HCSD BOE Meeting 1 15 26

001Hey, good evening. I'd like to call the meeting to order. So, this is the January 15 2026 regular business meeting of the Foret Central School District Board of Education. Our first meeting of the new year. I'd like to start with the pledge of allegiance. So, folks, please join me for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The first item on the board's agenda this evening, item 1.02, 02 is to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing individual tenure reviews. There's no action to be taken during the executive session. And then the board would intend to reconvene the public section at approximately 6 p.m. for the remainder of the business meeting. Is

002there a motion? >> All those in favor any comments or questions on motion? They see none. All those in favor say I. Oppos. Abstensions. Okay. So, we will adjourn to executive session and return at approximately 6 p.m. Thank you. the ball up there. >> Yes. I don't know exactly that. for your patience. While we agree to be some executive session and just as a reminder uh they said that was for the purpose of tender reviews, there's no action taken in executive session. So we are going to reconvene the public session for our January 15, 2026 regular business meeting. And the next item on the agenda would be the approval of minutes. We have one set of minutes for approval from our December 18th, 2025 regular board meeting item 2.01. Is there a motion? >> Second.

003Any comments or questions on the minutes? Katrina, >> I will be voting no because I would like to have my name associated with the question that I say. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have you heard on the motion? Okay. So, call for a vote. All those in favor of the item 2.01 say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. You want to cast your vote? That wasn't the vote. We have two days. Any abstensions? Okay. The motion carries. Thank you. We'll move to item 3.01, the time on our agenda for community questions and comments. Uh we have uh some instructions uh I think over at the district clerk's desk about the um there's I won't go through the whole is there anyone that would like to address the board this evening? Okay. Please uh approach the

004podium and uh you know the drill uh president of the horse teachers association. Uh in looking at the agenda for tonight's board meeting, I saw that there's a second reading for the uh policy to set uh time for uh units to come and communicate uh to the board what's going on. And I just want to thank you for uh hopefully making that a reality so that there can be a a continued dialogue between different units, not just the HDA, but the TAs apps, bus drivers, everybody. Um there's a lot of different people that work within the district, a lot of different units, all with different perspectives on things. And uh as we have tried to um find uh board members um you know one thing that we try to really push is the idea of

005communication being able to speak openly and and create a a constructive dialogue between at least argument and uh and you all up here on the board. So, I just want to thank you for hopefully making that reality tonight and look forward to then what you do in the future. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else that would like to utilize the public comment period to address the board? Okay, we'll move then to the next item on our agenda which is item 4.01, the report from our student representative. So, Serenity, good evening. Take it away. >> I apologize for my missing of the last meeting. Um, so the semester is coming to an end which is really exciting. I know I'm excited to take some new classes and courses. I always get excited

006for a fresh start. other dirty confused stuff. So, um if any of you or your children have don't know what the Regent's exams are, Mr. Al email so you can always double check. They'll be starting Tuesday following Martin day on Monday. Um so, as regarding the cell phone policy, we are seeing it like upset with like the usage, but administration is obviously cracking down more on it that they have seen especially in the gym because there are cancers in there. So, we have got a lot of warnings, at least I've seen in my classes, that they have seen and they do know. So, hope it'll go down a little bit with the more strict message um and more exciting events. Snow will be coming up in about two weeks. It's January 31st. It's a really

007exciting event that um student council throws. It's really exciting every time they have and like slushies and it's just really fun thing to do. It's kind of like homecoming, but it's our winter semifable, so it's something to look forward to. Um, as far as sports goes, I want to shout out to the girls basketball team. They only have one loss, so out of 10 games, and they're fourth in the state, which is really impressive. and there's a lot of great pride of our school and it's just really exciting to see how great they're doing and how they're progressing and their top staff. They haven't lost a single game at the section. Um, unifi bowling has already started. Their first match will be on February 3rd. So, I'm excited to see that there. And also, as

008sports continue, the senior nights will be coming up. So, keep out for those. are really exciting to see especially the my jersey year impact which is a shout out to a lot of our administration guys do a great job and you know make an impact in our lives so it's really great to see but that's all I have for tonight thank you >> thank you very much so we'll go to the next item on the agenda which is item five superintendent report presentations so Dr. just gonna do your report first or do the presentations. >> I have been told I'm to do mine first because they need two minutes to warm things up. So going to try to speak to two minutes first of all and I couldn't agree more. Please let the student body

009know at the secondary that at any time we are ready to put in place the pouches. We're hoping that adult We're hoping that adult responsibility that every high school person wants means the adult respect that they do what they need to do. So if you can't help with Miss but uh on the district side we are in calendar development. You'll probably see that uh in the next month or so. One of the interesting things is because we increased the uh length of the day to meet the state requirements, we do have a little extra hours in the calendar. Uh and one of the things that we get pushed on the fact that we have to do substitutes for any type of curriculum. So district administration is looking at the calendar and whether or not we

010can work and functionally staff potentially some app day curriculum days for certain levels so that it's well known in advance uh for parents and community members to plan. So that will be something new in the calendar but in general we will be the calendar Labor Day is very late. So, we will have teachers coming back uh a couple days beforehand, but it is a tight calendar and uh in addition, the Easter uh holiday is in March. So, we've had to separate Good Friday from that. Uh the Bosey's calendar, I think, is going to be approved in the next month, and ours usually comes right after that. So, as people are starting to make their plans, that way they know that's coming. This week the governor gave her state of the state address and there were

011some good conversations. One thing is she is moving up the timeline for full prek for education and she's saying that she's putting more money behind that for the schools that are already participating so that full implementation of every child being able to go to school for prek will be established by the year 2028. That is something we've been trying to build for already, but we fund most. So, if the state will put extra funds, we're hoping that that will be helpful for the budget. However, the rest of the state of the state was very superficial to say the least uh and didn't give us any prognosis of what potentially our age is going to be. So, we are waiting for February 20th when the governor has to release their budget by law. Uh once we

012do that, our official budget season has come under the start, but we've already been into the budget over the past couple of months. We'd like to remind everybody the intermediate school drama club will be presenting here, The Little Mermaid, on January 16th and 17th. In addition, the middle school musical, Legally Blonde, will be here February 5th through the 6th. I don't have the dates for the high school, but I think it's right about the end of February or March. Yeah. So I think we have one more meetings that we can announce that which is the 12. Uh and so uh a lot of things are happening between mid winter the winter days. I know everybody wanted a two-hour delay or snow day today. Please understand we have three days left and we have to also

013consider heat as well uh at this point. So, please bear with us uh as I get up every morning just like Rich does and we get out onto the roads and today it was wet and then at 7:00 it turned to snow then at 8:00 it turned a little wet again. So, these are the harder ones but we appreciate everybody's understanding. In addition, I know Mr. Christmas is going to make the uh announcement a little later about the district ad hoc committee. those individuals that are part of the district's part of the team, the instructional staff, the non-instructional staff, the building administration, district staff, those notifications will go out tomorrow. And uh once Mr. Chris has his ability to talk on the topic, we will put everything on the website as well, I'm sure. So,

014at this point, I'll keep it very short. Is the camera ready? It's not ready. Uh it's green. Something happened to it. They couldn't fix it. So please uh bear with us as they try to address it. So that will conclude my report at this point in the interest of time because we have two presentations mostly for now. Who wants to go first? I think >> Oh, there we go. This sounds correct. look like you're starting to be wicked. >> Good evening everyone. Um so I was asked to u information to the board tonight um specifically on uh the dotion um what the exemptions mean what the offerings are and what it could potentially look like if the board were to consider um offering such an invention to our community. Um there's a lot to it.

015I tried to condense it as best as I could um just to give you a flavor of what it would look like. um child there. So I tried to uh tried to give you the best nuts and bolts that I could. So there are three types. Uh one is the alternative veterans exemption, another is the gold exemption and the other is the eligible exemption. So lots of words here. I'm not going to read it all to you. So I'll give you the highlights here. Uh so the alternative exemption is available for those who uh served during um the period of war through the Persian ball, Vietnam War, Korean War or World War II or received uh expeditionary medals um uh for serving in certain um areas of the military. So there are three levels of

016the alternative um bedroom reemption. Um one is the non-combat. Uh for this particular exemption, you're eligible for a 50% exemption of your assessment. There is a combat exemption where you're eligible for an additional 10% of your exemption. And then there's a wartime disabled. Um they have a a little bit of a different formula where you're eligible in addition to the other two um a percentage of the exemption equal to one half of your disability rating not to exceed $40,000. Your disability rating is a rating that's set by the US Department of Veterans Affairs depending on the rating they give you based on your level of disability and compensation you receive uh for that particular disability. There are provisions within the law that um there are state um minimums, but at the local level, you can

017vote uh to go to a range below or you can vote to go in a range that's above. Um, as far as ownership requirements, it the home has to be bride the veteran, the spouse of a veteran, the unmarried spouse of a veteran or both are parent uh where local option um and just for thought according to uh New York State uh veterans website this this particular exemption is available in over 95% of counties living and village juris Exemption pretty self-explanatory for levels conserved during the cold war. There is a specific date range um noted within the real property tax law um for eligibility September 2nd 1945 to December 26th 1991 along with a list of other criteria pursuant to no property tax law. Uh there are two options as far as active duty where

018you can offer 10 or 15%. Um, as mentioned before, there are options to go above and below that for global law discretion. Uh, there's an option um for cold war disabled. Um, which let's see, this one's a little more complicated. So, there's a a list of different amounts that can be considered. uh the state basic state minimum is $40,000 but again there's different minimums and maximums um that can be chosen. Item of note for the active duty the 10 or 15% those exemptions are granted typically for 10 years unless um the school districts to remove this limit where the disabled limit there is no time on that particular induction ownership requirements. It must be held by the culture veteran, the spouse of the veteran or the unmarried surviving spouse of the deceased veteran. Eligible funds

019exemption. This applies to um a veteran and the particular funds of how they purchase their home. So if they used it with pension money, bonus monies, insurance monies related to their services. Um compensation paid to prisoners divorce during an outcome reduction is um set at 7500. Again, ownership requirements must be owned by the veteran, the unmarried surviving spouse of the veteran, dependent parent, or the veteran's children under 21 years of age. Um if the taxing authority um offers this particular exemption but not the first exemption that we talked about um the bank chooses to they can leave this exemption pop to the other exemption. So before I move on any question on those particular offerings just to make sure I know everything we can pick and choose which one of those three if we were

020to offer we could say we would only want to do the alternative exemption >> alternative we can do both or we can do eligible funds so you can do one two all three >> so I then confuse the eligible funds you said that if we did the alternative veterans exemption, so if we only did eligible funds but not the alternative, they could do the eligible funds. If at some point in the future we offered the alternative, they could leave the eligible funds and go to the alternative. >> Um, and it should be noted they the veterans can only have one exemption at a time. Um the bullet that says that it is available in over 95% of town like in New York state in general 95% of the state is offering this to their veterans

021currently. So we're among the 5% that do not. This is in the state not including schools. So it references counties, city, towns and villages. This this 95% is exclusive of schools. >> The number the number is representative of all the exemptions for veterans in any municipality, school, public government. There's a lot of when you look at schools. >> This is not schools. 95% is not included or one and it's already 95% of town in these towns and villages within the states. >> So you're saying people get that not their regular tax that's not >> correct. Do we know if our county and other physical village and town does just communication >> and so then what are we looking at like age but we're thinking about um because this aquarium golf seems like That's the most

022reason for the alternative exemption. There's nothing else to pass that from the alternative that does the date related to each of the wars. I think the most recent would be the glo global war on terror was essentially after 911 through sometime in the 2010s. So that would be the most recent period of service. I think that would be relevant for the alternative exemption. >> I'm just trying to get my mind around each bridge and then try to get people with that. How many people would be eligible if that sense? So that being conservative. >> Okay. So some generic information to know. Um the eligible or the alternative exemption and the eligible funds exemption. Um they both require a public hearing to be advertised in the district newspaper at least 6 days prior um to the

023board taking action. The cold war exemption does require a public hearing. All exemptions require board resolution to enact. Um they cannot be done by proposition. Uh the district can offer more than one of these exemptions, but a veteran can only receive one exemption at a time. If a district does choose to offer penalties, the county will need to be notified by November 1st of um any given year that the board makes it position. And if offered, veterans have until March 1st to submit the applications to assessors along along with any of the supporting documentations uh needed to demonstrate any proof of the application needs. lot of numbers here. So bear with me. So the best I could do um as far as any data to give you some frame of reference is um the New

024York state um tax and finance website breaks it down by municipality. Does not break it down by school but by municipality. So for example, Tom and Big Lats would include for school districts where it says on there my morning but these are the exemptions that big offers. Those are the number of the exemptions property parcels that receive the exemptions and this is the value of the exemptions. So the numbers are large for some of these municipalities. They're not at all related to us. Keep that in mind. Um but the numbers can be significant. So big flats total 11 million course that it's almost 20 million. And you'll see they all offer that alternative. Um most fun level of the cold war the eligible funds consider this veteran score million catman 3 million 2.6 Kuda free

025we have a small portion um they have 400 is a different animal we have that very tiny little portion of K. So most of this really does not apply to us but they have 1.2 um of equalized value to these summary algether the alternative exemption is $ 38 million the gold exemption 3.3 million in eligible funds 28,000 for a total of 42 million and all municipalities of the district. We'll get copy cover all districts within um municipalities in mind as well. Um, one number I was able to get from Chanel County was for um the alternative um exemption and it was 20 and $23 million from the district for the alternative redemption. So the first one, the most common one that we see um so that would be $23 million just for the one intension

026that would be dispersed to our projects. >> Repeat that please. So any fction that we we offer to to the veterans the savings to them that's money that would be spurred to the other taxpayers because we have to from so savings to one is an increase to someone else. >> So that you had said before that >> so I received an offer from county the alternative option. >> Yes. And it was roughly $23 million for the work at school district for all of our municipalities. So that's $23 million in a veterans intension for one of the infections that would have to be reimbured now to the non veterans in our district. And that's all total of municipalities. >> These figures you show here is what the criminalities they're paying right now. >> Those are just

027the adoption values that veterans are currently speaking up >> so Shimon County is estimating ours could be 23 million >> or the alternative Just for that. >> Just for that and that had to go. >> If by chance >> Yeah. >> If by chance the board ever elects to, that's where the discussions came previous. >> That amount of money, if the board elected and everybody filed, the veterans that qualified would no longer pay that on their taxes. But that money will not go away. it gets shipped to every other property owner. So the board is going to shift that tax. In other words, a lot of people do think that the exception it goes with helps. It doesn't. It means everybody else is willing to pick up that property share. >> Does that have to

028be >> only the board? >> And do you know if other school districts are this? I reached out and said, >> "Okay." Yeah. >> Okay. I just it might be helpful. I think I think many of us probably know how these work, but I'm just going to explain say something and you correct me. Right. So the idea is you know we all have an assessed value of our property the community and there that's done through the local community school district doesn't the assessment and then the exemption let's just say the assessed property value is $200,000 and let's just say the exemption is for $10,000. That means now when we apply the tax raise to that property, we value it at $190,000, not at $200,000. Um, and it's possible, as has been said, for uh, you

029know, a taxpayer to have an exemption apply on their county tax, but not necessarily on their state tax because the jurisdictions are different. But I think the when we talk about the value of the exemption, that's the value of the property which is excluded from taxing, right? So the actual tax impact would be the tax rate applied to that value. So it's not it's not $42 million in taxes, it's $42 million in property value and then the tax impact would be some percentage of that. Is that correct? >> We talk about that $5 million that they save. Now the community have to support that $5 million that they're saving. It has to go somewhere. um because we felt accept the levy that we have. We don't lose money on our levy. It just gets uh

030reortioned to somebody else. >> Right. Right. >> The idea of the exemption kind of the same idea. So if someone else is receiving the exemption, so the your example of the 200,000, someone's receiving an exemption of the 10,000 when we get our tax rolled in is built in there and the 10,000 is basically aortioned out to everybody else. That's where in the rule when we do the calculation. Um so and it you know that's a very small minor piece of it over two million. Um but once you total all those up and the um the exemptions are large you know other taxpayers who don't receive the you know they get absorbed into someone. >> Okay. >> No I Right. Right. It's kind of like, >> you know, we have this levy we collect. It's like

031a balloon. We sort of squish it down here. >> It's going to go over there. Right. But the point I just want to make is, and this is if if we're talking $23 million of property value, then in terms of actual, you'd have to divide that by a,000 and then multiply by about 18 to get to the tax. likely based on the exemption values that the county offers and I haven't been able to get an answer on what they offer. >> Um, we have the ability to set what we want and what we're comfortable with, right? Um, so we could, you know, if we wanted to, you know, we could offer something on the lower side to say we we recognize something we want to do, but we're not ready to go here because we

032want to go here. But the the concept is the same. It's we offer it and exempt this group of people from paying a certain amount of tax, this group over here will have to pick up the difference, right? So when I think of that amount from the county, it's likely a number monthly from the go. We don't have yet. So it's not something not a true number for >> Yeah. >> No, I just wanted to make sure we all understood that that's a a number that represents a value of property, not a tax, not an actual tax number. >> Correct. >> And uh the question I know there's a process associated with it. Someone has to provide sufficient information to show that they're eligible. Is that something the district would have the responsibility of verifying

033eligibility? >> Okay. >> There's an application there's a host of supporting documentation uh they would have to provide in order to >> Yeah. Other questions? Good. Thanks. >> Um so every We're talking about the um redistribution. Another way would be is we're taking that that's the difference in the budget that's not there. So if we reduced our budget ourselves or somehow came up with more revenue within the budget then that eventually would help as well right um our levy would help. It's based on the tax cap calculation. Um we already have a variety of exemptions that were mandated by state to provide other than these optional ones. Um so so then can you use your debt service line to reuse the levy if you review this? You do that every year, >> right? So essentially

034you suffer from we do that to help the community. If we if we feel our accessibility percentage is too high, yes, we do have that conversation to help our community back. So they don't, you know, have that whole trip a large tax bill. But that doesn't take away from the fact that this group of people have an infection and this group of people has to now pick up that difference. But >> right, but we could use some that debt service line if we have money appropriated for that de service line and help wind that burden that is being put to that. Then you can budget it that way. That is that a possibility. The debt service group, but it doesn't >> they're not take away the fact that the there's a tax shift from the

035exemption that the the folks do the note folks. >> Right. I understand. I guess that's what we've always done. I mean the exemptions always our taxes and our tax calculation. So exemptions are new to us. We have like I said a whole host of that required to do and optional for us to do like that we have been doing. So those have already been in that calculations. >> Okay. >> So these would just be on top of the ones we're already doing. >> Okay. Um, and then did you reach out to the Veterans Administration at all to gather any data or information from them or just to the county as far as well because the Veterans Administration um may have information on the number of people who would be elderly with gunfests themselves and here

036in our town specifically because the data here it's we have screenshots of it. Um but it says for Ammyra Ammyra heights 40 districts. So it's hard to decipher. So I'm wondering if you reached out to Veterans Administration directly to find out um what data they may have specifically um that's um data for the um veterans that they have in that specifically or big service where these numbers come So, but did you reach out to people to go through the process to do school? So, I didn't call the DA through actual tax websites and tax. >> Okay. I'm just thinking that if I'm convicted to reach out to the DA to see just our specifically to exclude the health supporting districts, it might give us a little bit more of a clearer picture of what exactly

037is our you know like we don't know and any of these numbers who exactly who is who isn't. Um, but I think that would be very useful information. >> That isation that the uh county treasur information >> we can't get the information from anybody else except Shim County and the office of direct property. We must work with them. No other organization. We have to they have to find So you're saying that you're not allowed to call the administration directee and ask them for information on how many veterans live in your school district. >> Well, you can call. They aren't going to have the accurate number because they don't do real property tests. >> I think they don't divide it up by school district. >> Yeah. You know, that would be situation. I don't know. I

038had experience working with the Veterans Administration before previously and there was a nice guy up there that you know could call pretty. That's why I asked because this is very it's it you're you know thank you very much for all the work that you did getting this together but it's not specific enough to be able to make a real big decision. you know it'll it'll be difficult to get specific information for something we don't current >> right >> um it will be based on those who actually buy um something for the board to really think deep into and this is the number that we want to do um that will be difficult to >> but I think you said that 23 million was specific to the district for that one exemption that >> right that's

039so that that's the number right there at least >> for 19 million she went up to 20 >> right >> it's it'sable just for that one >> right which is the most broadly utilized according to the data you have among cities villages etc the tax the tax rate and it did go up value did go up 14 times That would be 14 distributed 14. >> Are there other questions from this end of the table? Did you would you want to say anything? I know there's one more slide I think. The other one is fairly new for firefighters and then there's a list below mandatory one. It's not an exclusive but um they are mandatory exemptions that we are required to roles government religious organizations nonprofit prayer several more to get a question I know from

040a community member a few months ago with respect to the senior citizens which is in place as you said It's at it's at a level and the question was around whether I guess we haven't raised it for some time and could do you know what level it is currently or when it was last raised I don't have that information myself. >> Yeah. So the >> so the resolution was passed in 2012. Um, if I'm recalling correctly, it was reviewed um 15, 2016, 17. >> I think it was 2017, 2018 was on the board that >> reviewed it. Um, kind of for the same reasons we're talking about being mindful of, you know, This isn't a conversation of, you know, no one being not worthy of an exception. They're all worthwhile exemption. Um, but it's being

041mindful also of shifting that burden to others. So, that was, you know, something to take away at the time. So, it is a sliding scale um that starts from uh $11,000 annual income equal to or less than $11,000. Um your assessment is reduced by 15% and then it goes up to just $17,000 to get a reduction of 20% on your assessment >> and over 17 it's zero. No, >> there there is an interesting point about that that Katie uh we have to dig in a little bit more. But there's a reason some of these are exemptions are set at those levels. If the level at that time went up and they took that exemption, they lose they may lose their star rebate too. So the district at that time, one of the reasons why they

042didn't go after that was the fact that if they adjusted it, we're possibly hurting people because if we raised it and they lose their star, the star gives them a much bigger benefit where if we kept it where it was, they get both. So that's that can be the difficulty. the company I'm researching now um haven't quite so that was um way back in 2010 from the county went around to the school district that was the logic they presented at the time to set the thresholds where they are now um doing some research I want to talk to some more people about it I'm not yeah fully convinced that that's Um, thanks for really hanging our hat on right now. Um, we star is a state funed program to give relief off your taxes where

043these exemptions are local assessment. So there things um so I kind of want to have more conversations about where um And then forformational purposes um we do offer the um disabled deduction as well. Looks like also passed in 2012. Also on the sliding scale um top end of the scale annual income less than or equal to $11,000 within 15% redemption on your assessment up to 19,399 is a percent exemption. Um and as I mentioned the other volunteering optional fund is volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers and just you know food pathology you have all the pieces here um that is a exemption up to 10%. Um for surviving spouse of a member killed in the line of duty the exemption to be up to 50%. does require public hearing, does require board resolution. Uh the board

044would have to determine um minimum service requirement in order to receive the exemption between two and five years. Um there is an additional local option that if there's an old member that have 20 years more than 20 years of active service, they could potentially receive a bash throughout their life. Um, so that's something as well. So like I said, they're all worthwhile. Um, but it's one big shift to the other. Anything more would like to explore, look into trying to come back some different information to do so. Um, >> but it will have to be on the budget. >> Um, that's So people for >> Thank you. Any last questions? >> When you were asking about going back through, I do think that it would be worthwhile to for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers, which

045was talked about to look into those as well because after you said, you know, to change that ship to be like 14 cents for the alternative options, >> right? Yeah. To be able to see, okay, well, what would the other ones be? Would that also be 14 cents? Are we looking at $10 distribution? So, to be able to see the amounts of what that redistribution would actually be to the taxpayers, I think would be really important in being able to make decisions because we're talking 20 bucks to redistri redistribute even. I think that would be high even to give people who volunteer, senior citizens who are on fixed incomes who have a hard time, volunteer fires, beneous workers who are faster than there to help us in need, veterans who have served our country. I

046think that the community would probably support that. Yeah, our whole value would change by 14. >> That does that means taxes would go up on $100,000 home. >> $14 just for that one. 228 300 and that's before you even get the budget. That's just for one little piece of session. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much for the information. Thank you, Kate. We'll move to the next presentation, the MP assess presentation 5.03. We get over there and the adjustments and apologies. um not feeling green. It's just uh we have this issue with the projector we're looking to get fixed. Uh I'm going to speak briefly just some introductory information and I'm going to introduce Halloween and then square to speak tonight on some of the work we're doing at the middle school. We had the

047opportunity last time in November to chat about our K6 implementation. We had some some staff and family joined us to talk about the work that we're doing at that level. Um today's focus on middle school and you'll see where we're heading next. Uh, so we're just going to review. You know, we always like to start early. I'm going to run through it. It's archived for those that want to see. It's a review of um the information from a previous presentation. Uh the academics, it's important to note that we provided that in the November meeting. So that we do have that that scale that showed the cohorts and the ELA, the math, and the science 8. So that information has been provided. Um we did not belabor it by including it again in this data set

048in the slide deck. Um we are going to talk about the priary standards work briefly and some of that process and where we are to speak to that and then uh the social emotional learning u remembers is more than just academics and the work that he's doing there and what that data set looks like and very cool progress that both him and then you'll hear Chris Earl later on the year what the work she's doing currently. Uh and then we'll end up with Kelly just a clarification. I think we've had some conversations about how our social workers do and what that work looks like and then first speak the the districtwide approach to uh SCS and maybe what it looks like for the community and how we interact with them. So just a brief little

049presentation or some information to be shared and then our next steps. So you remember this comes from our district polls and these presentations are rooted in these ideas of what we're doing in alignment. was long this very long-term goal we've been working through since 2017 and a lot of that's coming to fruition um as we work through it. So we'll hit some of the instructional as well as the um the wellness and some pieces of that as well to speak to. So more work we all time or graduate what that depends when or how. We have diagrams, lots of information that will go with that. That is not for tonight. We've had many presentations on these items. Again, all students is the focus of our work and um academic, social, emotional, and behavioral. So, uh

050without further ado, I'm going to talk a little about standards process and what they're doing with that. Record time is not going to record time. All right. Tony told me I had about an hour for this presentation. I'll try to keep it brief. I can tell Tony might ramble on too long. Give me a little kick and we'll we'll get this going. So, I know you've had a lot of this Tony said a lot of presentations on the standard work going on in the district. And really the middle school process is no different than what you've heard. So, we figured really no need to reiterate that. Just highlight a couple of things. And as Tony mentioned, I'll go over where we're at the process. Uh so in our faculty meeting yesterday actually we really got

051into the nitty-gritty part of the process where we were identifying the priority standards by department. Um our staff broke up by department and actually work together uh by department and actually grade level within that department to identify those priority standards within their curriculum. Uh the second part of that process is to take a look at those priority standards and then write them into some kid-friendly language. Uh language that students can understand so they know exactly what that target is uh that they're expected to achieve through that curriculum process. >> You're you're going to move me. All right. Oh yeah. All right. So, um, after we take a look at that, then we're going to take a look at some common assessments, um, identify what success truly looks like for students, and that will likely take

052us, uh, the rest of the faculty meetings for this year and many of the department meetings that they'll participate throughout the year. Um, obviously the long range goal is to take a look at those common assessments to not only evaluate our curriculum, but to identify those different levels and tiers of need uh with students based on that assessment data. So, that's about all I'm going to spend on that the standards process because I know you're you're pretty well versed in that. Again, this is the chart that we're using at the middle school just like uh the elementary and the high school folks are using as well. Moving on, Mr. you. I can click that if you want. >> Yeah, >> sure. I got a whole few things here. Where we at now? So, fancy transitions

053here. I'm just going to put it all up there at once. So, one of the things that we want to focus on again is talking about how we built the culture at the middle school to allow students to have that environment to learn. We know that students struggle to learn academically if they have social, emotional, and behavioral issues and struggles that they're working with. So, as we develop those relationships with kids, we try to overcome some of those social, emotional, and behavioral problems by creating those relationships with kids. So, on this slide, you'll see just an excerpt from our open packet that we've been using probably the last I don't know, probably since co looking back at this vendor since she's was in the building there. um when kids came back from CO, we really

054decided that we really need to develop those relationships with kids again cuz we lost them all. You can't develop those personal relationships all that well online. So, we we adopted this uh you'll see some of the information in there. I won't read it to you, but uh this was developed in part by our site team and our guidance teams. Um, and the idea was that we start day one laying that foundation for a great year for students by letting them know that relationships and connections to school are important. Um, at the end of that packet, there was a bunch of different icebreaker activities that teachers had the opportunity to could choose which ones they wanted to do. But the expectation was that those first several days in the morning and afternoon home room that their

055their sole goal was to develop relationships with kids, make them comfortable in the building and set that foundation for that classroom culture where learning could take place. One of the things that we wanted to do is we say we're doing these things, we say we're building connections, we wanted to actually decide determine whether or not we worked, whether or not staff thought they were making connections. So, in conjunction with Damen Saxs and Kelsey Spliters, uh they helped us facil facilitate the sticker activity. Uh you can see the different color of stickers up. I guess you really can with our with our Raider green screen here, but I think that's supposed to be blue, green, red, and yellow is what those stickers should look like up there. Um, and essentially what Damian and Kelly did for

056us, they took the rosters of the entire middle school students, printed them out on large uh paper, had their picture and name on there. The staff's job was to take the stickers that we gave them and place a sticker next to the students based on the level of connection they felt they had with that student. Um, we had never done this before. We really didn't have any idea what it was going to look like. So, we gave uh teachers a a set number of stickers and we were pleasantly surprised that we ran out of stickers and we had to redistribute them. So, basically what that told us was is we do a pretty good job at the middle school of making connections with kids. Um, one of the things that we want to do moving

057forward is yes, we make connections. A lot of those stickers were sort of that surface level. Um, but we also had a lot of the stickers that were in that red and green range which indicates that there are more deeper connections. They know more about kids and we know that the more we know about our students, we can relate their hobbies and those type of things and more talk about implementing the curriculum. Uh, one of the things that really I think makes us unique at the middle school is that the level of staffing that we have. So, it's pretty tough for a kid not to have a connection in our building. So if it's not a super direct connection with the teacher, it might be with the school counselor. It could be with our social

058workers that Kelly is going to talk about later. Could be with Mr. Heft, the assistant principal or myself. We have a lot of staff that makes connections with kids. So that was kind of the the point of that particular activity and we are looking to do this again uh probably at the end of this year as we did last year. So, the next several slides are just taking a look at some of the things that we do to not only make connections uh with kids, but how do we let our students know that we're just not the person behind the desk teaching them? What what makes us a little bit unique? So, here you'll see this is some uh pictures from HMS Live. Uh, I think you've many of you have heard talked about HMS

059live presentations before, but that's our uh h our news station that's run by Chuck Donovan. He's been doing that as long as I've been at the middle school does a fantastic job with that and he his production and the number of students that participate in that continues to grow. Uh, we used to have three or four students that would present each morning. I think he's up to 10 or 15 that are on a rotating basis. So, these are the kids that are actually on camera and then there's several behind the scenes. So, a couple of things that that we're doing this year that kind of relates to that social emotional learning. Uh you'll see we do something to think about segment on HMS Live and basically what that is is several different staff members um

060volunteer to read an inspirational story. Uh typically the stories have something to do with our character education or raider wave programs and it has a direct connect to things that students are dealing with. Uh this year we've had um Andy Scott has read them. Uh our contract sub actually got involved Saturdayly got involved with that this year. Um Jessica Kelly an English teacher. Uh Missy Schulz. We've had I don't know up to this point probably 10 or 15 different staff members that have volunteered to read this something to think about. Another thing that we do is the staff member of the week. Uh this started several years ago and we created powerpoints for each staff member. They submitted hobbies and and things just about that to to demonstrate that again that we're humans. Uh gives

061students a way to learn us a little bit better. So he's taken those PowerPoint slides and each day the uh student announcers they they have one clue that they put on HMS Live about a particular staff member. Um each day it starts pretty vague clue and each day it gets a little more specific with the idea that by the end of the week hopefully the students especially the ones that have that teacher are able to identify that staff member. Uh we make it a little bit more fun by making a little contest out of this. things can submit their guesses for the SAP member of the week and we do a random drawing and they get a $5 Duncan gift card or something like that that's donated by our PTO uh social emotional learning. Again,

062I know Kelly's going to talk a little bit about social workers, so I won't spend a whole lot of time on that. But this is our character strong program. Um again, this is I believe K8 K12. All right, so K12. Um this is the uh the researchbased program uh really to to support that social emotional learning. Um right now it's really used primarily by Kristen Sternwitz and Melanie Rare our social workers. Uh we do have a handful of teachers that use it as well. I know Megan Trisby our health teacher. Um Jackie Holler, one of our social studies teachers, uses it as well in the classroom. But essentially, it's it's a program that is meant to be proactive to teach kids the skills they need to really navigate some of the peer conflicts that they

063experience at the middle school. Um, how to regulate their emotions. Um, and just develop those problem solving skills that you really need to reinforce as they become adults. Um, middle schools when they start to figure things out and they need a lot of help with some of that. and his character strong has a lot of great videos that we use, a lot of activities that can be used in the classroom. Um, right now we use it for tier one instruction in our 121 classrooms. that social workers will actually push in and do some of the work for our 12th one students and then they'll use it on a daily basis basis for more that tier two and three support when some of the kids on their case load or kids just in general the middle

064school are struggling uh to regulate their emotions or if they're having conflicts they'll use a lot of materials in this to kind of work through that course five uh so five is something a program that was put out by it tomorrow. Um again, this is just another way for teachers to connect quickly with kids. It's really designed to be they call it the first five because it's meant to be the first five minutes of class. Um where your whole goal is not to focus on content, but to focus on those connections with kids. Um when you go on to the first, it's all free. Don't pay anything for it. um when you go on there's a lot of different things that teachers can do at the beginning of the class just to set that tone

065and build that culture that this is a safe place to be that we value you not just as a student but as a person. Um it's really designed also to greet students as they come into the classroom. Um we have a lot of teachers that that do the greeting before they come in that don't use first five. Um but we have several that do use the first five. Uh today's prompt I thought was very interesting and we as some teachers used that. The today's prompt was when students came in it said the whole world is listening to your next sentence. What should it be? So again it just gives just a quick easy way. There's no right or wrong answers to it and then kids can volunteer to share that or they don't have to.

066Um it's really about the comfort level. Um, we have teachers that use the first slide to build those connections. It shoots it strategically so it somehow connects in with whatever the lesson is for the day. So, you can actually tie it to the curriculum as well. Um, we're looking at using uh some of the videos from first and actually character strong as we go into our March kindness month. Um, and kind of the idea of that is we're going to do some kindness challenge. We haven't ironed out all the details yet. site team is currently working on that. Um, but several of the teachers on there, one of our focuses this year is kindness. So, they thought that, you know, we have all these programs, we have a lot of teachers using it already. Why

067don't we incorporate that into what we plan to do? So, next couple slides are just some some fun things that we've done. You'll see there on the left, we had a 67 day. You have to do the hands right 67. So Netty Ringer kind of spearheaded this along with Linda Franklin who's the head of our fish committee. Uh we thought it might be fun to have a 67 day. Those of you that don't know what 67 is, get on Tik Tok, type that in, you'll see all kinds of videos. Um but we decided to do that to come on set up for 67th day of school. So Eddie Raiders, you can see she spearheaded the production of the 67 t-shirts. Um there on the stairs there in front of the think sign at the middle

068school. You'll see all the teachers that participated. Um we actually had a few more some of the coaches had to practice so they didn't get in the picture at the end of the day. Initially we just thought it'd be fun to show the kids that were just not a bunch of old folks. We can be down with this 67 fat too just like they are. And then kind of in the back of our minds, we thought if we did it, it wouldn't be cool anymore and they would drop it. Turns out they thought we were cool, too. And it actually has grown. So, we initially were just going to wear the shirts. Uh, and then we decided, let's turn this into game as well. And we again Dunkin Donut gift card. Um, any kid that

069turned in a list of teachers that actually wore the shirts, they were in for a drawing. It actually turned into something a whole lot bigger because we had kids in the building going up to teachers they didn't know, hey, what's your name? And they had conversation. So, it actually created, we didn't anticipate this, but it created an opportunity for staff and students who didn't know each other to actually make that connection, have a conversation with each other. Um, so that was just a fun thing. And most of you know, we do a drive assembly right before winter break. Uh, you'll see up there on the top. That's the marshmallow toss. This is really more than just an assembly. The kids think it's an assembly. Um, but it's an assembly to really celebrate their commitment to

070the community and citizenship with the donation of its. So, we make it again a competition. Middle school kids love competition. They'll do almost anything if you compete. Um, so we make it a competition. whichever team brings in the most food items, uh the students on that team get to choose the staff members and the students that represent that grade level team in the food games. So, this year was kind of neat. Angela Wright, our school nurse, um first year in 16 years I've been at the middle school, the nurse has ever been chosen. So, it was kind of neat for her. She's actually quite new to the building as well. She's in year two at the middle school and uh she was chosen to be part of the food drive games. Um, Andy Scott is

071our MC. Dora Leland and Jackie Camage, the adviserss, put this whole thing together. Um, Andy does a great job of really bling up the crowd and get some cheering for the teachers and the students that are representing their team. Uh, I'll make one note. For some reason, I get children every year and I am still undefeated for 15 years in the food drive games. So, I make a big deal about that with the teachers and I actually do it with my kids, too. not to brag, but to try to teach them that, you know, we can we can joke around appropriately and show them that winning and losing can be fun. Um, one of the things we struggle with as kids when they get in trouble, aren't just joking. So, a lot of the things

072that we've been doing this year is teaching them what is joking and what is just being untimed. So, that's just another opportunity for us to to highlight that. And I'm probably out of time, so we'll go quickly here with the regular way presentations. And I've done these in presentations to the board as well. Um these are an opportunity for me to meet with kids. I meet with them during lunch study. Um I do the presentation, but the presentation is really put together by the staff. Um the site team has a big big role in this. Um we we talk about our action plan, we talk about our goals, and then we try to wrap the presentations around making sure we hit those goals. This year you'll see that again one of our goals is kindness

073and we spent a lot of time about how one small action makes a big impact and I gave examples of not only kind actions and how they impact somebody but some of those unkind actions and how that makes an impact as well. Um I'll share just one quick story and then I'll be quiet and turn this back over to Tony. Um I asked the question in the Raider way presentation. I asked all the kids, "If you can think of a time when somebody was kind to you, raise your hands." And they kind of hands go up slowly. They're kind of looking around at each other. And eventually most of the hands go up. I said, "All right, put your hands down." They said, "Can you think of a time when somebody was unkind to you?"

074Hands went up immediately. And I asked them to reflect upon it. And they thought a little bit. I said, "Why do you think those hands went up so quickly?" He said, "Because you don't forget when somebody's mean to you." I said, "That's exactly why we are talking about kindness and focusing on that this year." I didn't expect that when I asked those questions, but we kind of ran with it. You know, it has made an impact with kids. So, that's the uh way presentations. That's it. I'm done. Huh? >> No. I say that's your >> That's my last one. That's mine, too. Yeah. So obviously you can see again academics are important. We know that and we're we're going through that priority of standard work just like the rest of the district. But middle school

075of all ages it's tough. It is the toughest transition. They're trying to figure things out. And if we don't make room and create those relationships and connections it doesn't matter how good the curriculum is. If they don't feel valued, they don't feel connected to their teachers, they're not going to learn. So that's why we spend a lot of time on that. I spent all my time talking to you. So, thank you for your time. >> Yeah. And to that point, um, especially with our initiative of wellness and you heard Damian and Kelly being part of that because the wellness committee, the intentionality of this work. It's not just throwing something at the ball and see what's going to work, right? It's a it's really intentionally what he's doing here and Chris, we've always had very

076strong programming that came into characterizing the work that we do in the elementary schools. We're really starting to push that. the last couple years we've been working towards practice ideas and what that might look like and really pushing that um that social emotional learning and being proactive not just waiting for the the mistakes they made but talking about what so love the work that that team is doing and thank you um I'm going to turn to briefly talk about the school given that we were speaking about social emotional support that happens in middle school it would be a good opportunity to give you a little a bit more information about our school social workers in general and how that service works for uh schoolbased services. We get a lot of questions from parents, from staff

077about what's a social worker do, why would my student need to see or my child need to see a social worker? What are they going to do with my student? What do we talk about? Um, so we thought again we give you a little bit more information about what it looks like to speak to a social worker in school and what they do versus what they don't or can't do that referral to a clinical counselor or an outside service. Um, so you have the information on the slide. I won't go through all of the bullet points with you, but just to understand um what a referral is made to our school social workers. They take a look at, you know, various aspects of school, what's happening in school, how that impacts their ability to be

078successful in school and that success could be academically, socially or behaviorally. So they will address the students needs in relation to their success at school. uh we have particular rules that they operate under in their own set of curriculum and the social workers are engaged in doing curriculum work surrounding those social emotional learning standards. Character strong is the basis of the curriculum that they chose. Um and I smoke is actually prek through 12. So we have every single social worker and social work assistant across the district using that platform with their students um for tier 2 and or tier three um prek through six right now they're also accessing that to do lessons with each of the classrooms in every single building every single grade level monthly. So uh our next step will be to

079move that into an appropriate place in the middle school and high school which might be would be a Kiki class. Uh the PE curriculum work that's happening is already building in social emotional work at social emotional standards. So that is a nice next step at that secondary level for our social workers to be uh become involved at that general education level. uh different for us with schoolbased counseling than clinical counseling is we cannot diagnose. We cannot provide therapy. We cannot treat a student in something that they can diagnose with. Our job is to support that student in the school environment. We recognize what their diagnosis is. We look at how that impacts their ability to be successful in school and then we provide supports and strategies for them to be successful in our environment. Now

080the goal like um you know anything else is to work with them to provide a support system that we can then off of. You know we don't want students who have to come to the social worker from the time of four until the time they're you know graduating. Um our hope is that we can give them the appropriate support so that they can then become independent in their self-regulation and good social in our schools. Um so uh our school uh social workers work on things like pure relations, self-esteem. Um they may get involved in grief, loss and counseling if it's impacting kids ability to be in school, stay in school, be in the classroom. They will support um grief and moss relationships and they are often involved in those crisis that happen in our will

081see if there's an intense need that's when we will do a handoff to the outside counselor uh for referral. Any questions about school based counseling versus clinical counseling or anything our social workers support I think what we have coming next uh probably after budget season we'll have high school which will have large data set that will go over the regious exams that are associated with that. So that'll be the next question will be here to help prior standards work which can along the process run through and individual groups that have been working in some of that already. And then lastly we did have a uh Joe and Tiffany attended a local webinar on graduate um New York State um as typical we find that we are they're lagging and we still need to move ahead.

082We're at this point because some of what New York State is offering to we can't wait. We're going to do what we've always done the right thing and move forward with our work when it comes to the portion of the graduate and that initiative that we started in 2018 um and continuing our work there and then New York State will catch up to us in this work. So, we reached out to New York State that today and just saying, "Hey, we're at this. Can you provide us with some some help because we're beyond what you're asking most people to do. would what do you suggest we do not spit out um for this point? So I hope we have an update in May or June about what that might look like and uh and provide

083them to the board. That's we have tonight. Thank you. Any question? Do you have time for a question or two? Any questions from the board? Um thank you for the participation. Um it was really great. Um you mentioned the priority standards were being achieved by departments. They just have they kind of started to meet with those. Can you remind us or me specifically once those are established like when will we start to see the transition in the student essentially because we're identifying those standards now, right? So, is it going to be your team put those in place and this is kind of what's happening? So, will it be next, you know, next fall those students coming through that we'll start to see a real impact by this or will we start to see those impacts?

084>> The impacts are in place. So, we ELA and math is not new, right? But that standard work and some of the roll out of that curricular has been coming up through um um the middle school and into the high school right now. when we started that work. So, um remember that the work was done in in curricular teams, teachers that volunteer their time that have a a disposition for this work. It's not centerless work. It's it's very uh the technical work and you got to have a passion for it. From there, it's you just can't have a handful of people of excellence. Now, we have to spread it to the the larger teams. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but say when the ELA team meant that, they already have much more extensive work

085in say what the social studies team was working on. Anyway, they're they're farther behind the process giving me what our priority as a system was, which is the ELA path. >> Okay. >> Right. So, a lot of different stages because of capacity ELA was the first curriculum we hit out of back in 2017 18. We had some implementations, but right after CO I think got in the way of a lot of the work as you can imagine. Um, so priority standards have been around for quite some time in some of especially ELA and math in a lot of different grade levels concept areas. Recently I know work was done about science as we implemented the um building environment down to the eighth grade level and they you know them working on that regard standard work.

086We've had it several previous summer. So some departments serve different models. General done some work instrumental music did some work and then took some time off. There a lot of different places. Um so what these provide time for is for them to regroup remember where that particular team left off for based on where they are. >> One other question. So based on you guys have a defend right your 10 classes or 10 nine classes in the study hall or something. So when is the I know they talk about like in other buildings elementary everyone kind of goes into if they need help it's being it's all kind of being pulled at the same time and those students going when does that happen for your students? Is it the 10th period or >> that's probably the

087the best time that it happens. I mean a lot of times teachers are identifying students in need happening within the classroom. Um and part to answer your question that with Tony there is I think you're going to see a general increase in student achievement over the next several years. Like Tony said, it's not we do it now and we're done. And I think you're going to see students um getting better as we proceed with this work with that end goal being the ability to come up with those common assessments that truly tell us do we have gaps in our curriculum because we had this whole group of students over here struggling and now we make adjustments to it. And then the other piece is with those common assessments. If we've all agreed upon those priority

088standards, here's what kids need to know and now we get that common assessment and we have a pocket of kids that they're really struggling on standard 578 just making it up, right? Um, now we can do start doing some of that tier 2 and three work immediately um rather than waiting for those long range assessments. So, I think it's ongoing and then 10 period is really the time that kids can get that extra assistance. Lunch study too is a good time as well. This isn't so much of a question, but just as a feedback. Uh, Ron, I wanted to thank you very much for this presentation today. Uh, I can speak from a professional point of view. This works. This is not something right in the book uh or or hopefully practiced when it comes

089to character development for middle schoolers. uh I've seen professionally in my own job where these programs break down those walls for students who have trouble learning MTSS uh the program for uh helping students academically comes can sometimes hit that brick wall if there's no social emotional learning going on too to develop that trust. I practice it every day with my students in my day at school every single day. uh at certain subjects, certain teachers, there's a disposition that's a little bit more uh that's more easy to reach students on that level, but there are some courses of some teachers that, you know, need a little bit more guidance in that way. But I have seen these programs work firsthand and it just it's just wonderful to hear that it's going on here and just as

090a board of education member, I'm just having to hear it and I can't ever hear enough. So, thank you. Thank you. I just also want you point out a very important point that I think we also have to revisit that these are not silos. The multi-ter system supports their academic, behavioral, social, emotional. They relate. They're not they don't operate on their own. It's more robust silos because we know it influences one half man. The root word disciplinary is discipline to learn to be a disciple. So there's greatness very basic definition. It goes through the academic and the social emotional all at the same time. So, thank you for that. There's a web here that often overlooked and Ron's commitment and his team's commitment to making those relationships knowing it benefits that academic. >> Great. Thank

091you. Okay. And >> very much for your presentation tonight. And um where I asked this at the other meeting, where where should we get copy of um being able to look at what some of the priority standards are? Where did you find those? >> So they're they're documents that are created by our curriculum teams, our teachers that we're talking about. Um they're housed in a the a curriculum mapping in our SharePoint for teachers to access and also to work through to add um instructional strategies, account assessments, performance tasks. It's it's the the whole gamut of not only what the standard is, but ways to address it, instructional strategies that different staff members have to it. So it's it's our it's our curriculum. Um it's available to our teachers. It's not something that we put out

092because it's got assessments within it, right? It's always what the assessment is, the answer keys basically. Um it's it is information that like I plan on sharing with the board during a um retreat or a session because it's not really public information the the detail between them because you're looking at assessments but the practice leaders themselves we sure I guess they can be made more available. I think we should probably develop into syllabi and find them especially at secondary level finding their ways into course expectations and what's being expected. We do think of know we know student must know what they're being measured against a student any human being needs to walk into a classroom with a committee structure and know what's expected of them. They need to know if they're on task if they're

093accomplishing a task. And that's where standards work. So our students should be seeing this every day. If you're referring to, you know, others having access to it, yes, I think that's possible. But I just cautious. It's the idea of handing over the teacher textbook to people and we want to be careful what what what's being shown, what we're getting into because of the nature of instruction. But if you're just talking about the standards themselves, as those be developed and they're kidfriendly, that's something that can be going. >> Um, yeah. I'm just curious about like the board having access to being able to see the priority schools and to see what they are part of the curriculum. I think that the board is I mean we're technically the people who ultimately approve it. So I think

094being able to see what it is and have information on what that is. >> Yeah, that's that is actually the goal we have for for the retreat is to show just that. Um, I just want to thank you guys for your presation tonight. Um, I always say to my kids kindness still doesn't matter. Um and with appropri is the district setting that what their proficiency line is or by your state >> I mean is it a number is it depending upon the assessment. >> Okay. >> Right. And then um uh the federal government sets a different proficiency than what state at assessments because they all have to translate to a federal model for accountability. So, it's a trick. It's a tough question to answer. There could be three different presentations I give on federal accountability

095measures that are just released that will take any one of our assessments and can totally change the proficiency level of it based on other factors. We go by normally what you're going to see on the state website is New York State's setting of the proficiency. So, if you go to the New York State portal, it's available right off the district web page and they'll say New York State current portal. there that show the proficiency based on what the state determined for that particular exam. We don't set that the state level. >> I just wanted to make that caveat that yeah when it go there's also different levels of accountability about what level the company. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Looks like we're ready to move to the next item in the

096agenda. Finance items for action. There is no a committee report and so then we move to an action vote on item 6.03 through 6.16 uh discussion on the items in the motion. I'm going to stay on 6.09 to do 64. Not other questions, comments. >> Um, yes. I would just like to go over uh contain change order logs. Does some of those um omissions and request changes that are out there that work? I just wanted to go over what those lies behind what we why we were doing those um 6.16 change order log approval for the ridge road. If you scroll down there was an O for a cabinet heater installation for $26,577. So I need to know that's >> a school that is not broken. >> Okay. It says um when we click on

097it, it says Bridge. He doesn't. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. So, >> yeah. That that question. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I just had a question about that the heater installation. Did we did they forget that heater? It's not. So, we have to do something to make sure that we develop the acre, >> right? >> Okay. >> Ultimately, it will be better for the school because that will permanently stay and now there will be a heat that if you remember from the time when you used to go through the old link, it was an ice box that might >> Okay, so Just want to make sure like and correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not actually an addition. Yes, it's a change, but that's already built into that project. So those changes are already

098calculated in we have a reserve. >> Well, it's part of the contingency. >> The contingency we have that reserve >> and right now we're about 1.1 million to the good what we expect. >> Yes. So when you see that, I just want to make sure that you like we all understand like it's not we're not spending that additional, >> right? I know. I understand that we're not spending the additional money. I just want to know a little bit more behind the reasons why we're choosing to do what we're doing. So, um I I that's not a bad thing to have he going from there, but I just wanted to understand functionality behind it. Right. And then to go down to uh the ridge. So to go over those briefly if you could >> casework changes

099that need to be adjusted basically change from individual preference when we're using them for uh casework changes because of the room layout uh that maybe it doesn't fit display cases that weren't necessarily there because we added work and and that's part of the main lobby work so that we updated that. We didn't need it for warmer sort of panel, frown panel wallboard as the first thing that you come in and see in Ridge Road. So that makes it more of a professional look as you come into the new area. >> Okay. So the first line here, >> so you could you were explaining. Yeah, I they're all kind of interrelated, but these sports are too separate. >> Okay, thank you. >> Any other comments, questions, discussion on the items in the motion? Okay, so call

100for a vote. All those in favor of 6.03 through 6.16 say I. I. Any extensions other than the ones that were noted? Uh, anyone voting no? Say nay. Okay. So then the motion carries. We'll move to item seven personnel items for action. We have one item 7.02 HR recommendation. Is there a motion? Comments or questions on the motion? I need to abain from one as that pertains to my husband. >> Thank you, Christine. It's an appointment then I the same person resigning from that same position like just J part that's that's >> we have to do the documentation. >> Yeah I just I just know if it was like >> not that I think that Sue, please. >> I just like to give back our returning for our district for all the years of services

101over 100 years that they found that. just thank you for your dedication to making school district. Thank you very much. >> Great. Thank you, Julie. >> Um I speak over the past couple months, we've seen an increase in reserations in retirement. I know a lot of it has to do with the um population coming through. It's there. We expected that we'd see a large number of this. Um, is there anything else driving it? I guess is it just from that or because some of them have years. It's not really I don't know what their reasonings are. I'm just Is there anything else driving that >> retired species? >> Resations. >> Resignations. People have various reasons for resigning, taking other positions and so forth. >> Okay. Um, and then We have seven um under section I

102long-term substitutes. Um is that are those because we are because people are on the leave but are they because we can't find permanent replacements >> nobody and some are >> as far as a organization with approximately 800. I don't believe that's five. >> Well, there was two this month, right? And then, right, two instructions this month, two in December, four in November. >> Yeah. >> So, I mean, it's No, I wasn't asking. It's just kind of seen or was >> that you heard of the motion? >> Okay. So then all for all those in favor of it bye 7.02 say I. I. Any opposing? Nay. Any any extensions other than Aaron's extension on 01? Okay. 7.02 carries. Item eight, miscellaneous items for action. We have 8.02 through 8.06. Um, and I'll make a note about

1038.06. This is a revised safety plan which uh was previously approved but had to be updated based upon some state law requirements and the district is required to uh make it available for public comment for period of 30 days. So tonight the board is not actually uh formally approving this but we're uh formally you know it's on the agenda to make it available and then I think we have the plan in February 30 days from now to approve it at a future meeting. It's just approved, >> right? So, will there be another vote on that then? >> So, is there a motion on 8002 through 806? >> Thank you. Any comments or questions on the motion? >> Pink. >> Thank you. I'm sorry, Billy. Please go ahead. >> Um, I see they're already >> No,

104I think they're going to a water park. >> Oh, okay. Because it didn't I mean, it mentioned the water park, but then it just says location main. Any other members? Yes. S >> the public has 30 days to look at this and comment on safety. >> Yes. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Is there a call for a vote on items 8.02 02 through 8.06. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Nay. Any abstensions other than Christine's noted extension to 8.05. Okay. The motion carries. We'll move to item nine, board policies. We have a one second reading policy and we'll start with the policy committee report from the policy committee chairperson, Mr. about them. >> Okay. Um so tonight for first readings we have the policy and some changes on 9270.1 substitute teachers and

105we have some changes uh with our Medicaid compliance and then the committee uh took the board's suggestions and reworked a large portion of uh policy for the association speaking to the courts. Um I know you can read the edits but if you have questions when we get there you can ask them. Okay. Thank you. So as I said we have one policy per second reading which is 9.03. So we needed a motion or is there a motion for the approval of item 9.03 comments or questions discussion on the motion? Matt uh just for clarification uh and uh policy all you um will notify Mr. provide authority can speak at least 7 days before the schedule board meeting. Uh just as clarification that is if the unit president will notify the district clerk, it doesn't necessarily

106mean that the president of the unit is the only one allowed to speak, but a representative on behalf of the unit will be speaking and also uh where the protocol came from uh why seven days um is being written in this policy as opposed to a month as opposed to 48 hours. and I was just looking for some clarification. Thank you. So the first sentence of the policy says in fact this time is set aside only for presidents of unions to speak. So um no one else is allowed by policy uh only the president and the thought of the committee in regards to the seven day um as most of us are aware um one week prior to each board meeting there is agenda meeting. So the theory was uh that's seven days. So just

107for planning on the agenda, how many people might want to speak that night? How many units wanted to speak that night? It was more for planning purposes, not for exclusivity purposes. Um, so I don't necessarily like I want this to pass because it's a second meeting to have something in place, but I don't necessarily agree with the verbiage in this policy. Um, so with the at least 7 days before I think it's limiting. I think that if nobody shows up and then something pops up and it's a couple days before, I think it should be permitted to be on the agenda. if if there's time and if it's avail you know if it's there with so to move that and then I don't think that it should just be the presidents because they might be

108busy and there might be something that somebody needs to that they their unit wants to have discussed or somebody to come and they want somebody else to come on the behalf of their unit to do it. So to just hold that to just one person, I think that that could change. And then um so then going back up to the purpose of this time for communication of positive and constructive constructive nature for only I think it's also important to somewhere have language in there that makes it open to be able to bring up concerns without them being squashed because it may well wondering if it's something else like it did follow the chain of command but there was a concern that needs to be brought forward. So, I I think it's important to have some

109sort of that verbiage in there because I can see how this can be used to make it so we have this policy in place, but then the way that it's worded, people are going to come, they're going to try and say something, and then they're going to be shot down, and then the communication isn't really free and and flowing in the way that people are hoping. So I don't think that this necessarily accomplishes everything for the openness and my opinion of the communication. >> So a couple things I think um I agree with the seven days because it is before the the agenda meeting. and your subject comes up it would within seven days you still have the public comment right so that so this doesn't say because we have this policy that the units

110can't speak and public comment so I think but that that there still have that opportunity um I think that prior to the agenda meeting is good for planning purposes from a timing out of the entire meeting um I I I interpret that a little bit different Krina about the communication of a positive constructive nature. Um, constructive could be there's this issue is happening and it's there's an opportunity for improvement, but it's it's communicated in a positive versus it being, you know, complaining and saying everything is horrible and and and not I don't know what the units are are going to talk about, but I feel like on their constructive nature still enables them to say if there's issues and things that they have concerned about which has been a positive that's how I interpret that

111>> others I agree with and I also agree with Miss Larski in the aspect that um I think for the reading of how it's interpreted I agree with the style in that aspect that I think it can be positive with that morning regarding the seven days, although they still have the public area to speak. Um, if it's after the seven days, no, sometimes I think that something on our agenda might spark them to want to come and speak. So, I would like to maybe see that be 5 days or within four days and that way once the agenda is actually out, then they might be able to because we don't always get our agenda within seven days. So you know it doesn't always go out to the public like the day of I believe two

112days. >> So okay so four days. So they might see something on that that sparks that two wants to come and speak. So I think that we should keep that in mind. As long as we are not going to limit them to not be able to speak during the public session then we're able to keep in seventh. But I don't want to see it as a limitation to them that they can't come during public session if they don't they can always come during public session. >> Okay. But if if we're saying that they're truly allowed to come, you know, like this is their opportunity to come speak. So I'm just trying to make it so >> I think the residents will be very good on getting they wish to. Uh they've been very straightforward and

113they've been very good. Uh personally I think their intent is positive. This was request for the unit and the president speaks for the unit. Nobody else does. No different than the president speaks for the board and this is about the unit's communication. It's not about anybody else. That's chain of information. Uh but they also have the other option too. So I think the committee tried to work in essence of all of it but also if nobody's coming we wouldn't like if you know seven days you wouldn't put it on there if and we meet I think we usually meet the Thursday before that's the seven days so by the end of that day uh if anything and then what happens is if they if I have four people we know we lot 20 minutes uh

114it's more like I think Mr. said it's just to make sure we're winning. If nobody comes, it's not on there. But if all of a sudden they they had something, they still have the I think that is not right how everybody was thinking about it. Nothing is restricted. >> Any other comments or questions for anyone? I'll just say I appreciate the efforts by the policy committee to uh make the revisions. I think they've done a great job. Um I can understand why we want to have the authorized representative of the association speak. Um and and one thing I'll point out is, you know, if we pass this tonight, at least we get it in place and we can always modify it and improve it if we think if we see that there are changes that

115need to be made. So, this is not set in stone um on a going forward basis, but I thank the policy committee for their work on this. So, I'll call for a vote on 9.03. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Nay. Any extensions? Okay. So, the motion carries. Thank you. And then we have board policies under item 10 for birth rating 10.01 and 10.02. As Mr. Compton noted, this will be the opportunity for your board members to ask questions or offer opinions on the revisions, the first reading of these policies. Let's say I appreciate the changes um that are being proposed by um uh uh 92 or item number two. I think that, you know, our district has had a really hard time finding substitutes and finding um good substitutes. And I

116and I think that this gives um a little bit more flexibility. Um especially if you know there are good substantial substitutes out there that may not meet all of the all of the requirements. So um I appreciate you speak to this. So thank you Anyone else? Please. >> I um agree with Christine that these are positive changes. I do believe um that it would be good to maybe go a little step further and talk about lower grades levels and um if somebody hasn't been out of school for at least four years that they could possibly become a substitute without necessarily always having to go because it talks about how the superintendent can wave that but that's talking number five only talks about grades 9 through 12. So I'm curious K through six and substitutes that

117would be allowed. So, say a student graduated, they're going to school for teaching, they want to substitute when they're home on break or you know, maybe they take a break or whatever. Like, so can people who have only been out of school for one or two years come and substitute in those lower levels? Yeah. So it's it's all assumed lower levels, but the higher levels is pointed out that they have to have been out of school longer. >> As long as 12 credits, they can substitute a lower level. >> Okay. Because I didn't see the lower level grades. >> It's not articulated that way. It's just >> think of it as it's it's setting a series of basic requirements >> and then saying but for the high school, you got to also have this requirement.

118Okay. So, you're adding it. Okay. Cuz I see it as different than that others. Okay. Thank you uh to the policy committee for those revisions. We'll see those come back most likely at the next meeting for a second reading. So, we'll move to item 11, board president report and board member comments. Uh, I have a short report tonight on a couple of items. First, I'll say welcome back. Hope everyone had a nice holiday season and that 2026 is off to a good start. Happy new year to everyone. There are two topics that I will provide updates on. One is um the ad hoc committee and then the second is the board plans and board retreats. So, as discussed at the prior board meeting, we have reviewed all three applications for the community um for the

119ADO committee. We received more than 50 applications from folks for the eight spots. So, we very much appreciate the willingness of the community to be involved and to serve. Unfortunately, that meant there's many folks who could not be selected because of the fact that we only had eight slots and we had more than 50 applications. So while 42 or more of the folks unfortunately were not selected, we want to make sure that they have the opportunity to be heard and we encourage people to stay involved. Um as the committee meets the certainly the plan will be to create opportunities for the public to provide input uh and so we wanted to hear from people and we encourage them to stay involved. the community members we did select were selected and when I say we I

120guess just to be clear um ultimately under our policy it's the board president who makes the final selection but I solicited you know input from others um and the criteria I utilized were trying to incorporate a number of factors including background um we were looking for specifically representation associated with each level and school so schools that people were connected with availability which was solicited as part of the questionnaire and then also the responses that people provided to the group questions about their desire to serve. So on the basis of looking at all that and trying my goal was to try to find a group of folks who wanted to come forward in a collaborative uh manner to try to serve the best interests of of all the students in the district and um on the

121basis of looking at everything and weighing those factors ultimately selected the eight community members to serve and the I'll read those names here now and then uh the district will be sending out emails to all of those who uh applied and to those who were selected. So people will have that um those will come from the district clerk uh very shortly I think following the meeting and um and then we'll put the full list on the website. So while I as the president selected the members of the board and the community, Dr. Douglas has worked with uh the appropriate people to look for example we as we had members of instructional staff, non-instructional staff, uh building principles, district staff. So that was within the province of Dr. Doug and others to select those individuals um

122ultimately to be approved by you. So which I've done. So the eight names in no particular order um are Amy Sedlansky, Angie and Lac, Beth Vanwearing, Sha Connie, Sarah Gordon, Justinelli, Margaret Collins, and Caitlyn Reorgen. And if I mispronounce anyone's name, I apologize. Um again, we're excited to have these eight folks be a part of the committee. If for some reason one of those individuals would be unable to serve, then we will go to um the the next kind of person up in the the way that which they were sorted. And for everyone who it should be a >> Slansky. Maybe I did it too fast. Amy Slansky, >> Angie Fin, >> Beth Panwearing, Sean Connie, >> Sarah Gordon, Justinelli, Margaret Collins, Caitlyn Bergie. You get >> I did not I Okay. >> And again,

123I really uh I want to thank everyone that applied. It was um it was a it was a difficult process and I really tried hard as I said to just find the most to weigh all those factors and come up with a group. everybody who applied, we appreciate that and we value the input that they provided in their questionnaire and that I hope that they provide to the committee as we go through our process. Um, in terms of board members, we also had more board members interested than we had spots. So, we had a space for four board members to participate. Uh and so the board members who will be a part of this committee will be Aaron Shioone sorry Julie um Katrina and myself four board members will be on the committee and we

124have not yet seen who will be the chair amongst that group so that's to be determined. So again, thank you for everyone for their time and their interest. The full slate of the members will be posted on the district website and then we will start the process postpace of organizing the first meeting of the committee hopefully within the next several weeks. And so watch for more information on that to come. The second item is the board retreats. So, as we've discussed in prior meetings, it's scheduled for next Tuesday, January 20th, from 4 to 8:00 p.m. I think the location itself is still being finalized. >> Ridge Road, the actual group >> in the as >> Yes, >> we got it. Yes. Okay. So, Ridge Road >> and >> Right. We'll send out an email >>

125and uh there's a rough agenda that you can also send out to the board that but we'll start with a brief welcome and then the first portion will be the MTSS training and presentation from the district to the members as was discussed earlier. So the intent there is to really help the board understand um the elementary schedule and operations, why they are the way they are, what the state requirements are related to hours and other mandates that have to be incorporated into it, the educational science behind the the way this district has structured operations. So it's a training session. It's not a session for the board to create policy or make decisions, but it's to learn about how that has been put together and why. Then we'll take a break for dinner. And then my

126thinking for the second half would be um have a sort of midyear check-in on the board dynamics, how we feel like we're doing, whether we think there are ways we can improve um areas to focus on in terms of how we work together and communicate and which is which is an appropriate item for a board retreat. So we have the opportunity to talk through that kind of mid year and then u and then we would close. And so depending on how quickly we get through that, we may end before 8. But that's the plan for the agenda at this point. So again, thank you to the community for your interest and support of the district and look forward to working with the ad hoc committee. Good luck to the students taking your exams next week.

127Make sure that you study and thank you very much. Yes, >> I find studying actually works better than luck, but >> that's true. >> Okay, the last item 11:02 board member comments. So, do you have any board members that'd like to be recognized to make comment? Warren. So, um, I'd like to talk about two former teachers that passed away last month. Um, one was Mr. Jim Clary. He uh was a math teacher when middle school was known as Junior High West. Taught there for a lot of years. is or his granddaughter is a student at the high school right now and he was very active in the union and what you know the history of the union is important at times and I don't think teachers realize he's responsible for personal days in the contract

128and the initial reason for personal pays was he was a avid hunter and the assistant superintendent of schools at the time was an avid hunter and in the hunting community. I guess hunting on the first day of deer season is pretty important. So they decided the way to do that was to put two personal days into the contract and you could use that for hunting and you could go out on the first day of hunting season and hunt and then you could go out on the first day of fishing season and fish. And that's the origin of personal days and horses. Both of those now are banned by contracting district. Years later decided that was not a proper use of personal days. But that is the origin of personal days. So you can thank Mr.

129Clear for >> phys. And then secondly, um, Ann Castello, a phys teacher at Big Flats, passed away. Um, she was, uh, instrumental uh, for me in one regard. She was the first softball coach of the first team in the horse heads in 1977. And that was my first year teaching and I volunteered. I was very new to the community, brand new to the community. So I volunteered and Ann resigned at the end of that year and then you know I went on but the important thing about Ann is she resigned because Title N was in its infancy and she was a strong strong strong advocate for women supports and she traveled all over the state to get um guard rails put in place and to promote female sports and all of the female sports that

130have developed in New York State in part are due to her groundwork and other women of that era um who were very instrumental in making sure the spirit of title was enforced in New York State. >> Thank you very much for the comments. Very interesting. And also certainly offer our condolences and best wishes to the families and friends of those folks who passed away. So, thank you. Other board members care. >> First Warren, thank you for sharing a lot of that information. I had no idea. I think when it comes to personal days, it's a personal day and it's nobody's business. So maybe that needs to be revisited. Uh we had over 50 applicants for eight spots. I don't know if anyone's teachers that are on there. I didn't know if we were able to

131share the applicants with the board members. And then I also wondered uh you did say there was um some people you solicited but I didn't know if you could get into more information on how exactly the board members and the ACE plus were picked for the Nevada committee and I do appreciate what you're doing with this again because I think it's a very important committee. Thank you. >> Well, there is a section uh that's specifically teachers is there not? >> Yes. >> Instructional Yeah, the instructional one was right back here. Uh, but that's for the instructional support and then the instructional we went out and we talked to the teachers that lead the teachers. So there are there is a section of the committee specifically for for teachers. Um there was you know I I'm

132I'm not sure I guess I'm I haven't been involved in earlier committees and whether we've shared out more broadly the you know information received. I think I'd want to understand what our precedent is for that in terms of names and whatnot um before committees to kind of put anything out there. Um, so let me let me understand what our history is. But the uh I guess I in terms of a process it was like I said I know every there was a spreadsheet where these people had to answer a number of questions. Um what was their connection to the district? What schools specifically? Um when were they available in terms of different periods of availability? um why were they interested in serving on the committee? What did they think they could bring to the committee?

133And so I then looked at that uh worked with Dr. Douglas um sorted it, you know, to look for we specifically talked about let's have a representative of every school, right? So um had to look at what schools people were associated with. The intent was to have four from the secondary level and four from the elementary level. And that was one of the main criteria in trying to select community members. Um and then it was more weighing, you know, what people said in their responses. Um but then they appeared to be open-minded in terms of the um weighing the all the different sources of information and trying to come to a consensus. um you know that wasn't kind of a wasn't a rubric or anything like that. That was but that was the thought process

134I utilized. So thank you for this. I just have a question. Is the board going to be able to see all the names of all the people that are on this committee? Will that go on Friday night or something? the committee. Yeah. Uh for the board of president. >> No, wait, wait, wait. No, no. You're asking about the people on the committee. >> Yeah. I said I said a few minutes ago. We're going to put that on the website. >> Yeah. It'll be on website. So, we will see who's >> Julie. I I didn't know if there was like more question. >> Okay. Um so I also want to congratulate uh in Scotland girls basketball program for state uh those rings just came out and um the United one for the season. That's pretty incredible.

135They're off to a great start. So if you haven't caught a game, make sure you do. Um we had several football players uh recognized by the state um for their couple. I'm sure there was other fall athletes potentially recognized as well. I just don't think that all the sports writers um those have come out yet. So, uh congratulations to those football players. So, I do have a question. So, we had talked at some point about having because the students at the high school and I guess intermediate school and middle school too get out and then there's like that delay for their sports teams. We talked about at one point maybe seated at Mercy H or someone would open a snack shack or something in the cafeteria or somewhere where kids could get a snack if

136they weren't able to leave and go home. Do we know if there's been any work on that? Has that happened? Is that open? Um I haven't heard anything about it and >> I haven't heard anything at this point. I'll follow up with Joe Kilmer as well. >> I know several but it is a staffing and it is cost to both. So that's going to be really more difficult. That's not >> and I and maybe if it's not open, maybe it is something that we look at to see what that would look like to have something like that for next year um for kids to um you know they're there for a little bit of time before their sports start. So um getting some healthy food of some type. Um, the other thing I have a

137question on is so there is a there used to be a student closet. Um, I don't know the official name of it. Um, what they called it, but it was kind of a closet where students who had needed to get some clothing could go. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> So, I believe that unfortunately due to construction, we had to shut that down. No, it's that was moved >> when we started the construction. >> Okay. >> But I do believe I don't know where it stands right now. >> I don't think it's open right now. Um, from what I gathered from administrator at that building, I'm wondering if there's a way that we can work to see where we might be able to host it if it's not open and get that back open because

138I think um >> I'll ask that administrator to give you a call because it's up to the administrator. >> Thank you. Um I do think it's really important that and finally um the my eager impact program which um we we for those of you we spoke about earlier today it's really great um I think it needs to be run by athletic the athletic department and now it's my understanding that there's a site team running this >> I do not >> but the I'm concerned that for winter sports it shifted to the site team and it may be being lost in the mix. So, um perhaps you could look into that as well just to make sure because I think it's something important that all happen athletes get to um and and really anyone that really

139wants to run teacher should be able to >> and uh I mean I'm not I'm unaware of that. The >> my jersey your impact has been a very big positive. I haven't heard of any changes to it. I go out to virtually almost every one of them. Um but I'll ask them to sort of give me an update. >> Thank you. And then there is senior nights coming up. So um if you're available check out dads, but they are fun to see. So thank you. >> And they're all inside. >> Thank you for those stories tonight. They were very nice to hear the remembrances. Those were nice. Um, so I had a concern. I thought when we talked the last meeting, you could said that it was just the three of us and Eric who

140wanted to be on the ad hoc committee at the last meeting that there were didn't last. So not not to say anything against you, Dan, but you picked yourself. So I feel like how did you do that process? Did you put us all in a hat and like draw names out to see which board members got picked? Do you you know it's just to me it's just a little I know we have committee and we have like you get to pick everybody but then if you're the person on the committee is that like some sort of like bias that yourself I'm not trying to I don't know. Do you know what I like it's just I feel like a really fair way to do it to respond to us or like if there were more

141people would be to draw on a path, you know, and say this is how you get selected. I don't know what your process was for determining who what board members got on it. But I also think that it wouldn't have been a bad idea that if there were more than one board member to call the work sessions and allow any board member who wants to come or maybe there's an egg that one board member can't come and maybe they or another person can come on to the committee. Anyway, um so that was my thought and then when you were talking about solicitation I was wondering who but then you kind of clarified that you got some of your information from Tom. Were there other people that you got input from too for the process? >>

142Yes. >> Okay. >> I just wanted to know more about it because I've been feeling very much in the dark about the whole thing and then we still don't see everybody like we're going to wait and find out who everybody else is on the committee still too. Um it's just I don't know. I haven't really felt the best of about waiting for all of that. Um, and then about the retreat when we made the comment about the MTSS, we talked about how the first half of it is going to be presentations about what they have. We've been getting a lot of presentations right along about this stuff, but I definitely don't think that that is just retreat material. And I expressed that before. the public should be like that's information curriculum is information that is

143important to the district to be able to have. So that should be work session and then retreat is specifically when it has nothing to do when it's team building but it's something that's totally unrelated to school district stuff. Um so with that whole explanation to be completely honest I would feel really positive, something really informative is going to come out of the situation with two hours and two hours. Um, kids need help in this district. The book that I read that I recommended everybody else to read very on their behalf talks about if adult behavior doesn't change, student outcomes don't change. And if we don't spend 50% of our board meetings talking about students and their outcomes and how we're helping them, then we're not going to help them. and knowing specifics about the curriculum

144and not just this giant overview and really understanding materials, having really indepth understanding of what our kids are learning. The tools that we are approving for these kids when we're approving of all of it, knowing the education we're really giving them is really important. And I'm very concerned that it'll end up being more presentation. I've been on the MTSS meeting committee for multiple years and it's an hour every month and two hours trying to go over and have an explanation. I don't I don't know how productive it's going to end up being. So, I I really I just wanted to voice those concerns because it's I I came on this board wanting to help. There's a lot of things that need to shift and I don't see a lot of productivity necessarily from the board.

145So that's it's not anything against one individual because the board is a collective group. So, I appreciate trying to move forward, but it's um >> well, if I can respond slowly, >> I think you'd find, and I say this with all due respect, the way you would find things uh change is you have to convince four other board members that of something. And so you're pointing to the board finding faults with all of us. But if there's something you think that is worthy of doing or changing, bring it forward and and convince the board. I mean that's you know what is it is a collective and it's um we have to influence each other and I think that's the mechanism by which to do that and if you you know I'm trying my best. If

146you don't want to come to the retreat don't come to the retreat. That's all I can say. And in terms of selecting myself, I thought number one, it was important for the board president to be a part of this because of the importance of the committee. Um, if others don't feel that way, quite frankly, I'd be more than happy to not be on the committee. and to suggest that I'm somehow I've given uh now 10 years of my life to serving on this board and I have never ever made a decision or taken an action that was not in the best interests of the district and the students and the idea that I put myself on the committee some kind of selfdeing with all the caveats you want to make about nothing against me and

147all that I find to be incredibly insulting and um I'll be more than happy to step off of it and let others manage it. I'm just trying to help. I heard again and again that people wanted a committee and people wanted something done and I pushed for that and that's where we are and I'm trying my best. So that feel free to not come or not participate or whatever you think is appropriate for you but that's where I'm at. Any other board members have comments? Warren, >> as a board member, I find it offensive when another board member calls into question the integrity of the president. We elected the president and they do the decisions and you did call him to question his integrity by asking about selfdealing. You may not think so, but I

148I'm sure a lot of the rest of us believe it. >> Oh, I just want I take offense. >> Thank you, Aaron. >> Trying to think how I want to word this. That was shameful and that was embarrassing to do that again. It really was. It was inappropriate to question his integrity. And I think it was shameful. If that's something that you wanted to have a conversation with him about, that should have been oneonone, not in front of a whole community, in front of a whole group of people. It's embarrassing. It really is. And that you don't think that. and that you think it's okay to shame the rest of us in that way. It it is truly offensive. And I'm saying it to you oneon-one here because you chose to do that today as

149well. This man has only acted in the the desire to bring the board together to work hard for the community, for the school district, for the kids that he serves. He does not need to be here. He doesn't need to be here. He's doing this because he is trying to do the right things. He is trying to be um open-minded. He is trying to listen to what uh other board members are saying. He's trying to listen to the community. And I think it's more than appropriate that Dan puts himself on the committee. And Dan, I I would not want you to remove yourself from the committee. I think it's incredibly important that you act as that liaison between the committee and the district. That is your role. That is what you were voted in for.

150Um so anything other than a direct apology to Dan for the statement that you made is is something that I would call for. Unbelievable. Hey. Uh, okay. Car. >> Um, yeah, you did reach out to me today and let me know ahead of time that I did apply to be part of this committee and I wasn't chosen and I'm okay for that. And I think you do integrity integrity and I think you do a great job for our board and I don't think what Katrina was saying was anything. I think she might have got a little off quue for Aaron to ramble for five minutes about Katrina who does the same. I think she's a very good board member and she puts a lot and what she's trying to say is I want things focused

151more on not the dog and pony show but let's focus on student outcomes and maybe she got offkilter and Daniel and Katrina can talk about this but I know personally that this is my sister and I know that we both respect you and think you do a great job and I do appreciate you as the president and I'm fine I think it's great that you're going to be on this committee and that you help head up this committee because this committee is very important and even though I wasn't chosen, I have full faith that you're going to do a great job and with the other people on board. So, thank you. >> Okay. Thanks. I think you want to go. Okay. >> I just want to say um you know we have a policy about

152ad hoc committees and the policy states that board members may be appointed by the board president. So that's our policy. We put this in place and Dan follow. >> Okay. >> I'd like to call for motion to adjurnn. >> So move second. >> Any comments or questions on the motion. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Any extensions? Okay. Meeting is adjourned. Mercy.