001At this time, I will call the annual reorganizational meeting to order. Please stand for the I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. At this time, could I please have a motion to appoint the executive assistant to the superintendent as district clerk for the 2526 school year as part of her regular duties? I have Mrs. Serbanowski and second uh Mr. Long. So, at this time, uh can I get a vote? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? That motion is approved. Thank you. So, at this time, I will administer the oath of office to Mrs. Brown. [Music] Okay. I, Condanisa Brown, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United
002States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the district clerk for the 2025 2026 school year according to the best of my ability. Thank you, Mrs. Brown. The floor is yours. Okay. So, now we will have the oath of office for the newly elected board of education members, Mrs. Andrea Menchella, Dr. Christine Richards, and Mrs. Tanya Sorowski. Okay. read this here. I, Andrea Mchella, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Gates Charlie Board of Education for the term of July 1st, 2025 to June, 2028, according to the best of my ability. [Applause] Thank you, Dr. Richards.
003I, Dr. Christine Richards do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Gates Shalai Board of Education for the term of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 according to the best of my ability. right here. I, Tanya Subnowski, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Gates Trilai Board of Education for the term of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 according to the best of my ability. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Okay. Okay. At this time, we will move on with
004the election of officers. We will start with the board president. Do we have any nominations? Mr. Long, I'd like to knock Whoa. Sorry. Nominate Dr. Richards for president. Do we have a second? Oh, did Christo. Okay. Do we have any other nominations? I'd like to nominate Katie Coffee. Okay. Do we have a second? Okay. Okay. Do we have any other nominations? Okay. All right. So, we'll take a roll call for the vote for Dr. Richards for the office of the board of educ board of education president. Can I have let's see Miss Davis need your vote. Uh Katie Coffee please. Okay. Miss Littlewood, yours is on you. Katie Copy. Okay, Mr. Long Dr. Richards. Thanks, Mrs. Mella. Katie Coffee. Okay. Mrs. Coffee, Katie Coffee, Dr. Richards. Okay. Mrs. Sonoski here on this side. Katie coffee.
005Okay. All right. And we have vote for Mrs. Coffee for Board of Education President. Okay. Okay. And Mrs. Coffee. Yes. Works. I, Katherine Coffee, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of President of the Gates Highlight Board of Education for the 2025 2026 school year according to the best of my ability. Okay, you can sign right there. [Applause] It was Now I'd like to call for nominations for vice president. Mr. Long, I'd like to nominate Dr. Christine Richards to vice president. Thank you. Do we have a second? Uh, Miss Davis, do we have any other nominations for vice president? Okay, seeing none, do I still need to go by each person? Yes.
006All right, Mr. Long, Dr. Christine Richards, Miss Davis, Dr. Richards, Miss Mntella, Dr. Richards, Miss Littlewood, Dr. Richards, Dr. Dr. Richards here. Dr. Richards, Katie Coffee. Uh, Dr. Richards and Tanya Serinowski. Dr. Richards. Pardon? It is unanimous. Congratulations, Dr. Richards. Yeah. Pausing the reorgance. Okay. I, Dr. Christine Richards, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of vice president of the Gates Shalai Board of Education for the 2025 2026 school year to according to the best of my ability. [Applause] I'm now asking for a motion to pause the reorganizational meeting until after conducting a public hearing on the school safety plan. Can I have a motion? Miss Littlewood, Dr. Richards. All in favor?
007The vote is unanimous. The meeting is paused. Bye you guys. Thanks for coming. Hello all. My name is Steve Torres. I'm the safety and security supervisor and I'm here to do some updates for the district school safety plan. Uh we did a full review of the GS GCSD districtwide safety plan was completed. Uh, the plan is in complete compliance with the New York State Education Department's minimum standards. Three updates have been added to the plan. Section 2.2, the multi-hazard training. Um, an update to the emergency response terms, which was formerly Shell. Uh, it is now shelter in place, hold in place, evacuate, secure lockout, which was formerly lockout, and lock down. Section 3.4, the superintendent's cabinet, updated to reflect the new titles and positions that are part of the superintendent's cabinet for the 2025 2026
008school year. Section 5.7, Emergency Remote Instruction Plan. Beginning with the 2023 2024 school year, the district developed an emergency remote instruction plan as required by the New York State Education Department for the inclusion of the district-wide school safety plan. It was updated in 2025 26 2026 districtwide school safety plan is in is about the GC emergency remote instruction plan purpose and availability on the district's website. Any questions? All right. Seeing no public comment, thank you. By the way, we're going to close the hearing and move forward with our meeting. We appreciate you. Y next we are opening a hearing for the code of conduct. May I have a motion? Littlewood, Dr. Richards. Any discussion? All in favor? Vote is unanimous. We are now in a public hearing for the code of conduct. All right. Good
009evening, President Coffee, Vice President Richards, Superintendent Daly, and members of the board. I'm Troy, assistant superintendent for instruction. Thank you for the opportunity to present the public hearing on the code of conduct and support. So last year, we partnered with the Children's Institute to do a complete revision of our code of conduct and support. We continued that partnership this year uh to support our buildings with the successful implementation of the code but also more importantly uh restorative practices and learning along the way. So in addition to that um learning through faculty meetings, we also utilized them uh to monitor and implement feedback throughout the year more of an informal which led us to the end of the year where the Children's Institute facilitated a more formal structure as you can see um through the mode
010of what they call accordion sessions which is gathering feedback from a variety of different stakeholders and with that uh as you can see here the code of conduct committee and support uh came back together uh spent about an afternoon looking at everything and digging into what they felt was important important, excuse me, as they reflected on the year. Uh they met with the MTSS team, our equity team, our administrative team, as well as elementary and secondary school staff. And so, uh did a great job of of collecting that feedback. Overwhelmingly, it was positive feedback and very receptive to the shift to more restorative approach. Uh but we know that it's not only the code that does that. It's the work that's happening in our buildings and it's our staff's mindset and restorative approach to what
011they do on a daily basis. And as Superintendent Daly has shared, that data is evident in the efforts uh to embrace restorative practices with 41% fewer suspensions overall at the secondary level. The next phase was digging into the information that was reviewed. And so after engaging with those stakeholders, we reviewed the information and any necessary changes that needed to take place uh while thinking about the legal and compliance expectations and working as an equity leadership team to decipher what the feedback that rose to the top and then take that information and work with stakeholders um to gather feedback. And so we've sent it back out to administrators to provide some additional feedback on some of the changes that were initially recommended and then we finalized that information which you see tonight. And so overall the
012revisions were minimal. Uh the most significant change comes from New York State's distraction-free school law and as a as a district we're working toward that. However, we're focusing tonight just on the information that was within the code of conduct relative to that law. First recommendation was uh specifically in interventions and responses uh in tier one behavior examples. And so uh reflecting the changes and expectations from the state, we added um with the ban bell-to-bell ban, it includes more than just cell phones. So we added other internet enabled devices. The next one was just a one shift in one word. It's rather than retaching requirements, it's retaching expectations, more restorative, friendly language. The next is in digital citizenship and acceptable use specifically with the acceptable use. Um we leveraged cell phones specifically in the original last
013year's version and it was deciphered between grade levels, so elementary, middle, and high school. uh with the new expectations from New York State, we adjusted a bit of that to to include other devices, but also that they're off and away during the day and in a school designated location um during school hours. In addition to that, as you know, with the change of the code of conduct to include support, we also created an appendix D to try to help with some of the support relative to this new change. And so with that, we created appendix D, which is a framework for the distraction-free school um schools, excuse me, and talk a little bit about the why, expectations, some of the proactive teaching, as well as modeling and support uh in the interventions and responses that
014are going to come as a result of some of those state expectations. So that's on page 73 and 74 in the code. And last but not least, uh, in response to some of our equitable grading practices that we're doing, uh, adding a little a more clear statement about attendance impact on learning, balancing the fairness with educational um, reality, and then maintaining collective support throughout that process. um with the recommendations hopefully becoming more clear and complete explicitly recognizing the connection between attendance and learning while keeping the commitment that grades reflect learning not just attendance. So those are the recommendations. Any public comment? Thank you. Do we have any public comment? All right. Seeing none, I'm going to move us forward to closing the hearing. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. Can I now have a
015motion to resume our public meeting? Miss Littlewood, Mr. Long, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. We are now back in our public meeting. Do we have any agenda changes? We do not. Thank you. All right. Can I have a motion to appoint? Right. Yes. Okay, sorry. Can I have a motion to appoint the deputy superintendent as deputy district clerk for the 2025 2026 school year as part of his or her regular duties? Can I have a motion? Uh, Miss Davis, Miss Littlewood, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. I, Mitchell Ball, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of the New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of Deputy District Clerk for the 2526 school
016year according to the best of my ability. Can I have a motion to appoint the superintendent of schools for the 2025 2026 school year? Dr. Richards, Mr. Long. Any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. I will support the constit Oh, I Christopher Dailyaly do so swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the superintendent of schools for the 2025 2026 school year according to the best of my ability. Can I have a motion to appoint the district treasurer? Sorry, applause. There we go. It wasn't prompted at all. Can I have a motion to appoint the district treasurer for the 2025 2026 school year? Can I have a motion? Miss Subnowki, Dr. Richards. All
017in favor? The vote is unanimous. All right. Can I now have a motion to appoint the deputy district treasurer for the 2025 2026 school year as part of his or her regular duties? Have a motion. U Miss Littlewood, Miss Davis, all in favor? The vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to appoint district claims auditor for the 2025 2026 school year at a rate of $22 per hour? Can I have a motion? Mr. Bowski, Mr. Long, any discussion? All in favor? Vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to appoint the district deputy claims auditor or ERS for the 2025 2026 school year at a rate of $22 per hour? Can I have a motion? Miss Littlewood, uh, Miss Mella, all in favor? Vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to appoint the
018superintendent of schools as the attendance officer for the 2025 2026 school year as part of his or her regular duties? I have a motion. Dr. Richards, Mr. Lung. All in favor? The vote is unanimous. All right. That moves it. I, Christopher Dailyy, do so swear that I will support the Constitution of United States, the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge duties of attendance officer for the 202526 school year according to the best of my ability. Wow. Really well done. All right, moving on to consent items. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda business? I have a motion. Miss Littlewood, Miss Mintella, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to approve consent items business C through R? Can I
019have a motion, Mr. Bowski, Dr. Richards. Any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. And I have a motion to approve the superintendent recommended resignations, appointments, leaves, and terminations. Can I have a motion? Oh, what did I do? Thank you. See, this is why I need your highlighting. All right. Can I have a motion to approve consent agenda appointments? Miss Mintella, Dr. Richards. Any discussion? All in favor? Vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to approve consent items appointment C through AA? Can I have a motion? Mr. Rowski, Mr. Long. Any discussion? All in favor? Vote is unanimous. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve consent agenda designations? Can I have a motion? Mr. Long, Dr. Richards. Any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion
020to approve consent items designations C through O? Can I have a motion? Miss Mella, Miss Davis, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. All right. Can I now have a motion to approve consent agenda authorizations? Mr. Long, Dr. Richards, any discussion? All in favor? Vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to approve consent items authorizations C through V? Can I have a motion, Mr. Sinowski and Miss Mella? Any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. Thank you. Love this teamwork. All right. Can I now have a motion to approve the resolution for probationary administrative appointments for Lisa Young in the tenure area of director of physical education, health, and athletics and Zelica Johnson in the tenure area of coordinator of data and assessment. Can I have a motion? Mr. Long, Miss
021Littlewood, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. Right. Be it resolved that the board approves the following tenure appointments at the July 8th, 2025 meeting as recommended by the superintendent of schools. Samantha Brule in the tenure area of elementary, Mr. Long, Dr. Richards. Any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. Congratulations, Samantha. And that moves us forward now to our superintendent's comments. So tonight we're announcing that we have an opening on the board of education due to the resignation of board member Carrie Kais. Miss Kais has served on the board since 2018. Her leadership helped guide the district through many key initiatives including capital projects and enhancements to student supports. We are grateful for her contributions to our school community. The board of education is accepting applications to fill this vacancy. This
022appointed term will run through May 2026 with the opportunity for the selected candidate to run for election during the annual budget vote and board election in May of 2026. To be considered, applicants must be residents of the Gates Charlie Central School District. Interested candidates should email district clerk Condanessa Brown by 3 p.m. on Monday, July 21st. Applications must include a brief statement explaining why they are interested in serving on the board, their full name and home address, and relevant experiences or qualifications that would bring they would bring to the position. The board of education is responsible for establishing policies and overseeing the education, financial, and administrative operations of our district. This is a valuable opportunity for a community member to contribute to the success of our Gates Trilai students. Also this Thursday, if you're looking
023for a job, if we got a time for you, the support staff hiring fair, better known as the Michaela Parado event, on Thursday, July 10th, from 11 to 1 and 4 to 6:00 p.m., we are hosting a job fair at the GC fieldhouse. Come apply to be part of our Spartan family and a chance to meet Michaela Parado and make a difference in the lives of children in our community. We have openings in all departments. Interviews on the spot. Become a Spartan between again 11 and 1 and 4 to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 10th. And last, earlier we someone did make an announcement about it, but we want to do it publicly now. We have a new doctor in the house. Congratulations to Kesha Carter on defending her dissertation and officially becoming Dr. Carter.
024We're all very happy for you. Congratulations. And we need to get a picture to president and vice president before you leave. That is my report. President Coffee. Thank you, sir. Can I now have a motion to adjourn our meeting? Mr. Long, Miss Littlewood, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. Our meeting is now adjourned. Three. Oh, there it is.