001maximize student exposure to standards across content areas through creative course planning so that's a little bit of what you're going to see tonight and I'm going to turn it over to Mr Murray who's going to go through the specific courses their descriptions and the rationale for the recommendation area face around the seal of Civic Readiness capsule Capital Ember solo our science barbecue so this independent study is again a Capstone project that our students would be able to take and it's going to be around its option 10. if you remember there was a sheet that he had outlined on the Seal of Civic redness there's one side was a I believe an action side and then the other side was a course side so this would be option 10 the last option that students can take
002as seniors again a Capstone project what students could take for a half a credit class that would be an independent project with um studies oversee um so the rationale obviously this ties into the Seal of Civic Readiness and it is outlined and been approved by nice follow and the you know the successful completion of this Capstone project will allow students to earn four of the six required point towards the sealed cigarettes which is a lot of points towards the completion of that project our next course is in the Arts it's it's actually in our art department and it's called the intro to still we're trying to bring art and Technology together we've got lots of students which have described an interest in this area and it kind of targets students that want to invest time
003in computer animation and game design so this is a course that would be really computer-based obviously and we've had students which are in our I.T Department going through our Early College High School I.T which have expressed a lot of interest in this area and we know that we have students that are trying to take as many art courses as possible so this would be another option for our students to take no prereq prerequisite to this class so any student could take it and we have a teacher here who's available to teach it and was interested in our third class is in our technology department in construction in particular and it's called construction systems event with a specific emphasis on home in Improvement in repair so the idea behind this course is to bring a reality
004of what happens with students when they move out of here they know in their own homes or have a where they may have to take care of their own their own things they're going to focus on replacing light fixtures on Windows how to clean out dryer vents things that you would do around the house as part of your you know everything that makes an upkeep of your property so it's a there's been conversations with the teacher's going to teach it and Lowe's in terms of trying to get some materials donated and work through what materials have been needed for this course there's been a lot of legwork with us and students are really interested in taking this class to understand when they want a piece how do I take care and then our fourth course
005is in our FCS which is family computer family and consumer science excuse me it's going to be called The Fall seasonal cooking and baking so the emphasis on this course uh is that it would be um basic cooking that you would do in this is actually very much like the Advanced Construction class where it's how can you cook on your own things like making casseroles making soups making baked goods for the fall around the holiday time using seasonal vegetables and things that are available during the fall time operation for the foods that could make so against a lot of student feedback there's a students who get in our cooking programs here really like it and they're looking for more always looking for more so this those are the four courses that we've come up with
006for next year that we would love to offer first so are any of these courses going to alter the need for Staffing numbers or does that say the same stays the same are we giving up any other courses to implement these courses so in some cases yes in some cases no so they may so we may still offer the same for same point and not be at the same time okay um so we have students which for example which in let's use Gourmet cooking for example they may have taken Gourmet cooking and they want another cooking class so we would offer this next year let's say in the fall and then they still take Gourmet rical spring if they haven't taken it yet you answered my next question was is fall going to maintain be
007just maintained during the fall semester likely how do we come up with acquired foods that are available for those things they may differ a little bit in terms of what they might prepare but the idea would be very simple very good thank you sure any questions you may have mentioned it but for the art class is that going to be an art teacher teaching that or a technology teacher he does have a little bit of art for example we stop Photoshop so he has that expertise in in being able to use computers for thank you well thank you this is exciting it is so thank you very much and my thanks to everyone that was involved in developing these new choices and I hope that our students take advantage all right thanks okay thank you
008Mr Murray and Miss Geithner it's always exciting when we listen and hear our kids and we'd make adjustments you know and I was recently visiting another school district with a group of superintendents they're making adjustments in the course loads and the opportunities we're doing the same thing here I'm looking forward to uh we're actually hosting the superintendents next month and we'll be highlighting some of the work that we're doing here in our district as well so this is definitely the direction of the future and making sure that we're providing kids with applicable meaningful purposeful things that they can they can do right now can you come back next year and let us know of how it worked out and for enrollment and what the students feedback was we absolutely can thank you just writing that
009down here we go meaning okay thank you next item this evening is our operations and finance report for November and December Dr Lisi thanks Mr Paul but you don't convenient good evening everyone I'll begin with our finance report and our revenues and expenditures as of November 30th 2022 our revenues in 2223 as of November a little over 34 million representing 44 of our anticipated revenues in comparison to last year the 21-22 year at this time our revenues were 31.7 million representing 42 percent of our anticipated revenues in our expenditures for 2223 our current expenditure is a little over 27 million representing 35 percent of our budget and our actual expenditures for the 21-22 school year at this time were 24 million representing 32 percent of our budget our cash flow projections again in line for
010November you'll see a slight difference there from last year and that's primarily due to the fact that our our Aid submissions have been considerably more timely this year in our so that's why you're seeing the difference there but again one of the things you'll notice for 2223 is we don't quite we don't have quite the uh differences in cash flow that we had in previous years so that's something we anticipated and we're happy to see uh our in addition to our finance report as I mentioned at the previous board meeting we awarded a no bid for our internal auditing and it Buster BOCES actually focuses on school business operations and in particular uh they they work with a lot of local districts for internal auditing so we're happy to see and we're pleased with their
011responses with regard to their experience in doing this also their familiarity with New York state laws and accounting practices and working with districts in general and you know more practically speaking the cost was substantially different than the two respondents we did receive in the previous RFP uh so I'm happy to share that with you so my understanding is the audit committee was very pleased with the responses that we received yes we were and I'm sorry I don't have the minutes done yet but it will it will be in our minutes um this is Abel Gore and I were able to attend and we were very satisfied with the um what they have to offer we think the the level of services is excellent and um they really were um I thought very well versed on
012all topics and understand that this is a Hands-On board when it comes to oversight of our money Mrs applegore do you have anything to add um yeah they're going to be here for us if you have any questions trainings um I feel comfortable thank you to your point um Brenda there will be a physical presence here in the district to conduct the audit so and also I'll just stand too that we use Quest R3 BOCES quite a bit for information their website has a lot of information that we use on a regular basis in the business office so they're a great resource for us to reach out to in need so it's great to have them as offering that service as well so thank you lastly in operation just want to share with the board
013that we're beginning to consolidate some of our operational services within the district in our non-instructional areas one of the one of the goals that we had was to centralize some of our support services and operations and and kind of starting that process with an application change the technology department has for right at least over a decade used a help desk service offered by City bosses and truly it's been fantastic but if our goal is to begin consolidating some of our services we thought we ought to look at other applications that might serve that purpose and so we've switched from what is literally called Help Desk to something called incident IQ and what that will help us do is change the way that we communicate as a service for our non-instructional team so for example if
014someone has questions or support needs in say facilities that'll come through a centralized location at least that's our future goal so that the entire team can talk that through a lot of the work that we do in those areas it does take more than just Tech or just facilities so this is the first step in in moving in that direction so we're switching over to this program called incident IQ and some of the other modules that they offer for example are onboarding and off-boarding Facilities support and management and they also have a knowledge base and that's something we've been missing in the past because as great as help desk is it didn't necessarily keep a searchable history of the work that we've done so that if we had a fix per se for something that
015someone not just the tech team but someone from the outside could search for which may save us time and help us become more efficient as an organization so we're looking forward to making that change and another change that we're looking forward to as well is that in the past when you requested support in order to find out where you were in the queue you would have to call the help desk again and this is considerably more transparent in that area so that you can actually look look up and see where what the notes were in terms of your issue see where you are in the queue and so on so again we're looking that's that's excellent because that is one of the consistent complaints I hear is when people submit they have no idea whether
016it's been received or where it's at in the process so right right that's excellent thank you thank you so is this centralized station going to then disseminate to the people who need to actually go in and do something is that the process you're outlining here and could you clarify a little bit Tim if you wouldn't mind so when you said it went into a central service does that mean there's going to be someone that it goes through before it's going to the people who are actually going to go fix the problem great question great question so the way that we work that at least in technology and we want to expand this across the whole operations areas we have someone who's there all the time taking the calls or the emails that sort of triages
017the issue which we've learned has made the whole process far more efficient because sometimes it is a very simple fix but this person can then determine whether or not it's something that's extremely urgent if we have for say a phishing attack or something on those lines they can deal with it right away so we want to expand that process throughout the entire operation I hope that addresses your your question thank you are there any questions for Dr Lisi I just want to let you know I've been on our your Friday updates I've been providing information around the budget this year it's a little bit later and it it I didn't realize in an election year the governor has till February 1st to release her state budget normal or her proposed budget executive budget generally that
018was always the January 21st however this year it's February 1st so we anticipate the state aid runs somewhere between the SEC the second of February and the 5th is what we're hearing you know so uh I was reading up on um I saw the rural schools uh did an overview as well as I I believe nisba right before the meeting tonight just on the governor today and she mentioned very little about education today I guess there was one or two sentences uh with respect to education uh so I don't know if that's good bad uh I guess we'll see I think there's been a lot of commitment and we're looking forward to seeing those commitments honored that were brought up last year which was are fully funded with our formulas so more to follow on
019that I will provide those as well I always provide those for your reading pleasure and reference because they're really great to hear the perspectives of the different advocacy agencies to give us a good understanding any other questions on the operations and finance thank you and then finally on our fcsd logo name update we had the the portal closed last evening on with respect to if there are individuals that are interested in serving on the team we had individuals what we'll do by Friday is we'll go through a process to identify individuals to be on that we'll use the process that we use for the order on the board of education uh those to talk about what that is our board Clerk and our note at one of our notaries in the district actually goes through
020that process and what we'll do is we're going to categorize them into what they you know if they're a business community so what we're looking for is six students two at each of the levels elementary junior high and second in high school staff one Elementary one Junior High one high school three family same thing elementary middle or Junior High High School support staff Elementary or primary and second Dairy admins three and then business and community members six that comes out to I believe 23 individuals which is a pretty healthy sized committee obviously many opportunities that will come out after that around I would expect from the committee around surveys forums throughout the course of the process not just at the beginning but at you know throughout different pieces when they need information or would like
021to bounce ideas uh back and forth throughout there we're also monitoring from New York State education department any further feedback with respect to um this process as well so I believe it's so that's where we're at at this point in time so I mean I was pleased last week at this time about a week ago when we got back from break that number was around 27. so it did pick up I Believe by another 15 uh over the course of that following week are there any questions uh Brian how does the narrowing happen what's our process for say there's 12 students but we are only planning for six yep did they get assigned a number and then it's randomized picked out of a hat what's our process so it's similar to what we do and
022as I would say and is the process that every year if we let's say we had uh five individuals that had requested and gone through the process to serve on the board there's an order that we have to draw those individuals and it's not alphabetical it's actually a drawing that's done and it's led by our board Clerk and a notary and there's a process they sign off on all of those so it's a process we're going to do that same process so for example we would put you know the elementary students if we had five of them for example and we're having two we would draw them out of a out of a hat if you will and then go from there and do the same thing with each aspect of the process so it
023is completely random thank you yep do we know the number of students out of the 42 like the like do we know how many students signed up I'm just trying to get an indication of about how many students sign up for this I'm eyeballing it correctly right now I see eight and I know that we had uh there was a great meeting with the culture kids it's the culture I always call them around School culture student culture yeah student School culture advisory and there was a great meeting where they had a conversation really it actually went to your point Miss Maineville believe it our last meeting or the one before where you talked about the importance of educating the students throughout the course of this process and they had to do they debriefed and told
024me about the conversation that they had with the students that was one of those parts because after the students got talking about they really had some outstanding aha uh moments and understanding of the importance of the process that goes along with us as we as we work our way through it was really exciting so it was actually something that you had said that kind of resonated and we're going to use that experience to how do we expand that out across all of our students um you know throughout and and throughout our community and educate and share information and we have a way to represent like the whole student body through the two individuals per um like the elementary the junior high as well as utilizing all the standing groups as well so for example the
025the school the student School culture advisory is fifth to 12th graders are on that team so there's an opportunity where we have really I have kids straight through from elementary all the way up through we've got other groups of kids we'll use those groups but also then how do you reach out to the other the kids that aren't a part of those groups so the idea is to build that capacity so that all of kids have the opportunity for input and and right sharing your ideas comedy had the discussion and then they are to disseminate that information out to the student body I just want to make sure that Jerry do you want to come so we talked with them specifically this is one of the issues that that group explores is diversity equity and
026inclusion and their focus is how do we make our school a welcoming place for every student that's their mission um and in the course of this conversation we talked about the importance of their role as Representatives that you know they're not to just go back and talk to the people they sit with at lunch or the students they have in class but to Advocate and reach out to everyone in their school Community to give feedback and input so and and to encourage we we charge them with encouraging other students to participate in any forms or focus groups to answer the survey questions honestly and thoroughly so that voices can be heard from a variety of different perspectives so we keep reiterating that charge to them when they meet Tammy Sheldon Nate Murray um Carrie Foster
027Liz Tiffany and Jeff Hendrickson most often facilitate that group how many kids are involved in that group so there are two students from every grade level 5 through 12. so they're not always able to all be there because of other academic commitments and and other things but we usually like the time when I was there for this conversation there were 18 students present and it's not there so it's their idea their ideas and their input is going to help us as the leaders to figure out how do we make sure that we can replicate and create those opportunities so they're really providing guidance as well that way so it's just another one of those how can we incorporate the different groups as well just like we will when we have forums for the community things
028like that as well yep I just want to make sure that I'm understanding Chris thank you students are too from every building so yeah so two fifth graders from Lanigan two fifth graders from Granby yeah thank you great discussion other questions or thoughts as this process evolves I have a follow-up from what I was asking earlier are there any underrepresented communities that we've established so far where there were maybe one of three or zero of three for anything yeah I haven't had the time since yesterday to go we had a few things we were addressing uh yesterday evening and today so I haven't had the opportunity to go through and um we've got them in the categories but I need to break them down and really look at um the range of individuals we have
029I was just wondering if there was a category where there was no one if we work to find at least someone to fit that role just so we weren't you know just because we didn't have someone didn't mean we weren't representing that group so we have quite a few community members I forgive me they're not numbered community members there's a number of Staff much greater than the numbers of two three and four let's say that they're like six eight um staff let's say there's like 12. that have applied the community probably somewhere around 13 12 to 13. again I'm just eyeballing this quick um I think the area of business and some of our community members I just don't know what they do for businesses so there could be some opportunity here that I just
030don't know their background I just know that they're a Community member who expressed interest but I don't know if they're what they do in our community they could be one of our business people so but yeah we want to make sure yeah we want to make sure that we get the balanced representation and throughout the course of the process if there's I think we also need to make sure that we're constantly reaching out for feedback from those individuals and those groups as well that's a great Point Mr Connors thank you other discussion or questions we to have full implementation by by 25 but but the commitment by the end of June this year to have things kind of moving forward and that we have a plan you know that we're moving forward in place the
031idea I think out through 25 was to make sure if there were any costs or so like uniforms some other kinds of things that may be Capital Improvement based or something like that um for us a lot of our things our expenditures I think are going to be less than many other districts based on some conversations and some things I've been looking into in other places so it's also nice to feel not so not that we don't want to get the ball rolling but we don't feel as rushed so we can take our time and you know make sure we do it the right way yeah and I think we're clearly demonstrating that we're moving on the path in a measured way and making sure that we have the input I've been reading a lot
032of different articles in fact in the in the latest on board that just came out the January 9th there's a section in there with related to this topic and it was interesting to read the stories of three districts from different parts of the state that embarked on this process without involuntarily you know went through the process before over the last year or so they were all recent in the last year and it was interesting how they each approached it a little bit differently and I think when you read them you'll see that we're actually parts of all three and I and I was constantly learning what was really good what they said like wow we need to do that uh we need to make sure we do that and there were others I'm like wouldn't
033probably do it that way uh so it was interesting and I think we need to learn from others experiences as we go through this so that we end up with where we want Fulton as a community to be their job in the end is and it was in the original letter and I wish I had didn't bring with me the original charge at the committee will be ultimately to provide three different ideas for the name Logo to the Board of Education yeah what we have to do is show that direction I mean there's no that the timeline from the state ultimately is 25 to complete the complete done everything out not using anything anymore anywhere um what it has to show by 23 the end of 23 is that we are um on our well
034on our way made the commitment moving forward originally our goal was in the timeline that I provided was we wanted to be able to provide and I know it's ambitious we'd like to have the process completed by the end of May this year however if it needs to go longer I will we'll see where the process takes us mm-hmm yep well you're right right but in the original timelines that I've put out and we're in the letter we talked about um by closure of the school year we'd like to have that done because there's there's processes that need to take place after that as we evolve whether it's changes you know with uniforms or you know different kinds of things in the district things like that their work is to to provide three examples or
035three recommendations to the board for consideration um and then the boards in some of the in some cases may put those back out to the community for more feedback I mean there's a number of that was in one of the stories that I read or one of the Articles I've read yeah I think as it evolves I mean we're putting it together but I think the idea is to get is is is the committee serves as that's the direction ultimately we want to be able to provide three different Renditions to the board or not more than three no I I think that that's critical right up no more than three recommendations of how to move forward yep and then the idea from there is to to hopefully have something that works best for our community
036I always like to be hopeful and think that we're in more agreement than that and maybe maybe it's just two hopefully that's the conclusion of the superintendent's report if there's no other discussion thank you thank you would someone move item 4.01 accept the financial reports move it second any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstentions past six zero zero item 4.02 to accept the operations and finance report for December any discussion all those in favor I opposed and abstentions past six zero zero item 4.03 to accept a donation okay any discussion I would just like to thank Compass Credit Union for the donation it's very generous um and it's to help provide um outdoor wear for our students if there's no other discussion all those in favor I opposed and abstentions past six zero
037zero item 5.01 to approve the committee on special education recommendations second any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstentions past six zero zero I was wondering if you'd like to batch 6.01 through 6.08 second any discussion on any of those items all those in favor I opposed abstentions pass six zero zero item 6.09 any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstentions aye pass 501. item 6.10 appoint educational clerical staff any discussion all those in favor I opposed of sentience pass six zero zero item 6.11 a point custodial and maintenance employees any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstentions past six zero zero and this brings us to board Forum Mr Connors would you like to start uh sure uh I would like to thank the high school for the work they did
038on the courses I know I was reading through them and I was really excited and I'm like some of these things you know I wish when I was here I could have done them so I think it's great that the students had input and it really sounds like there are classes that are really going to help them into the future to whatever their goal is where they're going to be even in their personal lives I'd also like to say thank you again to Robin because I just love how you make it look easy Robin everything yes everything you do with you know as far as the you know president and everything I think you take on a lot of responsibilities and you've been a great mentor to me as I've been trying to learn throughout
039the year so I really just want to say thank you to you and all the work you do and always making sure to think and make sure everyone's included in the conversation Tim my pleasure um Brenda laughs um yesterday was National SRO games I'd like to take the time to time and Chris Jones for all they do for our district um I'm just so thankful that we are able to have to ask our over here so thank you to them thank you Brendan thank you for the heads up on the national SRO recognition they do deserve to be recognized for what they bring to our school Community um Jen um thank you Mrs Geithner and Mr Murray for um the presentation of the new course opportunities we're definitely listening to the student voices and it
040seems like we're going to provide them with a rigorous curriculum based on their interests and their wants and we're still aligning with the standards at the New York State Standards so that should be great opportunities for them in the future and that'll be fun for them and they're still going to learn so that's great thank you to Dr Lisi and his team um you're it seems like you're doing an awful lot of consolidating and work on your end but at the same time you're opening like an umbrella of opportunities to just collaborate more efficiently and I think that's going to save us going to save us a lot of time and a lot of headaches along the way so thank you for all of your hard work I'm excited about the moving forward with the
041logo for our district and the opportunities and the learning process that's going to provide for everybody and thank you Brian for um you know keeping up to date and reading those stories because I think that's really important to learn from others and um that's going to provide us just with more information and you know give us a heads up and things we can try to prevent along the way or maybe add along the way so thank you for that and that's it from me thank you Jess I don't really have anything to add it was a short easy meeting so uh thank you to Compass Credit Union again for the donation David um and thanks to the community thank you um I would like to bring your attention to our name plates our name plates
042are new they were constructed for us designed and constructed by Mr Duvall and his Tech students using some of the new equipment that was purchased for the tech department so I think it's very exciting that our students can now do this for the districts again another learning experience with a very practical application and I agree with David the practical application as a parent I would have been thrilled to have my kids have an opportunity at a couple of those courses the fix the stuff around the house wow you know really wish that had been around a lot longer longer ago um so that's it for that and that brings us now to second public forum and I know you're back there Frank castilia you said you wanted to come back and talk to us about
043a topic on tonight's agenda okay can you hear that yes all right okay all right uh few things do you want to start the buzzer oh there's things that happen throughout the course of my day throughout the course of my year and I know that I could call any one of you and bring those issues up but what happens there is it's a discussion between you and me it's not a transparent totally transparent discussion with that being said there are issues that I'm sure that most of you don't know is the fact that one we are paying for gas for our vehicles the school district Vehicles we are paying pump price we go to Old Babcock oil we fill our tanks up there we pay the price at the pump we used to piggyback off
044of the city of Fulton's contract with fuel they went with Byrne Dairy we're not going with Byrne Dairy I don't know I have my own idea why they why the city went with Byrne Dairy but that's another issue uh we pay Babcock we're paying and we're not getting reimbursed for estate taxes we're not we used to get it at the pump paid less at the pump you'd pay without the taxes we're not doing that anymore these are things that you do not know the other issue the main issue right now for me and it should be for us as a landlord the elevator at 4th Street School that goes down to the uh gym has been tagged it cannot be used it'll have to be fixed so we as a as a landlord I mean
045you guys should know this not just me or you know or you know or Robin or or Tim you know or anyone over here you know this is the only reason you know you know I know Brenda and I know a few of the other ones but these are issues that should be brought up and should be brought out in transparency that's that's the only issue I have is accountability and transparency the same issues that I know that most of you ran on when you run for your time wonderful I thought was there kind of caught up everybody would be able to use a check out foreign well Frank thank you and I wanna I wanna I wanna respond to a couple of things I want you to know a um my or my colleagues
046not knowing about the elevator is really not our job our job is to make sure that they know that you've brought up to my attention and I say hey I was asked about the elevator as long as they know when they're doing the work that's what matters because the responsibility of the day-to-day operations according to the our policies it's a superintendent's responsibility we are not responsible directly for that but I can get you an answer and so can my colleagues and that is what we do and we're more than happy to look into any question and make sure get an answer follow-up is it being done your question or your concern you raised about the gas you better believe I'm going to follow up and I will let you know what I learn and I
047appreciate that you asked the question and I appreciate that you mentioned the fact that you can call in advance and here's my to my way of thinking my colleagues may or may not agree I don't want to sit on something that important so call me don't wait for a meeting if that's happening we want to correct that as soon as we can possibly correct it and so that's why I like people to reach out is with regard to people not coming to talk about the logo or any other issue we all get talked to at different times by different people and we're willing to give people the time of day to to hear them out lastly we're probably the only organization in the county or in this pertaining to Fulton our meetings are live streamed
048anybody can watch anybody can see what our discussion is what the topics are and they're more than welcome to come I don't know what more we can do we have worked very hard to make our website very active so that it's not a stagnant website people can get up-to-date information and again I appreciate your point of view I just want to share the other side of the point of view because there's always we're looking at it a little differently so I appreciate your thoughts and I will you will be hearing from me wanting to step up set make them more than available they but people and I know that the One logo and named mascot name that they came up with I know that quite far left winged as well okay we're done I don't
049even want wait it's not political well I know but but anyhow we've taken yeah thank you Frank thank you thanks so much Frank thank you oh and Frank before you leave can you make sure I have your phone number please before you leave all righty um that now brings us to um executive session would someone move item 7.303 to go into executive session second any discussion all those in favor aye opposed and abstentions past six zero zero we're going to enter executive session take care of uh this is a little bit of uh work and then we're going to come back here and close out the meeting thank you sir and we are back in public session and at this point in time I would ask my colleagues to move 7.04 to approve an administrative
050leave any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstentions pass 600. item 7.05 to approve an administrative leave any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstentions past six zero zero item 8.01 to adjourn the meeting any discussion all those in favor I opposed and abstentions past six zero zero thank you all for a great meeting and happy New Year to everyone see you next time