001everyone uh we'll open the meeting up please rise for the pledge pledge allegiance to 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 we'll open the meeting up to a public comment uh front end a public comment is for agenda items only so if anyone has any questions pertaining to the agenda you can come forward please state your name okay we don't have any public comment we'll go into our special presentation leaders of the pack I'll have the Elementary School uh come up first so this is Harley lefew good evening everyone she is third grade she's Mr sommerfelt student and she is our leader of the pack for October Mr sommerfelt share some words about you a classmate
002was put in an uncomfortable situation during lunch by another classmate Harley stood up for her friend and made sure that the action was stopped before the lunch monitor got involved Harley confirmed students were behaving appropriately and she showed good leadership skills Mrs Hughes the art teacher shared Harley is a great addition to the classroom Community she's always willing to help and assist her fellow classmates whenever they need it her focus and attention during lessons in work time is commendable that means very good coach kosa our physical education teacher shared Harley is a class leader by example she is always safe with equipment and is a responsible student in the gym and for all these reasons and more you are our leader of the pack congratulations big so proud of you [Applause] y okay so for
003the Middle School um eth grader Malia Gonzalez was selected as our October leader of the pth so um I could read all these things but every single staff member and every teacher that Mia had all basically said the same thing which that she's an amazing kind thoughtful caring person um she's probably one of the most favorite students of all the staff members because of that um and I think that's a tribute I'll read a few real quick um so Mr rali said he's been fortunate to have Mia for two years um she's a very conscientious student who's only always willing to help her classmates she brings a positive attitude with a smile and laughter every every single day Mrs Ley said Malia is thoughtful kind and eager to assist her peers again same things um
004she takes her academics seriously and is willing to help others with their academic needs along with being polite to her teachers and staff she also de uh demonstrates kindness to all of her classmates um so before I read the last one I also want to say that she's one of my sale buddies so Malia goes to our after school program sale almost every day she's a fantastic student but she still goes every day and so uh we always have fun at the waiting for the lake bosses I just wanted to throw that in it um lastly probably I think maybe Malia's favorite staff member and I know uh nurse Jen and Malia have a close relationship nurse Jen said Malia is outstanding in all aspects of middle school life which we agree with she has
005the greatest sense of humor and is full of wit she brightens my day when she stops into my office to say hi or just to talk so congratulations you deserve [Applause] this mom you want to come around so you can get a picture I'm sorry did you prepare your speech um good evening everybody um I always love this part of the meeting uh just highlights a lot of positivity um you know with the students and what they're bringing to our schools in our community um tonight I present linger Andi uh who is an 11th grade leader of the pack at the high school um from my perspective when I first met lingar last year uh when I started I saw this U very studious individual Bright Smile um very dedicated to her schoolwork and her
006extracurricular activities um she's currently involved with our direct committee um and she speaks very well um she's promoting a lot of positive things that we were trying to move forward with the committee so I commend her for her efforts with that and we appreciate that student aspect on the committee um I'm going to read some blurs uh from her classroom teachers of the wonderful things that they have to say about linger or also now known as Ling which I just learned uh recently is Nick is her nickname Ling for short um L linger in Mr Welsh French class she is diligent in a thoughtful young young woman whose insights enrich class discussions as someone who speaks multiple languages with her family including French she supports her classmates during group work has a lot to offer
007which I greatly appreciate I know linger will accomplish a lot and improve the world in whatever capacity she decides in the future she epitomizes excellence in everything she does Mr wel Mr Geller for PE linger makes an effort to try her best in everything and help motivate herself and others around her at all times Dr scow in science Ling is a hardworking and dedicated student that demonstrates a meticulous attention to detail in all of her work she prepares work carefully asks insightful questions and is an asset to the class both academically as well as personally Mr shout for band Ling is a quiet leader in both the concert band and Jazz Band she is Dependable responsible and kind Ling is very Musical and has worked on Advanced repertoire in both classical and jazz styles Ling
008serves as The Treasure of trim Music National Honor Society Ling makes the entire music department better every day through her leadership musicianship Miss sailor for social studies Ling is fantastic she puts effort into all of her work that she does and is a model Stu student during class class she is thoughtful softspoken and leads in the best way possible by example Lang is a joy to teach she's the kind of student that you wish you had a hundred of for me as a principal 500 of congrat congratulations Ling you deserve this honor and lastly for Mr calino also in science I knew ling a little bit from Science Olympiad and athletes in the past but I am thrilled to have her as a student this year even though she is the only only Junior in
009her class and surrounded by seniors she is obviously a leader in the classroom her work ethic positive attitude and willingness to help a neighbor in need make her a role model for her peers so with that being said um I want to congratulate you on behalf of myself Mr Murphy the Board of Ed and administration community so [Applause] congratulations come on [Music] Mom behalf of the entire board congratulations job well done to all our leaders of the pack and for the parents that are here if you would like to leave you can or if you want to stay you stay for the entire meeting but you're welcome to go thank you congratulations okay um we have our consent agenda from F A1 to C2 if there's any items that you'd like to uh pull out
010we can deal with them separately you have any questions I'm sure uh we can answer those questions for you so can I have a motion to move our consent item forward motion by Tom second by Ed anyone have any questions concerns the only question I had is under the probationary uh the custodian and the step on that um is that because they've had like prior experience yes thank you many years actually any other questions or concerns okay we'll moveing forward we have a motion on the floor by Tom second by Ed all those in favor I oppose go carry so I don't know if the board would like to recognize uh some of the folks that are on there but uh we have Sarah Hathaway in the back who will be uh stepping in as
011interim assistant principal at the middle school during uh Mr Carr I almost called you Coburn Mr carright will be moving into the interim principal position during Mrs Coburn's uh upcoming leave of absence so congratulations to [Applause] youbody that's under curriculum and instruction are principal monthly reports Elementary School I don't know I thought switch it up I really did like last year you switched it up every once a while at me so I was like all right maybe maybe this time um so I guess the only thing I had to add kind of to uh my board report was um something that is on the at the very towards the very very end um and I just wanted to highlight um the REM arable student that's at the middle school um and all the work um
012that Nadia mets has put into the greenhouse and like planning and like you know I think she's realizing there's a lot to doing all this and so and she's been thorough extremely thorough so I I think it um you know I just wanted to really point that out that she's done a phenomenal job um they are coming their first work day is this um coming weekend um and you know the other thing is you know she's been helped with by Pete and letting him like help her understand how things work and you know that there's not just like we submit a plan and everything's great and we go that there's more to this and you know between deliveries and there's like you know time traffic and there's all kinds of other things that go on
013and so I think she's done a phenomenal job at you know doing that and we've been teaching her along the way and I think that that's really something I I am really proud of and she's not even my student so um you know and then they're working on a so on Sunday they're going to do the first work day and you know they're going to level everything throw some aggregate down found foundation and stuff like that so that's what her plan is and again there's always hiccups and um weather and all that fun stuff so we'll see how she's going with all that kind of stuff so it's not a massive building but it's like a little you know it's not very big but it's you know a little mini Greenhouse that we're having at
014the elementary school so I'm really happy that that we can get going on this and uh this is her Eagle project is that accurate yes y so done phenomenal so and pulling all the stakeholders and yeah so she's done a very good job well that's exciting yeah it is it'll be exciting when it's up is it going to be near where the current Garden is yeah it's right like Pete how many how many Fe away I'm throwing you in with it's near it's near the existing Garden yeah it's like away you know so they can move everything in in and out good and it does not have a foundation yeah it has a platform platform yes sorry gotcha gotcha very excited any other questions sir H thank you sir thank you evening everyone I'd like
015to Second Mr Miller's help we have two students in the Middle School who are also doing e projects and Mr Miller has been very supportive of those students doing their projects too which has been awesome to see students interact with Mr Miller and ask here for me often so it's it's been a very good exciting thing to see which I I'm happy about uh the other thing I just wanted to highlight we do have our spooky week coming up next week um with PBIS and yes it's a flyer Mr zmer um so this is just for PBIS next week we do have our costume challenge um as well as some other things incorporating into our new house system that we have going at the middle school and that's all I have for you tonight any
016questions thank you thank you congratulations oh thank you Mr Murphy good evening all uh just one very quick update to my principal report on on October 11th we had almost 100 uh combined 10th and 11th graders take the PS smoothly wishes at all report only addition any questions from Mr M not a question just a comment um just in terms of the awards that were done I believe it was with Transportation I think there's a few different involvements here but just with the awards that were given just for the younger students obviously those Paws always go a long way but we know with older students that doesn't necessarily but those cookies I'm sure did and just I think just a great job it shows that how well everybody works together because obviously it's Transportation it's
017food service and it's the high school so just great job overall I think it's it's just a small token but it probably goes a long way thank you all thank you Mr okay um moving on we have our director monthly report I believe we have all our directors here this evening so if you have any questions for them just shout them out I have a question but just a just for the uh the free the free lunch and breakfast I think just thinking about Mas law making sure that kids have what they need so they can focus on learning so I think thank you for removing this barrier for some of our kids anyone else yeah have to say I guess our directors are doing a fabulous job because there's no questions or comments um
018but thank you to all our directors for your monthly reports moving right along student rep Lily yeah um okay so I'll start with the elementary school um I have that the kindergarten and the fourth grade class both went on field trips that provided unique opportunities for students to learn in a new environment and make some real world connections to knowledge that they've gained in their classrooms uh we want to give a thank you to the teachers in the kindergarten classes um mind my pronunciation here uh Miss hollyfields Miss CA Miss haab Miss Milby Miss uh schneidler Miss Salazar and Miss uh Le Leia laia latisia okay yeah um and all their teachers assistants and the parent volunteers for taking the kindergarten classrooms to visit herd's Farm where everyone enjoyed apple cider donuts hay rides pumpkin
019patch and apple picking and Rich academic discussions on farm and their produce um more shout outs to the fourth grade teachers in the classroom uh Miss Fano Miss H Miss McCracken Mr Brenny Miss Bo Miss Halen Halper Miss Ule and Miss Burger uh the teachers assistants and the parent volunteers there for taking the fourth grade student students to the 10 acre National Historic Landmark District in new PS New York the visitors experienced over 300 years of his history the students learned about the hugenots and their Journey starting in France and ending in their home in new cols New York and they saw historical maps and documents from the first European settlers um October 30th Monday is picture retakes and the start of spirit week and then for the middle school I have the third annual
020PBIS ghost games will take place on Halloween students are competing in Halloween themed games to earn points for their houses that was previously mentioned uh after school activities and clubs are underway there's been a lot of attendance so far so that's really exciting student council elections are also going to start taking place soon um there's multiple students running for each position so that was that's exciting competitiveness is always good um the sixth grade is planning to take a trip to to West Point in November students are going to tour the academy see all the sites learn about the history of West Point and the US military academy uh the Highland Middle School PTA will host this year's first school dance on November 17th at the middle school and all the Highland Middle School students are
021invited to attend and then lastly for the high school we have on October 2nd the entire Freshman Class went to Ryan youth rally at Sunni olster to learn about the dangers of addiction vaping and drugs the trip was a good success and they look forward to going back next year on October 17th various students attended the trip with our school psychologist Dr Path for suicide prevention and awareness trip uh students got to listen to speakers talk about the signs and prevention strategies and how to help if ever needed on October 20th the high school choir attended Sunni for a high school choir Workshop um that was very successful the Highland choir got a lot of recognization there so that was nice um our first taste of success lunch and learn program is kicking off on
022October 26th with the local business Studio blue Dental they're going to come and talk to the students about Dentistry offer an inside look at the business if anyone's interested to learn more the PTSA Brooks barbecue fundraiser is also taking place in the back parking lot of the high school on October 30th and there's more in information on the website for that um and then most of our fall sports are wrapping up um a few noteworthy accolades are Isabella Goodwin who qualified for sectionals in the free swim and she's competing November fourth and Jessica renon and Grace Kohler were the Mahal doubles champions for varsity girls tennis so that's also exciting that's everything I have thank you any questions for Lily uh really just a comment as we tonight we'll be adopting the budget calendar which
023kind of kicks off um the beginning of the discussions for formulating the 2425 school year budget so I think that you know and we value student input in this process so as um we go through the budget process I just want you to think about stuff that you might see in other districts that we don't have here um sometimes those themes emerge through our budget discussions and um just looking forward to student input through the budget process yeah anything else thank you Lily okay um assistant soup for human resources and pupil Personnel good evening everyone um last week I met with an individual from the Smart Staffing Group uh and they came to us as a support that they could provide to us that's totally free um they have a five-year Grant from uh through
024the state Department through access VR and what they can do uh for students with IEPs and students with 504s they come in and they can provide uh pre-employment uh supports uh so they focus on job exp exploration workplace Readiness uh self- advocacy work-based learning and postsecondary opportunities so some of our students uh with IEPs get some of these supports in our uh transitional uh skills class um but this is an opportunity for some more students to get some of that uh and like I said it's completely free to us and they work around our schedule so they'll do it during the day they'll do it at night they bring in food um and really just provide some more opportunities for students to prepare them for Life After here uh so it's it's another Avenue uh
025for some ideas and they could eventually get hooked up with some potential uh paid internships when they leave here as well so uh we were excited to meet with them so we'll be planning that over uh the next couple of months and this we're looking for this to take place uh probably end of winter early spring time frame um and we'll it's 15 hours so um we try to work it we're going to try to work it in with the least amount of disruption as possible um but still making it accessible for students so we're looking forward to working with them um olster County Department of Health is putting on a mind body and soul uh they're calling it a youth and parent Expo um so the county has really made a concerted effort of
026trying to increase our mental health supports um although it feels like we're constantly trying to chase this need that we have um they have been pretty steadfast in their dedication to it um last time I spoke I had said we're missing our clinician from Lal they have filled that role uh so we do have somebody in that to help support some of those students with those outside services that we recommend uh but this Youth and parent Expo they're going to have a lot of Mental Health Resources and agencies there to connect with families uh while still making it a very fun day uh for families to bring they're having music performers um virtual reality games uh basketball pickle ball boxing uh and they're gonna have a Flick and Float which is uh students or children
027can be floating in the pool uh in Kingston while they're watching a movie um so they're gon to be watching the movie in inside out yeah uh so we will be putting this out to our families uh as uh something for them that they can attend and the county was working with ukat to try to provide different um stops throughout the county to get Transportation there as well uh which has been uh it can be a hurdle sometimes so that they're acknowledging that uh so we're excited about that uh and lastly I'll be meeting with our new we have a new Medicaid specialist uh we still have the same uh company that we've worked with uh but we just have a new uh special specialist uh that's assigned to our district uh and every six
028months we meet with them to go over updates and changes at nus a few weeks ago uh one of the presentations was sharing that they were trying to make it more accessible and easier uh for districts to access this uh reimbursement so there is a lot of paperwork that's included with it so uh they've acknowledged that and they're trying to find ways that we can reduce that time spent on that uh to make it easier for school districts to to access that money so which was another um positive thing to hear any questions for Dr boy thank you curriculum instructions Mr Zimmer good evening everyone I have two items to share with you tonight last week instructional Council met at which our grade level coordinators and Department chairs were treated to an informative presentation by
029content Specialists from os's model schools the subject of their discussion revolved around Cutting Edge Technologies including artificial intelligence and chat GPT and their implications for education and instructional practices the content of the presentation was engaging for all who attended students parents faculty staff and administrators of the direct committee including new members met uh last Tuesday evening in the high school library media center to discuss the draft policy 3430 which is diversity inclusion and racial equity and and to set goals for the 2023 24 school year in addition members discuss strategies for moving the district forward in terms of implemented implementing the proposed policy and uh the next direct committee meeting will be on Tuesday December 5th on Zoom if anyone's interested in attending please reach out to me or Harriet Meyer at the high school
030what was that date oh Sor December 5th Tuesday December 5th at 6 p.m. and that one will be on Zoom anyone interested just reach out to me or harri and uh Harry will share the zoom link no no we made sure it wasn't the next week and I'll put that link in in my update okay that week same that week any questions the only thing I like the chat gbt is that available in District yet you have any AI or are you blocking those so so I'll be up front saying I'm block I'm blocking up to the South yeah chat GPT the actual chat GP website is is still blocked however uh slowly surely we're adding more the one of the sites that they were learning about at the instructional council is called brisk it's
031an add-on for the web browser um and we've had some interest from teachers already starting to use that so we've been pushing that out um we have a few other programs that also are incorporating more AI um cahoot is one of them they have a new uh you know AI component to that and so even though we're not pushing out chat GPT yet it's still very much available right so there's a few layers to to the AI discussion right so I'm through the content piece so basically there are now trainings available that will show teachers some beginning lessons on how to use AI a lot of it's comparative right you write it ask chat gbt to write it and compare the results so those are evolving and the PD is really firming up around that
032piece the The Silo that's left to tackle if you open these up is then assessments right so we've got the content discussion we're feeling pretty good about that but now ai moves into into the assessment discussion because if you open it up that means students have these tools available to them right so where do we sit with the assessment side of the pie and that's just something I'm tackling in my own practice but I'm probably a a month or two away from opening those up within district and uh you know I know you stay close to your county cohorts as do I on this I haven't heard of anybody just opening them up just yet so no say one of the reasons I brought it into instructional counsil I I had that team come in
033to meet with the administrators last June and give us the presentation um the presentation it was like a different presentation just four months later because so much has changed I felt like it was a very diff very different very eye opening the my thought was to bring the uh grade level coordinators and the department chairs in to hear and to see about it hopefully to bring it back to their departments and their grade levels to start the conversation because it's it's happening it's it's coming and we have to I've got active requests from faculty saying hey open it up I'd like to use it and I'm sure you do too whether we block it or not they're using it at home it's reminiscing when in the '90s when I was teaching high school you know
034Google everybody was like oh no we can't teach anymore because there's this internet in Google and we adapted and we learned and we'll have to do the same thing so want to ask the student board rep have you used chat gbt or any of these AI engin at all there are so many different like various I know that um Snapchat the social media like they just added an AI character that you could just ask like have a conversation with and it has like human traits I haven't used chat gbt but I've messed with like various AIS and asked it questions I do want to say though like it's like it's very interesting because it's all very new but I if you actually like look there's so many like little like um bugs like if you
035actually look like I like one time I like was like messing around with it and I asked it like a genuine like question about like a DBQ and then I read its response and I was like this is not a DBQ it's a good like intelligent response but it's not what I would you know and that goes back to what Mr Zimmer was saying about the 1990s when we started using Google as teachers and we had to we had to weade through a lot of not good information and try to show students how to navigate and and concern whether those sources were reputable funny the recent arcs on the AI they were using because AI is utilizing the general populace as a form of education so they had it was arcing and now they find
036is actually a dumbing down of AI because it's using the general population it's an interesting it's it's just as susceptible as all of us I think it's a good move to just introduce it because we have you know doctors using it um Ai Ai and there's a lot of great tools um tutoring support so it's about teaching the kids the right way to use it right enter in the right prompts and then similar for staff like there's ways to help be a thought partner and and brainstorm instead of having to I I use it too it eliminates black page syndrome nobody's going to sit there with the black page anymore it'll give always give you something to start with so we just have to learn how to use it so I found that interesting I
037think the other comment I had and I'll get this to you guys but looking through the website on the direct committee um we're at a date there and there's a few things needed the timeline could certainly be updated we've had two presentations by Jess so only because um we want that to be for the Board of Education we want that to be an evidence-based artifact that we're committed to this right um but the first page is like this big blank page and I started to think and I just wanted to know if you thought it was a good idea can we have like that that's screaming for a graphic like that first page so the de committee like screaming for a graphic is there a way maybe we can have like um an a a
038drawing submitt or something like this and then the committee right so kids submit artwork so here's here's the page it's our diversity equity and inclusion committee and that's what we want to symbolize and maybe collect some artwork and the committee can then select the graphic for that I like that idea just absolutely so that's fine for the artwork but the timeline and all that I'll I'll I'll send you some stuff for update thank you anybody else thank you Bill thank you okay our superintendent comments okay so Camille had uh mentioned this uh as a thank you to Food Service um we just promoted this today today out to our families that uh the state uh government has come through and helped us with uh no cost breakfast and lunch for our students beginning November 1st
039um one thing because we were trying to get this information out so quickly Lindsay came running over after it went out and reminded me that and we will make sure that everyone is aware this is for this year only at this point we will obviously be hoping that this moves Beyond this school year but uh you know we're we're very happy uh to the the legislature and and for coming together and working on this because we were not in that first group uh and we were off by just a couple percentages to be able to offer this whereas some other districts were able to offer it right from the beginning so um so we're very fortunate John has done a lot of work on this and his uh colleagues across the the county working together
040um the the nice thing for Highland is that all of our schools are able to participate I'm hearing from some superintendents around the county that some of their schools are eligible but not all so that's a that's something that they're going to have to work through whether you know the district subsidizes or whatever it is but it's going to be it would be hard for for a place to offer it to one school and not the other so thankfully we're not in that predicament so um this went out to parents today uh it's also on our Facebook page website and social medias so um November 1st very excited that students will be able to eat every day and uh you know I believe this deserves a round of [Applause] applause our legislators and everybody who's
041been involved with this however I believe we need to keep the pressure on absolutely right in New York given what all of you pay in your taxes we should feed our students hands down and and let's put this behind us the sooner we can absorb it in the state budget the better so keep the pressure on but we appreciate the move in the right direction and I'm sure families do as well just to add what Joel said it's on the website and there's a good piece in there questions and answers for for parents to look at and understand the whole uh all the program the program and and and what how it affects each student and families and what they need to know so it's it's it's on there it's good good information so thanks
042to uh Jessica Murray and Holly Brooker for getting this together so quickly we just found out out late last week that this was going to happen but we wanted to announce it today and uh and have a whole campaign to get it out to to families before next week so so thank you to them uh I sent an email to the board today uh from Erie W bosies uh there is a policy development webinar on November 15th from 11: to 12 it's it's not so much how to uh strengthen our policies but it's really what Eerie one offers so if anyone is interested in attending that um I know we're going to attend it at the district office level um that is in your email so feel free to sign up for that if you're
043interested um just a reminder to the community that next Thursday uh we will be running a series of drills within our buildings and that is our uh early dismissal drill it's a 15minute uh early dismissal so that's next Thursday um November 2nd I didn't write the date down but I think it's November second yes and then just a reminder to the board uh this month is the end of the two mon uh meetings per month then we revert back to the one meeting in November December January February and then we revert back to two again in March and uh that's all I have for you this evening any questions for the superintendent okay uh Board of Education new business uh do anyone have any new business I know Mike earlier brought up uh our budget
044calendar um we'll be getting into that uh right after the New Year u a lot of things have to uh take place this year I mean we have to really brainstorm moving into the future with electric buses and how we're going to fund that how State's going to fund it for us hopefully uh we have our capital reserve that we're going to update uh this year so that would be on the on our ballot for voters to move that forward I believe we have to put it back on the ballot to move it forward so we'll have discussion on that so uh there's there's there's a lot you know coming up the budget cycle so um so usually we'll review our bus replacement schedule and are we saying that any new buses like if we're
045ordering buses should we order electric ones no they're not available it's quick sand but their technolog is changing very very rapidly and it may be very premature to do anything at this point in time I think we hedge I like the dual fuel I like the propane buses myself like the concept of those but yeah we're we're under understate legislature right now we can't purchase anything but electric after 2027 um and then we should have well shouldn't have but the expectation is that your entire fleet would be electrified by 2035 okay but there are campaigns in the state to reverse some of that because there are issues with infrastructure there's uh the power grid is a question um just charging in general the lengths that the buses can go so there are there are many
046questions that are still being that are being uh navigated um one thing that when I was at I think I mentioned this at the last board meeting I went to two workshops there one you would have thought we were rolling out electric and that's all we were doing starting tomorrow sure and then I went to the next one and they were like put the brakes on so I think still even in the at the Albany level we're we're getting so long as there're still Pro so long as you still have access to the other vehicles yeah you know with public procurement they could just say no you can only buy right well you have you'll have access because New York's one of the few states that has set deadlines okay so it doesn't right they've
047got they've got a working framework fair enough and and Lindsay myself Pete uh we met with uh a group um on Zoom about uh you know what the the power grid is able to handle and how much the costs would be and everything is so preliminarily uh raw right now that you know I do think we have to be cautious but I think we need to be looking as well um if you asked me a year ago I would have said it's not going to happen but then you get that mixed message I think Camille you might have gone to one of those workshops too when we were up there so for some reason I recall in our replacement cycle that it was a pretty quiet year it wasn't any our replacement we are um
048working with Zan's office right now to do a five-year financial plan we talked about this at the audit committee two weeks ago um which they have asked us for our bus replacement schedule there was a fiveyear bus plan which ended last year so currently at this point we are not putting um anything on the ballot for um May of 2024 that's currently we don't have any plans to do so so okay and right now our replacement schedule is in a good we're in a good place right but we also don't know with not being able to purchase after 2027 what that looks like so we are working with donigan office to form a plan this fiveyear plan will start now but this will be continuously working with them each year sure um to not just
049have a five-year plan and stop at the end of that so um all of this is in the work of next year um we do have to give the state um a plan for change in infrastructure um what that looks like for us for moving to all electric so part of the meeting that um Joel Pete and myself sat in and Kathy um was to get the groundwork for that so this will be in discussions and um I'll be going to the um as Conference next month too so I'm sure we'll have updates dat what is the timing of getting that 5year plan specifically for that the the fleet just because understood that our Five-Year Plan that we had expired like we've used it up right but like you're saying you're going to be doing
050now we should be planning every year and this is really a critical time right because if we can't purchase buses you know gasoline power buses or diesel power buses after a certain de if we're not going to purchase any I know like historically didn't do we didn't do a purchase one year and it set us way off so the combination of those two together really scared me to say that we're not putting anything up on the ballot Just Right we have time it's just that there wasn't there's not a plan to follow so it's just we can we're stting that now they have all of the information I just finished sending it to them uh yesterday all the information as in the buses when they were purchased what the odometer readings are and all that
051stuff yes but as of today her Kathy and Pete we are in we are in a good place with our own Fleet y um but I I don't I agree that we got to decide that are we going to front and load the problem with propane buses in because we don't know where Electric's going or whatever technolog is changing and you know uh think Ford just came out with a sodium base which is significantly safer than the batteries they're using now which have you know thermal Runway so that's going to happen in three years I think there's a lot to I think the concern with that right is that even if you front load and purchase in 2026 you can only use them until as of right now you can only use them through 2035
052so you can all part of the conversation is is it all starts with there's not enough power your you know utilities are laughing at people and say you know saying yeah yeah okay sure you know takes two-thirds of Three Mile Island to charge all the buses in New York state um between electric buses getting them owning them what you're going to do with this Fleet you own how much it's going to cost it's all point I think where the questions that are being asked of us are just to accumulate information that says this is a great idea except it may be impractical and we may not be able to afford it so we'll just wait for the Drone buses right I saw a guy who flew a drone the other day granted he only went
053up about 30 40 feet but he was flying in a drone Pete and Kathy currently our needs are kind of Shifting for smaller buses I mean I know last year I mean what Mike had said I think we only purchased one large and the rest were our our demographics have changed a couple times over the last few years and part of that was fueled by Co yeah so you know between between special needs and homeless we've changed a few things couple years ago we didn't have a single use for a Suburban then we went back to Suburbans then we had then we ended up with more wheelchair buses and and short buses so it's so it's it's not predictable right now we have the largest Fleet we've ever had because we're covering all the different
054bases and the fleet's not old either so I think our turnaround is probably 10 to 12 years on our on our bus longevity so well we we were aiming for do we front like you said do we front load in 2026 anticipating 2035 they're going to go to mandate all we were aiming for 10 years because we had older buses that had higher mileages on them now we have buses that the mileage isn't that high so a 10 year might get more useful life out yeah yeah yeah all right that's why I think you want to look in now right because I mean you are between now and 2035 okay I think the other topic that I had in our new business and I'm just going to introduce this topic iic and again I'd like
055to hear from the board rep not tonight but in next couple meetings really loading up your homework I was good you can't use chat GP to answer them I wouldn't know if you did um there is a discussion um that's taking place and it it's it's not just kind at schools it's many schools but it has to do around cell phone use in the the high school and does that prohibit students from learning effectively so I think that we're going to talk about cell phones in the future and um is managing them taking too much time away from learning or are they being leveraged for learning so if you want to we'll just think about that and under new business at the next meeting we'll have cell phones come back to that and see if
056shake that tree and see what Falls thank you anyone else for new business okay under old business we have our second reading for policy 3430 diversity inclusion and racial Equity policy we're ready to move that forward in our second reading I've read it adjustments made the last two weeks wonderful so be it resolve the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves the attached policy policy number 3430 diversity inclusion and racial Equity as presented to the board at this meeting can I have a motion please motion by Camille second by Tom discussion all those in favor I I opposed so carried thank you thanks to the committee for work on that under correspondence I don't have anything I'm not sure if anybody else has anything anything for the good and Welfare of the
057district all right uh we'll open the floor up to public comment for General items only General items good evening hi um my name is Megan biano I'm a Highland resident with two small children one in prek and one in preschool thank you very much for instituting upk for our district this year I'm sure the amount of work and effort to get the program up and running was tremendous but it was certainly worth it as many families are benefiting from this addition from this Edition and my family looks forward to it growing within the district Mr BR and to the entire Board of Education thank you very much for your service to our district and allowing me to share a few thoughts and concerns with you this evening like many in our small community I've read
058and have engaged with various members about the allegations of sexual assault and bullying within the modified football program Paramount to my concern is how from a systemic perspective this is going to be addressed within the district and while I do not intend to take much of your time tonight I want to share that I grew up in new pgs I come from a family with deep roots and a valued sense of community of which Athletics has played a big role as someone with this hyper local deeply rooted perspective I never envisioned that when I grew up that Highland would become home however it is a place my husband and I chose over new PS to raise our family upon telling folks of our move back home uh to high land the feedback was overwhelmingly positive
059so many raved about the schools especially the elementary program it came to put my reservations about our decision at EAS my nervousness was based on a long time and storied rivalry with anecdotal stories about how things in Highland Athletics were a bit different and that they played by a different set of roles and sportsmanship came second to win by all means mentality I am not here tonight to speak ill Illy of athletic program but but I would like to strongly suggest that perhaps when reviewing all aspects of what has been alleged and brought to light we take a hard look at the leadership in place here at Highland proper education certifications and training should be held by anyone working with our students we need to remember that these are students students first athletes second I
060want to express my concern about the role we take in educating our student athletes about what sexual assault looks like across the spectrum of what it is it is so much more than no means no and of course no means no but we need to teach all students about the horrible repercussions sexual assault and bullying have on them their friends the kids on the bus on the field and in our community what has been alleged is horrifying and while my intention tonight is not to throw more gasoline on the fire rather ask the Board of Education to do the hard work to address these allegations from a systemic perspective to move beyond the conventional calculations of school discipline I understand the process is long and involved and that we will not have answers tonight I
061realize that Common Sense demand of many that of the affected families is is to demand the harshest punishment possible and while I'm not excluding that I'm only suggesting that in evaluating what comes next for our community and our student athletes it's critical to the story we want others to share on our behalf that Highland Athletics faced something that seemed impossible to rectify and they did just that with holistic encompassing change thank you thank you thank you thank you anyone else for public comment okay we close public comment um and we'll move to adjournment motion to adjourn motion like second by Tom all those in favor I oppos car thank you everyone for coming out tonight