001Chris. Good evening everybody. Hello. What a great crowd we have. Thank you all for coming. Um we are going to call the meeting to order. 602. So if everyone could please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right. Item 1.03 approval revision of agenda. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented, please? Thank you, Chrissy. and a second. Thank you, Ann or Darl. Uh, all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay, great. Now, we're going into our favorite part, the recognitions, item 2.01, uh, Dr. Karen Lipero, principal of Eagle Hill Middle School, is going to present some recognitions to the Eagle Hill
002Character Education Committee and a student. testing. Okay. Good evening everyone. Great to see everyone. This is an honor to be here this evening. Would like to recognition these recognize the wonderful individuals behind me. This is the Eagle Hills character education committee. Dear board of education members, as the Fateville Manley School District Board of Education recognizes the vital role of teaching, student respect, civility, and understanding, I'm here tonight to express my sincere appreciation and commend the extraordinary efforts of the character education committee at Eagle Hill this year. The committee members, Nicole Commandso, Stephanie Patel, Vanessa Rose, Bella Rufo, Nicole Russell, Karen Kur, and interim assistant principal Paula Cop have embodied and advanced these core values through their dedication and innovative initiatives, significantly enriching the school community and fostering a positive, character-driven environment. aligned with the district's
003policy to foster an environment where students exhibit behavior that promotes positive educational practices, allows students to grow socially and academically, and encourages healthy dialogue in respectful ways. The committee's impactful work began with the creation of a personal of personalized who are we posters displayed outside of classrooms. These posters effectively facilitated connections between students and staff, highlighting core values such as honesty, respect, and for others and personal responsibility and promoting a sense of shared identity. A major highlight of the year was the schoolwide philanthropic focus on rise above poverty. Driven by student input, the committee organized a highly successful drive resulting in the collection of thousands of essential items for underserved youth in the Syracuse City School District. Their assembly kicked off the drive was instrumental in engaging the entire school, demonstrating the principles of tolerance
004and se sensitivity to those in need. To promote positive behavior and discourage disrespectful treatment, the committee produced an engaging video featuring student actors demonstrating appropriate hallway conduct. This was reinforced by strategically placed posters and classroom viewings emphasizing the importance of civility and courtesy. The implementation of daily announcements based on the positivity project has provided value public speaking opportunities for fifth and sixth graders while simultaneously reinforcing positive character traits such as dignity, awareness, and sensitivity to discrimination as defined in the dignity act for all students. The committee also orchestrated the second annual dance marathon team assembly in collaboration with the high school which successfully integrated positivity project traits and raised over $1600 for camp good days enabling two children to attend summer camp. This achievement supported by a successful cozy day fundraiser further demonstrated the committee's
005commitment to fostering a caring and inclusive community. Finally, the March Middle School Madness Initiative was provided weekly, engaging activities for home rooms, fostering a strong sense of community, and culminating in a celebratory treat for all participants. This initiative promoted the observance of laws and rules and enhanced the quality of students experiences in and contributions to the community. In alignment with the district's policy to ensure that the course of instruction includes components of civility, citizenship, and character education, the character education committee at Eagle Hill has demonstrated exceptional creativity, dedication, and impact. Their work has not only instilled valuable character traits straight traits in our students but also strengthened our school community as a whole. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and look forward to their continued success. Please join me in recognizing the character education
006committee for their outstanding contributions. Thank you for everything. Dr. I wonder if you would be so kind as to introduce your teachers, your character. Oh, absolutely. So, Nicole Russell is over here. She is our sixth grade English teacher. Seventh grade, I'm sorry. Karen Kur is world languages. We have Steph Patel, our health teacher. Anna Tabby is also in our music department and is also helping out over at the high school. We we want we really don't want to share her but we have to. Bridget Wanovich is our agents of change and Vanessa Rose is and Vanessa and Nicole are team they they're team partners with grade eight or six. I'm sorry I saw that. I knew I was going to say that grade six and they're unbelievable and they go above and beyond just the
007things that we're doing with our character ed committee. Um they're involved in so many things at Eagle Hill. So, I'm so grateful and appreciative and uh couldn't do this without you guys. So, thank you. Yes. Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you, Paula. Take that for her. Thank you Stephanie Vanessa Gabriella and Thank you. Oh, thank you. I would like to introduce Kevin Gordano and Janed Abbott for the next board of education recognition. Thank you everyone. Thank you everyone. We are very pleased that you had us come here this evening to recognize one of our students at Eagle Hill. Uh I'm Kevin Jordano and this is Janine Abbott. We are uh music teachers, string teachers here and we are here to recognize Yachin Ren. Um the 88th New York State School of Music Association annual
008winter conference took place December 5th through the 8th in Rochester. Yachin, a seventh grader here at Eagle Hill, was invited to the NISMA 26th annual Young Composers Honors Concert to showcase his composition for string orchestra, Dance of the Snowflakes. His composition, Yachin, is among the three young composers whose creations were selected for the sixth through 8th grade age group. A total of 10 students from New York State were invited to showcase their beautiful composition pieces at the concert. Composition winners also received workshops on their pieces with well-known composers. Yachin shared his idea for the name of the composition. My favorite season is winter, but I noticed how other composers conveyed winter is dark. When I wrote this, it reminded me of a dance and the joy of winter, which is why it's called dance of
009the snowflakes. A committee of composition sorry Yachin's composition was evaluated by a committee of New York State composers and composition teachers. He was evaluated on compositional technique, overall musical appeal and originality. The committee also provided re written feedback that highlighted Yachin's accomplishments. Some of the feedback included, "Your piece Dance of the Snowflakes made me smile right away. You've captured the spirit of charm and playfulness in your piece. It is clear that you have dedicated a lot of time, creativity, and thought to this piece. I find your sweet your motive sweet and lively because of the quickly moving rhythm and the mixed articulation. I think it's so clever how you layer the first and second themes. I also appreciate how you distribute the ideas across the orchestra. I think it's much more fun for the players
010and more interesting for the listeners when we get to hear the melodies passed around. Yachin, you've done a fantastic job with this original piece. Your creativity really shines through and how you've layered the themes and used the different string techniques. In addition to being this young talented composer, Yashan has a wonderful resonant singing voice. He's been studying cello since fourth grade, piano since he was five. He's a member of the Eagle Hill Chamber Orchestra, Eagle Hill 78th grade Orchestra, 78th grade corral, Tuesday Morning Jazz, and he accompanies various smaller vocal groups. Um, Yashin's award-winning composition will be performed and recorded by the High School Symphony Orchestra this year. Congratulations, Yachin Ren. Wow, that's so amazing. Thank you. Wasn't he also featured on News Channel 9's extraordinary talent of the week one time? Yes, rightly so.
011Congratulations. Wow. Every day is a pleasure to teach that. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you for [Applause] coming. During the last board meeting, we had a number of students from Dance Marathon recognized. Um, unfortunately, several student names were not read and we wanted to um acknowledge their contributions towards making Dance Marathon the most successful fundraiser in the history of events. And so all of these students did receive their token of appreciation by mail, but we want to take an opportunity just to read their names. Um, it was our mess up and we will acknowledge that. So, um, here we go. So Anokei Dala, Bennett Turkowitz, Elizabeth Kawa, Harry Yoganathan, Manal Thib, Marie Jasmine, Sami Dala, Serena Juan, and Udeal. Congratulations to all of you and apologies for missing you. [Applause] Okay, now
012moving on to item 3.01. Dana Pierce, the counselor at FM High School, will present on the Big Reed and FM Zen, followed by some recognition for some staff for these events and activities. Thank you. Good evening. It's nice to see you all. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be here with you to talk about FMzen and the big read. Um there we go. So FMzen actually started about 10 years ago pretty organically. Uh at that time we were noticing much like many high schools across the country probably that we were having more and more students who were really struggling with debilitating anxiety. And um so we had a faculty meeting where we had some education around what anxiety looks like in school in particular and there were a group of us that just
013kept finding each other to have ongoing conversations after that and at one point I just said can I start facilitating a conversation around that um and so that's sort of how this happened um and that's sort of our our definition that's who we are um we use education conversation collaboration and action and over Over the 10 years, our membership has changed. We've added folks. Um it's really a a nice group to be a part of. Everyone is welcome and people can come and go as their lives allow. Um the one thing that doesn't change is the dedication and commitment that our faculty feel towards the work that we've been doing. Um so over the years we've engaged in topics that have been really pertinent to our students lived experiences. Things like building resilience and self-efficacy.
014um reframing how we think about stress, mindfulness, the impact of cell phones and that was before conversation that's ongoing now about that. So, um we've been at it for a while and it's it's really exciting stuff. It's there's something special about this particular group and it's my honor to facilitate that. They're all back there, many of them. Um but these are just a few of the initiatives that we've taken on over the years. Many of the projects that we've taken on have been as a direct result of our professional summer book reads. Um, and so what we find is the texts that we choose are incredibly applicable to the work that we do as educators. Um, and we're often compelled and called to take some sort of action, often behind the scenes. I think if
015you were to ask high school students what FMZN was, they probably would have no idea. Um, but Wellness Day came out of that um, group. It was a conversation between some FM members and um now I believe uh every building in the district has a wellness day um each year. We um we at one point we did a summer book read of a number of books around technology and smartphone use because we were worried. we were already starting to see um some of the effects on emotional and mental health and um and so we were compelled we read a number of them and we came together and said what can we do? So, um, we created, uh, 22, it was 22 posters of mindful cell phone use. Um, and we hung them around the school
016and, um, students noticed them because they were the only black and red and white. Um, they were sort of in one font that would catch their eye. And we would hang up 10 at a time and then three weeks later hang up the next 10 and um, so on. So, we did that. We also created and facilitated a breakfast uh workshop, a two-day breakfast workshop after we read the upside of stress by Kelly McGonagle. Um and so we did that for a group of ninth and tth graders and a group of 11th and 12th graders. Uh and we impacted about 75 students um doing that. They joined us for breakfast and we had them for about half an hour early in the morning. Um and they did great. And uh I remember I had a
017student who upon graduation got something out of her pocket and said, "I've been carrying this with me ever since." And it was one of the cards that we had given out at that workshop that says, "Stress is what tells us what matters." Um so and then our summer professional book reads certainly have been sort of the cornerstone of um the work that we do. and the FM community big reads. I think the the big reads um have certainly been our biggest undertaking and I think you can see just from these initiatives that our work is certainly aligned with the district's mission statement to support the overall wellness of each student and to promote continuous improvement in the district's priority area of the school environment. Um so about the big reads, we've done three. Um, our
018first one was how to raise an adult and and we we really our intent is about creating shared understanding and dialogue. Um, we read How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lithcott HS about four years before we did the community big read. There were a number of FMZN people who at that time that 2019 time that was when you might have started to hear the term helicopter parent or it's it's become also lawn mower and snowblower and all of that too. But um I think we were seeing and and parents were telling us that it was so hard to not overdo for their students that our students because we were doing that out of love of course um they didn't have as much opportunities to practice those work of life skills. So, we brought um
019how to raise an an adult um to the community and uh and then we had a really good I mean it was just I think we were we weren't sure what was going to happen. We'd never done anything like that before and I I think we were surprised by how open and engaged people were and how people wanted to um do this. And so we there was a small group of us, our big read creation team at that time and we put our heads together and we essentially created a model um for what the big read has been ever since. And um because it worked and um so I wanted to talk with you a little bit about the model. Um we do a kickoff event. It's about an hour or so, 45 minutes to
020an hour. And the purpose is really to um introduce the text that we've chosen and also the process, the model of the big read so that people understand um what that entails. We want to do that so that people are coming to a place where they can feel safe and engaging in this process. Um and so our kickoff event really is about why did we choose this text? What does it have to do with us? and what will the process be moving forward and what are you interested in? So, um we had that kickoff event um and then we planned two to three small groupoup conversations. Um we actually had the good fortune of finishing how to raise an adult on March 2nd of 2020 and 11 days later the world changed and um we
021were really grateful to have gotten that in. Um even at that time people were coming and saying we'd love to have coffee talks about this. We'd like to continue those conversations. I think some of you were involved in that and probably remember that. Um, so those two to three small group conversations, those both anecdotally and via our exit surveys. So we do a welcome survey and an exit survey asking for feedback. Um, hands down on the exit survey, people really just enjoy talking with one another. They like the idea of they're randomly assigned. So they meet people they've perhaps never met before from their parents, guardians, uh grandparents, sometimes educators, all from different buildings, different levels with different life experience. And so that's been really helpful. Um we also have a dedicated website. Carrie Hammond,
022who is a guru of so many things as you know, um has done our website for us. And I love that it actually becomes sort of our online hub for each book. Um, and then it it remains sort of to tell the story so that if anyone wants to go revisit that, they can. Um, and you have in your board docs a a uh the URL in case you wanted to visit that. But we post our kickoff event on there ever since the pandemic actually and we learned how to live stream. We've been able to do that and that's been really helpful. Um, our welcome and exit surveys. Our welcome is really we ask people to RSVP. So, we send out a broad, please join us. This is what's happening. We get the word out.
023Um, we have a team that works on that. And then, um, we get RSVPs and then we send out this welcome survey that essentially says, "Who are you? Have you done this with us before? What are you hoping for? What are you concerned about?" Um, and we gather some information that we can then share with them during the kickoff event. Um, and what that does is it just really allows people, our big readers as I call them, to know who else is in the room with them. Um, and that ongoing communication is key as well. We send emails to remind people to RSVP for each event. Um, and we recognize we don't inundate people. No one needs more email. Um, but we do know that every email we send out serves as another point of
024contact um, with families, parents in our community and allows us to continue to nurture that school community partnership. Here's a little bit of big read by the numbers I'd say and these these are rough numbers um, based on RSVPs and so on. What we learned is that people don't always RSVP and what we um also learned is that that's okay. Uh we had lots of people who either forgot or made a game day decision and um joined us when they thought they didn't have child care but they did or um or couldn't come because they were sick, whatever that might be. So um you can see the dates of our of our meetings and then the corresponding numbers that go with that. Um I think it's pretty consistent. The the permission to feel I think
025was a little bit of an outlier. It was a great text and the people who engaged in it I think really had some good feedback about their experience. It was helpful. Um that was also right at the tail end of the pandemic. So we invited people back in in person but we were encouraging people to sit separately in the auditorium. Everyone was wearing masks and so on. Um but we had a live stream and an online presence at that time too. Um, and then our most recent big read, never enough. So, I wanted to share this um this particular slide with you because we use it for every single big read. I think it's really one of the I think one of the positive things that we do is really set the stage so that
026people um come to the table in a particular mindset. Um, and so we talk about what it is. It's a shared experience. Um, it's supposed to be an open non-judging conversation. So what it's not is a form for bl for judgment and blame. Um it really is about uh coming together because we all believe in the same things and that we really want to work towards making something better. It's not about fingerpointing and that kind of thing. And people have been very respectful. We've had really really wonderful um very positive uh participation in that way. Um people seem to adhere to that which is really nice. Um and it's empowering. It's about hope. If we shift things even just a little bit just because people are self-reflecting, just because people are engaged in the same
027kind of work together, um then I think it it's a win for sure. Um we also tell them it's not the answer. There are many many things many many factors that are impacting our students, many things that we as a as a district are doing to pay attention to those things and make things better for our students and families. So So saying that one particular thing like that's it, that's the thing, it's it's not. And so we we are pretty transparent about that and it's not fully defined. I think if we had other ideas about what we can add in for example when we did how to raise an adult we added in Dr. Anel coming um and presenting to to families that wasn't in our original plan but he came for professional development and
028we all went running to Mary Coughlin and said can we get him um and and so we've been able to do that kind of thing as well. So, when we found out about this book, Never Enough, I think we knew right away that we wanted this to be our 2024 professional book read, um, some of my colleagues came running. Uh, and I had seen it already and I think my mom let me know about it. She had picked our first book actually. Um, so, uh, we sort of knew that and even before we engaged as an FM Zen group in that book read, we already had sort of a commitment to make this a big read for our community because we knew that it would apply um, to who we are for sure. Um, if
029we look at the executive summary of the 2024 RMS parent climate survey, um, the third theme was this, and I quote, "Parents are aware of how academically competitive the environment is at FMSD and would like help reducing the strain placed on students to achieve balance between their academic and their personal life." That's what this book is about. Um, additionally on that same survey, uh, parents said students are stressed and overscheduled and they suggested a continued focus on students social and emotional health. We're doing that certainly as a district. Interestingly, what parents reported liking the most about the district, this is number two, it was the strong quality education, the district's excellent reputation, and the level of college preparedness of our students. And also interesting, the second among the top three things that parents liked the
030least was that they believe the high standards and academic rigor have led to overwhelming pressure and stress for students. Well, that's just complicated, isn't it? So, that's why Never Enough, it's a start. Um, in Never Enough, Jennifer Wallace explores how societal messages about success have created toxic environments that fuel anxiety, depression, and burnout. All things that we're seeing. It also shares some insights in how we can redefine success and really prioritize well-being, connection, and fulfillment. Um, one of the one of the uh parts in the introduction she talks about a survey that she did of 6,000 parents nationwide. Um, and I think the the point of doing that too is to say this what we're talking about and the reason for doing this book isn't it's not just an FM thing. This is schools like
031us across the country, wonderful schools um are also struggling in in the same way. But she so she asked she asked a number of different questions, but these three stood out to us. And since we were doing a welcome survey anyway, we wanted to see how our parents would answer those questions, too. So, parents in our community generally agree that getting into a selective college is one of the most important ingredients to later life happiness. Um, the national that she did was 73%, we had 81%. Obviously, we didn't have um a number. We didn't have 6,000 people responding, but um as you look at that particular slide, you can see that it pretty much matches. It's pretty close to um what she found as she was surveying folks as well. Ultimately, we wish childhood was
032less stressful for our students for sure. Um some key things um themes from Never Enough. So, toxic achievement cultures impact on mental health. That's a big part of the book. The role parents and schools and even of colleges. She's got a part in there that where she calls out um college process at times and then fostering connection and meeting as protective factors. We know that research links achievement pressure to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and substance use particularly among adolescents in affluent and high achieving communities. And where we're focused on external markers of success, grades, accolades, wealth, uh what kind of cars people kind of houses people that all of those kinds of things um that can really lead to a sense of perpetual inadequacy. At the same time when um children perceive their parents
033as valuing achievement um excuse me when uh relationships purpose and self-awareness are critical when they are what matters to parents versus those achieve those external achievement markers. um it seems to mitigate the effects of those achievement pressures. It's pretty powerful. So, this is how Wallace describes what toxic achievement culture feels like. Um and we have some actual student feedback to share with you about that as well. They feel they only matter to the adults in their lives, their peers, the larger community if they are successful. So, she talks about how we got there, the whole thing. It's it's really um I'm trying to make this quick for you because you have a very busy evening, but um there's just a lot to unpack and we were really grateful to have the opportunity to do that.
034Um I wanted to give you a sense of what we asked at the in the welcome survey. Two, we asked um all our big readers to um rank one through six what they were most concerned about. And these were this is what came out of that. We gave them these options. Number one was our young people meeting their own and others expectations. Um, two, social media and comparison. Three, perfectionism. Um, you can see the rest. These are all things that she addresses in the book and that we have lots of conversation about and could continue to have many conversations about as well. Um, and this is free response. And these these three that we pulled out were among a number of them, but they really thematically um were very similar. So, it was really about
035um people being concerned that that academics is winning over health and well-being, that students feel like they're not enough um and how we can make change. People say see change as being necessary. And then we ask them, "What what do you hope for? what do you want to get out of this experience? Um, and it's all about making connections, supporting our kids, having a dialogue, um, being able to be part of a collaborative effort um, uh, to make connections with the families. And it was really cool this this Never Enough, this book, um, we had people, we hadn't done a big read in a while, we had people who hadn't seen each other since the last big read, and so they really enjoyed being back in touch with each other there. Um, a number of
036our teachers uh also asked their students, they did a survey of some students. Mary Howland actually took some excerpts from the book and had some of her students read, um, and reflect upon Never Enough. And so, uh, these are some of the things that they said. I think this is a good passage for our age because we're just starting high school where sports and academics get really competitive. People often forget that it's not the end of the world if they lose one game or get a bad grade on one test. Um, here's a student who said she enjoyed reading about it because it helped her better understand feelings and changed my point of view to something much more positive. That sounds like some really good learning right there. Um and then also uh in one
037of the surveys we asked students about um hyper competition, what that feels like because we often will hear from students that the sense of competition is eroding their meaningful relationships with their peers. Um and so here's some some interesting uh comments from them. Many students think they have to do every extracurricular offered in order to get an award at the end of the year or get into a good college and succeed in life, which is a lot of pressure for a teenager. And um one of the things we talk about is growing our definition of success. What does that look like? Here's another really powerful one. Many people are drowning in their competitiveness. Listen to that. Drowning in their competitiveness and they miss the reason for doing everything they do. They should be able to
038enjoy what they do, not be stressed over the fact of whether they will win or not. And then two, if you choose not to play a sport, you get cut from a team. There's sometimes some judgment like you don't fit in. A lot of students at FM base their self-worth on athletics. And continuing as well, there seems to be at this school an idea that AP honors classes are the default. My friends in regions classes said they dislike being behind when actually they're completely on level. Um, so there's a number. I'll I'll let you read those in your in your board docs. But I think the the power of hearing from students and we shared um that information as well. Uh during the kickoff event and and after the kickoff event itself, we had a
039small group conversation. We asked what stood out and by far people commented about the power of um the student comments, their their feedback, their perceptions. Um, one of the teachers also asked, "Would you encourage adults in our community to read Never Enough?" I definitely would recommend adults to read Never Enough. Um, same for that one, too. So, uh, again, adults can help students release some of their tension and make our community a more positive environment. And, and Jennifer Wallace talks about the responsibility that adults have to do that as well. Um, okay. So, uh, I think Sarah handed you something. It's a little poster um that's lovely. Um developed by some of our um members of the Big Reed Creation Team. Gordon Flet um is a researcher on mattering and perfectionism in Toronto. And he
040identified seven ways that we can show others that they matter and also know that we matter. And so what we did is we captured them. We created this poster and we gave each of our big readers um one of these posters. And um so were a lot of educators in our in our um big read community as well. I've seen them in classrooms in a variety of different places. Um I think they will be um uh the center of more communication and really conversation with students around what that looks like. But um really high levels of mattering that's knowing that you value not not for who you what you do but for who you are and knowing that you add value back as well. High levels of mattering act as a buffer against stress, anxiety,
041depression and loneliness. It's pretty powerful and it's actionable. So the other thing that is in front of you is the um big read never enough bookmark that we created and it thank you. So, if you flip it over on the back, there are some actionable steps that people um can take in their right out of the book um where she at the very end, she has action items for parents and guardians, for schools, and for communities. Um and those have really served us well. She, this is a huge statement that I think has driven um in particular the last part of the Big Reed experience um which is this. When I asked psychologists and researchers what was making young people today more more vulnerable than past generations, the increasingly narrow definition of success. And so,
042um, we we decided in partnership with Dr. Melissa Carman, we wanted to put together sort of a finale event. Um, and it was it was just really fun. And then it got snowed out. Um, yeah, January 28th, uh, it got snowed out. but from a house of cards to a strong foundation redefining success. It just happened last Monday. Um she did an incredible keynote to really set the stage and gathered a number of panelists. Um and we just had this really wonderful, engaging, inspiring conversation. Um we had about 60 or so people in the audience, another 70 online or so. Um and uh if you if you didn't see it, I'd encourage you to go to the YouTube channel and and take a look. It's just really really powerful. Um and then that's our big
043read website. Um so so what comes next? I think that's always a question. Um and so so here it is. FM will continue. I I know that you know that I am retiring at the end of this year and um I have so loved facilitating and being with this incredible group. See this incredible group of people. It's going to continue though which is really really wonderful. Mary Howerin and Denise Mans are co-f facilitating um starting next year. Um and so FMZN will continue to do the work that it's been doing and focus on over overall student wellness. Um I imagine future big reads will happen. Uh there's a lot of moving parts. It's a lot of work. I don't think an annual big read, but perhaps every two years, every three years or so. Um
044I think that that will continue to happen. And then also in your in your board docs, um I would ask that you think about taking a look at the action ideas that came out of our third um small group conversation. Um there's some really interesting stuff there that that might be helpful um all along and it was just really um it was wonderful to be a part of and and I think the community is is continuing to have conversations long beyond our event last Monday. So Um thank you all for your support. Many of you were were with us in these big reads and um really provided a lot of support from from the district office level to building levels um and beyond. So we appreciate it. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Dana. We're so
045grateful for your efforts to encourage wellness and collaboration in our school community. The Big Read has become a special part of FM that our community looks forward to participating in. The book selections that FMzen and the Big Read creation team have picked over the years have been topics that are timely and important. Thank you for the care you've taken to both select books and coordinate impactful meetings for the Big Read participants. Many of us on this board have taken this big reed journey with you from how to raise an adult to permission to feel to never enough and have been both personally impacted by the conversations and watched how our community has benefited and grown together. Every caregiver and older student in our district should read these books. And Dana, as this is your last
046year with FM, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge your tremendous leadership to support student mental health at the high school. From the moment you began at FM 30 years ago, you've touched the lives of thousands of students and caregivers and shown up for them in countless ways. You've shown them that they matter. I am one of those students. Thank you for everything that you have done for the district and the legacy you will leave behind to support the mental health and well-being of our students. You will be greatly missed. We wish you all the best in your next chapter. Come on up here, [Applause] Dana. You gave us the perfect talking points. Others notice you. I hope you feel like you're significant. People rely on you. They care what happen what happens
047to you and they will miss you when you're not here. You're valued and appreciated and very unique and specially cared about for who you truly are. Thank you for everything you've done. [Applause] Thank you. Okay, we got everyone in tears now. So the board understands that nearly 40 faculty and staff have contributed to FM Zen and the Big Reed creation team over the years and we are beyond honored to recognize each one of them this evening. Our community is more informed, engaged and connected thanks to your efforts. We absolutely hope these types of community and school partnerships will continue and we would like to recognize each of you. So, if when your name is called, if you'd like to come on up to this area, that would be great. And if I mispronounce anyone's name,
048please correct me. Christine Ayello, Melanie B, [Applause] Kathleen Benedict. [Applause] D. Brennan down here. Okay. Melanie Campto Campello. Stephanie Simono. Samino. [Applause] Samino. Sorry. Christy Kiopa Chop Chapa Chapa. Now here, thank you for calling out in the crowd with the right names. Ben Clardy, Kayla Kquit. [Applause] Meredith friend. Okay. Angela Gage. [Applause] Eva Gia here. Okay. Mary Hollerin. Okay. Carrie Hammond. Carrie is missing a baseball game right now. So, this is a big deal. Oh, I think you do. Aaron Hance, Becky Hartman [Applause] Wade, Jay Hayes, Christina Ray, Nicole Kelly, Joanna Leero, Liz Lutz, Denise Mons, I know Denise is here. Denise loves attending board meetings. I know. Thank you. Let's see. Pam [Applause] Mitchell, Julie Parker, Marissa Patrick, Mary Petrulus. I know Mary's here. It's like Price is right. Thank you, Francancy Felin, Dana
049Pierce. Getting steps in. Chrissy Popper, Laurel [Applause] Pritchard, Amy Raymond. Kristen Rubaca. Rupa. Rubaka. Reubaka. Kate Stewart. [Applause] Patty Stokes. [Applause] No such thing. Heather Simpson, Carrie Tyler, Athena Zetsi, did I get that right? Did I really? All right. Thank you, Biz Wheeler. Sarah Woodward, [Applause] Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you to all of you. We really, really appreciate you taking time to come out here and to talk us through all the great work that you've done. I hope you enjoy this beautiful weather tonight. So, if you'd like to leave, you're welcome to. Or you can stay. [Applause] Okay. Item 3.02, O2 presentation from assistant superintendent do Dottton and colleagues about the K through6 literacy program. Hi everybody. You asked last time when we thought we would be sharing our recommendation and here we
050are. So it's my pleasure um to welcome a a really fantastic team. So, I'm going to turn this over very very quickly um to our ELA uh curriculum instructional specialist Amy Reman Schneder as well as a group of teachers who have been piloting our recommended program this year. We have kindergarten teachers Julia Croninberg, Diane Lewis, we have second grade teacher Kim Fuller, third grade teacher Katie Nent, and fourth grade teacher Crystal Ross. So, they'll introduce themselves and they'll give you an aspect um of a program. So, we're going to go um relatively quickly through um how we got here, which was a really comprehensive process. We'll share our recommendation um to the board. Amy's going to talk us through some of the data um that led to the decision and then what better way to
051share um what this looks like and what what it does for kids um than to get to our classroom teachers to talk about their experience. this year and then we'll finish up with next steps. So, um for our uh district, this was a two-year process really. It started in the spring of 23 um with a literacy review which we um talked a little bit about in previous presentations. Um that led us to creating uh a pilot uh program appraisal team where we looked at six different programs, narrowed it down to three and then eventually narrowed it down to two. That uh two those two programs were piloted this year. Um and what we're sharing today is our recommendations um for the coming year. And here it is. Our recommendation um is that all K4 classrooms
052adopt benchmark advance in the coming school year. When we had talked earlier um in this year, we weren't sure how far we were going to be able to go in the budget in terms of um supporting classrooms. And so I'm really excited that um with the proposed budget um if it is approved, we would be able to fund all K4 classrooms all at once, which is really really powerful. and something that is great to hear. Um what this means is that we're not recommending five and six. We're going to talk about that and what the data um looks like there. Um there are some reasons why it wasn't the perfect fit. We don't want to invest in anything that isn't the perfect fit, but we do have a lot of feedback that's going to get
053us to the perfect fit. So we'll share that. Um and I'll start with Amy Reman Schneider talking about what our data tells us. Hi everybody. You've seen a lot of me this year I feel like. Um so the data that led to the recommendation was varied. When evaluating the piloting programs, teachers used a rubric and benchmark advance received a higher overall score. Some of the areas to highlight in addition to the explicit and systematic phonics instruction and comprehension with knowledge building are the explicit systematic instruction of writing. The opportunities for students to reflect on and practice core social emotional learning skills and the explicit and systematic instruction in fluency. When the growth of students was looked at from fall to winter with our universal screening measure AS web plus there was a larger student growth
054percentile for students identified at risk. There was also stronger social studies and science tie-ins. And our February teacher survey had higher agree and strongly agree responses in areas such as sufficient resources for different learners. That looked like opportunities to meet students where they are with supports like a multilingual dictionary and read to capabilities. There was also the support of critical thinking skills and growth with students comprehension and writing skills. That was at the grades kindergarten through fourth grade level. The data at grades five and six looked different. It received both pilot programs received lower March teacher rubric scores and there was just general overall dissatisfaction with both programs. The time needed for both programs made it difficult to have concise units that have a flow within days and across weeks for teachers and for students.
055From the surveys, motivation and engagement were areas of concern that were expressed in teacher, student, and family surveys. Teachers and students were missing novels and fulllength texts and reading materials were only sometimes interesting to students. From the rubric and surveys, positive aspects such as the spiral style of the program and word study vocabulary development were noted, but were not enough to warrant recommending the program for grades five and six. Aspects such as these will be prioritized as we consider the next steps in grades five and six, which we'll speak to a little bit later. Jacqueline Gangoff and my count Jacqueline Gangoff, my counterpart, and I are deeply appreciative of the teachers for piloting. So, Jacqueline Gangoff, my counterpart, and I are deeply appreciative of the teachers for piloting with open minds and for the specific
056and thoughtful feedback students and families took the time to give us. We are now going to hear from some teachers about the various components within Benchmark Advance. We're going to start with foundational skills. Hi, my name is Julia Croninberg and I'm a teacher at Fable Elementary. I teach kindergarten. Um, so at the very beginning of Benchmark, the first 20 days, there's a unit and it's called foundations and routine. Um, for the first 20 days, it's just an introduction into uppercase and lowercase letters, including their sounds. There's um included if you look at the slides all of those visuals are used to introduce each letter and sound. Um there's also we're provided slides to understand the daily routines and pacing of benchmark before we actually get into unit one. So the first 20 days it's really
057a trial and error and trying to understand the pacing of everything. Um the first 20 days is also when they introduce centers and how teachers can lead the centers. um the various resources you can do and certain activities. Um there's also building reading foundations for kindergarten and first grade. Um so in terms of the spiral review, the whole class in my classroom is so engaged all morning long. They're able to sit on the carpet. They are asking higher level thinking questions. They're turning and talking to each other. Um, there's a letter song for each letter of the alphabet and almost every word is that first letter of the alphabet and it's very catchy. So, we sing these songs all day every day getting ready to go to lunch and recess. So, it is really easy
058to just put these songs on. Um, and in addition, there's high frequency word videos that are really engaging that we put on all the time. Um, in terms of print concept, there's one daily poem. Um and we really analyze the word structure, punctuation, capital, capitalization, um and uh the spaces. And again, that is when we do the guided practice questions and turn-in talks. And I always say that they're the little teachers of the class and they can lead the discussions, which is really interesting to see for four and 5-year-olds. Um and then in terms of fluency modeling, the illustrations are so engaging in our big books. We reread them throughout the whole entire week. um the text are in the students unit packets. So when I'm reading on the big book, they have the unit
059packet right in front of them and they can point to every word. So it's a lot more engaging um uh in this program. And then in terms of vocabulary, we really build the knowledge and academic vocabulary. And then there's also materials in do language for the ELLL learners which is very beneficial as well. Good evening. My name is Diane Lewis and I'm one of the kindergarten teachers at Enders Road School and I was lucky enough to pilot Benchmark Advance this year with the help of Amy and Jacqueline. They they they deserve some big. So, I'm going to be talking to you about phonics, which is the method of teaching reading, writing, and spelling by connecting letters and sounds. And I have to tell you, I was very impressed with this program. Um, not only the
060way that it is structured, but also the materials that support the structure. And as a person who teaches little children, it's very hard to keep them engaged and be and be active learners for 90 minutes. But this program does such a fine job. So funological awareness, we're looking at letters and sounds. And some of the wonderful materials they have is they have these large work maps which we can write on with erasable markers and on the back for sound boxes when we're stretching out words and writing sounds. We also have these really neat magnetic tile boards that we use when we're building words. Of course, all the letters have fallen, but they're still sticking, so that's all that matters. So, we are tapping out the sounds, pulling them down in the sound boxes, building the
061words, and then we're writing them. Another big part of the phonics is encoding. So some people might call that as dictation, but we do this at least once a week with the letter and word family that we're working on. Like this last week was w and it was the short e sound. So we were doing like the words wet and changing that vowel sound ending sound to create new words. So the kids are actually it's almost like taking a spelling test and it's also a dictation of sentences. And if you were to see them do this, you would be so surprised. It's not a big deal. This is just something that we do and they do it with such great confidence. That's what's so exciting. As far as um reading, this program provides wonderful decodable
062text. Not only do they give it to us in big um book form like this that we can use, but you can also pull it up on the Smartboard. There's a digital copy and then the children each have their own personal copy of the same book. teachers aren't spending their time making copies. This comes with the program and these go home. And tied to this little wonderful book is our reading and writing journals, which has all kinds of phonic um tasks. And we're writing, we're reading, we're spelling. There's decodable text in here. And at the back of this wonderful book is a list for the parents to show them the the concepts or skills that we worked on this unit. So the parents can check it off and there's a a board game and I'm
063not done yet. There's some activities that they could be doing at home to support their child's learning. So for every unit there's a booklet. Okay, I think that's it. So thanks for listening. Nicely done. Thank you. I like the visuals. Good evening everybody. I'm Kim Fuller. I teach second grade at Mott Road. Um, and we were unique this year in that myself and Katie and Christa all got to really talk through the not only the spiral in our own grade level, but how it spiraled throughout the following grade levels in our hallway. Um, so I'm here to talk to you a little bit about the reading comprehension and the vocabulary at a glance because um, we could go on for a really long time. Uh, the benefits to Benchmark Advance are there's nothing in isolation
064anymore with this program. Everything is embedded and connected to each other. The phonics skills are connected and embedded into the reading and the writing which along with speaking and listening skills um, fosters a well-rounded literacy development of our students. The higher level texts that these students are exposed to taught whole group give them the exposure to higher depth of knowledge and unpacking a text with multiple readthroughs throughout the unit and throughout the weeks. The complexity to analyze text, identify key information and make inferences is built in as we go through the text per week. This program incorporates explicit instruction, practice with context with it, which is huge, and a spiral review of skills and standards across the units that you've heard already through the other speakers. Um, the standards and skills are revisited throughout the
065program, reinforcing learning and building mastery of the skills before they move on to the next grade level. This program emphasizes both literary and informational texts to build a comprehensive understanding of different genres and topics including very strong science, social studies and literary content to build the students knowledge base and enhance their understanding. This program teaches foundational reading skills like letter sound connections that you saw and decoding by grade level which just helps build a strong foundation for comprehension as they move through the grade levels. Students are answering questions that encourage deeper comprehension with vocabulary and actual concepts, and they're applying text evidence to support claims like never before. The weekly and unit assessments that we can give given benchmark can be administered on the computer or on paper, which is huge for a teacher's choice.
066The online assessments as we spoke, Katie and I spoke, Christa and I spoke, the online assessments that my students are taking in second grade, they can be read aloud to students and the format is so similar to New York State assessments that our third and fourth grade colleagues don't have to spend the extra time teaching them how to take the test. It's just embedded in. So, I'm excited to see what my second graders can do next year in third grade just given that little extra help from their third grade teacher. So, then vocabulary at a glance. Um, there are topic based texts with themed units. Each 3-week unit features short and extended texts that introduce and reinforce the vocabulary words. The vocabulary graphic organizers provided to us help the students understand the relationship between the
067words that they're reading and what the words mean and they're used in context. Again, that's huge. They're not in isolation. The um vocabulary encourages students to research and discuss different topics, promoting communication skills and vocabulary use. Again, that conceptualized use of actual vocabulary words. and it focuses on applying learned vocabulary and skills in various texts which we didn't really have that connection before. So I'm really pleased to share this with you. Thank you for your time. Good evening. I'm Kathleen Nent. I teach third grade at Mott Road Elementary School and third grade I would call the middle child. Um we run a broad spectrum of readers. We come in some of us at kindergarten and first grade level and some of us come to third grade reading at maybe at a fifth sixth lexile level.
068So it's an interesting space for literacy. It's um where they come to us learning to read and we hope they become lifelong readers that are reading to learn. So, I'm here to speak on third grade as the middle child um on word study. Third grade students weekly build automaticity at the third grade level with word lists that focus on common features such as open syllables, closed syllables, controlled values. This com progresses in um complexity to variant vowels, suffixes, and prefixes. And each weekly word list in third grade has a hundred words students are exposed to and studying and absorbing. They're learning 300 words per unit. At the current time, as of today, third grade students have exposed to and had access to almost 2,000 words in counting. And here's where I'll insert yours, my student
069Daniel. I'm a word collector. I'm a word builder. I do love Legos. The building of automaticity allows students to apply and then transfer their phonics knowledge to text at the third grade middle child space. We've been wanting this decodable text, whatever that you want to call that, guided reading, access to text benchmark has it. This is not a pitch. I'm a third grade teacher. Um, I'm just thrilled that we have that now. Um, each week there are topic related short accessible mini text passages that help build your child's fluency, our children's fluency. Um, so what does that look like? What does that look like right on the carpet or at the reading table? It looks like today, this morning, we introduced a word list that featured the dip thong OU study sort. Don't ask me
070to explain that. All I can tell you is that there's a space for all readers there. Starting with the O W and O sounds this morning, we have the word wow. Now down brown we can increase that to mouse pronounce amount throughout. And why not throw in mountainous your your third graders have an entry point to fluency and I think maybe that's a hot spot to stop on which is access entry point um lifelong readers. Um I'm here to speak on phonics but I'm also here to represent yours and our students. So I'll close with Mia. I'm a word artist now. I can now paint pictures with words in my writing, in my speaking. Good evening. I'm Christa Ross. I teach fourth grade at M Road and um I'm going to speak with you about
071writing process in um benchmark writing is balanced with reading and I will say of course the vocabulary and word study are all components of that as well. We know that writing and reading are closely um interconnected. So writing about reading certainly reinforces the comprehension and the analysis of our reading passages helps uh to grow our understanding in writing craft grammar etc. Both areas are mutually supportive all the areas are mutually supportive to each other in a cyclical manner. In fourth grade, instruction of narrative, explanatory, and opinion writing is balanced between textbased prompt driven writing and process writing. Analysis of mentor texts guide instruction in each unit. Uh, for example, I'm going to toss out last week we had a writing prompt that was to compare and contrast two texts with consideration to topic, genre, point
072of view, text structure, and purpose. Each day, an explicit skill or strategy is modeled with the mentor text, something like determine the main idea with evidence in this particular case, or point of view, or provide evidence for text structure. Students then practice this strategy in small groups or with partners. And finally, they work with uh their own student source text to try the skill independently. And this is how each type of writing is scaffold from the explicit instruction to the kind of guided group practice to writing independently. Planning pages are key to the organization and text evidence uh of text evidence and synthesis of information as students to help students guide their writing. Writing checklists and rubrics are key to helping students self-monitor for specific criteria as they revise and edit. Something um I think
073that's particularly strong with Benchmark is that grammar instruction is incorporated into the writing lessons. Um students can analyze a reading passage for a particular purpose, simile, metaphor, uh common uh comma use, punctuation, uh modal auxiliary. Everyone loved that phrase. Um that was very fun. um and in this manner um this is how they incorporate their understanding uh into their reading and writing work. I think perhaps one of uh the strongest aspects um that I've noticed in working with benchmark this year um as well of course in addition to the systematic direct instruction is that throughout the year the units spiral to scaffold increased autonomy and independence. So, not only do they write extensively, I think that was mentioned before about their reading, but rather than having just one main unit on opinion, narrative, or explanatory
074writing, students have the multiple opportunities throughout the year um throughout the whole course of the year to engage in each of these particular genres, writing through a number of unique lenses. This ultimately um has the benefit of supporting students in creating much more varied and diverse writing pieces uh throughout the year. So where are we headed from here? We are fortunate that we still have two staff development days left this school year to start um preparing teachers to switch over. On our May 20th staff day at K4 where teachers will have a chance to do some initial onboarding to build background knowledge with benchmark advance. And on the June 6 staff day, they have time with a benchmark literacy consultant to work with them to really unpack benchmark advance and what it looks like within
075the classrooms, what materials are there, how to look through the resources and utilize them to the their most effective use. Our summer work will be working with current piloting teachers to help streamline the transition as we look at a K4 roll out for next year. Next year we'll be providing ongoing support similar to this year with Jaclyn Gangloff and myself providing direct support with units as well as benchmark literacy consultants providing professional learning with grades five and six. We are planning to start with developing a common framework and then once the framework is solidified, the work will begin revising and creating units and lessons to provide students with the best experience based on reading research in regards to how the brain learns to read. I really love my job. I this was this entire this
076two years is a product of It's teacher voice. It's student voice. It's family voice. It's teachers telling us in 2023 like this is what we need. We need horizontal alignment for our curriculum. We need vertical alignment. We need everything um to be available to us so that we're not scrambling and peacemealing because the po the core program um isn't there. We need it to align to science and social studies so that we have time to do all of these things. We need to have multiple opportunities to build skills and have multiple entry points so that regardless of where you start you can you can experience a sense of rigor and you can experience um growth and I have said it when we started um last year I will say it again programs don't teach kids
077teachers teach kids but when you have a solid program and you have teachers like these you have magic and so I look forward forward um to again sharing this recommendation and to be able to talk to you where we are next year, where we are in three years, where are we in five years because we were rocking it before we had a core program that does all of the things that teachers were asking for to be able to to say that we could do this K4 out of the gate next year. I I can't wait to see where we go. So with that, we would say thank you so much for your support and we're happy to answer any questions. Um just I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who came to speak.
078I it's so powerful to hear the actual classroom teachers who are working with our kiddos every single day to see the impact that this program has had. Um it's it's wonderful. So thank you so much for your time and your attention. Cindy, you had a question. Yeah, this looks wonderful and the enthusiasm is great. I do have a quick question. Over the summer, will there be curriculum hour times? Because we've got a lot of teachers who need to have time to engage and create their own pathway through. So, will there be curriculum hours for all of those teachers? Absolutely. So, one of the big challenges that we had with um curricular hours was right, we we dedicated a lot, I want to say over 700 hours just for the pilot teachers. And we were trying
079to about what is the way that we make sure that we can get on everybody on board um for the beginning of the year. So, as Amy alluded to, she and Jacqueline are creating um a course. It will actually start the day after our staff development day on June 6th. Um it will start on June 7th. It will go all the way through um August 15th and that gives um teachers the entire summer to engage. Um so, there will be um some hybrid work. So, there's opportunities for them to get started in June if they want to until July. There's opportunities for them to start then. Um there will be opportunities for in-person meetings and training as well as some hybrid training as well with the goal being that everybody is part of that foundational
080piece of that first 20 days as well as like the first unit. And then we're keeping all of the the support that we had during the school year next year in terms of the weekly meets um the curriculum time as well as um hours there too. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Y Hi, Katherine. So, I'm glad and it I'm so thankful for teachers who have advocated for this change and put in all this work. Um, five and six I it does this mean and it might just be my own not understanding. Are we is this like grow your own for five and six? No, I think it t it really essentially what the data showed us right I think the biggest impediment um it was time the fact I think if five six were in the
081same building right it's it's a different it's a different structure for the day and so the biggest challenge I think that five six teachers um were sharing with us was that you're you're taking something that is really solely dedicated to a 90minute block but you don't have that in the context right um of the middle school schedule. Um so it was a little bit of a square peg round hole. Um what the data did say um was that there were pieces across both programs as Amy uh mentioned word study, non-fiction work, there are pieces that teachers want to build, right? So, it's taking the best of what we have like our novel study um some of the work that allows you know students more choice um and building units to complement that. So, it's going
082to start with us identifying the priorities that came out of the data, especially the the teacher rubric um from March. Figure out what those priorities are and then build it seamlessly into what we have. And then we also have people have mentioned the spiral, right? Um the idea that these skills continue to build build that also gives us a framework across both of those programs of how those can continue to build. So some of it is yet we are building it but we're going to build the best of what we learned from both programs. Thank you. Do you have an idea as to timeline for the 56 work at this point? Well, I think we're going to go we'll try to get the foundational pieces done in this spring and then the goal is that
083we have at least one um unit for the beginning of the year and and we'll we'll we'll build from there. So, we're we want to go sort of one unit at a time um so that we can make sure that we have alignment across both of those all of those grades as well. The good news is it's it's a faster timeline than we were expecting, right? because we didn't think that we'd be able to um suggest going all in on K4. So we, you know, initially we're thinking about we'll we'll start with K1 and then we'll do 23 and you know, so the fact that we could go K4 means that we can now also focus on 56 next year. Um and that's going to get us where we need to get faster. Does anybody
084else have any questions? Great. Thank you all so much. [Applause] Okay, lots of presentations tonight. Uh 3.03 is our 202526 budget presentation and public hearing. So Mr. Corbin is going to present the proposed budget and then we'll open the public hearing. Everybody left. I can't even grab them if I wanted them. Well, thank you. Uh, this is the last piece I guess is for our budget process, although I think Craig and I have actually have a couple more road shows to do. So, uh, we'll get right to it. Uh, first off, we've got the vision and mission statement. I think we put this up consistently every year. I think everybody's probably well acquainted with it. uh strategic plan similar uh same thing here for we'll be updating it every year. So new initiatives you can
085see here some of the new program goals. I think uh some of this stuff was was pretty consistent from the uh prior year. Um those are something that have been stated I think at the beginning of every year and we follow through capital project and capital transfer work uh summer 2025. You can see there of the high school capital project uh some of the areas there and I think most everybody got a chance to tour it and hopefully that went well. Uh we also have partial roof replacements at high school Wellwood and Eagle Hill schools. We have HVAC control upgrades at FAL, the high school, maintenance and transportation. And we have safety and security upgrades across all district buildings. And those last three things being part of that uh 15.4 roofing safety and security project.
086So the budget development process itself uh November timeline is usually where the budget guidelines are established. Uh December budget meetings start with administration and supervisors. March 10th administrative and capital components. the 24th being program, transportation and revenue and then the 21st overall summary budget and then the actual adoption itself and then tonight with the budget hearing and then the Tuesday the 20th being the actual budget vote from a budget components perspective you can see there uh the New York State required capital component administrative component program component being the three uh from a pie chart perspective you can see in the blue being program the largest one being about 86 million or about 73.8% 8% capital the next largest in the green at 20 million or approximately 17.3% and administrative being the smallest at 10.4 million
087give or take at 8.9%. Uh from a benchmarking perspective you'd say administrative you probably want to have less than 10% capital somewhere in that 15 to 20 and program somewhere in that 70 to 75 that achieves that. From a dollar's perspective, you can see again that three-part component 2425 on the lefth hand side being about 111 million in the middle being the projected budget uh for 2526 and totaling that 116 million and then those corresponding perspective changes on the right being admin at 385 program at 325 capital being the largest at 11.5 and I'll talk about that one a little more in a minute. Uh the big point being on the bottom the first bullet staffing and program no cuts to either program or staffing and anything related from a salary perspective has either been
088negotiated or it's a forecasted settlement. So capital budget uh represents 1.9 million that's a 12.4% increase overall represents about 17.3 million out of the $116 million budget. Administrative budget next increase about 214,000. It's about 3.2% 2% and administrative represents about 7 million out of that 116 million. Program uh represents about an increase of about 2.9 million. It's about three and a half%. It's the largest part of the budget again overall represents about 86 million and again that me that main key point being no cuts to program or staffing which includes mental health staffing and services mental health services. This is a slide I think we started maybe about two years ago. Uh it's been a topic that's been discussed and obviously even tonight. Uh it's been very important here at FM. Uh for the most
089part, we've been fairly consistent with everything here. There's been no changes. Again, up at the top, you can kind of see that what we've got here represent represented being the family school liaison with six of them, counselors of 13, psychologist, seven. Uh we did have a change here in Dominic with the uh the suicide safety mental health educator and everything being consistent uh for the last year. Anyway, so overview, if you took like a summary slide and put everything there and kind of said, okay, we have need to talk about the budget in one slide and kind of encapsulate all of it. You can kind of see here from that aspect. You can see the first thing being salaries. It represents 2.4 million. It's what I call fixed cost. It's either represented through negotiated or
090forecasted contracts. Health insurance and benefit costs. Similar in that concept being fixed. I know it's constortion based but it is a fixed cost and based on what they recommend for for an increase those increase rates represent about 1.4 million. Uh something new for us this year is that capital transfer. It's actually reduction uh going from 1.5 million down to 1 million. Uh the real premise behind that one is really the fact of the capital project work we're doing itself along with that roofing safety and security project work. A lot of the work that we would have probably potentially identified in that cap transfer has been captured uh within those projects. Debt service is the last one. We had an increase uh related to bond anticipation notes. The driver there is really the construction started primarily
091in that $52 million project. Uh money is going out. We're getting work done etc. The aid hasn't flowed yet but those expenses have increased. So that uh bond anticipate excuse me that bond anticipation note uh has increased and at this point it's a $ 1.9 million increase overall uh within that. So if you take those four components, you add them up, you get approximately $5.2 2 million and that represents, as you can see in that bottom bullet, that 5.2 projected budget increase for 2526 on the expenditure side. So, the budget on a 5-year trend, uh, overall, you can see it's pretty consistent somewhere in that 5.8 at the 2122 mark. Uh, we actually went down this year to 4.64. We did a little bit more, uh, was kind of trimming some things and looking at
092some different opportunities specifically in relation to some of the debt and the payments related to that. Uh so overall the budget at 116 million represents about a 4.64% increase. Three-part budget. Uh this is something that goes out in our newsletter. This represents the program portion. You kind of see it broke out. It's again it's a lot of that same information just in a more detailed uh perspective. Over on the right hand side and at the bottom you can kind of see overall program going from the 83 up to about that 858. Uh that increase about that 3.25% that I've been talking about. Next we have administration and capital. Uh the other two parts of the budget as we already talked about and again similar and the fact of detail based you can kind of see
093again over on that right hand side the 3.85% increase administration and then in capital at the bottom being the largest part and then the overall budget itself going up 4.64% up to 116 million. Next we have revenue. Uh revenue here is again another three-part here broken out with the property taxes, state aid and other revenue. uh you can see tax levy on the lefth hand side or in the green represent the largest amount from an FM perspective it's kind of at this case about 65% so it's kind of that twothirds represented uh state aid at 30% being in the blue and another revenue the smallest part being about 5 a.5%. State you can see in the middle in the 2425 time frame uh we were at 34 million accounts for approximately 30.6 in 2526 we
094were projected to be at about 34.8 8. It's an increase of about 830,000 or 2.4%. That again accounts for approximately about 30% of FM revenues. That's primarily attributed to the three on the bottom. You can see there being foundation aid, Bosey's aid, and transportation aid. So those three things as you can see captured in here is a breakout from an aid perspective. You can kind of see there from the foundation aid all the way through and then over on the right hand side the increases. So foundation aid was an increase of approximately 480,000. Um that's more of a formula based aid is what I'd call it. You know, wealth ratios, enrollment, things of that nature. Uh Bosey's aid up about 200,000. High cost aid, we saw a decrease. That's really more of a shift where
095we had students and services that maybe in the past we've had through Boseies, something we're bringing back here in the classrooms, whether it's a 1211, 811, etc. So that corresponding aid would be less aid with less expenditure. uh transportation aid, we're seeing projected increase about 340,000 more expenses, etc. generates the more aid. Property taxes being the next one. Uh you can kind of see in the middle the cap itself at 3.56 levy we're projected or recommending to go out at 3.56. The tax rate impact this is really an estimate. It's one I've had a couple people that I think have written Dr. Tyer reached in about. uh at the time when I put this together, it's really on uh you know, in this case, it's just a projected amount of data. So, in this scenario,
096it's a $100,000 home assessment represent a $54 increase. At the time, this was using a 10% assessment increase. I think assessments have come in maybe last week, give or take. I'm kind of here in town of Manly somewhere in that 7 to 8% range. When I talked to Pat Duffy and put this together, Pat's kind of thought at the time was somewhere going to be probably around that 10% mark. The other big piece to this that wasn't known at the time is equalization rates. Some of those have now actually come in. Uh we've gotten actual information. So that 54 is probably going to be more like 20 or even less than that in some cases depending on where you live and and uh what township you're in. So the good news I think that's a
097high water mark. Uh and again it's an estimate as we've been telling kind of folks reaching out here and there with a couple emails to Dr. Ty. It's really based on that estimated data when we put it together. Other revenues next represents smallest part of the budget. Those are some of the corresponding uh areas that's covered within other revenue. Uh from a dollars perspective or category perspective, you can kind of see here what it represents. Uh the ones with a significant change in it interest income. The prior year we had projected somewhere around a million. Uh the current year rates we think have still hold and they're projected to be somewhere 1.3. So it's an increase about 300,000. You can see prior year refunds. It's really doing an adjustment budget to actual there going from
098the 400 to the 500. And then really the big one at the bottom being assigned fund balance. So assigned fund balance we were somewhere about a million last year. We're recommending about 2.3 this year. It's an increase of 1.3 million. It's really almost directly attributed over to that ban increase where we had that 1.9 million coming in there. We did a real good job this year. I think we started out somewhere around the three and a half to$4 million worth of debt. We're able to pay that down and using some surplus funds. etc. But that remaining portion is really going to be probably hit here with that assigned fund balance. So overall, uh, on a $116 million budget, you're, you know, you're basically at this point budgeting an assigned fund balance at 2.3 million. That's
099pretty reasonable. You're going to have certain districts that are somewhere in that 20 to 25 million range that they're going to be almost at alone. So, uh, we're pretty comfortable with those numbers. So again, like expenditures on a onepage slide, how do you account for everything and offset if you're going to have it one summary format to kind of sit down and talk to everybody? It's really made up of these three main bullets. State aid 800,000 again represented by that foundation aid, transportation aid, and Bosey's aid increases. Property tax levby at 2.6 million again going out that 3.56% hits the cap as well as the levy and other revenue being 1.8 million. And again, it's primarily made up of that one big amount there with the 1.3 million of appropriated fund balance. So if you
100take those overall, the 18, the 26, and the 800, you get somewhere in that 5.2 million range, but offsets the 5.2 million in expenditures. So tax levy on a 5-year trend, you can see in the 2122 and 22 23 time frame, uh there are anomalies there at the 1.1 and 1.8 COVID time period, less expenditures, less coaching, you know, remote learning, etc. So there was less expenses. There was federal aid that it came into to help offset and therefore you had less of a tax levy at that point. You get down to 2526 were pretty consistent with the last couple years sitting there at about 3.56. The main point there I think is one that kind of as I've talked to maybe some of the folks with our road show with Dr. Ty. You're going
101to have neighboring districts or other districts when the within basically the OCM component. Uh some of them are going to have less. the me the main question I've asked or the question you know that I think a lot of us have asked kind of like how are you getting to your number I've seen everything from a lot of people who have made cuts they've used reserves things of that nature we're in our case it's a different scenario you're going to have maybe four to six different districts I think you're probably going to seek well for supermajority uh I know there's been cuts at some neighboring districts that are as deep as 16 years we don't have that problem so we don't have any cuts projected in this we think we've got enough budgetary perspective to
102cover everything that's there from what we understand we have reserves. We're going to go out with a levy at 356. So I think it's pretty fair and I think it's a it's you know a good opportunity and we're fortunately not in some of the situation some of these other districts are in bus purchase proposition. Uh so we're going to go out and the recommendation is put to purchase six 71 passenger school buses purchase two student uh transport minivans. The proposition itself is 1.5 million. You can kind of see the asterisk at the bottom. I know there's been a lot of talk about this topic. Uh the main point here being if this is voted down, it's a separate proposition. If it is voted down, you'd end up using the buses for another year. Uh it'd
103be a situation where basically going to use your lease effect, lease effective, least efficient vehicles for another year and your cost to actually maintain those or use those is probably going to increase. Uh there's been a lot of talk about this. You know, it's something that we've talked about at the road show level. Um the main point I kind of wanted to tell people is the fact that we're probably one of the most primary districts as far as being into the know about what there is with the unknown. And in our case, it's a situation where we've done everything from uh having questions, have different groups in from the Sierra Club, for instance, we've had meetings with assembly man. I've talked on an ASPO or state level to some of the different groups there. Uh
104we've had an opportunity where we actually this year were able to work something out with New York bus sales and get two, excuse me, and get an electric bus to come out. Uh we had it during actually the appropriate time frame in my mind being it was really cold out. You got to mimic some bus runs and got to see how it performed. We took that information, we put it into a flyer and we sent that out to families. I think we've also put it on the website. The key points from as I've told people, it's a situation where in our scenario where I think data maybe been out there or maybe projections or expectations were out there and it just didn't match up from what we could do. Uh we married it up. I
105think on the first time we used it, it was a cold day. Okay, we went for I think it was about a 42minute run. We expended it down to maybe about 5% of energy left at that point. Uh the big question I have or the trump card if people play pitch when I talk at the state level or for folks uh that are in the no is basically at 9:30 in the morning for our district, we basically have the situation where we have half a tank of fuel on our buses and if there's ever a point from a weather or a god forbid moment, we're able to go forward. In that scenario with that electric bus, it wasn't going to do it. We were at 5%. I think it was going to be at a
106point where it was asking for a 22-hour charge time to be able to get it back. So, wouldn't even made the the second half run for that. We then tried it again on another cold day. I think the only shift there was we took the bus and parked it inside. We're able to do it. I think the heat didn't turn on until the end of it. And I think we still had somewhere like 80 hours or something like that it was going to take to charge a thing. So, that's the problem. Uh part two of that, as I've told Assemblyman Sterp, it's not really just a bus problem. In our scenario, our transportation facility is like 10 years old. It's working fine. It's effective. The problem with it is the fact that it borders three
107sides of it as something that can't move. So, you got a school on one side, the road on another and private property on on the other side. After that, you go back into green space. We had a study done uh by engineering group or excuse me, uh Pola group, I should say, that came out and did it. we were going to be required to have uh 20 more buses based on our routing, based on our topography, based on kind of what we had from a student count at this point. We don't have room for basically one more bus, let alone 20. I don't know where we're going to put them. I don't think the answer is to go take out an existing transportation facility and replace it with something else. So, as I told the
1089:30 in the morning and transportation facility are the two problems FM has. And in our case, you know, there are different things out there. I think from a red reduction in carbon footprint, everything from hydrogen fuel cell or to propane or something else, but they don't qualify. So, it's not a situation at this point we can do anything. I know there is talk, I think recently, maybe even with the governor's budget about some postponement, but at this point, we really need to find out if there's other opportunities that can be even expanded to other, you know, more of a car less carbon footprint type opportunity with some of those other areas that we could focus on. So, that was a lot, but I know it was kind of the one that was hot and heavy
109and everybody's talked about it. So, I do think that we've kind of put our best foot forward and we've loo looked and explored into this and I don't have any new information that's, you know, a situation where I'd be comfortable recommending it. Uh there's the Fateville uh library proposition. You can see there it's a 2 million amount. Uh similar to what we've had in the past from the proposition perspective. Same with the Manlas library at the 1.5 million. Uh school board election here. We have three seats open. There's five candidates. Those will be the order they'll be on the proposition. Uh if the budget's defeated, those are the things and you can see in the top bullets there that the board of ed can present the same budget to voters second time, present a revised
110budget to voters or adopt a contingent budget. Contingent budget, what does that mean? It represents a 0% tax levy increase. There's some items there examples that could be cut. Voter information, the vote itself, uh, Wellwood between 7 am and 900 pm, uh, absentee and early mail ballots obtained from the district clerk, and there's the voter qualifications. Next step will be the vote itself, and it's on May 20th. And that being said, are there any questions? Yeah. I just wondered if Dan wanted to give his annual budget summary. I don't think it's annual Dan at this point. I think whenever I present you and I do a little back and forth I just this is all really very simple to me. I mean this is becoming more complex each year only in that We don't have
111a commercial tax base in this district. Correct. But at the end of the day, property values in this district are driven by largely by this district which is in the business of education. Business of education is expensive and most of our budget is nondiscretionary. It is contractual salaries. It's contractual expenses. It's the expenses of our buildings, which are not new, correct, which have a lot of work left to do. A lot of this, you've talked about it in your presentations, a lot of the increase in this budget is driven by capital expenditures like the project at the high school, which is not the last project that we have to do in this district. We have a lot of building needs um and that are going to continue, but ultimately the the the part of the
112budget that we actually have control over each year is like four or5 million which is less than 5% of the total budget. Everything else is required expenditures that we don't have control over. And so, you know, we're in the business of education. The only way to support our students and our teachers teaching our students in the environment that they deserve and need to be taught in is to pass this budget. And I just I I will forever say as as these numbers come through that they're big numbers, but they are not numbers that we have options on. And so we either stay in business or we don't stay in business. A contingent budget is not an option in this district. That hurts this district, which means it hurts our students. So and and I you
113I know you had it as the footnote on the the bus part. And we we do hear this each year. Voting no on the bus proposition is not going to result in us buying e buses. Correct? Voting no is we don't buy any buses. Correct? Which means, you know, we have all of our buses on a replacement schedule. It's every correct me if I'm wrong. Every seven years they're on a replacement schedule approximately. If we vote no, then we keep buses on the road that are now eight years old, which are less efficient. They're going to cost more money to maintain. They are less safe. We'll never put students in an unsafe bus, but they are less safe than the newer ones. New buses are more efficient. They're less money to to maintain and we
114need to stay on that replacement schedule. So, voting no there accomplishes nothing in the district. So, I don't know if that's Sarah what you were referring to, but I mean this is the this is this is the this is the same thing every year. It's a lot of money, but it is not money we have choice. I think the last thing is is I know people focus on tax rate. We don't set assessments. Yes, we don't have any control in what the towns and municipalities do on assessments. We don't set tax rates. We set the tax levy, which is the amount of money that we need from the tax base to pay these bills. How that is determined and what the rates are that are set is a product of how the towns function and
115how they assess which just controls how that tax levy is distributed across the the various residential and commercial taxpayers ideally in a fair way but in a way that's only determined by the town not by us each of the respective towns. So there's always this mix of well the assessments went up and we we don't unfortunately they come at the same time as our school budget vote but we don't we don't control those that is if you have an issue with your assessment go somewhere else go to your towns do not do not come here that is not our responsibility or purview but thank you Brad for the continued work that you do on this I know this is a massive massive project to to do this and I don't know of a lot of
116other districts in this economy that are continuing to offer the level of services that we offer in this district, the class options, the professional learning options, all of the extracurricular options and in this economy not to be cutting those and still staying within the tax cap is is difficult work at best. So, thank you for the work on that. Well, you're right. I mean, with some of it, I mean, I'm I'm biased when we talk and I do believe I do believe we have the best. I do. There's a reason people are coming here. I mean, if you're not talking about commercial growth, then why are you coming here? I mean, I think our results speak for it, you know, for the different offerings that we have to the teachers to the scores that we
117have to talking to at Pat about why are the assessments the way they are. People are selling their houses, you know, from that day or close to it at a higher or, you know, the amount they're asking and it's continued year-over-year. So, they're coming here for a reason and I think this is one of the products of it. So, we got a great group of people and and you guys included. So, uh we're thankful. So, okay. Well, maybe we just had our hearing. Um thank you, Brad. You're welcome. So, we need a motion to open the hearing, Dan. And the second from Jason. Thank you. And then we need to all vote on opening the hearing. So, all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. And now for the hearing. Is there anyone who has
118come to the board meeting who would like to speak about the budget? Okay. Then may I have a motion and a second to close the hearing? Thank you, Rebecca and Cindy. And all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Okay, thank you very much, Brad. Okay. Um, president's report. Um, so as you guys all know, we had the survey for the superintendent search open for the last couple of weeks and I just wanted to share um some statistics about the survey. So, we had 621 responses. Uh 18% of those are from instructional staff. 10% were non-instructional staff. 65% were adult guardians of a student in the district. 4% were community members without students and 3% were students. So um I think it was a pretty good uh turnout from a survey responsiveness. And then
119um Dr. Cook is working with you Dr. Ty to identify um and set up the focus groups. Um and just so you guys all know um we are trying to have a focus group uh consisting of students, one with instructional staff, one with non-instructional staff, one with administrators, and then a parent family group. And so once those are set up and we get some dates on the calendar, we would love to have at least a couple, not all of us, um sit in just to be listening um to the comments and um go from there. So that will help inform the process as we go through the search process all together. And that is all I have unless anybody has any questions about that. Great. Thank you. Uh yes. Um so he will get us
120the survey results very soon. He said he's just compiling and a summary analysis of them as well. Thank you. All right. Item 3.05 superintendent report. Thank you President Fitzgerald. Three items with all the reports we have tonight. Uh first one capital project update. As customary, I usually begin with an update on the capital improvement project and capital transfer projects that are happening throughout the district. This evening, I'm pleased to report that the administration on April 30th and the board of education earlier this afternoon had the opportunity to tour the construction work that's going on at FM High School. While I do not want to speak for the members of our governor governance team, I will say that the administrators were impressed with the progress and the future potential of the new facilities throughout the high
121school. I don't know if there's any board of ed members who would like to add their commentary to this section of my report. I could finally watch my daughter play. That's fine. I'll I'll start. No, I think uh Craig, you know, appreciate first of all folks taking the time out of their busy schedule with the construction staff and with Jeff Brown and and your and yourself taking us through the building. Um it is quite remarkable from where we started just uh a short time ago to where we are now. Um and to think that it's all going to be wrapped up in the next I believe it's 15 months, right, we have left. Um I I think what's really what'll be really neat and really cool for the students will really be well two two
122spaces in between in particular is one the outdoor learning space that's been developed. Um and I won't get the name right so I I won't let Dr. Hunt criticize me so I won't say it in public. You the the half round shaped thing the kids are going to sit in. Um what is it? The OM. Okay. Um, but I think that's going to be really neat and really awesome for our students and also um really I think we're calling it a cafeteria, but it's also going to be that mixed use learning space um is really starting to come together now. They've got the steps in and you can kind of see how it's really going to flow and how that's just going to be a great gathering spot for students um during the day and
123even after hours. I can see a lot of clubs having meetings in that space. Um it's really coming together. So kudos to to you and the administrators and everybody that's had a hand in it. It's coming along great as part of the facilities. I we've seen the drawings and all of the ramifications and seeing it actually sorry uh come together. It's farther along than I actually kind of envisioned and I do think the cafeteria space will be wonderful for the kids and give them a chance to actually actually have lunch during the day in a really welcoming space. I would just like to add that we're in our society right now, we're just facing times when we're hearing reports about adolescence being less engaged with learning, feeling less connected to school and feeling less um
124as part of the their own instruction. and with the improvements and all that we've done with our amazing teaching staff with personalized learning and the initiatives we have in the district, I just saw this space and just got so excited. I almost broke into song for High School Musical. It was, you know, you know, um and I just think it's going to give our students such pride and just a sense of this renewed energy when they walk into that space um in the next school year. And I'm really excited for them. I was very grateful to be along today and any chance to wear my hard hat, you know, but what what interested me was when we saw the drawings, the architectural drawings, it actually looked like that when we got into those classrooms. I
125didn't expect it to look just like the drawings, but it's it's wild. It's going to be wonderful. I think I'll just add that you could really feel how all the pieces are connecting the outdoor learning space, the cafeteria, the student center, the student services. Um it's just going to impact kids daytoday life in the building and how they learn and how they connect socially. Um just on all levels, it's it's going to make a difference. And that's that's why we're doing what we're doing with this project. And you know, I think there was a conversation before this particular project even got approved about how this particular building was unique because every single student in our district goes through this building. And um it is so exciting for them to experience that and be able to
126collaborate with one another in a new and exciting way. It's uh makes me want to go back to high school sort of. Thank you. Can I just add one thing onto this? Um, when we do talk about facilities, there's there's there's two groups that don't get the um call out or kudos that they should be having regularly. Um, one is Jeff Brown and his team. Uh, the work that they have done across not just the high school, all the buildings that have been under construction, but particularly the high school, uh, has been just outstanding. And I know Mr. Mcmire is hiding in the back there, but um thrown into a construction project along with a new role as principal of the high school. Um the his entire staff managing the flow of students in in
127keeping this a viable educational space in the middle of a construction project is um a massive undertaking. So the the patience and the work that's been done by those two teams, I just I don't think we can say enough about I am not running for office. Great call out. Thank you, Dan. And uh Mr. McNamera, we were all in the principal's office today. And don't worry, we didn't move anything. Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate your support and again, as was said, taking time out of your busy schedules to be there. Item two, school start time committee. Uh we're going to meet again towards the end of the month and we'll soon add students and family members coming up in June at the June 9th board meeting. Because of all the reports tonight, our director
128of counseling, Heidi Green, will join yours truly in providing an update to the board of ed on the status of our school start time and high school bell schedule uh deliberations. And then item last, upcoming special events. As a reminder, we have scheduled viewings of the movies Screenagers. the next chapter and screen aers under the influence which are being planned for Tuesday, May 27th and June 4th uh 2025. The board of education is aware and with the passing of the New York State budget will insist that all school districts implement a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones in addition to having a cell phone policy in place by August 1st, 2025. That ends my report. Great. Does anybody have any questions? Okay. Moving on to reports. Item 3.06. Um I know last month we did not
129do committee reports. So if anybody would like to share, we'll go around. Um from that perspective, uh legislative liaison. Not much. But you do know that I think was it seven extensions. We finally have a state budget. Um, and as you probably know, the there's full funding of the foundation aid with a slight increase for all districts. Um, one of the good news pieces is the universal free school lunch and breakfast. Um, you've probably received the same mails that I have, right, with all that has come in. So, um, it helps. It will help for sure. Thank you. Thank you, Darl. Uh, Boseies Marissa. Um, our next meeting is on Thursday. Dr. Cook is other than his continued work on all these superintendent searches. I've lost count of how many he's handling right now. Um
130he's continuing to work on the Steam High School which is scheduled to open this fall. I'm sure Dr. Cook is focused on our search as number one priority. He loves all his districts the same. Um and then Esam was not able to make it. Did he said he did not send anything? Okay. Um, so committee updates, audit and finance. Daryl, any updates? Okay. Um, Chrissy for community relations. Um, I'll just report quickly that at the end of March, um, our district posted the article about the community results survey. Um, there is a link to the full results in that news article. um they highlight the results of the survey and identify some action steps um that the district is taking. And then we are excited that our website redesign is on track. Um we have
131previewed the committee's previewed a couple of the pages. They're very modern and streamlined and accessible and we are set to have our full-sight preview um at in June and then hopefully launch with the very beginning of July. Thank you. Dan, facilities, anything additional? Okay. And policy always exciting in the policy world, especially now there's a state law about cell phone use in schools. So, that's a little bit different. We're on it. Yep. Um, we are almost all the way done with the 5000 series. So that'll be um coming soon to a board meeting near you. And we have our next meeting is set the week after the vote. Um so at that point in time we are working [Music] on 9,000 series. Thank you for the uh secret sign over there. Um DEI committee Uh,
132I think I was the only one at the last one. Um, I know we're going to have a joint DEI and mental health task force coming up in June, so that would be good. Um, mental health task force, I mean, I'm happy to report, but I can't remember the date of meeting. It was a while ago. Um, but we looked at some of the work that has been done at Syracuse University regarding um a full survey there of of student survey that's comprehensive and and really different than what we've done so far to to survey our community to address the needs of students and their current mental health and wellness um you know where where they're at with that. So, we looked at different grade levels and broke into groups. we have a pretty big
133task force and started to kind of dig into how the questions might be a good jumping off point to customize to what we're looking to do in the future and I think that work will be ongoing um by subcommittee. Anything you want to add, Greg? No, looking for releasing that survey in the fall. Great. um safety committee. Anything you want to add, Ann? I think we actually met before our last board meeting, so it's been a little while. We did win an award. I think the banner was here the last time. A safety award, right? Yeah. 17th titanium plus honors from Utica National. Right. Great. That's Yeah. Even stronger. and Chrissy, uh, anything on the wellness committee side? No, we haven't met. Okay. All right. Now, we're going to move into public comment. Um, and
134I just wanted to give just a quick reminder with to the purpose of public comment. Um, and some guidelines that are published with regards to public comment. Um, so this is an opportunity for um, anyone in the public to communicate with the school district. Of course, you're always welcome to contact the district office at any time with any questions or concerns. There are three minutes um, for public comment and any issues involving any particular specific students or employees of the district are not appropriate topics um, during the public comment session. And if there are any employee or student concerns, they really should be addressed directly with the superintendent. Um, and typically the board um, and the administration does not typically respond, so please don't be offended if we don't um, engage in conversation. Um, but
135sometimes we might direct you to a specific um, member of the staff if that's appropriate. So that being said, um, so we have a one individual for public comment, Miss Christina Moer, come on down. Dr. Christina Moer, thank you very much. Uh, I am in awe and in such great appreciation of all the work that you do. So, thank you. Um, what a lot a lot of great presentations to follow. So, tough act to follow. But with that said, uh, yes, I'm Christina Moer. Good evening to the members of the board and the FM community. Uh, I am the president of the high school HSA and I'm here speaking on behalf of all of the HSAs. With regard to our Meet the Candidate Forum, for the past three years, I've had the privilege of coordinating
136the Meet the Candidate Forum on behalf of our district's home and school associations in partnership with the League of Women Voters. This nonpartisan event is designed to give our community a fair and accessible opportunity to hear directly from board of education candidates before the election through emails to the board and to the community relations committee meeting two months ago. I shared my hope of forming a closer partnership with the FM school district and the board for this event. I'm pleased to report that we held the 2025 forum just last week on May 7th. It was well attended, professionally recorded, and thoughtfully moderated. Now, we're seeking your support in helping us share the recording more broadly with the community. The forum is structured to ensure fairness and transparency. All candidates are invited well in advance and
137given equal time to respond to the same set of questions. questions developed from a communitywide survey and curated by the League of Women Voters. To maintain impartiality, candidates do not receive the questions in advance. The HSAs are charged $75 to record the vent the event and a facilities fee by the FM school district facilities department to use the Eagle Hill Auditorium. Last year, our request to share the recording on the district website was declined due to concerns about influencing the election. While we understand those concerns, other districts like Baldwinville have successfully addressed them by including clear disclaimers and offering live streams and recordings through official channels. Uh, and in previous emails, I've shared links to that. So, they actually host them on their website, both in live stream and in recording. Um, and I'd be
138happy to reshare those uh for anybody interested. We're asking for your help in finding creative solutions to do the same. Whether that means sharing that recording with a disclaimer, co-hosting the event next year, or exploring live stream options, we're open to ideas. We're we also ask that the HSAs not be charged to record the event and use the Eagle Hill Auditorium for the event. The HSAs will continue to lead logistics, promotion, and candidate coordination. We simply ask the district to help us amplify the forum's reach and impact as well as m reduce the financial burden on the HSAs. We're also happy to work with the district council to address any legal concerns whether related to liability, perception of endorsement, or compliance with the open meetings law. In closing, thank you for your time and consideration.
139I will leave copies of the flyer with the QR code to and to the video recording for anyone interested. I've also posted them in various forums. But as you know, the HSAs are our our reach is limited. Um social media is one option, but we also know that we have roughly a 25 to 30% subscribership of the district to um our social media. So, I'm looking for ideas. I know Eagle Hill um or not Eagle Hill, excuse me, the um the the Eagle Bulletin was something that's been suggested, but really we really are looking for a district partnership in this event. I'd welcome the opportunity to discuss this further and explore how we can work together to make next year's forum even more inclusive and impactful. Thank you very much. Yes. Thank you. I'll also
140email copies of this. I didn't I printed a few out, but I can email copies if you'd like to include them in board docs. Thank you very Thank you. And thank you for all of your work to organize the event. Okay. And that is it for public comment. Correct. Any anybody else? Okay. Um item 5.01. Um, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fateville Manla Central School District enters exempt an exempt session for the purpose of discussing the employment history of a particular person. May I have a motion? Thank you, Jason. And a second, Rebecca. And all in favor? Anybody abstaining or posted? Okay. So, we expect around 30 minutes um and then we will be returning to complete the agenda. So, you are welcome to stay or not. Are we ready
141to go? Okay, let's move along. Item 6.01. And all of you, thank you for your patience. Uh 6.01. Uh, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Manlas School District hereby sets the 2025 2026 reorganization meeting for July 14th, 2025. May I have a motion, please? Motion to dis to open the conversation. I will make a motion to open the conversation. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Now, any discussion? Um, I would vote that we make a what do we say? Proposal to move the meeting up into the first two weeks of July. Okay. So, I would agree with that. I'm also not available on the 14th. If you have quorum, I guess you have to do it if you that's only date, but just let I won't be here either. Jason's not
142Dan's not A nice window. Can I ask a question about this meeting? As the newer person, I don't remember the timing because I started early. Is this something that the new people should be involved in picking the date for? Or is this not how that goes? Um, okay. Not really. That's fine. Yeah, they don't. They're technically sworn in at that meeting. What if we want to make sure we have everybody? It might be a nice thing to do just to reach out to everyone and say who's running. I mean, you can't I don't know how long we can wait on this, but just to see if we have form. So, really, we have we can do it any time like it doesn't have to be on a Monday. Correct. Um and since the fourth is
143a interesting fall this year u on a Friday. So I think um the seventh how do folks not so good the seventh any better? The eighth might be a better give a little extra flexibility for those Long weekend for the eighth. Can you do either? Yeah. Okay. E is fine for you. Okay. So, is that okay for you, Chrissy? We can try to do it. All right. So, why don't we um put it down for the ETH and then if we find out after the election that we have um we don't have porum, we can always revisit. Uh okay. I'm sorry. Normal starting time of six o'clock on the 8th. Correct. Thank you. Okay. So, um, so we had a motion for the new date and Dan, thank you. And all in favor? Yes, you're
144here now. You are present. Anybody abstaining or opposed? Okay, so the ETH it is. Mark your calendars. Okay. Maybe we should ask our crowd out there how they feel about the eighth. Um, all right. Item 6.02 is the proposed board of education meeting calendar. So, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fateville Manley School District adopt the proposed board of education 202526 meeting calendar as presented. May I have a motion, please? Uh, Rebecca and Cindy, thank you. Any discussion? I mean, I guess I'm just Is there a way to avoid having from March to May it's just so jammed with every couple weeks? Is there any way that we can structure this so there's not so many meetings? Because I I just think it's it's a hard time of year to to
145make it all work. Yeah. Yeah. So, I know we have to do the budget. I'm just wondering, do we have to do them? I think I always ask this question. You do. Yeah. We have to do that amount of budget presentations. They can't be consolidated. I think we we could consolidate them if everybody liked it that done that way. Yeah, Brad might enjoy that more or less. I don't know. So, yeah, I think that's an opportunity that we can look at um to try to streamline some stuff in the spring and maybe free up some Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. Um, all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. As we get into it, I think Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if we can take off the date right now. Um, all right.
146Item 6.03. Uh, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Manlas Central School District hereby authorizes the superintendent to execute an agreement with Deborah Capri for consulting services through August 31st, 2025 in an amount not to exceed $4,000. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Darl and Dan. All or any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Thank you. Item 6.04. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagatville Manla Central School District hereby moves policy 2245 replacing policy 1321 into second reading at the next board meeting. May I have a motion, please? Thank you Ann and Cindy. Any discussion just because it's a change from past practice on the selection of the student member that previously this has been selected and recommended by the high
147school principal. This is an election by the students. I don't I don't have an issue. I'm just curious about the history or discussion that led to the if any that led to the change. Wasn't the by the student body? This was what was used this year for it was changed. So there was an election. Yeah. Okay. If you I mean there was to be an election and then other students in the audience to be the moral support for the one person who may be bashful or awkward in speaking. So the person whoever elected was supposed to be able to confer with the other students in the audience. So the original plan was to make it a popular vote to encourage more students to run but even to sit in the audience possibly underassmen so to
148speak that could be groomed for the position later. So I this was our first stab at it so I think we can encourage it going forward but this was the model in theory that we used this year. So Sarah Gidley also helped put together um sort of draft orientation materials andor sort of guidelines about the role of a student board member. And so those are going to be published on our website. Um as well as when anybody who wants to have their name thrown into the running for the role um so they know kind of what's expected of them upfront before they decide they want to participate in this. Okay. Um all right. So all any other discussion? Okay. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Uh all right. Ongoing business item 7.01.
149So, um, the NISBASBA resolutions kit was out and, um, we do want to, as last year, we kind of missed the or we barely skated in in the in the nick of time, um, for the resolutions. So, is there something that anybody has thought of um that they really want to consider putting forward from a resolution for this goround? Unless we wanted to create our own separate one instead of um combining I suppose. So yeah, I think the I believe it was in September. Yeah, that's the problem that it gets tight. Okay. So, how about we take the action that at our I will follow up with us at our next meeting. So, if between now and then if anybody feels strongly that we need to either um have our own standalone or something on
150a a different topic, please be prepared to discuss it and we'll go from there. Um, also the CNY um schoolboard association annual dinner is on May 29th. Unfortunately, it also overlaps with the um student awards for the high school um here. So, I will not be attending. I don't know if anybody else is planning to attend, but our SVPs to Sarah. Thank you. Um potential considerations for future meetings. Any discussion? Anything on there? Can you put your mic on there? It's okay. We just had a discussion at one point about adding a cyro updated presentation. I'd like to just have that added. concerns they're seeing, good things they're seeing, bad things they're seeing. Just that broad broad overview of kind of state of the district from their perspective. Yeah, we can work on that. As
151you know, with tonight's major presentations, we move I think three smaller ones to June. So, we will work that in. future meetings calendar 8.01. Um so on May 20th uh we will be meeting at the Wellwood Library um and we will be doing our superintendent year-end evaluation. So if you haven't already, please wrap up um the evaluation and I will try to kind of have some key themes and have so that we can make the best use of our time together and uh work that out. Um and then short public session to start. Yes. Yep. And then our final meeting is June 9th where we'll do some additional recognitions and special education report. And item 8.02, dates to remember. Um it is the season for a lot of activities and uh closing ceremonies of all
152sorts. Um so if you can make any of those wonderful um hope to see you there. Uh consent agenda. Um be it resolved that the board of education of the Fagetville Manley Central School District hereby approves the consent agenda as presented. May I have a motion please? And thank you and Rebecca. And all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Thank you. And item 11.01. Um, be it resolved that the board of education of the Fateville Manly School District enter into executive session to discuss collective negotiations and a student discipline matter. May I have a motion? Thank you, Chrissy and Jason. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining and then I believe that will be it. So we will be adjourning afterwards. So thank you for those of you who gave up the nice sunny
153warm day, the one day we've had. Uh have a wonderful evening and good night.