F-M BOE Meeting - June 14, 2021

001um tony all right let's see i'm scott scott jamie let's go jamie yeah hey joe just recognize your name oh really that's true i'll be back [Music] please join me for the pledge of allegiance first item for this evening 1.03 approval or revision of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda and present it thank you kelly a second from sharing any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i am going to pose for abstaining next item on the agenda 1.04 we have recognitions for this evening for our very hardworking students and staff sarah has a video that she is going to show um thank you so recognize the following students who are named to the all-national honor ensemble lindsey hebert and gerard crowing this year's national merit scholar

002finalist from fmr zoe constantia alithea aida emma cronenberg joshua ovadia andrew shem and alexis smith the board of education is proud to recognize grace bloom for a silver medal in the national scholastic art competition the board is pleased to recognize peyton greer peyton was named as new york state boys cross country player of the year by gatorade the board of education is pleased to acknowledge the many language contest medalists on the national french contest our students earn one gold medal and 11 silver medals on the national latin exam our students earned 34 gold medals and 40 silver medals along with six perfect scores on the national german exam our students earned five gold medals and nine silver medals annually the board of education recognizes parents and community members who are served in leadership positions throughout

003the year please join me in congratulating the following for the eagle hill hsa jody hurd for the henders grove hsa serapinsky for the fayetteville elementary hsa kristin edwards and tom moore for the high school hsa and for the wellwood hsa juanita king for the fm education foundation theft jobless for the all sports booster club jack software and for the backstage backers best adverts this year has brought unprecedented challenges and opportunities our students faculty and staff rose to the occasion and demonstrated our excellence time and time again thank you for your innovation and for your hard work in closing this evening the board of education is grateful to all of those recognized at evenings you are among the reasons why our district is such a wonderful place thank you for joining us [Music] our hsa presidents

004were um wanted to make sure that we acknowledged all the individual members of the hsas who contribute and do such a wonderful job so i did want to point that out and miss lucy we are certainly going to miss having you here your spirit your humor um when we started talking about having a student member on board years ago you have brought it exactly where we interviewed it and think about all of them all young ladies who've come before you from our first one where we didn't know how this was going to work out exactly so now uh we cannot thank you enough because you have been a true advocate for your parents and we know that you're going to go on to do really great things in the future so thank you very much

005[Applause] all right next on the agenda item 1.05 public comment sarah do we have folks for public comment okay all right so we have about three minutes that we allow for each person i will raise my hand when you're about halfway through i will definitely try to accommodate everyone though and we may not respond to um your presentation this evening but if there is an actionable item someone will definitely get back to you welcome karen nice to see you thank you hi it's lovely to be here with you this evening it's been a long time since i've talked to the board my name is karen porcello and i'm here as a local resident and as a taxpayer i'm also here and i will tell you when i talk to the board i just bear with

006me it's like although i talk to kids all the time it's a different matter when i talk to adults so i'll just keep on chugging through i am also a product of the fm school system class of 1970 50 years ago as are my husband and my three children our four grandchildren currently attend fm schools we chose to stay in this community for a variety of reasons sorry and the excellence of the education provided here is one of the strongest ones the fm school district has the vision and the mission to provide all students with the tools they need to reach their full potential and to experience success in their lives in order to do this there has been an emphasis throughout the years and decades on on educating the whole child fam is known

007for encouraging and producing students that excel not only in academics but also music the theater art and sports fm graduates have played on nfl teams and have sung and danced on broadway in order to educate students so that they have the greatest chance to experience success in their lives the school district must also teach students social interactive networking skills this component of education is often called social intelligence these skills which contribute to the development of increased awareness and sensitivity to others help students learn how to interact positively and productively with the many kinds of people they will meet throughout their lives i am so glad to hear about the steps the school district has already taken to begin to address the issues of diversity equity and inclusion in our school community as are many friends

008and neighbors of mine who have discussed dr tyson's informative letter on the subject with me we and by the way the we represents a whole bunch of people i might be the only one here tonight but i'm not the only community not by a long shot we support this initiative and look forward to learning about what steps come next over 2000 years ago aristotle wrote educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all sounds like he would have supported the dei initiative too thank you thank you very much karen that's okay you can leave it on for the next person and the next person is good evening my name is jamie holmes and i have three kids in the district and i belong to various various parenting groups advocating for our children

009tonight i speak not for those groups but on behalf of my children ladies and gentlemen a fight is coming i've watched this past year as my rights as the parents have been trampled by a virus which has allowed our leadership to say and do almost anything without the consent of we the people a virus that every day seems to change the rules of our daily life not with the priority of keeping us safe but rather advancing the agenda i've also seen over this last year the only metric of suspect success to these lockdowns and ever-changing guidance has been an increase in social division and an explosion of social emotional issues for our children it's time we as parents make a choice and stop succumbing to an ideology and actually follow the science which is that

010our children are safe in school five days a week years ago there was a popular saying my body my choice which had to be respected i guess now the saying should be my child my choice and should be respected for my children i don't want masks i don't want kova testing i don't want another no another person's person's vaccine status nor will you know mine i don't want mandatory vaccines for my children to attend school but that's my choice and should be respected as anyone else's this sensational power grab by all leaders have has infiltrated every institution even our educational system not on just not just on covid but on our curriculum as well it's a theory that all white people are entitled privileged and racist being spread by people that are entitled and privileged

011i don't want a school board or a superintendent to discount dismiss or ignore parents like myself i don't want my children called racist or oppressors just because of the color of the skin isn't that the very essence of racism how far we've come from judging people on the content of their character and not on the color of their skin but if that's the logic then superintend entice and every white board member are you not then a racist or an oppressor or is that another example of the hypocrisy of this port if you're truly committed to this policy then how do we make this more inclusive and equitable will any of you step down to create a more diverse board or is this another form of indoctrination and control for my children no different than the

012code of mandates your actions will show how committed you are to this policy of diversity equality and inclusion to the parents and teachers listening as this fight draws near you have a choice you are not alone be bold be brave stand up and be the generation that our children need the only thing we have to lose in this fight will be our children [Applause] thank you sarah who's next good evening everyone my name is chen lambrong and i am a taxpayer living in village of amelia's we moved to fm school district four years ago because of better schools we are pleased to see so many loving kind teachers and staff here as a parent i have deep concerns about a crt critical race theory and 1619 project i know many school districts already started here

013i want to share why i say no to crt and 1619 project i grew up in communist china and the mao during painful time called cultural revolution mouse weapons in humanity is division hatred and the it is a war against its own people to destroy traditions ideas culture can campaign to silence different opinions purged his political enemies to gain his absolute power zee brainwashed all chinese from morning to evening from young to old i still have so much terrible memories an estimate about 20 million chinese died during chinese revolution during mao's toxic ideas and murderous policies today in china no memorials a museum to remember this holocaust exists ccp chinese government never apologized for what they have done the censorship is used everywhere in china if you google if your google and internet even could

014not found this cultural revolution in today's social justice movement in america i see the shadow of cultural revolution in crt well we don't think america will kill its citizen like china did the parallel i am concerned about is that china tried and still tried to control what people think not just how they act school should teach facts and the reasoning not the moral values of what to think moral values should come from the home and the church the school should not impose values that parents do not agree with i do not agree with crt or the 1619 project and i do not want it taught to my children because you are not my children's parents thank [Applause] you sarah who do we have next good evening everyone uh this is my first time to be

015here um and uh i started the really concern about education in america now so when i first come to united states in 20 2008 to pursue my phd in material science and engineering i have all the hope and to get opportunity equal opportunity in this free land and i work very hard my english is very was very bad i i don't i don't i didn't understand what the professor teaches school and i have to spend you know during the class uh i don't i didn't understand anything but i i believe at that time with my hard-working stay overnight to study for the class i will gain an equal opportunity which i don't have in may like china so i put all my hope uh myself in this freelance and then i bring brought my kids

016with me because i want them to have a free opportunity and have an opportunity to be educated to be as free thinking not like you know to be manipulated to what you can believe what you what you can hear like in communist country so i have never thought about the education in united states until this last election because i was of a strong support for donald trump and then when i put my speaker everybody can hear me when i put my sticker in my car and my kids my teenager started to tell me hey mommy you cannot send me to school i said why because she replied that her friend will laugh at her and she will be breathing school okay so i start to think why like that this is not china this is

017not a dictator this is the market democratic country why i cannot put my voice in the car so it's kind of start to concern me that's why i want to be part of the uh the system because i'm paying the property tax i'm paying the school tax to hire the best teacher to train my kids and that's why i'm here i want to have a environment that's free for every kid whether they believe in god whether they are believing in uh atheists everybody has the equal opportunity here and if it's free there's opportunity if if everybody not free or only certain people is free that's called dictator dictatorship i know i grew up in the uh in that kind of culture so i don't want my kids to suffer that kind of culture so i

018really trust the school here to give my t give my kids the critical thinking skill gave them the skill to survive in the competitive 21st century to teach them how to study how to study how to read how to how to how to do the math how to study the physics chemistry and then let them to think independently thank you very much fair do we have an additional person for public comment hi um my name is mary cunningham i am the grandparent of three alumni at this point and people children who i brought to school every day and took home in the afternoons so have had a fair amount of exposure between them and their friends to the fm school district um what i want to be careful about here uh is that we don't

019use buzzwords when we talk about curriculum and that what we're looking at with uh mr tyson's deis and looking at the diversity equity and inclusion to go into our curriculum and into our student body is not looking at american history as all bad or all good there have been there are highlights to our society but we have also not lived up to our high values in many many circumstances and still to this day and we can look across our society and our culture and we can see there are a lot of places where equity is not being addressed and our history that we teach very often leaves out large portions of what happened really so having an accurate vision of how did the for example i mean it's not jeffrey we know that thomas jefferson

020wrote the declaration of independence and then he put it that all men are created equal and are entitled to the life liberty and the pursuit of happiness it's an important idea and we value him as somebody who put that out there for all of us that doesn't mean he didn't own slaves or that children shouldn't know that so we want to look at a balanced picture of both the individuals and our society so for example our children often are taught that there was slavery they are taught that there was uh the taking of way of rights of african americans during the jim crow era after slavery was over but there is not um a look at how that has continued through the until the present day so we have things like the tulsa massacre and

021bombing of the city of tulsa that has not ever been covered in 90 percent of our schools we have the massacre in wilmington north carolina children have a right to try and make up their own minds and that's what we want to do is create thinkers who look at both the negative and the positive and we want a curriculum that really allows them to know and not say oh well it was all taken care of in 1964 1965 1973 it was not all taken care of we had redlining we had uh the gi bill which was used as a way of creating wealth and education for a small segment of the population but left out a lot those kinds of histories are left out of the history that many of our children here get and

022don't get and we need to look at that so that then when they weigh back and forth what are the issues they have enough information and that's i think what we're hoping to do with the teis is really look at that because we have a group of students who are present students and alumni who starting i think here a year ago may began to say it's not what's happening here does allow for a lot of uh prejudice a lot of bias a lot of negative uh negative negative behavior and that we don't have a society that is always as free and as equal as we would like it to be and i think we all would like to see that we have equity for all of our students everyone says we want all and that

023does mean that we need to look at our minority populations in ways and and include their history so that it's not saying don't teach the dominant history we do do that and we probably do a pretty good job but it seems like we are still leaving out some history that makes it accurate and leaves children the chance to weigh and think and ask questions thank you sir do we have anyone else for public comment hmm well i'm tony prince i'm a taxpayer and a parent uh just to set the record straight there is a difference between equity and equality equity is a new term so let me begin i'm here tonight to echo so many voices in our district to say that fayetteville manlia's district has a long history of welcoming place for all that

024said racism has no place in our district the fm district has adopted critic has looked to adopt critical race theory otherwise known as diversity acqui equity and inclusion inserting this into our children's curriculum many of the parents and taxpayers in our district may be unaware of what crt really is crt or dei teaches our children to look at others through the lens of the color of their skin it also labels oppressor and the oppressed based on their color of skin superintendent tyce wrote an email to fm parents on may 3rd indicating the board members were given a book to read at a retreat this book was titled how to be an anti-racist by eve igbom kindy did you all know that ibram kendri kindy is quoted as saying the only remedy to pass discrimination is

025present discrimination and future discrimination that's a quote i want you to know i want to know who paid for this book and retreat and why would you distribute a book written by a man that advocates discrimination craig tyson's email said that board members and administrators met with students families from the following races listed in the email black brown asian american pacific islander communities to hear their concerns the board and craig tice already violated their own rule of diversity and inclusion why were not all races and creeds and walks of life including everyone needs a fair shake since you and introduced since you have introduced a new curriculum that sees education through the lens of race it would be helpful to understand how do you define race how exactly do you define someone as black white

026latino asian is someone with a black or hispanic grandparent a person of color what about her what about one great grandparent what metrics do you guys use there's a reason across the country an uproar of the public opposed to this marxist ideology and indoctrination of their children dividing classes and races is what happens in socialist and communist countries our tax dollars are not to be used for fueling the next generation of activists or any political agenda i teach my children to treat all people with same kindness and not look at people through the lens of race instead the content of their character yes the content of their character character defines a person not what they look like critical race theory or dei is racist in itself the public should all dig deep and do their

027own research on this topic if everyone does it will be exposed and kindness it wins all day long can we agree on that thank you sarah do we have anyone else for public comment okay thank you very much express your views um i do want to make sure to clarify a few things the district is not have not discussed critical race theory and adopting a new curriculum um the next group right here next year please do not interrupt public comment is over so you're not there's no more public comment thank you next year the new york state education new york state ed excuse me is having all districts do a culturally relevant audit of curriculum that is through new york state that is not critical race theory critical race theory is not the same as

028dei i'm not sure why so many people are assuming the district is going to adopt critical race theory i think unfortunately when people start talking about issues related to race and inclusion there is this effort to divide people by coming up with politicizing it and coming up with very untrue statements no one's talked about critical race theory we're talking about when you talk about seeing students through a lens that's what we're talking about we want all of our students to understand that whether they are gay black white and we met with white students by the way actually a number of white students were organizers of those particular groups that you mentioned no one was excluded those students organized themselves and came to the district um so that's what our work is about our work is

029about making sure all of our students and staff feel welcome in our district diversity equity and inclusion that is not critical race theory all right next on the agenda item 1.06 public hearing the 2021-22 code of conduct so let's see we need a motion to open the public hearing is there a motion thank you rebecca in a second from dan any discussion all right so we will open the hearing for the public comment related to the code of conduct do we have anyone sarah for the public comment on the code of conduct any board member comments um i missed the last meeting regarding the code of conduct but president going after um what you were just saying about diversity equality and inclusion and the code of conduct i kind of see those two things as

030the same i read the code of conduct and it lays out everything that there will be no harassment based on race color creed anything that's identified in dei so why why the shift why are we labeling it something else as a code of conduct and if we're talking that it's not critical race theory then what does it look like implemented to our children we don't know what we don't know we're looking for transparency from the board and from the superintendent what is dei because basically what you just said and what you explained to us to me that's the code of conduct which our students signed i i think our teacher signed do our board members sign that as well i think if we follow the code of conduct the rules that have already had in

031place for the lady that left for 50 years that has put students in the nfl in top government agencies in top high level businesses fm's done pretty good job why what's broke that we're fixing and if you're going to fix it include the parents don't just come in and we're going to relabel something and call it dei and not be transparent that that word loves floating around transparency well transparency also goes both ways that's all i have to say thank you is there anyone else republic comment on the code of conduct can you hear me now my name is amy caputo and yes we are here to talk about um inclusion diversity and equity and i'd like to clarify miss caputo we are now on the code of conduct i just want to remind you

032all right please keep your comments related to the code of conduct okay thank you the code of conduct when my i had a older son who graduated from here and there was a code of conduct that was in place um i took issue as during that time period it was uh right after there was a shooting down in florida and some of the students within our school decided that they wanted to have a rally against the second amendment no guns and all my son did was use facts respectfully on his social media account to say he was pro-second amendment from that day forth he was a new student to fm he had just transferred in from that day forth he was labeled by fm faculty as a racist he had a teacher pull two of

033his friends aside and say you should not hang out with that boy because he's a racist teacher didn't even have my son had never even spoke to my son i called the school about it and the teacher responded that all those two boys must have been confused they must have got that wrong that's why these two boys had scholarships to college no they clearly understood what was told to them then a year later when my son was dating a wonderful girl from the abc house here a black girl a teacher pulled her aside and said you should not date that boy he's a racist my family is not racist i had her family to dinner we were wonderful family friends and for your school to say that you want inclusion and diversity i've had more

034instances of my kids being pooh-poohed because of their way of thinking well it's their con mainly their conservative views so i called the school and said well this code of conduct does that apply to teachers as well and i have proof and i've saved every email to the school system based on those circumstances so when i'm here talking about inclusion i'm talking about all kids when i talk about quote of conduct it covers it all we all need to be represented and we're all for inclusion and we're all for the code of conduct but it has to be applied evenly and respectfully to all people that's all i have to say thank you [Applause] anyone else for the code of conduct i just want to add something to the lady a peer parent i think

035everybody equally pay for the school tax so we should no matter what kind of uh belief or you know what you what kind of your personal opinion family morality everybody should have a equal right here okay so i just want to add that [Applause] my name is mark bullis i have students in the district one of the things through perhaps code of conduct that's not being considered is the religious police in each household i've been through a situation recently where we were we received a math assignment that looked like a very progressive list of talking points that my son and every student in that class was supposed to go home and google and research try to come back with statistics on that when i spoke to the teacher i asked her where was the consideration

036for the religious beliefs in each household i don't know if you're all aware of this but some religions don't think all of the things we're talking about today are okay there are young children that come from households that are from immigrant families that just move to this country that may have religious beliefs that aren't all inclusionary so where's our code of on conduct to give consideration to those children and those households that being said i'm talking about 12 year olds along with that one of the things that in i lost my train of thought anyway um oh one of the other things in this is you know i've been in here for a few minutes i've watched a lot of emails go back and forth um i read dr tyson's emails nowhere have i really

037seen anything about education we keep talking about social issues and social justice issues and equity and ill inclusion but nowhere has anyone lately i feel and i'll sit for the rest of the meeting and see if you'll talk about it talk about the little girl who lives in my house who's in fourth grade who doesn't read that well and the idea that i asked the teacher and vice principal hey we want to hold her back oh i'm sorry we don't do that here so you're suggesting to me for a moment that i can have a student that fails [Music] can't read and you'll move her up without an issue and we're worried about harassment harassment that has an open-ended no definition 12 year old kids say dumb things teacher's job is to educate and say

038hey we don't say that here it's not nice even if you believe something like that in your home but don't say it here move on teach math that's it thanks [Applause] any additional comments for the public um for the public hearing on the code of conduct i really support that gentleman what i said school is a place to learn to grow and not to put some the political idea in their mind and we need to kids be challenged and as a parent i do feel my kids do not challenge enough as parents uh we have to do extra to challenge them at home or no homework because they say oh teachers are the pandemic is too hard for them to greet the homework okay and a lot of parents i talk with a lot of

039parents actually a lot of parents they pull off the kids out of public school go to homeschooling that's gonna be a new trend for a lot of families or go to private school because private school the whole year uh pandemic did not close the school and because you don't have a union that's another topic so we are just once the teacher focus on the teaching the kids we entrust our kids to school one of them be the be the you know smart because they are the future of this country with them can think can do the math because some people cannot do the math so they can come down that is not right way thank you fair motion to close the public hearing regarding the code of conduct thank you rebecca is there a second

040thank you jason any further discussion from the board all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i anyone opposed or stating next item on the agenda item 2.01 referendum project report dr tyff what's that they're watching from another room as the board of ed knows and certainly the members of the facilities committee know we have been looking at continuing our infrastructure upgrades going forward as you know the wellwood project as i'll refer to right now is ahead of schedule and under budget and the next phase that we have been talking about with overviews that you heard back in april was on the high school in terms of its aging infrastructure and programmatic updates in may mr cyberg on behalf of the facilities committee gave an update on uh projected timeline and then we

041are here tonight to ballpark some of the figures that we're looking at for a potential vote in the late autumn and i'll turn it over at this point why don't we just go through and introduce just for the sake of the board gary we can start with you and work our way down robert marquetta project manager from the high school yes he's been unveiled invaluable erica i'll turn it over to you thank you well i'm excited to be in person this is the first time we'll be able to present to everybody so um hello yes all right let me make sure i can operate so we're i think uh dr thais gave you a good little summary there we're here to present um the conceptual plans as well as the potential phasing and duration for

042the project the project budget financials and next steps are scheduled okay so to start off um to give you a recap on the scope the work is um we're looking at the high school project the main scope items are a cafeteria expansion and when i say that i don't want you guys to just think it's just a cafeteria expansion we're also considering it a collaborative learning environment multi-purpose flexible use area it's not only part of the cafeteria expansion but it's going to be utilized as a connection between house one and house two which is something that uh is important to address as a security concern at the school another main component of the project is a main office consolidation currently there is a separate um house two and house one offices that we're looking to

043consolidate in the center of the building let me see um essentially located near the um main entry so the center green area there is the cafeteria up to the right is the main office column consolidation over to the left of the page in house 2 we're looking at a technology edition oh thank you we're also looking at a learning support center auxiliary gym renovations renovations to the wellness center photography lab student services general classroom finish upgrades which is mainly in alignment with the extensive amount of infrastructure and hvac hvac upgrades planned for the building we're also looking at counseling upgrades and auditorium acoustic upgrades so moving upstairs you can see the existing area of the cafeteria is being extended to the right of the page there is the centrally located staircase with a new broadcast

044journalism space um towards the the left of the page now in house two you can see where where the office and nurses area was we're looking at new program space and opportunities for the school those are the main items here in house 2 we're looking at again general finish upgrades to the classrooms as well as new case work associated again with those hvac upgrades and infrastructure replacements so i'll take a moment i know last time i gave you guys a quick rundown just like that i'm going to take a moment zoom in a little bit and do my best to talk about some of the adjacency so this is looking at the um main entry you can see there's a little green arrow those are the front doors where you walk in the idea of

045the main office consolidation is to relocate and consolidate everybody with a visual connection to the front main entrance so that you um can kind of walk right in and go into the services or the main office area that you need to um you'll also see where it says learning support center there is a new elevator indicated as well as a centrally located staircase so that when you walk in you can see where you need to go to get to house two as well as the main office so there's a visual and physical connection between the two sides of house one and house two um where you'll be able to kind of find your way around the building if you're a visitor much better this lower area shown in green is what we're calling the lower

046cafeteria so we're looking at um a space that is connected with two stories so there's an upper area and a lower area of cafeteria with um tiered seating in between so it's really meant to be a visual nice open space that can be used in a variety of ways with serving stations with food service um kind of throughout so that there can be a variety of options for the students as well so we're also looking at renovations as i had mentioned to the photography lab as well as auxiliary gym identified on this slide moving upstairs you can see the existing cafeteria is expanded the area with the x in the middle is showing the two-story space so they're actually looking down below to the what's going on to the first floor and then the new

047broadcast journalism the little box just above broadcast journalism that's the location of the new elevator with the stairs to the right of it so that is that again visual and physical physical connection between house one and house two so moving over to look at the technology edition down to the bottom of the page you can see two new proposed technology classrooms this location with working with the facilities committee administrative team was determined to be ideal because of its proximity to the science classrooms creating a a stem wing for the building because this addition is outboard from the building it also provides an opportunity for high ceilings and a potential two-story space here as well which allows for more flexibility in programming on the space in the future so the areas in green throughout and in

048most of house two is also getting classroom upgrades as well um last thing to note is the technology program is a little challenge right now with automotive access so this location is also ideal to be able to get cars in and out of that space to improve that program as well moving upstairs from the technology edition you can see where the old main office nurses area was those are the new program spaces and again we're looking at finish upgrades and hvac upgrades in this area okay so this slide is intended to show you guys the extent of infrastructure hvac air quality and energy improvements going on throughout the building so everything indicated in that gray color is going to be affected with this project with improvements to those items anything in most of the areas

049in white has already previously been addressed or has been addressed by the district so you can see where the library project was um that was already addressed in the first capital project just to run down the scope items here we're looking at house 2 hvac replacement air handling unit replacement in-house 1 electrical panel replacement house 2 boilers lighting replacement with led ventilation system upgrades and rooftop unit replacement so with that i will turn it over to la chase working with us on the um project phasing thank you hello was it just the uh there's no point hello robert marketo with uh le chase um part of the uh the pre-ref uh process all also is just looking at the project phasing there's a lot of work going on so um in order to plan really

050the duration of what kind of schedule we're looking at in order to get the work done uh project facing phasing is a pretty important part of that this is the overall phasing plan each each color represents a different phase of the construction process and and realistically within each color there'll be even sub phases uh that need to be worked out but uh because pre-ref is kind of a little more general at this point once we get to uh you know drawings and and bidding uh obviously we're gonna work with the district um to clarify very specific areas where we'll be working in order to get to the point we are we've already collaborated with the district um based upon the timing of what needs to be done when and and and certain areas that need

051to be freed up and everything kind of working in conjunction with uh whatever the program might be for that particular school year on the left again is is all the things that uh were just discussed so i'll just move on to what we would consider our first phase so uh talking with ray i think this the project um will not allow just summer work so we really need to work with the school to kind of work continuously uh through the school year obviously without creating any type of disruption one of the one of the key things is right now at wellwood you have those eight modular classrooms so our initial phase will include moving those over here probably over on the basketball court and utilizing them as swing space so as we disrupt areas um

052in the plan we'll have a place to temporarily uh put the kids to uh so that they're in a nice comfortable learning environment to continue on this first phase also uh we figure probably starting in the spring or whatever that first year might be um you know once everything's everything's cleared out and the main office consolidation is i know a critical uh piece and for one reason it's just to consolidate and get a safe entry but also it allows us to free up some other space in the building um when the house uh house ii office is vacated and allow us to uh to work on that same thing with the technology wing um allowing us to do that first will then again free up the current technology space again to use that swing space

053so this would start in that that first spring and then carry into the first summer that first summer we would hope to do the stadium turf replacement um along with that we would also start in that house two first and second floor areas there's like we said there's a lot of hvac there's um a lot of upgrades within the rooms there's still some rooms in there that have the asbestos abatement so we would concentrate those summer work on the asbestos abatement and some of those critical rooms that really a modular real you know science rooms or areas where a modular really wouldn't be conducive to uh transporting uh those kids in temporarily so that this phase would probably carry through until that following spring through that winter and then the following spring is where we

054would then start on the cafeteria expansion as well as as soon as we move everybody into the main office we would utilize that time to do the old house one office renovations as well part of the problem that we're trying to solve um with this is that main connection on the first and second floor connection between house one and house two although it's not ideal now part of this process will disrupt what you currently have and part of the thought process right now is on the top there you can see the the arrows providing a an another a separate exterior instead of that front exterior transfer that you're using uh utilizing on that back end a a you know build some type of fence or covered walkway that will allow uh kids an alternate route

055besides the uh within the building to get from one house to another that's also another reason that we're looking to start in the springtime so that we have as much nice weather to move forward with that that work would continue to continue through that that following summer which at that summer time is when we would look at that cafeteria expansion um so that our main concentration there would be to expand that second floor so that you never you you never you lose sorry lose the use of the cafeteria during the school year so there'll be a high concentration of getting that done and again first and fore second floor hvac will just be a constant ongoing uh process throughout throughout the entire uh project um we hope within you know looking at this we feel

056within the first 24 to 30 months the key pieces of the work will be done which would be the um you know the main office consolidation the expansions the cafeteria and and a lot of those critical uh you know the signature pieces of this project um the rest of the project would probably would be spent on the uh the mechanical upgrades throughout the remainder of the building so kind of just following through from uh house one we would start working on the phys ed and artwing mechanical upgrades and then eventually get to the house one music auditorium and mechanical upgrades again within these there's a lot of uh a lot of planning that needs to go into place but at least this is just a general outline of uh of how we look to get

057this done within a somewhat reasonable time period of approximately 36 to 40 months with that we leave it to budget so the team they've described to you the scope of work and the phasing plan the architects have designed conceptually um some systems associated with the upgrades in the building then the chase team puts that in motion and says how do we co-exist how long does it take to coexist to do the work and what does that do how does it produce a number so with our estimating teams we work with them we talk about systems we talk about square footages we talk about duration because duration is money in construction so those are the elements that actually physically make up how long construction program would be when we put a dollar value to those things

058it's approximately 52 million dollars in today's world there's an escalation value our world today is a little different than the world that we had three years ago two years ago but it's similar in respects to katrina and other things that we've experienced in the industry so our dollar values are used with our estimating team on these components based on today's figures and that escalation is about four and a quarter percent a few years ago it was under three but we have to take today's volume today's values utilize those in projecting forward to help you plan a budget it's approximately 44 months as bob has indicated we envisioned somewhere in the 24 to 30 month period the lion's share of the work that remaining portion is going to be done at evenings off shift and it's

059slow it's meticulous it's work that has to take place in a coexistence with the student body in here so there's a lot of work that takes place and it's slow to grow it takes time to get those things done and especially when people are in the buildings together at the same time that's an outline of the budget and gives you some idea of how we approach it it's today's dollars square footages system analysis and a budget based on dollars and cents associated with today's world questions when is it mine's a very basic question um we saw a lot about hvac and it also we heard from the community how important air conditioning is would uh i don't know if this would address the air conditioning issue are we looking at looking at that we are

060looking at that as hard i know there's a lot of issues in the classroom thank you good evening everyone so in looking at the cost of 52 million uh there's a couple key factors that we're looking at um and most of this information is something that we've worked with um our financial advisor fiscal advisors uh to determine uh number one is our building aid ratio continues to climb slightly and we're looking at an eighty point three percent building aid ratio which is basically that the state will pay for the vast majority of this cost we are looking at a bond percentage uh which is really relates back to the aid ability of a little over 64 percent and we feel that we're going to be uh have a capital reserve in the range of six

061to seven million uh we feel pretty confident it'll be closer to seven million by the time we close the books for the current fiscal year so if we were to just have a six million reserve we'd be looking at an estimated tax rate increase of slightly more than two percent uh with the seven million dollars in reserve it would be 1.91 and that those numbers also include uh existing debt which will be retired in about the same time frame as to when um the cost of this new project will come on stream uh you know we've taken a look in the past at what impact that is on a hundred thousand dollars of taxable value and uh that equates that one point nine one percent equates to forty eight dollars and sixty six cents any

062questions on that slide yeah jason bill so the one question i've got is i know you've spoken to us in the past about timing this so that when this 4866 get added on that wellwoods that would roll off correct well not well wood specifically um capital project i'm sorry yeah we do have two existing debt issues which will be which will be retired about the same time as that this debt is coming on but that debt that's falling off is already played into these numbers okay so it's going to be so it's whatever i pay now even when that rolls off it's whatever i'm paying now plus 48.66 correct okay thanks other questions okay thank you just to kind of look back and forward a little bit um last time we presented this we had

063outlined this similar schedule you can see from april and may those items have been completed we've worked through programming meetings site investigations and developed the conceptual plans um as well as the chase's effort with the district working through phasing and logistics in may so in june here we are we're presenting the budget and project financials as we have discussed the next steps going forward from here will be in july the project will go to the state um education and as a preliminary submission for their approval in september the board would have to accept seeker and adopt the voter voter referendum and this is working towards a vote in december of 21. okay any questions with that so if things go according to what you just laid out and it gets voter approved in december of

06421 when does it start spring of 23 spring of 23. that's that's the actual construction thank you everybody i just want to just for the board notification and those are here i just want to touch on just a few simple points that we've talked about in facilities committee um to make sure everybody's all on the same understanding page and thank you obviously to the whole team this is a new team to many on the board but not us and facilities who have been spending a lot of time on this there are a couple of real key points to this this project um that can't be overlooked one is security we've had a long-standing issue at this high school where those who have walked this building every day know that we have students that go outside

065to go inside at that connector point between house one and house two this building was not built as a single school it was an addition of two and so a really important point of this project was connecting these buildings finally properly so we're not sending students outside to come back inside but that's always been a well-recognized issue that we we have to find a time and a way to address and this project is addressing that uh for those who went through the wellwood project um you'll remember that a a huge primary focus of that early on was that the boilers in wellwood were end of life reaching end of life very quickly and very important the the boilers in this building are the same vintage so it's really critically important that those get addressed and

066in doing that one of the really great things about this project you know for those who are sitting in this room not watching it on tv that this is one of our newest learning spaces unfortunately it's not reflective of all of our learning spaces in this building um this project is going to touch virtually every classroom in this building to bring them up to modern learning spaces and this is ultimately the one building that we have in this district that every single student is going to pass through so that's to the benefit and credit of every single student who's going to pass through this district so i just wanted to touch on those three key points that have been really important to all of the discussions that we've had as a facilities committee thank you

067very much we appreciate that presentation are there any more questions from the board comments from the board all right thank you all very much next on the agenda item 2.02 are special services reports we'll let everyone leave and then good evening i'm very happy uh to be able to give you my annual special education report that i do every june i'm going to start with some demographics as i usually do um currently we have 438 students with disabilities this is kindergarten through grade 12 not counting preschool our total enrollment as of may was 4080 which gives us a 10.7 percent special education population as uh we've talked about in the past the state and national uh percentage is between around 12 percent so we are identifying students that require special education support but certainly we

068are conservative with that and i attribute that to that we have really good um programs and general education to address students before they get to special education and i'll touch a little bit on that when i talk about response to intervention 25 out of the 438 students with disabilities are in a boces placement typically it's our more challenging students it's students with autism that have challenging behaviors they typically start in our district we have tried various interventions and finally we determined through the committee on special ed that they needed a higher level of care and so they typically then go to a boces placement we have some students that have severe emotional disturbance and may need again a step up program in terms of counseling or even day treatment and we have children that have

069mental health disorders the number the 25 is really holding holding study throughout the last few years it ranges from about 25 to 30 to 33. again we typically try in school placements before we move to a boces placement for a more restrictive environment we did have one student with multiple disabilities that was placed in a residential facility however the student was accepted into an adult residential facility as of may 1st and so he left our district and is no longer our responsibility he's now in adult services just to give you a little bit on the demographics there are 13 handicapping conditions we have 64 children identified as autistic the the two primary identification classifications are learning disabilities and other health impairment and we have a high number of students with speech language impairment the other

070categories are very low and we have zero students that are identified as deaf or deaf-blind i'd like to take a few minutes and give you a retrospective um just some highlights of what i have been here since july of 1996. prior to that i was at west genesee for 17 years so this is my 42nd year in education so i'd like to talk about some of the highlights of what we have done with my colleagues for the past 25 years at fayetteville manlias and number one i'm most um proud of inclusion and when i talk about inclusion that's a methodology and a philosophy of how to provide special education support for students with disabilities so before i got on into this position in the district had a committee a task force that met i believe

071it was 18 months and they studied different models of special education and they concluded that they wanted to move the direction into an inclusive model for students with disabilities inclusion to the maximum degree appropriate as i said i was at west genesee prior to coming here and we at west genesee had an inclusive model so it was a good match for me to come here and to encourage and support the inclusive model and i must say i'm very proud of all that's been accomplished over the years in terms of inclusion because i really believe it's institutionalized in our district and it really goes hand in hand with our well-developed character ed program with respect and civility and responsibility we've also over the years expanded our social emotional support to students all students not just students

072with disabilities we've increased the number of psychologists so that they could deal with short-term and longer-term counseling needs for students again when i got here in 1996 there were two psychologists we now have the ability which is just remarkable to have one psychologist in every building plus a district psychologist along with counselors at every level and home school liaisons that really has been a boost for our ability to provide a lot of different kinds of supports both short term and long term to students as well as outreach and providing resources and connections to community resources for those children and family that need more support we created a 15-1 program about 20 21 years ago that's for students at the high school level which still gives them access to general education courses so that they have

073the opportunity to obtain a local diploma um and they also have a formal school to work transition program so it starts out with a half a day for the younger students and then our plan is always to get the students out into the workforce five half days a week with job coaches if they require that so that they're getting on job skill training and work-study training so they can be competitively employed after they leave the high school we also about 14 years ago instituted an integrated co-teaching model at both middle schools grades five six seven and eight co-teaching means that we select students who will benefit from a general education program however they need supplemental skills and supports so we pair the teacher with a special education teacher in both the english language arts and

074the math courses so they team teach they co-plan and they um team teach together this has been very successful for us and i attribute the success that um to our long-standing partnership with dr bernard cooney from lemoyne he was an expert in co-teaching and for 13 years until he retired last year he worked diligently with our teams every summer um this is the team's grades five six seven and eight both at wellwood and eagle hill and he provided consultation support observation and met with them throughout the school year to perfect their co-teaching strategies and i feel that that has been a really good model for us for the middle schools we also about 22 years ago created a district psychologist position which really was unheard of and that was to provide consistency and support and

075continuity of special ed processes among all six school buildings and it also gave us the opportunity to formalize supervision and management of the preschool the committee on preschool special education at them steve gardner was our first district psychologist he retired last year in becky hartman wade has now taken over that position i'm going to talk more about this in detail but i just wanted to address here that one of the highlights for me has been our five-year collaboration with dr howard shane from harvard medical school and boston children's hospital we have been in a research project with him and his colleagues and brought the visual immersion program system program into our school district which uh the children that have been targeted children with autism and other developmental delays have made great significant progress in both

076expressive and receptive language and communication and so i will touch more on that we also have been using qr codes the last four or five years at the high school both in the life skills classes and pre-vocational work study programs both within and outside of the the schools where students will have an iphone or an ipad we will have a qr code above a workspace whether it's a kitchen for cooking or the laundry or a pre-vocational work site and the student will put their iphone or ipad over the qr code a video pops up and gives them a visual of the direction of what they need to do that has enhanced our program and the students have really benefited from the visuals and have really become more independent and we were able to fade back

077teaching assistant support because they are now more self-sufficient in learning the skills through the the videos and the um dynamic scene cues we started uh there was a lot law and regulation to start response to innervate intervention which we call rti back in 2012. we started two years prior to that so that we could really discuss and study rti in the best interventions develop a plan and purchase materials response to intervention is a general ed us program which mary coughlin and i uh co-chair the the district committee and it's um the premise is to provide intensive support at a three-tier level universal support at this at the classroom level determine if a child needs a certain level of support for grades k-4 in literacy or intensive support which is tier three so we test all

078of our students we call it universal screening with a product called ames web three times a year september january and june so that we're always continually looking at the progress that the all the students in k4 are making toward reading and then we have building level teams and we have a district level team that meets routinely so that we can provide consistent and equitable support across the three elementary schools to children who require reading support we've also over the years have expanded our english as a new language program our numbers have decreased over the years but we have increased staffing we started with one teacher 25 years ago we now will have three full-time teachers and that's because the level of support that's that we're mandated to give has increased over the years and we've

079also introduced a co-teaching model so that the enl teacher can co-plan and co-teach with students at certain grade levels and the last thing that i'm going to talk a little bit about and i'm going to get to it next is something called the snoozeling room or a sensory area and i'll move right toward that a snoozeling room is a controlled multi-sensory environment and it's to help students that are agitated or increasing in anxiety it is not a room that you put children in that are at a heightened level of anxiety but if they're experiencing a certain level of agitation or anxiety and this is a calming environment so it is used other places as a therapy we're not using it as a therapy we're really using it as a calming room and um there's a

080there's research um this is about 50 years in uh and now i'll show you that was um developed in the netherlands in the early 70s so it's about about 50 years but it works very well for students with autism developmental disabilities and it's used in institutions for adults with dementia in brain injury and they're specially designed rooms that deliver stimuli to all the sentence senses so you use lighting color sounds music sense um and the child is just there it does not you don't need a verbal milieu you do not need to talk about the concern it's just the sensory rich environment that helps the student come back to baseline in terms of anxiety and agitation they're they're used all around the world in institution and learning environments in fact germany has between 1200 and

0811300 alone they're probably the country that uses these the most boces has instituted these in many of their buildings and we developed one at fayetteville elementary um two years ago and we're now looking to um develop calming spaces not exactly full snoozled rooms in the other schools particularly the two middle schools this is our one of our spaces at fayetteville elementary jeff said this has nothing to do with him because this is what his college dorm room looked like that's not jeff but that's our uh that's our physical therapist janine quirk the lavalier right but um this is our one of our physical therapists that uses the room so when she's stretching kids and providing manipulation um for their limbs she seems to find that they do better and are less agitated when she uses

082the snoozling room we have calming spaces in the other buildings this is jack who we have a sensory area up in our in our room at the high school these are light boxes that change colors and the students can manipulate the boxes this is just one small activity and then we purchase these egg chairs in a few of our buildings so when a child sits in the chair the sound is muffled so it gives them a space that has um less distraction but it also has the opportunity to with by bluetooth that we can pipe in music and we have found these to be very successful and the kids really like to use these chairs i'm not going to talk a little bit and i have for the last few years on the visual immersion

083system in our collaboration with dr shane and as you know the visual immersion system it's a visual language it's like no other methodology that's out there for um for communication and to teach children expressive and receptive language because we're using visual supports all the time mainly videos and photographs the videos have really um have been so beneficial to our students we pair the visuals with technology so every student has an ipad and we show that we use a lot of technology we teach the lesson on a smart board we actually have hands-on materials so that they will do the actual activity and then they have the activity in front of them on an individual ipad so that they're continually being bombarded with this visual for children on the autism spectrum this has been a great

084methodology because you're bypassing their difficulties in auditory processing and they many if not most children with autism have very strong visual processing skills so when you pair that with their interest in electronic medium that is the way that we're breaking through and teaching really difficult language concepts um to understand like verbs and prepositions and attributes these are very difficult to teach and through the use of visuals the children are picking up on these concepts readily and why this is important is because when a student comprehends language concepts it through their research the the people that the researchers that we have been working with for the past four years they have determined that it increases expression and when it you increase expression it moves toward generalized functional communication what we have found um with and it

085holds true in our district from what the researchers have found is that when a child's needs and wants are met and they are able to understand was what is being asked of them it decreases the challenging behaviors and we have seen that time and time again and and so that's why i feel very passionate about the system because um our all the children that we have used this would have have made a tremendous growth again why this is very unique is because most communication systems will work on one communicative function typically requesting like the picture exchange system i want milk please so a child is learning how to request but it becomes scripted this vis program works on seven different communicative function it's the only one out there that works on requesting following directions commenting

086asking questions and answering questions learning how to protest or refuse a task appropriately instead of acting out with behaviors they can say all done or no or i need a break and for the past four years we have found that the children are understanding what we're teaching them and using them appropriately and it's carrying it on carrying over and transitioning to not only other places and environments within the school but at home and in the community this program also works on social pragmatics so we're teaching children reciprocity in terms of conversational speech and interacting with other people peers and adults appropriately this is two of our students that have been in the program um they were in the three-year research project at mott road and this year they transitioned to wellwood and i'll talk a

087little bit about what we have done over since since the three-year research project ended in june of 2020. so our original research project was eight students at mott road elementary they were all diagnosed with autism in the head moderate to severe communication disorders and very challenging behaviors we worked with dr shane dr schlosser from northeastern university um dr anna allen and we looked at two things we tried to measure the efficacy of using visual supports and technology and learning language and communication and we also measured the use of wearable technology or iwatch i mean apple watch and how we can provide discreet support to get children to follow directives by looking at a watch and following directors rather than a teaching assistant our results for this program over the three years exceeded all of the

088expectations of the researchers and the children exceeded all of their goals every year in fact january of 2020 four of the students each student had three goals and they exceeded their goals when we tested them in january and had surpassed their goals that we had hoped they would achieve by june of 2020 so it was quite remarkable and then covet hit and so school closed march april may and june the students were home and they were and as you can imagine very difficult to try to get these students to learn virtually it was a concerted effort on the teachers with the parents to continue this program and what was disheartening is that we were not after three long years of collecting data we could not give the final assessment and benchmarking to the students in

089june of however the results were so incredible and the researchers were so um pleased with what they saw that they have um published and i have here or um there has been four research um articles on our program with our kids that have been published international journals two including the journal of augmentative and alternative communication and the journal of advances in neurodevelopmental disorders so also another coaching a school team to implement the visual immersion system in a classroom for children with autism a mixed method proof of concept so our research is out there in four different journals and um it's getting quite uh a lot of publicity in fact we were asked by dr billy ogletree from self-care at the university of south carolina he just wrote a book that was just published this spring

090called augmentative and alternative communication challenges and solutions and our team co-authored chapter 11 implementing the visual immersion system in a classroom for children with autism spectrum disorder challenges and solutions and i made you each a copy so you would have our chapter and this is our our team um it's with the three researchers it's dr howard shane dr allen um christina you um and then our team from mott road jackie cullen andrea benz lindsey o'neal laura laurel chiesa who's a big part of our team and myself so when school closed and the children were out eight march april may and june we could not test them and we thought it was going to be a disaster when the children came back in september five of our original students moved from mott road because they were

091in fourth grade they moved to wellwood in fifth grade this past school year and so they had made so much progress we created a class at wellwood so that the children will continue with the visual immersion system throughout wellwood when we tested the students in september of 2020 at wellwood we we wanted to see how much they would regress so that we could backtrack and start over again in terms of language and receptive and expressive language and communication i'm pleased to report and this is quite remarkable we did baseline testing in september of 2020 and the five students there was absolutely no regression in their language and communication skills that alone speaks volumes for this program this year we have eight students in the mount road class we had five students with autism spectrum disorder

092coming into kindergarten we call them the littles um so we are vising the littles and we started right off the bat in september um really in using in a lot of the vis strategies throughout their day they are making tremendous tremendous progress and in fact um they are way ahead of our first research group because in january these children were answering wh questions and formulating wh questions who what where mainly and that's one of the most advanced of the seven communicative skills and here they are the middle of kindergarten and they're already far ahead this is this is one of the schematics that we use in this when we use the vis everything is color coded from the research this is called the goosens color coding matrix and so when we anything that we do

093in print or on the smart board or the ipad all the who's all those whose are in orange um the what's the what they're doing the the verbs are all in this pink color the wares are all in yellow and this green lime green because their research from boston shows that when you pair and you and you are consistent with pairing the color with the different parts of speech the children pick up on the concepts at a faster rate so this is what it looks like the ducks are swimming in the pond and you see how it's color-coded so this is called a mixed display where you have the activity which is a dynamic um cue at the top that actually is a and i'll show it to you in a minute then you have

094the the sentence in proper syntax and then you have the elements at the bottom so that the student is getting all of this visual input in terms and it's all consistent i'll show you a video of how a lesson looks this is jackie cullen at mott road who they're answering wh questions who what where so they do the activity you see the game right above jason's head there and then they uh reinforce it on the smart board they have the ipad which again reinforces it and then they have the worksheet so it's all consistent and it's repetitive in different formats this year with our research with dr shane he dr shane um in a software developers have created a new application called visplays and it's a visual syntax instruction through these buildable scenes dr shane

095has two us patents and he has developed over a dozen computer software applications so this is his latest one we are the first group of professionals in the united states that are trialing it with our students and we've been using this since its inception with about mid-year and so this plays uses animation is a foundation for teaching syntax and this is through their research um very important because when a student understands syntax they will be able to generalize language concepts and then the goal the holy grail of all of this is that they will be able to create novel language that's what we're hoping for so we've been piloting this about um five months and i will give you this is an example so you can see there's um there's on his ipad is a

096buildable scene that we created this is about fish and sharks and dolphins swimming in the ocean um you want to run the video thanks sarah see it's animated there's a topic display so this is our first the trial using this visplays appearance you can stop that here sarah if you'd like it's just more repetition and if you notice she had three who's the shark the fish the dolphin and what did they do they swam where did they swim the ocean two were um stagnant that the same and the nouns changed the fish that's called recompetitive generalization and we do this over and over again because that will solidify the students understanding of the object or the who and then what we do after they solidify that and understand it we will change the action so

097we keep the other two the same so it'll be the fish swims in the ocean the fish eats in the ocean that's what the fish plays in the ocean so we constantly and systematically and intentionally change one at a time this then helps them understand syntax and gets them to generalize language future directions so i have been meeting regularly and we'll continue to meet with the new assistant superintendent of special services amy evans and she's very excited and interested in continuing with the visual immersion system that we've been using for the last four years our whole staff was trained trained in september of 2016 and amy is going to continue uh with this and dr shane has agreed to continue consulting and so we will continue to use it at mount road we're expanding our

098work at wellwood and we are going to begin with a small group of students at fayetteville elementary next year we also hope to expand our research project to include more qualitative research on displays and as they become more sophisticated with that app we will then trial that with our students so that will continue all of next year we also are looking at the apple watch and wearable technology to increase student independence at wellwood in following directives we have some kids that are now have gone through this program and are now reading and they are comprehending and so we're going to be using the apple watch to give them directives and we're past already the videos and now they'll be reading sentences phrases and sentences to increase self-sufficiency and independence dr shane has asked us to

099work with him to create and trial a set of animated graphics to assist students in transitioning from symbols to text so now we're moving from um expanding and enhancing their communication and language and we're now moving into the area of literacy with these children we're going to continue to pilot qr codes in our instruction primarily at the high school level and as i said earlier we're we're purchasing equipment and creating calming rooms in some of the other buildings we're looking at wellwood and eagle hill so that children with anxiety and agitation will have a place to go in my final remarks is i want to say thank you to the past and the present board members and to my three bosses dr tice and dr kaiser and dr martin and i just want to say

100it's with gratitude and appreciation for your unwavering support through the last 25 years you may have wavered a little bit with me that's one year or two but i really appreciate your support through the years it has allowed me and my team to bring innovative cutting edge and research based programs to fayetteville manlius and i it would not have been possible to network with the leading experts in the field and to explore and research new initiatives without your continued support and encouragement so thank you for giving me the opportunity to have a very fulfilling and wonderfully rewarding career here thank you [Applause] you is foreign um yes um thank you okay next item uh two point one three president's report everybody should have that email letting you know the affordable evaluation was up you didn't

101get it it's not working for you but now and then we'll do a little more important treat in hopefully being in july to our workforce um right item 2.04 superintendents report dr tys thank you president mims uh the superintendent's report is in the administrative folder of board docs under internal operations as you aware our board of education meeting calendar is on tonight's agenda for your approval as per law the reorganizational meeting is scheduled for the first tuesday in july which is july 6. it's a tuesday instead of a monday if it happens to be a holiday it moves to a wednesday and then if it is neither of those days it has to be done by resolution as you know under community relations as mentioned before onondaga county provided on-site advisor vaccination clinics at fm

102high school including our second dosages which concluded last week for all age groups 12 and above we certainly appreciate their partnership and support over the past year under administration i'm pleased to report that our school administrators are putting the finishing touches on their respective buildings accomplishments for the past academic year in addition to outlining their objectives and goals for the upcoming year as members of the board of education are aware and as we discussed at the most recent community relations committee meeting the district school calendar will be retired and we will begin next year with an annual report our second edition that will be mailed to all stakeholders within the community the work of the building administrators and their respective teams will serve as the foundation for this annual report and their building strategic plans

103going forward under non-instructional business operations i'd like to express my sincere appreciation to our assistant superintendent for business services bill furlong for his work in outlining our tentative spending plans for the additional monetary support provided by the arp the carissa and the foundation aid funding we elicited quite a bit of feedback through the let's talk communication portal much of which was included in these spending plans i know that our finance committee chairperson mark veslowski will reference this in the finance committee's report later this evening under personnel i would like to extend my gratitude to mr jeff gordon and the building principles for their continued work to advertise and hire the best possible candidates for the upcoming year that certainly has been a busy spring hiring season for both faculty members and administrators and we will

104welcome a number of new personnel on the autumn i'd also like to express my sincere appreciation to ms lisa deneen for her efforts to meet with her successor ms amy evans in anticipation of amy's start on july 1st under students congratulations to our student senior class of 2021 on their senior ball this weekend i heard it was exciting and a lot of explosions right so yeah it's just i appreciate their efforts and the efforts of dr ray kilmer and assemblyman l sturpy's office and especially his chief of staff court ruddy for their efforts to seek clarification from the new york state department of health regarding masks and school property because the senior ball was less than 500 individuals that followed one set of guidelines regarding masks and self-reporting vaccination status since graduation will involve more

105than 500 participants it will follow another set of guidelines regarding mass social social distancing and family pods and providing evidence of vaccination status by uploading information into the family id portal and with the state fair becoming full capacity who knows what changes will work out there before graduation so we'll all be surprised under instruction i'd like to thank our faculty members and students for their efforts over the past year to combine synchronous and asynchronous instruction during the pandemic whether it was in the in-person hybrid or remote learning models as you may recall the school year ramped up slowly with the distribution of the chromebook so i'm reminding you that the instructional year will conclude by ramping down slowly with the collection of chromebooks and the onset of regents exams at both the high school and

106middle school the last full day of instruction will be monday june 21st with half days scheduled on the other levels tuesday wednesday and thursday and then finally under capital project i'm pleased to report as i said earlier that the wellwood capital project remains ahead of schedule and under budget we also completed the paving on pride lane ahead of schedule as well so as you might expect considerable work is scheduled for wellwood over the summer months and we look forward to opening the new spaces for the students as they become available if the board's interested in another tour and they've toured in the past i know our construction management firm dga would be happy to accommodate so if you want to check your schedules that would be appreciated that concludes my report uh thank you dr

107thais uh questions for dr tys uh we're back yeah i just can you hear me okay i just had a question about thoughts about chromebooks and ipads for next year i know we're we've moved towards one to one is that something we plan to distribute for students to to have access to or will they stay in the classrooms no i mean we've had those conversations we're collecting them we certainly have to do damage control on some of them as you know we ordered a lot of extra getting us up to that one-to-one status a little bit ahead of schedule as mr furlong would point out but it's our intent to continue that going forward so the students would be able to have their own so yeah just real quickly um i just as a i

108put my parent hat on for a second and just want to thank the craig your administrative team um for everything that was done for saturday night so it was lucy will tell everybody it was a great night saturday night it was awesome it was so awesome so say it better than i will um but that was a huge team effort um and and it's it's it the kids so gratefully appreciated that and you know one part of it i know everybody got the friday evening summary but but it didn't really give the flavor of all the communications that took place all day friday on a legislative effort to try to get a little clarity from the the state on some very unclear emails that had come through earlier in the week on outdoor masking and

109it showed really the effect that can be had of real true advocacy um which which this district absolutely took the lead on i think to the benefit of a lot of other districts that have events coming up um and my hope is that we can continue that same aggressive path toward graduation um because as you said lots is going to change between now and then potentially and we have a lot of families who have four siblings five siblings six siblings and they're having to choose which sibling comes watch their sibling graduate and that's a that's a real tough thing that doesn't even get into you know you speak to this the grandparents situation unfortunately you can be there but it's it's you know they get one chance to watch that their grandkids graduate and and

110we're we're really locked down on numbers right now so just i would just hope you know we we saw the beneficial effect on friday um to the credit and benefit of all the students saturday night if we can keep pushing to to find whatever paths we can to accommodate those families that would be great because there are a lot of families in a court quite a bind for graduation i think we're really close though because at 11 52 or something this morning the governor said again that if we reach 70 and we were at 6.9 so we just need to show a few more people into the vaccine yeah i mean we just have this you can speak to it but there's this april 27 interim graduation guidance right and so much has changed since

111april 27th and that's the one that's got to change and that one and and surely the the hope is is is that it can and that we can just do the best we can i know dr kilmer has been working on that as well so just thank you for the efforts and and thank you for the continued efforts between now and that certainly thank you for your kind comments and certainly thank you to assemblyman's derpy's office and in fact you all noticed school boards sent out an update i believe over the weekend from robert schneider and a lot of what was in that update was given to us a day ahead of schedule so i mean the rest of the state was getting what we were trying to push forward to in terms of that

112clarity so thank you and we will continue to do so going forward are there questions or comments or dr tyson's report right my only other thing isn't just on that report but there was a comment earlier today about i hope this this board talks about education and and i wish that they had stayed for lisa's report because because they missed that that is the business of this district and and and i and i wish and hope that more people would truly understand that that is the business that gets done in these buildings with just phenomenal results for so many students so echo again thank you lisa all right item 2.05 committee and representative updates just um keeping in mind the time um is there all the notes the minutes from the reports are here is

113there any a report that anyone in particular or any committee chair in particular wants to make sure that they want to note or can we just refer people to the minutes that are posted are we good if i if i may i'll just run really quick through uh because we did it was important that some of these items which are federally mandated uh also be put out for the record so um you will all see um some recommendations for reserves it's not anything that is unusual uh but bill and his staff um you know were able to provide us with some background we had some excellent questions from our committee and you'll see that later on in the agenda there are a couple items the american rescue plan act and the coronavirus response and relief

114supplemental appropriations act which lists specific items that the district needs to look at to spend these particular monies and so what bill was able to provide us is a succinct dollar amount and a corresponding number that applies to how that money will be spent so uh that is in the minutes if you want to look at that and then you've heard of the foundation aid um you know being put forth for the district the only foundation aid we know of right now is obviously for 2122 so there has to be a publication of that by july 1st we are reviewing that or rather bill and his team is reviewing that and there's going to be recommendations by him and the administration of course and that's a requirement if you receive over 10 or 10 million

115dollars in foundation aid increase and we were fortunate to get 16 so we won't know the ensuing years until probably march of each year so we won't be able to discuss those future foundation 8 amounts but i just want to make a note of that real quick any questions for mark thank you very much mark item 3.01 approval of minutes from our may 10th uh meeting is there a motion oh thank you lucy did you have any final words for us yeah i do i got my my notes so dr tice with regions review week coming up so i know we have thursday off i a few people are just unclear like if you're not taking the regents or if you're not like participating in anything at the school do you have to be in

116present in school and then also with the new mask mandates um i don't know if we were i can't remember if we were allowed to have masks at graduation or not but um since like ball we never really had masks i don't know if that's much different because there's more people but do we will we be able to sit as a class and less with our family or we would be able to not wear a mask or do we have to wear a mask and then um for on in terms of ball on behalf of the senior class it was just awesome like we haven't seen each other in so long and being able to like just be together was really fun like the fireworks were amazing whoever organized all that thank you and then

117one thing after hearing the construction thing um for they said that they were going to get rid of going outside to get inside i really like going outside to go inside i know it's kind of a security thing but there could be a way that we could somehow go back outside i i always look forward to it i like to go outside and get fresh air between periods and then lastly i've had a few comments about um mental health and how it's kind of been put on the back burner because of all of the some racial and social justice like topics being covered a little more but it's just a super important topic to continue to cover and something as simple as a wellness break is really nice to have for people like that and

118i think we need to take that into consideration in upcoming years i keep the list out i didn't write anything down because oh i'm great perfect thank you item one regents exams uh the high school will be it counts as a student attendance day okay they do not have to report but we get full attendance credit because we're administering the exam question two uh i mean and graduation certainly as mr seidberg indicated we'll keep track of that because it's over 500 it's a whole different set of guidelines i know dr kilmer was looking into different things i know the board members have asked what are the plans in terms of an outdoor ceremony we're starting with friday night the 25th and then we'll work through the weekend as rain dates if there's inclement weather but

119as far as uh the masks right now the plan that was approved by onondaga county has a sitting in pods but as mr seidberg's comments indicated if those things change we will certainly keep an open mind to be able to reconfigure but right now given that april 27th guidance we've submitted a plan which has the graduates sitting in family pods socially distant at this point but we will keep a pulse on that going forward uh the walking outside as you heard uh yes we'll lose that part with the bridge will be demolished but uh what the architects and the construction manager may have failed to say is with that two-tiered cafeteria event space with a learning stair in there and multiple serving stations the idea is that courtyard which right now accommodates a few vehicles

120and central kitchen and the tech rooms that is going to be totally refurbished as an outdoor dining space an event space so students will be able to a nice weather take their lunches outside right within the courtyard which will be what's that four classes will be able to go out there certainly and uh mental health uh is the administrators on the back know onondaga county has offered to pay for a lot of additional services we are taking part in the tier 2 services in terms of the hotline support and ironically as they scramble to hire people for the tier one supports i'm pleased to say that mr gordon uh when everyone has worked hard to and put in homeschool liaisons and we've had those for a few years now already looking to expand the program

121and for some districts they're just beginning to offer that service so we have already been offering the tier one supports and now we are expanding into tier two in terms of having the hotline thanks to nadia county so yes you're right it does seem like with everything else that's been going on it's been crazy but we really haven't been putting it on the back burner we've been working with the county to try to bring that to fruition in fact the deadline to sign up for it is this friday so we will let them know mr gordon did you want to say anything else or yeah thank you sir thank you lucy um okay and 3.01 approval of the may 10th uh board minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes thank you kelly second

122from jason any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i anyone opposed or abstaining and 3.02 approval of the minutes from the may 18th meeting is there a motion to approve the minutes thank you rebecca second for mark any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i anyone opposed or stated item 3.03 personal actions is there a motion at the board of education of the faithful manly central school district approve the following personal actions as recommended by the superintendent kelly and then jason although the favor please raise your hand indicate i i anyone opposed or abstaining one extension um item 3.04 proposed to be proposed board of education 2021-22 meeting calendar is there a motion the board of education adopt the proposed board of education 2021 22

123meeting calendar thank you daryl in a second from mark discussion so maurice i had reached out i was hoping that we could possibly move the day of the week i know it might be sacrilegious but to move from monday to tuesday um i you know i emailed members of the board over the weekend i've just got some work commitments coming up um they're going to make mail monday is a bit more challenging um and so i was hoping to see if folks would be open to that dr titus i do know that um the the administrative team all the principals meet to come up with a calendar uh for all of the events throughout the upcoming school year and board of education meetings are considered when doing that has that meeting taken place yeah meaning

124has taken place and just for jason's edification because he's new uh this is his first year the board meetings typically have resided on monday i know you said sacrilegious that's because all the events that we choreograph school events are usually tuesday wednesday thursday leaving friday just for interscholastic athletics so if the board meeting were to move to another day other than monday most of all of our other school functions and again trying to work around six buildings we pretty much keep every tuesday wednesday thursday busy uh throughout the year so that meeting has already taken place to answer your question doesn't mean that it can't be moved if that's the board's pleasure but at the same time we i think we've been more protective of the tuesday wednesday thursday for school events uh in the

125past yeah the reason i ask i i know it's traditionally been mondays and i don't think that uh you know just because it's always been mondays is a reason to always keep it on mondays but it's something that could be a longer discussion earlier in the year rather than after that meeting has taken place but i sympathize jason okay so then i'm going to ask that we moved the february 14th meeting um i have a dinner date that night is there a meeting on february 4th oh [Laughter] i'd rather the reason they couldn't get around that i have a feeling was there a reason we couldn't get around february 14th no it's just the second oh tuesday so we we can amend it and go our second monday excuse me we can make it the

126first monday the first monday which is it's always going to be something i mean it's somebody's birthday anniversary i i just think we should keep things as they are i don't i have a sweetheart too but you know we've moved valentine's day and anniversaries i'm sure ellen you've had to right sometimes sometimes i do understand what jason was saying jason i wanted to ask you if do you have your travel dates ahead of time and i'm sorry i didn't see your email otherwise i would have responded no that's all right elena i i don't um so it wouldn't necessarily be like the first and third or it's not set in stone my hope is to manage it so i can always be here unfortunately if i have to travel out um with the flight schedules

127i'll be up at 3 30 on a monday morning so i'm in tough shape when i get to about 7 or 7 30 on monday night yeah um but that is what it is but i would really appreciate it i i understand daryl that things haven't necessarily moved in the past but i'd really appreciate it if we could find a different day other than valentine's day if we could go the first monday instead i know the third monday is probably a february break for folks and it's probably president's day but if we could go that first monday in february i'd appreciate that i think that's a reasonable request and and what i had said to you when you asked when we talked to me about this is that you know as your travel schedule fills

128out and as anyone else is when we see you know look at the agendas we can you know look and see what we if there's individual items we can move around you know board members are not going to be able to be present for that and be flexible we've got we've certainly gotten used to using technology now to have you attend meetings and do whatever we can to make sure that you are able to participate but um i do think that's a good idea to move um the february 14th one just to keep everybody's significant other happy um since they have to put up with so much i don't think that's a bad request on the to move it to the seventh as long as there's no conflict or anything that's what i was worried

129about was there a reason because well we tip it that's i mean the seventh the executive budget should be out by then or else we're really in trouble but the seventh the executive budget so that february meeting is all about the executive budget so you're concerned that you wouldn't have it by the seventh that no we we should have it by the seventh would you have enough time to have everything prepared for us that you would need to do good thumbs up okay you know and jason i don't know if the board is going to be willing next year but if you know of any upcoming travel dates next academic year you know maybe there is a month where we can like we were discussing this evening the 14th of february to the 7th maybe

130there is going to be another time where we could we have changed meeting dates we've not had quorum over the years we've changed the date so i think that if we can try to all be just open about it and see how it flows next year so that we could help you out a little bit so how best and you know if we see some dates that are going to conflict how best should we communicate that like send an email to you the repository and then you can spread the word to the rest of us if it oh yeah or you could just finish everybody at the same time no worries make sure sarah will make sure make sure sarah's included in that serves the key yeah there's the key all right all right so

131um is there okay so we had a motion to approve so we're now looking to approve with that revised date of february 14th now becoming february 7th so is there a motion to approve the agenda with that change really jason you sure all right jason in a second from oh she wants some men to do it i thought you were all right second for mark any further discussion uh those in favor please raise your hand indicate aye aye anyone opposed all right okay oh thank you for catching that all right i am 3.05 reserve resolutions okay in the promotion of the board of education uh the favorable manly school district approved the following reserve resolutions your motion please thank you jason second from daryl i'm sorry mark second from daryl um any discussion only question

132is just on the cap reserve does this get us to the sixth or does this get us to the seventh well the board right oh okay thanks these are our best guesses at this point i mean we won't know for sure as you know all right we had a first and a second any further discussion or comments all those in favor please indicate i i you're imposed or abstaining all right and 3.06 approval of wire transfer is there a motion that to be resolved with the board of education of the favorable manly essential school district authorizes the district treasurer or his or her designate to authorize two wire transfers in the amount of twelve million one hundred forty six thousand dollars and five million thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy two dollars and twenty two

133cents to the depository trust company for repayment of two construction bond anticipation notes there a motion thank you dan second from uh daryl any discussion all those in favor please indicate i i you're opposed or abstaining i am 3.07 resolution code of conduct is there a motion at the board of education the favorable manly central school district hereby approves the 2021 22 code of conduct as presented thank you rebecca in a second from sherry any discussion although the fair please indicate i i am opposed or abstaining all right item 3.08 results of the vote is there's no there's action but there's no particular disapprove the action okay is there a motion to or accept accept the results of the 2021 budget and board of education votes result certification thank you daryl second for mark any

134discussion all those in favor please raise your hand okay i i am an opposer of stating all right item 3.09 fayetteville free library and manly's library agreements is there a motion that it be resolved is the board of education in the fayetteville manly school district hereby approves the agreements between the fabled manly school district and the fayetteville free library and the manliest library your motion thank you kelly a second thank you jason any discussion all those in favor please indicate i i anyone opposed abstaining and 3.10 their motion at the board of education of the fayetteville manly central school district authorizes the board president district clerk and superintendent she signed the contract for health and welfare services provided by james will dewitt central school district for the 2020-21 school year your emotion thank you rebecca

135second from sherry any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate aye aye anyone opposed or abstaining next item 3.11 bus bond is there a motion of the board of education or the fayetteville manly central school district approve the bus bond as proposed by bond council thank you darrell in a second from rebecca any discussion although the favor please raise your hand indicate i i anyone opposed or abstaining 3.12 resolution real property law section 487 rescind is there a motion that to be resolved the fatal manly central school districts opt out of the tax exemption made available by real property tax law section 47 where solar wind or farm waste energy systems is hereby rescinded and such exemptions shall be applicable within the boundaries of the fatal manly essential school district is there

136a motion thank you rebecca second for mark any discussion although the favor please raise your hand indicate i i am opposed or abstaining 3.13 is there a motion that be resolved that the board of education of the save o manly central school district authorizes the superintendent of schools to execute a payment in lieu of tax agreement pursuant to the term set forth above and the form approved by legal counsel thank you kelly in a second from sherry any discussion follow the favor please raise your hand indicate i i need my opposed or abstaining item 3.14 is there a motion that be resolved that no tax exemption made available by section 487 of the real property tax law shall be applicable within the jurisdiction of the fatal manly central school district with respect to any solar

137or wind energy system or farm waste energy system constructed subsequent to the effective date of this resolution no tax exemption made available by section 487 of the real property tax law shall be applicable within the jurisdiction of the fatal manly essential school district with respect to any micro hydroelectric energy system fuel cell electric generating system micro combined heat and power generating equipment system or electric energy storage equipment or electric energy storage system constructed subsequent to the effective date of this resolution the superintendent of schools is authorized to take any other necessary and proper action to implement this resolution is there a motion thank you dan second from sherry any discussion although the favor please raise your hand indicate i i anyone opposed or abstaining all right policies in first reading 3.15 is there a motion

138then to be resolved at the board of education of the fayetteville manly central school district that the nisba two zero zeros series policies be placed in the second reading at the next possible board meeting is there a motion thank you sherry second from daryl any discussion i do um just a couple of things so i i just noticed it here and so i guess this is that this is on this policy or these policies and also anything going forward i was wondering about eliminating gender pronouns in our policies and using the title of either the person or whatever is being referred to when you might see a his or her or any of those gendered pronouns it just seems that they're not necessary and there could be you know it just is more inclusive and

139i think it still gets the point across by listing like a title so um i recognize you know that might be a little bit of work to find all the his hers i don't know i guess it's just a search but that was my thought um and then you know not only for this policy where i saw it but but going forward so i wanted to just bring that up and see what everybody thought but you're saying instead of she and he it would be the student or the teacher or the employer superintendent or whatever that that pronoun would have been referring to there is also the dictionary has been updated that um he she can also they can refer to he she it's no longer a singular and plural format they can replace that

140word as well right it's not a political thing it's just a dictionary thing so either way i mean i guess we could you know it seems to me maybe it reads a little just because we're not used to seeing like the title repeated it's but because they're policies and they're kind of wonky anyway it's not a big deal to just repeat the title instead of even bothering with any with any pronouns does it make to sense sense to just keep that as a thought as a possibility of of a possible change but waiting to see um we didn't get the dei draft policy back from administration just to see because we really haven't seen that nismo policy either so rather than start making changes now i think it makes sense to have a list of

141what everyone is considering and then once we take a look at that dei draft policy then i think we can start implementing any changes that seem appropriate and correct and that we all are in agreement with i'm just throwing that out as an option but i i mean i understand and it's certainly the pleasure of the board i think what you're asking though is just more of a grammatical from the get-go and i would rather do that now than backtrack too much longer i mean the dei policy will be the dei policy but i think we're just looking at formatting correct and just making it i mean i don't universe i don't think it's making any sort of statement other than it's right not necessary to have them there so they might as well it

142might make it even more clear to refer back to the original title that we're talking about i don't have any problem with removing them um and doing it now um i think the dei policy is going to refer to a lot of things that may but we've intentionally oversaid that it's not going to be referring to every single thing and this is something that is relatively simple to do um so no i i would be supportive of doing that now as i as well support and i didn't think of doing this until after kelly's email but the code of conduct that we just approved does have three references to hishi which again it can be a grammatical change to they or title student opening up another can of worm sorry but i do i do

143support this yeah i support these changes i mean i'm open and flexible if the board consensus was to wait and do it all together but i also think this is this could be treated as a stand-alone project to search and replace and bring our policies more up-to-date it's just as i'm looking through them and just in the ones that are before today it's not search and replace it's it's search and i mean it's just it's not find and replace with just a fixed thing it's like one i guess i didn't i didn't mean it strictly was and yeah i i just it's but it's just it's not a literal keystroke thing yeah no it's work it's each one and and there's a lot of them we're going through and i so i just you know

144there are a lot of directions we can go in i just don't know i guess i'm also on that that path of let's figure out what we're going to be doing globally and then do that globally instead of but just to me there's a little bit of card before the horse with the dei policy still coming and i don't think anybody on the table is opposed to that absolutely so i hope you don't think that any i mean i mean i don't want to speak for the rest of you but it seems like the logical thing to do but whatever the majority decides um i am supportive in terms of when and how i'm okay with making a change for this particular thing right now um but um you know i'm open to some other

145thoughts as well but it seems this is pretty easy to knock off right off the bat since that seems to be the recommendation that we're receiving from you dr titus to do this now yeah i understand both sides of the argument i'm looking at trying to minimize the work in terms of going back so i'd rather get off on the right foot as i see nodding and uh rather than [Laughter] i'd be happy to help if that's even legit i'm not wanting to give people other work so okay all right so why don't we go ahead and um make that change to this particular policy and then we'll just do that moving forward is there a timeline where we're going to get the dei policy i can't remember we discussed it today in our do

146administrative group everybody's had a chance to look at it but what we're wrestling with is the same thing the committee was less is more the new nisba policy goes on and on and on and merges things as uh mr seidberg's nodding uh so we're looking at actually taking a trip down memory lane and going back to the yuri one and just keeping it short less is more and that i think not knowing where we're headed and given the consternation of some of the folks tonight is with this whole thing evolves and the board of regents clarifies what things all public schools will be going through going forward we're just at the beginning and so to try to put a stake in the sand in the ground that's as detailed as that nisma policy is ambitious

147and maybe we end up there eventually but it seems premature and so for our group it was more less is more we get through what we need to get through with the board of regents initiative and then we can come back and revisit it if we have to all right so we had a first and a second very good i do have one more not discussion point but i sent an email to sarah regarding two and kind of a half things that we discussed in policy that were just you know small changes and um i think sarah said it would be okay to just put them in for a second reading um they're not uh you know they're they're more of uh you know insert a name that wasn't inserted and that kind of thing

148is that sarah do you want to elaborate or should i tell you what they were okay okay we'll do just so i'm clear is this packet then so i can plan my next two weeks is this packet coming back to policy with the changes that are being made because this policy really need to have it back just with the she heats and earth taking off well i guess what i'm saying is it's not just if you go through each place where that is found in there there is definitely some finessing that's going to be made to the language too for what they're going to be replaced with why don't we go ahead and give it a shot and then see what it looks like and if it needs to go back well the good news

149is policy is already scheduled another meeting the bad news is i think we were thinking and doing other things but the bad news may be cleaning this up to bring it back at the reorg all right so we had a first and a second so the emotion that um i guess we're moving this into second reading with the gender pronouns removed is there uh this one makes a motion to do that well we don't know what those were so we should do that right now yeah what are they specifically okay uh in let me find the first one is in um 100.2 well let me let me just find the email and that will help sorry about the weight oh no it was just to sarah this afternoon when i was going through and i

150said are these changes we can make quickly because they're not you know they're not content things um let's see but that's also something that you could bring up at second no this is a zero series oh and zero reading and yes those policies would because this way everyone would get to see what they are right now we don't know what they are so now we don't want to have sarah start just making sure that you're in our home without the okay well i can tell you that the first one is um page 45 in section um in it for the policy zero one one five i'm trying to speak the process here so okay so the problem is that if these are in first reading now if the board had the changes now no matter

151how minor they are as we approve these to move to second reading they would go to second reading with those minor changes share that you caught and thank you for doing that since we're not at that point i think if we're not follow process correctly we either put off moving these to first reading or wait until second reading when you can make those suggestions prior to the meeting so that we know what they are i'm sorry i didn't just put them before second reading just like send your email out to the board tonight and then everybody will have those and then we discuss it on uh july um i forgot what it is that's part of second reading yeah okay okay okay then i'll email that tonight all right so we had um no i

152didn't remember i had a first and second to move uh first and second to move uh the one thousands into second reading with the zero thousands of the second reading with the pronouns removed they refer to that motion thank you rebecca a second from kelly any further discussion although the favor please raise your hand indicate i i am opposed or upstating all right thank you all very much um can i ask a question what happens if for some reason if they don't line up the right way and then we're going to be making changes yet again because we're approving them based on having this be a not too difficult task to have all the pronouns removed prior to second reading so i'm just asking what happens if something gets knocked out because it's not that

153easy we'll just wait and have those policies approved at a later date and second reading okay so yeah we have to have a discussion before we prove it at second reading okay um item 4.03 board development diversity training the administrators have completed their diversity training and second session is this week they have the first session all right so it's well elf in the room we had a lot of folks who came here today um to speak in regards to diversity our dei and also some other related issues so this is the time when we have discussed our board goals and our next steps and so there is a possibility of further diversity training for the board the board last had diversity training at least five years ago um but i guess one of my concerns

154that has grown out of this evening's meeting is the need to make sure that we have adequately articulated what we are doing and what we are not doing as far as a district what we are working on um i think there's you know you may not be able to reach everyone by explaining what our goals are and why we're doing it but i just want to make sure that we are um continuing crc is continuing to work together with nancy um to um to make sure that we are transparent we are putting this information out there as we have been doing and continuing to discuss it at board meetings but i just think that was highlighted for me today that folks are not some folks are not understanding what our goals are what we're trying

155to do so just just speak to that a little bit when we did talk about the diversity training at crc which is not the ad hoc dei committee we talked about the idea that wouldn't it would be you know put aside diversity training for the board in the past we're asking our administrators and teachers we've we've decided to move forward on updated training for all of our staff um on diversity equity and inclusion and so we as a board should should be part of that we should see what we're asking what the training is what the dialogue looks like so to me it's a no-brainer that we participate in that training whether we want to make it mandatory or voluntary that should be a discussion um and then the second piece around i agree with

156you and so maybe as the chair of crc i can just speak a little bit to the dei committee meeting that we had which was very productive but the the dei part of the agenda for the crc meeting which was on may 25th we talked about that we have received quite a bit of feedback and some of it has been positive some of it has been negative and we'll continue to ask you dr chase to share the feedback that you receive that we don't see so we can get as much information as possible so sounds like there's still a lot coming through the let's talk portal and i'll just ask you to to provide whatever kinds of summaries or consistent themes so that we can gather as much information as possible from the community and

157i did that if you recall during the preparations for the construction project and do it again for this initiative yeah that was helpful and certainly let's talk and provide the reports as well if people want to read it verbatim and i know that's been brought up in the past as well we're getting a lot of feedback on the muslim holidays uh and so we're trying to get a handle on how many families that impacts i know other districts are having these same conversations in house and what that may mean for the future in terms of not just the muslim holidays but other different religions we've always operated does it make sense do we lose enough personnel and students does it make sense not to operate school for that day it wasn't that one religious holiday

158was more important than another religious holiday it was that the building would be vacant almost because so many students were recognizing and celebrating a particular holiday so the question becomes where do you draw that line as the board knows from our december 2019 presentation for those that were on the board there is a senate assembly bill that's talking about recognizing six additional holidays i believe and what the minimum threshold is for attendance because rest assured as you start to recognize one religion and another and another and another you know eventually a lot of these holidays will be recognized a lot of them float based on a lunar calendar uh so it could mean the end to things like february breaks or april breaks or longer breaks in terms of recognizing the different holidays so i

159think it is a big conversation to have and what that means going forward yeah so i think you know the other piece we talked about was communications to the community so continuing to share the updates especially in light of the new guidance from the board of regents as much as we can kind of tie up some of our board you know where we stand as a board on the goal where you know what progress we've made what consensus we've reached and how we feel will move forward um and so we talked about some different communication points on that um whether it was a letter to the editor to the eagle bulletin that would be something that came from dr tice um as well as a district welcoming statement that would be more just what we've

160talked about in the past which is showing that we are an inclusive community for everyone and um we were going to start looking at putting some pen to paper this summer with our communications team and then obviously working as a board to make sure that the messaging resonated and was a was the direction we're looking to head so um i think we've done a lot this year but now just to kind of loop back whether it's as part of our board self-evaluation um and other discussions whether it's having another ad hoc um diversity committee meeting um we just need to kind of tie up some loose ends i think for this discount this academic year so i'd be interested to hear what other people think but those are some of my thoughts i said as

161i said before that i i think many people who submit things into let's talk assume that we're all seeing that and and obviously we're not and and i think that that would be beneficial to all of us to to really have a better handle on just what the inputs have been i just think that's very important as we go forward not just with this but with most issues and just as a point of clarification any family student can observe a religious holiday whether the school takes it off or not i'm referencing right now our holidays typically even though they may be judeo-christian it's because of an attendance issue not necessarily because of the holiday rebecca to your question about the dei sub committee meeting again i think that might be a good idea to kind

162of reflect on what we've done um and and see um have some suggestions for moving forward so i think it would be a good idea to get that committee together again soon we had to get a doodle out and see when we could get a meeting together and i do agree with what both you said rebecca and marissa i you know we say this over and over again you know things need to be articulated more clearly i think no matter how well we think others are understanding it um you know once there's a misunderstanding it's difficult to correct that misunderstanding and you know we are here for this entire district so i think that we just have to perhaps all pay closer attention i mean you know we don't necessarily see the releases prior to

163releases being made but i just think that you need to look at things again and and so that we can before the information even gets out there we can make it very clear or once we're hearing um parents question us about whether or not our curriculum will look like this if we could find just a more appropriate way to really let everybody know that you know that is not the direction that we're heading down or yes this is the direction that we're heading towards and i know there's a lot going on and we have to make sure that we give the appropriate information so i don't mean to say we need to rush it out either but um i just you know a lot of people in the district doing a lot of work um

164for this and you know all for the right reasons so i would just hope that um you know moving forward the information is out there and parents are better understanding it and just so the team knows i mean the governance team knows i mean any press releases we have multiple eyes take a look at it i mean i usually take the credit or the plaque but it's just we pass it through a number of different individuals just to take a look at it so sometimes it's a true misunderstanding other times words are being put in our mouth and so things are referenced that never were in the original memo but may do so to strengthen somebody else's position in making an argument so we are very careful about the words we choose and trying to

165get that out there and sometimes people add things to our communication that are not there and then get upset about the things that were added okay anything else further on that all right so we will get a doodle out for the subcommittee for leadership positions it's that time of year if anyone's interested in a board leadership position um what we came from the exact policy procedure about you email the board to let them know your intentions for board leadership positions uh let's see working agenda items got nothing there potential considerations for future meetings nothing i'm sorry jason i just had a quick comment um i think i was a little bit uh i wouldn't say upset but i would have liked to have seen um a discussion with the public after comments that when somebody

166publicly comments it's not but not an opportunity for a personal pep rail so i didn't quite care for the standing ovations and the clapping and i don't care what side of the argument you have that's not a place that should be in public comments and a public hearing so say your piece and then move on you can go celebrate after the board meeting so if we could just be a little remind the public of that or jump in when we see something like that in the future i think that would be beneficial okay sorry marissa just two quick things craig i don't mean to put you on the spot but maybe for the july meeting it would be helpful um as much as we hope to get this year behind us in the pandemic behind

167us and gosh i hope everybody's back in school in september for five days without mass but to the extent that the state gives us guidance or there's work that has to be done over the summer if you could just kind of communicate what that plan looks like so we make sure that we're including all stakeholders you know last year it wasn't fair to us i mean the state put us months behind and we had to scramble but to the extent that you've got a plan that you've already drawn up or something you could share with the community um that would be really helpful if we could hear that at the july meeting and then the second thing is and i guess we'll dust it off for next year but just a thought about the facility

168master plan i know that we had kind of obviously with everything else that went on um this past year that that got set aside but if we could kind of revisit that july august time frame and just talk about what that what that looks like dr tyson you'll be meeting i mean can you tell us a little bit about or i think to jason's point the meeting that you're going to be having over the summer to start preparing for next year i know as jason said you're waiting for guidance to come out but how does that look over the summer as far as meetings that you're going to be having or plans to have we talked as a district office team about scheduling cabinet meetings much like we did last year certainly last year was

169chaotic i think at best and we're still seeing some remnants of that decisions are made and two-week intervals are dumped on us on a friday and it is problematic especially as we saw in this last instance it was merely a letter written by dr zucker from the new york state department of health to the cdc that the media got a hold of and took as gospel and certainly the results i think unfolded in the week that followed so we will certainly plan accordingly and we will have those weekly meetings much like we did last year but you're right some of it is when the guidance changes or pivots and that's what causes problems for us i'm very proud of the work the team did i know sometimes it seemed like you know things were changing

170at the drop of a hat and they were his guidance and things changed but yeah i think certainly giving updates during the summer board meetings is a reasonable uh request i can give updates uh the chief school officers typically meet every week to keep a pulse on things right now they're wrestling with the appr uh you know what is required what is not based on the governor's recent actions so as things unfold we try to stay abreast of that as far as the long-range facilities plan we did talk about the other buildings it's just the high school was prioritized now and certainly the other buildings are part of that conversation and we've also talked about ways of upgrading you know buildings such as mod road and fail that have already had upgrades to their ventilation

171system what could be done at minimal expense going forward so we've already had some of those conversations but if what you're asking for is seeing a more detailed long-range plan we can certainly reduce that to writing as a facility's committee yeah i think it's well it's for the for the communications over the summer craic i guess the one thing i want to make sure we don't miss on this summer and not that we intentionally missed on it last summer but just making sure that the administrators the teachers that everybody has a seat at the table so you know the teachers obviously are out over the summer so make sure that we we've got the teachers union in in lock sync and we're openly communicating as things are changing throughout the summer and so there are

172no surprises for anybody you know in the facilities again we can talk about it more in july i would like to see pen to paper a little bit more about numbers about what it would cost us to finish air conditioning the rest of the buildings in the district i know that may sound crazy but um i was thinking the other day that i've been out of elementary school 35 40 years and those were hot days when i was a kid and i'm like well it's 40 years later we can do better for our kids so i i just like to start to put the pen to paper and see what those numbers look like and see how we can kind of phase it in thank you jason so it just we talked earlier about miscommunications

173i just want to make sure there's no miscommunications coming out of this that the plan is i understand it the plan is the state has said once we reach a certain point that all executive orders and rules go away and if that's the case the plan as i understand it is school opens in september as school was before the pandemic which means everything open and no masks and no testing and that that's my understanding of the plan barring any new directive that we don't expect to receive right there you go that's the big part that's the part right but i just don't want the miscommunication that we're planning ahead for masking and distancing and that's not the contingency plan you got to be ready for anything yeah we're intending as you know to reopen it's

174just we i'm not asking i'm just i just want to make i know a lot of people watch these videos afterwards and i just don't want to leave it with any misperception or miscommunication that we have some intent on having locked down scrolls in september so but as we saw as we saw tonight with some of the guests that spoke or chose to wear masks or chose not to wear masks there's a differing of opinion so to jason's point i really do think as crazy as last summer was we made a concerted effort to include whether it's through focus groups and small building committee groups to include different stakeholders sometimes somebody's opinion didn't carry the day and so i think that came across as our opinion didn't matter but as you can see it's it's

175tough to please everybody we've got to make a decision thinking of one student in a chair and do what's best for that student even though it represents 4 200 students all of which have different needs drives opinions families have different backgrounds so it's tough to take i mean we'll be chasing our tail so we have tried to include stakeholder input it's just for some as you know if it doesn't carry the day it's well gee they didn't count my opinion i see that in the let's talks i mean i'm happy to print the reports that you've asked for but you're going to see that if i don't give back what they want i get a low rating and i didn't give them what they wanted and that's great i i hope they felt heard at

176least but we have to balance it with everything else that is coming in as well so i'm glad you said that i think we're trying to reopen and unless as you said the fine print who knows and i think some of our government officials will struggle with the loss of martial law you know as a result of the pandemic and what that means for you know giving things back over to local control yes i also just want to point out though that that all our students will have an opportunity to be vaccinated our youngest learners will not and so i think it's premature to say exactly what anything will look like until we get further along into the summer and we hear from the department of health and so there's just still a lot the

177pandemic's not over and by no means do i do i want i mean i i want more normalcy than as much as anyone um but i also think we just have to continue to recognize that we still have that population of students many of our students um at the younger levels do not have access to vaccines um unlikely at the start of school so there's just still tbd from where i sit thank you um okay future meetings we kind of already talked about that um dates to remember it's nice to have oh it's not even on here we should put graduation on there it's just nice to have a date to remember we haven't had one in so long so we got to put graduation on there and to that point i will keep the

178board posted so right now the targets the 25th in the evening with rain dates all through the weekend so as it unfolds either expect something from sarah or myself we will let you know where to be when to be with your regalia so we will try to dodge tornado warnings and water droplets and everything else are we showing our vaccination reports to sarah before we leave whoever ordered the weather for saturday night is in charge of graduation okay all right uh is there a motion to approve the consent agenda thank you daryl second for mark all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i am opposed or abstaining all right uh we do have executive sessions this evening is there a motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of the superintendent

179year end evaluation thank you kelly second from jason in discussion follow the favor please indicate i i composer obtaining all right so we will conclude the public portion of our meeting going to executive session now our dear sweet lucy brought cupcakes to everyone so make sure you have a cupcake we'll take a second here have a cupcake lucy you're not going to have a cupcake with us [Laughter] where's security just think i can outdrive come on everybody have a cupcake oh we're going somewhere else oh okay i forgot about that 1201 all right sounds good you