001I know. I wouldn't go there. That's a bad That's a bad Yeah. I wouldn't go there. I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I
002wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't I >> I don't know. How are you? I'm sorry. Um Cuz I feel like we're going to add an extra Sorry. I have a question. I'm pretty much on air right now. Okay. I have a second question. Just to prove that nothing is I will finish that. I'm going to do it right now. I know. Can I Can I Can I When I log in I
003can um Thank you. I got it. I got I got it. I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got
004I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got
005I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got
006I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got I got >> Oh, look at this. That's our new microphones. Uh all right, we're going to call the meeting to order at 6:00. Uh so, if everyone can please
007stand for 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. Thank you all for coming, especially on such a beautiful night. Okay, item 1.03, um approval revision of agenda. I'd like to revise the agenda to add an executive session um right before consent. So, but item 5.02. Thank you, Chrissy. All in favor? Thank you. Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay, thank you. All right. Now, we're going to do the oath of allegiance of the superintendent. Thank you. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Magda Parvi, I, Magda Parvi, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America that
008I will support the Constitution of the United States of America >> and the Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York >> and that I will faithfully discharge and that I will faithfully discharge according to the best of my ability the duties of office of superintendent the duties of office of superintendent >> of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District. >> of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District. >> Congratulations. Thank you very much. All right. Um item 1.05, we have some recognitions. Dr. Liberatore. Principal of Eagle Hill Middle School. There we go. Good evening, Dr. Parvey and the Fair Lawn Manlius Board of Education members. Great to see everyone tonight. I want to express my sincere appreciation for the exceptional work of the Eagle Hill Middle School counseling, psychology, mental
009health, and administrative support staff. This dedicated team, counselors Nancy Alderman and Erin Chapman, psychologist Beth DeWolfe and Katie Kellibuck, family school liaison Kelly Dervish Larry, and administrative support staff Melissa Green, Donna Decker, and Kelly Nasser, along with our mental health educator Dominic Molera and Helio Health clinician Leah Abbott, clinician at Eagle Hill and Wellwood, supports our students and families and school community every day. Over the past year with several changes in administration, their willingness to step up and support each other and continue to provide exceptional care has been remarkable. Their work addresses academic, emotional, and behavioral needs from managing crises to guiding students through social and emotional challenges. Dominic Molera and Leah Abbott provide meaningful mentoring and collaboration that promote resilience and positive decision-making while the team ensures smooth school operations, including scheduling, academic planning,
010assessments, and student transitions. I feel fortunate to work with such an amazing team whose efforts reflect the district's commitment to respect, civility, and understanding, positively impacting our students and school community. Please join me in thanking our Eagle Hill Middle School counselors, psychologists, mental health professionals, and administrative support staff for their dedication and impact on our students' success. Thank you. We have several members that were unable to make it today, but we will we do have some here, so Oh, excellent. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you, Karen, for highlighting the important work that all of our counselors do for our students. Okay, now we have two presentations. We're going to start with FM Inspires. So, I think Dr. Dalton and team. >> All right. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank
011you for the opportunity to present. Our topic tonight is the New York Inspires Plan, and our presentation is both an update from previous meetings and a celebration to share where the state is heading and also how FM is already building structures, culture, and experiences that will prepare every one of our students for this change. The plan represents a national shift away from high-stakes standardized tests as graduation requirements. So, there used to be 27 states that used exit exams. There are now six. Uh Massachusetts and New York State, who are really considered um some of the most rigorous exit exams, are the the latest um to leave and and shift to um some other options. Um it's important to know that, though. Um we are we are swimming with the tide. We are not swimming against
012it. So, with that being said, um we have several people joining us tonight. So, welcome to Laurel Chiesa. She's our director of instructional technology. FM High School Principal Patrick McNamara, FM High School Assistant Principal Biz Wheeler, and FM High School junior student uh Kira Coleman. And they'll be presenting um throughout the evening with me. So, the New York Inspires Plan is a a phased approach, and there are four major transformations within this plan. The first is sunsetting diploma requirements. Um the state is moving away from Regents, but it's not eliminating rigor. So, this change is about equity for all students and how we measure learning. We know that there are multiple ways to demonstrate mastery, and one exam is not the only way to do that. So, while we are not eliminating Regents exams, we
013are trying to capture other ways for students to demonstrate the application of their knowledge that's uh beyond standardized tests. And this allows students to have the option to take Regents if they still choose to take it, but also to have uh different doorways open for them to demonstrate mastery as well. The first change we'll talk about um in the timeline is the adoption of the New York State Portrait of a Graduate. Um that means that students in the next 5 years will be asked to also show profic- proficiency across a multiple different types of skills, including global citizenship, effective communication, and critical thinking. The portrait has a very, very broad view of what it means to be an educated person, and the focus of skills and application is important in in addition to content knowledge.
014Well, also New York State will also be redefining credits as well as learning experiences. The concept of what we consider a credit now is being expanded by the state. Students will be able to demonstrate proficiency across diverse classroom experiences, as well as experiences outside of the classroom, whether that's project-based learning, community engagement, or internships. And then finally, we're moving to one diploma in New York State. So, where there are separate diplomas right now, we have a local, Regents, and advanced Regents. We will be moving towards one diploma, and students will be able to earn a variety of seals um to show their specific achievements in different areas. And that allows all of our students uh to receive equivalent recognition. So again, this is a phased approach. So these changes are supposed to to really shift
015over the course of many, many years. Um we'll be providing you lots of updates between now and 2030. Um in that time, we'll also be prioritizing professional development opportunities for our staff. We have plans for open forums for our students and their families and community, and again, regular updates to you. So far, the Board of Regents has expanded the superintendent's ability to award uh posthumous diplomas as well as exempt students from Regents exams for major life events, hospitalization, death in the family, things like that. Um they've also adopted a portrait of a graduate, so that was approved this past summer. And that will be the focus of our professional learning on our March 20th professional learning day. Our goal is to build capacity around the portrait and really connect it to our work around personalized,
016student-centered learning. The uh the first phase is called the installation phase. There will be in the next 2 years uh the release of priority standards by the state for all content areas, as well as more guidance and a rubric that is aligned to the portrait of a graduate. The second installation phase is 2027 to 2029. Um that will run 2 years. That will include a transition to one diploma for students. It will begin the sunsetting of Regents exams as requirements for graduation. um and transition to new requirements that will include the expansion of seals like the seal of biliteracy and the seal of civic readiness. Um we have many students who are earning these seals at our last presentation social studies shared that we have doubled the number of students who are earning the seal
017of civic readiness and we expect those trends to continue. And the final phase is in 2029 uh 30 and is that at that point the state will release a new transcript that will be aligned to the portrait of a graduate and all assessments um will be aligned to that as well. And that means that students in ninth grade will not have to take Regents exams. They will have one diploma and multiple options. And if you're doing the math that's our current fifth graders right now. So um as a parent I am like many parents who are wondering like what does this mean for my student right now. So I've got a my youngest heading to the high school and she's very interested to know what her how many Regents she'll have to take. Um we
018are basically splitting the New York Inspire's plan into different cohorts. So New York State has said again this is a phased approach for our current juniors and seniors right now there are no changes. So they will be using Regents exams uh to demonstrate proficiency um and earn their graduation um and there will be multiple uh diploma options as there have been. For cohorts uh 2024 through 2026 those are our current eighth graders, ninth graders, and tenth graders. They'll continue to use Regents assessments as required until they start to phase out in 2027 2028. We don't know exactly what that's going to look like just yet, right? There's still essay exams, there's still um um federal requirements. New York will be giving us some more guidance on that as well. Um these students will graduate with
019one diploma and they will earn seals of distinction with that diploma. For our cohort of 2027-2028, those are our current sixth and seventh graders, um they will fall into um a new credit requirement for career and tech ed. We already have multiple um courses like our facts courses, our tech courses, our computer science that will um work for that. Um and we will continue to look to build new opportunities. And finally, our cohort of 2029 and beyond, those are our current fifth graders, they will be assessed um not only on content, but also to the skills that are aligned to the portrait of a graduate, and there will be a transcript that all districts will be required to use that will align to the portrait as well. I do want to note that for our
020advanced placement courses, for our SUBA project advance, um our dual credit courses through OCC and ESF, there's no change to those. We'll continue to award credit as we have in the past. So, where are districts starting? I've been to lots of conferences and meetings and have been exploring and having conversations with the people with people across the the nation who have um adopted changes like these already. Um and overwhelmingly, they all have all said the same thing, which is start with your portrait. Start with your portrait and build capacity with all of your stakeholders around your portrait. And that is what we are trying to do. Um we have actually started this work last year. And we talked a little bit about that with you last year as well. Um we looked at the draft
021of the portrait of a graduate through our district curriculum council. That is a group of over 40. We've got K-12 teachers, curriculum specialists, and administrators um who looked at that draft of the portrait and said, "We like it, but we can make it better." And so, what we did over the last year was we examined portraits that existed across the country. Um we looked at feedback from our our community surveys. We talked about the values that we feel are important in FM. And ultimately, we drafted our own K-12 portrait of a learner. And I think that distinction is really, really important. Um the portrait of a learner is for everyone. We wanted to make sure that this didn't sit for 9th through 12th graders, and that it didn't just sit at our high school. That
022the skills that we want students to develop, critical thinking and creativity and citizenship, those start the very first moment that they enter their first classroom in FM. And we are all responsible for making sure um that we build the skills and the competencies of those pieces for for students so that they can continue to develop and and find success wherever they want to um after their time with us. So, with that, um we have developed our own portrait, and we are excited to share that a draft with you today. And we will also be sharing that to our faculty and staff at our upcoming professional learning day on March 20th. Um the final product, um like New York's portrait, will be centered around the CRC framework and really center belonging and making sure that every
023student feels and sees themselves um in their in their time at FM. And we look forward to again unveiling this to our community in different forums. So, with that I'm going to turn it over to Laurel Chiesa who's going to talk about the work of the District Curriculum Council and what we've created with our own portrait of a learner. Great. Thanks, Katherine. Good evening. Um as Katherine said, our District Curriculum Council DCC uh also as it's known really took a lot of time to make sure the wording and the the language and the ideas were something that resonated with everyone. So, the group um came up with these competencies. So, innovative thinkers, skillful collaborators, future-ready scholars, global citizens, mindful learners, and effective communicators. And when we reviewed all of the um national portraits from different
024states and and um schools, we want to make sure we gave more information along with this. We want to have some kind of um quick icon that showed what these mean. Um and then we wanted to have more information for both students and parents and teachers. So, we have ongoing conversations with them. Something that parents can talk about at home. Something that students can talk about with the teachers as they're doing projects. So, of course we have um the the definition, but we wanted to have some indicators and grade band statements as you'll see. So, um those are specifics for grade levels. We have K-3, 4-8 4-6, and the group came up with the wording for this. And again, really looking at our program, what do we do what are we learning, what are we
025teaching, and then where can we move forward? Um there's also an area you'll see questions to ask your students, supporting your students' progress, and then also the actual competencies with some more definitions. Um and from here, we wanted to make sure um looking at these, these were computer-generated, um that we had something that was ours. And we knew that we had some phenomenal graphic designers at our high school. Um so we're uh un- revealing this, unveiling this today, but our um class of 2027, one of our graphic artists, Kira Coleman, come on up here, Kira. Um she designed this to go with the wording for innovative thinkers, collaborators, future-ready scholars. And she's going to talk a little bit about how she came up with these designs and what they mean to her when she was
026working with us. Kira. Hello. My name is Kira Coleman. I was contacted to create the graphics for the six areas you see here. I designed each in Adobe Illustrator. The first is innovative thinkers, which combines a lightbulb to represent ideas and a pointed finger reminiscent of an aha position to reflect personal and spontane- spontaneity. Next is skillful collaborators, which has two figures holding their hands up to show that teamwork helps like to bring people higher, and that we want to really focus um not just working alone, but collaborating with other people and getting their ideas, too. Um and then future-ready scholars combines the image of a diploma and a telescope to show that we will be preparing competent learners that can like look ahead and be ready for life and the world. Um and we
027have global citizens, which uses a hand holding a heart-shaped globe to show that there is a concerted effort to develop uh worldly-minded learners uh who consider the other perspectives of the people in communities around them and work to be a part of communities. Um and then we have Uh, sorry, mindful learners, uh, which combines the idea of learning represented by a book and uh, a lotus, which is to represent like calm and like mindful image and serenity and peace. Effective communicators uses a figure with a speech bubble to show um, two-way communications and to emphasize uh, again that you you should be seeing like all perspectives and uh, I designed these in my with the FM like colors in mind and also the shape identity of a blog, the FM logos to make sure that
028they were holistic but also specific to our district. Um, and I really hope that these graphics like adequately express and reflect the uh, vision for the portrait of a learner competencies. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. Well done. They're clean and just very easy to to resonate with. And next up, we have Pat McNamara, principal at the high school. Good evening. So, along with New York State, we at FM believe the best way to prepare our students for the future is by providing them with skills that are universally beneficial for any path that they take. Therefore, I wanted to bring a focus group of students together to see what they know about personalized learning and how it relates to their educational experiences thus far. I also wanted to see if I could still wield my teaching
029abilities like I once did. So, I assembled a focus group students who would eventually share their perspectives on personalized learning while simultaneously experiencing a form of personalized learning themselves. I met with this focus group for four after-school sessions with the goal of showing how personalized learning is taking place in our classrooms and the positive effects it's having on our students. So, the first So, the goal of the first session as a focus group was to create a collective conscious. In his book Reclaiming Personalized Learning, Paul Emerich Smith begins by discussing the importance of a collective conscious in a classroom. The concept is important for several reasons. First, it challenges a common misconception about personalized learning that it requires a teacher to design a completely different lesson or individualized lesson for each student. In practice, that
030approach would nearly be impossible. So, instead, the idea of a collective conscious emphasizes creating an environment where students feel comfortable taking risks, sharing ideas, and collaborating with one another. This culture develops through authentic conversation and meaningful activities that encourage students to contribute deeply. So, during our first meeting in my office, a group of upperclassmen gathered around a large table that naturally supported conversation. While the students arrived, I greeted them briefly, but then intentionally allowed them to begin interacting with one another. I acted as if I were busy at my desk, letting them naturally begin asking each other, "Why the heck are we here?" After a few minutes, I casually introduced a couple of questions. "What is an all-time favorite lesson or class you've experienced? And what made it memorable? To help spark the discussion, I
031shared a few examples from my experience as an elementary principal at My Road. The wax museum and genius hour projects. These are simple examples meant to highlight the kinds of learning experiences that often stay with us for a long time. By the end of the first session, every student in the room had voluntarily shared a favorite lesson of theirs. More importantly, the group had developed a shared level of comfort where everyone felt comfortable expressing their ideas. Session two. I began the second session by giving students the opportunity to ask questions that had naturally emerged. Why are we here? What is our end goal? What are we going to do with those favorite lessons we discussed last time? And finally, what is personalized learning? At that point, I shared a brief set of Google Slides outlining
032the district's definition of personalized learning. And together, we discussed what each element of the definition looks like in practice. Students then worked with a partner or small group to identify which characteristics of personalized learning were present in the memorable lesson they described during our first meeting. The connections were numerous. In many ways, the activity reinforced the simple idea. Personalized learning often looks like highly effective teaching. Learning experiences that are engaging, meaningful, and memorable. As you can see on the board there, the characteristics we examined included collaboration, communication, a global perspective, goal setting, and mindfulness. At the end of the session, we collectively set our goal to complete our examples of personalized learning and the characteristics present in the lesson by the end of our next session. In our third session, we established the collaborative environment
033that had developed during these previous meetings. Students revisited their selected lesson and reflected on it using the following prompts. Describe your most memorable lesson. Which personalized learning characteristics were present? Why was the experience so memorable? And what strategies from this lesson would you like to see used more often in other classes? This final reflection allowed students to analyze their learning experiences more deeply and recognize the elements that made those moments meaningful. During our final session, we collaborated with our broadcast journalism teachers and students to create the following video. Technology wasn't one of the skills. Almost. I appreciate it. So, in eighth grade, I was able to participate in a class called Agents of Change. My freshman year, I remember in my theater class The most memorable course by far for both of us is AP
034photo this year. I would say that in my sophomore year, we did a project in my English class. It was actually in elementary school. During 11th grade, during my advanced photography class, and this class was basically a very open-ended project that you could do with a partner. Randomly assigned foreigner up with a local business here at Main Line in Fayetteville. And during that project, we were practicing not only our technical skills as a photographer, and with and our skills in Photoshop, but also we had to learn like soft skills like communication and um adaptability. That's because it's super open-ended. Um it's generally just working to make the best portfolio possible. So, each student picked a topic or an opinion that they were really passionate about, and they formulated it in a this I believe fashion
035and created basically a podcast episode. I remember in my theater class, we were studying like Shakespeare, and we did a project where we had to rewrite Hamlet but in modern-day language. So, I decided to do a cleat drive with my partner, and we raised cleats for the FM Rex soccer program. It was the Iroquois project, which um we worked on in pairs or groups of three, and we basically had a topic that we were given, and so mine was traditions. And me and my partner both got to choose either making and like researching wampum or researching masks, like traditional masks. Um adults and other classes, so like parents and teachers, could come into the classroom and walk around the classroom and uh play the games that we had made. We we did a lab where
036we we went around the room, and we we found all of Mr. Buffman's really cool objects that like he has he's saved over the years, and that are just kind of random, and the the best part of it was looking at the objects, of course. Um but the point of the lab was actually to prove that um gravity acts uniformly on all objects regardless of mass. There's a lot of choice in what we could do with our projects and um, how we actually displayed our physical um, items. There was also some global global perspective cuz you got to help the community and I think the one criteria for the project was you had to do something that would help the community. I think this activity focused a lot and communication. Really a good way to
037show your opinion in something that that you were passionate about without like stepping on someone's toes in a creative manner. >> For me personally, it's the amount of interaction between me, my peers, and my teacher. I really feel like most of the pieces I'm going to be submitting are very like well thought out. >> So, I would definitely say goal setting cuz we really had to pace ourselves cuz it was a semester long course. So, we just had to like plan everything out for the semester. I think collaboration definitely because we had to work in teams and there were multiple people acting. >> There's a lot of communication and collaboration involved with like bouncing ideas off other people in the class and the teacher. We learned about different cultures. There's a lot of the um,
038global influence. Innovation is definitely part there you're you're thinking like how is this made and reverse engineering it and then what else can I make like this? I think that um, it's very personalized cuz at the beginning of the year you you choose what topic you want to do so you can stay interested in it throughout the entire year. I think that what made it so memorable was the choice that we had. A lot of creative freedom. We were kind of given like an outline on um, what was required for the assignment but it wasn't telling us what to do. It was just saying what had to be in it. >> Honestly, I think it was because we got to pick our topics and it was something that you were passionate about and we got
039so much freedom with the project and you kind of had like the ability to kind of do whatever you wanted to get your point across. I think it was really cool to be able to do something that was so open-ended cuz we really had like all the tools that are and we could just do whatever we wanted to do with our project. >> Even though it's very open-ended, like it's not overwhelming because um there's lots of guidance and and lots of people who know what they're doing to help you like stay on the right track. I just switched glasses, sorry. So, it's clear that personalized learning has been a topic at the forefront of professional development this year, but even before the July of 2025 adoption of the portrait by the Board of Regents, we've
040been discussing it um here at FM from DCC to department meetings, grade level meetings, but I can say, having been here a very long time, personalized learning has been here for a very long time. Um you can see it every day as you walk through our schools and classrooms across the district, and from a personal perspective, it's truly a gift to be able to watch it happen in real life. In order to to ensure that people are truly clear as to what it is, cuz we know that the state changes definitions a lot on things, um Catherine Dr. Dalton has included it in monthly newsletters this year with a different focus each month, which has been very helpful for people. For example, in October, she shared the Portrait of a Graduate need-to-know documents from the
041New York State from New York State that are centered on each of the sets of stakeholders, from students, parents, educators, administrators, and the school board. For example, on the students fact sheet, it zeros in on three things for them. Growing as a learner, centered on you, and authentic application. And there are links in there in in that you can go through and read through those more thoroughly. In November, you can see that um she linked three professional development opportunities which relate to personalized learning. One on dynamically engaging um our students through various strategies, one on encouraging personal growth and academic goal setting, and one on how students can learn to work collaboratively, take risks, and take pride in their work. All of which were offered to all the teachers across the district. In December, she
042focused on student agency. I'm going to go off my script a little bit. You saw that that was the most important thing that those kids were talking about is that student agency. And you can see it going all the way back to elementary school. So this is again, I just have to repeat, people are already doing it. It's just understanding the new vocabulary and new terms. Um So student agency, so it was on how it promotes learning and engagement, and offered ways that students can have choice within a classroom, even from flexible seating um to student choice in their projects. And then in January, she gave more examples of agency um because I think that's really going to be the the heart and soul of what we're talking about here as we push forward. And
043also focused on what assessments look like as seen how by 2029-2030, those are going to be changing with regions and and so forth. Um for example, you could use student self-reflection, taking a playful approach to assessment, Mr. Buckman's classroom, for example, um using choice choice boards and demonstrations of learning. In addition, across all the buildings, they've been sharing ideas with each other of what personalized learning looks like. For example, at the high school, each department has been responsible for sharing some ideas first to instructional forum, and then to the faculty at faculty meetings. It's been a great way for teachers to see what other disciplines are doing. As I said, we are already doing it, but giving people the tools, common vocabulary and definitions, and access to how others are all doing it gives all
044of us a common found- foundational understanding as we move forward. To me, again, it just reinforces what we are doing, while giving us more opportunity to do it even more across all the buildings. So, what's next? Well, we've already started. If we look at the spaces at the high school specifically, I'm not sure if you're aware, but we've had a little bit of construction in the last couple years. It's been really easy. Um and we've had it across the district, and we're very grateful for it. Um you can see here some spaces just at the high school that have given kids a place to explore and have agency over their learning. You can see in the top left the lower cafeteria, where you see kids working together during lunch and after school. It's a great
045thing to walk by and see that happening. The tech room, um in the new tech wing, which gives them space to dream and build the things they dream. Our learning support center, where kids collaborate with teachers and students. The gorgeous new bro-jo space that has been a dream for as long as I've been here made into reality. Thank you. And the library. I mean, come on. Who had a library like that growing up? Not me. So, you have a space unlike any other where kids study, work together, create, read, and many more wonderful things. To walk into these spaces and see the collaboration that is happening among the students and teachers is quite an incredible experience. And moving forward as the new requirements for graduation occur, we'll be ready with all of these spaces and
046everything in place to embrace them using these incredible new learning environments. I think you're next. So, the the the greatest pleasure I have in my job is being in buildings and being in classrooms and seeing um all of the things that that Beth just mentioned, right? That this is this has been happening for a long time. We might have called it different things, but we center kids in everything that we do. So, I wanted to just share a recent lesson. Um, this is actually from Ms. Ward's fourth grade class. I was actually in Ms. Bergman's class and saw um a lesson that was created with the help of our K-6 uh social studies curriculum specialist who you saw at our last curriculum meeting. This was a role-play debate um about whether or not America should
047declare independence from Britain. Um, we had students who represented a dif- different historical figures um along each line. Um, they had to do research. They had to write. They had to um think independently. They had to think collaboratively. And the culminating event was uh a debate in front of their peers. So, when you're thinking about the portrait of a graduate skills, right? These are things that we have students developing in kindergarten. And the goal is that we continue to allow them to evolve and um and take risks and feel safe in their classroom spaces um to continue to grow. This was incredible. Um, I actually had the pleasure of meeting the the younger brother of our student um board member um in Ms. Bergman's class. Um, we had a fantastic discussion not only about um
048this period of history, but we got into the No- uh Napoleonic era as well. So, um as a former social studies teacher, I was super grateful um to have that conversation, but um I just wanted to to emphasize again, this is why we have a K-12 portrait of a learner. Um, we are not isolating this work in into high school. Um, in high school though, we have so many courses and pathways and credit options already. And I'm so excited with all the conversations that I've had with teachers about what else we can create new, but I just wanted to call to mind the things that are already in existence. Um, first we have incredible CTE programs um, through our partnership with OCM BOCES. So, students can take programs in automotive uh, technology, heavy equipment operation,
049early childhood programs, media marketing, um, which is located at the CNY Studios, um, physical therapy through SUNY Upstate, firefighting and EMT key coursework through Madison County. They can We also have students participating in the New Visions program through BOCES, um, which includes the programs in engineering through Lockheed Martin, the criminal justice program through Onondaga Sheriff's Office, as well as medical professions and rotations in multiple um, hospitals in the area from Crouse to the VA to SUNY Upstate. We have multiple students who are taking advantage of the Seal of Biliteracy as well as the Seal of Civic Readiness. Um, uh, FM through our arts um, presentation recently also shared that they we have piloted the individual arts assessment pathway, um, and we have students demonstrating their learning K-12 through incredible portfolios, um, and you'll see some
050of their work um, at our library tomorrow. Um, our high school also offers elective courses um, that promotes inclusive learning experiences. Um, so we have high school recently created uh, last year the um, Together We Learn electives. So, those are three courses uh, creative communications through the art department, life skills through the facts department, um, as well as uh, technology education life skills through the technology department. These are classes where students work in small supportive spaces where everyone contributes their strengths to build creativity, problem-solving skills, and practical life skills. And high school students are able to earn a half credit as teaching assistants in each of those three electives. Next year, um based on feedback from our students in the Agents of Change course, as well as their teachers, we are evolving the Agents of
051Change course um to create an eighth grade capstone course. Most high schools have capstone courses. We're going to start ours at eighth grade um with the focus being on original research related to a career interest. And the goal is that we will have students really explore original research, practice writing, as well as job skills, interview skills, um making a phone call, presenting to a wide audience. Um and uh and conducting interviews. And we have a almost 50 students signed up um for that new course. And that's the kind of stuff that tells us we are we are building in the right direction. Um and we are hoping that that the the evolution of that course to more uh career focus it will also help students as they move into ninth grade to really start to
052think about the pathways that they want to build. And I really want to thank um all of our all of our current Agents of Change students. Their feedback to me really helped create um this new course. We're also multi uh offering multiple dual credit courses through OCC, SUNY ESF, as well as Syracuse University. We have teachers who are so excited they're earning uh more credentials to allow them for more dual credit options through OCC. And next year our honors US history course will be trans uh will be shifted to an OCC course allowing for more students um to earn dual credit. Um so we look forward to that. We have multiple sections ready to go in that one as well. One of the new things that we'll be uh talking about as well is micro
053credentials and I'll turn it over to Laurel for that. Great. Thank you. As Catherine referred to early on in this presentation, the timeline of the state um revealing and sharing assessments and pathways, um we felt that we would were ready to start right now. And one way we're looking at doing that is through micro credentials. And you'll find that this is a real growing topic amongst the universities, also especially community colleges, and uh businesses and especially technology companies. Um micro credentials are very skill focused and they're self-paced. And so they're flexible. So at anyone at any level, um whether they're working a full-time job, part-time job, or in school, can be taking these micro credentials. And the colleges term them um as they call them stackable. So what you think what you can do say
054at a SUNY school or um at OCC, even Le Moyne, you could decide to take two or three or four micro credentialing courses that might be short. And if you stack these three, they would be toward requirements for maybe an elective or for a core a core content area. Um so in in doing research with this, we found also that the businesses really are encouraging us. For example, Google is finding that they need lots of different specific engineers in AI. So they offer credentialing uh micro credentials and they encourage anyone and they ask for people even without a degree to be to get certified through them. Some are paid, some are free. This is a free one that I'm taking um through career journeys and it's um it's been lovely. It they incorporate all modes
055of learning, but again, this is something that we can get started with right now. Um, it's uh it's been so popular having our This is our third year we've had our Chromebook repair club where the students are Acer certified. So, they get actual certification and that keeps growing, the need for that. So, um that was so popular with students. Some of them do it at in school at activity periods. Some of them do it at home, on the weekends, at night, any times, breaking down those walls. So, um this is another step that we're looking into and we're exploring. Um, and then also future focus, partnering with our community. Um, uh talking about our uh our our science explorers, our engineers, our the the new New York State standards for science incorporate the engineering uh
056process and the cycle. And Erin Can Cannon is our instructional science specialist and she has she reached out to Feldmeier and Lockheed Martin and they those engineers come in and they've been working with our students um our third, fifth, and sixth grade students uh with rocket units and talking about the engineering process. Of course, also we had Lockheed Martin, we had our coding um group again our two teams um compete and we came, you know, we won in all areas uh so our fourth year in a row. So, congratulations to our our programming club and Mr. Fawn. So, we have what such wonderful community partners here at FM. And And Katherine's going to talk about some other ones. Real quick. It's It's all the things you see here. We're just trying to build as many
057connections with our community again from the OCM BOCES STEM school. We have students participating in chip camp, the the STEM of Sports Academy um with Micron and Syracuse University. We had an engineering day uh field trip with Lockheed Martin last week. We still have over 30 kids on the waitlist for that, so we're trying to build another opportunity for them to tour. Um we're examining we have um somebody coming into our our tech wing to to talk about the the talent um internships that are available to students as soon as they graduate. Um our art students have worked with the town of Manlius to really beautify um the area through murals, um through some of the installations at our park. Um we have we partner with local businesses on different projects. And that's the goal
058is that we continue to just build and build and build. And again, this this doesn't happen without our teachers um doing this incredible work and partnering um with our community. Um so with that being said, um there are just so many places um where this is happening already. I can't stress it enough. Um personalized learning is student-centered learning. That's the first line of our definition. Um and we center students every day. And we we continue to elevate their voice to build new opportunities. Um and and hopefully to build pathways um for them. So, um Kendra, right? Kendra Brodus um is the young lady that you see um with the microphone on the bottom left. Um Kendra's a 2020 graduate um from from FM. She took every broadcast and journalism course that there is. Um and
059has um has recently moved um to New England um where she is a broadcaster there. Those are the types of experiences we want students to have here um so that they have opportunities um to do what Kendra's doing, um which is living her passion um and and really elevating her talents. Um so with that being said, um our goal is simply to educate students for their future and not our past and we thank the board and our community um for that support. We thank our our teachers and our students um for sharing their voices and doing the work. Um and we uh are here for any questions should you have any. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? Go ahead, Deanne. First of all, thank you. Um I know it's a huge transition. Um I
060I have just some Well, one of my areas of questions is very technical for the the students who are in the middle of the transition group. All right, where Regents are not required, but still available. So, this is a transition not just for our district, our students, but it's also a transition in the college admission process. Because the admission counselors are all used to a certain product coming out of New York students and different things that they assess them based on. And we all know that these are not end-all, be-alls, but they are data points. So, for the students in this transition period, what I'm curious about is two things. As one is how are we planning to or actually now advise those students and their families with respect to whether or not to take
061the exams that are available for the classes they're in now, whether they'll be required at graduation or not. We also know that the state changes from time to time. So, there's a few pieces to that. And second of all, for this those students who do opt and choose to take those exams, during this transition window, how are those classes that have those Regents exams being altered or changed if at all, particularly toward the end of the year when time is usually spent in class and some of those classes with Regents Regents prep work. So, how are we advising? How are we teaching? So, to the the first question, certainly all of this work we're very much in connection with our director of counseling. Right? She's been going to every conference and every meeting that she
062can have, whether that's locally BOCES or across the state. As as you said, every district, public education district, right, is going to have to figure out what this transition is. There are some of those pieces that we just don't know yet, right? That's the state says through the first installation phase we're going to get more information on. Um but I think one of the things that FM does really well is partner with higher education. Um if you take a look at just the the the college fair and some of um the community days, there's a very very direct connection with our local colleges and counselors track very well who who really um applies to different universities and and there's some pretty big trends in terms of students either heading to OCC or you know, St.
063John Fisher or others. Um and that's really a collaborative conversation with higher education. One thing I can say personally just from, you know, my senior graduating last year um with all of the college visits, this is the way that a lot of colleges are are headed. Um when you look at degrees um and earning a degree from college, there's a lot more flexibility. And one of the things that was um inherent to every visit and to most of the places um most of the people that I've talked to is um they see standardized tests as one small piece and they are looking for the whole person. And there's going to be a there's a variety of ways in which our students demonstrate that. Um whether that's service learning, whether that's um the multiple different electives
064that they take, whether that's portfolios um written or digital. Um there are a lot of ways that we have tried to develop, you know, transcripts that really create well-rounded students and not simply you know, what you want to see in a piece of paper because overwhelmingly colleges, especially those um that are some of the most competitive um in the country and really around the world have said is I can't differentiate because the kids who are applying to this very elite university, you all have fives on your AP exams. You all have, you know, high marks on whatever your state test is. Tell me how you you're going to differentiate. How do I know that you're going to be successful in my university or what makes you different? Um and it's these types of experiences that
065colleges are looking for. It's the it's the edge up, right? That if you can say, yes, I I did these things um but instead of um instead of taking the exam, I took a capstone course and I built an installation at the at our local park. Um I think that's something that that sets our kids apart. In terms of communication, like these are the things that we have to we are We're to build um multiple forums and spaces for us to to walk through what this means if your child's in fifth grade right now, and what does it mean if your child's in ninth grade, what does it mean if you've got a kindergartner? Um, we're going to be developing a lot of work for the community to help them differentiate and really understand the
066multiple different pathways that students are going to be able to take, and then what does that mean in terms of of where they want to go? Was that the Was that the second question? Yeah, I I I just I I think it and this obviously does not apply to all of our students. I've said many times from sitting here that that there are a lot of wonderful paths in life that don't involve college for many of our students and and this is a wonderful direction for many of our students, but for those who are choosing that path. Yes. Is you know, having had in my own household two students who went through the whole application process through COVID and the just be candid, completely broken college application process since that time because it is it
067is broken. Is we went through this period of test optional for SATs, ACTs. And and what was told to many students is they're optional, you don't have to take them, you don't have to take them, you don't have to take them. Well, the way that it turned out when they got flooded and flooded with applications in trying to distinguish between thousands of same similar applications, was many of the schools went and looked at exam scores. It's just a fact of how it went. So, I just I'm concerned about the students in the transition period of of really how we are guiding them, of you you should take the exams, you shouldn't, and for those who choose to that we're adequately doing the prep work that we have always done for them. Sure. Yeah, you're right.
068I mean, there are thousands of universities and colleges right now that are test optional. There's very few um There's very few um They're coming back the other way. >> But they are, right? Which means Well, that's because I think because we've And and maybe this might not be specific to New York, but you have to be able to demonstrate your understanding and your mastery in a different way, right? Which is why we're looking at things like digital portfolios and you know, things of that nature um so that you can really demonstrate who not just mastery um but understanding of content and skills. To your second point about, you know, what happens if we have students who are choosing Regents and and who aren't, what I would say is um I think it's it's sort of
069a a misconception that um you know, that the month of June or the month of May, we just suddenly dig in and we just prep prep prep prep prep. >> Yeah, I'm not suggesting that. You know, I think the idea is that we're we're building um student efficacy to to to be successful on the Regents um throughout the year. There is that there is going to be a change, right? If I asked the Agents of of Change kids, I said, "If you had the option between a Regents exams or a an individual project or a group project, what would you choose?" And it was a third and a third and a third, right? Those are the things that over the next four years all districts are going to have to wrestle with. What does that
070mean um for students that we are prepping for the Regents exams versus students that we're prepping portfolios? A lot of that guidance is going to come through New York State. In the meantime, we're working um to think about like what does personalized learning look like in its many forms. So, one of the examples that we shared in in the newsletter that Biz mentioned, we have teachers presenting to other teachers to say, "Here's how I did it." Right? So, this is my final project in this English course and a student and students had four options to demonstrate their learning from paper and pen test to production of a podcast to something else, you know, so that there is a lot of student ownership and it's the teachers who are guiding that criteria and the rubric. And
071so, that idea of students set goals, they have to build, they have to reflect, and they have to produce the final product. I would argue in more ways is a lot more work and demonstrates a far heavier or level of mastery than you know, that standardized test sometimes lack. To completely agree, Brett. The other question that's really most many times most relevant to the board is is what we should be thinking about in terms of what will be needed in the district to best support this transition. So, in some instances, that's different resources, it's different programs, it's it's different spaces that as you highlighted, we've we've certainly been working on it at the high school. And and really just being mindful of keeping it at the forefront for us as you know, Brett's going to
072do part of his budget thing tonight, which is a challenge in this district, but really being mindful so that we can be mindful as we plan forward of how we can best support what's needed for this. And one particular area that I'll I'll just highlight to to Laura's point on micro-credentials is is the other elephant in the room, which is AI AI AI AI. And if we are not providing every opportunity for our students to be fully proficient on graduation, then we're behind on that. And And so, what in terms of resources can be identified early so that we can plan as best as we can to be able to support our teachers and our students as they go through these transitions. Again, I think on my end, I think some of the biggest pieces
073are number one, the the spaces are obviously um incredibly important. Um opportunities for our students to be out of the building to to take advantage of field trips and and places where we can start to build internships. Um being a welcoming space for um community members so that Feldmeyer and Lockheed Martin and others can come in um and and present and and build lessons with us. Supporting positions like our curriculum specialists where a lot of that work is coming from. Again, continuing to support professional learning for our teachers. If you think about our instructional fair last year, having 70 sessions of of teachers who were who are teaching other teachers um on a lot of these topics. Um and and supporting the work of of groups like our tech committee who is developing guidelines um
074around AI. Um and we're we're leading I want to say we have six different sessions just with the high school in the next month or so. Um and um and that kind of support um for for teachers and what they do and supporting them for through professional learning and building those courses um, means that we can provide more opportunities um, for students and that things big behemoth topics like AI um, become embedded in in every course. Um, it can't sit on its in a in a silo, right? Um, that kind of professional learning and and that kind of work for from our teachers and curriculum specialists. Like right now we've built capacity over the last two years to make sure that our teachers really understand it and that's allowed us to make a a big
075move forward on what does that policy look like um, for our students and then how do we embed that instruction in everything that they're doing. I think you heard that you know, a lot last month through our our um, social studies presentation where we've really embedded media literacy um, and in in our courses. So, that type of support that that day-to-day um, and just supporting their teach our teachers and and you know, their professional capacity are the the reasons why we can build as much as we can for our students. Thank you Dan for those great questions. Did anybody else have anything additional? The questions were excellent. I have none of my own. Um, I do want to take a moment personally just to commend Kira again for the graphic design and the very thoughtful
076I appreciated the very thoughtful way you walked us through the intentional choices you made and I really think this is a perfect example of what we are trying to achieve, you know, through so much of what you lifted up tonight. So, thank you for this and thank you Kira. Very well said Sarah, thank you. Thank you all for coming. This was really a fantastic presentation and so important um, and thanks for engaging in this in this work and to echo Dan's comments, if there are ways that the board can continue to support any of our students and staff down this path, please make sure we're hearing about it. I'm sure we will. And now we move on to a different topic. Brad. Beth, I didn't know if you wanted to stay if you did such
077a good job with construction comments cuz that was fantastic. Anytime anybody gets that excited and says eloquently. I got a nod, so at least I got a nod. Uh they did fantastic, so it's tough following that group. Uh I just wanted to say Dr. Parvi, I was very impressed. We sat down I shoved 35 pages at her on day one at like 3:00 after trying to acknowledge everything and she looked it over in about 2 minutes she's like, "What do you think about slide four? We move this to there." and I'm like, "You got it. We're good." So, let it begin. Uh in fairness, this is this is about 35 slides. It's it's I'm going to go pretty quick. Um I already made that promise, so um it it is two kind of rolled into
078one. Uh what I told her I said, "In fairness, you know, take a look at it through your thoughts are and if there's stuff you want to kind of scale it back, we certainly can do it there. I wanted to have it detailed at least you can kind of see the breakouts, but uh you know, fresh face she gets a chance to kind of take a look and you guys get some thoughts, too. But yeah, I'm going to move pretty quick. There'll be maybe three or four maybe main key points. I want you guys to kind of hone in on that and then we'll certainly kind of drill down from there. Okay. Uh capital budget this is going to be uh the big driver of of this year's uh FM overall budget. Uh in this
079case year-over-year it's 3.9 million. Uh it's 22.7% increase uh for 1 year alone. Overall, uh it's going to be about 21.3 million and I'm going to get into details of what's driving that. Uh the first component is debt service. You can kind of see here it's the four main components bonds, ban, uh bus purchases and cap transfer. You can see on debt alone uh 12.9 million alone there and an increase year-over-year of almost 40%. Uh so this is one of the main key slides and it's the actual debt regards to ban and bonds. Ban being a ban anticipation note. You can kind of see in the in in the middle section there in 25-26 you're going from 2.6 million down to 1.9 and then you can see in bonds how you're at 4. almost 4.6
080and you're going up to almost 8.8. So what's kind of going on? You can kind of see the bullets below that. There's a decrease in ban related payments and really what it is is it's shifting over uh the project's getting ready to come to a excuse me a conclusion and then it's going to become a bond and that next bullet below it you can kind of see there that's that 4.2 million-dollar increase and that's really the fact of where you're kind of your project's coming to an end. You're not borrowing as much from the short-term aspect. You're getting ready to go long-term take on a bond and that's that that 4.2 million. Overall, that nets about 3.5 million and you can see the asterisks in red there beside it and that bottom bullet I want
081you kind of to focus on cuz that's one of the things I think people really have to take into consideration. Okay, I've got all this debt, but what does that mean? Well, there is corresponding building aid that comes in off that. Uh you can see there it's about 3.3 million and off and offsetting building aid and that'll will used against that 3.5, so then that difference is about 200,000. Bus purchase debt, it's an increase year-over-year. It's really just driven by the overall bus prices themselves and borrowing costs. Uh nothing new really there from that aspect. Cap transfer, uh the main point here is really the bottom at that bullet. Um it's the same amount as the previous year at a million dollars. Uh we're going to be working again as as we always do in
082regards to upgrades. Uh in this case the transportation facility, uh we're going to be having in Excuse me, the 25-26 million dollars. It's up there in the left-hand side. That's an upgrade down at our transport, excuse me, our transportation uh fuel depot. And so you'll have some costs related to that with 25-26, 26-27, there's a neighboring uh Franklin Street parking lot there for the Wellwood staff. That'll be uh something we've kind of looked at, and then we'll be also be uh looking other opportunities that probably be related to transportation upgrades from that aspect. Maintenance and custodials the next one. Uh overall it's about 8.36 million year-over-year about 3.35%. Uh the main thing here, and you're going to hear me use this say this a lot, you're going to hear that the term salaries reflect negotiated
083contractual agreements, or you're going to hear me say budget to actual adjustments. It's kind of as in band terms, I think we've talked in previous budgets. What is it? It's a fixed cost. It's something that's been negotiated. It's defined it from that aspect. So in this case, you're going to see here salary subs and extra duty. They really reflect negotiated contractual agreements with the salaries aspect. Duties are really more of kind of like what we've been seeing historically, so we'll do a trend line kind of look at that. Overall it's been running around those numbers, so year-over-year it isn't too much of an increase. Maintenance, similar thing there uh from that aspect. The extra duty is really is a decrease, and that's really more of kind of looking at it. I think some of it
084in fact of with the construction that's kind of was going on uh throughout the duration. You did have some extra duties and things of that nature where they're trying to clean up, trying to help out, uh work that they've ran into that may be construction defined, but we were able to do it internally. As that project project comes to a conclusion, you see that aspect of maybe those duties kind of winding down from that side of it. So, your equipment, this is really it's a decrease. It's really uh driven by the fact that as that uh project was going on, we had to find a lot of kind of what equipment replacement needs and things of that nature. They were defined, they were replaced, things of that nature. So, at this point, we've got a
085decrease showing uh from what our needs are. Gas, electric, uh water, and telephone, you can kind of see there that really the main two points, and this is another slide I want you to focus on, is that gas and electric aspect. So, we've we've got 135,000 overall between gas and electric that we've increased the budget by. Um it's a situation where probably folks have heard from National Grid's aspect, where they've defined, you know, in some cases of you know, a percentage increase. We've applied somewhere around 20%. Uh there's a little bit of surplus in there from that aspect, just to cover it in case it goes above 20. Uh to make sure we've also got HVAC upgrades we've done from AC and things of that nature. We're not really sure uh how much that's going
086to consume, so we felt pretty comfortable with the numbers we've got uh to be able to provide uh the corresponding dollars towards whatever those increases would be. Conference fees and dues, flat year over year. Uh custodial maintenance supplies, uh relatively flat. The supplies themselves will be an increase, uh that's really just due to budget needs and higher prices from this aspect, but overall pretty consistent. Outside services, you can see there is a decrease, and it's really just due to current building projects and kind of what we've been able to accomplish. Uh you can see some examples there with HVAC repairs and controls, building repairs. So, that roofing safety and security project, a lot of that kind of got taken care of. Uh services from BOCES, and again, that was relatively flat year over year, a
087difference of maybe around $5,000. You can see a couple examples of some of the stuff that we offer from the BOC services side. Security, uh this really represent uh more on that again that roofing safety and security project. You can kind of see here in that first bullet, the majority of the security upgrades were included in the 15.4. So, the corresponding dollars there aren't too significant because we did a lot of the heavy lifting on that project. Uh and you can see uh security supplies and it represents some of the things we've been doing, door hardening, security cameras, uh HVAC excuse me, uh card access systems, things of that nature. So, now we'll get into the admin component. You can kind of see here year over year represents about 120,000 123,000. It's a 1.73% estimated
088increase year over year, relatively small. And overall that budget represents uh 7.2 million and it's the smallest part. So, the components there you can kind of see, again it's something you've kind of seen in the past. Board of Education, really the only thing on here that's anything that's was an increase really was outside services. And as we got a new superintendent and and required workshops, trainings, things of that nature, we're going to probably put some money in those kinds of things to try to go through. District Clerk, uh relatively uh in this case pretty flat year over year. The only thing there, outside services and supplies, you can kind of see that last bullet. We're anticipating a projected second vote uh coming up, so it would be ideally the next capital project whether that's in
089December or February give or take. And those would be the corresponding needs from a supplies aspect for that vote. District Meeting, again relatively flat year over year. Uh Chief School Administration, again you're going to hear me that that phrase "series of flat contractual adjustments." Uh outside services was really more of a budget to actual adjustment, uh but for the most part there relatively flat. And then anything else was just contractual adjustments. This administration, again negotiated contractual adjustments, equipment. You can kind of see the decrease with the 10,000 down to zero. That really was that one-time purchase where I kind of talked last year about that postage machine. it was something we were able to get. And then BOCES services was just a decrease due to shift in services between different codes, and that was really
090what represented that decrease. But overall, again, it was relatively flat. Auditing tax collector, those are flat year over year. It really represented kind of what we've got for represented corresponding costs. So, again, they're flat. Uh fiscal agent legal, uh one of the key points here is probably the legal. Uh and and it's really the projected increase due to additional needs and use it. Uh one of the things we've been kind of been working through is transportation. So, myself and uh Mrs. Wade, we've been kind of dealing with a lot with with labor relations aspects with transportation kind of going through stuff. We've involved the Ferrara firm and kind of having different discussions in regards to how things are going or how we can enhance things. So, that'd be something where I can see us, you
091know, if we're going to uh have an increase, it'd probably be in that area. And that's certainly something we can talk about later on, as well. Personnel, uh again, uh relatively flat year over year. The only thing being BOCES services, and that's related to increase in your annual program pricing. Public information and postage, uh the main point there is really that salaries line up top and then the BOCES services. Uh one of the things we'll be doing is we'll be looking at it a potential, you know, what we're going to do with our communications position. It's something we've had here in the past. I think when I started here back maybe in 2009 or 10, uh we had just kind of started putting that in place. And then at this point, kind of we're kind
092of going through, we've had a bit of turnover, and the person that we had had had left. And I know uh we've been waiting for Dr. Parvi to get a chance to come in and come aboard, and that's something she'll probably want to weigh in. And we'll have a discussion with that. But at this point, I had to put something up from that side of it. So, I kind of really wanted to roll over that 118 to kind of that 100. And if it did something where we do an internal uh shift, and it's something we hire, you know, we've got a lot of talent, and it's something we could look into that would give us an opportunity to do that. So, that's really all that is, it's just a shift between the two codes.
093Uh data processing, you can kind of see there. It's really just uh the BOCES services and it's a decrease in needs and services, just a change in the food service software as we're resulting a lower annual cost from kind of what we're using now and moving over from uh to Mosaic. Insurance, tax, and assessment refunds. Uh the insurance cost really is the only increase and it was really an increase in the overall insurance premium. Uh it's something I think most districts uh forgot faced with last year and you know, it's something we've kind of talked about and and the other day and then basically what we were hearing it was really more of a one-time hit. Uh the significance this year might be somewhere more in the 5 to 7, but last year was double
094digits and that's really what that reflects is that kind of adjustment up uh from the previous year. BOCES administrative fees. So, this is a key one, too, I really want you to focus on and it's really that third line down at BOCES capital expense fee. So, if you look at admin overall and kind of the percentage, this is really the driver of overall admin. You can kind of see here it's something where uh construction that goes on from a BOCES perspective, the increase is really driven there. So, if you think about it, uh as you can kind of see in the parentheses there, construction costs are in a pass-through. So, the work that they're going to be doing, there's going to be a pick up here of somewhere around 125,000. So, that construction work that
095BOCES is doing will have a pass-through, if you will, onto those corresponding districts that participate in their programs. For our purposes, that's what that increase represents and again, it's about 125,000 there. You can see some examples of some of the other ones that are involved from the uh admin rental, etc., but that's really that big one is going to be that capital portion with that pass-through fee over. Supervision the next one. Supervision overall is about 3.6 million uh over and the increase year-over-year is really is under 1%, about 0.58, and I'll talk a little bit more about that. So, uh year-over-year, you can kind of see here again that salaries, that contractual adjustments and budget to actual uh is is just again driven by that. Clerical It actually went down a little bit with some
096attrition and adjustments. And then everything else is pretty much flat. Supervision, you can kind of see there from that side of it increased again at principal one, but it was really increased into a contractual adjustments. Clerical actually went down a little bit from that side of it as well. And then equipment really from that aspect went from 1875 to nothing to zero I should say and that was really just you know basically the point with capital improvements already done. So year over year again really more of just the contractual agreements. And this is kind of one of the you know the fourth or fifth slide that I really want you to focus on. I want to take everything and put it into kind of a summary version of kind of what you know what what
097does all that mean? So again to kind of revisit it from a capital perspective you can kind of see there the ban and bonds. Again that $3.5 million increase in overall debt and it's really again due to the completion of the high school capital project. And that's offset by that $3.3 million in building aid. So that net difference there is again that 200,000 I'm talking about. The next bullet gas and electric again that budget increase in this case somewhere around 20% in this case I think we had 18 and that's really due to that higher projected gas and electric prices and and delivery costs. From the admin perspective you can kind of see there at the bottom at the excuse me third one from the bottom insurance costs again what I was talking about with
098that budget increase of 17% is due to overall insurance premium increases cyber insurance building replacement costs things of that nature. And then the fourth one what I just kind of talked about from that slide or so before that being that BOCES capital expense. We had a budget increase of about 125,000 due to those capital improvements and again that pass through mechanism where it passes it back over to the corresponding districts. That represents the whole thing. Overall you can kind of see here for next steps program and revenue will be March 23rd. Overall budget we'll talk about April 20th and that'll be uh, same as it with the adoption being that third bullet down on April 20th. The budget hearing will have another presentation, that'll be May 11th, and then the budget vote being May 19th.
099That was everything. So, I know that was fast. Um, but I I wanted to kind of get through it and give you guys you guys a chance to kind of uh, have some Q&A or and that kind of thing for me after. So, that being said, what do you have for questions? I don't know why everybody all looked at me all at once. I just didn't do it. Now, Um, so Brett, just a just I guess a couple of quick things. Uh, and you're on the the capital side, so you probably know what I'm going to ask. I'm just trying to to figure out it it maybe was back on slide four, but when we look at just dollars net of state aid, what does the FM taxpayer what's our portion? I guess that's in
100our budget after aid that we're paying to service that? All right, let me let me process all that. So, overall, you're going to have roughly kind of what we talked about and direct me if I'm if I'm not 100% on the same page. You're going to have the 80/20 principle with building aid and then corresponding whatever you borrow. So, the easy thing is is kind of I I I think I gave folks uh, since maybe our last meeting, we talked to physical advisors, we kind of went through and looked at everything from kind of what we potentially could be doing if it's Flanders Road, Eagle Hill High School, what that kind of project could look like, and we put it somewhere around 60 million. So, if it's 60 million, you do that kind of 80/20
101uh, principle, that leaves you somewhere at at 12 million dollars roughly with kind of what that corresponding debt would be from that side of it. Ideally, you're applying some kind of a cap capital reserve against it. And what is that residual portion then in this case? So, if we have 5 million there, you're down to 7 million dollars is kind of you're applying. So, that's kind of the overall dollars from a building eight perspective uh from that side of it. You've got a few different things that are in here for this year where you've got the roofing safety and security is projected. You got the high school one and then you have existing uh building eight that's kind of already been in there. Where are you saying that's kind of a little bit where you're
102asking that might be not quite that? But, let me just try to make it as easy as as possible. So, we're going to pay We've got that service on bonds, whether they're bans or bonds, or Correct. Whatever and I I think on that slide four you showed it was going up this year. Okay. So, right. So, 1.9 million plus 8.7 is 10.6 give or take. Okay. >> Out of that that I'm assuming that's all of our debt payments. Correct? That's for construction and then you're going to have buses, but yes. Okay. So, I'm sorry. I should have And And that's a good call out. So, just construction. Correct. Um so, that's 10.6. How much state aid are we getting to offset that 10.6 that's going to come in this year? I understand there's always a
103timing thing in the way that all flows, but what state building aid are we getting in to offset that 10.6 in next year's budget? You know, I got you. You're stealing next week's or next time's presentation. >> Um So, building eight. Yeah, you're going to get somewhere around 8 million to 8.5 million give or take that's going to get be that. And that's kind of gets you more of that 80% with what you were talking about from that aspect. So, if I if I do that math real quick, 10.6 minus 8.5. So, really in our budget net impact to taxpayers is $2 million in our total budget. Is that a fair statement around that? Yep. That's what I'm trying to get to. Thanks. >> Yeah, you're You'll be again seriously on the next and when
104we talk next time cuz that you're going to want to get into foundation aid, we'll talk building aid, we'll talk trans aid, and how does that whole thing roll because that's the big piece kind of last time where we talked overall like where do you see a district going? And that's the piece of the crux of kind of how it does go. You have whatever your expenses are, then you have the corresponding aid. What is the gap? And then we're going to talk about different things there from appropriating fund balance, etc., etc. But yeah, good question. I got you now. Yep. And so then I've got one more. Yeah. And you're allowed to phone a friend because he's in the room. I'm so glad Dr. Cook is here. He's already looking at me. Um so
105because you highlighted it, just the BOCES capital projects, um which glad that they did it, right? It's been 30 years, I think, since you you've spent money. So glad that you held out as long as you did. The only The only question I really have on it is is that I know that we said it's an increase, and I believe at the time when we voted to support it, it was an allocation based on the number of students we had participating in BOCES programs. My only question is is are we locked into that number forever based on we did it when the students at the time of the vote, or will that go up and down um as our student enrollment and other student enrollments go up and down at BOCES? Should be stable. Okay.
106So easy for a budget perspective, right? So we know that's our numbers, so we can lock that number in for years to come. Yeah, the only thing I was going to add, and I just screwed that up up on the screen, but was if there is any new construction, that's where it would change where it's kind of basically, you know, from that aspect, yes, flat until something new or something that's a change with that. Yep. Um Brett, on the uh Board of Education slide, I know you've talked a lot about budget to actuals, and I know we've never come close to spending the 20K on conferences and travel. Yep. So, do we want to reconcile that? Cuz we can take Yeah. and even it out because at least based on budget to actuals. Yeah, one
107of those things I don't have a problem. We we can certainly do it. If anything, if there's money left there in the past, that's probably where we grabbed the surplus and applied it against other things that were needed, or we rolled it back up into, you know, pure surplus and put it into a reserve. So, one of the things I was telling Sarah was kind of before I presented, I knew you guys had looked at it. And in fairness, we can certainly go through. But that's one of those Yes, anything that's left just everybody understands it would get rolled back into surplus. If there was surplus, it get put into a reserve from that aspect to be used. It's not like it goes into any secret stash or anything like that, just for if anybody
108is watching. >> Yep. Yep. Thank you. I I just rather it be applied to somebody who can use it or for our students or teachers. >> Uh yeah, we have we have no problem finding people that can do it. Amy's probably number one on my list, but you know, there's some others behind her that yes, would love to get their hands into it and use it for good stuff. Okay. Thank you. Is the BOCES services Is that your everyone? Super super superintendent evaluation. Yep. What other questions? Check out what you're looking at with I I I'll I'll I'll see what I didn't say cuz I wasn't at your last one, and we usually have our our norm is but you pointed it out at the beginning. That's good. Outside of the capital budget, virtually all
109of our budget, well, even the capital budget because it's that was driven by building projects that were approved by the voters. That virtually our entire budget is driven by either projects that were already approved by the voters or contractual obligations that are fixed. There is a minuscule percentage of the budget that we actually have opportunity to make choices in to the point of what we talked about in the last presentation of how can we better support and adjust programs to support the the transition to portrait of the learner. There's within the budget that we have and the tax cap that we have to stay within unless we were to do an override, which we haven't done previously. There is a very very small margin of room that we have, so I just want to thank
110you again for the work that goes into this because to keep the lights on, so to speak, in these buildings, it's it's expensive and then it's difficult work to put these budgets together. So, I know that the hours that you spend, so thank you for that. >> Thank you. Yeah, no, it it's interesting, you know, mimicking kind of what you're talking about where I I literally just did finish the presentation there for 2 weeks and looking at the end of it, the conclusion, I tried to take all this and put it out to two slides to kind of go through it and you look at it from that lens, it's really fixed. Your contracts and everything from salaries, it's fixed. You look there from the debt aspect, it's fixed. What do you What you borrow,
111you know, what's the interest? It's a fixed contract from what you're paying. Gas and electric, you know, you can say you can use whatever and control it, but in the end from the delivery cost to, you know, whatever is for pricing, it's pretty defined. I don't, you know, I know you people, especially with the HVAC projects we're doing and then depending on what it's going to be at, we need to have schools in an appropriate, you know, warmth or or cold or whatever for for that. Admin, you know, from an insurance cost for the budget increase, that's fixed. Bose's capital expense, you just heard him, it's fixed. So, it's not like you got a lot of variables or discretionary stuff and you kind of saw it the last time when I presented and when I
112present per program, program is only up like 1.7% So, no, there really isn't anything really discretionary. A lot of That's the hard part. You know, to hear the foundation aid where we talked and and, you know, Anna had a chance to kind of go there and and, you know, listen in as well. There There's not a lot going on at the state level from additional aid that's out there. So, when I get into that aid aspect talking about it, I think we're at 1.7% on what they allocate out. They're hoping to go a little bit higher, but I think what I was hearing was a high-water mark of two. So, maybe we can pick up 100 grand. And then one of the questions you're going to hit me with next time, what do you have
113for surplus? And we've got that number defined. I think I can hoping to get as high as I can get it. But then to cover anything from high needs to whatever else that kind of comes in. So, it's tight, but, you know, it's doable. There's good things going on and it's always nice, you know, when you get a chance to see those things. So, we're doing great and some of the folks that had a chance to kind of talk to other districts in the last few days, there's some huge cuts coming from other districts. I don't know how they're going to do it. It's not, you know, it's not mine anyway, but uh we're in good shape from that aspect, but everybody's kind of facing the same boat as basically their expenses are outweighing their,
114you know, what they've got from an aid aspect. So. Anything else? Thank you, Brad. Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Moving on to item 2.03 presence report. So, I'd like to just take a minute and um welcome Dr. Parvi to her first official uh board meeting. We're really excited to have you here. Um So, I know we've talked about this in the past, but just to reiterate and make sure it's clear, uh selecting a new superintendent is arguably one of the most consequential decisions any Board of Education will make, and we did not take a single step lightly. Getting here took a lot of work, care, and a deep commitment to this community. You look around this table, we are parents of children in our classrooms, on our sports fields, and on the stage. We
115are your community members, your neighbors, and your friends. Every decision this board makes is made with the best interests of FM at its core. The search that brought Dr. Parvey to FM was a confidential one. It was clearly communicated that way from the start, and intentionally so. Confidential is not secret. It's how you find the best candidates while upholding an ethical obligation for privacy and professionalism. To continue building on the strong tradition of excellence that defines FM, we knew we wanted an experienced leader. Confidential searches protect candidate identities throughout the process. They attract a larger pool of candidates, highly qualified, experienced candidates, without risk to their current district relationships, which every superintendent works so hard to cultivate. The board's unwavering commitment to protecting the integrity of that confidential process is core to our ethics, our
116values, and our responsibilities that you elected us to uphold in this service. To be as inclusive as possible through this process, we'd spent the time at the start to ensure FM community voices were integrated. We heard from staff, students, families, and community members through a variety of ways which included surveys, stakeholder focus groups, and one-on-one conversations. Your voices shaped what we were looking for in a leader. Every perspective mattered, and every piece of feedback was taken very seriously. We stand behind our process, and we are very proud of our decision. I also want to acknowledge the professionals who supported this transition. FM hasn't had a new superintendent in over a decade. We were intentional about getting this right, and that meant relying on the outstanding team that we already have in place at FM, and
117bringing in the right expertise where needed. That is what thoughtful organizations do when a moment matters. And I think the result speaks for itself. You will soon hear about Dr. Parry's first week, but she has been visiting our schools, sitting with staff, listening to students, and began the meaningful present work that we expected, and we knew that she could deliver from day one. Supporting Dr. Parry, her process, and letting her leadership and expertise unfold isn't just the board's responsibility. It's all of ours. The next great chapter of Fayetteville-Manlius has begun, and we are moving forward together. Before we move on to this to the superintendent, before we move on, I also want to take a moment to acknowledge Dr. Matthew Cook of OCM BOCES, who guided the search with the same professionalism and integrity that
118he has brought to districts all across the region. Dr. Cook is here tonight, as we all know, and he got to do some Q&A earlier, a little surprise. Um I'm personally, and think all of us speak for all of us, uh to say that we're very grateful for your presence and your continuous support throughout the entire process, Dr. Cook. Thank you very much. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent's report. Thank you very much, President Fitzgerald. That was I'm well I'm sorry. I don't I don't know that I want to follow that now, but Um I've had an amazing first week in Andel Scott and FM. But more importantly, I feel that this first slide really represents what you were saying and what I truly believe, that we rise by
119lifting others. This was a great bulletin board that I saw at Mott School at our Mott Elementary School. Thank you. Again, they were so warm, so welcoming. And to the community, I have so much to share about your feedback, so I'm going to get started so that I don't take too long, but I do believe that this is what we're about. We rise by lifting others, and that is the goal for us as we build a sense of community and we move forward. So we're thinking FM forward. And so my presentation's moving forward from this meeting to and others will always give a brief agenda of what I'll be speaking about. I'll be presenting about my school visits because I do that often, and I think that's important, and I shared that to my in
120my message to the community. I'll be sharing some administrative happenings. Um I'm going to be sharing today with my onboarding survey because again, I'm so proud of this community and the feedback. I'll be talking about community event and engagements that I'll be engaged in with the community. And then, of course, what we're here about is our students, so I'll be sharing some wonderful FM pride. And we have kicking off with that as one of our high school students, Keelin Coates, and her artwork in progress. She was doing a self-portrait. I was invited into the art studio by Katie Gabriel, our arts coordinator. Thank you, Katie, and was able to see one of our students work in action. So, thank you so much, Keelan. She had an excellent self-portrait that she was working on. In my
121school visits, I started with a school visit at FM High School. Had a great opportunity to see many, but um really enjoyed my opportunity to be in Mrs. Hansen's class as she had her young scientists working on Alca-Seltzer and just really looking at what the process is with that, and our students were very engaged. And I saw that across all of our schools. There's true engagement, whether I was there in the morning or the afternoon. Um I'll talk a little bit more about that, but our students are amazing. And our parents have done an amazing job because the number of students that said, "That's the new superintendent, and I know because my mom showed me your picture." So, thank you, parents. I appreciate your engagement. It's always It's always the mom. She's like, "I know
122you. My mom showed you my your picture." So, I'm like, "All right." Um I don't know if how many if It was funny. You know what? But she said, "My mom." But you're right, I get it. She said, "My mom." Um So, we I also had the opportunity to see a preview of Newsies. I'm hoping that many people got out last week. I will be there on Friday. I'm so excited. Um the I have to say just it was amazing. The music, the students, everything. It just really I was just moved to see how much our students are capable of and our wonderful staff. I also had an opportunity to be at Enders Road, and I want to shout out Mrs. Lewis, who's here in this first picture with her kindergarten students. When I tell
123you that those students were so engaged, you're talking about learning from a master teacher. They were so focused, it didn't matter who walked into that room. They were doing their thing, and I don't know if people if many people know that Mrs. Lewis has been doing her thing for almost four decades in FM. What pride. You know, I just had to shout that out cuz I was just amazed. Um it's amazing. And then also had an opportunity to see Mrs. Bancroft's um third graders also very focused, very engaged, and it was just so great to see that our kids are engaged in learning and our staff are doing amazing things with kids. At Mont Road, we had the same thing, amazing word work happening with Mrs. Dunkinson's class, very focused students. It didn't matter if
124I pulled out my phone and took a picture, they were really focusing on what their teacher was teaching them, and I got to see our new literacy program in action with Mrs. Dunkinson's class. And I got to meet Luna, um Maud's um therapy dog. Um really happy to see Luna. Luna was so good, and I love dogs, so I just had to throw that in there. Um and at Eagle Hill Middle School, I had an opportunity to see our sixth graders doing um a reader's theater session about um Greek mythology. Had an opportunity to hear two groups of students share, again very engaged in their work. And I want to really thank our principals because throughout these visits, I had principals by my side walking me through the schools and showing me the amazing things
125our kids are doing. So, thank you to our building leaders. And I have to shout out Mrs. Rodriguez. She's actually special to me because Mrs. Rodriguez is a Canisius alum. So, I went to Canisius College, Mrs. Rodriguez went to Canisius College. We graduated at the same time. She told me that when she saw me, she went to her yearbook to take a look. And she said, "We may have had classes together." But what I realized is that Mrs. Rodriguez now has blackmail pictures cuz I don't want her showing anyone my college pictures. So, I said, "I'm going to shout you out, Mrs. Rodriguez. Hopefully you'll have mercy and won't show any blackmail pictures of me." But again, such a warm welcome across our schools. Our teachers are amazing. Our students were so polite, personable. Um
126again, I've had a great opportunity. So, some administrative happenings, I'm going to shout out my new district office team. They have been amazing, very supportive, very receptive to feedback. Shout out to you, Brad, for doing what you promised me you'd do. Um and then we've had our principals meetings, and a lot of what our conversations are right now, as you can hear, is about our budget and our budget process. We're knee-deep in our budget process, so we're talking about um staffing, which was our sectional sectioning meeting. And I thought I saw Kenyatta in the audience. He may have left, but he was part of the DEI committee meeting that I attended on Wednesday evening. So, thank you to our community members who are part of the DI committee. I'm looking forward to our continued work
127together. And so, my onboarding process, which is really I'm part of I've really launched my process in the entry process. 631 responses from the FM community, and I could not be more thrilled. A ton of feedback from our community. A lot of themes have already emerged, but I really thank everyone for their engagement and for responding, because you have helped to shape how I will continue my entry process and engage with this community. So, when asked what time works best for you, 60.9% of our community, um 384 responses, saying pretty much evenings are best for them. They prefer to meet um in the um in the evening, which is great to hear. We had about 25% who are interested in midday. Very little um interest in the morning. We have a working community, so people
128don't want to see me in the morning, and that's okay, cuz I'll be with your kids. Um and also, people are really busy on the weekend, whether they're engaging with their kids at sports events, which I will attend as well, but really people would like to engage in the evening, so I appreciate you providing that feedback, because I'll be shaping my office hours around that feedback. Also, how would you like to connect with Dr. Parfy? Many people shared that they'd like to um present in person at their child's school, which is great because I'll offer I was thinking of having office hours at the central office, but I will definitely have it um at different schools. So, stay tuned for that. 21% of our almost 22% said they'd like to meet virtually, so I will
129offer that option as well for people who can't come out. And then in-person at a district location, very little um wanted that. So, I think I will be really focusing on in-person at our um students' schools and also offering some virtual options. And um in-person in the community, again, I will still be attending events in the community, but people are not necessarily looking to engage in that way. And only about 4% of our people are flexible, so we'll be hanging out at the top with being in-person at schools. So, thank you for that. And then I just really I would be remiss if I didn't share just I I wish I could put them all there, but we'd be here all night. Just really some amazing quotes in the feedback from our community. Again, very
130warm and welcoming. Welcome to FM. Wishing you a great start and looking forward to the positive impact you'll bring. Welcome. We are excited to have you bring your expertise to our district. FM pride runs deep and I have seen that. And we are hoping to bring back the sense of community and school spirit. So, really I'm going to be looking at doing some work around building this concept of one FM. So, stay tuned. But, first I really want to listen and gather information, but a lot of themes around building a strong sense of community and I'm really excited about that. We would like to extend a warm very warm welcome to you. We are truly excited about your leadership and the future of our schools under your guidance. It is wonderful that you are making
131yourself available to everyone as you begin your new work at FM. Good luck to you. So, again, very very FM. That's what I would say. That is the FM way and I've had an opportunity and then that pride that FM pride is always strong. Um I've been a lifelong resident and FM alumni. My four kids will go to the same schools I did. I love this community and our school and I'm very proud of who we are. Thanks for taking the baton and helping lead us into the future. And so people are really excited about talking about the next chapter. People have felt blessed to have their children go to FM. This is a special school community. Again, so many things that this community is proud of that I'm looking forward to building on and
132really learning a lot more about as we think about the future of FM. And then looking forward, I had asked questions about looking forward. Welcome Dr. Party. Thank you for detailing your four E's cuz I talked about my engagement. This is the first part of the entry process for me. And they were really helpful It was helpful in them understanding what I'm doing here now and where I am in the process. We are excited to have you lead our already strong, well-performing schools. Welcome aboard. Many of us welcome a fresh new perspective and engagement. So again, a lot of very positive, welcoming messages from our community and I really look forward to engaging everyone and working with everyone. And um now that I have that feedback, I will be tweaking some of my community events,
133but I want to give a special shout out to Monica Browning who of Monica Browning Photography and of Moose & Mind Bookshop. I will be having my first community event there, my first meet and greet at her bookstore at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 21st. I offered that before getting all of my data back, but that's okay. That'll be only the first engagement, but I'm looking forward to seeing people there at 11:30 on Saturday, the 21st. It's really just to say a hello and I will be asking some questions as I continue to gather data as we think about the next steps about our future together, but please, please, please come and join me. And thank you again to Monica. She was so warm and welcoming and opened her doors to have my first meet
134and greet. So I'm really excited and appreciative about that. And again, I'm up to the engage phase. They'll be the four E's of engage, explore, evaluate, and equip. So, right now, um I'm doing my engagement and so I will be offering weekly office hours um at different schools to be able to meet parents um where they are, which is at their children's school. So, we'll be doing that. I also will be having superintendent drop-ins at the schools for our staff and that's all of our staff. That is our teachers, our administrative assistants, our custodians. I really would like to have face time with everyone. So, I will be sharing a message to staff about when I will do it be doing my superintendent drop-in so that everyone can stop by and say hello and also
135share their perspective about FM, the things we are doing really, really well, and the things that we'd like to see um changed and tweaked as we go into the future. And then I will be con- conducting focus groups cuz that will help me to help think about our next stage in our strategic plan as our current strategic plan will be sunsetting in another year. So, I'll be sharing more specific details, but again, this is this the um fun part for me in terms of engaging with you and learning more about our wonderful community and I thank you for that. And I would not I'd be remiss if I didn't share our FM pride. Congratulations to Wellwood Science Olympiad team who placed first and Eagle Hills Science Olympiad team who placed second at regionals. Both teams
136will be headed to the state championship in late April. And thank you, thank you so much to the coaches, the parent coaches at each of those schools who really helped to get our um students there. So, thank you to the coaches, thank you to our leaders, but most importantly highlighting our students who did amazing work. And we had a mention um in the nationally published Rowing magazine. Our rowing team was mentioned at so we are also praising our rowing team for being mentioned in Rowing magazine. They did a great job. And of course, more FM pride for our us. We had our congratulations to our Battle of the Books teams. Our third and fourth grade placed third. Thank you for the invitation to see that. I will be looking forward going more about that. And
137our fifth and sixth grade teams placed second and eighth. Our grade seven and eight team placed third and our grades ninth through 12th team placed first. So, some great pride for us. And to Nikita Demishenko placed third in the 55-meter at the state competition. Congratulations to Nikita. And then we had Michelle Ifanu recently placed seventh in the weight throw at the state competition. So, we have so much so much to be proud of. Our wonderful students, our wonderful staff. And I wanted to make sure that I was able to share that with everyone this evening. And finally, I say again, thank you. I'm looking forward to meeting with everyone. I will be sharing more information about my visits at schools. And thank you so much for an amazing first week. If anybody was wondering, I,
138Dr. Parvi, had an amazing first week in FM. And I want to thank you for your warm welcome, for your curiosity, for your engagement. And I look forward to spending more time with you. Thank you so much. Does anybody have any questions for Dr. Parvi? Thank you. Dan, I was waiting. I mean We're all We're all waiting. We're all Reputation precedes us. That's awesome. We had a lovely dis- We had a lovely discussion this week together. So, I have all of my questions answered. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh I just want to say thank you so much for uh showcasing all of our wonderful students and staff and giving them the proper shout out that they deserve. Um that was great. Oh, and thank you. I almost forgot. I'm sorry. I had an
139opportunity to meet with our FMTA Council this afternoon as well. Um very positive group, great conversation. And we've been talking about how to elevate teacher voice together. So, we also had a great meeting. I did tell them I'd be shouting them out for just having a great conversation this afternoon. So, I also want to say thank you to our FMT Council for a great meeting this afternoon. Now, I'm done. Wonderful. Anybody else? Yep. Okay. Moving along. Uh reports and committee updates. Let's see here. Um so, Ann, if you wouldn't mind giving the legislative liaison since you attended. Absolutely. So, um last weekend, there were a few of us who went to the OCM BOCES Legislative Forum. Um Brad was there, Julie, um and Craig was there as well. On a Saturday morning, it was a
140great way to spend a Saturday morning. Um Assembly members Al Stirpe and Pam Hunter were in attendance and provided some information and there was time for question and answers. Dr. Rick Timbs was the one who presented. If uh board members, if you have an opportunity to attend any of the development sessions that are offered by Dr. Timbs, please please take that opportunity. I will say the general tone of the presentation on the state budget was um concerning. Um it That's That's the best way to describe it. There's There's not really any other way about it. Um we are not alone um with budget concerns. They are certainly across the state. Um I did share with members of the board, forgive the the screen below screen grabs I took of the presentation. It has my notes
141on it. Um but, I just wanted everyone to have the same footing and understand the information as best you could. A lot of time in that meeting was spent talking about zero emission buses with Jacob and I actually had a great conversation about at the beginning of this meeting. Um I I don't know I mean, I can say, right? So in the meeting it was said that we might not have to worry about zero emission buses on the time frame that we currently expect to mostly because um it's a pretty significant challenge and and more issues are coming to the forefront with that. I think that it's a great idea and that was all talked about um but the timeline might need to be um amended for that. So um some of the other the
142other things that were brought up um was really about the the calculation um the aid calculation and I will not steal any of Brad's thunder for next week. I do have the presentations if any board members want a chance to decipher my handwriting in person rather than trying to do it electronically um but the the focus was really on the state aid formulas, the zero emission buses and um I learned that UPK transportation is not aidable at that meeting as well. Um so so there was a lot highly recommend any session that you can attend by Dr. Tim's. And Thank you so much for attending and giving up your Saturday um to share that all with the rest of us. Really appreciate it. Um I did also see an email came out if you guys
143haven't seen it in your inbox uh from uh NISBA about you could submit a survey for resolutions. Um so that might be something to take a look at. I think we have another week or something to provide our inputs on any particular resolutions that we might have of of topic of interest. So, check your email inboxes for that. Jacob, uh is there anything else Ann that you wanted to share or does anyone have any questions for Ann? Thank you. Jacob. Oh, that's all right. Well, this meeting is quite packed. Uh so, um I just wanted to start off by saying um on behalf of all of FM students, welcome Dr. Parvi. Um very excited to be working with you for a couple years. Um so, last week um FM and CYO had their um um
144annual game. Um parent um and um the town of Manlius um board recognized students of our uh who participated in the Black History Day assembly. Um so, that's quite nice to see our students being recognized by the board by Manlius town. Um as you may or may not know, it's been brought up, but the musical, the Newsies, it's um quite phenomenal. Um quite a very impressive um set um built and um put together by students and teachers alike. Um so, um we will be having another two uh two events happening on the 13th and 14th, which is a Friday and believe Saturday. So, I would most definitely recommend going. Um Fayetteville Free Library on the 10th from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. we'll be having their um K-12 um arts exhibit by FM students. Um the
145um Pi Day will also be happening on the 10th, which I'm quite excited to see. Um Yes. Um from believe it's uh Family Feud, um Rubik's Cube, and Pi memorization. So, it'll be quite fun to watch. And DMs, which is coming up quite soon, which will be happening on the 21st this month from 3:00 to 10:00 p.m. So, this month is quite packed. So, at the very least. So, very excited. Thank you, Jacob. You'll have to make sure Dr. Parvi knows all of the excitement that we have at around Pi Day. Oh, I'll be there in my my t-shirt. That's great. Does anybody have any questions for Jacob? Thank you, Jacob. All right. And I think we're all we're waiting um unless anybody has any committee updates that they really would like to make now,
146we will wait until April for those. Um and move into public comment. So, I believe we have a couple of folks registered. Um I will uh Therese Teresa Teresa Is she here? It's no. No. Okay. Um Amelia Yes. So, while Amelia's going up, um just as a refresher for everybody about public comment guidelines that we talk about. Um so, of course, we welcome your feedback at any time and we allow 3 minutes um for everyone for public comment. And um we uh certainly any issues surrounding specific students or employees of the district, we do not reference anybody by name. And no offense, but the board typically does not respond after public comment. So, we'll give it a stage to you. Thank you. Oh, okay. Can everyone hear me? Okay. Hi, I'm Amelia Jay and I'm
147here again to talk about Star Academy girls high school hockey team. I shared this idea last month, but it truly matters to me. I'm studying women's sports in class and I don't want to be someone who gives up when things get hard. I push myself, I believe in my dream and I'll never stop trying. Personally, I don't think boys should get sport sport opportunities before girls. When the boys asked for a girl a hockey team, they got one, but the girls still don't have one and that doesn't seem fair. I think it I think everyone is happier when girls and boys have the same chances. For years for years girls have had to play with boys or leave the school and play with other teams and I don't I don't think that's right. Why isn't
148this opportunity available? I will leave you with three hockey jokes just just some of them. So, number one, why did the hockey player bring string to the game? Number two, is there is what is a hockey player's favorite drink? And number three, why did the teacher have to send the hockey player to the corner? Does anyone want to answer any of those? No? Okay. So, just in case they So, number one, just in case they needed to tie the score. Number two, pen and tea and number three, because it was always 90 degrees. Um I wanted I My mom, she works at Cornell. Uh Does anyone know where Cornell Does everyone know where Cornell is? Um I want to go there when I'm older and um I can't get there until there's a hockey team
149there that um scouts uh look at me so I can go there and I wanted is it if it's okay if I can give this hockey puck to you? Is that okay? I'll see you next month. Amelia, you are welcome anytime. Um Okay, thank you. Uh Brenda All right, thank you. Uh good evening. March is Women's History Month, a reminder that every advancement for women and girls happened because someone chose to move first. Women's history isn't finished. It's an ongoing conversation about equity, access, and opportunity, and we're still writing it. I'd also like to welcome Dr. Parvi. Moments where values, budgets, and student opportunity intersect are exactly where leadership matters, and I appreciate the chance to speak tonight. This brings me to the 2026-2027 budget and the opportunity to establish a girls varsity hockey program
150through a shared financial model with neighboring districts. My conversations about this began in October of 2025, too late in this year's cycle planning cycle to realistically launch a new program. I understand that budgets require lead time, but timelines also require clarity. Even if a full program can't start, a small placeholder in this year's budget would signal both to our community and to nearby districts that Fayetteville-Manlius intends to move forward. Across Central New York, many districts already participate in shared girls hockey programs. Skaneateles partners with Auburn, West Genesee, Chenango, and CBA. Clinton partners with Rome and the Utica area districts. Oswego partners with Fulton, Hannibal, Liverpool, and Beeville. Yet, Fayetteville-Manlius, Syracuse, and more than 15 other districts remain without a program or a partnership. At the same time, interest is growing. Many local girls, my daughter
151for an example, already play youth hockey and travel hockey. They simply lack a varsity pathway. A shared financial model is fiscally responsible. Costs can be divided by a per player formula across participating districts, so no single school bears the full burden. It's scalable, fair, and expands access for athletes. And most importantly, there are several local, state, and national companies and organizations that offer grants for expanding girls' athletic programs. Funding we can only secure once we have a sanctioned team and the necessary paperwork filed. Timing matters. Did you know that men's hockey received NCAA recognition in 1948, while women waited another 50 years? Professional men's leagues date back to 1903, while women's professional leagues launched only recently. These gaps weren't about talent or interest, they were about delayed investment. Visibility for women's hockey is growing. Participation
152is growing, and opportunities grow when communities choose to create them. So, if a launch in 2026-2027 isn't possible, then let's define the path to 2027-2028 right now. A clear timeline, even a modest budget placeholder, signifies that FM is ready to lead. Women's history is shaped by people who decide the future should look different from the past. Progress doesn't begin with perfect timing, it begins with a clear commitment. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Um Matt Mulcahy. Look. Cuz she is awesome. And had Jacob, she's the only one that deterred me from wanting to be you. But I'm me. Good evening. I'm Matt Mulcahy. I anchor the news on Channel 3. I've been reporting on the process of hiring Dr. Parvi. Uh by the way, welcome Dr. Parvi to Central New York and
153to the district. I became curious about the process of the FM School Board the evening of January 12th when Dr. Parvi's name appeared on the agenda agenda for confirmation as the new superintendent. I watched the meeting on the video feed. President Fitzgerald announced item 4.01. She read the resolution appointing Dr. Parvi as the next superintendent. She asked for discussion. There was none. Not a word. Then the vote, eight to one in favor. Followed by President Fitzgerald commenting, "I know we don't normally talk after a vote, but we're excited." So to recap, no discussion before the vote for a generational change in leadership, and a reluctance to speak about it afterwards. I wondered how could a board possibly have decided on Dr. Parvi, but have nothing to say about her? Or any of the other candidates
154who applied to lead this prestigious district. It was also apparent that President Fitzgerald and the board knew the outcome of the vote in advance. A fait accompli, which was for Dr. Parvi who was already in the room. Somehow this board had discussed, decided, and voted without ever talking about the finalist in public. So I dug deeper into what happened. Read agendas, watched meetings, talked with people. And the more I heard President Fitzgerald say she enjoyed spending so much time with all of you, the more I wondered how the board met, how many at once, when and where. Well, Dr. Matt Cook, who's here tonight with BOCES, consulted on the search, and he confirmed the entire board was there for all the interviews. Now, a simple majority of the board makes a quorum. And of course,
155a quorum of a public body doing public business activates New York's Open Meetings Law, which by the way has a provision for being confidential that you'll use in just a couple of minutes where you call a public meeting, you're going to executive session for her specific reasons, and everything's confidential. You met for each round of interviews, they were offsite, you all were there. When I brought the facts to Kristen Smith from the Committee on Open Government, she said, "I'm unaware of any other law that would have exempted this meeting from the Open Meetings Law." Dr. Cook admitted he was not an expert on Open Meetings Law. He said, "Maybe there was a personnel exception," but he said, "This is the way it was done across the state." Committee on Open Government said, "I'm not aware
156of that being a regular practice." I turned to a different source. Make sure I was getting it right. The law firm of Ferrara and Fiorenza. On its own website, easy to find information, they write, "It's important to note that any official convening of a public body for the purpose of conducting public business is subject to the Open Meetings Law." Of course, you're familiar with Ferrara and Fiorenza. They're your lawyers. They went on to point the high stakes of Open Meetings Law. A fail failure to comply with the rules can subject the Board of Education to a declaratory judgment or injunctive relief nullifying decisions made improperly or behind closed doors. They go on to say it's essential for the credibility of the board to follow it. Now, after President Fitzgerald and the crisis communications consultant selected
157a friendly television station to do an interview on our competing station, they declined to talk to us, although to President Fitzgerald's uh credit, we talked in the way in tonight. But if that's what all brings me here to ask you the questions that so far you're not answering for the community. The two questions are simple. I'll leave you with these. Did you ever ask your lawyers if the process you used was legal? If so, what was their answer? And now that you are hearing this, what are you going to do to rectify the mistake? Thank you. I'll take this too. Dr. Cook. So, good evening. It's uh it's great to be with all of you again. Um happy to be here on behalf of the OCM BOCES Superintendents Association to welcome Dr. Megan Parvi uh
158to the region. Uh with me tonight are members from the association including Bob Edwards, who's our chair from Cortland City. Um we also have uh Jamie Coppola from Marathon. We have Neil Capone from DeRuyter, and previously we had uh Pam Odom from Syracuse City, but she had to leave for another event. So, I also wanted to thank the FM Board of Education for their work throughout the hiring process. Last calendar year, I was involved with eight or nine superintendent searches, and it never fails that each board is unique and that each district has specific areas of emphasis that they pay attention to. You did a fantastic job of listening to the feedback that came from the stakeholder focus groups um that we interviewed as well as the survey data that we collected. I also wanted
159to say that while this was your search, and that was something that I talked to you about on a regular basis, uh this was a process, uh and it's one that I recommended based on years of running these searches. I think there's an important distinction to be made uh describing the process is secretive versus confidential. This was a fully confidential process to help ensure a candidate pool that included sitting superintendents. This is the same process that I've used over our region. It's the same basic process that the majority of search consultants use across the state. It can be easy to lose the signal through the noise in our society in a lot of ways right now. I told you at the beginning of the hiring process that my primary clients were the Fayetteville-Manlius students in
160this school district. In my job, I have the luxury of not having to worry about the next referral for a superintendent search. So, that allows me to be the honest broker between the district and the candidates. And I applaud you for not losing the signal through the noise. And I look forward to working with Dr. Parvey as we learn more about her experiences in Massachusetts on topics like the portrait of the graduate and all that Dr. Dalton and her team presented about earlier this evening. Thanks for having me tonight, and I'm looking forward to our ongoing work together. Thank you. Is there anyone else that I did not call? Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. We move into new business. Item 4.01, approval of minutes. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from the February
1619th, 2026. Thank you, Jason. Second from Anne. All in favor? Anybody abstained? Anne, thank you. Okay. Item 4.02. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius School District approve the SEQRA Resolution Type II Action Bus Proposition as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John. And a second? Thank you, Rebecca. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Any discussion? Okay. Um item 4.03. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manly Essential School District approves the legal notice for the May 19th, 2026 vote election as presented. May I have a motion? Thank you, Sarah. And a second? Thank you, Chrissy. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Thank you. Item 4.04. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manly Essential School District
162hereby accepts the donation of up to $15,290 made by the All Sports Booster Club for the benefit of the Athletic Department. May I have a motion? Thank you, Rebecca. And a second? John. Any discussion? You want to turn your microphone on? You want to turn your microphone on? Just a thank you to the Booster Club for their continued support of needs across the district. Really appreciate that. Thank you. Uh all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Item 4.05. We have a generous evening tonight. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manly Essential School District hereby accepts the donation of $28,534 made by the Fayetteville Elementary HSA for the benefit of the Fayetteville Elementary School. May I have a motion? Thank you, Chrissy. And a second from Sarah. Any discussion? Just
163a thank you saying thank you to the Fay- not just the Fay-L HSA for this donation, but for all of our HSAs for the tremendous work that they do to support our schools and students. >> Absolutely. Thank you. All right. Item 4.06. Oops, sorry. We didn't vote. Sorry. My apologies. All in favor to accept the Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Item 4.06. Uh the one of the most watched items on the list, the school calendar. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District hereby approves the 2026-27 school calendar as presented. May I have a motion? Thank you, Jason. Second. Thank you, Anne. Any discussion? Yep. So, the the highlight of the most important thing that all the students want to know. And good luck to you, Dr.
164Parvey. You've got five in the in the calendar, if approved, we'll have five emergency closure days on it for next year. Fingers crossed. Good luck. Thank you, Jason. I'm sure she's already been practicing her inclement weather messaging. Oh. All right. Um all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Um all right. So, this is where we added I mean, we do 5.02. Is where we added the executive session, right? Sarah? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Um so, item 5.01 is upcoming meetings. So, you can see we are back here in 2 weeks' time to have more uh fun with Brad. Um so, we'll mark our calendars. Also, just um to make you guys aware, the parking lot items that we used to have on the agenda, those we just moved to the clerk's
165report, and then if anybody has a topic that they want to add on to a future agenda item, just let me know, and then we can circulate it amongst the board members. If we have consensus, then we will add it on to a future agenda when we have something of an action or discussion point that we want to take. Okay, so then item 5.02 is an executive session for the purpose of discussing a contract negotiation. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Jason. Second from Ann. All in favor? Thank you, and we will be back shortly. >> Mhm. >> Hello. Yep. I really had no idea. That's not That's not Okay. Yes, she was here at the high school. Oh my god. Dr. Franklin real time viewers love your most It was great. Thank
166you. Thank He was both Sarah You know how hard we work. They were She spit. I personally said Do you like to play? She told me no. Thank you. Oh. I feel like I'm going to be like falling I feel like I'm falling. I like the way the wine the wine cuz that's so nice to have like a beautiful It's like a really It's like That was the job. I know. the wine just And and and it's the level. high school Oh my god. I think I saw you in college. Oh. I was a freshman. It's like you're a celebrity. She like Oh, and Lauren said she came into our chemistry class there. You enjoyed Greg's stuff. So, Dr. No, I think Oh, really? True. Greg was there. Yeah, he was stuck in the master
167>> So then Yes, item six. Consent agenda. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Jason. Second, Rebecca. All in favor. Anybody opposed or abstaining? Great. Thank you. Is that really And then uh we have an executive session. Um be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District enters into executive session for the purpose of purposes of discussing the conduct of a particular person. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Jason, and a second from Chrissy. All in favor. Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. And we will be adjourning after that, so I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your evening. Thank you, team, for thing. >> Mhm.