001I pledge allegiance 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. >> Result recommendation on superintendent schools of the board of education approve personnel items 4 through 7. A motion. So move Russ second. All in favor >> administrators, is there anyone attendance you would like to recognize? >> Yes. I would like to recognize Ashley Shields. Ashley, stand up. So I'm honored to present Ashley Shields for tenure in the area of special education. A proud graduate of Howard Central Schools, Ashley brings both a personal connection and a deep professional commitment to our district. She believes that every child learns differently and deserves to feel understood, supported, and capable. Her student- centered approach empowers learners by building confidence
002and honoring their individual strengths. In her classrooms, students are engaged, supported, and encouraged to take academic risk. She collaborates closely with colleagues, thoughtfully differentiates instruction, and creates an inclusive environment where all students can succeed. She consistently goes above and beyond for her students, tailoring daily lessons to align with their interests and individual goals. Beyond the classroom, Ashley is a trusted leader and collaborator. She serves on leadership teams, assists in designing complex building and special education schedules, and communicates effectively with families to build strong partnerships in student learning. She's also deeply involved in our school community, supporting PTO events, after school activities, and always showing up for her students. In addition, Ashley has served as a coach of the Holland Tora field hockey team for the past 5 years, where she mentors and supports student athletes
003with the same dedication, care, and leadership that she brings to her teaching. Ashley Shields is an exceptional educator, a dedicated leader, and an invaluable member of our school community. Congratulations on your tenure. We're so lucky to call you ours. Thank you. [applause] >> She wants a picture. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Am I just? So, we're very fortunate that we have a new middle school principal, Scott Vinaman. Um, Scott actually comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and we're really excited about how he's going to round out our team. I think he's going to be a great addition to it. He actually had a former career um in pro sports sales which gives him an interesting perspective and I'm excited about it because, you know, I've had a whole different career as well.
004Um he began as a kindergarten teacher, I believe a special education teacher, a consultant teacher, an assistant principal in a very large school district locally. Um then he was a key and a principal in Niagara Ois if I'm not mistaken, associate director of instructional services at Erie One. And he comes to us from his current position as director of CT. So, um, you know, my dream at that middle school when we opened was more hands-on and, you know, project based learning. So, I'm excited. He's going to have some big shoes, I think, to fill in that area. We're very happy to have him. And actually, he was everybody's number one choice. So, welcome and thank you. [applause] Anyone else? Who's all that? The board of education approved the minutes from the November 24th, 2025 regular
005board meeting. Do I have a motion? >> Move. Mary Joe second. All in favor? >> I pass 60. >> Are there any adjustments or amendments? Resolved that the following consent agenda items be approved. 8 A CE and CPSSED recommendations 9 A through J financial reports. Can I have a motion? >> So move Russ. >> A second. Mary Joe in favor. >> I Okay. Special communication political special matters regulations. Fourth grader Weston >> Pasian has been selected as a winner in the healthy choice art and poetry contest sponsored by Ruff Bells and hosted by West New York United Weston earned second place in the third to fifth grade art contest. His winning artwork will be displayed at the Hamburg Fairgrounds Festival Lights throughout December and in the New York State Police. Congratulations. >> Presentations. You're on.
006>> Scott's joining us. He just doesn't know yet. >> He knows the numbers just as good evening everyone. Um we're excited to share some assessment data from last school year um from the reading exams, the three through eight math and ELA state tests and the fifth and eighth grade science state test. Um we're able to show you this now um because the embargo was just lifted in the the beginning of December. Um so now they can be shared with the public, but we've also been done been doing um this with our faculty since beginning of the year. So they've already seen this data and we've already done some data analysis work during our professional learning day in October. Um we also want to share the progress of our primary students that they made last year.
007So we'll also go through the I Ready benchmarking um results from K through uh fourth grade for reading and math. Um students complete this computer adaptive test in September, January and May during the benchmarking periods and grade level teams review this data and make instructional changes quarterly and data cleaning. So first we'll go through uh the I already do. So I know I share this with the board at the end of the year last year as we diagnosed but I haven't had an opportunity to actually talk to you about it. So when I share this with you everything's colorcoded. I think it's important to remember that I Ready is what we're using as our universal screener, right? We are required to be able to say how can we um assess our students at a minimum
008three times a year and then compare them across students their age across the entire nation. So, it's really a nice dipstick for us. Again, it's one piece of data that we look at and this is just an overall um glimpse of how they're doing in reading and writing. knowing that right we use all teachercreated instruments as well as our curricular instruments to then inform instruction on the daily. So as you look through this there's a threele and a fourlevel placement really that green knowing that we're on or above grade level that yellow is like we're one grade level below and that red is is we need some remediation. So we're going to um look right off the bat at our reading benchmark. You're going to be able to see on the right where it's kind
009of blurred out. That's where we started last year in the fall. Keeping in mind that we want the goal is for that green to be 80%. That means that our tier one instruction instruction that our students get, all students get on the daily is meeting the needs of 80% of our students. And then those yellow students receive tier 2 intervention. That usually looks like a group of four to five students. They get about 20 to 30 minutes of extra support with a classroom teacher. And then that very top red, that should be our our smaller our our highest need kids with the smallest amount of students that need really intensive services. Those students receive one-on-one or two-on-one support every day, 5 days a week. Very, very targeted instruction. So you can see overall in in
010reading last year we assessed 257 of our 267 K through4 students and you'll notice at the beginning of the year we only had 30% proficient on or above grade level and then we ended the year and that 70% where that red are at risk students we're seeing that triangle get smaller at the top. If you go to the next slide we're breaking that down. You can actually see right in the fall where we had 9% of um above grade level and we ended the year at 45%. Where then where we started, you know, that middle that middle group, that yellow group getting smaller and so on. If you go to the next slide for me, Christopher, that really breaks it down. It's important to look at the marked growth in kindergarten, first and second grade.
011Keep in mind that last year was our first step as the as Holland Central School stepping into the science of reading, right? Teaching our students the way to decode and really have a true understanding of phonics itself. Not just I'm going to memorize words or I'm going to look at the picture and think what makes sense here, but how do we actually learn how the decode words and learn the code to reading? So we are very very pleased to see that our students are showing that growth right in those early foundational years but still there is still growth happening in our third and fourth grade. So then moving on same process for math we'll start with that whole schoolwide glance looking at we started with a lot of students needing that extra support in math
012at the start of the school year and then you can see that growth as we move forward. We are happy to see that growth. Obviously, still room for improvement. Again, you can then see where we went from about 9% above grade level to well um well over into 50% grade level or above. And then that red that tier three really decreasing um from 10 students at the beginning of the year to only one who needed that intensive support. And then this is your last glance as math K through four broken down by grade level. Again, really looking at large gains in kindergarten and first grade. That's what we anticipate as students are really focusing on that foundation. Still some really great growth in third and fourth grade. Again, we use this data to then help
013build those intervention groups and identify which kids are needing more support and which kids are uh which students are then responding well to our overall tier instruction. So before we move into the state assessment data, I know you've seen the ready before. Any questions on that? Okay. So as uh Mrs. Buckley mentioned, our New York State assessment data was just lifted. So, we're here sharing that with you. Now, Carl said he wishes he could be here, but he knew that I could do the work for him. Scott, you want to? So, um, the way that we actually organize this data for you, we try to do so in a way that we colorcoded it by cohort. Often times, we're like, oh my goodness, we can look at third grade across the year from year to
014year to year, but we're really only comparing we're comparing different groups of students. That data, that trend data is really important to us as we do that deep data analysis that Mrs. Buckley spoke about to help inform our instruction. But if I could bring your attention to the golden rod, right, which is our current sixth grade, you'll notice in third grade, 38% students were um proficient. In fourth grade, that group grew to 43%. And then in fifth grade, that group grew to 60%. So that tells us that the instruction that that cohort is receiving multiple years within that series, right, that vertical alignment instruction is working for them. You might say, "Oh, but goodness, Kelly, like look at the gray, right? We know that those proficiency levels aren't where we want them to be. However,
015as a cohort, that group is growing. They're just growing at a slower pace. So if you were to go to that last column that that last column is our 25 2025 data from last year and then on the far left column or the grade levels you can see how many students were tested. So in order to be profession proficient on the state assessment you need to receive a three or a four. What we do as instructional leaders in the building is we help teachers look at that data and we say, "All right, who didn't reach proficiency?" And then we can then analyze that ELA assessment to say, is there a specific standard that we're falling down on? How do we really focus on getting our twos to threes? So, if we go to the next
016slide, the math data is presented the exact same way. Again, if you read across, that's going to be our trend for the year. Helps inform our instruction from year to year and then our decisions based on curriculum and programming. And then we then colorcoded that that uh cohort for you. So you can see where our es and flows are. Again, looking for some growth. Our current eighth graders, when you look at that growth from third grade to 8th grade, they are definitely moving in the right direction. the same thing you can see that that growth for our current freshmen is we prepare our students for their um high school career >> questions on that on the ELA math. Yes, Kelly a question like if I'm following along for the gray so 2022 they're 26%. And
017three years later we're only at 31%. >> Correct. Correct. So what I can tell you about that cohort specifically there those proficiency levels are not as high as we want to be. That cohort has some challenges and we are working with teachers to provide differentiated instruction but for this one data point right the New York State assessment correct that is not where we want to be. So grade six 31% is passing >> correct is proficient on the state assessment received or a three or a four but look at the year be but the year before they were 61% proficient right so it's two different it's not only a different test it's the same set of standards right for um for this assessment in this case but >> that's a different group of kids >> totally
018different group of children with different needs However, this information is still valuable. As Mrs. Buckley mentioned, we sit down at those data meetings. We're [clears throat] picking apart to look at that assessment and say, did everybody fall down in this one area? Okay, let's say it's measurement and data. Then we go back to our instruction and say, how did we teach? Right? So, geometry sometimes is one that looks a little lackluster. We look at our scope and sequence. It's at the end of the year every year. So, I know our teachers in third and fourth grade are now spiraling that in the beginning of the year. So, students are getting many bites of the apple rather than, hey, it's the last three weeks before the assessment. Let's cram geometry down your throat. Those are the
019types of ways that we use this information to inform our next steps. >> You're welcome. So, then uh lastly, just wanted to touch on the science. Um if you remember there, the science has made a shift from fourth grade to fifth grade. So, we've only had the new assessment um since 2024. Again, uh you can see that we've grown in fifth grade, eighth grade really held align. This assessment is still going through the growing pains of what a new assessment feels like um in the world of education. You know, getting um norming and then us being able to use that data to inform our instruction. I think the other piece to keep in mind is our grade A numbers are lower because only 35 students test for that. The others are already in biology. And
020that wraps the 3 through eight assessments. Any questions for me? Great. Thank you. We'll pass it off to Regent. >> All right. Hello everyone. Um, so our regions tests look uh similar in the data if you go through all the regions. But what we'll what I'll say about the regions is that they've been changing over the last three or four years since CO. So we've had new tests um one one or two tests every year. So that longitudinal data that we're typically looking at isn't as valuable. Um what I would do in the past is look at like a 10ear span and say hey um earth science you're doing really well but you know only 30% of the kids are getting the question right on minerals. And so that's been happening for 10 years. It's
021not the group of kids that's coming through, it's the instruction that's going on. We haven't been able to use that data as readily because of COVID. So that stopped one year of assessments for everything. And then in 2021, all the assessments were also canceled. And then in 2022, there were waivers so you didn't have to take them. In 2023, there were also waivers so you didn't have to take them. Um so that longitudinal data is kind of stuck um for a little bit in addition to the new tests. So we'll go through the tests that we have had. Um last year uh was last year and the year before were the first year where everyone had to then take the test. So you're looking at here is the ELA test. Um this wonderful group right
022here that's here they uh they took the test. Um and you'll see that overall we have 92% passing rate uh or proficiency rate on that uh with 52 kids tested and a mastery rate of 48% which means they scored an 85 or higher. And what we look to do in addition as we go through some regions exams are scored one through five and some regions exams are scored one through four. So we have to have to look as we go through. So a three, four and five is proficient. Uh a mastery would be um five and above. I think on these ones it's five and above. Um so mastery is again 85 and above. So I broke these down into general education and special ed. So, our general ed students had 98% passing rate and
023our students with disabilities had a 73% passing rate. The numbers that are in parenthesis are from the previous year. So, in 2024, we had 100% passing um for our genet students. And what you'll see too is if you look, the orange is school, the yellow is district, and the blue is state. So, the school is our high school. So, Holland High School. the district means that any student that is our student but in a different placement. So kids who are at PEK or kids who are at any of our other special ed placements, those kids are counted as the district score, not the school. Um so our teachers are not teaching those kids. Uh what you'll see is that we've consistently as we go through the slides consistently rank above the state uh in proficiency.
024So algebra one, go back one slide real quick. Uh this year, this June will be a new English test. So again, the data will no longer be able to be compared to the previous data because it'll be a new test. We do have our honors kids taking the regents in January. So the 11th grade honor students, uh they'll take the current regent exam and then in June the rest of the 11th graders will take that new test. So you can go to Christopher. Um algebra 1 was a new test last year and so again that data is a little different from the the previous years. U algebra one is something that we are going to consistently work with. It's where we have one of our lower rates um for passing or proficiency. Um our general
025ed students typically are doing well on it. It's our students with disabilities that are struggling a little bit more. We do have special class sections of this or also known as self-contained classes. So we have one special ed math teacher who works with those small groups. Typically it's a group of like um we we set usually 12 of us but in Holland it's usually like five kids um for these students that are in these other placements. So, they're not in that uh general ed class and they're not in consult teaching class. They're in their own classroom working one-on-one with that teacher. Um, and so algebra 1 is a test that all the freshmen are taking. This also counts for all the eighth graders um that are in algebra 1. So, this is a their scores
026are typically pretty high, but it's something that we're consistently working on here. Um, and what we do is we look at these people who are on the level obviously we're looking to get level ones up, but we're looking at the high level two students who are on the cusp of passing to try and move them forward. What's difficult in the high school compared to the elementary and middle school where they're doing high ready for those grades is this is just a standalone test. There is no like next year we're doing that proficiency again. It's just you take it in ninth grade and then you're done. Um and you move on to algebra 2 which is completely different or geometry. So this is where it's the cohort model doesn't necessarily work since the cohort won't take
027this test or similar test again. So you go to algebra or geometry is next. So geometry is a 10th query class for most students. So you can see again about way above the state proficiency we had about a 91% overall proficiency rate which is up from 85%. Um our mastery went up as well which is always increasing. You'll notice that it doesn't have any students with disabilities. That's because the number of students with disabilities that took it was extremely low. So they could be easily identified as to who they were within the school. So we don't put those numbers on there. So you can't say, oh, you know, Johnny, Johnny was a student with disability and he didn't pass the test because it only had one person or one 0% essentially. Um, but for our
028gened students, you can see that we had 94% passing. This is a new ex uh this was a new exam um in June of this past year. So again, there are growing pains with the new exams. They they fluctuate as they go. So second year will be this coming June. Um, algebra 2 will be new this coming June for students who are going to be taking it. It's a new test. We do pretty well at this. We have a lower number of students that take algebra 2 compared to algebra 1. Algebra 1 is all the students, uh, which is the accelerated eighth grade and then all the rest of the nth grade students. Uh, so it's usually about 54 kids that take it. In algebra 2, it's only about half the class because some of
029those kids go to Boseis and take their math credit there or they're taking they can stop at geometry essentially. They only have to take the two years of math. So this is only 26 kids that take it. So it's a more select group. Uh we do have two two sections of this um because of students who are in Boseies. So we have some seniors that take it. Since they're at Boseies in the morning, we have to have an afternoon section. And then the juniors that take it since they're at Boseis in the afternoon, we have to have a morning section. Um so we have two sections of algebra 2 here. And then we do have some sections of algebra 2 a which is a slower version. It takes it takes two years to do the
030one-year course. Um, living environment will again will be a completely new exam this year. Um, and curriculum has changed over. So last year was our the last year that we were doing that. So we had an 84% proficiency rate in that. This test will, I believe, change over to five levels, but it's currently four right now. So level three and above is proficient. Level four is mastery. Um, again, we want to keep moving mastery up as well as our overall proficiency. Um, our teachers, uh, Mrs. Patterson, she specifically has been working really hard to adjust that new curriculum to have a lot more spiraled curriculum as they go through for this new assessment. Um, you were schools were able to take this assessment last year. Um, so that most exams are just a hard cut
031off. So it's like, you know, English the last exams in January, the new exams in June. For all the sciences, I don't know why, but for all the sciences they did a phased out, so you could take both exams if you wanted to. So we deferred one more year to see how that new test was before we implemented the new curriculum. And so Pam Patterman's working really hard on that. And we'll see that new test for us this year from the samples we've seen which are last June um last August and January which is coming out. The test is much more difficult than the current test was. So we'll be working with students to make sure they have the skills needed for that test. So there will be can be some growing pains with that
032one. Um and as well with the next one which is earth science that is also a new test that is coming out this year. Um so we've seen that it is a difficult test so we'll be working on that and this one had some fluctuations in the past few years. Again the cohort data doesn't necessarily work but it's been going up and down. Um not a lot has changed in the history of Brocks but we're working on making sure that instruction is going through. Um again we're scoring pretty high with the general ed students. Our students with disabilities is scoring pretty low last year. One thing we're trying to work on is making sure that we have a scienceminded um special ed teacher since we don't have any that are certified in science. We have
033certified in math, social studies, and ELA, but we don't have any certified special ed teachers in science. So, um our new teacher, Miss Mertic, is working uh really hard to to make sure those scores go up as well. Um chemistry, again, a small we have 22 kids that were tested. Um the the first year of our new chemistry teacher was pretty low with a 59% but that raised up significantly to a 77%. Um and we're working really hard. This is the last year for that chemistry again. We'll get to see the new exam in June. We're not offering it. We're offering our old exam. Next year will be the new curriculum. We'll be working in those new state labs and different things that go through with with that. Again, we're still above state proficiency. Physics
034only 10 students take that, but we typically score pretty well. Um, in physics, usually the kids are excelling in math, algebra 1 or algebra 2, sorry. They're doing really well in physics um because it's a math based course. That's a new test next year as well. Um, global history was our is our oldest new test. That was new in 2019, but they stopped it because of COVID. So, we didn't we don't have a lot of data on that one. Um, but again, we're doing this the state we're doing closer to the state in this one. We're still above in proficiency. Um, but we're working to get those kids that are at the low they're they're passing with the level three, but they're pretty low in there with the about 44%. We want to get those
035kids up to level two and level three, level 5%. And then US history and government was new in 2023. Again, that one we missed for COVID. Then we had the um tragedy in Buffalo that canled this test uh in 2022. Um, so they did offer in 2023. Rock car has been doing a great job with this one. had a 94% uh passing on that and it's continuing to get more data as we go through. Um but as I say in the beginning, it's something that we're the cohort data is really tough to use for this. It's a you don't no one takes it unless you fail the the the test you're not taking it again. Um so we have to use that longitudinal data to show where the units are that students struggle in over
036time. Any questions for regions? >> Is any of this going to change if they change the criteria in New York State? Yeah. So, the New York State criteria is changing with the portrait of the graduate and um what we're doing with that is we still as schools our size um small schools our size will probably still have to offer more regions than a school like a Lancaster. So, Lancaster's high school has three or fourmmies built into it. Um and actually I was talking to the Lancaster High School principal and he was like, "Oh, you know, tough times we dropped down to 1700 kids." I was like, "The enrollment dropped to 1700." Um, so, >> oh, yeah. So, [laughter] >> don't worry. They're moving out. >> Yeah. So, ours dropped to 200 in the high school.
037So, it's Yeah. So, we have different um we still have a lot of opportunities for students, different electives they can take. What we don't have is those uh uh built-in like those kind of schools do. Those schools that have those are able to bypass some of the regions exams because they'll get pathways through other things. Um, our students do get to skip out on a lot of regions because of the CTE pathway going through Boseies, but there's still foundational regions like the algebra one, um, the geometry, the ELA test that they have to take. And so smaller schools with not as many uh, opportunities like that will still have to take those regions exams. What we're working on with schools in the area is making sure that if a a student from Lancaster who was
038in one of thosemies comes here, they don't have to junior and senior year take all the exams that they missed. We're working on ways that we can mitigate that. Um but those things will still go through um with all the new guidance that's coming through. Again, the state isn't perfectly clear on what's going to happen. Um they're kind of little drips come out as as it goes. And so we'll be having to um increase our math offering. So we'll be offering a new uh we do offer consumer math, but it's students who aren't in a region space math, but we're going to start offering that to all students next year hopefully. And because the state is requiring some financial literacy to go out to students, um we're not going to offer it freshman sophomore year
039because they, you know, most freshman and sophomore kids either don't have a job or don't use the money, their own money, like they don't know how to manage their own money. [cough] And so at the junior senior level, they may have a job um and they may be able to use that money more. Um you know, how do car loans work? How does rent work? How that stuff? It's it's more applicable to us students. Yeah. Hopefully. Um and then we'll also have to inst uh start working in new um climate sciences for the state into some new courses as well. And so those those changes we're constantly working on at the high school. >> So goes around comes around gets old stays the same. We did have business teachers. Now we want to teach business
040towards this schedule. >> Yeah. Any questions for high school? >> All right. So then in order to continue to um build these successes or build upon um any areas of growth, we're continuing data meetings throughout the district throughout the year um supporting teachers um as they make curriculum adjustments um based on data and they're using formative data throughout um even daily um because as as we kind of talked about, this is just a picture and time. So we want to make sure we're using um student data throughout um the school day. And we're also um using this data and teacher feedback to um plan our superintendent's conference days. Our next one is is in March. That's the last one for the year. Um and we're going to incorporate uh Bosey's trainings and workshops using our
041closer days in order to facilitate some of this um additional learning as well. Any last questions for the team? >> Thank you. Angie. >> Um, good evening. Um, for those of you that don't know me, my name is Angie Tavanir. Um, I am a Holland resident and I have three children who've been students to Holland. Um, the youngest of whom is raised on the board with you. Um, my understanding, um, is that you're not allowed to respond to me tonight. Um, but I am reaching out on information, um, on the status of the district's music program. Uh, to be honest, I was upset last year um, when we heard about the cuts. U, my family came to the board meeting right after the announcement to voice our concerns. Um it seemed decisions had already been
042made at that point and really at that point we were happy that we got to reinstate one of the um initial um eliminated positions. Um I was also upset when I heard the plan to forego a traditional music uh musical this year. Um I did express this to Mr. Jacobs and Mrs. Papiatos over the summer. Um the so the show this year wasn't uh anything the kids were particularly excited about, but I understand that this was a transition year for the program and at that point we were really happy just to have any kind of a program at all. Um and of course the kids did great. Um after the show my plan was to keep quiet um let Grace finish her senior year um and assume that the district would just figure it out
043in the future. Um, however, I felt strongly um after going to the uh con district concert last Thursday that I really needed to say something. Um, Grace is also part of the high school chorus. Um, I want to acknowledge um Mrs. Raabush for coming in early twice a week to give her lessons so that she can be part of the chorus in spite of the fact that it conflicts with the orange schedule. Um, out of out of curiosity, was anyone able to attend the concert? I don't know if any of you were there. >> Oh. Um, I came after work. I couldn't find a place to park in either the elementary or the high school um, parking lots. It was really a just awesome to see how many people came out to support their students.
044It was awesome to see how many students were um, involved in the program. Um, but I was astounded by the overall volume of students I watched take the stage. It prompted me to count the names on the programs. The numbers of students that are in these two classes, I'm sorry, in these music classes with two music teachers is 247 um seven performing groups, three schools. And this just seemed egregious to me. Um I recall from my days in elementary through high school that part of uh learning music is usually you would have like an individual lesson with your in uh instructor. Um and then you would participate in the choir or the band in order to then learn how to be part of a performing group. Um the volume of students groups in schools um
045here would not be conducive to this type of music education. It's mathematically impossible. I'm just not even sure how the teachers are currently handling the volume. All this to say, excuse me, um the current [clears throat] music department is not sufficient and it is not sustainable. We've already seen a decline in the number of groups that are performing and challenged with kids starting in the programs later than they do in other districts. So, it's very challenging. It's a disadvantage for students who wish to learn an instrument or vocals or ever want to participate in all county or all state um competitions in the future. Um I want to end it by repeating what my family said in board meetings in the past. Uh the arts are not only important, but they're critical to the success
046of our students. It makes them well-rounded and confident and better public speakers. It enhances their college applications and brings beauty to their lives and ours. Um, my children have benefited greatly from the music program at Holland. It gave them a place and a voice and demonstrated talents that I wouldn't have known they had. Um, [clears throat] I wish this for all future students at Holland. Um, I'm here because I've seen this department and its resources been whittleled away year after year after year. and if I don't speak up now, I feel like I'm complicit in the problem. Um, I just ask for your continued review um and the restoration of the music program in Holland. Thank you. >> Thanks [applause] report. >> Okay. >> How many times you going to go? I have Carl's, too.
047You want me to leave? Scott, you're out. All right. So, December is an exciting month to be at the elementary school. A big thank you to our PTO and our volunteers who came out for a successful Merry Moose. Students have so much joy coming with their their wrinkled dollars, their baggies of coins to pick out the perfect gift for their loved ones. For many students, this is their only opportunity to go shopping independently and feel that sense of ownership. So, we're just so grateful for that. And thank you publicly to the parents who stepped up at the last minute and showed up so we can do it. Um, we were kind of feeling a little bit of the pinch, but as always, Holland family step up. So, thank you. Um, our door decorating contest again
048is underway. Our Holly Doll spirit days. It's candy cane day today. Um, our third graders voted for themes this for this um, spirit week and our high school students will be over this week to then be, you know, use the rubric and vote for our doors. Um, and then lastly, thanks to our PTO, we may have a special visitor, big guy, coming on Friday. And then we welcome back retired music teacher Maria Hagar. She will then lead us in our traditional sing along, which is just such a wonderful event for our community. Um, students are already practicing their song books. Our second semester is off to a great start. Trimester 1 grade levels have been posted on the parent portal. We celebrated 78 bucket fillers for a VIP lunch uh with the principal in the
049back of the cafeteria. Put down a open butcher paper and gave them a bucket of crayons. I literally had a seven-year-old go, "This is the best day of my life." So, that was great. Such a nice way um simple way to celebrate their successes. Um, and we walked over to the high school to preview the high school musical. I was so impressed with the audience etiquette. Normally we don't do that until the spring, so I was a little nervous about our younger learners coming over, mostly because they barely fit in the seats. They were fantastic. Um, it was so nice. They got to walk the stage, peek into the the costume closet, meet and greet our performers. That was a wonderful experience. And then lastly, congratulations to our third and fourth grade chorus and our
050art students. They shined at our district concert. And then if you were able to attend the Kowanas event um this past weekend, our third grade chorus sang and our art enrichment students hand painted these beautiful snowmen that were on display. So just it's an exciting one to be at HOB. Any questions for me? Thank you. Oh no, got Carl. Carl can't be here. >> [laughter] >> Um he said there's a rural outreach update. He was informed today that the rural outreach center will be starting on or around January 15th in the middle school. That program already is in place. This is second year at the elementary. So we're excited to continue that. Fifth and sixth grade student council is sponsoring a hot cocoa day for all middle middle school students on December 22nd. And both
051the fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth grade student government collaborated to come up with their theme days. Today was feeling frosty and tomorrow is Cindy Luhou day. So wear your wackiest hair. Anything that I can ask Carl for you. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> You're welcome. [clears throat] >> So we're continuing CSSE meetings um throughout this month and we're working on completing our state performance plan indicator 8 for the state um which is parent involvement. So, um, at annual reviews, we're giving out these parent surveys, uh, for them to complete. It's anonymous and it goes back to the state. Um, so we don't see what the answers are, but we need to have 100% of ours. Um, not of total, but 100% that we need of our target um, by May. We're
052at 41% right now. Um, a lot of that is thanks to Mrs. Wesler at parent teacher conferences. So, we're hope we're I'm pretty confident that we'll make it by May. If we don't, we have to do it again next year. We're also contracting with um Therapeutic Link, which is one of our preschool um Erie County providers and evaluators um to fill the speech vacancy we've had uh for the remainder of the school year. So, um we're going to have two um SLPs from that company to come in a few days a week to provide speech therapy to students who were referred to services this year and we weren't able to fit into our district um SLP's case loads. Um and then also on the curriculum side, we held the new teacher meeting, the quarterly meeting
053this month and um the instructional leadership team monthly meeting is to take place on Wednesday. >> Any questions? >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh from the high school, we had um some wonderful students go to the Polar Plunge. Have you warmed up yet? Uh they jumped into Lake Erie to support the Special Olympics. They raised uh $974 to go towards the Special Olympics. And we have a handful of kids that went in. I you guys were dressed as the Grinch. Correct. >> So I'm sure those costumes kept you real. >> Very very well. [clears throat] >> Um speaking of the Royal Outreach Center, the high school um is collecting comb rooms are collecting um [clears throat] hats and gloves and different winter accessories to go to the Royal Outreach Center. Uh so students or
054anyone who needs those can go there and get those things. Um our holiday concert was phenomenal. It was great to see all those students. Um we typically do a district holiday concert with all those kids. We're just going to work next year on the time overlap. Um just because of the the the time starting at uh 6:30 and then the high school one starting at 7:15 was a little too tight. So we're just going to spread those out a little bit. Um the Christmas Carol was phenomenal as well. Um, the kids did a great job. You did a great job. Your husband did a great job as well. And here we have our star. Um, so, um, you don't look like a spiritual person. Um, so they did a great job. Um, our our senior
055class, we have 42 students committed to going on the senior trip. Um, which obviously is our highest number we've ever had here. Um, we finished, at least when I've been here, um, we finished the gift card fundraiser. They sold uh $47,785 worth of gift cards, which totaled a profit of just over $2,800 amongst um 23 students who sold. Our highest was Christa and she sold enough cards to earn $418 um which is almost all of her trip. So that's pretty awesome for there uh or for that. Um and then we're doing uh theme days as well. Ours are starting to Wednesday. Um, our student council put those on, but we'll start with candy versus candy cane on Wednesday, I believe. Um, and our five weeks just or 15 weeks just ended. We're going into our
056last five weeks of this semester. Although it seems like a long way away, the end of June, we'll be done with that first semester and on to the second and the senior year. It'll be halfway over already. So, that'll be tight. Um, and then courtesy of the tech department and students and a lot of help from Mr. Thank you. Um, they made you these little ornaments. [laughter] >> These are 3D printed. >> They're only right feet, though. So, >> I was curious why we were printing. >> Carl wanted you to put it on your >> post. That was cute. >> High school. >> Merry Christmas. >> You're up. whenever you're ready. [clears throat] >> I'm sorry. >> Good. >> Um, we're going to be doing we're finalizing the borrowing for the rest of the capital
057improvement project next month. So, once we finish that borrowing, we will be able to finalize the tax cap for next year. That's the kind of last piece of the formula that we need. Um, so by January, we should have what the levy is anticipated for 2627. And we will also have a finalized vehicle proposition for 2627. It's looking like two small buses, diesel um while we can still get them as well as one snowplow truck. So that will have the final quotes for the replacement on the truck. So the vehicle proposition will also be finalized um next month as well. Aside from that, just working on the rest of 2627. That's it. >> We also need a van, but we basically just use that for driver. So, we're having conversations about the new things a
058little bit differently because I have the address to use that short period just that isn't the right answer. So, we'll get back to you on that. >> The explorer doesn't work for >> it works. That's why we don't want to use it in the driver's side. >> That's another story. But anyway, it is used for like people that need to use it, right? So, it's not always available either. Um the um I will just continue a little bit about budget just very briefly. I'll give you some ideas. Um first of all, I'm still looking at information I'm giving for the SRO and I will give you more detailed information. But I [snorts] did talk to um Jeff Gilbert who gave me a cell phone number. He'd be happy to speak with the board if we
059want to make you know some kind of a you know call or if you'd like to come to a meeting and talk to you. Um they have been in many many schools in our area but they've been for example in wound gold that I can remember from 2002. So um the they're all retired officers. They train them. They are armed. It's an hourly rate. They invoice us weekly for the hours. you only pay for hours they work, not hours that you know um they wouldn't be here or they would be holidays or snow days or whatever anything like that. Um IO uses them using the Kent town. I agree with I mean there's an endless list. A lot of people are getting away from the SRO. It's more cost effective I guess I'll say. So
060I will get you more details on that. I know it's something that you hope to put a little bit in place starting in January. We'll see what we can do um to make that happen. >> Will they also do sporting >> for next year? Um that would be extra and my recommendation if this is the route you go and they will hire local officers and they say we have some people here. So they're happy to you know hire somebody from the area. They prefer that to be honest. Um so we'll see which route we go. We've been getting information. We've tal they've talked with the town. We've talked with Jeff. Um we've looked at various things. Um if it was events I my suggestion might be that we if possible we can work it out
061with the town we use the constables for that. I think that would be cost effective and a better approach as well. Um but I'll get you more details. We'll sit down and we'll have a conversation and we'll try to figure out how we can proceed at least to start of it [snorts] this year. Um on that note, I will take you into the 2526 update on the budget. Um today Mark was actually in to work with Britney and so we had a conversation. Um since October we have a difference of $200,000 that we've spent more um and part of that is the speech teacher. We went out for a speech teacher. We're now providing services that need to happen. We're going to have to provide compensatory services now because we are behind. Um, we had
062a speech teacher in the family accepted the position and then they didn't. So now we've contracted. Fortunately, we've been able to find a contractor to provide the services because Emma has been working like non-stop trying to find somebody who can't even find people. Um, they don't come cheap either. So, um, it's hard to know if they'll match the $100,000 with benefits and everything that a teacher might cost us. I don't know. We'll see. Um we did trans um contract to transportation routes so that we could ensure that we could have our transportation supervisor you know actually meet a supervisor and sit at the desk and our mechanics actually working on our vehicles to keep them safe. Um we did contract with Boseies for a line for our stack and Medicaid to ensure that we're getting
063um the maximum of what we need. We have new people in our office and we're helping to support them in that. um buildings and grounds has had numerous things come up that unfortunately had to be repaired. So um we're about $200,000 over you know what we had planned to spend just so we know. So although I can guarantee you we will end the year in the black. We're probably not going to have as much left as I hope but we'll see. It's still early. Um we'll continue to monitor things and and watch. We're monitoring all day long. Currently our health insurance is doing quite well. That's a good thing. But that could change and you've all heard the news. So, who knows what's going to happen, right? As we move forward into the school year.
064Um, and hopefully we don't have any other major surprises for 2627. We're still under review. We are going to bring you those budgets and we will bring you a 5-year plan. Obviously, nothing in stone and we will continue to monitor. Um, depending how health insurance is, we could end in the black, but I don't know what monies would be left over. And that's not adding anything to our budget besides maybe we plugged a little bit of money in for an SRO and a couple of other things. So, um, I just want to make you aware it's early. You know me, I'm optimistic. I'm going to find ways, you know, we're going to continue to do things. I The mantra is we may be smaller. We're not going to be inferior. We're we're we're certainly going
065to try to give our students everything that they need. Um but that's kind of where we're at budget-wise. Um I think I told you um in my updates both is doing their extended school year here. So I'm happy for that. Um normally they we would let them be in the middle school building. They can't be there because we have the technical project going on. So, Kelly figured out ways to graciously fix them so they can kind of be in the same area and they can be in the elementary school. Hopefully, this will be something they consistently do and they'll be in the middle school that way they won't have to be moving things back and forth. Um, Britney and I actually went to a class. I was really excited. It was I I love when
066they invited me in. Um, economics um was working on budgets and Mrs. Winter asked if um we would come and talk about the school budget and it was a great experience. We had a good time and kids said I don't know they could have been lying but they sent a really nice thank you note with some nice comments about how it went and and we really enjoyed being there too and I think it was a good opportunity. Um you know these are seniors it's a great opportunity to help them understand the school budget and understand things. I told them and it's their 18th they're going to come to vote in May right and you know they're going to stay involved if they stay in the community. So, it was a great experience overall and and
067personally I I really enjoyed it was the best part my moment. Um, and I think that's it. I did not bring you back tonight, but it will be here on the 22nd if you'd like to visit next Monday. >> Thanks. Okay. Not resolved. Upon the recommendation of the committee of on special education, the committee on preschool education, student placements are approved on the following dates for section 504 cse and CPSC. November 6, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 24, 25. >> That was under the consent. That's a >> you [laughter] resolve the board of education approve the 2526 professional learning plan as attached. I have a motion. >> So move for us. >> Second. Any questions? >> All in favor? I >> result of the Holland Central School Board of Education approve the following bids received
068for the 2024 catwork improvement project as follows. Hazard material air monitoring stole environment 4,35825 commissioning CJ Brown for $10,200 special inspections Whit Stone for 14,623. Can I have a motion? So move >> second. >> Any questions? >> All in favor? >> Donations. >> Uh there. Yeah. >> Go up to donations. >> Yeah. Just usually just a donation topic. >> All right. Um, we have donations from Morris F. Brink and Dolores M. Bring Trust District Library for $160 and Morris F. Bring scholarship for $8001. Thank you very much. On to committee reports. Anything for this CS8 and RSA? uh not meas conference in February for that to go up to Albany lobby with NISPA um and um I did write a letter to Senator Galvin and David Dupedro about um the uh bill that was on
069the table for the zero emission buses. It basically is having them look at this district that are not financially stable to be able to take pass on it hopefully. And I am happy to say that both of them got back to me and the bill is co-sponsored by Senator Alvin. So, we'll keep a little bit of momentum on that um as we go. Um it's still sitting in committee on bill track 50. So, it's It takes a while for it to go anywhere, but we'll keep the momentum. >> And we sent a letter from the district as well to follow up with that. >> I just sent you an invite for the 20th. So, check your email. If cuddle, you want to come, we should go and listen. At least, you know, it's more about
070the grid service and you know where we're at. Um, >> so I'll just be taking a little bit deeper dive in coming in in the turn of the new year um to come up with the most important needs of the district at this point and again draft that letter and take that with me to Albany and also that'll be sent to both our um constituents and hopefully >> see if we can get >> I think there's a virtual body day too that maybe some of you might want to jump out And I attended uh Dave Flower's mom's funeral today. His mom unfortunately passed away. >> You have anything for policies? >> Say that again. >> Policy. Do we have anything for policy? >> No, I still have just a couple hanging out there, but I
071don't know. Maybe after the first we'll set up for meeting just set them up in January that we just follow a couple things. They're minor but negotiations. You're good now for transportation tech plan. Um they're working on it. They're all over an audit. Okay. Facilities facility was a good report. you know that we're ahead on our project project so that we are able to add a lot of add-ons and we're going to have new numbers for the add-ons and then we'll know in January and we as a board can then decide which of the add-ons that we want to get >> actually and you'll send us a picture so we can show everybody what you want to do for the >> the sports um upcoming activities the dash no okay round table start here I
072don't really have anything except for um at key club we had a new drive for toiletries and we got to all the officers got to meet the lich there who set it up and we actually got a really good amount of donations especially from the Kanas Club. They donate a lot. And then also, yeah, I thought the play went really well and we did have a less time this year, but I think we were able to pull it together and I heard stuff going board of education adjourn to executive session at 658 for the purpose was discussing employment history of a particular person. Was there something else? >> Wasn't there something else? >> This stuff I have isn't all personnel. Got a motion. So move second. All >> in favor?