001Good evening everyone. We're gonna at 6 p.m. So we're going to call the meeting to order. If everyone can please stand 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. Um item 1.03, approval of revision of agenda. Uh, be it resolved that the board of education of the Faget Bill Manly Central School District approve the agenda as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John. And a second, Sarah. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Item 1.04. Oh, now we have There we go. Now you can hear me. Uh, maybe it's a little much. >> [gasps] >> It's a
002little I'm echoing. Um, so we are going to observe a mo a moment of silence um for two individuals from the FM community. Um, and Rebecca and I just want to say a few things about both of them before we have our moment of silence. Um, so Robert Storier uh was a 37year-old retired district administrator and teacher. Um, and so he passed away uh last month and so we just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge his his time and impact on FM. Um, in case you weren't aware, he served as an assistant principal at Eagle Hill. He was also a principal at Fagatville Elementary. He spent some time as the assistant superintendent of instruction and then went back into principal ship at Enders Road um for the remainder of his career at Fagetville Manlas.
003And um some of the things that I thought were incredibly powerful in his write up in the newspaper if anyone saw it. Um there were some great photos uh that were really interesting. Uh Dr. Coughlin was in there as well, climbing up a a a rope ladder, which I'm sure she loved seeing that on the newspaper. Um, but she he really believed in the power of learning in community and um he certainly I think had a strong impact on many students and families here in FM. So, wanted to just take a moment to acknowledge his passing. Barbara Black sadly passed away on November 4th, 2025. She served an incredible 27 years as a member of this Fateville Manlas Board of Education. Barbara was instrumental to founding the endowment fund for the district through the creation
004of the FM education foundation and always pushed FM to be ahead of the curve in all aspects throughout her entire tenure on the board. Members who served with Barbara describe her as an authentic, thoughtful, intelligent, straightalking board member with a heart of gold who is passionate about public education and doing the right things for kids. We are so grateful for Barbara's service and leadership. She will be sorely missed by many in our community and we extend our deepest condolences to Barbara's husband, Jerry, and her three children, Nikki, Leah, and John. Great. If you can all just join us for a moment of silence and remembrance of both of those members. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um item 1.05 05 availability of the district safety plan. So the 202526 district safety plan has been revised
005to comply with Disha's law and is available for review and the public hearing and adoption will occur on January 12th, 2026 at that board meeting. So that is available. Next, we're moving on to some recognitions. Uh, Laurel Kza is our director of instructional technology and she has a couple of acknowledgements to recognize. Thank you. Good evening. Um, it is my genuine pleasure to recognize uh esteem educators for uh preparing our students for jobs of the future that have not really been uh created yet. And they do that through New York State's graduate uh portrait of a graduate FM's portrait of a learner. and they encompass every skill that we're looking for for these for these jobs and that is persistence, collaboration, creativity, innovation, respect for others, ideas um and they do this through afterchool clubs.
006So I'm going to go through um I have three teams, coaches for three teams. We'll start with uh the middle school teams and we have um I want to share with you some awards they've received. So, four years ago, we had the opportunity to enlist uh some students and ask for some students to be in in some competitions and we had two two each of two two of these coaches just jump at the opportunity and boy did they jump right in. So, uh in in 22 and 23 they received the first place engineering excellence award and we have some nice photos for you um at the qualifiers. The following year they received first place in the engineering excellence award again also um this is for the um first Lego League competitions they have to do
007an innovation project so it's not only building on robotics but they do have to present some innovative um problem solving and to solve some kind of global issue with that theme and they received first place for that innovation um at Buffalo for regionals and also uh third place for the Sumobots at the 2024 Syracuse Maker Fair. Um this past season they received the Breakthrough Award at the qualifiers and also second place in Sumobots at the 2025 Syracuse Maker Fair. Um first I'd like to recognize Steve Carbone who's our instructional technology specialist for both the middle schools. He has been instrumental in getting um both middle schools up and going with their coding clubs, with their Lego robotics coding clubs and spending the s Saturdays and hours and helping out with Brooke. So, we appreciate it.
008Thank you, Steve. And thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Uh he coaches with uh Brooke Brennan who is our Wellwood technology teacher and she uh amazingly has students do she organizes the and facilitates the coding club and the programming club and she has sparked such an interest and when you walk into the room the engagement and the energy and if you think coding is just like you know one person sitting at a computer not talking these students are talking and They're sharing and they're trying out and they're giving critical feedback to one another in such a positive way. It's just inspiring to see when I walk into your room. So, congratulations and thank you for all the service you do. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. at
009the high school. Uh I think it's been almost four years ago. Um we had a a new programming teacher come and he um again looked for competitions that were local and decided to create a coding club and they have been very strong. So um we had in the first his first year um here we go first year 2023 at the Loheed Martin Code Quest which is an international competition. It's regional for the awards but this is done at the same time same day all around the world. of course is the time dish. Uh you know we think about the time ahead of the 24 hours in advance or 12 hours in advance but um the first year second place they have two um teams a novice team and an advanced team. So the novice teams
010haven't had as much experience in programming that they receive at FM. So there was second place for the novice and second and third for advanced. So there the awards they give at the coquest are first, second and third place. Um and then the following year, second place for the um novice again and second place for the advance. Uh and then I think that was that time we went to Cornell. We also started competing in the Cornell competition and that's with the campus in New York City and the Cornell in Ithaca and they received um second place there. And then last year um they received first, second and third the only awards that were given for the advanced category and then first in the novice category. And we have two former FM students who graduate who
011who now work at this Lockheed Martin and had full bragging rights. They were so proud. They had full bragging rights that whole week for their teams to it was a clean sweep. So, um, I'd love to recognize Tuck Fawn, our high school programming teacher. Congratulations. And finally, our high school robotics team. I saved them till last because they've been doing this a long time. Um, they started before probably anyone could say robotics. And um they started uh winning quite a I have a long list here of awards but starting in 2015 they have the winning alliance award down in the lower Hudson. Also in 2015 the judges award and the MacGyver award. Um another judges award of the Empire New York Championship Tournament 2019 the design award. Second place in Albany um the Udica remote
012qualifier. Remember 2021 they were still going strong. 2022 uh Corning qualifier judges choice award 2023 the motivate award second place another 2023 second award for that and another um location and then last uh 2024 finalist alliance at the first team selected. Um, at first I'd like to recognize a former parent and um someone who you will see anywhere you go in central New York at a coding competition or robotics competition. I know where to find him almost every weekend. If there's one if there was one every weekend, he would be there. He is a community member that not only gives back to Fateville Manlas, but he gives back to the entire community, including ESM, neighboring schools. um because he's just there to help out any student who's interested. He even just gave us a little
013cheat sheet for to help us for our next competition ju just now. He's he's always thinking. So, I'd love to recognize Andrew Larry. >> Thank you. Um and finally, um uh the the second coach that has been working closely, uh Josh Buckman. He um he he's a physic teacher at the high school, but he's also does um lots of other clubs. And um he's just been, you know, a proponent with the community, reaching out, doing having the kids go, whether it's to the library, other locations. He again, he's just out there a lot just sharing the love and having their his students share the love. Um he a student that he probably had eight or nine years ago. His I see his parents who have moved out of state uh once a year and they
014always remind me that their son was just disengaged with school and was just didn't have a place that he felt where he could flourish until he started the robotics club. and he was just their parent the parents say he was just a different student and he is a extremely um driven software engineer at Microsoft and he actually left but was asked begged to come back because he's so good. So that was thanks to Josh Buckman. So Josh Buffman come on up. Thank you so much for all your all your work you do. >> [laughter] >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you very much for your time this evening. Thank you all for your service. No doubt all of the students who you've interacted with, you've made an incredible impact on. So, we
015are really appreciative of that. And if you'd like to go and enjoy your evening, you you certainly may do so. I don't >> You're you're welcome. Thank you for coming and congratulations. [laughter] recognitions. I just wanted to highlight we have completed our fall sports season. Um, and so I just wanted to say congratulations to our girls varsity volleyball team, our boy boys varsity soccer team, Elise Ratney who's on the varsity swimming team who made it to states um state qualifiers or no to states and um we talked about before girls varsity tennis also was sectional winners and just congratulating coach Rudolph. I know he's retiring at the end of the season, so congratulations to him and for all of your service. Um, additionally, this last weekend was Eagle Hills musical of the Lion King Jr.
016So, congratulations to all of our performers on on a great show. And the high school had their fall drama production. So, lots of It's coming. It's coming. I'm I'm just so excited. Um, so lots of really great accomplishments. So congratulations to all of those student achievers across the board. Uh now we move into even more exciting elements um reports. So item 2.01 is uh Dr. Ty will start us off strong with the annual district statistics presentation. Good evening and uh this is uh as you know uh just one in a series of statistical reports. Every year we delve into the statistics. Uh keep in mind that uh this is based on the 2023 2024 data by state ed. Um so it's about a year and a half in a rears. It's the same as we've
017done every year. The data that's coming out of the spring testing cycle right now. Some of it's embargoed. Some of it is released in drips and drabs. So as you can imagine under the new superintendent coming in they will probably have all the data from across the state uh in a similar fashion at about every year and a half intervals. As you can see our enrollment has remained pretty steady uh over the course of the past decade. We did have uh a high of about uh 4,220 uh within that past decade and we're about uh 4,19 right now. Attendance rates remain pretty consistent over time. Uh we have a community that values uh education and certainly it's reflected in the student attendance rates uh for the district and uh certainly uh there's been some chronic
018absenteeism but nothing uh to speak of compared to other districts. As far as economically disadvantaged, ever since the downturn of the economy in 2008, we've crept up from single digits and we are at 18%. So certainly uh as the board knows, topics on the free lunch and breakfast program have been paramount as we've seen an increase in those families that are uh economically disadvantaged. Suspension rate has remained relatively low. We take this very seriously in terms of our code of conduct and enforcement and so we use a progressive discipline model and it uh is reflected in the statistics but it is something we do take seriously in terms of working with the students and their families. Percent turnover in faculty overall has remained uh pretty low in the single digits as compared to other districts.
019We're proud of our senior faculty and uh take uh uh great pride in the fact that uh they're able to deliver as many different electives uh as they are capable of turnover and novice faculty uh for less than five years of service. We see a wide variety of fluctu fluctuation over the course of the past decade, but certainly uh programs within the last couple years, our new educator orientation, hopefully we've seen that as a downturn. Pupil teacher ratio over time, I know we've looked at class size issues and have had good discussions on it. The pupil teacher ratio has remained between 12 and 13 uh over the course of the past decade and has been pretty consistent. As far as regents uh diplomas and regent diplomas with advanced designation, we've seen a little bit of
020a downturn in the advanced designation. uh that's worth meriting taking a look at our students doing uh more dual enrollment different electives but our regent's diploma uh percentage rate remains very high dropout rate is minimal uh we take this as a case-byase basis and I know from our counselors to our teachers we work to keep the students in school and on target and on track. As with most districts, even though we're fifth lowest uh in the area, I think uh in terms of delivering good value, our total fund general expenditures uh per pupil have shown a steady increase as the economy has uh fluctuated over time. But uh as you noticed in there too uh in terms of the overall report, our dependency on federal funding is low. So should something happen in terms of
021federal funding, the good news is the shutdown's over, but uh we will be impacted, but not as compared to a lot of other districts in the area and across the state. percent students with disabilities. We've seen a gradual increase of unidentified students and we've held pretty steady in double digits over the course of the last four years. And that ends the general presentation. Are there specific questions? is >> I would just ask I mean not to put you on the spot but just of these statistics what stands out to you in terms of trends that we need to watch and think about especially after you leave >> good luck to no I'm just [laughter] in terms of the data you know one of the reasons we do this and we talked as a district office
022team this morning and I will talk to the administrative counsel IL on Wednesday. The data, this is a physician's desk reference. This is not meant to be a rolledup newspaper to hit anybody over the snout, but for things as you know with our new science of reading program, I think the new superintendent and all of you should pay attention to the ELA scores. uh even though we know the regent exams will be disappearing in terms of being required uh in the next couple of years I do think the grade 3 through 8 math and ELA will continue so as you institute new programs I think it's going to be worth watching do things improve is there an implementation dip in the ELA for example so I would pay attention to that going forward one of
023the other reasons I do this and I know you've had the pleasure of looking through the spiralbound book is that we remain pretty strong. Sometimes we get the survey results from the community. People kind of lament about how kids are different than they were in the past back in the days when everybody walked uphill both ways to school. And while that may be true in terms of times changing, our scores are very strong. So, I know people have their opinions, but as you look at this over the past decade, and I give credit to the board, as you notice, breaking it out by individual middle schools or elementary schools, our scores have been pretty impressive over time. So, while people may take a shot at the district, I remain very proud of our status in
024terms of being a destination district in central New York. So, those are the two areas. just be proud of our history and the strength that you see in front of you, but also I think it's to be vigilant. It's a safety net. So, as we try new programs or as we move to personalized learning, I think watch the scores. To me, they're like vital signs at the hospital. You know, there's not just one vital sign. They take a look at blood pressure, respirations, pulse. I think there's just a lot of good vital signs in here to pay attention to over time. Good question. >> I just have a technical question on two of the slides. Um, suspension rate and dropout rate, are those net numbers or percentages? >> I'm sorry, those should be percentages. >>
025Thank you. And then the other is just obviously as we're entering budgeting season is the increase pretty significant increase from 23 to 24 on general fund expenditures per student is obviously something that I think the whole district administrative team and the board really need to be mindful of and keep a very close eye on as we go into this budget. season. That's that's a pretty significant trend increase and and definitely a very significant one-year increase. >> Definitely, it's uh representative obviously of a lot of factors, especially with the COVID money disappearing. So, as you look at the trends, you can see in terms of that stimulus money disappearing and now it goes on to the local levy andor state funding. but to still be the fifth lowest in the area. Often we get chided for
026having high taxes, but you'll see us with some of the larger districts in the area. Just the economies of scale. I think a larger district compared to a smaller district proportionately. Uh I'm speaking to the choir here, but the smaller districts certainly see their numbers reflected even higher in terms of all the support services that they provide. Great question. Others, that seems to be it. Dr. Ty, thank you very much. I'll stay up here. [gasps] >> Uh uh item 2.02, presentation on school start time and bell schedule adjustments. >> Thank you. I will do most of the presentation. Heidi Green's offered to join me for any color commentary or for questions and answers that you may have. Uh certainly this is an update that we had promised the board uh to make a decision in
027the autumn so that people could plan accordingly especially if we did uh change school start times. As some of you have noticed, other districts in the area are beginning to look at it in particular, possibly with a switch over by 2028. And I know their websites, whether it's here or in the Rochester, New York area, talk about different timelines. Well, our timeline, as you know, goes back uh to before COVID. So during this presentation, I'd like to talk about the historical overview as well as the committee work, special considerations, the consultants that have helped us over time and what the recommendation is from the committee going forward. That being said, we know that the final decision, the final authority rests with the board of education, but we hope that you will entertain what we're recommending
028to you because I think it positions us well for the upcoming year, but also able to pivot should we move in a different direction. In terms of the historical overview, we started this prior to COVID and that certainly came out during the committee meetings for those of you that served on the committee. Uh certainly our student board member Jacob has been part of those conversations. Prior to the pandemic, we brought in Dr. Daniel Leuen from Children's National in Washington DC. He's a luminary in the position and certainly uh met with stakeholders from students to parents to faculty to administrators. There was a community survey. There were focus groups and then there were individual interviews as well. And what seemed to be pretty consistent is that everybody agreed with the research. Everybody said that it really
029made sense. Where things fell apart is that there were different camps in terms of the potential solution uh going forward. And that's really what uh mattered to the committee going in is that people seem to agree with the research, but how could we solve it going forward? So through all of that, through the forums, the interviews, the community survey, we certainly tried to collect that data and we kind of hit a wall when the pandemic occurred. Coming out of the pandemic, uh we issued the final report with the help of Dr. Luen and then moved into our deliberations with the school start time committee knowing that we would need to try to make a decision uh as we move forward with the new cafeteria at the high school coming online and certainly adjusting the bell
030schedule to ensure that we're meeting stateed requirements. It was a time to consider all possibilities going forward. And that meant too the [clears throat] potential as we've talked during the mental health crisis coming out of the pandemic as well as the student suicides that occurred in the district about adding a lunch period to the middle of the day as a way to try to give the students a break from uh their uh academics and a way to recharge and reset going forward. So the committee entertained that uh in terms of adding a 30 minute lunch period into the day. There was also a need to take a look at the transportation schedules. The transportation schedules number one were ambitious especially in the turnaround times. The times uh dropping students off for example from the high
031school turning around to get back to the middle school, dropping those students off, turning around to get to the elementary school. Oftentimes buses were late, especially coming into the elementary school at the end of the day. So, we needed to take a look at that. We needed to make it realistic rather than to try to have the drivers and the buses be in two places at the same time. One of the things our transportation department noted too is that there's been an increase in the number of driveway stops. So certainly with safety of the students on everybody's mind, we've seen a pro proliferation of driveway stops rather than group stops not only at the elementary level but at the middle school level and above. So everybody wants that line of sight on their students or
032it's just the students are getting around later in the morning rushing out to the bus at the last minute especially as they get older. So the committee work as we said we brought in a luminary Dr. Daniel Leuen who was very good in conducting those interviews working with all of our teams to try to get from them what they preferred going forward and it was difficult because people were split into different camps. Some preferred the slide which means keeping the same batting order and then sliding everything back. Some preferred the flip flipping the elementary and high school schedules much like California has done already. And then the flip and slide uh option is really just the flip moving the high school and elementary school but then keeping high school second in the batting order with
033middle schools ending up at the end of the day. This kind of fit our needs for intercolastic sports, especially when the varsity and junior varsity teams do more traveling than the modified teams, which seem to be more geographically centered around this area. Special considerations going forward, we brought in Elliot Marlum, another luminary, works with a number of districts across uh the country as well as New York State. He's from the Baltimore, Maryland area. he came to us highly recommended and he talked about things such as lunch modules. So if we were putting a 30 minute lunch uh in the middle of the high school schedule, how do you do that with a 40 or 41 minute bell schedule? And so um Mr. Marble Bloom talked about ways of doing uh lunch modules A, B, and
034C to rotate through. It is going to mean different bell schedules in the middle of the day, but the day will start on a um congruent bell schedule and it will end on a congruent bell schedule. It's just the middle of the day fitting that 30 minute lunch period in among the 41 minute periods. Uh we also t had taken a look at the Bosey's bell schedule. This was very important for us. We did not want to disenfranchise our Bosei students, our CTE students. So if we were to consider a flip or a flip and slide, it would mean that our students would not be an alignment with Boseies so that they would have fewer options going forward for them. We also talked about interscolastic sports and the number of faculty that serve as coaches
035as well and the fact that districts such as ESM which has historically had a flip schedule uh themselves the number of students that they had to excuse at the end of the day in order to participate in intercolastic athletics. And that I think troubled the committee as well because again our families our students value academics and certainly the occasional miss would be understandable to miss with regularity during a particular sports season seemed to be going against our belief in academics as well. One of the things that seemed we seemed to reach consensus very quickly on was that were there efficiencies in going from triple tripping to double tripping. So we want we talked about can we just switch to double tripping? In fact, some of you may remember that was going to be a consideration
036this year. I think one of the reasons we did kick the can down the road is we realized if we did double tripping in the morning, students would be coming in from say Fagatville, Wellwood to the high school and then riding back to Wellwood if that was a double trip for high school and middle school together. So, one of the things the committee and the trans with the help of the transportation department decided on was triple tripping in the morning and double tripping in the afternoon as a way to try to minimize students being on the bus. So, it would be great if they could sleep in a little bit later, but we didn't want them to spend that newfound time riding the bus back and forth on a double trip. So, one of the
037things we thought about was triple tripping in the morning, double tripping in the afternoon. We talked at the committee as well about daylight hours. There's certainly a preference to pick up the young ones uh in the dark. We all know that that's part of uh the winter season here that's now upon us. But certainly the transportation department would rather pick up the younger students in the dark in the morning as opposed to at the end of the day in the afternoon. At least they know in the morning someone is there in terms of uh being able to put the student on the bus. We also knew that there was pending legislative action uh with Senate and Assembly bills. We heard uh rumors that the governor because of her newfound success with the cell phone policy
038may be interested in trying to fasttrack these bills through. And that makes sense for us because if it's more than just our district pivoting, whether it's in central New York or throughout the state, then certainly things like Bosei schedules or intercolastic sports all come in line. We also know about zero emission bus mandates in compliance with the maximum temperature law. Those were other factors to be considered as well as the required instructional hours going forward that uh were in compliance with state ed. So last but not least here, the proposed changes going forward for this school year coming up would be to employ the slide function for now. The slide function would mean that the orders remain the same. High school, middle school, elementary school. We're trying to do things to tighten up the high
039school pickup as we speak. Right now, we've modified how the students come in at the single point of entry and house one. And so, the idea is to keep fine-tuning that going forward. This also means putting the lunch into the day, the 30 minute lunch period with some creative bookkeeping and limiting the amount of passing time on each side of those lunch modules. We think we're able to add just a few minutes to the end of the day. That coupled with the turnaround time means that the elementary schools, and again, we don't want to talk exact numbers just yet because we want to be able to do an efficiency study to see if we can tighten some of things up. And so, right now, we're not talking that elementary schools would dismiss hours or half
040hours later. We're probably somewhere between 10, 12, and 15 minutes. But if there's a way to tighten that up, we would like to do that as much as possible because certainly we know the elementary students are not necessarily at their best at the end of the day. As far as the flip and the flip and slide, the flip means, like I said, elementary and high would switch. middle would stay in the middle and the flip and slide would mean that the elementarymentaries would go first followed by the high school and then the middle school students at the end of the day. So some key benefits uh the lunch period has been put into uh the high school day compliance with the instructional time that's required for all levels K through 12 minimum disruption to the
041current high school schedule. It would begin at 7:45 and look much the way it is now and would just go a little bit later uh uh at the end of the day. It alleviates some uh time constraints around the turnaround time. It would align with most neighboring districts as far as intercolastic sports and aligns with Bosey's programs for the uh morning and afternoon pro uh programs at Boseies. challenges to overcome. As we said, we're looking at stretching the day out, whether it's 10, 12, or 15 minutes. So, we want to be able to engage uh with a transportation advisory services out of Rochester. This is a consultant that we've used before in the district when Mike Vespie was business official here. So is there a way to uh get some efficiencies in order to minimize
042that impact at the end of the day and it does address adolescent sleep patterns. We are trying to tighten it up but we also know it positions our ourselves to be able to pivot to a flip and slide which seemed to be plan B and I know the committee is interested in continuing to work on what that plan B would look like for a flip and slide. So in the event that the governor does fasttrack the bills that are in the senate or the assembly, we'll be able to pivot and move forward. And then as I said too, the impact of the lunch period in the middle of the day uh with the mid modules is something we're going to have to pay attention to because as I said the bell schedules will be a
043little bit different. It'll create some additional singletons in the schedule that we will have to be mindful of as we go forward. So looking ahead uh in terms of working with the consultant be able to take these baby steps. I know the board was kind of hoping or some members of the board that we would just do this and get it over with. But I do think there's something to be said for implementing these changes a little bit at a time. We don't want to face plant here, but at the same time we want to be able to learn from the implementation and to see what happens at the state level. Does the governor make a change? Do other districts in the area make a change? That kind of forces Bosey's hand. So, I think
044we will be ready to uh make that move going forward. Other things to consider the impact of the busing change, the double tripping in the afternoon, especially with the sports runs, fine-tuning of the bell schedules, possible reconfiguration of the buildings that we talked about, switching one middle school to a junior high and another to an intermediate school might be needed down the road, especially with the Ebus mandate going forward because you're going to have to split your fleet in terms of the charging unless the technology significantly improves. And one of the other things we've talked about is the high school enrichment during the lunch modules. Uh possibly bringing that into the middle of the day. I know that's something Jacob and I had talked about as well. uh as far as extracurricular clubs so that
045students uh with similar interests could be together almost as a working lunch advisory. So with that we will open it up to a discussion and questions from the board. >> Um Dr. Ty, you mentioned that this transportation study uh company we previously worked with. So, have we done this kind of a study on our bus routing prior? >> Earlier when Mr. Vespie was here, we were uh just starting to use the computer programs for the routing. So, they had come in at that time back when I first started in 2015 to help us with that. So, I say that they're not repeating that study. they're just familiar with the district and I think would be in a better position to help us analyze it as we're trying to do to get some efficiencies to consolidate
046the runs. >> Okay. So, that was just in terms of going to more of a computer-based >> routing system. We never asked them to actually look at improving our efficiencies and our >> No, we stay we were still triple tripping at that time back in 2015. Now, we're going to ask them to be able to double trip. >> Okay. >> Good question. >> Can I just just interject here for obviously there's not a great lot of people here, but more will watch this online. I'm not certain that much of our community knows what you're referring to when you refer to double tripping and triple tripping. Can you just we do but can you just share that in plain terms for anybody who's trying to follow along on this? Certainly triple tripping as we know is
047the current model that we use with high school being picked up and dropped off first in the morning then the buses the fleet uh then divides into half going to pick up the Wellwood middle school students half going to Eagle Hill and then the buses once again uh after the middle school students are dropped off divide up into thirds uh to pick up students that are going to the three elementary schools. So again, as much as uh we get the input on high taxes, believe it or not, it is probably the most efficient model triple tripping because it actually the sweet spot of having the fewest number of buses, the fewest number of drivers, but we're also maximizing the use of those vehicles. That's one of the reasons every year we put a bus proposition
048up in terms of turning over the fleet. It's because we actually are the manifolds are staying warm. We're using those buses constantly, including the sports runs at the end of the day. Where I think you're headed with this, our ridership, and these are just ballpark figures, our ridership at the high school levels about 30%. Our ridership at the middle school level is about 50%. Our ridership at the elementary school levels is 70%. So if we're going to combine in a double trip, which just means now two basic chunks rather than thirds, that means you'd have to combine high school and middle school, the 30% and 50% to get about 80% in the afternoon because the elementary students, the ele families of elementary school students, about 70% are riding the buses. everybody else is either driving
049themselves at the high school level or they're being transported by families to the schools. So, the double tripping isn't necessarily as efficient. And what uh is something I think the new superintendent and board are going to have to pay attention to is especially as some of you have said and I know in our conversations if we flip going forwards and elementaryaries first and the high school students can sleep in a little bit later and the middle school students we may see increases in the wrership. We may be victims of our own success. So right now transportation is predicting and Jacob shaking his head head because he's heard this already. If we are victims of our own success, we may need between five and 10 additional buses to be added to the fleet in order to
050pull this off. So as you're shaking your head, there's going to be a cost for that. There's going to be a cost for the drivers. So right now the triple tripping is what we do. It is very operationally efficient. The double tripping will save time given current ridership. We can pull it off. But as I said, and the room isn't full, if we're victims of our own success going to a flip and slide, this district may have to purchase five to 10 additional buses in order to be able to pull this off. Was that more of an answer than you wanted or >> No, I appreciate that and I and again I I certainly understand the double and triple, but I'm not sure that many in the community do. So when you're talking this about
051looking at double tripping for the drive home, you're talking about middle school and high school combining. >> Correct. >> So potentially putting fifth graders on with junior seniors in high school, which I know has been a concern raised by many in this community in the past. Uh the second component that comes with that is and you had alluded to the the increase in number of driveway stops particularly at the elementary level but somewhat at the middle school level as well that I I'm I don't know where if and how much this has been discussed about what that double tripping ride home looks like if that's more on the high school bus stop um side of the the equation where it's fewer stops longer distances from homes for for some or if that's closer to the
052current middle school model which is more stops closer to home. I don't know if if it's even been looked at in that um in that depth yet at this point. >> No, that's one of the reasons of getting that uh consultant TAS to come in and help us take a look at that. So that we may be in a position to have to say at the secondary level, middle and high school, that they're more group stops at street corners as opposed to the driveway stops, which I think parents would like at the elementary level. I just want to add a little context to that as one of the few that's been in this district for a very long time and having been a student back I think it was in the early 80s during the
053gas shortage when this district made a significant change in bus stops and we went to um a policy where bus stops could be up to a half mile from homes. Um they were not all that but some were that uh That distance, especially at middle school level, was something that was not wellreceived in this district at all and did not last for very long when it went on. We went through a period of you had to have a bus pass to get on and you were a significant distance from from homes, especially in the early mornings in the dark um going to these stops. So, some of this we've I know it's many years ago, but some of this we've done before and and have some historical perspective on what tolerance levels are of that
054in the district and just need to remain mindful of. >> No, I totally agree and I want to speak and give kudos to our transportation department. Sometimes they're often kitted about not being able to to be as efficient as they can in terms of times, but they're really trying to accommodate. They're they really do an outstanding job and sometimes I think can be too accommodating to try to honor all these individual requests. But as you can imagine, it's only a minute or a time, but it just adds up after a while and drags it out. So, part of what this committee wrestled with was also the turnaround time. I mean, we can have our projecteds, but as you know, even with Mr. Corbin, with our budget, we have to true it up to actuals. So,
055you can have your projected budget, but then you have to take a look at the actuals for the accountants in the room. And I just think that's important here with the transportation. We can have our projected roots, but we have to true it up with the actuals and make it realistic. I mean, the definition of an insanity is to keep trying to do the same thing over again. and expecting different results. So, I really do think we will take a close look at it. We'll try to tighten it up with efficiencies as best we can, but we've built more minutes in for that turnaround time. So, for example, what had been 20 to 30 minutes now is between 35 and 45 minutes to be able to pull it off. Will we need 45? Can TAS
056help us get to 40? I mean, every minute will count in terms of backing that down. Thank you. >> Craig, you mentioned a couple of times the bills that are with New York State right now. Can you just um give us what those bills contain for those watching at home that might not be aware? >> Outstanding question. Yes. uh uh for both bills, similar to California, that each elementary school cannot start prior to 8:00. Secondary STO schools cannot start prior to 8:30. So, you may have noticed on one of the slides here, especially now that we've put all the money into Wellwood, we had a big study. people wanted to keep it in service uh as a middle school. They wanted a presence not only with the neighborhood elementary school but the neighborhood middle school.
057You can see the conundrum. We understand people want that presence in Fagatville. They want Eagle Hill and Manlas. But in terms of the actual if that bill ever comes to fruition, we may be be a rock and a hard place coupled with eB has to be plugged in before the second set of buses go out on the next charge. we may be forced into looking at one middle school being 56, the other middle school being uh 78 in order to comply with the secondary which is 712 and the elementary which is K6. We're not there yet. I don't want people panicking, but I'm just saying those are the things the new superintendent and board are going to have to be mindful of as this goes forward. And then the second followup I had is that
058you mentioned um Boseies. So I guess I wanted to better understand because I I thought our students that go to Boseies either provide self transportation or if the district is providing um that we have a separate bus run that would do that. So I want to understand if we change our start times how that impacts our our Bose students >> in terms of Bosey's programs are morning and afternoon. So uh we pick up the Boseis students, we bring them in. It's not a separate bus. They'll switch to a Boseis bus. Those Boseies buses also help with UPK. So the entire fleet is being used. And then adding in the intercolastic sports at the end of the day. We're even using our backup buses uh at the end of the day as well. So it's a
059pretty efficient operation. But for Boseies in particular, they have morning programs and afternoon programs >> that in terms of if we were to switch around, students would be arriving late too or leaving early >> from their Boseies programs >> from Boseies. >> Okay, that was the part I didn't catch. Sorry. Okay. Yeah. Na. Got it. That No, no, no. That makes sense. Okay. Thanks. >> Hi. Yeah. I just want to uh I know you uh said um I just wanted to do a quick shout out to the students and teachers who um contributed their voice to the um start time committee. Um one person specifically uh Chase Towski um he help contributed heavily to a lot of the meetings in terms of student voice. Um I also wanted to compliment all the students from the
060middle school um as well as the high school who uh put in their vote in the polls which helped a lot in seeing student opinions on what star time was preferred. Also, I would like to compliment the teachers who engaged with me and their opinions of the school start times and the different models. Um, so thank you. >> Thank you. And a shout out to you as well. You did a great job on the committee and I think some of your commentary was spot on target. I could from being in the front of the room and then watching the reaction, you could tell people were really listening to your contributions. So well done. >> Um Dr. Ty, I have a question that a bit connects, I think, to where you are going, Jason, with the
061um potential of the start time change mandated by the state. Would it be premature for us to do an efficiency study transportation wise to spend that money before we understand what we might be mandated to do or would we do lots of different take that into account and with different modeling? So, as I understand it that as you just said the state would be requiring uh secondary to start no earlier than 8, elementary starting at reversed 8:30 and then elementary at 8. I'm just curious when we can you talk a little bit more about what we would hope to gain from the efficiency study on transportation. Now >> I think it's trying to take a look at like I said the end of the the beginning of the day the triple tripping would stay in
062effect. uh that would prevent students from getting on the bus in Fagatville, coming to the high school, especially if they're a middle school student, only to discharge the high school students to drive back to Fagatville to go to Wellwood. So, I think triple tripping makes sense. At the end of the day, we would be looking at double tripping in terms of picking the students up at the high school and then those buses going to Eagle Hill and Wellwood. So the high school students would be on the bus a little bit longer and then picking up the middle school students at Eagle Hill and Wellwood and then transporting to their homes. [snorts] So in terms of the efficiency study, I think what's has the committee concerned is that the more if we don't fine-tune it and
063get those efficiencies on the stops, the elementary day will go from 3:30 possibly to 3:45 to 4:00. And we also know the younger students fatigue in terms of academics is closer we get to four. we know it impacts families is that becomes the end of the day and the dinner hour. So, what we're hoping for is if we can do double duty and plan for the flip and slide, that would be great. But what this study is really looking at is trying to tighten that up to make that 3:45 time, 340 or 335. Can we get it closer to the 325, 330 that it is right now? Good question. I just find this whole thing to be somewhat fascinating as we've gone through that. As you said at the outset, we've been doing this since
0642019. I don't get the sense that we're close to the end of it. I think we're close to perhaps doing something in this district that the state can then just upend and decide we're going to do something different. Um, but we started this whole discussion premised on the studies that were done of the ability to learn and learn effectively relative to amount of sleep. And then we looked at the impacts that that would have and what that would do in in in a wide variety of areas. And also the the question that would take place at least at the high school level of whether changing times would even change amount of sleep or whether students would just be forced to stay up later to finish their homework loads or have to get up earlier to
065finish their homework loads. And from a tactical or practical perspective, as we've already seen here tonight, it's it's yes started with these studies, but to implement it, it's it's less about start times than it is about transportation and being able to get the students to and from school and the impact that that has on families. And I I I can say with virtual certainty that at the state level, at the governor's mansion level, um there isn't a focus on the tactical practical busing transportation issue that every district like ours will have to contend with on this. So I I find that that pivot of focus honestly fascinating. And I think that many in our district have some very strong opinions on the start time aspect of it rel relative to the studies that were done
066and I think we found that when Dr. Leuen was here and with the various um stakeholder groups he was meeting with uh but I I I don't candidly remember when Dr. Luen was here talking a whole lot about the tactical transportation aspects of it and I think we touched on it a little bit but it was it was more of a blip than a focus area and and I don't know I mean I know we've done a lot of surveys on a lot of things but I don't know how a lot of families in our district would feel with some of the transportation impacts putting fifth graders for example on a bus with our high schoolers Um, and I I so I I I feel like there's there's a couple gaps here. One with the
067transportation study, and I think we need to look at a lot of different models to Sarah's point on on that. But but also I I'd be curious to know um in the committee that was meeting on this how much discussion there was about um combining those two schooling levels on busing and how our community and various stakeholder groups feel about that. That's a good question. I there was some discussion and certainly you could tell some of the parents on the committee wanted to go to a flip or a flip in a slide. I think they saw the research. I think they wanted to start elementary sooner. I think everybody on the committee realized that the transportation could be the lynch pin in terms of tightening the schedule and in number of minutes with the turnaround
068time. I think the way ridership is right now, it's a conundrum. Just as you said, putting the middle school and high school students together could feasibly put fifth grade with seniors, but given the wrership, 30% at the high school level, 50% at the middle school level, those are the only two that you could put together because ideally it might be middle and elementary that you want to put together. But now 50 plus 70 is 120%. and now you need more buses in order to pull it off. So I think there's some argument out there of putting elementary and middle school together as the committee discussed. It's just middle and high together fit the current writership. But I think intuitively where you're headed, it makes sense to put middle and elementary together. I mean, to Dan's
069point, it's almost like we have five different problems all wrapped around one [sighs] presentation or one um focus group. And so you know what started as like a discussion about school start time research I think Jacob like when you presented the results from like the high school students I thought I recall and correct me if I'm wrong the majority of them were like oh keep my start time the same. Um, but I do think a lot of it is when you when we ask people different questions and opinions in surveys and other aspects, it's so hard without context. So, you know, if you just asked me, oh, would you like your high schooler to start later? Sure. Um, but oh, does that mean that that's going to scramble up all these the busing situation and
070now, you know, my fifth grader is riding with my third grader or my 12th grader or whatever. Um, so I think it's it's like we have several problems we're trying to address all in one thing. And so I I wonder if we have to just take, you know, I I hate the I I understand we've been looking at this for so long, but I also worried that we're trying to solve so many different aspects in in one thing. And so then we're um we're struggling with how to do that effectively. It almost seems like we have a a transportation issue regardless of what we're doing. Then we have the desire to add a lunch period to the high school because that's what we've said we've wanted to do for ever since we went through the
071process of um redesigning the cafeteria. And then we have the research about adolescent sleep habits and all those impacts and they're like they're related but they're they're different. And so it's a it's a tough one like to say a one-sizefits-all solution. Um, and so I I guess I'm wondering, you know, what is our our biggest priority at this point to like what is our the problem we most need to solve at this point in time for the best solution for our students and the impact across the board? And is is this the right approach to take? Um, it could very well be, but I guess I just there's so many things wrapped up in it. It's like when we talk about transportation, you know, I wonder how much of our transportation challenges are also caused
072by the number of parents and community members who are driving and dropping off and is that creating this huge backlog where our buses can't even get through and so is there a creative solution where we can ask family members to drop off a in a different time or I don't like look at that as a problem to solve so that we could free up some more times for turnaround and and whatnot. I guess it's just such a a large thing and I'm just afraid that we're clumping it all in with school start time. Um, and it's not it's evolved into something sort of related to school start time, but more it seems like it's a transportation challenge to solve. Sorry, not really a question, but >> Well, no, [laughter] but I think Sarah, I think
073you in what you said, you know, the I think the answer is embedded in what you said. And what I mean by that is is we always do what's best for students, right? So, if we take a and there is there's there's many different things incorporated in here, right? But if we take a look at what's best for students, of which there's three or four different topics in here, right? We've got lunch, um the start time piece to allow students extra sleep, right? So, we've just got to go and prioritize which which is it, right? And prioritize that and whether it's this board or the community helps us with another survey. I'm sure they'd love to all get um but prioritizing within there what are those those questions and then the rest of it will
074sort itself out. Transportation is the the lynch pin right at the moment, but there's a way to fix that, right? and and it's not going to be an easy answer, right? But if it's about that we have to get 10 more buses, I think this community will rally and we'll find a way to get 10 more buses. Brad has no idea where he's going to park them, but we'll find 10 more buses if that's what makes it best for students, right? So, I think that's that's kind of where we've got to maybe pause and figure out the again the priority to those questions. >> I'll add in just and I'm sorry just to one point on that A big piece of this, I think this is where you're heading, is is an enablement piece. So,
075as the board knows, there was a a um site work project that had already been put out to bid at the high school to finish some paving and repaving, and that was pulled. And part of the reason that was pulled was we know that there are some issues with busing at the high school and some buses having to get there very, very early in order to be able to get out of there very early to get to the next trip. it was pulled to be able to take a much bigger 30,000 ft view at the property as a whole instead of just paving the lots that we have. Should we rebuild new lots so that we can have a much larger bus circle separate from a drop off circle separate from the student parking so
076that we can more efficiently get everybody on and off that campus in the morning and in the afternoon. And so that to your point I don't think it's five issues rolled into one. I think it's like 14 issues rolled into one. Um but some of this is an enablement. I mean the the campus that we're sitting in right now drop off and pick off is an absolute nightmare. And to your point, that's backs up all of Enders Road, which then backs up all of busing and and and so there's, you know, we we we address some of the facilities issues at the high school by now being able to have a building in which we can actually serve lunch to the whole high school, but now we got to figure out how to most effectively
077get everybody to and from the high school and for the middle and elementary schools. I think that may have been partially stolen. As the facilities committee knows, uh, we've been taking in, as Mr. Cyberg said, we pulled the site work package. We're going to try to accomplish some of the paving through state contract, but what this does is Oh, thank you. What this does, this is a Letha West High School uh near Kansas City, and I had the privilege of visiting it. Thank you. and they had just taken the cellophane off of it. Uh, in fact, they brought in ninth graders and put them in there. And so, as you could imagine, threearters of the rooms were empty. And then the ninth graders became 10th graders and then the new set of ninth graders came
078in and then so forth. So, they did not displace any students in this district with the construction of a new high school. They had the good fortune of bringing them in slowly. But as you can see here where the arrow is, the bus loop brings them in to drop off. They double load in this with the sidewalk in between with the student lot, faculty lots adjacent. There was really some thought in design in terms of making it functional and to keep the traffic out of each other's way as Miss Cohen said and Mr. Cyberg. So I think one of the challenges for the facilities committee will be to try to take a look at traffic patterns. Is there a way to improve it to keep everybody separate? So I agree. I mean there it's probably
07914 different things coming together with facilities in addition to transportation. And we know some families are going to want to transport the students on their own and we get that. But is there a way to try to keep the buses and here's the parent drop off? Is there a way just to keep them all separate but still provide access to the building? So, this is going to be something I know the facilities committee is going to have to wrestle with uh as we go forward. And the reason we pulled it, and you may have told them this already, we can't get aid on it. So if we do something and we get state aid on it, we can't go back and tear it apart and do something new. So we had to pull the bid,
080do it the right way in order that when we did complete it, we would get the aid on it. We wouldn't forfeit any aid for the community, but I know the facilities committee knows that already. >> I'm sorry. Yeah, Sarah, something you said I think is worth coming back to and um I appreciate the historical review slide. I was actually on the wellness committee in 2019 when this issue first came up. Um and that was when this the forums and focus like a lot of work happened pre- pandemic but I think we all know that lives have certainly changed since opinions have changed and then as you mentioned Sarah there's just a lot of added context to these questions. It's not just start time, it's what about this versus that. Um, and so I I
081do think it would be prudent for us to take a beat. And I I certainly understand there are folks who are very anxious for us to make a decision and do something. Um, but it's also prudent when faced with new information and some of the bigger issues that we've talked about specifically around transportation and long-term planning. So that's the other thing is it's not just about making a decision that might impact us for a few years, but looking strategically across the district as we think about potentially having to examine, you know, the a different middle school alignment. Right. So um I just want to say I appreciate you raising some of what you did for discussion. I also think that um I like many other folks am certainly one once a process started who's like
082let's just make a decision. I I think this is probably a good moment for us to really sort of um take a moment to actually put down on paper all of the different issues that have popped up and then think about a process that allows us to take into account the unknown of the state which is certainly a big factor and then the known in front of us that we have to address. And I also um Dan, thank you so much for also just centralizing transportation as a key issue. That's a key issue for the district whether we flip slide, flip and slide, any of those things. Um I think that's got to be something that we address. So I appreciate you raising that and you as well, Dan. >> Um I don't mean to
083throw in another curveball or a 16th problem to the lot. Um but Well, yeah, it's better than ever. Um I know it's something that I had addressed during uh I think the third um comm um committee meeting on the start time. Um it's also going to be addressing uh Mr. Stelsburg's um qu um question on students and them getting enough sleep. I did talk to a lot of students. They said that they are more or less likely to stay up later. I know that's a bit contradictory to what we want, but it's also them it's saying of them packing in a lot of their extracurriculars and staying later as well as having a lot of homework to do and homework that they feel like is not exactly super meaningful. Feel like that's mostly just a
084concern in generally with mental health of students um overboarding their schedules, not having a break as well as you know it's something that's going to have to also be under review and consideration with this. I say that I'd say I think that the school shifting the school start time to accommodate to better sync with high schoolers sleep schedule makes sense. Um but I feel like there's other factors that also need to be addressed in terms of um high schoolers and how much sleep they're actually able to get cuz we cannot you know just make the day actually longer. It's a day is 24 hours unfortunately and you know we have to pack everything into that one day and it's something to consider but you know it's there's a lot of factors. So, I want to
085thank the committee for the hard work and wrestling with these issues that are super complicated and nuanced. And I think these discussions are absolutely student centered on what um is best for kids both in terms of start times and now what seems to almost be maybe a competing priority of making sure we have these lunch periods for the high schoolers which is going to affect every student that comes through the district. Um I'm just wondering kind of tactically with the required instructional hours um to meet for the year which we know adds a layer of challenge and the 30-minute lunch periods until and if there is a state mandate is it even really going to be an option to to move up the high school significantly given all the other factors we're talking about with
086athletics and Boseies to push school to push the high school start time later. >> To push it later, I think if all the districts in the area switch to that, yes, I think it's possible, >> but until that time, it's going to be it sounds like it's going to be difficult with all the work that the committee I just want to reiterate. That was the acknowledgement with the Bosei schedules, the CTE programs, the intercolastic sports that it would be difficult to be a lone ranger and to do it by ourselves. We would need either Central New York or the state to do it. And we think doing this slide, adding the lunch periods now, fixing the turnaround times, seeing if we can pull off double tripping as opposed to triple tripping, that this would allow
087us to be right on the precipice that so when the governor did make the decision or the Senate and the Assembly passed the bills, we could pivot to the flip and slide. The flip and slide was clearly plan B here. So I think the parents who wanted to see some kind of a flip uh everybody they voted with their feet and voted for the flip and slide. So what I'm hearing and seeing from just this process from a far a farther viewpoint than the committee is that um we're sort of focusing on student wellness in terms of adding a lunch period which has been a really really important discussion point for many years and a a gripe for a lot of parents um and something that's going to be a big advantage for the high
088school. Um and again all the students coming through but we will not necessarily be able to follow the research right now on the start times for high school students but I also see this as much as there are 15 issues as preparatory for where we're headed and hopefully there will be some some positive movement with the state um where we then would be able to make another shift. So it's incremental um but maybe really all we can do right now. That's how I'm seeing it. And I don't think in that way that we need to wait forever to make an incremental change that will still help kids for, you know, even if it's not really a school start time issue anymore for for the first change. >> Good point. I agree. >> So, Dr. T,
089what do you need from the board at this point in time? >> I think the committee is recommending the slide. The committee is recommending a study, an efficiency study because nobody, there was agreement, wants the kids to be here, the younger ones, till 4:00. So, right now, we're dismissing at a roughly 3:25, 3:30. Some of the buses are getting there late at 3:40 or 3:45 before departure just because our turnaround times are too ambitious. So, I think if we can make these switches, add the lunch, do the efficiency study, and make sure we can ratchet it back from 3:45 to 340, 335 if we're lucky, just to do whatever we can to try to tighten it back to where it is right now. I think that's pretty good to put in a 30 minute lunch,
090give the turnaround time, do double tripping, which is going to save us, you know, for those of you finger counting and trying to do the math, it's the double tripping that bails us out in the afternoon. >> So, I think the incremental change, as you said, is the key. We're going to be there may be 16 things with Jason's or Jacob's addition to that, but I think we got to start to do the incremental change to start checking boxes off on some of those things. And then if we can winnow it down to seven or eight things, now we're ready to do the flip and slide when we're when that time comes. >> Okay. Does anybody have any other questions or concerns or anything with that approach? >> It'll be looked at in this study.
091The other I just I don't have a clear understanding of our transportation obligation for the local private schools. I know historically we picked them up by bus and then we had transfer buses from the high school. What what is our act because their times also you know that they play into the same thing just like Boseies in many ways. What what is the transportation obligation of this district with respect to our private schools? >> We are obligated to transport. I know there was some confusion even on days we're off whether it's a staff development day. We're still obligated to transport. Uh usually it's the inclement weather days that we get off the hook, but we will still have to transport if those private schools are in session >> factor into this poll study. Okay. >>
092I think prior to you and I being in this room, there was a discussion about pulling back on private school transportation and the auditorium was filled at that point. So I we have an obligation to provide that transportation. Our transportation department for the flack they take, the choreography and the ability to try to please the parents with the individual stops, everything that they pull off, even with the sports runs at the end of the day. Um it's just amazing. And so I think if they're asking for a little help from transportation efficient or advisory uh service, I think that's the least we can do to help them look in the mirror and find ways to get some efficiencies. >> I mean, I think it's a that's a really good point, Dr. in that um regardless
093of the efficiency studies, if there are things that the transportation department, we don't often hear from the transportation department for the from the community. And so if there are things that they're asking for parents or community members to help them be more safely transporting students or more efficiently transporting students, I think that would be a really great thing um for them to consider communicating more broadly. I think people would hear. I would hope a lot of people would hear that. >> I think it's sharing, [clears throat] excuse me, sharing that information. I'll pick on my former post when I was superintendent in Marcelus because they're not here to defend themselves, but we had, if you're familiar with the turnpike going into Marcelus coming from the east, uh you'll know there's a hill. And so if
094you can imagine picking students up on the turnpike, you had the Hatfields and the McCoys. And we said that everybody had to go to the Hatfield's house, the first one uphill, so to speak. And the McCoys were furious. I mean, they just had a feud with their neighbors as you would expect. And if you can pick up at the Hatfield's house, you can roll six to 10 feet forward and pick up the McCoys. and we've put our foot down and said, "No, we're picking up at the group stop at the Hatfield's house. That means the McCoys are going to have to walk the 10 feet or whatever from one driveway to the other." And they were furious. How dare you do for one and not for the other. And then we explained to them that
095you are the Hatfields are uphill. So to turn the red lights off on the bus, have it roll the 10 feet forward to the next driveway, you run the risk of having a tractor trailer coming down the hill thinking the bus is in motion and not stopped anymore. And we practice center loading. Students, as you know, the older ones like to sit in the back of the bus, but we on that run in particular loaded the bus in the middle because we anticipated a rear-end collision. Gosh forbid, you know, we didn't want it to happen and it never did happen. But just working with those families to understand that there was a method to the madness that we weren't favoring the Hatfields over the McCoys. We were trying to keep all the kids safe. So,
096I think you're right. I think it's trying to explain to them there's a reason why we do what we do. And sometimes a group stop, even if it's at the Hatfield's house, is the right thing to do. just to prevent a possible accident. >> Unrelated, um I just wanted before we close out the topic to echo um Rebecca's thanks to the members of the start time committee. Um it's a really difficult task even just in the conversation we've had and we've been immersed in it um many of us for a long time, some for much longer. Um but these sorts of task forces can be really challenging. Um it's really you've got to commit your time and um I believe that the the recommendation is so sound and also really appreciate all the special considerations
097and the recommendations that came along with it for us. So um Rebecca, thank you for um reminding us that we we really do um owe a debt of appreciation to folks who served on it. Thank you, Dr. Ty, for presenting that. Uh, [sighs] okay. Item 2.03, president's report. So, I just wanted to give a brief update on our superintendent search because we haven't talked about it in a while. Um, so as everyone here knows, we have um completed our final round of interviews and are in decision-making mode. Um, and so we hope to have an update to the public uh, relatively soon here. Um, and so we will certainly keep everyone apprised, but I just wanted to say um, behalf of the board how grateful I have been for working with all of you through
098this process. And um it's been an absolute pleasure and um we spent a lot of time together and I it's it's been great. I thank you. Um item 2.04 superintendent report >> with what's le left of my voice here. I'll go quickly. The backup information is in your uh in community. Um, item one, capital project update. Construction work on the high schools, $52 million capital improvement project moving forward with renovations and house two on the first floor. With the holiday break on the horizon, it will not be long before the contractors move to the second floor to continue their work. Uh we've already talked about the phase uh five site work package that was recently put out to bid was recalled so that the district could accomplish a subset of the work through New York
099State contract pricing while school officials took some time to explore potential redesign of the bus drop off loop and parent drop off loops to in order to improve traffic flow. Intercolastic sports, you already congratulated all our fall teams. Uh today is the first day of the varsity and junior varsity for the winter sports season. So very successful fall run for all the teams that you had mentioned. Concert season, the Eagle Hill musical and the high school fall drama that's coming up just outstanding. Uh with the winter storm clouds on the horizon, it's just been very impressive. Our student musicians and student thespians, uh they've just done a terrific job. And uh as we mentioned uh Thornton Wilders's uh play uh the skin of our teeth is coming up this week at the high school national
100honor society. Congratulations to our recent inductees to the Oak Tree chapter of FM High School's National Honor Society. The induction was a special evening celebrating the achievements of our best and brightest students and recognizing them for their accomplishments in the four pillar areas of scholarship, character, leadership, and service. Hornet pride. And then the last two items, our annual community satisfaction survey. As you're aware, the annual report is out. There is a community feedback survey that's accessible from a QR code on the front cover. The survey is designed to gauge stakeholder perceptions about the district and we encourage all stakeholders to fill it out before the December 1st deadline. And then last but not least, as we saw at the last meeting, our OCM Bosey's capital improvement vote is this week, Wednesday, November 19th, from 10
101to 8:00 a.m. at multiple Boseies locations, including the main campus at Lwood Davis Road in Liverpool, the Crown Road campus at 4500 Crown Road, Liverpool, the Courtlandville campus on Route 13 in Courtland, and the Thompson Road campus. uh um at 6820 Thompson Road, East Syracuse. That ends my superintendent report. >> Any questions for Dr. Ty? >> Okay, thank you very much. Um committee and representative updates. Uh Jacob, is there anything from a legislative leaison by any chance? Uh yeah uh me and Miss Mims had a uh um virtual meeting where we had discussed um basically putting out a poll specifically on um free lunches. Um we were supposed um to communicate more with that on I guess food services as well as what options students want as well as how we can you know implement
102that and just communicate a bit better with students. Um that is all for now. I know Miss Mims is currently not here so that's all I say about that. >> Great. Thank you. Um, Dr. Chase, do you know I know we talked about potentially bringing this topic up at an upcoming wellness committee meeting that that might be a forum to talk about school lunches. Is that Do we have a meeting date for wellness? >> Uh, wellness is putting their agenda together. Uh, our facilitator sent me an email today, I believe, asking for topics. You can put that down. So, I'll send it to you as well. >> Great. [laughter] >> So, yes. Wonderful. >> I think that would be a great discussion. >> Okay. Thanks. Um and then since Merc >> and our school lunch
103manager is in the back too. So just everybody's here. >> Everybody's here to talk about school lunch. >> We did not rehearse it just for the record, [laughter] but [gasps] >> um thank you. And since Marissa's not here, the Boseies, I think you probably updated on the the votes this week. Um so Jacob, back to you for your school your student update. >> Thank you. Um so uh Dr. Ty actually took a lot of the points I was going to bring up with the NHS as well as the fall play. So yes, a fall play um that'll be on from going through Thursday to Saturday. So hope to see if some of our board members attend. Um beyond that um there is um the continued issue of temperature within high school. Um I will take
104a specific example with the um the music wing. um they've where they've had issues with storing some of the woodwwind instruments where they cannot no longer store it within the actual band room and have to relocate it to one of the other rooms just because of how cold it is and how it can damage their instruments. Um so that's something that's been continuing the average um especially now it's around 60 to 62 degrees. Um and it's just something that's been complained about constantly. Um, I know in other areas of the high school, it's also been complained about by teachers and students alike. Um, beyond Oh, you have a Sorry, you can go, >> Jacob. Sorry. Do you know is this a lack of heat issue like or is this the air conditioning is running? >>
105Um, I believe it's the issue with the heating. Um, yeah. Um, I know a lot of teachers have reached out to maintenance in order to get it situated, but it's been on and off and from my experience it has not changed dramatically as in improved specifically in the music wing and some parts of the believe house one on first floor. Um >> Craig, can we get some detailed update on that at our next facilities meeting to I know we've talked about it in the past and some of the challenges there, but as this continues and as we all know that winter started here, unfortunately um can we have to figure out we have to figure out how to better respond to this. So, I don't know if if we can get some more details at
106our next facilities meeting, that would be great. >> I guess um one last positive thing is that um I guess fortunately there um Mr. Buckman and Mr. is no longer here, but uh FM um the robotics team will be hosting a scrim on the 22nd with other fellow FTC teams um where we have invited about five to six potentially um teams who will be coming to the FM high school to um discuss robotics um do a bit of a scrim as well as a bit of a workshop. So just something that's interesting that's going on with the robotics team. >> Thank you very much, Jacob. Does anybody have any questions for Jacob? >> Great. Thank you. >> Just from a student perspective, love to know more on the temperature issues that you've been experiencing your
107classmates or teachers. Is this been house one and house two or has this been more house one? >> Uh, primarily it's been mostly house one. Okay. >> Um, also the music wing. I know some of the rooms they were able uh the music studio room I know they were able to get heated but um the larger room which is the band room it's barely changed at all. I mean it's gotten below 60 at points it's and it does heavily impact how we play. So, um, and the music wing, I mean, one of my English classes, one of the substitutes was teachers was complaining about the temperature and the concern of, I guess, how we're spending our money. Um, and what on I guess with additions to the school when the heating is issue as a
108current issue. Um, so I know Dr. Ty um had brought up bringing it up next time during your facilities meeting. So, >> is it colder than it is in here? Because I feel like the air conditioning is running in here. [laughter] >> Occasionally, >> it's it's colder than this. >> It's cold. >> He's wearing gloves if anyone can't tell. [laughter] >> Thank you for letting us know, Jacob, bringing that up. Um, okay. So, the committee updates, unless anybody has any pressing updates, we're not scheduled to do updates from the committees at this meeting. Uh, public comment. I don't believe there's anybody registered for public comment. Okay. Thank you. Um, moving into new business, item 4.01, policies and second reading. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Fateville Manla Central School District approves
109and enacts revised policy 7210 in second reading and approves the NISBA 9000 policy series and defers enactment until the completion of the policy transition process. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Ann. And a second. Thanks, John. Any discussion? Well, since since since there were no emails sent, I presume presume there's not much discussion. Is that [laughter] nothing? Okay. Uh, all in fa All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. >> [laughter] >> Well, I I I did say I've really really enjoyed working with everyone over this last several months. Uh item 4.02, approval of agreement. King and King Architects. Uh do I need to read the whole thing? No. Where's the motion? Oh, there it is down at the bottom. Uh, be it resolved that the
110board of education of the Fateville Manley Central School District hereby approves the agreement with King and King Architects for postreerendum services as reviewed by legal council and in accordance with the resolution above. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Sarah. And a second, [snorts] Dan. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Item 4.03, approval of minutes. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Manla Central School District hereby approves the minutes of the special meeting held on November 3rd, 2025. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John and Chrissy. Thank you. Any [snorts] discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? >> Three. >> Yep. Thank you. All right. Ongoing business. Um board development. Marissa's not here, otherwise I would ask her for an update. She
111attended the NISPA conference in New York City. Um item 5.02, upcoming meetings. Um so in December, we will have a curriculum update. I assume Dr. Dutton. Um, and item 5.03, potential considerations for future meetings. I don't think there is any changes on that. And item 6.01, a proposed executive session. Uh, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Manley Central School District enters executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment history of particular persons. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Dan and Chrissy. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. And so we will be returning. This one should be short. So you're welcome to stay or not. Thank you. All right. How are we? >> Oh, >> yeah. Me, too. >> Okay. All right. So, we are
112on item seven, uh, the consent agenda. So, oops, all these voting results. Um, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fateville Manla Central School District approves the consent agenda as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Ann. And thank you, Chrissy. All in favor? Anybody abstaining or opposed? Thank you. Um, okay. Now we're on right we're on to eight. Nothing removed for the agenda. And number nine u proposed executive exempt session. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Manly Central School District enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing a student discipline matter, collective negotiations, and the superintendent search. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Ann. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. And then we will be
113adjourning following that. So all of you can have a wonderful evening. And thank you to Sandy and Sarah. If you're wondering, we have a new platform. We're using Diligent Community, so we're all adjusting as we go. It's great. Highly recommend it. [laughter] [gasps] Have a good evening.