001Good evening. Um, welcome. Thank you for coming. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands nationy andice for all. Thank you. Item 1.03 approval or revision of agenda. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Fateville Manley School District approve the agenda as presented. May I have a motion? Thank you, Rebecca. Second. Thanks, John. All in favor? Anybody? >> It's all right. We we are very aligned up here. >> Um we got all the best board members here today. Anyway, um >> welcome Dian. Um item 2.01, we're going to move into presentations. Um, be it resolved that the board of education the FA Well, no, we're not going to do that yet, but we're
002going to have first the presentation of the 2024 25 external audit. And we're gonna have Assistant Superintendent Corbin introduce your colleagues. Thank you. Mark's a committ. >> Thanks, Brad. Can everyone hear me? Okay, great. Hi everyone. My name is Mark Sharelli. I'm a partner with Gman St. CPAs and we're your external auditors for the June 30th, uh financial statements. You probably in your packet. I'm going to go through this presentation. Thanks for getting me so quick. I really appreciate it. Um I think I should be able to click forward with this. Excellent. Everything works so well. Um so our agenda is communication with those charged with governance. That's uh the people that are in this room today in management. Um it's the main reason we're here. We'll talk a little bit about the basic financials,
003some high level districtwide financial highlights. We'll mention the reports required by uniform guidance. That's your federal funds that come in and then extra classroom activities. Communication with those charged with governance. Our responsibility in relation to the financial statement audit performed under generally accepted auditing standards is to express an opinion on your financial statements prepared by management with your oversight. So, uh, what that really says is your financial statements that you see in the packets that you received on board docs are yours. The only thing that's ours are the opinions on there. And that opinion is an unmodified clean opinion. You'll see the opinion in those first few pages, but what you want to receive is a clean opinion. So, that's a good thing. There were no material weaknesses noted. Another positive thing as well. Your
004plan scope and timing is consistent with our plan previously communicated to management and the audit committee in a meeting at May 28th, 2025. We've complied with all ethical requirements regarding our independence. It's important to note that we're independent of the district. We're required to be as your external auditors. Management has made all applicable management decisions. They prepare the schedule of federal awards and they also prepare the statement of your extra classroom activities funds. We assist in the preparation of your financial statements but uh management is able to uh take uh responsibility for those statements as well and they their management team is able to uh take responsibility for those financial statements. And also we have a uh secondary partner review where my team uh that does the audit, reviews those statements and assists in their
005preparation. I have another partner that works on school districts that provides a secondary review of those as well. So there's a lot of layers to reviewing those financial statements to make sure they're um in line with what needs to be submitted to New York State. Continuing uh qualitative aspects of our accounting practices. They're discussed in footnote one of the uh of the financial statements. This is a very long footnote number one. Also this year uh Gatsby 101 was implemented imple implemented by management. This is the change in how compensated absences are calculated. Management was successful in their implementation of that this year. There weren't any big changes as a result of that from a number standpoint, but it was some effort on management's end to get that done. Significant accounting estimates. It's important to note
006that estimates are used in the preparation of financial statements. The biggest estimates of those are included are the useful lives of capital assets, your other post-employment benefits, your gazsby 75 uh acrals, as well as your gazsby 68 pension measurement. A lot of those numbers you don't have much control over, but there are estimates included in establishing those numbers for the district. Significant risks. It's important to understand that as auditors, we have to analyze significant risks in every engagement. And the two common significant risks to every audit and especially every school district audit are management override and improper revenue recognition. We design our testing to note if there's any material instances of that. Those are common standard risks that we address in every audit that we do, but we just have to communicate that to you.
007Financial statement disclosures. Those are neutral and consistent with professional standards and guidelines. There were no difficulties encountered in performing the audit. No uncorrected adjustments proposed during the audit procedures or adjusting entries and no disagreements with management. Many of these items you would have heard from me well ahead of time if I encountered any of them. But the one thing I want to note here is there were no adjusting entries. That's really important to know that any financial statement information, financial data that you've seen throughout the previous year is in line with what you're seeing today on these financial statements. That's really important. You really don't want your auditors coming out and making huge adjustments uh or changing the numbers significantly. So, it's uh you have a really strong management team. So, that wasn't necessary in
008this instance. Representations are requested from management. Uh the letter will be dated October 6, 2025 uh the date of this meeting. Uh once the uh final board accepts the financial statements there no known management consultations with other accountants. Management has taken responsibility for our firm's assistance in preparation of your financial statements. Also, there will be an electronic submission of their your uh federal expenses into the office of management and budget once that system is ready to receive it. Also, there were no significant matters or findings that were a discussion to our retention as your external auditors. That's it for communication with governance. Just to talk about the financial statements, they're about 70 pages long, so there's a lot of information in there. If you'd like to uh take a look at what's gone on in
009the district over the last year from a financial perspective, management does a really good job of their management discussion and analysis. This is page 4 through 12. If you want to know what's going on, read through that to kind of see what's occurred during the previous fiscal year. That's really a highle summary of it. Otherwise, the basic financial statements are on pages 13 through 18. Uh, essentially it takes your fund financial statements and includes any long-term debt and long-term assets. And that's how you get to your district-wide financial statements. It's a whole process that is gone through. Uh, and then there's the notes of the financial statements. They're about 40 pages long there. Um, and there's supplemental schedules and your report on internal control over financial reporting. Again, no material weaknesses were noted. Again, all
010good news. Some high level financial highlights. Uh there was an increase in the property tax revenue of approximately 2.7 million. That was in accordance with your property tax levy. Your capital outlay expenditures were approximately 2 20.2 million due to ongoing capital projects. You also have a b uh bond anticipation note or band for 44.8 million that's related to the 2021 capital referendum in your capital fund. And then your federal expenditures have decreased from uh the prior year to this year by $472,000. That's mainly due to the decrease in the American Rescue Plan funding that was received. That's your COVID money. That that's slowly going away. I anticipate this upcoming year it'll pretty much be gone. The report required by uniform guidance. Uh this is shown in a separate report provided that isn't able to be
011issued as final yet because the White House Office of Management and Bud Budget they provide guidelines. They haven't finalized yet that yet and with the government shutdown I'm not sure when that will be finalized but once it is we'll be able to issue it as final. You see it marked as a draft currently but as soon as they're able to to receive it we will issue that as final as well. The major program that was uh selected this year is your special education co cluster or the idea program. Uh you you received an unmodified uh report on compliance over your major programs. So that means there's no material weaknesses that were noted in our procedures. So another good thing for the district. And finally, extra classroom activities. First thing I'll mention is no management letter
012comments. That's not common for extra classroom activities. FM takes that the process of your extra classroom activities very seriously and accounting for them appropriately. So that's a really positive thing. Um the opinion for extra classroom activities is modified for a scope limitation over cash receipts that is common to all other districts that we work with and really common for for districts all across upstate New York. Um the modification is related to cash receipts because the money coming in, it's easy to uh look at the money going out the door. You have invoices and checks and you can see that. But the cash coming in the door, it's kids handling cash. So traditionally the extra classroom activities, my uh opinion is modified in regard to cash receipts. Again, that's a common thing. Uh but nothing to
013be concerned about. And that's it for my presentation. If there's any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. But um kudos to the this board and to the audit committee as well and the management team for having a really strong team in place that can handle this. Takes it very seriously. Doesn't want your auditors coming out and making a bunch of adjustments. So, uh you're doing a good job of leading this team. >> Does anybody have any questions? Thank you for that. Certainly echo the kudos to our business office and everybody in there when we see clean reports that directly reflects on them. So kudos to all of them for sure. Um two quick things. Is there a deadline that we have to meet for the final report that OM's delays and the closure is
014going to impact? So the deadline to submit to New York State, which is just the financial statements that you see that were issued, that is October 15th. For the OMB specifically, that will be essentially whenever they're able to do it. So essentially, once they're ready, it'll probably be 30 days from there, but traditionally, it's 30 days from when you've issued the statement, and we haven't issued it yet. So, um you should have a window there, but I don't expect there to be any any issue with um sending that in once they're ready. I'm >> just projecting ahead of we don't know how long that delay is going to be. Is that a 2025 requirement or is that a is is is going into 2026 if that's where we end up acceptable? >> Right. Yes. Yes.
015So, uh, we're I guess we're in the 2026 fiscal year now, but we can we can submit it really as soon as they're ready. There shouldn't be any any issue with that. So, >> quick, Mark, and correct me if I'm wrong. I talked to Lynn on Friday. I think what we were going to do is separate out. So, actually the documents for the state purposes can be submitted timely and actually go and meet that October 15th deadline. So, those will be accepted from that aspect and this other document as soon as it's able to be will be. But the state will get everything in full and be able to receive everything and meet, you know, fulfillment for that. >> The state requirements are really the ones you want to make sure you meet because sometimes
016the state can withhold that funding. You won't have that problem as long as you submit it before October 15th, which you will. >> Okay, great. The other is on on you had touched on a number that is large as it stands but very very small relative to our overall budget which is the extra classroom funds. So I know that there's perpetually an issue with some cash receipt accounting on some portion of that, but do are you able to quantify like of that 550 what percentage of that we do have high I just interested in what's what percentage of that truly is traceable and what part of it is potentially slightly. >> So it's not quite about what's traceable or what's not. is that we don't know what's coming in necessarily. So, if someone were to
017hand someone $10,000 of cash and they just were to not record it, we wouldn't have any way of knowing unless we were somehow observing all of the activities. So, that's why the modification exists there. But if someone were to write someone a check, you'd see that sort of support. So, the cash part of it is very difficult to get your arms around, which is why the modification is traditional. wrong. But I I thought we had made some adjustments couple of years ago >> where we were limiting cash, true cash receipts in those activities and clubs where we could so that it was more accurately. >> Let me I I I I just don't I don't have in front of me, but I thought we had addressed this in the past. >> You asked a good
018question. It was actually one I think an in audit committee they talked a little bit out about as well um within that the question was kind of the opinion you know why the modified opinion from that aspect I think the question then I raised was what happens in other districts from that aspect are there any other districts that get that opinion I think the answer from the state level is no everybody gets that same opinion so what we do is on an annual basis Lynn goes through we do this uh pamphlet number two I guess is or whatever the the current term is go through and we meet actually at the building level high school level and we go through and do a presentation on extra classroom activities. How do we properly record receipts? How
019do you restore cash? Things of that nature are controls in place and here's are followed. Uh from our side, you'll do a sampling of probably whatever was out there. You'll have your findings. You determine there were no material weaknesses. But on our side, everybody really gets that same opinion from that aspect. And I'd say there's no no issues with how you're recording your revenue on that side from our perspective. It's just we can't provide that opinion. We have to modify the opinion >> and it also includes preventative uh I mean we have moved where we can but it's also the training of the central treasurers. So we tried to be proactive, not just reactive. >> Maybe to just slightly restate my question. Is there anything that you found in our practices in that regard where
020you have any suggestions to make for improvements on that? >> Not not that I could see from uh you know I always think about with FM is the dance marathon. You know a lot of districts would not have the the kind of support that you have. you do a really good job of having a list of what students come, what students attend, and list of who donates and the envelopes. So, that's great. That's a it's a really strong practice. So, nothing came to my attention that would say this is something you need to improve right away rel related to extra classroom activities and the revenue that's coming in. >> Sure. >> Thank you for that. And for future reference, if anyone would like to dive into the details, you're welcome to join the audit committee.
021Um, and we can go and we can go through that. >> We appreciate the marketing there. I like that. >> No problem. Um, anybody else have any questions? And I would also just echo Brad. Um, big thank you to your team and Tracy and Lynn for all that they have done to make sure that we're in a really solid financial position. So, thank you. >> Okay. Anything else you guys wanted to present? So, we can take our action take our action. Um, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fateville Mania School District accepts the 202425 external audit report as presented. May I have a motion? Thanks, Ann and Dan. All any discussion, all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstainating? Thank you. All right. Item 2.02 is a presentation by Lisa Wade um
022regarding enrollment and hiring data. Good evening. Thank you for having me come tonight to present our 202526 instructional staffing and enrollment report. That's a little loud. All right. So, we're going to try this. Hopefully, this will work for me. We're going to go to Here we go. Great. So tonight uh what I'm going to present to you are the new and promoted administrative and instructional positions uh for this school year. The student enrollment trends. Then the sections enrollment and ratios. Then we'll cover the teaching assistance and the aid staffing. And then the last two items are the board goals as well as strategic plan initiatives. And we'll talk about next steps from there. All right. So this year we hired four administrative positions. Last year we had seven. 34 teaching and ancillary positions were hired.
023Uh 30 in 2024. 25 probationary appointments, 24 last year. Seven regular substitutes andor long-term substitutes. We had nine in 2024. And then 17 of our openings were due to administrator or teacher retirements. 12 last year and then 12 of our teachers resigned for various reasons. Last year we talked about implementing an exit checklist and we piloted that. This year we put the checklist into place for all staff. So when staff leave we send them an exit checklist. We ask them to fill out the survey and then we collect feedback from them so that we can work on improving uh if there's things that uh they share with us that need to be looked at. We try to do that. And if there's things that they want to compliment, we look at that as well. So,
024we have seven people who are leaving to attend uh to personal matters. Two who are relocating due to a spouse or significant other's job change, two who are looking to explore different career options, and then one who's returning uh to retirement status. And on the exit checklist, uh, we received back 15 responses in the tenure areas and positions that we've identified here. Those are the instructional staff who were departing. And then the buildings that they represent are shared on the slide. And the pictures, by the way, are from the website. So I hope you enjoy them. Then our new staff that we hired this year for our teaching positions, 96% of the teachers that we hired this year already hold a master's degree. Last year we had 86% of our staff hired uh holding master's
025degrees. This year our cohort averages 9.67 years of teaching experience. And last year we had uh 10 years of experience and we hired one teacher from another state outside of New York. All right. What I did a little bit different this year is I took the 10-year trend. So, this is the total student enrollment trend over the 10 years and pull this graphic out a little bit differently so that you can see, you know, in our co years we had that decline and then we steadily made an increase and we've been declining somewhat uh since 2023. Uh this year compared to last year, we're down uh 15 students. And then this is the graph that I had last year with that trend kind of uh on the same chart, but it shows the difference in
026terms of our student population. Again, you can see the difference from last year to this year that we have uh changed by losing 15 students. And all the data we're reporting is as of September 30th. So it's as current as we could possibly have for this presentation. the 10-year uh kindergarten enrollment trend. Uh as you can see here, I left the graph on the top of this one showing the 10-year trend. And um we have declined by 48 students uh this year. And then this is just a different slide taking the enrollment from UPK to grade four showing you uh by the three elementary schools what our enrollment has kind of changed or where we're at uh for a current total of 1583 elementary and UPK students for our middle school which is up in
027the right hand uh corner there. The middle school student enrollment is at 1,311 and then our high school enrollment is 1,316. So again um a decline of 15 students compared to last year. So this one is the chart that we brought last year showing the ratios uh grades K to2 the ratio in the FMTA contract limits uh that we cannot have more than 23 students in a class. The top sort of orange color um line on those charts that's the ratio. So for kindergarten we're at 19.4% for each of the class I mean for each of the kindergarten classes altogether. for first grade 20.2, for second grade 20.3. So you can see we're we're well under that contract limit for those early grades K to2. Grades 3 to six, the contract limit is to try
028not to have more than 25 students in a class. So uh our third grade classes are at 23.2. Our fourth grade classes are at 23. Our fifth grade classes are at 23 and our sixth grade classes are at 24. And then this chart was in the presentation last year. It's taking each grade at each of the three schools. Uh the top chart there shows kindergarten, first and second grade, and that breaks it out for each school, the number of sections we have at each school, the enrollment at each school, and then what that ratio comes out to. And again, you'll see that um we are certainly under the limit of what the contract states. grades three to six. Again, we did the same thing um by each of the schools and we have reflected there
029what the enrollment the sections and the ratios are. And then the middle school um for middle school and high school it's a little different. It's 125 students per day based on five or six classes per day or 750 students per week for 7th through 12th grade. I don't have the high school uh numbers here and as we discussed before it's really hard with over 200 classes various supa there's so many electives that it's really hard to put those ratios here um because of the variety of and the number of classes that we have and we will be having a future presentation that we're going to bring back to the board at another time to show more about ratios and class sizes. Now, the teaching assistants, I phoned a friend, so Tracy's here with me today.
030So, if there's any questions about the teaching assistants or the aids, our teaching assistants, again, are certified staff that have a certification through New York State uh ed department. They can do small groupoup instruction. They can do one-to-one support of students. And the aids are typically in a supervision uh position whether it's in lunch, recess, it could be the whole room supervision. Um so it's a little bit different in terms of what what these two staff represent. We have 103 um teaching assistants. Uh we are still uh holding one vacancy open at Enders Road to be filled later and we have 46 uh teacher aids. Then as far as applicants, um, as you can see the applicant pool, we really get quite a few applicants here. This is a great place to work and a
031lot of people are attracted to working here, but we do have a few high need areas that not only we're struggling with, but so are other districts. Um, a lot of that is the special education, some of the supports, the blind and visually impaired. uh you'll see that we struggle to get candidates for psychologist positions also the speech positions um those are very limited in terms of our applicants and many of our colleagues in the area are seeing that as well. Some of the other positions that we had some concerns with when we posted out are our world language. So for German, we were surprised that we got three applicants, but again, they were from other districts and they were applying to come here. And uh for Spanish, we had three applicants and pretty much
032the same thing from other districts. So hopefully the the teacher pool will turn around here eventually, but um we are seeing other applicants from other districts coming in. our administrative applicants. We hired the four positions as I indicated um the two principal positions, the two assistant principal positions, and right now we have an interim AP position that we are in the process of starting some screening interviews and we'll bring a candidate forward pretty soon. And then we continued with our professional learning and support for staff. uh we conducted the second substitute professional development center I mean development um training and um it was very wellreceived so I think we're going to continue to do that take the feedback from those who attend and then continue to improve upon that then the professional development for teaching
033assistants and aids um this year we had the them in for two days which was part of our contract negotiations and a big thing thank thanks to Amy and um as as well as Tracy for pulling together professional development for the teaching assistants and uh we received a lot of compliments on the training that they received. So something to continue to work on and our negotiating the career ladder opportunities. We've done this with the other contracts, but we built that into the teaching assistance contract and we've already got four people who are uh taking the professional development and classes and looking to get into grow our own program here where we have people going into our positions that open up in the future. So, that was our intent and hopefully it's going to continue to
034grow. Then on the lines of the diversity, equity, and inclusion, um again, we're still continuing to work on um making this a welcoming and affirming place for all, and we're going to continue to to do those efforts and um negotiating contracts that are inclusive of staff and contain genderneutral language. We're trying to be very mindful of that. Reflecting on our hiring practices, 59% of our new hires this year are from communities outside of the FM neighborhoods where last year we were at 40%. Uh 0.03% of our new hires are diverse staff. We had 0.06 last year. So this that's an area that we do need to continue to focus and work on uh looking for more diverse staff who represent our students. Then um continuing to um improve our communications, we did implement our news
035and notes. Uh it goes out monthly to our staff. We put out important information. We list the appointments that the board approves, any retirements or resignations. Um so we've continued to try to improve that communication and ask the staff, you know, do you have suggestions for things that you'd like to see? And if it's something we can do, we will add it into our monthly newsletter. And again, using social media uh in terms of our communications team to try to help highlight some of our openings has been helpful, especially with substitute needs and things like that. And so, if you are ready, we will have a class-size research uh presentation that Melissa Corbin is going to present at a a future date. We are working with Sunni Rick to get that data. We will also
036have comparative data for other districts and um it'll be a good look in research, you know, in terms of where we're at compared to others. And that is it. Any questions? >> Did you want to say a word? You've included your presentation to facilities committee for new members. >> Oh, and the executive right um content in your um packets. you'll see the presentation that was previously done by Carrie Letters and Melissa Corbin to the facilities committee. So that is um available for you to start taking a look at before we come back with our additional presentation. Thank you Dr. Ty. >> Thank you. Um I think you said you had if I read correctly 117 and UPK right now. Do you know how those projections look um compared to last year when we're trying to
037think about what kindergarten might look like? >> Forecasting >> coming up. >> Yeah, forecasting ahead. >> Yeah, >> I'm gonna phone a friend. Melissa, >> I'm just wondering if like our enrollment UPK is usually indicative. I know it's been such a new >> right and some of the students don't end up coming to the district. They may go to >> Okay. So, I'll have Melissa answer that. >> Thank you. >> Now, it's your crystal ball and tell us because UPK is not required. It really is not a good indicator of how many students are coming for kindergarten. However, last year we had a sense that there were we knew that this year's kindergarten class um was going to be much smaller because we actually start to survey families in January. I send a survey out
038to anyone who has a child who is of or who will be of kindergarten age because we have a lot of children who receive services that we coordinate. That was part of my prior position. Um so we have all of that data as well as siblings, but because UPK is not representative, we don't have enough seats for every child who could attend UPK. It really is not an indicator of enrollment. Thank you for this. Appreciate the prior report we've gotten in this. Just a couple of um questions. One in in you sort of stole my second question with with Melissa's upcoming report. I think it's really helpful. I know we've talked about this in some prior years in the class size reporting is to understand that as a function of time. Um so I'm assuming
039that will be part of it. I look forward to that. I think that's that's that's a little bit more informative at least to me than just the snapshot of the current in terms of classizing. I I I do have a very specific question that I don't even know if you can answer but Mro kindergarten >> is literally half the size of the fourth grade class. Do we have any information understanding theories? And and I asked that because, you know, we've we've had been trying to think creatively about some capacity issues at each of our elementary schools and M had been one of the ones that had climbed up significantly. Seems like after this school year, we're going to see some significant relief in that school as as the fourth graders move to the middle school.
040Middle school will start to have its own challenges as a result, but any understanding of what's driving that number at M. >> M is really interesting because we have a lot of families who reside in Wildwood Ridge. So we have a lot of um families who are sometimes parents are here on work visas, sometimes they have moved here from other countries. There's quite a community, a a Turkish population in that particular development and all those children go to Mont Road. So part of that is the rise and fall of numbers that we see. the current fourth grade class and the class who just left M Road were bubbles much larger than we I think we've ever seen at MA. I actually think three sections is is much closer to normal what we had been seeing.
041So my projections and I am certainly not an expert. We're probably going to be back to three or four sections in that particular building one per grade level once this fourth grade group moves on. They have been in an those current fourth, last year's fourth seem to be an anomaly um for the numbers at M. >> Yes, we watched it all summer long because we kept saying this is so much smaller than than what we had seen. I did anticipate that we would have um a lot fewer kindergarteners this year because the number of IEPs that I had for our third and fourth graders or I'm sorry, third and three year olds and four year olds were much smaller. We just had fewer students receiving services, which isn't always a perfect representation either. There are
042a lot of factors that go into that, but um it just it just didn't line up the way other cohorts did. So >> because of that, we actually lost two sections from the year prior because of the decline. We we lost so many students coming into the new class of kindergarten that we lost two sections. >> Does that mean that we think we're going to gain some space availability and not next year? >> No comment. I mean it all because we operate >> right >> neighborhood elementary schools. I mean it as you just alluded to it makes it difficult with transient population and just to predict that usually you can you know we can get a thumbnail sketch because of the apartments as >> right >> Melissa referenced but uh we've seen it before Fagatville
043compared to Manly you're seeing more stability Fedville maybe with Micron arriving it'll be easier to sell some of the grand old homes in Fagville but you're seeing you you know, rentals more so on that the north side of the district. So, we may end up with more space, but we also know as an administrative unit, it could evaporate, and you've seen it, too. It could evaporate in a second. And I applaud the work that the administrative team and Amy Evans, who isn't here this evening, bringing, as you know, some of the special uh area need schools or students back into the their home district. may not be at their home school per se, but they're back, you know, among their neighbors and friends in the district. So, we've tried to capitalize on the space, but
044it could evaporate, you know, just depending on the movement. I was thinking more along the lines of you know we brought some of the special ed programs more into fail over the years and are they more spread out? Okay. Because otherwise if fail's been a capacity issue if we're opening we'll we'll we'll dig deeper into that at different >> Yeah. Enders ponyied up this year so I mean it's spread out between the buildings. Good point. Thank you for that presentation, Lisa. My question is about uh instructional staff and you mentioned certain areas that are like a der of candidates. I'm just wondering if we have any strategies in terms of recruitment for that piece as well as you know we you also highlighted diverse candidates that reflect our students. Just are we doing anything different
045this year? Starting to think about that. >> Right. We're going to try to use as I mentioned the social media more. So we're going to try to do that a little bit more to to reach maybe uh different populations that we haven't reached. Uh we do have a group that we meet with monthly at OCM Boseis and we're talking with them in terms of what strategies are they using as well and Melissa and I have attended a couple of conferences and we've been fortunate uh to kind of hear some ideas but we're going to have to start thinking a little bit differently. Um posting in the paper is great but we're we do need to start to reach out differently. Um it is a struggle in the area for a lot of people. So >>
046um to to that point, Lisa, are we I know we've had students who go into the elementary schools periodically to help out in classrooms. Are we making a concerted effort to try to recruit from within with our own students to get them excited about the field of education and tapping certain students that we think boy I bet that would that one would make a really excellent teacher and try to give real world opportunities within our own district to to help and maybe inspire from that perspective. We are inviting as many student teachers in as we can to come in and have those experiences. And last year, Dr. Ty um helped us get back in place this Syracuse University piece of it, too. So, we're getting a lot more of our student teachers um from the
047university, but any volunteers who come in trying to entice them to maybe start as an aid or an assistant and asking them to apply and then maybe from there they start doing the career ladder >> and that's part of that grow our own piece of it. So hopefully that will help. >> I'm I'm really >> still have a club at the high school and the high schoolers actually go out and visit and work in our classrooms. >> Yeah. I mean, I I think it's fantastic that we're starting to relever student teaching. Um because that's something that I've wondered about for a while, right? >> Um but I was more thinking about our current students in the high school who may like get them interested in a potential career path um about teaching and that might
048be a really excellent opportunity to to grow our own that way. I'd love to see that >> because don't they say like the data says you tend to come back the teachers tend to come back to their um home areas and that kind of thing statistically. The other thing I was wondering, are we actively involving current teachers in the brainstorming about how we can um do some different things from a recruitment and retention perspective since they're living the job right now and and maybe learn some things or have some ideas about that. some of the positions um particularly like when we had the shortage we were approaching the German teacher opening posting and we worked with uh the teacher who was leaving and said do you have connections for our music department we reach out
049to them as well and then they reach out to their connections and organizations that they're part of and then they send their our ads out to those organizations and connections they have it would be great for us to survey them especially some of our new hires too they may have some ideas and suggestions questions uh as well, but we are trying to tap into some of that. >> I guess I'm just sort of wondering, you know, we had um a teacher as a who's also a parent come and speak to the board recently about class sizes and um it might be a really great opportunity to get collective problem solving about how we can approach the teacher shortage. And you know, it helps with smaller class sizes if we have the staff to >> be
050able to um have smaller classes as well. And so I guess I was just curious if that's a possibility of even sort of having um a collaborative committee or something to work on this because the problem's not going away. It's continuing to be an issue for all districts. But >> I'm wondering about that. >> I think once we have the data that might be a good >> The only I will say I have two points. Um it's not just about having the teachers for class size though. It's about having the space to be able to do that and making sure that we >> if we're doing it for one, we're doing it for everyone to make sure that we're we're being equitable in that. We want kids to have similar experiences regardless of what building
051they're in. So I just I do think we really need to be mindful of that, too, because our most of our buildings are at capacity. >> Yeah. No, for for sure. And with any problem solving, there's always constraints, right? So, um >> Okay. >> And spe and special areas too in order to accommodate those extra classes. >> Yes. >> This year we added um some additional sessions for our new hires. And I'm wondering, Lisa, for our very last session if that could be part of our focus. So, we >> they're new to us. Many of them, as Lisa shared, are not brand new teachers, but we want to kind of bring them in and and show them our FM way and gather ideas from them as well. Um, so each of the sessions has a
052different topic, but the last one really is a year in review. We want their feedback. What other support do you need? So, we could we could weave that into it, too, and and see if they have ideas about kind of the hiring and recruitment process. >> So, that would be great. >> Do you ever have I mean, this is totally just thinking from what you said, I mean, do you ever share testimonials from newish teachers, even like videos when you are recruiting just for different tools? I mean, there's there's probably a lot of multimedia ways to share the FM experience that come out through stories. Um, I don't know. I'm just thinking of we have we have so many incredible resources here. Um, there might be ways to kind of highlight teachers that are new
053or a few years into the district and and veteran teachers in terms of their experience, why they love it, and why you should come work here. Just a thought. >> That's yeah, when I guess my past experience, I I did see those kind of recruitment uh videos where the storytelling from somebody who's been in the district either for a short amount of time or someone who's been, you know, in the district for a long career. Hearing those stories are so personal and it can touch somebody's heart and change their mind and and certainly help them join in. And and then to your um you know back to your question about having this as a potential um high school pathway. It might be something you know that we do start at the high school looking at
054the portrait of a graduate. Is this another thing that we can look at to create a pathway for our students who say you are a natural leader. You you step up to the plate. you teach. We've seen you teach others like encourage them by giving those positive praises to them and encourage them to think about a career in education and and get them right on the pathway right then and there when we have them. That would be great. Now there's so many opportunities for us to do a lot of this. >> It's exciting. So >> So Melissa, one of your answers really hit at the heart of where I was trying to go with this. you you've sat in our facilities committee meetings where we've talked about this and and yes, class size is a
055significant part of facilities long range planning. I I don't think there's probably anybody at this table that wouldn't love to see smaller class sizes in our district. And that's really where I was going with my questions is might we find some space somewhere because this is this we have space constraint problems. So I I look forward to your upcoming report on this because this is an area where as we look at each building and continue to look at each building that we continue to look to see can we find ways to better accommodate this. I mean we're very mindful of the impact of these numbers and and the studies that have been out there. Not a lot of them. You brought that to our attention. U there are not a lot lot of great studies
056but the better that we can do is great but we can't just manufacture space out of the air >> right so it's it's a long range process and one that we're certainly going to keep looking at >> so thank you for raising that is part of the issue >> or build on speculation which you've said before too >> well I wonder h how does that work if Um, if we in an an upcoming capital project, if we knew we wanted to build in some extra classrooms because we maybe wanted to be able to have smaller class sizes, is thatable from because it's not it's new space, but it's not for new. So, we have this lovely thing in New York State, BAUS, building aid units. In English, students don't like that they're called BAU. Um,
057we can't get aid for prospective space building. Currently, this is one of the things that we've continued to we're going to talk about resolutions tonight. We've we've talked about the need for being able to do this when when you have for example a micron coming into the community and you know you're a destination district and so you know you're going to see continued growth there and we know that we're already at capacity or near capacity in some of our buildings. We we should be able to build for that space and we know that building in New York State with all the approval processes takes a very long time and and we're we're hamstrong frankly in just what we're allowed to do with that >> which Thank you. I I remember that we had talked about
058that one. I guess I was just wondering, are there limits that New York State puts on, you know, a classroom has to have this many BAUs in it? Because if we said at FM, we would really like our kindergarten classes to have no more than 17 students, for example. And so we use that math to build out um we still have the same number of BAUS, but we just build more classroom space. I just I didn't know >> it it also comes back to the maximum cost allowance for aid in each building which is driven by the >> same >> ba it's it's it's one of these it's not an if you build it they will come it's they need to come so you can build it >> dilemmas and and that's where we're perpetually
059stuck on two things one is just the core classroom space but second is like just take hypothetically at Enders wrote that we added 10 new classrooms. Well, that's great, but that's 10 more classrooms that need gymnasium space and the gymnasiums are full every period. 10 more classrooms that need the same music room and the same art room and and so it's also needing to expand to those spaces which are less aidable and and so it's just th this is one of the great New York State funding school funding problems is that we as a district I think would uniformly vote to approve construction projects that added more classroom and instructional space to our buildings to have low smaller class sizes, but we'd have to do it unaded at this point. And and so being able
060to plan when we get gaps where we have smaller classes and being able to do that is, you know, the the other piece just tangentially that we've talked about is really and I don't Brad, I don't know if you still have an answer. I don't have a great answer on is is is whether that formula is going to change with UPK and which building like we have all of our UPK assigned to Mont Road as their home school right now is whether that can favorably affect the calculations for prospective construction, but I I'll I'll stop. This is a discussion that could go all day, but it's it's it's a nightmare, >> right? >> It's it's a nightmare. I >> mean, the bottom line is you can build any as many classrooms as you want. It's
061just whether you're going to get the aid on it. I mean, eventually we'll be priced out. Thank you guys. Thank you for the opportunity. >> Thanks. >> Okay. >> And one final thought on that. The reason the UPK's are at MOD is out of the three buildings, assuming we don't buy a fourth elementary school or repurchase a fourth elementary school, that's the one elementary that could withstand some additional classrooms on it just because of its footprint and location. The other buildings are pretty much tapped out. >> Okay. Um item 2.03, President's Report. Um couple of things. Um, so Dr. Ty mentioned in his Thursday letter, he and I um attended a NISBA um superintendent board um communication program uh two Fridays ago now and it was really outstanding as all of the NISBA trainings are
062and this was the first time that they have done this particular program and they got a lot of really positive feedback I believe and um I think it would be a great one to continue to partic participate in. But one of the um couple of key takeaways uh number one, it further reinforced the importance of all of us considering opportunities for um professional development. Uh I know this is a volunteer role, but it's still a an important one. And so I would encourage you to look at different conferences that are available to you and the in-person ones are really fantastic. um way better than any online one um that you could do. And the other opportunity that I would like you guys to make sure you keep in the back of your head, I really
063would like us to um consider having a board retreat um especially as we transition a new superintendent in. Um I know I believe there used to be annual board retreats or at least periodic ones with the FM board, but I since I have been on the board, we haven't really done that. Um, I think it would be a really great opportunity for us to work collaboratively and um, bring on the new superintendent and then continue to work really well together as we move forward. So, um, the other thing, uh, thank you for those of you who have contributed to the Phil Martin award. Um, if you haven't yet done so, it's not too late. Um, cash, check, or Venmo is accepted. Um, yes, I have receipts. Um, and then, uh, finally, I emailed you guys,
064um, and so I would like everyone who is on a everybody who's on a committee to think about, um, if there are opportunities to bring in either FMTA representatives or other teachers into different committee um, meetings when it's appropriate to make sure we can get input that is representative of our full school community and as well as students when it makes sense to do so as well depending on what the topics are as we move forward. So if anybody has any other ideas um to encourage more collaboration and engagement on that front that would be greatly appreciated and that is all I have. Anybody have any questions? >> Wonderful. Thank you. Item 2.04 superintendent report. >> Thank you President Fitzgerald. Backup information is in your board packet. Uh item one, capital project update. Construction continues
065on the high school's 52 million capital improvement project with an estimated 14 to 15 months to completion. Work is progressing on house 2 renovations located on the first floor before contractors will move eventually to the second floor. The facilities committee is looking ahead to putting bid packages together this winter for phase five, which is a site work for the high school, which will be done during the summer of 2026, as well as the 2025 capital transfer project, which will be at the bus garage. As reported earlier, Sam's grant funding from New York Assemblyman El Sturppy's office provided the installation of four electronic message boards at FM High School, Eagle Hill Enders, uh, Wellwood, Fael, and Mott Road in time for the beginning of the new school year. The new signs, as we said, will improve
066communication capabilities in accordance with the recommendations from our recent safety and security off uh, audits. I'm pleased to report that training did take place with the staff. So, the general public should be seeing a variety of messages beyond the customary date and time and temperature announcements. Item two, school start time committee. Our school start time committee held its first meeting in September and will meet again in the coming week to del deliberate whether or not to employ a flip a slide or a flip and slide solution potentially for the 2026 uh and 2027 academic year and beyond. The committee, which now includes students and their families, will work alongside our scheduling consultant, Elliot Marin Bloom, a former school administrator from the Baltimore, Maryland area, to examine the advantages and limitations to each approach. At the
067very le least by lengthening the school day by about 20 minutes which will include the much anticipated abbreviated lunch periods at the high school. The start and stop schedules for the middle and elementary schools could be pushed about a half hour later into the afternoon if the slide option is chosen. I'll keep you posted on that. District goals. Even though we're a month into the new school year, school officials and staff members have been busy addressing the district goals. You'll hear more about it at our next building uh meeting with the building action plans. Uh but uh along with that uh we're looking at a capital project referendum uh as Mr. Cyberg uh noted to coincide with the reset of the maximum cost allowances for the different buildings, high school scheduling to include the new
06830-inute lunch periods after we adjust to the Bell schedule for the current year, and teachers sharing examples of personalized learning opportunities in their classroom in a public fashion, such as at future faculty meetings. All while the district curriculum council puts the finishing touches on the portrait of a learner framework that will describe graduation expectations and we as we head into a future of New York inspires. Included in your backup information with this report is a copy of that portrait of a learner infographic which outlines all the different areas our school administrators and teachers are working. It's an exciting time for all of us in transitioning from a mindset of what you know to what can you do with what you know. I know FM students and staff will succeed in making this transition in the
069future as we go through the New York Inspires transitional period. And finally, last but not least, the Tri-State Consortium will have on-site training. And I'm pleased to report that FM has been chosen to host our inaugural on-site training for the Tri-State Consortium later this month. Our district's membership in the prestigious tri-state consortium allows us to participate in consultancies which are uh site visits to provide helpful feedback regarding a program regarding program improvement in a particular area as well as study groups in which our administrators join with other administrators from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey to share best practices being employed in the other districts. Thank you to Dr. Don uh for helping to organize this on-site training. This ends my superintendence report. [Music] >> Does anybody have any questions for Dr. Ty? >> Okay.
070Thank you. >> And we're still on track for by no later than Thanksgiving decision on the school start time. Thank you. >> That's what we're trying to make the decision so we can give everybody as much advanced notice as possible. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh item 2.05, reports and committee and representative updates. Um so legislative liaison, I know Marissa is the point of contact. Um going to be working with with Jacob and team of students who might be of interest. Um so they're going to connect and we'll talk through that. And Merc is not here about Boseies. So I will send it over to you Jacob for the student update. Thank you. So, as you may or may not know, this week is homecoming. Um, this Friday, we'll be having our tailgate, our prep rally,
071as well as the homecoming itself. And the day after, we'll be having the homecoming dance. So, all exciting stuff. It's going to be a very busy week for StuCo um student council. Um this Tuesday, we'll be going to the Onida um county courthouse. Um it's a bit of a field trip that we do annually, so that should be fun. um just to um better know um better learn about the kind of legislature. Um student um um as you may or may not know we um at the high school we do have a Tuesdays we vote a recent um discussion was about phone as well as near um and student opinions on that. Um if um basically the question was asking if students said it was a right decision to implement a um phone ban during
072the school day. Uh 67.8% was against it and 47.4 was said it was a good decision. So it's it's it's it's interesting. There there are many points where it could have been further elaborated and of course it is up to the students to and what they know about the the idea behind the decision that was made um on the point of the school start time committee and um bit of a shout out to Chase um we've been looking to find more students to come to this committee um so that's about something we've been working on um we um do not have like a def definitive number of how many students will be attending but we hope that'll be many um we as of complaints recently it's mostly been of internet I did have a meeting
073recently with Mr. Magna and it's something that is trying to be addressed. So hopefully it's um fully resolved by early this um coming week. So and that is mostly it for now. >> Can you say more about what the internet complaint is? Uh it's mostly been about issue of certain sites that are being blocked not by um certain involving sites that are edu or college sites etc. Mostly interfering with um teachers and how they are teaching such as if a teacher is trying to use a website to um teach us like a specific course that they need to show this is what their study has been like says. Um it's been he um there's been issues. there is a way for these for teachers to resolve these which I've discussed with Mr. McNar and it's
074something that he's been trying to address to teachers who have had issues with. >> Dr. T, do you know I I've heard that uh feedback as well. Do you know if we change something with our security protocol or that resulted in a lot more restrictions? >> Yes, our tech department is working through that. They sent an email out today and it was carbon copied in Thank you, Jacob. Um, does anyone have any questions for Jacob? >> Great. We appreciate it. Um, so this is the month we can do we're going to do some committee updates if everyone would like to. Um, Mrs. Bersani, the chair of the audit committee, would you like to report anything additional than we already heard? No, I think that having the presentation from the audit this evening really sums it
075up quite nicely. Wonderful. Thank you, >> Chrissy. And anything from community relations. >> Um well, we celebrated the new website, so if you have not looked at it, please take the time to go through it. It's beautiful. Um, we talked about reimagining or maybe redefining the government um, reception that is usually held in the fall and we will revisit that in future meetings. Um, and then just keep a lookout. We have some district-wide publications coming up. Um, I believe the annual report will be later this month, correct? And then um, kind of redesign the mental health brochure that will go out in December. >> Thank you. And that mental health report was that was partially guided by students and our counseling staff. >> Yes. Um so our communications team met with um Heidi Green as
076well as students to try to figure out how to make our mental health brochure more user friendly um and just more accessible to our students and our families. >> Wonderful. >> Thank you. >> Uh Dan for facilities. >> Um yes. So we were a little bit abbreviated on our last meeting due to some quorum issues, but we did we did have the first half of it and to your point about including others and other um interest other groups that can bring informative information. We uh and I know this is the question that's been asked by quite a number of board members is the status of the security updates following the security audits that we had done. We had a lengthy discussion about that. uh the we were joined by our Cyros for that. Um we
077have resolved that we will continue to involve them in that. Obviously they are you know frontline and have really great insight into um things that we should be looking at from what perspective. So that was super helpful. Greatly appreciate them spending the time on that. U a lot of the sec a lot of security work was completed in the 15.4 4 million roofing and security project this summer. So, a lot of the items have been ticked off from that. Jeff Brown is in the process of meeting with each individual building on the recommendations that were um brought out with respect to each building to identify what the next priorities are for each of those building. I will go into any deeper detail on it than that other than it's that is progressing as we would
078want it to be right now. Um the other part and Dr. Ty touched on this in his report is is just you know full disclosure to the community that when this high school project is done this is not the end of construction at FM. We have a lot of needs still at virtually every building including the high school. Just like the Wellwood project did not finish Wellwood and there are still areas that need to be addressed there, particularly the fifth grade wing um and the tech wing. Um there are significant areas of the high school that we were not able to touch in the current project for the answer to the question similarly that you had asked earlier Sarah on um you know relating to maximum cost per building that the the needs at the
079high school were much more than project. So that when that cost resets, it's a fiveyear reset from approval of the project. So we're approaching that soon. We will be moving forward with a proposal to the community to continue work there as well as the next schools in line. >> Thank you, Dan. >> Um, can I just ask about that? Um, so thank you for that update on the the audits. I've I've been nudging. So, I'm really happy to hear about the progress. I'm just wondering um when it's kind of all said and done in terms of this next round if we could get um just a high level summary in exact session. Just >> I I think what what our plan would be is when we have that building by building >> Yeah. >> check
080priority list. I think in exact session it would be reasonable for us to have that discussion for sure. >> Okay. So, you'll let us know when that's going to be available. And the nice thing is we've done these audits on a regular cycle. They've listed as you know the commendations on the things we have checked off on the box the recommendations that are still to do. And I suspect when the next audit comes through they'll continue to highlight the things we've done very well >> and policy committee. >> So our policy committee continues to meet about every two weeks. We are almost all the way through the 9,000 series. I think we have like one or two left. Um and our next agenda item almost literally is the annual policy review which happens every year.
081So um all the minutes are available in there for specific policies. Um almost there. Still a really fun committee. Um, so DEI and >> actually DEI and mental health has not met yet. Correct. Um, and safety committee hasn't met yet, nor wellness, correct? Okay. So, we'll stay tuned for that. Any other questions before we move on? I mean I I guess just how is the safety committee if at all connected to the work that's going on some of which is confidential. So I'm Could you just >> Okay. >> But yes, I mean it would be a great merger, but I also keep in mind they have to do the district safety plan and the building safety plans and they go through accidents and injuries in conjunction. So, it's more than just safety and security. It's
082the safety of the campus. So, there's no accidents, slip and falls, things like that. So, but we could Yeah. I mean, it's a natural fit. >> Yeah. That's just helpful to kind of refresh on what's the mission of that committee and how it ties in because we talk about safety in lots of different um layers and elements. So, okay. Thank you. Um all right, so item 3.01 is public comment. I believe we have two individuals for public comment. Um Nancy, are you here? Nancy, Nancy is not here. Um, Teres, are you here? No. Okay. Anyone else like to speak for public comments? No. No. Okay. Moving along. Um, new business. Item 4.01. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the amendment to the employment agreement of the superintendent of schools Craig J.
083Ty effective July 1, 2025 and hereby authorizes the president of the board to execute said amendment on behalf of the district. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John. And a second. Thank you, an comments. All in favor? Anybody opposed or obstained? Okay. Thank you. Item 4.02, discussion of the NISBA resolutions. So, as I sent out the homework in ad in advance, um Ann has graciously volunteered to represent us at the NISBA annual meeting and so I asked everyone to go through the proposed resolutions and if there are we're only going to talk about the ones that we disagree with the recommendation um just so an can be ready to vote appropriately. Are there any that stuck out to anyone? Guess let me get to them. >> Well, I mean, you have a fancy
084chart. I'm certain of that. So, um, resolution number That's page 14. No, it's page 14 for me. So, this was this was a a resolution to support proposals aimed at addressing the costs and administrative burdens of legal actions related to special education placements services. I am all in favor of helping to address the costs of u legal actions related to this. I'm just to me it's it's vague and I don't want to see legislative action that puts additional burdens or limitations on families who are advocating for the needs of their special education students. And so the way that this was very cursory written, um, I think it could go in a direction that could help districts but potentially hurt families. And for that reason, I am not in favor of this. >> That's an excellent
085point. Thank you for raising it. Um, anybody do we have anybody else have thoughts about this particular one? Do we have consensus on Dan's recommendation to ask Ann to vote against it? I'm personally I'm okay with voting against it from that reason. >> See head not. So thank you. >> Next one was number see I did my homework. You asked me to do my homework. I did my homework. Uh was resolution number eight which is in our packet page 16. Uh this was a this was a safety and security matter. This is a resolution to advocate for a reduction in the number of annual lockdown drills and you know the rationale discussed the the total number of lockdown drills that would be involved in from you know K through 12 and it's it's high but
086in our district as they go K to 12 they go through three different schools uh which means that you know it's it's certainly not that If if you're talking about a K12 school doing the same lockdown drill 52 times in the course of your time at school absolutely seems excessive at a district like ours where they're migrating through three schools. I I think that we should be drilling this emergency situations. I'm sorry. In emergency situations, people react based on muscle memory. And if you don't drill frequently enough on those or if some students are absent on one or both of those days, then to me that that presents a potential risk to the safety of those students in those horrific situations that we hope never happen. >> So the way I was reading it was
087um you know that is just the required amount that maybe would be reduced. But we certainly could always decide that we think we need even more than the the minimum required. >> I just don't know that we do that. We typically follow what the requirements are. >> And you know, and I'm not just thinking about just our district. We're not the only ones. I think from a safety and security perspective, there is a reasonable rationale for regular drills of emergency situations. I understand they are also disruptive to the educational process, which is a significant tradeoff, but I've not Dr. T, maybe you have, and I'd love to hear it, but I've not heard of the number of them being a specific presenting issue in our district. If it is, that's news to me. Uh not
088in this district typically. I mean they're done year round now. Uh used to be they were reserved for the winter. Fire drills were in the fall and in the spring obviously during better weather and these were done usually mid winter but now you're seeing the requirements spread out from September to June. So it's not all at once. So I just for me if you approach it from a an emergency services perspective and reliant on training and practice and muscle memory to me where we stand today is is more appropriate than reducing I don't know what the study says it says in here that um the re the research is not conclusive. Um either way, so I'm not honestly I don't feel strongly one way or the other. I don't have feel like I have enough
089information to >> I mean do we get feedback that four a year is excessive? I guess what is the experience the lived experience of the district >> experience is four is fine. I think where this is coming from and Dr. Cook could weigh in here too. It's there's research because he hides over there. No worries. >> There is research in terms of districts that have used uh blank rounds. It's traumatized. So they've asked to just conduct the drill for the sake of the drill and not doing any special effects and things like that. So that for some children they have trouble discerning whether it's actually a drill or a real life event. So they have So I think that's where the spirit of this is coming from is that they've scaled back on like I
090said the special effects that we expect in a Hollywood blockbuster but not to do it right and on campus. >> And that totally makes sense but this resolution is directed specifically to the number of drills not the nature of the drill. thinking about our own district. Oh, I'm sorry, Sarah. >> I was just gonna ask Jacob if you I'm curious what your perspective might be. >> In my opinion, I mean, drills, they just I mean, for us, they just happen quite randomly. They're not too like what I would consider traumatizing. It's mostly either for like a lockdown. It's everyone huddle into this corner and just be quiet as the lights are turned off. And maybe occasionally someone will tap on the door like make sure it's locked. It's mostly just procedure at this point. It's
091nothing that's people consider annoying. Maybe just perhaps a little interruptive to what they would consider their usual schedule. Um same thing with fire drills. Some people at the beginning of the year made a couple comments about um that one drill that inherently was not planned. Um but yeah also yeah nothing like guess against the drills themselves I mean if we're thinking about our own district I and given your rationale I'm comfortable what Dr. said about our collective experience to what we know. I would say I'd be happy to vote against this given that Do do you have another one, Dan? wholeheartedly control our own practices and we don't need any further stateirect Isn't the intention of this one to I I can understand what your thoughts are, but the way I read it is more
092just that the state provides um supports and available to help our teachers if they have questions about incorporating AI. ourselves, but I would also thought I believe as I get near retirement, I believe in local control. curriculum uh at the last Niscus conference and I'm sure this with our new FMTA president who's in the audience uh was brought up that uh with the governor basking in the glow of the cell phone uh ban that her next initiative will be school start time bills that are in the Senate the assembly and pushing them through much like California. So I know Shelley mayor's looking into it but that appears to be some fodder that's out there now. How much truth is in it, I do not know, but I do believe in local control and the and
093again cell phone ban, I understand that. I participated in the nett awareness session um in convening. I just worry that as we go down, whether it's cell phones, AI, uh, school start times, we're just going to start mixing what government does and what local boards have some power. And so, I think it'll be a continued conversation. This won't be the, you know, the end of it. I just think you're going to have to be vigilant and watch it. No, for no other reason. The state doesn't need to spend their money on this. They can give the money to the schools. The next one was related to for discussion is resolution 13 page 19. I This again goes to local. I have no specific research knowledge on this, but I I just thought we should discuss,
094do we think this is an appropriate place to be advocating for state action versus local action on whether whole milk should be served as part of school lunch? I hate I looked at that and I said, "Wow, this is >> so I read it and I wondered if like right now if students choose whole milk if it's not something that we can submit for the reimbursement on. That's all I I was cur I was curious about. >> I I don't know. And that's why I circled this one as a can we please discuss and is this a place where the state should be or not?" So there is I have three meetings coming up for this. There's a Q&A meeting, um an orientation, and then the actual meeting itself. I have not done this before.
095So there's that. But is it worth me trying to figure this out at that Q&A meeting or is that reasonable? But we're not going to meet again before the actual meeting where I have to vote. I mean, I don't think this particular resolution is of dire interest one way or the other to the board at this point in time. So, if you can't get the answer, I don't know. Does anybody feel particularly compelled to advocate for this? >> I think I think the way it's worded because it says the reinstatement of whole milk as an allowable option makes it sound like it's not allowable. Now, that's how I read it. and his team could not on the spot, not expecting that, but but can just get Ann some info on this about whether this is
096an issue. >> Yeah, if they if you guys really want us to advocate for whole milk. Um, that is the big ticket. I'm sure it's delicious, >> believe it or not. I mean, there's the school breakfast program, the national lunch, which we've had a little discussion this fall, but milk, believe it or not, is separate. I know we just think of it as the beverage that goes along with lunch and/or breakfast, but it is a separate program which we would participate in. It also at the end of this resolution states allowing the return of whole milk would also support local and regional dairy farmers particularly in New York state one of the nation's leading dairy producing states thereby aligning with the agricultural sustainability and economic goals. So um we we do need economic development agreed.
097Um how how do you want me to proceed on this one friends? I would be comfortable with you looking at the Q&A and making a judgment call. There's a lot of districts in support of this, so there may be more to it than we know and necessarily have the resources to dive into. And I believe, although I have not participated in this either, an um that once the resolution is open, there is dialogue from any of the districts who propose it. So that might give you a little more insight >> in the moment. We trust your whole milk judgment. Hi. I had number 28 flagged just for discussion. Yes. So this was now we're in the section that they were recommending against and I was curious to hear the views of the rest of the
098board on this one. Um well I guess sort of similar if it's asking New York it's a interestingly worded >> yes >> one as well because if we're saying New York state is involved in it um sort of goes to that local control piece. Um, >> I I think from my >> it's a it's exactly where I was going is I don't think that the state needs to be involved in our curriculum. This says to oppose this is a resolution to >> oppose certain involvement by the state but only in some circumstances. So I there's Yeah. Dr. Ty, do you have a opinion one way or the other on this one? >> I mean, it's double negative, which means that school boards would be in favor and that's why if you look at your infographic
099that Dr. Don had given to me that I had put in with my report. I mean the whole New York inspires uh as we look uh to do that work is closely tied to the CRSC framework that Katherine and I spoke about today. So >> I get it. But I think the CRSC framework is moving the New York Inspires program forward. I'm It's They're posing opposing this. >> They're opposing any policy that does not promote excellence. So, they only want Right. >> They Yes. >> They just want to promote anything. They don't want to promote anything that doesn't advance standards and academic excellence. >> And the CRSC framework promotes rigor and I I I just I I I just wanted to see what what input or thoughts this group had on this one as I
100read through. >> It is so generic. It just doesn't have any teeth to me. So, I'm fine with it. >> I don't >> I'm fine. >> What? I mean, >> opposing. We'reing >> We're opposing. We're going along with Nesba. >> Yeah. We're following the recommendation. >> Yes. They are not advancing this and we are going along with them. Did anyone besides Dan have I know I just wanted to see if there's anybody else that had one. I'm just curious. Okay, go ahead, Dan. >> Wait. 34. Resolution. >> Resolution 34. >> I was on page 30. age 31 >> 437. >> So this was recommended against. It's a resolution that that NISBA advocate for the mandatory implementation of daily recess for all students in schools that serve exclusively elementary grade levels in addition to scheduled physical
101education classes. I I I understood there was some vagory into this as to what is elementary grade levels. I I guess what I would just say is if there's discussion on this during the voting process that would lead to a clarification of that that's consistent with our schools, then I I I mean I'm fully in favor of this as an important part of the day. So it wouldn't be >> this I >> I'm sorry. This I believe is in response to uh as being a senior member uh commissioner's regulation stipulated number of minutes and physical education and as we move to New York inspires that seems to be absent uh for physical education. So it requires some activity daily in grades K through three. So I think this is trying to memorialize the importance of
102the kinesthetic movement and having students active. It doesn't have to be a phys class. It could have been recess supervised by a fizzed teacher. So I just think this is because of the fact that commissioner's regulation is sort of disappearing as we go to the New York inspires. So I don't know there was quite the advocacy I think back when those regs were established for physical education and there was quite a presence for that physical activity and it seems to be silent right now as we go forward still important it's just silent. >> So that's >> there's a resolution to do just that to to set the recess to be included as part of our instructional hours. solution 14 um >> that they are supporting that. >> So it was supposed to be grades K
103through three daily and if it was a fizzed it had to be the recess had to be supervised by a fizzed >> instructor. >> So is that sufficient that we're supporting 14 and not 34? It was 14, right, Chrissy? >> 14 tries uh supports uh recess in the um I forgot how we worded it. I lost my page. Sorry. >> It includes recess minutes as part of the overall >> in the instructional. >> Yes. And then this is separate which is effectively calling for mandatory implementation of daily recess which I will just add given my profession I am all in favor of. [Music] >> I think if you go to any school building when they have indoor recess I think everyone is in favor of having some outdoor recess. Uh, >> am I for so
104for what was it? 14. I'm going to thumbs up on 14 and I'm going to thumbs down on 34. >> Okay. >> I'm asking >> that's I mean that's fine as long as 14 meets our purposes and needs then. >> Okay. >> So, I'm following the recommendation. My last one was gonna go back and backwards is I just wanted to raise resolution seven with huge kudos to the Albany school board for putting this one forward um which is a resolution to advocate for an overhaul of the current inadequate testing system to more accurately measure achievement in skills, knowledge and abilities. And and if I could encourage Ann to vote with both arms, both legs, and every digit possible on that. >> Just wanted to add that. >> So I would also encourage Dan, um I
105think you would make an excellent resolution writer for for next year. If there was a particular t if there was a particular topic I think you I mean I mean that in all sincerity I think you would do an excellent job at proposing >> I think this is one of these things and we've talked about this a little bit over the years that we we kind of sort of wait until like right up to what the deadline is and said is there anything we should be doing and and I think what I would would really like to ask is across the full board and each of our committees as we are identifying and running into things like we did in the past with not being able to get state aid to prospectively build and add
106on to classrooms is as we find that we run into things that just don't logically make sense for our district that we flag those to bring back for a discussion so that we can put forth those things that we think would be more helpful to our district. >> Thank you. Yeah, excellent idea. >> Any other any anyone else? >> Yeah, I ju I just want to come back to 34 um because I think we ended saying that we were going to oppose that and I just want to clarify that the is that >> yes, we're following the recommendation >> with for the amended version of 34. So 14 was in favor of and then 34 was the amended version. Correct. mandating res again. I'm going to look at our self interest. we're going to have
107recess. We don't need it to be mandated. It would be great if we can count it toward instructional time. >> So, I was okay with how it >> Well, but and the rationale was that they needed to clarify elementary grade levels. >> Yeah. But ironically, neither did 14 and they didn't have that issue with 14. So, I thought that was kind of disingenuous. I did send to the board via email just the link to the state ed piece on this and again I think it has a lot to do with the requisite number of minutes whatever lobbying effort that existed and rightfully so for students to be physically fit and healthy is like I said gone by the wayside as things move forward and I think this is attempting to help find that balance once
108again not without having the and it's prescribed. So, the link is just in an email to all of you. >> Am I opposing? >> Yeah. Well, I was just trying to get clarity because it felt like there was some confusion between 14 and 34 and I wanted to make sure I knew where we ended up. >> Yeah, we're following Nisba's recommendation for 14 and following Nisba's recommendation for 34. Okay. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you for doing that, Ann. And thank you, Dan, for your careful review. >> Uh, okay. Item 5.01, board development. We have already discussed that. I put my plug in for events and professional development. potential considerations. 5.02 for future meetings. No changes there. Um item 6.01 future meetings. So we are meeting again uh in October about with presentation around building
109action plans which is always um a really good informative one. Uh 6.02 02 dates to remember, lots of athletic events, um, homecoming, which Jacob already talked about. Um, the small reed coffee talks is coming up this week, tomorrow. Tomorrow. >> Um, so the anxious generation, if you haven't already and you want to participate, there is information out on our website, I presume. Um, all right. So consent agenda item 7.01. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Mania Central School District hereby approves the consent agenda as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John and Chrissy. All in favor? Anybody abstaining or opposing? Thank you. And finally, uh, item 9.01, 01. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Manley Central School District enters into executive session
110to discuss the employment history of a particular person and the superintendent search process. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Rebecca. And a second. Thank you, Dan. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Thank you to all of you who have come on this really beautiful summerish night and given up your time and we will be adjourning following executive session. So have a nice evening