resolution with the two instances with with you know, working collaboratively with the sheriff's office. Um but there hasn't been any major incident since. No. No. Go ahead, Tony. >> that's I know that it you know, it's it stinks that it was in the paper and all that
046other stuff, but it also says to the kids it's going to happen and everybody knows in this in their community Mhm. We I don't know their names, but they know who it was and I think that that's saying this is what's going to happen and for parents to also step up and say, "I don't want to be recognized as the parent of the kid that's being this Mhm. I think it needs to be you know, said that I mean I know this is only my second year here. Um but in my previous experiences, when when these things creep up and Jody and I are on the same page I am very old school. Um do I think that it it changes behavior, but I'm old school in the sense that there are very tight boundaries.
047And I've said this to to students before, this is my house, these are my rules. And by having tight uh guardrails and bound boundaries, I'm able to actually support that student. Keeping all kids safe, but also making sure that child in particular has the supports put in place using my authority as a superintendent to exercise my rights to put supports in place so that we're keeping all kids safe, but we're also thinking about that child, too. Because Jody and I say this all the time. We are not in the business of wrecking children's lives. But we you know, if if the parents are not willing to be supportive, I will exercise my rights to make sure that we get them the help that they need. And that Lightspeed will be one step in that direction
048if we if we know of a child who's having those thoughts, we can catch it before anything ever happens. But you know, you know, self-harm to themselves or to the organization. Any other questions? Thank you, Ari. I appreciate it. Yeah. It was really good. Um we have to add uh Mr. Ivenberg cuz somehow that wasn't on the agenda. But we have time for you. So And CJ >> Assistant Superintendent of Management Services. I won't take a lot of time. So uh >> And CJ. I would like to thank our transportation staff who have made it through the first month of the uh the uh Conex office that they're operating out of in the parking lot of the elementary school bus loop. So they've done a really good job at uh making everything work. Um I
049will say that, you know, also uh since we are short on transportation staff, there's been a lot of uh last-minute changes that we have to make in order to make things work. We've got uh folks that are in the office driving bus and uh a lot of uh switcheroos at the last minute just to make things work and make sure that kids get to where they need to be. So I want to thank them for everything that they've done so far this year and uh please if you know anybody that's looking for a job in transportation, we do have uh do have openings either as drivers or monitors and if you want to start as a monitor and move into a driving position, uh please fill out an application. Um so that being said, also
050the uh construction project over at the bus garage uh looks like it's moving along. I'm going to have uh CJ add a little bit to that in a moment and then also uh I will say that the the roof of the high school uh got finished, the section that we had had been had done just back in August. Uh so we'll very quickly, yeah. So there's some trim work that they have to do and uh it's looking really good. So CJ, I'll have you add to the construction project. I think you said everything I would have. Um but that's good. So um I just wanted to add, I don't have a full report cuz unfortunately there wasn't a ton that happened in terms of instructional spaces. We're still waiting on some flooring, casework, um some
051mechanical equipment that's impacting those same areas. Um we've hit a couple of snags in the cafeteria in terms of getting sanitary lines out of the building in terms of things not quite matching the existing drawings and finding some conditions on site. So we're working through all of those items now. We've got a couple of solutions for those, so we're still trying to work our way towards that. It looks like maybe by the end of this week we will have eclipsed that problem so we can start to work our way back on track in terms of the cafeteria. And then uh it's looking like in the next call it four-ish weeks, we should be seeing the bulk of a lot of those things where we have ship dates as opposed to potential ship dates. And that's
052really what we're waiting for to communicate some of the ideas of shifting some spaces around so we can get those spaces done in instructional areas faster than waiting until the coming summer. Um over at the bus garage, I know we talked I think the last two meetings about the foundation and sort of the concerns I had there. Thankfully, we got everything excavated, we got everything supported, shored, it's all been reinstalled. The foundation wall has been poured, all the testing is in process for that, so we're just waiting on the results. I don't have any concern that it won't come back the way it's supposed to. Um I was over there earlier this morning into the afternoon and in terms of what you had to what you have now, it's a much better situation to be
053in. Um they replaced pretty much from the corner almost to where the door is entering the administrative portion of the bus garage is what I'll call it. It's got a brand new foundation wall, it's insulated, it's down to frost, everything is the way that it should be. It should last you for well into the next 50 years probably assuming you keep that at that point. So, I was really happy to see that and the other part that's good but unfortunately is now at least we know what to expect if we do more work at the bus garage or the bus barn. So, we can plan for that as opposed to what we think we see on drawings and then find what we see. So, that's a really important step just in terms of whether you
054guys decide to do more work there in the future or not, at least we have information to work from. Um it'll be a lot easier to come up with budgets and things like that. Um and then I did want to speak about the roof. So, um A.W. Farrell did the roof from pretty much the back side of where music is all the way down around the gym and back over to where Jody's office is. They did all of that roof work in probably three and a half-ish to four-ish weeks. It was honestly probably less than that. They came with somewhere between 10 to 20 people every day. Um I am sure they were 100% a disruption to Jody and her crew. >> [laughter] >> Um but I very much appreciate that you guys sort of
055survived all of that because in terms of what you guys had before again gotten rid of buckets in hallways and dealt with things in the classrooms. Hopefully everybody's a lot happier about that situation. The roof edge metal should be here tomorrow so they'll be installing that. So ideally they'll be done by maybe the end of this week, maybe a little bit into next week. But that's probably the fastest I've put on what I believe is >> [snorts] >> 50-ish thousand square feet of roofing. So um kudos to them. Yeah. All right, so CJ, I want to give a shout out but you know my technical terms, I don't know what they are. >> Oh, I'm here to help. I want to give a shout out to cross country. Just cross country. Um Onan It Yeah.
056and the well Ah, yes. So I want to give a shout out to Onan. So there's mechanical terms that I don't know. Um they're I'm going to try. So you know there's a well at the bus garage and at at the elementary school. And the line, some sort of line, I would assume it's to work the well pump. >> Electrical power for the pump. >> Okay, I was yeah. Um the construction um had hit it, not purposely, but it was deteriorated. It was like crumbling. So we um Henry, thanks to Henry back there, wave Henry. There's Henry. Um worked with our contractors to do a change order and the change order was up to it was upwards towards $30,000 because of this deteriorated uh wire. And Onan comes in and if you've been in my
057office, I have that scooter and he sits in the scooter and he's rolling around. He's like, "I can fix it." And Jeff and I look at each other, we're like, "You can?" He said, "Yeah, I can fix it. My guy and my guys love this. I've got the backhoe, I got this, I got that." We're like, "All right, well go look at it. See if you can fix it." He comes back tickled pink. He's like, "See the wire? This is all I got to do." So, he probably saved the district. It'll probably cost him >> Easily. Easily we need two grand to fix. So, he saved the the capital project in the district that amount of money. So, >> of this for me is I can never be cheaper than Onan. Right. >> Never ever.
058It's like when you do something at your house versus a kind of you'll never compete at that point. But, he's obviously invaluable. I mean, him and his ability with his staff to come in and fix those things um and his knowledge to do that is I do want to say for the record, it's been a year and a half and I still don't I still haven't had them hang a picture in my office, but I'll take I think the wire's more important. Seems like a different problem. >> It is, but um no, we're very grateful because here we were Henry's there. We're scratching our like, "How can it be this much?" And like, "Let's bring Onan." And he's like, "I can do it." And even before that, I mean, when we reviewed the pricing looking
059at some of the even the contractor for their sub had sent in 11 or 12,000 dollars just for paving. To which collectively, even the contractor was like, "Guys, this isn't an absurd number. You shouldn't do this." That Henry and I I said, "Henry, call Onan. He may have somebody who comes every year to do paving that may happily do that for much, much less at that point." And so, I'm happy that we're able to do things effectively, and I'm happy that Onan can help a lot at that situation. Yeah. So, I you know, point is it's great team. I ask a lot of questions. And I ask them a lot of questions cuz I'm not micromanaging cuz I don't understand. So, I'm trying to learn. And between Jeff and Henry, CJ, and Onan, and Onan's
060team, they just love it. They They It should Is it fixed already? I don't know if it was fixed today. Henry? Yeah. Okay. Okay. I know he had made it to like a third of the way down where he found the second break, which was outside of our break cuz I think it had been a line that had been hit a couple of times in the process. Um so, that was I think as far as he got at that point, so. Very happy, so. Yep. Yeah. Good. Do you guys have any questions for me? Huh? Do you want me to stay for the resolutions and stuff? I'm happy to answer questions if you think you'll have them. >> have questions about the seeker resolution cuz we talked about it before, right? We're good. I think
061we're good. Okay. If not, I'll call you and you'll turn around. 10-minute drive. Roofs. Roofs. And there's only one section left at the elementary school. >> That's it. Cross country. >> [laughter] >> And ductwork. I know all those things. They move air. All right. Thanks, CJ. Thanks, Henry. Are you all set, Jeffrey, or you have a little bit more? You're all set. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Um, next up we have our policy committee report. Mr. Spore. Hello. We, the policy committee, well, listen, I and Ms. Ross, uh, Mr. Bailey was unfortunately not able to make it this time. We met last week and, uh, sort of set our plan for the year and discussed a couple small things. Um, this year we are going to begin the two-year process of replacing the policy
062manual with the one from, uh, school boards, uh, New York State school boards. So, uh, essentially it'll be a year of change, um, but this path will get us in a situation where our manual is more maintainable. And honestly, what we're going to do from year one as sort of root policies was sort of disastrous. So, um, we're very excited about this, but it does mean, just as a heads up, you will be getting entire sections of policy to vote on. Um, some of the language will be changed, but the intent will not. Um, please, if you see anything, call out when we get to that point. Yeah, it'll be a numbering change. It'll be, you know, um because school boards uses a different different meaning of 8000 than than Erie one. But, I mean,
063it's just going to be big blocks we're going to replace at time. There's a plan to sort of make sure that we have full coverage on everything throughout the year uh or throughout the 2 years. But, um it will be a schedule and we will sort of have to stick to it. Uh additionally, we have up for approval um uh well, first off, we need to we're going to amend the wellness policy because uh it was very explicitly stated there that the only person that's allowed to lead the wellness committee is the superintendent. Uh so, we're amending that policy to instead allow it be the superintendent or their designee, which essentially allows her to tell somebody in the district to to make sure that that committee happens. Uh we will be appointing that person. We
064may already at the Right. Yeah, they will be explicitly called out uh as part of the reorg meeting. Moving forward, additionally, Ms. Killenberger has discovered that we need to uh approve our policies on the code of conduct, district investments, purchasing regulations, and designation of person in parental relation policy. We need to approve those every year. Um we don't necessarily have any changes, but we just need to keep them current. Uh so, those are what are up for read and approval because there are no substantive changes, um I'm suggesting we waive second reading and just uh move them right along. But, um that's sort of where we're at. Uh we have the entire calendar year booked out with policy meetings, so you'll be hearing from me again. Uh that's about it. Any questions? Cool. Okay, great.
065Thank you, Francis. For the Just for the record, like code of conduct um it's required to have a second reading, but we did that over the summer. Oh, okay. So, it's just the policy that we'll have have a code of conduct. Okay. Oh, perfect. All right, thank you. Okay. Uh so, next up is Yes, 901 Yes, we're in 901. Okay. Um resolution about these policies. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approves the following policy for read and approval with policy 5661 3410 5220 5411R and 7260. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Ray. A second? Second. Thank you, Michael. Uh comments or questions about any of these? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Next up, we have our financial reports. Be
066it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approves financial items 10.01 through 10.05. May I have a motion? Thank you, Tony. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Francis. Comments or questions on our financial items this evening? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Next up are capital project items. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approves uh capital project items 11.01 through 11.03. May I have a motion? Oh, I have to do them separately? Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. All right, so scratch that. Start again. >> [snorts] >> Well, then I have to do them all in. Okay. All right, so we'll do item 11.01. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education
067approves the contract between Drain- Drainsburg Central School District and Ashley McGraw Architects. This agreement shall not be binding on the parties until authorized and signed by each party's respective representatives. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Alyssa. A second? Thank you, Sarah. Comments or questions? Bye, guys. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right, sorry. Yes. There we go. Oh. It's just so long. Do I have to read the whole thing? No. Good heavens. All right, that's why I was trying to do the whole thing so I didn't have to read it. Okay. Um all right. >> read it. She just didn't want to read it out loud. >> want to have to read it out loud. I have I have read it. >> [laughter] >> All right, so where
068is it at the bottom here? Okay, be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approve the SEKURA resolution for capital project 2025. For anyone who is interested, that resolution is written out in detail in the agenda. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Francis. A second? Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions? On the resolution. It only says roof one. Oh, it says flooring, too. Flooring is fun, too. All right, cool. >> [snorts] >> All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. And then next up is this is approving the capital project. It's actually approving the the vote on the capital project, right? Be it resolved by the based upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education approve the capital project vote. Uh which
069shall take place on Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Uh may I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Francis. A second? Second. Thank you, Michael. Comments or questions about the proposition? All in favor? I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Next items are instructional. Uh Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Board of Education approves instructional items 12.01 through 12.04. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Tony. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Alyssa. Comments or questions on our instructional items? All in favor? I. I. I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Next items are non-instructional personnel. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent the Board of Education approve and accept the non-instructional personnel items 13.01 through
07013.05. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Francis. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions on our non-instructional personnel? All in favor? I. I. I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Next item is for people services uh to accept the CSE and CPSE minutes. Be it resolved, based upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education approves the CSE and CPSE minutes from the meetings on September 3rd, 8th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, and 30th of 2025. May I have a motion? I'll motion. Thank you, Ray. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Tony. >> [snorts] >> Comments or questions? Thank you, Danielle. Lots of meetings. Always lots of meetings. Uh all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And any abstentions? Uh Okay. All right. Next item, I think actually only one of
071these is a resolution. The others are informational, correct? 15.01 requires a resolution. The others are just informational. Correct. Okay. All right. So, for item 15.01, be it resolved, based upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education approves the Spencer J. Whitney Memorial Scholarship Award. May I have a motion? I'll motion. >> Thank you, Francis. A second? Thank you, Sarah. Comments or questions? Where is the funding for this award coming from? Is it Is it a fundraiser? A fundraiser. Okay. Might be different. Okay. Okay. And this will be awarded at the senior junior and senior awards night? Gotcha. Okay. But this is from essentially money's being being raised outside of the school to present an award to someone who meets these requirements. Excellent. Any other questions? All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Any opposed?
072Any abstentions? And I will just draw your attention uh to we have uh just informationally, we have 14 non-resident DCS employees who have children that are enrolled in our school district. At least one child, sometimes more than one. Um and then uh there will be a public hearing with regard to this proposal of the capital project, correct? Um on December 2nd. That's a Tuesday evening. Um so mark your calendars. Um and that's all we have for that. I don't believe we needed an executive session. Does anyone on the board require an executive session? I think we might have to. Um I have some concerns over um uh element of our coaching staff. I believe I addressed that in our um for wrestling. Is it personnel? Okay. Okay, personnel. >> Okay, so personnel. All right. Um
073then I will I don't go out of my way to Okay, so I need a motion to go in to go into executive session. Um for those of us who are or those of you who are here, we will not be coming back into open session, so you are free to go. Um but I have a motion to go into executive session at 7:39. I'll motion. >> Thank you, Francis. A second? I'll second. Thank you, Tony. Um all in favor? Aye. All right. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you everyone for being here. Um have a great evening. We'll see you next month. Didn't I say whatever? Huh? I wasn't specific first time and then I thought you wanted me to clarify. I tried to be Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but I I Okay, I thought
074you was asking for who. I was like, "Oh." It's the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, cuz I was trying to be vague at first. You you did not Thank you. I used to Right. I knew what was happening and I didn't know if I was going to help the situation or not. Yeah. No, no, cuz I cuz she said for who? And I was like, "Oh, okay. So, I guess I'm going to say." Yes, you were right, I guess. All right, we're just going to go in the text room. Kim, I'm sorry. I thought I was being vague, but I thought you said for who? And then I was like So, there's only eight categories that we have to take us into executive and if it's discuss the employment of contract of personnel that's the